IELTS is a multilevel exam designed to assess what candidates can do in English rather than measure them against a standard they may have not yet reached. For example, those with B2 level of English according to CEFR “can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization; can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party etc.” In the IELTS exam, you will get a score between 1 and 9 for each section: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing. The average of those makes your overall band score. Unlike the Writing and Speaking sections, in which your skills are marked against a number of criteria, including ‘fluency and coherence’, ‘lexical resource’, ‘pronunciation’, ‘grammatical range’ and ‘accuracy’ , your answers are either correct or incorrect in the Listening and Speaking sections, i.e. the marking is quite different.
READ ABOUT: How is IELTS Writing assessed?
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IELTS Reading score
There are 40 questions in the reading section. This part of the exam uses various types of questions such as multiple choice, matching headings, True-False-Not Given, sentence completion. You have to answer all the questions to get a higher score. However, your answers are either correct or incorrect. Each correct answer gives you one mark. The total number of marks determines your band score. You do not get any penalties if your answer is wrong.
Below you can see that the number of marks required to achieve a certain band score is different for the IELTS Academic Reading and IELTS General Reading.
General Reading:
| Band score / 9 | Raw score / 40 |
| 9 | 40 |
| 8.5 | 39 |
| 8 | 37-38 |
| 7.5 | 36 |
| 7 | 34-35 |
| 6.5 | 32-33 |
| 6 | 30-31 |
| 5.5 | 27-29 |
| 5 | 23-26 |
| 4.5 | 19-22 |
| 4 | 15-18 |
| 3.5 | 12-14 |
| 3 | 9-11 |
| 2.5 | 6-8 |
Academic Reading:
| Band score / 9 | Raw score / 40 |
| 9 | 40-39 |
| 8.5 | 38-37 |
| 8 | 36-35 |
| 7.5 | 34-33 |
| 7 | 32-30 |
| 6.5 | 29-27 |
| 6 | 26-23 |
| 5.5 | 22-19 |
| 5 | 18-15 |
| 4.5 | 14-13 |
| 4 | 12-10 |
| 3.5 | 9-8 |
| 3 | 7-6 |
| 2.5 | 5-4 |
You can also use an online IELTS calculator to know your approximate score.
READ ABOUT: Which IELTS should you take: general or academic?
IELTS Listening score
There are 40 questions and 4 parts of the Listening test, 10 questions per each part. There are some common types of questions you may come across and need to know how to answer such as matching, multiple choice, note completion, labeling a plan or a map etc. Each type of questions requires the knowledge of certain strategies from you. However, your answers can be correct or incorrect like in the Reading section of the exam.
Although there are two modules of the IELTS test: General and Academic, the Listening section will be the same for all candidates. Each of your correct answers brings you one mark, i.e. you can get maximum 40. The raw score is converted into IELTS band from 1 to 9:
| Band score / 9 | Raw score / 40 |
| 9 | 39-40 |
| 8.5 | 37-38 |
| 8 | 35-36 |
| 7.5 | 32-34 |
| 7 | 30-31 |
| 6.5 | 26-29 |
| 6 | 23-25 |
| 5.5 | 18-22 |
| 5 | 16-17 |
| 4.5 | 13-15 |
| 4 | 11-12 |
The marking and scoring of the computer-based IELTS exam is the same as paper-based IELTS.
READ ABOUT: How computers grade your IELTS Reading and Speaking
In our course, you will learn about the types of questions, analyse the strategies and practise completing the tasks in the Reading and Listening sections of the exam. You also receive a downloadable summary of the main strategies and examples that will help you perform better.
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