How is IELTS marked?

At IELTS, we want to help boost you to the next level. We want to make sure you don’t need to repeat your English language test. That’s why we share with you how we test, how we mark your work, and what is important.

For IELTS Writing, Speaking, Reading and Listening we’ll tell you what examiners look for and how your test is marked. We’ll also show you how your overall band score is calculated. Or check how other tests compare to IELTS.

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IELTS band scores are reported on a 9-band scale ranging from band 1 to band 9.

Each part of the test is awarded a band score for performance.

The Listening and Reading parts of the IELTS test are marked in a different way to the Speaking and Writing tests. In the IELTS Listening and Reading test parts, each have 40 questions and each correct answer receives 1 mark. The total score out of 40 is converted to the IELTS 9-band scale.

IELTS Speaking test is evaluated by certified IELTS examiners in a face-to-face interview using a set of assessment criteria to award band scores for each of the four criteria, fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy and pronunciation.

IELTS Writing test is evaluated in the same way with the examiner awarding band scores for each of the four criteria that best match the performance at each band level for Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2.

Understanding the assessment criteria can help you prepare for your test and how to better approach each test section.

Learn more about IELTS band scores