IELTS Reading Band Score Calculator
Enter the number of correct answers from your 40-question IELTS Reading paper, switch between Academic and General Training, and read off your band, your CEFR level, and exactly which programs your score qualifies you for.
Your IELTS Reading Score
Pick your test version, then enter how many of the 40 Reading questions you answered correctly.
Three steps from raw score to band
Same Reading paper, two conversion tables. The right one depends on whether you sat the Academic or General Training version.
Pick your version
Choose Academic if you took the Reading paper for university admission or professional registration. Choose General Training if you took it for immigration, work, or secondary education.
Enter your correct answers
Count the correct answers on your Test Report Form (or your practice paper). Maximum is 40. There is no negative marking, so include any answer you guessed correctly.
Read your band, CEFR, and eligibility
You get the official Reading band, the CEFR level, and which university tier or immigration pathway your Reading score supports. Switch the tab to see how the same raw score scores on the other version.
What is IELTS Reading and why two tables?
Two things to understand before reading your score report: what the Reading section actually contains, and why Academic and General Training use different raw-to-band conversions.
The Reading paper
The International English Language Testing System Reading paper is 60 minutes long with three passages and 40 questions in total. Each correct answer is worth one raw mark; there is no penalty for wrong answers. Your raw score (0 to 40) is then converted to a band from 0 to 9 in 0.5 steps using a published conversion table. The Reading paper is the only IELTS section, alongside Listening, that is purely objective: human examiners do not grade Reading at all.
Question types include multiple choice, true/false/not given, matching headings, sentence completion, summary completion, and short answer. Most candidates lose points on matching headings and true/false/not given, where the wrong answer trap is built into the design.
Academic vs General Training: why the tables differ
IELTS Academic Reading uses authentic passages from journals, textbooks, and research articles. The vocabulary is dense and the syntax is academic. IELTS General Training Reading uses workplace notices, advertisements, instructions, and a longer general-interest article: the language is closer to everyday English.
Because the GT texts are easier, you need more correct answers to hit the same band. The simplest illustration: raw 30 out of 40 is band 7.0 on Academic but only band 6.0 on General Training. To reach band 7.0 on GT, you need 34 to 35 correct. Conversely, the GT table is more lenient at the bottom: raw 15 is band 4.0 on GT but only band 5.0 on Academic. The two tables converge at the very top (raw 40 is band 9.0 on both).
If you are still deciding which version to take, our overall IELTS band calculator walks through the same Academic vs General Training distinction across all four sections.
How the three Reading passages are scored
All 40 marks are equally weighted. Time pressure is the real difficulty: 60 minutes for three passages plus answer-sheet transfer.
Passage 1
~13 questionsAcademic: a general-interest topic accessible to a non-specialist (history of a discovery, profile of an industry). General Training: short workplace or community texts (notices, ads, leaflets, schedules) with several short tasks. Treat Passage 1 as the warm-up and bank time for the harder passages later.
Passage 2
~13 questionsAcademic: a more specialised topic with denser vocabulary (a science article, an economics study). General Training: workplace-focused texts such as job descriptions, training materials, or company guidelines. The shift in question style begins here, expect more inference questions.
Passage 3
~14 questionsAcademic: the longest and densest passage, often argumentative (a research debate or a position essay). General Training: a single long passage of general interest, similar in style to a magazine feature. Time-management failures usually show up here, with candidates running out of time on the final 5 to 10 questions.
Answer transfer
Within the 60 minUnlike Listening, IELTS Reading does not give you 10 extra minutes at the end to transfer answers to the answer sheet. Write directly onto the answer sheet as you go, or budget the last 5 minutes for transfer. A correct reading answer that never made it onto the sheet scores zero.
What your IELTS Reading band unlocks
Reading sub-scores are scrutinised at most universities, especially for research-heavy programs. The thresholds below are the practical Reading-band targets for common pathways.
Top universities + research-heavy programs
Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, and similar typically expect 7.0 to 7.5 overall, often with 7.0 in each section. Reading is scrutinised especially closely for humanities, law, and PhD programs that involve heavy reading loads.
Most master's + competitive Express Entry
Standard threshold for master's admissions at competitive universities. Maps to CLB 9 on IELTS GT (124 CRS language points without a spouse on Canadian Express Entry). On Academic, you need 30 to 32 correct out of 40; on GT, 34 to 35.
Standard master's + many UG
The most common master's minimum at UK, Australian, and Canadian universities. Also accepted for many undergraduate programs. Academic raw 27 to 29; GT raw 32 to 33.
Many UG + Express Entry FSWP minimum
Most undergraduate programs accept band 6.0 in Reading. Federal Skilled Worker Program in Canada requires Reading 6.0 (CLB 7) on IELTS GT. Academic raw 23 to 26; GT raw 30 to 31.
Foundation + pathway programs
Undergraduate pathway and foundation programs. Australia counts overall 6.0 in each section as Competent English (the minimum for skilled migration, including Reading 6.0).
UK skilled worker visa + ESL
B1 reading on the CEFR scale, accepted for several UK skilled-worker visa categories. Below most direct academic admissions: foundation or English-for-academic-purposes is typically the next step.
IELTS Reading vs TOEFL Reading vs PTE Reading
Indicative cross-mapping of IELTS Reading bands to the equivalent Reading scores on the other two widely accepted tests, with CEFR alignment.
| IELTS Reading Band | CEFR | TOEFL Reading (0–30) | TOEFL Reading (new 1–6) | PTE Reading (10–90) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0 | C2 | 30 | 6.0 | 86–90 |
| 8.5 | C2 | 29 | 5.5 | 83–86 |
| 8.0 | C1 | 28 | 5.5 | 78–82 |
| 7.5 | C1 | 25–27 | 5.0 | 73–77 |
| 7.0 | C1 | 24 | 5.0 | 65–72 |
| 6.5 | B2 | 19–23 | 4.5 | 58–64 |
| 6.0 | B2 | 15–18 | 4.0 | 50–57 |
| 5.5 | B2 | 13–14 | 3.5 | 42–49 |
| 5.0 | B1 | 9–12 | 3.0 | 36–41 |
| 4.0 | A2 | 5–8 | 2.5 | 30–35 |
Sources: British Council CEFR equivalencies, ETS TOEFL section comparison tables (2026 1 to 6 scale), Pearson Global Scale of English. Cross-equivalents are indicative; individual institutions may use slightly different cut-offs.
Four concrete Reading tips
Skill-specific advice for the patterns that move band 6.5 candidates to 7.0 and beyond.
Time-box per passage, not per question
A common 6.5-to-7.0 blocker is spending 25 minutes on Passage 1 and rushing the rest. Strict 20 minutes per passage. If you are stuck on a single question after 60 seconds, mark it, write your best guess on the answer sheet, and move on. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so a guess is always better than a blank.
Drill matching headings as a separate skill
Matching-headings questions reward a specific habit: read the first and last sentence of each paragraph, then scan for the topic shift. Many high scorers who plateau at 6.5 lose 3 to 4 marks on this question type alone. Drill it in isolation with past papers, not buried inside full-test sets.
Memorise true / false / not given decision rules
True = the passage explicitly says it. False = the passage explicitly contradicts it. Not given = the passage does not address it either way. The most common error is calling a Not Given a False because the absence "feels like" a contradiction. Drill the distinction with answer-key explanations, not just raw practice.
Transfer answers as you go
Reading does not give you the 10 extra transfer minutes that Listening does. Either write directly onto the answer sheet (skipping the question booklet entirely) or budget the last 5 minutes per passage to transfer that passage's answers. Lost-in-transfer is one of the most expensive mistakes on the test.
IELTS Reading scoring questions, answered
How is the IELTS Reading band score calculated?
IELTS Reading has 40 questions across three passages. Each correct answer earns one raw mark (no penalty for wrong answers), so your raw score is between 0 and 40. That raw total is then converted into a band from 0 to 9 in 0.5 steps using a fixed conversion table. There are two tables: one for IELTS Academic and a different one for IELTS General Training. The General Training table is more lenient at the lower bands and more demanding at the top, because the GT reading texts are pitched at an easier difficulty than the Academic passages.
Why are IELTS Academic and General Training Reading scored differently?
The two versions test different content. Academic Reading uses authentic journal articles, textbook passages, and research extracts. General Training Reading uses workplace notices, advertisements, instruction manuals, and a longer general-interest article. Because GT texts are easier in vocabulary and structure, you need more correct answers to reach the same band. For example, raw 30 out of 40 maps to band 7.0 on Academic but only band 6.0 on General Training. The same band represents the same reading ability, but the raw mark needed is higher on GT to compensate for the easier texts.
How many correct answers do I need for IELTS Reading band 7?
On IELTS Academic Reading, you need 30 to 32 correct answers out of 40 for band 7.0. On IELTS General Training Reading, you need 34 to 35 correct out of 40 for band 7.0. For band 7.5, Academic requires 33 to 34 correct, while General Training requires 36 correct. These thresholds are taken from the published IELTS band score conversion tables and apply to every test version.
Is the IELTS Reading raw-to-band table the same for every test?
Yes. The conversion tables for Academic and General Training Reading are fixed and published by IELTS (jointly owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge Assessment English). The mapping does not change from one test sitting to another, and the test is not curve-graded. If a particular Reading paper is judged slightly harder during pre-test calibration, examiners adjust the difficulty before publication, not the band table after the fact.
Does IELTS Reading penalise wrong answers?
No. There is no negative marking on IELTS Reading. Every blank or wrong answer scores zero, but a wrong answer never costs you marks elsewhere. Always guess if you do not know the answer, you have nothing to lose. Spelling and grammar still matter on short-answer questions: a misspelled answer is marked wrong even if your reading comprehension was correct.
What is a good IELTS Reading score?
It depends on your goal. For most undergraduate study, a Reading band of 6.0 to 6.5 is acceptable. Master's programs typically expect 6.5 to 7.0. Top universities (Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT) typically expect 7.0 to 7.5 in Reading. For Canadian Express Entry, IELTS GT Reading band 7.0 maps to CLB 9 and earns the top tier of CRS language points. Australia counts band 7.0 in each section, including Reading, as Proficient English: 10 PR points.
How does IELTS Reading band convert to CEFR?
The British Council publishes an indicative CEFR mapping for IELTS bands. Reading band 8.0 to 9.0 aligns with C1 to C2 (Advanced to Proficient). Band 6.5 to 7.5 aligns with B2 to C1. Band 5.5 to 6.0 aligns with B2. Band 4.0 to 5.0 aligns with B1. Below 4.0 falls in A2 territory. The mapping is the same for Academic and General Training because both report on the same 0 to 9 band scale.
Can I retake just IELTS Reading?
Yes, since 2023. IELTS One Skill Retake lets you retake a single section (Listening, Reading, Writing, or Speaking) within 60 days of your original computer-delivered IELTS test. The retake is available at participating test centres. Most universities and IRCC accept the resulting Test Report Form Update, but check with your specific institution before relying on it for an admissions deadline.
Keep going
IELTS Band Score Calculator →
Compute your overall IELTS band from all four section scores (Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking) using the official IELTS rounding rules. Works for Academic and General Training.
IELTS to CEFR Converter →
Map your IELTS Reading band to the Common European Framework of Reference (A1 through C2) used by European universities and employers.
IELTS to TOEFL Converter →
Translate your IELTS Reading band into the equivalent TOEFL iBT Reading score (both the new 1 to 6 scale and the legacy 0 to 30 section score).
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