IELTS Reading: why band 7 needs about 30 correct answers in one version and 35 in the other

General Training looks gentler on the page. The raw-score table says the opposite.

Forty questions, one mark each

Reading has three sections and 40 questions in 60 minutes, and every question is worth one mark. Your raw mark then converts to a band. Listening works the same way with 40 questions, so the same table helps you with both.

What the conversion looks like

IELTS publishes approximate figures. They vary a little from one test version to the next, so treat them as a guide.

Read across the band 7 row. Academic Reading needs about 30 out of 40, and General Training Reading needs about 35. General Training texts are easier, so the test asks for more correct answers. Choosing it because it looks easier simply moves the difficulty somewhere else.

Aim above the line

A practice score of exactly 30 in Academic Reading is a band 7 on a good day. A tired or nervous morning can cost marks. A working habit is to aim two or three marks above the figure, so a bad day still lands on it. That margin is a working habit, not an IELTS number, but it gives you a raw target you can track every week.

The rules that cost marks

Two rules lose more marks than hard vocabulary does.

• Word limits. Every completion task states one, such as no more than two words and/or a number. An answer over the limit is marked wrong, even if the idea is right.
• Not Given. It is a real answer. Choose it when the text says nothing either way, not when you simply cannot find the information.

Spelling also counts. A misspelt answer loses the mark just as an over-long one does.

Two statement types look alike. True/False/Not Given checks whether a statement agrees with the facts in the text. Yes/No/Not Given checks whether it agrees with the writer's views, and IELTS lists it for Academic Reading. Look at the instruction before you answer.

The mistake tally

A score tells you how many marks you lost. A tally tells you why. After each practice section, mark every wrong answer with one cause.

After three sections the biggest row tells you what to practise. It is rarely the one you expected.

Practise on the version you will sit

Use the version in your acceptance table for every practice test. A General Training candidate who scores 30 on Academic papers is reading a different test, and the number misleads.