I think you should know how an IELTS test score is calculated by British Council and by IDP so that you can then have an idea of the overall process and then you can even calculate your score yourself as well.
Before getting into the description of a good score in the IELTS exam, needed by the universities in different countries and for immigration purposes, let’s have a look at how the IELTS test is scored by British Council and by IDP.
Understanding IELTS Band Score Benchmarks
IELTS provides all the descriptions of how the exam is scored even for the speaking and writing sections. However, if you want to read the whole original description then you can go to the official website of the IELTS. Anyhow, you can see the summarized description below:
| BAND SCORE | SKILL LEVEL | DESCRIPTION of IELTS Band Score |
| 9 | Expert user | Expert in the English language. Have fluency like a native person. I can understand and communicate in English like a native person. |
| 8 | A very decent user of the English language | Have fluency like a native person with few mistakes, misunderstandings or inaccuracies. |
| 7 | Good user | A skilled user of the English language but do not possess qualities like a native user. People with this band score are good at understanding complex English but they usually make mistakes or are sometimes have limited abilities to use English in some contexts. |
| 6 | Competent user | The person with this band score has a strong skill in English. But he may use English best in some accustomed situations while having some difficulties in less-familiar contexts. |
| 5 | Modest user | User with this band score has a little command of the English language. People with this band scores can have conversations in the English language in their familiar situations but have difficulty in using English specialized contexts. |
| 4 | Limited user | This level candidates cannot understand or use multifaceted language and have difficulty in understanding simple English. They can use English only in simple contexts. |
| 3 | Very limited user | People with this band score can understand only simple English. Moreover, their communication regularly breaks down. |
| 2 | Intermittent user | Test-taker can understand some small amount of English, but only with great difficulty. |
| 1 | Non-user | User knows only a small amounts of phrases and words in English. |
| 0 | Have not attempted the exam | This band score is only given when the candidate does not answer any of the questions in the test. |
Calculating IELTS Exam Band Scores in 2023 (British Council)
As you know that there are 4 sections in IELTS exam and each of these sections are scored independently and then all these 4 separates scores are averaged to provide an overall band score of an IELTS exam taken by the candidate so in this section i am going to give you some examples on how you can easily calculate your IELTS exam score in 2023:
Now the question here is this, If IELTS average score is not a half-band or a whole band then how you would round the number to get the IELTS score? So, according to the official website of IELTS you round up the score to the band which is near if you are having an average of X.25 or more. Similarly, you have to round down the score band which is near if you are having a score of X.25 or less.
Now to let you know how it works, let’s assume that you have the following score in different IELTS sections. IELTS: 6.5 Reading, 4.5 Listening, 5.5 Speaking and 7 Writing. Now in order to obtain the average score, you have to sum all of these scores and then have to divide the sum by 4.
4.5 + 6.5 + 7 + 5.5 = 23.5
23.5/4 = 5.875
So, this score can be rounded up to band 6 bands and in contrast to this, if you have more good scores in the exam then
7 + 7 + 7.5 + 7 = 28.5
28.5/4 = 7.125
This score can be rounded off to the nearest number and the average band will be 7. You can improve the score by gaining 7 + 7 + 7.5 + 7.5, which will add up to 29/4 and is equal to 7.25 which can be rounded up to band 7.5.
Calculation of Band Score in IELTS Exam by IDP
Most of the students think that the IELTS Score of IDP is calculated in a different way as compared to the British council but this is not the case. IDP education administers the IELTS as a third party organization so it is a similar type of IELTS having the identical scoring system as of adopted by British Council.
