9 - Expert User: This demonstrates full operational command of the aspirant over the English language. He/she has demonstrated accurate, appropriate, and fluent usage of the language while exhibiting full understanding as well.
8 - Very Good: The aspirant has complete control over the English language with unsystematic inaccuracies and inappropriate usage taking place only occasionally. They may not understand a few aspects of scenarios that are unfamiliar. Otherwise, they can tackle detailed and complex argumentation quite well.
7 - Good User: The aspirant has total functional control over the English language although he/she displays sporadic inappropriate usage, inaccuracies, and misinterpretation in a few scenarios. They usually deal with complex language satisfactorily while understanding the reasoning of a detailed nature.
6 - Competent User: The aspirant has practical English language command despite a few instances of improper usage, inaccuracies, and misinterpretations. They can use and understand complex language, especially during familiar situations.
5 - Modest User: The aspirant doesn’t have complete command over the English language and will be able to cope with most situations although they are likely to make several mistakes. They will be able to manage primary communication in their areas of operation.
4 - Limited User: The English language understanding of the aspirant is restricted to known and experienced scenarios. He/she will frequently demonstrate issues in expression and understanding alike. He/she will be unable to make use of advanced language.
3 - Extremely Limited User: The aspirant understands and communicates just basic meanings in highly familiar scenarios. The communication is not fluent and often disrupted.
2 - Intermittent User: These aspirants face a lot of problems in properly comprehending written and spoken English alike.
1 - Non-User: The aspirant does not possess the skill to use the English language except for some particular words.
Difference between Raw Scores and Band Scores in IELTS
The raw scores gained in the listening and reading section of IELTS are on the basis of the number of correct answers that a candidate has given on the test. Once the candidate is marked out of 40, their score is then converted on a band scale of one to nine. For instance, in the listening section of IELTS, getting a raw score of 39-40, 37-38, 35-36, 32-34, and 30-31 means that the listening band score is converted to 9, 8.5, 8, 7.5, and 7 respectively. On the other hand, the IELTS reading section includes both General Training and Academic tests. A candidate has to secure a better raw score on the General Training Reading examination than the academic one to get a higher band score in IELTS.
The writing and speaking section of IELTS consists of two and three tasks respectively. Each of them is assessed on the basis of certain criteria. The examiners mark the IELTS scores in the writing section on the basis of Task Achievement (Task 1) and Task Response (Task 2), Lexical Resource, Coherence and Cohesion, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. On the other hand, the speaking section is assessed on the basis of Grammatical Range and Accuracy, Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, and Pronunciation. There is equal weightage for each criterion, and the band scores are calculated as an average of marks awarded in each of them.
Recommended Read: IELTS Speaking Band Score
How Are IELTS Band Scores Calculated?
There are four components of the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) exam — Listening, Writing, Reading, and Speaking. Therefore, the IELTS band score is calculated by taking out an average of the individual scores awarded in these four sections. This score is then rounded off to the nearest half or whole (whichever is closer) with equal weightage for the scores of each section. For example, if an aspirant gets 6.5, 6.5, 5.0, and 7.0 in the four sections, then their average of these four scores will be 6.25 and the band score will be rounded off to the nearest half i.e., 6.5.
Likewise, suppose another aspirant gets 4.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.0 for these sections, their average score will be 3.875. Then their IELTS score would be 4.0.
Someone getting 6.5, 6.5, 5.5, and 6.0 in these portions will have an average score of 6.125 and a band score of 6.0. If the average is ending at the .25 mark, then the overall band score will be rounded off to the nearest half band, which will be .50. And if it ends at .75, then it will be rounded to the next whole band.