IELTS Band Score Calculator

IELTS reports a score for each of the four sections — Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking — on a scale from 0 to 9, in half-band steps (so 6.0, 6.5, 7.0 and so on). Your overall band score is the mean of those four section scores, rounded to the nearest whole or half band. All four sections carry equal weight; there is no weighting toward any one skill.

The calculation has two steps:

1. Average. Add the four section bands and divide by four: average = (Listening + Reading + Writing + Speaking) / 4.
2. Round. Round the average to the nearest whole or half band. The official rule fixes the tie cases: an average ending in .25 rounds up to the next half band (6.25 → 6.5), and an average ending in .75 rounds up to the next whole band (6.75 → 7.0). Every other fraction rounds to the nearest half band — so 6.125 → 6.0 and 6.375 → 6.5.

Because each section is a multiple of 0.5, the four-way sum is a multiple of 0.5 and the average is always a multiple of 0.125. That means Math.round(average × 2) / 2 reproduces the official rule exactly — standard half-up rounding lands on the same band as the “.25-up / .75-up” wording. This tool computes the result two independent ways (a half-up round and a distance-comparison rounder) and they agree on every input, so the overall band is dependable.

For the optional raw-score mode, the tool maps the number of correct answers (out of 40) in Listening and Reading to an indicative band using the published British Council / Cambridge conversion tables. Reading uses a different table for Academic and General Training — General Training passages are easier, so you need more correct answers for the same band. These conversions are labelled indicative on purpose: IELTS does not publish a single fixed table, and the real cut-offs move slightly between test versions. Writing and Speaking are examiner-rated with no public raw table, so you always enter those two as band scores. Only the overall-band averaging is presented as authoritative.

Informational only — requirements depend on the visa subclass, course and institution, and they change. Always confirm the current rule on the official source linked in each row before you rely on it.

• IELTS.org — How IELTS is scored (overall band averaging & rounding rule)
• British Council — IELTS scores explained (rounding worked examples)
• IDP IELTS Sri Lanka — understanding your results

The overall-band rule and the indicative conversion tables on this page were last cross-checked against these sources on 2026-06-07. The raw-to-band tables are indicative; only the averaging-and-rounding rule is authoritative.