IELTS 7 not achieved by most Native English speakers!
It is absolutely astounding that even native speakers fail to reach 7, on average in their IELTS test. I In fact, native speakers were beaten by speakers from two other countries…can you guess what these two countries were?
Who did better than the English native speakers: Germans and Polish
Reason why: my guess is that they prepared hard for the test and have a better understanding of the test and how to perform well in it. You see the natives might have better English, but the English test is not just a test of your English; it is also a test of your IELTS! For instance, a lot of logic needs to be learnt to understand how to select the correct answer for the reading question type of True False Not Given. Moreover, scoring well for writing requires an ability to analyze and plan essays well.
To pass YOUR test!
When in Rome do as the Romans, but when taking IELTS do as the Germans and prepare your butt off for the test. I recommend you do this in a systematic way. Doesn’t that sound like something Germans are good at? I have prepared a real quick guide about how to prepare for your test. I welcome you to leave comments at the bottom of this page about why you think native speakers fail or to ask about how you can prepare for your test. https://www.ieltsanswers.com/preparing-ielts-test.html
First language
The table below is taken from the ielts.org website [https://www.ielts.org/teaching-and-research/test-taker-performance].These figures show the mean overall and individual band scores achieved by 2015 Academic and General Training test takers from the top 40 first language backgrounds.
Mean band scores for the most common first languages (Academic)
| First language* | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | OVERALL |
| Arabic | 5.2 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 5.7 | 5.3 |
| Azeri | 6.2 | 6.0 | 5.7 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Bengali | 6.2 | 5.9 | 5.8 | 6.2 | 6.1 |
| Burmese | 6.4 | 6.3 | 5.7 | 6.1 | 6.2 |
| Chinese | 5.9 | 6.1 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 5.8 |
| English | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.3 | 7.1 | 6.9 |
| Farsi | 6.2 | 6.0 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 6.2 |
| Filipino | 7.2 | 6.9 | 6.3 | 6.8 | 6.9 |
| French | 6.9 | 7.0 | 6.1 | 6.6 | 6.7 |
| German | 7.7 | 7.5 | 6.6 | 7.3 | 7.4 |
| Greek | 7.2 | 6.9 | 6.1 | 6.6 | 6.8 |
| Gujaurati | 5.9 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.6 | 5.7 |
| Hindi | 6.4 | 6.0 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 6.1 |
| Indonesian | 6.5 | 6.6 | 5.8 | 6.2 | 6.4 |
| Italian | 6.7 | 7.2 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Japanese | 5.9 | 6.1 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 5.8 |
| Kazakh | 5.8 | 5.8 | 5.4 | 5.8 | 5.8 |
| Khmer | 5.8 | 5.6 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 5.7 |
| Korean | 6.2 | 6.2 | 5.4 | 5.7 | 6.0 |
| Malay | 6.9 | 6.8 | 6.0 | 6.4 | 6.6 |
| Malayalam | 6.7 | 6.4 | 6.1 | 6.4 | 6.5 |
| Marathi | 6.9 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 6.6 | 6.6 |
| Nepali | 6.2 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Other | 6.5 | 6.3 | 6.2 | 6.9 | 6.5 |
| Polish | 7.3 | 7.2 | 6.2 | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Portuguese | 6.7 | 6.9 | 6.0 | 6.7 | 6.7 |
| Punjabi | 5.8 | 5.4 | 5.3 | 5.5 | 5.6 |
| Romanian | 7.2 | 7.2 | 6.3 | 6.9 | 6.9 |
| Russian | 6.6 | 6.6 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 6.5 |
| Singhalese | 6.6 | 6.3 | 6.0 | 6.7 | 6.5 |
| Spanish | 6.6 | 6.8 | 5.9 | 6.6 | 6.6 |
| Tagalog | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.2 | 6.8 | 6.8 |
| Tamil | 6.7 | 6.3 | 6.0 | 6.4 | 6.4 |
| Telugu | 5.8 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 5.7 |
| Thai | 6.2 | 6.0 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 5.9 |
| Turkish | 6.0 | 6.1 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Ukrainian | 6.5 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 6.5 | 6.4 |
| Urdu | 6.3 | 5.9 | 5.9 | 6.3 | 6.1 |
| Uzbek | 5.3 | 5.4 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 5.4 |
| Vietnamese | 6.0 | 6.2 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 6.0 |
* First language as self-chosen by test takers drawn from a wide range of nationalities
