IELTS Reading band 6 to band 7: what has to change

Going from band 6 to band 7 in Academic Reading sounds like a big move. Expressed in marks, it is smaller than it feels, and more specific. You do not need to become a different reader. You need about seven more correct answers out of 40, and those marks often sit in a few identifiable places.

This guide puts the IELTS.org numbers next to a plan for finding those marks. The structure of the paper is covered in the guide to the Academic Reading format and question types.

What IELTS.org says the step is

IELTS.org’s scoring page gives, for Reading, 40 questions with one mark each, converted to a band. The rows it lists are these.

For Academic Reading the difference between band 6 and band 7 is 30 minus 23, which is seven marks. For General Training the difference is 35 minus 30, which is five marks. The two rows are not interchangeable. IELTS.org explains that the Academic Reading test may contain texts with more difficult vocabulary or greater complexity of style, and that a greater number of questions usually has to be answered correctly on General Training to secure a given band. This guide is about the Academic test, which is also what the app’s Reading papers cover.

Two cautions. The scoring page says the precise number of marks needed varies slightly from test version to test version, so 30 is a guide, not a guarantee. And IELTS.org lists no marks for the half bands in between. A score of 26 out of 40 sits between the band 6 and band 7 rows, and the page does not say it is a 6.5. Reading is reported in whole or half bands, according to IELTS.org’s format page, but the marks for the half steps are not on the pages this guide relies on.

Seven marks is about one in six

Spread across 40 questions, seven marks is not a great deal. It is roughly one extra correct answer for every six questions. If you lose marks evenly across the paper, it is hard to see where to start. In practice marks are rarely lost evenly, and that is the useful fact.

Where the marks are worth looking for

IELTS publishes no figures on which question types candidates get wrong most often, and none on how often each type appears, so this page cannot give you a league table. What it can do is name three places where the structure of the task makes marks easy to lose, and suggest you check them first.

True, False, Not Given

This type asks whether a statement agrees with the information in the text. Marks go when you answer from general knowledge, or from a sense of what the passage was about, instead of from what it says. The method is in the guide to True, False, Not Given.

Matching headings

Here you match a heading to a paragraph, which asks for the main idea of the whole paragraph, not a word match. A heading that shares a word with the paragraph can easily be the wrong one. The guide to matching headings works through it.

Time on the last passage

IDP advises no more than 20 minutes on each part and notes that the passages get harder. A candidate at band 6 may have the skill for the third passage but not the minutes. If your marks fall on the last passage, the cause may be the clock, and the guide to finishing Reading in 60 minutes gives a plan.

Completion and short-answer questions are a fourth place to check: marks can vanish on word limits and spelling, which are habits and not reading skills. See the guide to completion questions and the word limit.

A breakdown by question type is your map

The most useful thing you can do before practising is to find where your own marks went. Sit a full paper under timing, then sort each lost mark by question type and by cause: a misread instruction, a word-limit or spelling error, a wrong place found in the passage, a right place misunderstood, or a question you did not reach.

IELTS Mentor AI gives this directly, with a band, the time used, and a breakdown by passage and by question type, and each wrong answer links to the sentence in the passage that decides it. A notebook and a pencil do the same job if you are careful to record the cause as well as the type.

After one paper you may find that two or three causes hold most of your lost marks. Those are where your seven marks live.

How to read your practice scores

Because the exact mark varies between test versions, one good paper proves little. A practice paper is also not a real paper: the passages are chosen by whoever wrote the practice, and some are easier than others. Treat 30 as the line to cross twice in a row, on two different papers, under the full 60 minutes, and with your answers copied and spelled exactly. A score reached by running over time, or by checking answers against the key halfway through, is not a score you will get on the day.

Use the row for your own test, too. A General Training candidate who reads an Academic table will think a 30 is band 7 when IELTS.org’s row for that test puts it at band 6.

A four-week plan

This is a suggested plan, not an IELTS rule. Adjust the days to your own schedule.

Week 1: find the marks

Sit one full paper under 60 minutes. Sort every lost mark by type and by cause. Write down the two causes that cost you most. Do nothing else that week except review the paper properly, including the questions you got right by luck.

Week 2: fix the most costly type

Take the type at the top of your list, and do short sets of that type alone, untimed at first. After each set, check every wrong answer against the sentence that decides it. Finish the week with one timed passage.

Week 3: fix the second type and the clock

Do the same for your second type. Then practise the clock: sit two full papers, and keep each passage to about 20 minutes with a fixed cut-off. Mark and return to stalled questions instead of staying on them.

Week 4: full papers and a check

Sit one full paper early in the week and another at the end. Compare the sorted lists. If the lost marks have moved from the types you worked on to new ones, that is normal, and the lists tell you what to do next. Then check the result against the table above, using the row for your own test.

What it means for your overall band

Reading is one of four sections, each counted equally. IELTS.org says the overall band is the average of the four section bands, taken to the nearest half band, with an average ending in .25 going up to the next half band and .75 up to the next whole band. If your other three sections are at 6, moving Reading from 6 to 7 makes the average 6.25, which goes up to 6.5. The band score calculator lets you enter your own four scores, and the study plan helps you share your weeks across sections. The answer on how Reading is scored gives the conversion in brief.