After 22 years of teaching English in U.K, I landed myself in India, and over the last 12 years of teaching in India, I naively thought that I would tell people how to improve their IELTS, TOEFL, PTE score, they would thank me, and that would be that. But soon I realised that my voice was a tiny voice in a very huge and crowded marketplace. While I was persevering to strengthen my students’ language skills to successfully conquer their competitive English exams, there were even louder voices, with millions of followers, often saying almost the opposite to me.
The dominant message of these voices is,
'Just learn these special tricks to boost your score.'
We have super-secret tricks to achieve an 8 Band score in IELTS
Learn from an ex-IELTS examiner
Why bother buying materials when you can get ours for free?
Social media began as a simple communication tool but has thrived through advertising. As a result, such platforms now appear to see their users only as potential shoppers. This shift in thinking means that most ‘free’ information aims to grab our attention and try to sell us something.
Why is there so much confusion about IELTS?
By typing the words ‘IELTS expert’ on Google you will be given millions of sites to choose from. For instance, in 2013 there were almost 5 million sites listed.
And in July 2022 the result is astronomical, at 25 million sites being listed!
It therefore seems logical to suggest that there is a direct link between the confusion about the test and the proliferation of sites offering ‘expert advice’, which has become even more difficult to find genuine help.
Why students feel they are right?
As most sites are now focused on selling, surely such algorithms are learning only what the consumers want, rather than what people need, and very little thought is given to whether these wishes can actually be fulfilled.
We at ieltsclasses have always maintained our transparency and refrain from using such gimmicks to further confuse students, and we focus on looking at the problem(s) a student is facing and thus provide solution to the problem(s). Our approach of mentoring students is simply to educate them the right way, by building trust and a better synergy between Teacher and Student.
Disadvantage of preparing for IELTS - the wrong way..?
If we use the analogy of driving a car. We know that we cannot simply get into the car and start driving unless we know the road rules and how to control the car - Right?
Many sites try to influence you that they know some hidden secret about IELTS, something that will give you a special advantage and help you to ‘drive’ to your destination. Some even claim to have secret formula! You can only get to your destination if you work on developing the language and skills you need to make genuine progress. In other words, each gear in a car represents particular core and micro skills of language, without which driving that vehicle becomes futile, and it can work against you: you waste both time and energy, and also end up exactly at the same place as before.
How can we help?
With our extensive 34 years of experience, we have identified three major problems.
- Firstly, studying language. Many of those who contact us are self-study students who have never studied language at a high level before, and many feel stuck, particularly in writing.
- Secondly, false shortcuts. Most students follow advice about how to quickly reach a high level based on false claims. Consequently, those who rely on these remain stuck at the same level, and ultimately spend more and more time and money re-taking the test.
- Thirdly, cheap materials. Many people use free or cheap test practice materials provided by trainers, hoping that this will lead to scoring well in the exam.
We at ieltsclasses address these three issues and help you separate IELTS facts from IELTS fiction, recommend reliable resources, and show you how to study language at an advanced level, so you can finally achieve your IELTS goal. We take pride in making students understand exactly what skills the examiner is looking for and help students to develop these skills so that a much better road to success is paved.