To answer that question, let’s first look at the British Council’s official descriptions of the different bands to give you a general idea:
According to the British Council, if you score a 9 on the exam, you’re an “expert” in English; if you score an 8, you’re “very good” at English; and so on.
IELTS scores almost always range from 1 to 9 (“non-user” to “expert”), and there is a 0 score as well (“did not attempt”). You can also get a score ending in .5, for example, 6.5, 7.5., 8.5. Each individual IELTS Skill (Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking) gets a band score in this range. You also get an overall band score for your whole test. This “composite” score is the average of your individual IELTS scores, and is meant to represent your overall English ability.
IELTS Band Score / Skill Level
9 / Expert
8 / Very good
7 / Good
6 / Competent
5 / Modest
4 / Limited
3 / Extremely limited
2 / Intermittent
1 / Non-user