Short answer: an Enquiry on Results (EOR), also called a re-mark or remarking, is a re-assessment of your test by a senior examiner.
You request it through the centre where you sat the test, within six weeks of the test date, and you pay a fee that is refunded in full if any band score changes.
The important caveat: a re-mark can move your score down as well as up, and the new result replaces the old one either way.
That combination — free if it works, binding if it does not — is what makes the decision worth thinking about rather than reflexively taking.
How the process works
| Element | What happens |
|---|---|
| Where to apply | The test centre where you sat the test, not IELTS centrally. Centres have their own form and payment route. |
| Deadline | Six weeks from the test date. This is a hard cut-off — confirm the exact date with your centre, as it runs from the test, not from when you received results. |
| What you choose | Which components to re-mark. You can enquire about one skill or several; you do not have to re-mark all four. |
| Who re-marks | A senior examiner who has not seen your original marking. |
| Fee | Set by the centre and varies by country. Refunded in full if any band changes. |
| How long | Usually a few weeks; centres commonly quote up to around 21 days, and fewer components can be faster. |
| Your Test Report Form | Held or reissued depending on the outcome and the centre's process — ask before you apply if you have a deadline to meet. |
Fees and exact timings are set locally, so treat the figures your centre gives you as the authoritative ones. Everything in the table above is the common shape of the process rather than a guarantee for every country.
Your score can go down
This is stated plainly in the enquiry terms and it is the part candidates most often skip. The re-mark is a fresh assessment, not an appeal for a higher score, and the senior examiner's band stands whichever direction it goes.
There is no option to withdraw the enquiry once the new mark is issued and keep the original.
In practice, movement down is uncommon — a senior examiner is re-applying the same descriptors to the same script — but "uncommon" is not "impossible", and if your existing score already meets your requirement, an enquiry puts a result you can use at risk to chase one you do not need.
Which skills are worth enquiring about
| Skill | How it is marked | Realistic chance of movement |
|---|---|---|
| Listening | Against a fixed answer key, raw score converted by a published table | Very low. A change would mean a clerical or data-entry error, not a difference of judgement. |
| Reading | Same — fixed key, published conversion | Very low, for the same reason. |
| Writing | Examiner judgement against four band descriptors | The strongest candidate for an enquiry, because judgement is involved. |
| Speaking | Examiner judgement against four criteria, from a recording | Also a genuine candidate — the recording is re-listened to. |
The practical consequence: enquire about Writing and Speaking, and think hard before spending the fee on Listening or Reading. If you believe your Reading raw score was mis-entered that is worth raising, but a re-mark cannot change which answers matched the key. Our raw score to band table shows exactly how tight those conversions are.
Nobody publishes a success rate — including us
You will find pages quoting a percentage of successful enquiries. IELTS does not publish that figure, and neither the British Council nor IDP report it as a statistic, so any number you see has been estimated from forum posts or invented outright. We are not going to add one.
What you can reason about instead is your own case:
- How far is the gap? A half-band is the smallest unit that exists. If you scored 6.0 and need 7.0, a re-mark is being asked to move you two half-bands on the same script — considerably less likely than one.
- Is the score out of line with your other components? A candidate at 7.5 / 7.5 / 8.0 / 6.0 has an outlier worth questioning. A flat 6.0 across four skills is a consistent picture.
- Is it out of line with your practice history? If graded practice put you at 7.0 repeatedly and the exam said 6.0, that is a genuine discrepancy. If practice also said 6.0, the exam agreed with it.
- Do you have time? Three weeks of waiting plus a possible resit afterwards is the real cost, and university and visa deadlines do not pause for an enquiry.
EOR, One Skill Retake, or a full resit?
| Enquiry on Results | One Skill Retake | Full resit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it does | Re-marks the test you already sat | Lets you resit one skill and receive a new TRF | All four skills again |
| Cost | Fee, refunded if a band changes | Roughly the cost of a partial test; set locally | Full test fee |
| Time | A few weeks, no study needed | Book, prepare, sit — weeks | Longest |
| Risk | Score can fall | New score replaces the old one for that skill | Any skill can fall |
| Best when | One judgement-marked skill looks like an outlier and you sat the test recently | You need one skill higher and know you can perform better | Several skills are short of target |
| Accepted everywhere? | Yes — it is your original test result | Not universally — check your institution or visa route accepts an OSR result | Yes |
That last row is the one that catches people. A One Skill Retake is cheaper and faster than a full resit, but acceptance is not universal, and the organisation you are applying to decides.
We cover who accepts it, the booking rules and the eligibility window in the One Skill Retake guide and the decision side-by-side in OSR versus a full retake.
The sequencing that usually makes sense: if you are inside the six-week window and one judgement-marked skill is an outlier, enquire first — it costs nothing if it works and requires no preparation. Book the retake only if the enquiry comes back unchanged, and start preparing during the wait rather than after it.
Before you apply, check these four things
- Your deadline. Six weeks from the test date, not from results day. Count it now.
- Whether your score already meets the requirement. Check the band your institution or visa route actually asks for — including per-skill minimums, which are where candidates get caught. Requirements by route.
- Your overall band arithmetic. Because overall band is rounded, a half-band gain in one skill sometimes moves the overall and sometimes does not. Run your four scores with the target skill raised through the Band Score Calculator before you pay — if the overall does not move, the enquiry cannot help you.
- Your application deadline. An enquiry that lands after the university deadline is a refund you cannot use.
Point three is the one that saves the most money. A candidate at 6.5 / 6.5 / 6.0 / 7.0 wanting an overall 7.0 needs more than a single half-band, and finding that out before paying the fee takes thirty seconds.
If you want to know what your realistic gap is before spending anything, the Writing Checker marks a Writing answer on the same four criteria an examiner uses, which is the closest thing to a second opinion you can get without the six-week clock.