Free tool
IELTS Listening band score calculator
There are 40 questions in IELTS Listening and one mark for each. Enter how many you got right and this converts it to the band that score usually gives. No sign-up, and the whole table is below if you would rather read it.
Count every correct answer across all four parts. Spelling and grammar have to be right for the mark to count.
Enter your raw score to see the band it usually converts to.
A raw score tells you how many you lost. The free 3-minute listening test tells you where — no account needed.
The full conversion table
Listening is scored the same way for Academic and General Training, so one table covers both.
| Correct answers | Band |
|---|---|
| 39–40 / 40 | 9.0 |
| 37–38 / 40 | 8.5 |
| 35–36 / 40 | 8.0 |
| 32–34 / 40 | 7.5 |
| 30–31 / 40 | 7.0 |
| 26–29 / 40 | 6.5 |
| 23–25 / 40 | 6.0 |
| 18–22 / 40 | 5.5 |
| 16–17 / 40 | 5.0 |
| 13–15 / 40 | 4.5 |
| 10–12 / 40 | 4.0 |
| 8–9 / 40 | 3.5 |
| 6–7 / 40 | 3.0 |
| 4–5 / 40 | 2.5 |
What a raw score cannot tell you
Two candidates can both score 24 and need completely different practice. One lost eight marks on numbers, dates and spelled names — mechanical losses, fixable in a week. The other followed every conversation but lost the thread in the Part 4 lecture, which takes longer and needs different work. The band is the same; the next month should not be.
That is the gap worth closing before you book another test. The questions you miss cluster, and the cluster has a name: fast connected speech, meaning behind the words, following a long turn, catching details, or reading between the lines.
Take the free 3-minute listening test →Common questions
Is this the official IELTS conversion?
No. IELTS does not publish a fixed raw-to-band table for Listening, and the conversion moves a little from paper to paper so that different versions of the test stay comparable. This is the widely used approximation. It tells you the region you are in; it is not a prediction of your score, and only the test boards can issue one.
Is Listening marked the same for Academic and General Training?
Yes. Both take the same Listening test and the same conversion applies. Reading is where the two differ — General Training Reading needs more correct answers for the same band.
Do spelling mistakes cost me the mark?
Yes. An answer spelled wrongly is marked wrong, and so is one that breaks the word limit — writing three words where the instruction said two loses the mark even when the meaning is right. Both British and American spellings are accepted.
Is my band rounded up or down?
The Listening band itself comes straight from the table and is already a whole or half band. Rounding only appears in your OVERALL score, which averages the four skills: an average ending in .25 rounds up to the next half band, and .75 rounds up to the next whole band.
How many marks is one band?
Around the middle it is tight — three or four answers can be the difference between 6.0 and 6.5. That is usually two or three questions in Part 4 and a number or a name you misheard earlier, which is why where you lose marks matters more than how many.
Lisenia is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the British Council, IDP or Cambridge Assessment English. Band figures here are indicative practice guidance, not official scores.