IELTS - Skills and Scores

If you've finally decided that you want to do the IELTS exam, then it's important to know exactly what you'll need to do in the exam - and how you can get the best possible score.


There are 4 parts to the IELTS exam: Writing, Speaking, Listening and Reading.
Your IELTS score comes from the average of the scores you get in each part. The formula for your overall IELTS score is:

Writing score + Speaking score + Listening score + Reading score /4

All the scores, then, are treated equally. But each score is decided in a different way, and each part is done in a different way. Here’s what to expect...


The IELTS Skills
In Writing, there are two tasks, and you must complete both tasks in a one-hour exam. Task One is short – you should write 150 words in around 20 minutes – and you are usually required to describe a graph or sometimes a diagram or a picture. Task Two is an argument: usually, you are given an opinion about a social issue, and you should argue in favour of the opinion, against the opinion – or both. You should write 250 words for Task Two, and you have around 40 minutes.

In Speaking, you have a face-to-face conversation with an IELTS examiner, usually taking around 15 minutes. There are three parts to this exam. In Part One, you have a short informal conversation, to “warm up” (get ready and feel comfortable).
In Part Two, you must speak on your own for around 2 minutes, answering a question with four parts. You have one minute to prepare for it.
In Part Three, you speak in a formal style, answering questions from the examiner which are related to the topic in Part Two.

Listening and Reading are more or less the same in how they are done. You must answer 40 questions in 40 minutes. These questions are in many different forms. In Reading, you will need to read four texts. There are also four “texts” in the Listening exam, and you will only hear them once.

The IELTS scores
The top score in IELTS is 9.0. Many students make the mistake of aiming for this score, which is a mistake. More or less, only native speakers could get this score – or non-native speakers who are completely proficient in the language. Most IELTS examiners and teachers have never met a student who got a 9.0.
The lowest score in IELTS is 0 – for students who didn’t take the test. A score of 1.0 is for a student who took the test but, more or less, cannot speak or understand English.
The scores in between exist in gaps of 0.5, and they represent the different levels of English between 1 and 9. The scores are:

9.0 / 8.5 / 8.0 / 7.5 / 7.0 / 6.5 / 6.0 / 5.5 / 5.0 / 4.5 / 4.0 / 3.5 / 3.0 / 2.5 / 2.0 / 1.5 / 1.0

Your scores in Listening and Reading are decided quite simply. However, the decision in Writing and Speaking is much more complicated. Let’s look at the two different groups.
The IELTS scores – Listening and Reading
Although both of these exams are usually very difficult for the student, it’s quite easy for the examiner to decide the student’s score: it’s simply a case of how many questions were correctly answered.
The table below shows the scores exactly. However, it’s first important to understand what a right answer is.
In Listening and Reading a right answer is an answer which:
a) is correct;
b) obeys the instructions on the test; and
c) is spelled correctly.
The decision, then, is quite simple for the examiner. If the student meets all three criteria, (s)he gets 1 mark. 

Here, then, are the scores you can recieve in Listening and Reading:

	LISTENING score (TOTAL=40)		READING score (TOTAL=40)
9	39-40		39-40
8.5	37-38		37-38
8	35-36		35-36
7.5	32-34		33-34
7	30-31		30-32
6.5	26-29		27-29
6	23-25		23-26
5.5	18-22		19-22
5	16-17		15-18
4.5	13-15		13-14
4	10-12		10-12
3.5	8-10		8-9
3	6-7		6-7
2.5	4-5		4-5
0-2	[no score available]		[no score available]

The IELTS scores – Writing and Speaking
It’s much more difficult for the IELTS examiner to decide these scores, and the system is much more complicated.
Firstly, the examiner must use his/her judgement and opinion much more than in the Listening or Reading exams, and it must be done in a much shorter amount of time. This opinion is based on many things, but it basically comes down to two questions. Firstly, how well can the examiner understand you? Secondly, did you answer the question you were asked?
However, there is more to this IELTS score than just the examiner’s opinion. The examiner has quite complicated guides for your Listening and Speaking tests. These tell him or her to give you a score based on different criteria.
Here are the criteria the examiner uses, in simpler English:

	WRITING		SPEAKING
9	You answered the question you were asked. You thought carefully about what you would write and how to separate it into paragraphs. You used vocabulary and grammar exactly like a native speaker.		You spoke just like a native speaker. If you paused or hesitated, it was because you were thinking of what to say, not how to say it in English. Your vocabulary was very wide, very accurate and included idioms and figures of speech. Your grammar was the same. Your pronunciation was perfect, making your answer completely easy to understand.
8	Like a 9.0 score, you answered the question and structured your answer well with paragraphs. Only small errors in grammar and vocabulary tell us that you’re not a native speaker.		You spoke fluently – your answers were understood exactly. You paraphrased the questions well. (repeated them, changing the words, tense or pronoun) The few mistakes you made were with pronunciation or grammar.
7	You need some more focus in your answer, as it is a little too general or unclear. Also, you may use the same vocabulary/grammar again and again. However, you’ve structured your answer well into paragraphs, many of your sentences are perfect, and you use less common vocabulary once or twice.		You spoke well and for a suitably long time, but you did have to stop sometimes to think about the English you would use. Your vocabulary was wide enough to discuss many different subjects. Your grammar was wide enough to use many different structures and tenses. Your own native accent could be heard, even if you did obey most of the pronunciation rules.
6	You answered all the parts of the question. However, your ideas weren’t very clear. There was structure in your essay, but it was difficult to follow. You used some long sentences and some short sentences. Your vocabulary was good, but there were mistakes and you sometimes used the wrong kind of word (for example, you used a verb instead of a noun).		You could talk about many different subjects, and you used some complex sentences. There were many mistakes. However, they didn’t make your answer difficult to understand. You understand the rules of pronunciation, but you don’t use them all the time – this sometimes causes difficulty in understanding.
5	In general, you answered the question: you gave your ideas, but you didn’t give any details about them. Your answer was basically organised, but it was difficult to follow. Your vocabulary and grammar was full of mistakes, but it was enough to communicate your basic message.		Your speech was slow, and you often used the same sentence or the same language again and again. You could talk about many different subjects, but there were many problems in understanding you with some subjects. You used simple sentences perfectly. However, your more complex sentences had many mistakes. You understand most of the rules of pronunciation, but your own native accent was very strong.
4	You answered some parts of the question in a basic way. You didn’t structure your answer so it was difficult to see how your ideas were related to each other. It was also extremely difficult to understand your grammar and vocabulary because there were many mistakes.		You spoke slowly and often corrected yourself. You used simple sentences and linked them together, but with mistakes. You talked about a few different subjects, but you couldn’t talk about many because you didn’t have the vocabulary. Because of your vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation mistakes, it was difficult to understand you – maybe the examiner misunderstood you.
3	Your answer was very basic, very unclear. You didn’t really answer the different parts of the question. You used the same vocabulary again and again. You made many mistakes so your text was almost impossible to understand.		You could talk about yourself but not other subjects, and your sentences were very short and simple. You made many mistakes. Your pronunciation was very bad, so it made your answer very difficult to understand.
2	You didn’t answer the question. Maybe you gave one or two ideas but you didn’t explain any more. You don’t know how to form words and you don’t use sentences, except for sentences you have in your memory.		You couldn’t speak in sentences - only in words on their own, and you spent too much time trying to produce them. Often, you couldn’t be understood.
1	You gave an answer which had no relation to the question. You could only write a few words, and you didn’t write any sentences.		You couldn’t communicate at all.
0	You didn’t attend the exam, or you didn’t answer the question at all,      OR your answer was completely memorised.		You didn’t attend the speaking task.

Moving Forward...
In the next few weeks, we will look at the different skills. We will examine the different requirements, and you can learn important tips for getting the score you need. Writing will come first – and soon!

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