What the bands mean
The 0 to 9 scale, how your four paper scores become one overall band, how that number is rounded, and what different destinations typically ask for.
This page would state facts about the official test: timings, question counts, how bands are worked out. We only publish those from the official published material, cited here. We will not write them from memory, because being confidently wrong on a page like this is worse than leaving it empty.
- The official IELTS band scale description — what each band from 0 to 9 denotes.
- The official rule for calculating the overall band from the four paper scores, including how halves are rounded.
- Published requirements by destination, from the receiving authorities themselves — these change, so they need a source and a date.
We hold the official Writing and Speaking band descriptors, so how writing and speaking are marked is written in full, cited, and is the same table your work is marked against here.
Meanwhile, the thing that actually changes your preparation is knowing where you stand. The assessment is free and marks all four skills.
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