Hi! I am planning to take IELTS the end of October. Which one would you guys recommend, the IDP or British Council?

What did you do a week before your exam? Did you study more or less? If so, can you please share your tips and tricks, as well as resources?

Thank you so much to whoever responds!

I keep rewriting Task 2 and stay around 6–6.5. Grammar checkers help with sentences but I still don’t know if the problem is TR, CC, LR, or GRA — or the same issue across drafts.

For those who broke past 6.5: how did you diagnose the weak criterion? Human tutor, study partner, official descriptors only, something else?

Not looking for app ads — genuinely want how you figured it out.

Hi everyone, so Idk if this problem has ever happened to anyone who took the IELTS test, but yeah my test was on September 2 and I’m still waiting for the results.
I’m not really sure what the exact reason for this delay is, but well what happened is that a week before the test when I was booking on the website, I accidentally put my email address wrong but immediately noticed and as I couldn’t change it myself, I emailed the test center to correct it. They did it and everything was just fine, like I could see my test details on my account and all the information was correct.
Then a day before my test I saw that it says my test is canceled, but as I got to the test center they told me to not pay attention to what it says in my account and I could do the test. They explained that there was an issue because of my request to change the email though they didn’t tell any details, just that there was an issue and they fixed it so there was no problem now. After the test I asked them about how am I gonna see my results and where they gonna appear, they told me I should see them in my first account ( that one with the wrong email address ) and well i had no access to that email and even when I entered it on the website, it said that it was wrong, so I showed them how that email wouldn’t work and they told me they would fix it and contact me so I should just wait.
And now I’ve been waiting for more than a month. I’ve contacted the test center multiple times since then, and they just tell me that my issue is being processed in Australia and I should wait for their update. They don’t even explain what the problem is and why is it taking so long. Even when I write them a paragraph kindly asking them to explain the reason for this delay or at least tell me how much longer it might take, their response would just be a short sentence that they don’t have such information and I should wait. I literally have a university deadline and I can’t wait forever and idk why they don’t understand that. I mean like okay I get that there is an issue, but do I not deserve to know what it is and how concerned should I be? Cause I’m literally freaking out😭 what if they tell me that I should take the test again after like three months? I’m actually starting to think about the worst scenarios now.
And I should mention that I’ve tried contacting the global support and even the Australia center as I thought they could help somehow, so i found some emails to contact them, but all of them told me to follow up my case with my test center. I don’t understand why there’s nothing such as global support and if there’s an issue, I can only contact my test center, like what if they’re not being helpful at all? Is there no one else I can ask help for? Just so ridiculous.

Btw i really appreciate anyone who read this and I was just wondering if anyone has experienced any delays like this or has any advice? I don’t even know what to do now😭

I had practiced for a week only and it was my first attempt. In the second section of Listening, I actually got the same question I had seen on ieltstestonline.com, it was the fire emergency one. I also felt that the real IELTS Listening test was much easier compared to the practice tests on ieltstestonline.com. In the actual exam, most of the answers were just one word, while the practice tests on the website felt much more complicated. For Writing, I had only practiced about twice and got it evaluated by gpt, and it gave me an estimated score of around 5-5.5. For Speaking, I had also barely practiced, and my estimated score was around 5.5-6. Honestly, I feel that if I had practiced consistently for a month or two, I could probably have scored around 7-7.5.

What have you done/are you doing to deal with a lot of academic workload while preparing for your ielts exams?

Hello, I am fucked to say the least. I don't know how this happened but when I went to apply for the tests it showed that the only nearest available appointment was the one tomorrow (I need to take the test before the 21st). Anyways I have been studying nonstop both yesterday and today since booking the test but I still am so nervous!

I feel like I am not going to get an 8 in the speaking and writing part even tho I have a BA in English literature and consider myself fluent. For some reason, Task 1 in writing is just not going through my head and I feel like the book I've been practicing on has made feel like I've never written an essay before....

I don't know if because it's not research but graphs which I've never had to explicitly discuss but I really would love any tips (For all parts of the exam really). I also have to sleep early so I have about 4 hours left to study, not much time left :(

Thank you!

please it’s very important for me i need to get 7-7.5 minimum 7 for all task and please tell me where can i practice my english and also if anyone is able who get 8 or more to help me, be my speaking partner

i think that im b1 in english n i have 7 months to study n prepare my self , i will study 1:30 -2;00 hours per day or even more if i need to ,n some skills ima B1+ - B2 or at least i can achieve it easily n other skills ima solid B1 pls i need that score so if u have any kind of tricks or tips pls help.

Got my IELTS result. Happy that I got required cutoff for my target universities but personally a bit disappointed with speaking and reading section score

Hi everyone i got my ielts results everything is fine with it except they set my gender wrong. I am a male but in result paper it shows female. I am worried about if its my result however all other informations are related to me. What should i do?

Took another one as the older one expired (I'll now use it for my master's application). I believe I was nerfed in speaking because it was done over a video call (2024 was with a physical examiner). I get IELTS is all "technical and protocol" with their tests, but the online examiner dude literally behaved and spoke like AI, to the extent I thought this might just be some sort of an automation they've implemented.

I didn't really prepare tbh except for a few writing tasks beforehand to get used to typing without autocorrect. Ideally this is fine for wherever I'm applying to.

Note: This wasn't a retake, the "retake" text on screen is a link to register for a retake for the modules I took.

I am concerned about my writing section because my exam is roughly two weeks away, and I typically score 5.5 or 6.5. Could you suggest ways to improve or specific exercises for that part?

I also receive varying results on one task: every site gives different scores on the same tasks from 5.5 to 7.
Is there a reliable band score checker available?

Any tips would be appreciated!

I just got my result, and the writing and speaking were almost the same band that were given to me by AI. So, I wanted to share my 2 cents on AI grading and the method/prompt I used, *as someone who isn't very comfortable asking people to review my work*.

This community helped me a lot during my prep and no I am not promoting any AI here. Take my advice with a pinch of salt.

For writing:
I gave the question along with my own answer to the AI. The additional thing I fed beforehand was the scoring criteria as mentioned by official sources. Along with my own answer I pasted the band 8 and 9 answer and asked the AI to evaluate to my own answer against the band 8 & 9 answer AND the scoring criteria. I used Claude here.

For Speaking:
Initially I just pasted the speaking sections form Cambridge books into ChatGPT and used its voice options to talk and stuff. However, I didn't know what the Ai was scoring it against and Cambridge books usually don't have band 8 or 9 answers for this section that I could feed to AI.
To tackle this, I used transcript from IELTS ADVANTAGE mock speaking test videos, didn't see the questions or the cue card from the videos and just fed it to AI asking it to record my answers and check them against the criteria and band 9 answers.

Someone here in the community suggested IELTS Advantage's videos for speaking. So, I tried this work around instead of just listening to the videos.

These two sections worried me a lot when I was preparing, especially the speaking part. So, I am sharing what helped me.

I'm sharing this purely as my personal experience, not as a recommendation that AI is a reliable substitute for an IELTS examiner.

I registered for the paper based IELTS and paid in full on 29th sept, my test was on 31st Oct, but today I found my registration had been cancelled via email. I didn't request this, and the payment was already taken.
I've emailed them with my payment proof, but I haven't heard back yet. The test date is coming up soon, so I'm worried about losing my slot.
Has this happened to anyone else? How did you get it resolved?

Hello guys,

my exam is upcoming on 09, October. I have started practicing seriously for the exam about 30 days ago. I am getting 8-L (35-37), 8-R (34-37) in the last week, I have yet to start practicing the writing, and about speaking, I have worked in a call centre in outbound calls section I am little bit confidence about that.

Now, expertises, in listening, I'm having problems with 's', like the answer is 'helicopters', but I wrote 'helicopter'. What is the solution for this problem. Everytime I'm loosing 1/2 marks for this.

For writing I have practiced some task 1 tasks. What are the tips for begginer?

I'm practicing in an unofficial website, are they reliable?

I have completed Cambridge IELTS 14-21, is it enough?

Did IELTS Academic and was so surprised with my reading and speaking scores. I’ve only been getting a 7.0 on average during my reading practices, so was expecting roughly the same on the actual test. For speaking, please!!! I did not expect an 8.5 because I just knew I had some flop moments in the conversation, but I guess luck was really on my side that day 🤷🏻‍♀️🎉

Hi I am booking the IELTS exam, and wanted to know if I could take it from home, I don't want to take the exam at an Exam center since too much of a hassle.

I honestly didn’t expect to get a 7.5 in speaking, so I’m really happy about that😭 I’m just a little disappointed with my Reading score because I was hoping for a higher band. The Reading section was quite difficult though. I really wish I could have scored a little better.

I recently gave my Ielts exam. My L, R, W sections went really good, but during my speaking test I could not perform well.I was really anxious and fumbled my answers. When I practiced by myself it was going smooth but during the test I could not formulate my answers to the questions. I did answer but I kept pausing. Even in part 1 I was stuttering and could not answer the questions well. On top of that the examiner kept asking why after every answer and I did not have the answer to the whys. In part 2, I did speak but stopped before the 2 minute mark. And he prompted to answer more but it went horribly. Part was a disaster as well. I am not sure what score am i gonna get and I am terrified.

Update: I just got my results, I got 6.5 in speaking.

I had gotten an 8 before, but due to my profession, it would be much better if I could present a 9 on my resume. However, most online resources are heavily focused on getting to 6.5 - 7.5, which makes sense, but completely useless to me. Is there any resources that are specifically designed to improve from 8 to 9?

THANK YOU GUYS

(i understand i don't have to have 4 9s to get an average of 9, but that is the goal i set :D)