Monday, March 14, 2011

How is my IELTS score calculated?

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Today's best IELTS information is about how your IELTS score is calculated.

 

Over the years, nearly all my IELTS students have asked me “How is my IELTS result calculated?” I’ve also had a few requests from visitors to this site to write a post about the answer to this question. So, here it is…

IELTS Listening and Reading Tests. 

In the Listening and Reading Tests, each correct answer is awarded one point. A conversion table is then used to translate this number into a band score, which will either be a whole or a half band. The marking is absolutely objective as answer papers are marked against a set of model answers.

IELTS Writing and Speaking Tests. 

The Writing and Speaking Tests are marked by a specially-trained examiner who uses a set of descriptors: different ones for Writing Task 1, Writing Task 2 and Speaking.

As can be seen from the descriptors, the examiner considers a number of criteria when deciding which band you fall into.

Writing. 

The final band score for each writing task is an average of the scores for each of the following criteria.

• Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2)
• Coherence and Cohesion
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy

.
Task 1 carries one third of the final score and Task 2 carries two-thirds. The final score is rounded to a whole or half band.

Speaking. 

The Speaking Test is marked according to the following criteria and the final band score is an average of the scores for each of the following criteria. The final score is rounded to a whole or half band.

• Fluency and Coherence
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy
• Pronunciation

.
The criteria and the band descriptors are designed to make the marking of the speaking and writing Tests as objective as possible.

Overall Score. 

Your overall IELTS band score is calculated by averaging the scores for each of the different Skills tests and rounding to the nearest half band.

.
For example:
Listening: 6.5
Reading: 6.5
Writing: 6
Speaking: 7
Overall: 6.5


For speaking test tips, why not download my free IELTS Speaking report; Speaking Test Tips from an IELTS Tutor.  I'm sure you'll find it useful!

If you're enjoying my best IELTS tips, why not look me up on 'youtube'.  My channel is 'bestieltsonline'.

Here’s to the best IELTS score possible!

 

Alanna