StudyIELTS
Step 1 · The test, explained once

Four papers.One number.

Every door abroad reads it. This page is the whole test: format, scoring, the descriptors in plain words, what each door asks, and test day. Every claim traces to the official pages; nothing here is guessed.

The format

Listening. Reading.
Writing. Speaking.

Three papers in one sitting; Speaking is a separate interview, sometimes the same day. Open a paper for the question types, the strategy and a practice set.

Scoring · Instrument · Band calculator

From raw marks
to the band.

Listening and Reading are forty marks converted to a band. Writing and Speaking are graded on four criteria each. The overall is the average, rounded to the nearest half: .25 goes up to .5, .75 goes up to the next whole.

Listening · 40 marks
Reading · Academic · 40 marks
Reading · General Training · 40 marks
What the examiner marks · in plain words

Band 5. Band 6.
Band 7.

The official criteria, quoted where it matters. The gap between 6 and 7 is not vocabulary size. It is a clear position, an overview, sentences without errors, and linking you cannot see.

Writing
Speaking
What each door asks

The floors.
And the points.

Institutions set their own floor for study. Governments set the floor for migration and pay points above it. Every half band above 7.0 in every paper is worth more than the one below it.

Test day

The last
forty-eight hours.

Questions people ask

Straight
answers.

Sources · ielts.org test format pages · IDP "IELTS on computer" · Cambridge and IELTS public band descriptors · re-verified against the official pages before each course run