How the IELTS overall band is worked out
An IELTS Test Report Form shows a band for each of four skills: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. The overall band is the arithmetic mean of those four bands, rounded to the nearest half or whole band. Each skill has equal weight in this calculation. The overall band is therefore a summary of the reported skill bands, not a fifth assessment with separate marking criteria.
To calculate it yourself, add the four bands and divide by four. For example, Listening 7.0, Reading 6.5, Writing 6.0 and Speaking 6.5 total 26.0. Dividing by four gives 6.5, so the overall band is 6.5. You can change any input above to see how a different skill band changes the average. This is useful for planning practice, but it cannot predict what an examiner will award.
IELTS rounds an average ending in .25 up to the next half band and one ending in .75 up to the next whole band. Thus 6.25 becomes 6.5, and 6.75 becomes 7.0. An average below a quarter is rounded to the preceding whole band; an average between a half and three quarters is rounded to the preceding half band. The calculator uses integer half-band units internally so that decimal arithmetic cannot shift a boundary.
Only use bands that appear on a genuine Test Report Form if you want to reproduce an official overall band. A practice-test band, teacher estimate or online score may be helpful for learning, but its accuracy depends on the quality of that assessment. In particular, Writing and Speaking require human evaluation against published criteria; entering a hoped-for band here does not make it an attained result.
Listening and Reading are marked from correct answers, but their conversion to bands varies by test version. We do not include a raw-score conversion table because a generic table could imply a level of precision the official material does not guarantee. Use the four reported bands instead. For Writing and Speaking, focus on the criteria and on feedback that identifies specific next steps rather than on the overall number alone.
A higher band in one skill can offset a lower band in another for the overall calculation, but institutions may set minimum bands for individual skills. Check the current requirements of your university, employer or visa authority directly. The overall result is not a substitute for those separate requirements. Read the official IELTS explanation linked below before making a high-stakes decision.
IELTS scoring rules (official source)