If your TOEFL prep materials still talk about a score out of 120, they predate January 21, 2026 — the day ETS switched the TOEFL iBT to a 1–6 band scale. This is not a cosmetic relabeling. The way your overall score is calculated changed, not just the numbers on the report.
What Actually Changed
Before 2026, each of the four sections — Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing — was scored 0–30, and your total was the sum of the four: a number out of 120. Now, each section is scored on a 1–6 scale in half-band increments, and your overall score is the average of the four section bands, rounded to the nearest half band. A sum became an average.
Why this matters for studying
Because your overall band is an average, not a sum, an hour spent on your weakest section moves your overall score roughly four times as much as an hour spent on your strongest one. Under the old additive scale this was still true in principle, but the average makes the arithmetic — and the incentive to fix your weak section first — impossible to ignore.
The Full Conversion Chart (0–120 → 1–6 Band)
For a two-year transition period, score reports show both numbers, so it helps to know how they map to each other. This is the official ETS conversion for the overall score:
| 0–120 Total | 1–6 Band |
|---|---|
| 114–120 | 6 |
| 107–113 | 5.5 |
| 95–106 | 5 |
| 86–94 | 4.5 |
| 72–85 | 4 |
| 58–71 | 3.5 |
| 44–57 | 3 |
| 34–43 | 2.5 |
| 24–33 | 2 |
| 12–23 | 1.5 |
| 0–11 | 1 |
Section Scores Convert Separately
Your overall band is not read off the chart above from your total — it is the average of four section bands, each converted from its own 0–30 raw score using its own table. The four sections don't convert identically; Speaking and Writing reach band 3 at a lower raw score than Reading and Listening do, because their old 0–30 scale was already compressed differently. The table below shows the minimum raw score (out of 30) needed to reach each band in each section:
| Band | Reading | Listening | Speaking | Writing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 29 | 28 | 28 | 29 |
| 5.5 | 27 | 26 | 27 | 27 |
| 5 | 24 | 22 | 25 | 24 |
| 4.5 | 22 | 20 | 23 | 21 |
| 4 | 18 | 17 | 20 | 17 |
| 3.5 | 12 | 13 | 18 | 15 |
| 3 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 13 |
| 2.5 | 4 | 6 | 13 | 11 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 7 |
| 1.5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
In practice this means a raw 18/30 on Reading and a raw 18/30 on Speaking do not land on the same band — Reading hits band 4 at 18, Speaking needs 20. Don't assume your sections are converting on a shared curve.
How the Overall Band Is Calculated — a Worked Example
Say you score raw 22 on Reading (band 4.5), raw 17 on Listening (band 4), raw 16 on Speaking (band 3), and raw 15 on Writing (band 3.5). Average those four bands: (4.5 + 4 + 3 + 3.5) / 4 = 3.75, which rounds to the nearest half band — 4. That 4 is your overall score, not a sum of raw points.
What a Band Actually Means
ETS states the new scale is aligned to the CEFR (the same framework used to describe levels like B1 or C1 for other language tests), and has publicly anchored three bands to it:
| Band | CEFR Level |
|---|---|
| 5 | C1 |
| 4 | B2 |
| 3 | B1 |
Don't extrapolate the rest
ETS has not published official CEFR mappings for bands 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5 or 6. Treat any chart that fills those in as a guess, including ones that look official — use the score converter for the real 0–120 equivalent instead.
Will Universities Accept the Old 0–120 Score?
Yes. Scores from before January 21, 2026 remain valid on the 0–120 scale for their normal 2-year validity window, and during the transition period new score reports carry both numbers side by side. Most admissions pages have not been rewritten yet, so when you see a requirement like "minimum 90," that is still the number to check yourself against — convert your band if your report only shows the new scale.
Convert your score in seconds
Enter a 0–120 total or a section score and get the exact 1–6 band, or go the other direction. Same official ETS tables used in this article.
Open the score converterIs Reading and Listening Still Scored the Same Way?
Yes — Reading and Listening are still scored automatically based on correct answers, then mapped onto the band scale. Speaking and Writing are still rated by humans (or AI-assisted scoring backed by human calibration) against the same rubrics as before; only the number that comes out at the end changed.
What Didn't Change
- ·The exam format, sections, and timing — the 2026 scoring update did not touch content, only how it's reported. See our full breakdown of the 2023–2026 format if you need the section-by-section structure.
- ·How Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing are each assessed internally — the underlying raw scoring didn't change, just the scale it's translated to.
- ·Score validity — still 2 years from your test date.
If you're prepping right now, don't spend time trying to memorize the conversion chart — practice on the sections, then check your band with the converter when you want to see where you'd land against a specific program's requirement.