By David Park
Chinese IELTS
performance improving
Research has shown that the Chinese performance in
IELTS (International English Language Testing System)
continues to improve.
The upward trend in the average score achieved by
Chinese candidates has been occurring for some years
now, although the overall improvement in average scores
still remains small.
Growing demand
IELTS measures the ability to communicate in English
across the four language skills: listening, reading, writing
and speaking. The test is taken by people wishing to work
or study where English is the language of communication.
In 2007, over 940,000 people took IELTS exams. This
was an increase of 35% on the number of people taking
IELTS in 2006, making it the fastest growing English
language test in the world.
Over 6,000 education institutions, faculties, government
agencies and professional organisations around the world
now recognise IELTS scores as a valid indicator of a
person’s ability to communicate in English.
To keep up with the growing demand and ensure that test
material is secure, one of the three owners of IELTS, the
University of Cambridge, continually develops new test
material.
Each year, the University releases new versions of the
listening, reading, writing and speaking modules for use at
over 500 test centres in 121 countries. The reading and
writing modules include different versions for Academic
and General Training candidates.
The two other owners of IELTS, IDP: IELTS Australia
and the British Council, are responsible for giving and
scoring the exams at test centres.
Global results
As part of its responsibility to make sure that high test
standards are achieved, the University of Cambridge
analyses the results of all exams used over the year. The
University has recently released its analysis of the exams
held throughout the world last year.
In 2007, approximately three-quarters of candidates (76%)
took the academic version of the IELTS test. The
remaining quarter of candidates did the General Training
version.
In IELTS, candidates receive scores on a nine-band scale,
and a score is reported for each module (listening, reading,
writing and speaking) of the test. The individual module
scores are then averaged to produce an overall band score.
All scores are reported as a whole or a half band.
Table 1 shows the average overall band scores for
Academic and General Training candidates in 2007,
together with the average scores for the individual
modules. The figures are presented with two decimal
places to allow accurate comparisons to be made.
TABLE 1: WORLD AVERAGES
Band score Overall Listening Reading Writing Speaking
Academic 5.83 5.93 5.88 5.47 5.81
General
5.85 5.89 5.59 5.63 6.02
Training
In the case of Academic candidates, the average scores for
listening, reading and speaking were similar, but writing
was clearly the most challenging skill. General Training
candidates achieved higher scores in listening and
speaking than in reading and writing.
Chinese results
Candidates in 121 countries took IELTS in 2007. Table 2
gives the average overall scores achieved by Academic
and General Training candidates from the top 20
nationalities (in terms of the total number of candidates)
taking IELTS. About 80% of all test takers in 2007 are
represented by the nationalities shown.
The Chinese results are lower than the world averages for
both the Academic and the General Training exams.
Chinese candidates taking the academic version of IELTS
performed significantly lower than the world average,
achieving an average overall band score of 5.45 compared
to the global average of 5.83. However, the average score
for General Training candidates in China (5.77) was
slightly below the global average of 5.85.
 universities. Depending on the course of studies and the
TABLE 2: SCORE BY NATIONALITY school, a minimum band score ranging between 6.0 and
8.0 is usually required for admission.
Academic General Training
Just 20 percent of Chinese candidates gained an overall
Location Overall Location Overall score of 6.0 (the lowest score allowed for study in most
programmes), and only 16 percent achieved a higher
Germany 7.16 South Africa 7.46
score.
Malaysia 6.65 Singapore 7.01
Philippines 6.58 Malaysia 6.90 TABLE 3: ACADEMIC SCORE BY %
Russia 6.48 Brazil 6.43
Hong Kong 6.40 Indonesia 6.26 Band score ≤ 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 ≥ 8.0
Sri Lanka 6.14 Russia 6.11 Germany 0 0 2 8 18 24 23 24
Iran 6.03 Philippines 6.05 Hong Kong 1 5 13 22 25 20 9 4
Indonesia 5.99 Hong Kong 6.00 Sri Lanka 6 13 18 18 15 13 9 6
India 5.97 Pakistan 6.00 India 9 14 19 22 16 10 6 4
Nepal 5.83 Egypt 5.95 Nepal 6 15 25 27 16 7 3 1
World 5.83 India 5.91 Vietnam 12 17 24 24 14 7 2 1
Japan 5.75 Sri Lanka 5.90 Thailand 9 17 27 25 14 6 2 1
Thailand 5.72 World 5.85 China 19 21 23 20 11 4 1 0
South Korea 5.71 China 5.77
Vietnam 5.70 Bangladesh 5.70
Pakistan 5.68 Iran 5.67
Upward trend in results
Taiwan 5.59 Japan 5.52 The average overall score for candidates taking the academic
Bangladesh 5.55 Thailand 5.32 version of IELTS in China has historically been below the
China 5.45 Venezuela 5.30 global average.
Saudi Arabia 5.38 South Korea 5.21 However, it’s clear from Table 4 that the gap between the
UAE 5.10 UAE 4.53 Chinese and the global average is steadily narrowing.

Table 3 presents the proportion of test takers achieving TABLE 4: ACADEMIC SCORE BY YEAR
each overall band score in 2007. The results are for a
Year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
sample of nationalities that took the academic version of
the test. Visit http://tinyurl.com/64k7wv to see figures for
World 5.96 6.00 6.05 5.98 5.83
other countries and the General Training test results.
The average Chinese band score of 5.45 for the academic China 5.39 5.51 5.59 5.53 5.45
test is below the minimum needed for entry to foreign

David Park designs & teaches IELTS courses for individuals & groups.
He was contracted by the British Council to provide this article.
IELTS is owned by the British Council (known in China as the Cultural and Education Section
of the British Embassy/Consulates-General), Cambridge ESOL & IDP: IELTS Australia.
To register for IELTS in China, contact http://IELTS.etest.net.cn/