IELTS practice score predictor
Are IELTS practice test scores accurate? Practice papers are useful if they are full, timed and new to you.
IELTS Academic Reading practice
Enter at least one practice mark
Your result
Practice, not the exam. This assumes papers of equal difficulty, a steady level and independent questions. Real IELTS papers are equated and passages share difficulty, so real results can fall outside this range.
Questions people ask
Are IELTS practice test scores accurate?
Practice papers are useful if they are full, timed and new to you. Real papers are equated, so the same marks can give a different band, and scores on repeated papers overstate your level.
How many practice tests do I need for a reliable picture?
More helps: with one mark the likely range is wide; with four or five it narrows. The model still assumes the papers are equally hard.
What band is 30 out of 40 in IELTS Reading?
On IDP's indicative table, 30 correct in Academic Reading is band 7.0 and in General Training Reading it is band 6.0.
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How we work this out
What it does
Enter your recent Reading or Listening practice marks and see the likely range for your next comparable practice paper, as marks and bands.
IELTS Listening, Academic Reading and General Training Reading practice papers out of 40, one to six of them.
Method
- We start from a flat assumption about your accuracy and update it with every mark you enter (a Beta(1,1) prior and a binomial model of 40 questions).
- That gives the chance of each mark from 0 to 40 on one more practice paper of the same difficulty.
- We report the middle mark and the range that holds 9 in 10 of those chances, then read the bands from IDP's published indicative table.
Published figures
Published raw-score tables
Correct answers out of 40 for each band. General Training Reading needs more correct answers than Academic Reading for the same band.
| Band | Listening | Academic Reading | General Training Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0 | 39-40 | 39-40 | 40 |
| 8.5 | 37-38 | 37-38 | 39 |
| 8.0 | 35-36 | 35-36 | 37-38 |
| 7.5 | 32-34 | 32-34 | 36 |
| 7.0 | 30-31 | 30-31 | 34-35 |
| 6.5 | 26-29 | 26-29 | 32-33 |
| 6.0 | 23-25 | 23-25 | 30-31 |
| 5.5 | 18-22 | 18-22 | 27-29 |
| 5.0 | 16-17 | 16-17 | 23-26 |
| 4.5 | 13-15 | 13-15 | 19-22 |
| 4.0 | 11-12 | 11-12 | 15-18 |
Sources
Checked .
- IELTS (British Council, IDP, Cambridge): IELTS scoring in detail, Average raw-score anchors and overall-band rounding
- IDP IELTS: IELTS Reading band scores, Academic and General Training Reading tables
- IDP IELTS: IELTS Listening band scores, Listening table