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How to Interpret Scores on the Sample Listening Sections

How to Interpret Scores on the Sample Listening Sections

IELTS Listening papers contain 40 questions and each correct question is awarded one mark;
the maximum raw score a candidate can achieve on a paper is 40. Band scores ranging from
Band 1 to Band 9 are awarded to candidates on the basis of their raw scores.
All IELTS test materials are pretested before being used in live tests but there are inevitably
minor differences in the difficulty level across the large number of tests administered each
year. In order to equate different test versions, the band score boundaries are set so that all
candidates results relate to the same scale of achievement. This means, for example, that
the Band 6 boundary may be set at slightly different raw scores across test versions.
Table 1 below indicates the average Listening raw scores achieved by candidates at Bands 5
8. It provides an indication of the number of marks typically required to achieve a particular
band score.
Table 1: Average Listening raw scores
Raw score out of 40

Band score

16
23
30
35

5
6
7
8

Within each Listening paper, sections are targeted at different levels of overall difficulty. A
useful indication of the relative difficulty of questions is the facility value: the proportion of
candidates giving the correct answer to a question. Both sample Sections A and B have
appeared in live tests and thus the facility values of their questions can be judged to be
representative of the candidature as a whole. Table 2 below shows the average facility of
each section. These figures show that the candidates found sample Section B slightly more
difficult overall than sample Section A.
Table 2: Average facility of sample Listening sections
Sample Listening Section A

0.69

Sample Listening Section B

0.58

Although sample Section B proved more difficult overall, there is a range of questions at
different levels of difficulty within both sample sections.
The question facility values in Tables 3 and 4 show the proportion of candidates who
answered each question correctly. For instance, 63% of the candidates answered question 21
correctly on sample Section A and 61% of the candidates responded correctly to question 11
on sample Section B.
Tables 3 and 4 also give an indication of the relative difficulty of the questions within each
sample section: the most difficult question in sample Section A is question 27 while in sample
Section B question 13 is the most difficult.

IELTS Scores Explained

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How to Interpret Scores on the Sample Listening Sections

Table 3: Sample A facility values

Question
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Facility
0.63
0.74
0.55
0.72
0.63
0.58
0.54
0.83
0.90
0.79

Table 4: Sample B facility values

Question
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Facility
0.61
0.84
0.12
0.65
0.46
0.73
0.58
0.54
0.62
0.64

Table 5 below shows the number of questions on a typical Listening section that candidates
at different IELTS bands would typically be expected to answer correctly.
Table 5: Expected number of correct answers on a typical Listening section
Number of questions answered correctly
(out of 10)
1-4
5-7
8-10

Band score
Up to Band 5
Between Bands 5 and 7
Above Band 7

Further examples of Listening test material can be found in the Official IELTS Practice
Materials. This contains sample practice tests for both the Academic and General Training
modules. Copies are available for purchase from Cambridge ESOL, IDP: IELTS Australia
and IELTS test centres. See www.ielts.org

IELTS Scores Explained