IELTS, fully named as International English Langauge Testing System, is a language proficiency that is designed to test the English language skills of an individual. Anybody can appear for this test to analyze their English language ability but mostly people from Non-English backgrounds who want to move to an English-speaking country appear for this test. Basically, an individual’s language skills in the IELTS exam are tested on the bases of four modules: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking.
Among all the four modules, Listening is the easiest and the highest scoring section. Still, a plethora of candidates can’t achieve their desired scores in the listening section because of a lack of knowledge and poor listening skills. So, first, let’s identify how is IELTS listening test evaluated so that you can get an esteemable band score in this module.
How is the IELTS Listening Test Evaluated?
In the IELTS Listening test, there are a total of 40 questions. The module is further divided into four parts. Four recordings will be plates and candidates need to listen to the recordings carefully to attempt their answers appropriately. Remember that recordings are just played once, so your undivided attention is required to answer each question correctly. Your listening band scores depend upon the number of questions you have attempted correctly. For each correct answer, you will get 1 mark. There is no negative marking in the IELTS test. The marks achieved from 40 are your raw scores which are further converted into the IELTS listening band score and are rated on a scale from 0-9. If you are thinking that how are the raw scores converted into the listening band scores, have a look at the listening band score chart in the next paragraph.
Listening Band Score Chart
Here is the listening band score chart that will help you know how many correct answers can help you achieve your desired band score:
| Raw Score | IELTS Listening Band Score |
| 39-40 | 9 |
| 37-38 | 8.5 |
| 35-36 | 8 |
| 32-34 | 7.5 |
| 30-31 | 7 |
| 26-29 | 6.5 |
| 23.25 | 6 |
| 18-22 | 5.5 |
| 16-17 | 5 |
| 13-15 | 4.5 |
| 10-12 | 4 |
| 8-9 | 3.5 |
| 6-7 | 3 |
| 4-5 | 2.5 |
Calculate and Convert Overall IELTS Scores
Now, you are able to convert your listening raw scores into band scores but what about your overall IELTS scores? You must have knowledge of an appropriate way to calculate your overall IELTS band scores. So, let’s understand it with the help of an example.
IELTS band scores are rated on a scale from 0-9. One can also get band scores in the form of .5 as 5.5, 6.5, etc. Your overall band scores are based on your skills in all four modules(Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking). From here, we can deduce that the overall band score is an average of all four modules. For instance, if you have scored 8 in Listening, 7 in Reading, 7.5 in Writing and 7.5 in Speaking, your overall band score will be ((8+7+7.5+7.5)/4)) which is equal to 7.5.
Read Also: Tried and tested ways for a better IELTS Score
To make it more clear, let’s take one more example. Suppose, you have acquired 7.5 in Listening, 8 in Reading, 6.5 in Writing and 7 in Speaking. Now, your overall band score will be ((7.5+8+6.5+7)/4)). Now it comes out to be 7.25. The average of 7.25 will be increased to 7.5 because 7.25 just lies between 7 and 7.5. In that case, the band score will be pushed to the closest score which is 7.5.
Conclusion
So, this was all you need to know about the listening test and listening band score. Apart from the listening scores, you now have the exact idea of the overall bad score conversion as well. Therefore, work laboriously, practice regularly, improve your language skills and get ready to hit the target band score in the IELTS exam.
