IELTS Speaking marking criteria
On this page you will find out how your speaking skills are graded on IELTS Speaking test.
IELTS Speaking scores are calculated using 4 criteria:
- Fluency and coherence (FC) = how clear and structured is your speech.
To increase score for FC:
- connect your sentences by linking words and signpoints
- extend your answers, add all the relevant details
- speak smoothly and continuously
- use pausing correctly
- Lexical Resource (LR) = how good is your vocabulary.
To increase score for LR:
- use a wide range of vocabulary
- discuss different topics freely, using appropriate words
- speak formally or semi-formally
- choose words accurately
- use idiomatic language
- Pronunciation (P) = how naturally you sound.
To increase score for P:
- pronounce words as clearly as possible
- record your speech and work on the words that you spell incorrectly
- stress words and sentences correctly
- use correct intonations
- try to be easily understood by the examiner
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRA) = how good is your grammar.
To increase score for GRA:
- avoid grammatical mistakes
- try to use more advanced grammatical structures (passive voice, direct speech, different tenses and conditional sentences etc)
IELTS Speaking score calculation
Each of these criteria receives a score from 0 to 9 points. After that, an arithmetic mean is calculated to determine the section's total score. For example, if your marks are: FC - 7, P - 8, LR - 7 and GR - 6, your total score will be (7+8+7+6)/4 = 7
For example, if your marks are:
- Fluency and Cohesion: 7.5,
- Pronunciation: 7.0,
- Lexical Resource: 7.0,
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy - 7.5.