The band scale

IELTS reports on a 0–9 scale in half-band steps. Bandzen estimates on the same scale so its figures are comparable to the ones you are aiming for.

Reading and Listening

Both are marked by the same pure function, on the same conversion table. Your raw score is scaled to 40 first, so a 13-question practice set reports on the same scale as a full test. Then it converts:

This is the public Academic Reading conversion. It is currently applied to General Training candidates too, and to Listening, and all of those convert more generously in the real exam — so a General Training or Listening band from Bandzen is conservative.

Writing

Four criteria, each given its own band by the marker:

• Task Response
• Coherence and Cohesion
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Speaking

A second set of four criteria, specific to Speaking:

• Fluency and Coherence
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy
• Pronunciation

For both Writing and Speaking, the overall band is the mean of the four, rounded to the nearest half band. It is not a separate judgement made on top of them, so a report where three criteria are 6.5 and one is 5.0 lands at 6.0 — and the 5.0 is the thing to work on.

Your overall estimate

The mean of every module you have a band for.

Not always the same four IELTS averages. Where you have attempted all four, a Bandzen overall estimate is comparable in shape to an IELTS overall band; where you have only attempted some, it is a mean of fewer things, and worth reading as what it is — Reading and Writing only, say, rather than a full picture.

What a band from Bandzen is not

Read the movement, not the point. One essay half a band above the last is inside the noise. Five attempts trending upward is a signal.