After studying for while you begin to understand what your strong and weak sides are. For example you do the Reading very well and the Listening test makes you cry. This information is very important because it lets you know what you need to focus on.
If you know that you need a total average score of 6, you can reach it by getting 5, 6, 6, 7 or 6, 6, 6, 6, or 5, 5, 7, 7 – in number of ways. You should decide which way is the best for you, thinking of your current level of English. If you know that Listening is a problem for you, but in Reading you are really good, then aim for 5 in Listening and for 7 in Reading.
When I say “aim”, I mean that you need to measure yourself when you are practicing. How do you do that? Here is a table you can use to convert number of correct answers into IELTS band score, which will give you the approximate band score (actually, for each IELTS test this table is a bit different because of varying level of questions’ difficulty.)
General Training Listening
Correct Answers ……… IELTS Band Score
۱۰-۱۵………………………………..(۴)
۱۶-۲۲………………………………..(۵)
۲۳-۲۹………………………………..(۶)
۳۰-۳۴………………………………..(۷)
۳۵-۳۸………………………………..(۸)
۳۹-۴۰………………………………..(۹)
General Training Reading
Correct Answers ……… IELTS Band Score
۱۵-۲۲………………………………..(۴)
۲۳-۲۹………………………………..(۵)
۳۰-۳۳………………………………..(۶)
۳۴-۳۶………………………………..(۷)
۳۷-۳۸………………………………..(۸)
۳۹-۴۰………………………………..(۹)
Let’s say you have finished a Listening test with 28 correct answers out of 40. It places you at band 6, which means that to reach 7 you need to improve your Listening skills.
Well, what are you waiting for? Start working!