The scoring method of the IELTS exam can seem confusing and overly complicated to someone who is new to the exam. In this article, you will learn all about the IELTS band scores and about which score you need to obtain to ace the IELTS exam if you considering leaving Singapore to work or study in an English Speaking country.
What Are The IELTS Band Scores?
All IELTS scores range between 0 and 9, with 1 being the lowest score you can get and 9 the highest (for an expert user). You can also get .5 scores as well (for example, 6.5 or 7.5). Each component of the test – Writing, Speaking, Reading and Listening – is given an individual score, so your overall exam result will be made up of a score for each component and an overall band score. The overall band score is the average of the four individual scores.
In cases where the test takers average of the four individual component scores ends in 0.25 Or 0.75 then the overall IELTS score will be rounded off to the nearest half band.
There are no pass or fail marks for the IELTS exam, so in truth, there are no good or bad scores. The score you need depends greatly on the reasons behind taking the exam and the requirements of the organisations you are applying to. Each band score number corresponds to a particular level of English proficiency. As you can see, the minimum score to be considered a good user of English is band 7.0, while band 9 corresponds to a band score description of an expert user of the English language.
What Exactly Does An IELTS Band Score Of 7 Mean?
A band 7 speaker of English is a person who can speak fluently and converse on and write about a wide range of topics and situations, with the occasional spelling or grammatical error.
Which IELTS Score Do You Need?
At the moment, the world’s best universities that are located in English speaking countries, often require an overall IELTS band score of 7 and above. Universities that are located in non-native countries like Germany or japan often require IELTS scores of between 6 to 7. However, each institution has its own set of requirements and the ownness is upon the test taker to verify the requirements of any institution or university they apply to. In some cases both the individual scores and the overall band score are important.
For immigration purposes, the band scores required by the different countries is generally lower and they usually only require overall scores. For example, the minimum score required in for Canadian express entry is 6.0. In the UK, an entrepreneur visa requires a score of 4.0.