Is there negative marking in IELTS?
No. In IELTS Listening and Reading, Academic and General Training alike, each of the 40 questions can earn you one mark, and ielts.org's description of the marking lists no deduction for a wrong answer. A wrong answer scores zero. A blank scores zero. So a blank can never be safer than an answer.
Writing and Speaking have no marks to lose either, because they are not marked question by question. Examiners judge each performance against four criteria, such as Lexical resource and Grammatical range and accuracy, and give a band for each (ielts.org, IELTS scoring in detail). So when people ask about negative marking in IELTS, they really mean Listening and Reading.
What a blank answer costs your band score
One mark sounds small until you see how close the band steps are. ielts.org publishes the average raw marks for some bands. It is a guide, not a fixed table: the exact marks "vary slightly from test version to test version".
Average marks out of 40 and the band they give (approximate)
| Band | Listening | Academic Reading | General Training Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Not listed | Not listed | 15 |
| 5 | 16 | 15 | 23 |
| 6 | 23 | 23 | 30 |
| 7 | 30 | 30 | 35 |
| 8 | 35 | 35 | Not listed |
Source: ielts.org, IELTS scoring in detail. These are average marks; the precise number for each band changes slightly between test versions.
Now the arithmetic (this part is BandLadder's, not ielts.org's). A blind guess on a Listening multiple-choice question with three options is right about one time in three. On True/False/Not Given it is also one in three, and on a Reading multiple-choice question with four options it is one in four. Six blind guesses on True/False/Not Given are worth about two marks on average; six blanks are worth exactly none.
Gap-fill questions have no options to pick from, so a blind guess is close to worthless. That is where an informed guess earns its keep: the words around the gap tell you what kind of word belongs there, and that shrinks the field from every word in English to a handful. Use the band calculator at IELTS band score calculator to see what two extra marks would do to your own score.
How to guess in IELTS: read the gap's grammar
The informed guess, in four moves (BandLadder method)
- 1
Read the word limit. ONE WORD, TWO WORDS, AND/OR A NUMBER. Your guess must fit it, or it cannot score even if the content is right.
- 2
Name the word class. Look left and right of the gap. a/an or the + gap = noun. to + gap = usually a base verb. was/were + gap = adjective, past participle or -ing form. £, per cent, minutes = number.
- 3
Check number and form. a/an or one = singular noun. many, several, both = plural. A past time phrase = past tense verb. The answer must make the whole sentence grammatical.
- 4
Pick from the right zone. Reading: take a word of that class from the part of the passage the question is about. Listening: write the word of that class you heard closest to that point, or the most likely one.
Before a road reached the summit, observers at the mountain weather station worked fortnight-long shifts. Every three hours they read the thermometersplural: out and the rain gauge, wrote the figures in a leather-bound logbookQ1 and, at noon, carried the readings to a lookout post on the ridge, where a flag codeQ2 passed them to the village below. On the worst winter days the walk was abandoned, and the figures waited in the hutfits grammar until the weather cleared. Q1. Observers wrote each reading in a ______a + singular noun before taking it to the ridge. Q2. Readings reached the village by means of a ______ codeword before a noun.
- → Q1: "in a" needs one singular noun. Only a few singular nouns in this zone make sense after "wrote … in a", such as logbook and hut. Even a pure guess is now a small shortlist, not a blank.
- → Reading for meaning settles it: they "wrote the figures in a leather-bound logbook". The answer is logbook. "leather-bound logbook" is two words and breaks the limit.
- → Q2: a word that describes "code" (here a noun used like an adjective). The passage gives it directly: flag.
Form: Evening pottery course Day: Q3 ______a day Cost per term: £ Q4 ______a number Please bring: an old Q5 ______singular noun What you hear: "We meet on Thursdays now, not Tuesdays; that changed in the spring. It's ninety-five poundsQ4 a term, and that covers the clay and the firing. Oh, and bring an old shirtQ5 to wear over your clothes. People used to bring apronsplural, but they always get left behind."
- → Q3 is a day of the week: Thursday. Tuesday is the old day, a classic corrected detail.
- → Q4 follows £, so it is a number: 95. Write the figure; you do not need the word pounds.
- → Q5: "an" goes with "old", not with the gap, so the noun can start with any letter. It must be singular, which rules out aprons: shirt.
- → Missed Q5 entirely? A singular thing you wear over your clothes is still a far better bet than a blank.
Should you guess in IELTS Listening and Reading? Common mistakes
✗ You skip Reading question 14 to come back later and the hour ends with it still empty.
✓ Write a provisional answer now, flag the question, and replace the answer if you find better evidence.
A provisional answer might score; an empty box cannot. Coming back is a plan, not a guarantee.
✗ Q1 (ONE WORD): leather-bound logbook
✓ Q1 (ONE WORD): logbook
The right content over the word limit loses the mark (ielts.org format pages). A guess has to obey the limit too.
✗ Please bring: an old aprons
✓ Please bring: an old shirt
A plural after "an old" cannot be right. Checking number is the fastest way to throw out a wrong candidate.
✗ You lose Listening question 19, so you stop and try to remember it while the speaker moves on.
✓ Let 19 go, follow 20 and 21, and put a grammar-fitting guess in 19 before your time is up.
Listening questions follow the order of the recording (ielts.org), so the next answer is coming. Chasing one mark can cost you three.
Order narrows your Reading guesses too: for the question types that follow the passage, a found answer on each side boxes in the one you are missing. See which IELTS Reading questions come in order. For multiple choice and True/False/Not Given, still eliminate what you can first: knocking out one option turns a one-in-three guess into a coin toss.
Your turn: what kind of word goes in the gap?
Pretend you have missed the answer. Use only the grammar around each gap to decide what kind of word you would guess.
- Visitors must show a ______ at the main entrance. (ONE WORD)
- A. A plural noun
- B. A singular noun
- C. A past tense verb
Show answer
A singular noun
"a" before the gap needs one countable thing, such as ticket or pass.
- Tour groups should arrive ______ minutes before the start. (A NUMBER)
- A. A number
- B. An adjective
- C. A plural noun
Show answer
A number
"minutes" after the gap, plus the instruction, asks for a quantity.
- Ticket sales ______ sharply after the second entrance opened. (ONE WORD)
- A. A base verb
- B. A past tense verb
- C. A noun
Show answer
A past tense verb
The sentence needs a main verb, and "opened" puts it in the past: rose or fell.
- Most of the garden's ______ were planted by volunteers. (ONE WORD)
- A. A singular noun
- B. A plural noun
- C. An adverb
Show answer
A plural noun
"Most of the garden's" needs a noun, and "were" makes it plural.
- You are on Listening question 27 and realise you never heard the answer to 26. What do you do?
- A. Leave 26 blank, because a wrong answer loses a mark
- B. Stop and try to replay 26 in your head
- C. Keep listening, then fill 26 with a guess that fits its grammar
Show answer
Keep listening, then fill 26 with a guess that fits its grammar
Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, and the recording has already moved past 26.
BandLadder questions
Practise it now
Use the method on original BandLadder questions. Attempt them free and see your score.
Questions
FAQ
Is there negative marking in IELTS?+
No. In Listening and Reading ielts.org's format pages say each correct answer receives 1 mark, and they describe no deduction for a wrong one. Writing and Speaking are marked against criteria, not question by question.
Is there negative marking in IELTS Reading?+
No, in neither Academic nor General Training Reading. A wrong answer and a blank both score zero, so always write something that fits the instructions.
Is there negative marking in IELTS Listening?+
No. Listening is marked the same way for Academic and General Training: one mark for each correct answer out of 40, converted to a band score.
Should I guess in IELTS if I don't know the answer?+
Yes. A guess can score and a blank cannot. Make it an informed guess: follow the word limit, work out the word class from the gap's grammar, and remove options you know are wrong.
What happens if I leave an answer blank in IELTS?+
That question scores zero, the same as a wrong answer. Nothing else is affected, but you have given up any chance of the mark.
Do spelling mistakes lose marks in IELTS Listening and Reading?+
A misspelt answer does not earn the mark. ielts.org's General Training Reading page warns that you will lose marks for incorrect spelling and grammar, so check spelling and singular or plural forms.
What happens if I write more than the word limit?+
You lose the mark for that question, even if the right words are inside your answer (ielts.org format pages). Only that one mark is affected.
Sources
- ielts.org: IELTS Academic Reading test format (Summary, marking): https://ielts.org/take-a-test/test-types/ielts-academic-test/ielts-academic-format-reading
- ielts.org: IELTS General Training Reading test format (marking, spelling and grammar): https://ielts.org/take-a-test/test-types/ielts-general-training-test/ielts-general-training-format-reading
- ielts.org: IELTS Academic Listening test format (marking, question order, word limits): https://ielts.org/take-a-test/test-types/ielts-academic-test/ielts-academic-format-listening
- ielts.org: IELTS General Training Listening test format (marking, question order): https://ielts.org/take-a-test/test-types/ielts-general-training-test/ielts-general-training-format-listening
- ielts.org: IELTS scoring in detail (marks out of 40, average marks per band): https://ielts.org/take-a-test/your-results/ielts-scoring-in-detail
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