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IELTS Reading Band Scores: The Raw Score Conversion, Explained

IELTS Reading29 August 2026 · 6 min read · WiderAI Team

IELTS Reading contains 40 questions, each worth exactly one mark, with no penalty for wrong answers. Your number of correct answers — the raw score out of 40 — is then converted to a band score on the 9-band scale, reported in whole and half bands (6.0, 6.5, 7.0 and so on). There is no partial credit, no weighting by question difficulty, and no marks for the quality of your English anywhere else on the paper: a brutal Passage 3 inference question and a simple Passage 1 gap are each worth one identical mark.

As a working guide for the Academic test, around 30 correct out of 40 typically converts to band 7, around 23 to band 6, and around 15 to band 5, with roughly 35 needed for band 8. The General Training conversion is stricter — typically around 30 correct for band 6 and 34 for band 7 — because GT passages are easier, so more correct answers are needed to demonstrate the same reading ability.

Those numbers are deliberately hedged with "around", and understanding why is the most useful thing this article can teach you. The conversion is not one fixed table: it shifts slightly from test version to test version, which changes how you should set targets and read your practice scores.

How exactly does the raw score become a band?

The mechanics are simple and completely objective:

1. Your answer sheet is marked against an official answer key. Correct answers must respect spelling and any stated word limits; each correct answer scores one mark.
2. The marks are added to give a raw score from 0 to 40.
3. That raw score is looked up in the conversion for your specific test version, producing a band from 1 to 9, including half bands.
4. Your Reading band then joins Listening, Writing and Speaking in the overall average, where it counts equally — one quarter of your overall band score.

Nothing about the process involves judgement. Unlike Writing and Speaking, where trained examiners apply descriptors, Reading is marked clerically or by computer. This has a motivating consequence: Reading is the paper where technique converts most directly into band score, because every eliminated careless error is a full mark recovered.

What are the approximate conversion thresholds?

IELTS publishes indicative conversions, and reputable test-day versions stay close to them. For the Academic Reading test, the commonly cited anchors are:

• Band 9: roughly 39-40 correct
• Band 8: roughly 35 correct
• Band 7: roughly 30 correct
• Band 6: roughly 23 correct
• Band 5: roughly 15 correct
• Half bands fall between these anchors — around 33 for 7.5 and around 27 for 6.5

For General Training Reading, the anchors sit higher:

• Band 8: roughly 38 correct
• Band 7: roughly 34 correct
• Band 6: roughly 30 correct
• Band 5: roughly 23 correct

Treat every figure above as indicative rather than contractual. For official information about how the test is scored, the authoritative source is ielts.org.

Notice what the spacing of the anchors implies: in the middle of the scale, a half band is only three or four questions wide. The distance between band 6 and band 7 on the Academic test is about seven questions — less than one question type set. Candidates often imagine that moving up a band requires transforming their English; arithmetically, it requires converting a handful of near-misses.

Why do Academic and General Training convert differently?

Both tests report on the same 9-band scale, and a band 7 is supposed to mean the same reading ability whichever test produced it. But GT passages — workplace notices, advertisements, magazine-style articles — are less dense than the academic journal-style texts on the Academic paper. If the two tests shared one conversion, the easier GT paper would hand out inflated bands. So the GT conversion demands more correct answers at each level, restoring the balance.

The practical warning: if you are preparing for General Training with Academic materials or vice versa, calibrate your expectations. A raw 30 out of 40 is a strong band 7 signal on Academic practice but only around band 6 on GT. Always convert with the table that matches the test you will actually sit.

Why isn't there one single official table?

Because no two test versions are perfectly equal in difficulty, and IELTS is measuring your ability, not your luck with the paper. Each version's conversion is set through a calibration process so that the band means the same thing whichever version you sat: a slightly harder paper forgives a slightly lower raw score at each band, and a slightly easier paper demands a little more. The published tables are therefore honest approximations, not the key to your specific test.

For you as a candidate, three conclusions follow:

• Do not build your plan on hitting one exact raw number. If your target is band 7 Academic, train until you score 32-33 consistently in practice, so normal variation cannot drop you under the line.
• Do not panic over one-question swings between practice tests; they are inside the noise of the system.
• Do not chase rumours about "easy" or "hard" test dates. Calibration exists precisely to cancel that difference out.

It is also worth knowing what the band score is not: there is no pass mark in IELTS. A "good" score is simply the one your university, employer or visa category requires, and those requirements — not the test — set your target.

How should the conversion shape your preparation?

Work backwards from your required band with a safety margin of two to three questions, then find those questions in your error log rather than in generic "read more" advice. Most candidates within reach of their target are not losing marks to comprehension: they lose them to word-limit violations, copied misspellings, Not Given traps and unfinished final passages — all technique, all fixable in weeks. Question-type strategy and timing plans for exactly these leaks are collected on the WiderAI blog, and WiderAI's full 40-question practice tests apply the band conversion for you automatically, so every practice session ends with the number that actually matters.