About the IELTS Band Score Calculator
This IELTS band score calculator turns practice-test results into the band scores you would see on a Test Report Form. Enter your Listening and Reading marks out of 40, choose Academic or General Training, and add your Writing and Speaking bands. It converts each raw score with a standard IELTS conversion table, averages the four skills and applies the official rounding rule to give your overall band.
It is built for students aiming at a university or visa requirement — such as 6.5 overall with no band below 6.0 — and for teachers marking mock tests. The calculator also shows how many more correct answers you need to reach the next half band in Listening and Reading, and the approximate CEFR level of your overall score.
Exact raw-to-band cut-offs vary slightly between test versions. The table used here matches the average marks IELTS publishes (for example 30 out of 40 for band 7 in Listening and Academic Reading), so treat results as a close estimate rather than a guarantee.
With the default inputs, the overall band score is 6.5. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the ielts band score calculator
- 1Choose IELTS Academic or General Training.
- 2Enter your Listening and Reading correct answers out of 40.
- 3Select your Writing and Speaking bands (or your best estimate).
- 4Read the overall band and check the lowest skill against your requirement.
- 5Use the notes to see how many more marks reach the next half band.
Formula and method
Listening and Reading each have 40 questions worth one mark. The marks are converted to the 9-band scale with a conversion table; General Training Reading needs more correct answers than Academic Reading for the same band because its texts are less demanding. Writing and Speaking are marked directly in bands by examiners against four equally weighted criteria.
The overall band is the mean of the four skill bands rounded to the nearest half band. IELTS rounds an average ending in .25 up to the next half band and an average ending in .75 up to the next whole band — for example 6.25 becomes 6.5, 6.125 becomes 6.0 and 3.875 becomes 4.0.
- L, R
- Listening and Reading bands converted from raw marks out of 40
- W, S
- Writing and Speaking bands awarded by examiners
Worked examples
Academic test, aiming for 6.5
30/40 is band 7 in both Listening and Academic Reading. With Writing 6.0 and Speaking 6.5 the average is (7 + 7 + 6 + 6.5) ÷ 4 = 6.625, which rounds down to an overall 6.5.
Average ending in .25 rounds up
35/40 in Listening is band 8 and 33/40 in Academic Reading is band 7.5. With Writing 6.5 and Speaking 7.0 the average is 7.25, and IELTS rounds .25 up to the next half band, giving 7.5 overall.
General Training test
26/40 is band 6.5 in Listening, and 32/40 in General Training Reading is also 6.5 (the same 32 would be 7.0 on the Academic paper). The average of 6.5, 6.5, 6 and 6 is 6.25, which rounds up to 6.5.
Frequently asked questions
How is the IELTS overall band calculated?+
Add the four skill bands and divide by four, then round to the nearest half band. Averages ending in .25 round up to the next half band and averages ending in .75 round up to the next whole band.
How many correct answers do I need for band 7?+
On average about 30 out of 40 in Listening and Academic Reading, and about 35 out of 40 in General Training Reading (the averages IELTS publishes). The exact cut-off varies slightly between test versions.
Why does General Training Reading need more marks?+
Academic and General Training Reading are reported on the same band scale, but the Academic texts are more complex. To keep bands comparable, General Training candidates usually need more correct answers for the same band.
Are IELTS Writing and Speaking scored from raw marks?+
No. Examiners award bands against four equally weighted criteria. For Writing these are task achievement or response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy, with Task 2 counting more than Task 1.
What CEFR level is IELTS 6.5?+
IELTS maps 5.5–6.5 broadly to B2 and 7.0–8.0 to C1, with 8.5 and above recognised as C2. IELTS notes the C1 threshold falls between 6.5 and 7, so many 6.5 candidates are close to C1.