Included with the live course

IELTS Practice Studio

Sahil Sayed’s IELTS Practice Studio trains Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking against the public marking criteria. It is included with the four-week live course and the two-week crash course, where writing and speaking get teacher feedback. The studio does not issue a Test Report Form.

Written by Sahil Sayed, CELTA-certified IELTS trainer. Updated 10 October 2026.

What you practise

Each set is tagged by skill, question type, marking criterion, grammar point, and topic. The questions are original. They follow the task types published by IELTS, and they are not copies of past papers. Official band descriptors stay on ielts.org.

How the marking criteria are used

Listening and Reading reward an accurate answer inside the word limit. A hyphenated word counts as one word. Writing uses Task Achievement or Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy, with Task 2 worth twice Task 1. Speaking uses Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. A typed note cannot score fluency or pronunciation.

• Raw mark. One mark for a correct answer. A wrong answer does not remove a mark. Spelling and the printed word limit can cost the mark.
• Task Achievement. Task 1 covers the visual or the letter: a clear overview or purpose, the important points, and no invented data.
• Task Response. Task 2 answers the question with a clear position and ideas that are developed and relevant.
• Coherence and Cohesion. The order is easy to follow, and the links show how the ideas connect.
• Lexical Resource. The words are precise enough for the meaning, including spelling and word form.
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy. There is a range of sentences, and errors do not hide the meaning.
• Fluency and Coherence. Speech keeps going, stays on the question, and is organised. A typed note cannot show fluency.
• Pronunciation. Sounds, stress and grouping that a listener can follow. This studio cannot hear the learner.

A plan that runs up to test day

Before any class is finished, the dashboard waits. After a class, you take one grammar point and one skill set from that lesson, not a full paper. With about three weeks left, the plan prefers timed sets. In the last week it shortens the work. The day before, it offers at most one short review. On test day it asks you not to start a new set. Add the test date on your course page so the plan can count the days.

Academic, General Training, and UKVI

Academic and General Training share Listening and Speaking. Reading passages and Writing Task 1 do not match, so the studio can hide the other module. UKVI tests the same four skills. The studio does not cover IELTS Life Skills, which is Speaking and Listening only.

First languages

Learners from different countries take the same English test. The studio does not translate the questions. A short note can name a frequent difference for the language you choose.

• Arabic. Arabic marks the definite noun. English also needs a or an when the noun is one countable thing the listener does not already know.
• Bengali. Bengali does not use articles or a plural -s the way English does. In a gap answer, copy the English word exactly.
• Chinese. Chinese does not mark articles, plural -s, or tense on the verb. English usually does, even when a time word is present.
• French. French and English both use articles, but not with the same nouns. Watch present perfect versus a finished past time.
• Hindi. Hindi does not use a or an. English progressive is narrower than the Hindi progressive.
• Indonesian. Indonesian does not mark tense or plural on the noun. Copy English endings and articles in gap answers.
• Malay. Malay does not use English articles or a plural -s. The gap still needs the English form from the text or the recording.
• Nepali. Nepali does not use a or an. English word order in questions is also different from a Nepali statement.
• Portuguese. Portuguese uses articles more often with general plural nouns. English often uses no article there.
• Spanish. Spanish uses an article with many general nouns. English often does not. Adjectives usually come before the noun in English.
• Tagalog. Tagalog does not use English articles or a gender on the pronoun he or she. Keep he, she and they steady in a long turn.
• Turkish. Turkish has no articles and usually puts the verb at the end. English needs the verb earlier, and a or an for a new singular noun.
• Urdu. Urdu does not use a or an. English still needs them, and the present verb with he, she or it needs -s.
• Vietnamese. Vietnamese does not mark articles, plural -s, or tense on the verb. English gap answers still need the exact English word.

Price

The two-week crash course is £154. The four-week course is £249. Practice Studio is included with both. It is not sold on its own yet. Group classes are capped at 8 learners. A single 1:1 class is £79 and is a separate booking.