IELTS band descriptors and marking criteria, explained

How IELTS Writing and Speaking are marked

Certificated examiners mark Writing and Speaking against the band descriptors. Each skill has four criteria, and within a skill they carry equal weight.

Academic and General Training use the same criteria. In Writing, each task is marked on its own, the task score averages its four criteria, and Task 2 carries twice the weight of Task 1. In Speaking, the band averages the four criteria, and the examiner rates the candidate’s average performance across the whole test rather than their best or worst moment.

Two rules run through both scales. A script or candidate gets a band only by showing all of that band’s positive features. And in Writing, some features are printed in bold: negative features that limit the band. The Speaking scale has no bold features.

Your overall IELTS band averages your four skill bands and rounds to the nearest half band. An average ending in .25 is rounded up to the half band (6.25 becomes 6.5), one ending in .75 is rounded up to the whole band, and 6.125 becomes 6.0. IELTS doesn’t publish how a Writing or Speaking band is rounded from its criteria.

Listening and Reading: no descriptors, just marks out of 40

Listening and Reading have no band descriptors. Each paper has 40 questions worth one mark each, and the raw mark is converted to the 9-band scale, with results in whole and half bands. Academic and General Training Reading share that scale but convert differently: General Training usually needs more correct answers for the same band.

These are averages, not fixed cut-offs: IELTS says the exact marks for each band vary slightly between test versions. For how the four skills combine into one overall band, see our IELTS band score calculation guide.

What changed in the IELTS band descriptors in May 2023

IELTS reviewed the Writing scales from 2019 to 2023 and brought in revised descriptors in May 2023. In the field trial 103 examiners marked 882 responses, and in a later check 100 examiners double-marked 1,000. Most changes were to Task Achievement and Task Response, and the top bands were reworded partly so that examiners would use 8 and 9. Scores barely moved: 63% of trial responses kept their band or rose by half a band, and just under 20% fell by half a band.

Put the old public descriptors next to the current file and a marker will notice these changes:

• New hard rules. 20 words or fewer is band 1 on every criterion. Wording copied from the task doesn’t count. Band 0 now covers writing in another language throughout, and a memorised answer gets band 0 only with proof that the whole thing was memorised.
• Bold limiting features and the fit-every-feature instruction are printed on each page.
• Task 2 asks about the prompt’s main parts instead of all parts of the task, with an incomplete answer in bold at band 5. The old band 5 line about drawing no conclusions is gone.
• The Academic Task 1 overview. Band 6 now needs only an attempt at a relevant overview, band 7 adds grouped data with trends or differences identified, and band 5 drops the overview but gains a bold limit for giving no data.
• Length and memorised language are named: a badly underlength response at LR band 3, too little text to judge grammar at GRA band 3, and memorised, formulaic or copied language at LR bands 2–4 and GRA bands 2–3.
• Looser top bands. Band 9 allows extremely rare lapses, cohesion at 9 may draw attention very rarely instead of never, and top-band errors are described as extremely rare with minimal impact.
• Lexical Resource band 6 now accepts a risk-taker whose wider vocabulary brings more errors.
• Speaking was reworded throughout in May 2023, with new hesitation wording at bands 8 and 9, a more detailed Pronunciation scale and two printed notes. In 2025, band 0 was extended to candidates who don’t complete the test. We found no IELTS announcement of either Speaking change.

Plenty of summaries, AI answers and even some partner pages still teach the old text. A guide that talks about addressing all parts of the task, or cohesion that attracts no attention, predates May 2023.

Is there an examiner version of the band descriptors?

For Writing, no, not in the sense most people mean. Before May 2023 the downloadable PDFs carried the label “public version”, which is why so many people assumed a fuller examiner text existed. On 3 May 2023 IELTS announced that the “full assessment scales” for Writing examiners were now available: the band descriptors plus the key assessment criteria. The Writing descriptors you can download are the ones examiners use.

What stays private is the material around them. IELTS’s 2023 research summary describes a non-public examiner booklet, training packages and marked scripts used to standardise examiners. It says the booklet guides examiners on things such as key features and overviews, and that examiners asked for more help with short computer-delivered responses.

For Speaking, ielts.org links the published descriptors as the way examiners assess the section, but we found no statement that its full scales are public, so we can’t say as much. Documents passed around online as an examiner version have no verified source. We don’t use them, and you shouldn’t mark with them.

Where to find the official IELTS band descriptors PDF

IELTS publishes four marking documents. We link to them rather than copy them, because IELTS’s terms don’t allow its material to be republished on other websites without permission.

• Writing band descriptors: one 9-page PDF covering Task 1 and Task 2 for Academic and General Training, dated May 2023. Search results often title it after its first heading, Task 1, so people miss that Task 2 is in the same file.
• Speaking band descriptors: 4 pages with no date printed. The current file was created in September 2025.
• Writing key assessment criteria: what each criterion looks at, the minimum word counts, and the rules on plagiarism and notes.
• Speaking key assessment criteria: the indicators behind each Speaking criterion, such as speech rate, paraphrase and chunking.

Many sites still point to old British Council files, including separate Task 1 and Task 2 PDFs labelled “public version”. Those addresses now fail or redirect, and many copies hosted elsewhere carry the pre-2023 text. A Writing PDF split by task, or carrying that label, is almost certainly the old version.

How to mark with the band descriptors: the short version

1. Read the task first. List the prompt’s main parts, the key features of the data, the letter’s three bullet points or the Speaking questions before you look at the answer.
2. Check the hard rules. Length, copied task wording and, in Writing, the bold limiting features. Each bold feature caps one criterion.
3. Place each criterion on its own. Start at the highest band your caps allow and drop a band whenever a positive feature is missing.
4. Sample the language. Count the error-free sentences in a stretch of text or speech, and list vocabulary that works and vocabulary that doesn’t.
5. Write evidence. One quoted example per criterion and one sentence on what the next band needs.
6. Average last. Four criteria per task or test, with Task 2 counted twice in Writing. Keep the unrounded figure, since IELTS doesn’t publish rounding inside Writing or Speaking.

Each skill guide has the full routine, adjacent-band notes for every criterion and a printable sheet. To test your marking against a second opinion, answer PrepEx’s free Writing Task 2 prompt with a free account and compare your marks with our criterion estimates.

Using the band descriptors with a class

Students tend to read a descriptor grid once and forget it. Marking with it is different, because they have to find evidence in a real script. Give each student one criterion, a practice script and the printable sheet, and ask for a band plus one quoted reason. Then compare with the reference marks and argue about the reasons, not the numbers. The move rows on each skill page (5 → 6, 6 → 7) make good one-line targets.

If your school uses PrepEx, the teacher dashboard covers the routine work. You can invite students one at a time or in batches, set tasks with due dates, open each student’s saved answer with PrepEx’s criterion feedback, track progress and send parent-facing PDF reports. There are eight assignable task types: Writing Task 1 and Task 2, Speaking Parts 1, 2 and 3, a full Speaking set, Reading passages and Listening sections. Full IELTS tests and the diagnostic can’t be assigned, and teachers can’t change PrepEx’s scores. Access is arranged with PrepEx, usually starting with a short complimentary evaluation for the school. See IELTS for schools.