BandAIThree ways to prepare.
Three ways to prepare.
Here is what each one does.
All three work for somebody. Ours works best if your writing and speaking are what hold your band down — they are the two that need marking, and marking is the part that costs.
Where we are stronger
Eight places we come out ahead
BandAIus
In-person classes
Video course
Your plan changes every day
Yes
Rebuilt each morning from yesterday's scores. Weakest skill first.
No
One syllabus for the whole room.
No
Same order for everyone.
It remembers everything you have done
All of it
Every answer, every band, every weak spot. Nothing is forgotten.
What they recall
A teacher remembers what they can, for a whole class.
Nothing
It does not know you were there.
The marking does not drift
Same every time
The same standard on your first attempt and your fiftieth.
Human judgement
Fair, but it moves with the day and the marker.
Nothing marked
Writing marked to the official descriptors
Yes
Criterion by criterion, with the band worked out from them.
Varies
Some centres do. Ask before you enrol.
No
It never sees your writing.
How long you wait to be marked
Minutes
At any hour of the day.
Next class
One teacher marking for the room.
—
Nothing to wait for.
When you can study
Any hour
Before work, after the children sleep, on a phone.
Fixed time and place
You travel to it. Miss it and it is gone.
Any hour
A timed paper you cannot restart
Three papers
The clock runs on our server. It submits itself.
Varies
Many centres run mock days. How often differs.
Maybe
You hold your own clock.
Improve, or claim a refund
Yes
On the 3-month plan. Do the work, sit your test, and if your band falls short of the one we guaranteed you, claim a refund. Conditions apply.
Rare
A few advertise one. Read what it asks of you first.
No
You buy the course.
The one that matters most. Two of these three sell you a room or a set of videos. Only one says anything about the number on your certificate.
Where it depends on you
How you learn to improve
BandAIus
In-person classes
Video course
How to improve
Short, targeted lessons
18 of them, each one arriving the first time you meet that question type. Minutes, not hours.
A teacher explains it
The human angle is real. But the order depends on the centre, and building blocks can be missed.
Broadcast to everyone
Hours of teaching, recorded once. You are not in the picture.
A teacher who can see you
No
It has never met you. What it does instead is keep a complete record of how you are learning, and use that to choose what comes next.
Yes
Someone who can tell when you have stopped following, and explain it again.
No
Recorded once, for everyone.
What it costs
What you pay
BandAIus
In-person classes
Video course
The price
$34 or $68
$34 a month, or $68 once for three months. Marking included either way, and the guarantee comes with the 3-month plan.
About $20 an hour
An indicative rate. It differs enormously by city.
$30–150 a course
Paid once, however much you use it.
Check the other two yourself. The figures for classes and video courses are indicative ranges, not quotes — a classroom in Lahore, Lagos and London are three different prices. Ring two centres near you, ask what a full course costs, and compare it with ours. Ours is in US dollars because that is what we charge in.
You cannot choose without knowing where you stand.
The assessment is free, it marks all four skills, and your band is yours to keep whether you buy anything or not.
Bands we produce are our own estimate, not an official IELTS result. Where a column reads “Varies”, it means we hold no figure we would publish — not that the answer is no. Prices for classes and video courses are indicative ranges; check locally.