Ace Your IELTS: Understanding Australia Band Requirements

In recent years, Australia has grown to become a tremendously popular destination for students across the world. Owing to its excellent educational system, 7 of Australia’s 43 universities are ranked among the top 100 universities in the world. 

The pleasant weather, diverse and student-friendly environment, and affordability adds to the reasons why students prefer going to Australia for their studies. To be precise, there are 619,371 international students pursuing various degrees in the country. Indians account for over 100,000 students among those.

Studying in Australia prompts the question, what are the Australia band requirements for IELTS? IELTS is the world’s most popular English language proficiency test and is widely accepted in Australia. It is essential for your admission into a university as well as for your student visa.

IELTS Format and Scoring

You can attempt your IELTS from an IELTS test centre or online from home. The IELTS examination primarily comprises of four sections:

1. Reading
2. Writing 
3. Speaking 
4. Listening

The reading, writing, and listening sessions are conducted on the same day with no breaks in between them. The speaking session, however, is conducted before or after the other sessions, on a separate day. 

Before exploring the band requirement for Australia, let’s have a look at the format based on the time, score, and number of questions in your IELTS.

The scores out of 40 are converted to a scale as per a band of 9. The overall score is then taken as an average of the four sections and is scored on a band of 9. 

Australia Band Requirements for IELTS

Most universities ask for a minimum band requirement in Australia. Some of them, though, ask for a minimum band score in each component of the IELTS examination. To get into a recognized university in Australia, you need a score of at least 6.5 in your IELTS.

The band requirement for Australia, for a lot of other universities, is a minimum of band 6 with a minimum score of 5.5 in each individual band.