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What Band Score Are You Really At? Three Ways to Self-Assess Honestly

Most IELTS candidates have no idea what band score they're actually writing or speaking at.

That might sound harsh, but it isn't. It's just that without a trained eye scoring your work against the four criteria, you're either overestimating (because the essay "looks good") or underestimating (because you're nervous). Both cost you the same thing - time spent preparing for the wrong band.

Here's are three ways you can self-assess from now on without an examiner present.

1. Score yourself by criterion, not by impression.
The most common self-assessment mistake is reading your own essay and asking "is this good?" That gives you a vague answer. Instead, score each criterion separately. For Writing: Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy. For Speaking: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, Pronunciation. Your weakest score sets your overall band, not your strongest. So if you're a Band 7 on three criteria but a Band 5 on one, your overall is Band 6 - not Band 6.5, not "almost 7." Band 6.

2. Compare against real samples - not aspirational ones.
Looking at Band 9 samples is useful for direction. But to grade yourself accurately, you need Band 5, 6, and 7 samples side by side. The gap between your work and Band 7 is rarely what you think it is. It's not vocabulary. It's not grammar. It's usually one specific thing - like covering the prompt but failing to develop a position, or using simple words instead of precise ones.

3. Get one piece of work properly scored - and keep that calibration.
You only need one essay to be graded by an examiner. Once you know honestly what your Band 6 looks like, you can self-assess everything that follows from that benchmark.

The point of self-assessment isn't to give yourself a number. It's to know which criterion is holding you back so you stop preparing for the wrong thing.

The Foundation Series is now complete. All three recordings are free to watch at teacherivanenglish.com/blog/webinars until June 21st. After that, they move to the paid archive.

The next series - the Writing Masterclass - starts June 28th. Free while it's live. Subscribe at teacherivanenglish.com.

Band 5 vs Band 7 — Can You Spot the Difference?

The gap between Band 5 and Band 7 isn't where most candidates think it is.

It's not vocabulary. It's not grammar. It's not even sentence length. The gap lives in something much more specific — whether you cover the topic or develop a position. Whether you say the simplest possible thing or the most precise one. Whether your speaking answer states ideas or actually explains them.

Take these two extracts. Same task — write about the effects of social media on young people.

Extract A: "They do not go outside. This is bad for their social skills."

Extract B: "Excessive screen time displaces the face-to-face interactions through which social skills are developed."

Both are on topic. Both are grammatically acceptable. One scores Band 5 for Task Response. The other scores Band 7. The difference isn't the words; it's what the words do. Extract A states a problem. Extract B explains a mechanism.

Now, take speaking. Same prompt: describe a skill you found difficult to learn.

Speaker A: "The most difficult thing for me was the coordination — to control the wheel and watch the mirrors at the same time."

Speaker B: "What I found most difficult was coordinating everything simultaneously — managing the steering wheel, monitoring the mirrors."

Same idea. Same moment. Speaker A uses the simplest possible vocabulary. Speaker B uses precise vocabulary — "coordinating," "simultaneously," "monitoring." That's Band 7 Lexical Resource. Not harder words. The right ones.

The rule: covering the topic and developing a position are two different things. Using simple words and using precise words are two different things. The examiner marks the second one, not the first.

So before your next practice essay or recorded speaking response, run this check. Ask yourself: am I stating something, or am I developing it? Am I reaching for the simplest word, or the right one? Those two questions alone change your output more than another vocabulary list will.

Session 3 of the Foundation Series — the final session — is on June 14th. You send me your work. I score three submissions live, criterion by criterion, anonymously. Free to attend while the series is live.