Abstract This study presents a novel method for determining the coefficient of vertical consolidation (cv) by combining the complete range of theoretical and experimental consolidation behaviors. The Taylor model, which nearly precisely simulated the theoretical solution of Terzaghi, was adopted for this purpose. The primary consolidation settlement (δ100) from the 24-h test data was determined based on the variation in the theoretical settlement rate. The estimated ultimate settlement and cv values were validated via inverse analysis. Thereafter, the proposed method and eight other existing methods were applied to the results of the oedometer tests on high-quality samples, which were obtained at a deltaic deposit. The proposed methods produced the approximately familiar variations in cv versus the stress increments along the entire depths. The δ100 values obtained using the existing methods were 70–140 % of those using the proposed method, whereas most of the cv values were inconsistently underestimated (i.e., 30–110 %). The irregular estimation from the existing methods is attributed to the use of specific points or segments of the experimental relationships, which are different from the theoretical one. Moreover, the applicability of the theoretical determination of cv was discussed.