IELTS Reading Band Scores

IELTS Reading Band Scores

IELTS Reading Band Scores are the scores assigned for the total number of correct answers by students in the Reading section. Reading is one of the skill sets assessed in the IELTS exam to determine students’ ability to comprehend the given information in English and answer the questions more aptly. In the Reading section, the total correct answers are given a raw score and from that, a band score is determined. As there is no negative marking in the IELTS exam, students are advised to attempt all the questions and leave no one unanswered.

IELTS Academic Reading Band Score

The IELTS Academic Reading section has 40 questions. 40 is kept as the base to score students’ performance. Students who correctly answered all the questions scored the band 9, whereas those who correctly answered 38 to 37 questions scored the band 8.5, 36-35 scored the band 8 and so on. A Band score is allotted for every two correct answers, and the band keeps decreasing by .5 according to the number of correct answers.

Number of Correct Answers (Raw Score)

IELTS Academic Reading Band Score

40-39

9

38-37

8.5

36-35

8

34-33

7.5

32-30

7

29-27

6.5

26-23

6

22-19

5.5

18-15

5

14-13

4.5

12-10

4

9-8

3.5

7-6

3

5-4

2.5

IELTS General Training Reading Band Score

The scoring of the IELTS General Training is different from IELTS Academic. Since General Training has 40 questions, 40 is kept as the base here to assess students’ performance. Depending on the number of questions students getting right, they are scored accordingly.

No. of Correct Answers

IELTS General Training Reading Band Score

40

9

39

8.5

37-38

8

36

7.5

34-35

7

32-33

6.5

30-31

6

27-29

5.5

23-26

5

19-22

4.5

15-18

4

12-14

3.5

9-11

3

IELTS Band Score Description

Like other sections of IELTS, the Reading section has similar band score allotment. Students are scored in the range of 0 to 9 depending on their performance, with each band indicating a skill. The Reading section Band Score description is given below for students' reference.

Band

Skill Level

Description

9

Expert User

Has Full operational command of the Language.

8

Very Good User

Has Full operational command of the Language only with occasional inaccuracies.

7

Good User

Has operational command of the Language and handles complex language well.

6

Competent User

Has effective command of the Language and understands fairly complex language.

5

Modest User

Has partial command of the Language and can handle basic communication.

4

Limited User

Has basic competence but is not able to use complex language.

3

Extremely Limited User

Understands only general meaning in very familiar situations.

2

Intermittent User

Has profound difficulty understanding spoken and written English.

1

Non-User

Has no ability to use the language beyond possibly a few isolated words.

0

Did not attempt the test

No assessable information was provided.

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FAQs About IELTS Reading Band Scores

Yes. 6.0 is a fairly good score for the Reading section as it terms one as a competent user in the Reading skill set.

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