Frequently asked questions

Every essay is marked by an IELTS specialist with 17 years of live examining experience. The same person marks every essay — there is no rotating team, no offshore reviewer, no outsourced second pair of eyes.

You don't have to take that claim on trust. The sample diagnostic report on the home page is a real report. Read it before you buy. The depth, the specificity of the criterion analysis, the calibration to the public band descriptors, and the model answer with the "four features to copy" callout — these are what 17 years of examining looks like on the page. If the sample convinces you, you'll get the same standard on your own essay. If it doesn't, this isn't the right service for you.

The band estimate is grounded in the public IELTS band descriptors and explained criterion by criterion. Every band on your report cites the descriptor language that supports it — you can read the descriptor and see why the band is what it is.

No mark is guaranteed. The real exam uses two examiners and a moderation process, and our estimate is one experienced reader's calibrated judgement against the same descriptors. In practice, the estimate is closer to your exam band than most free tools, but the more important part of the report is the why, not the number. If you only want a number, there are cheaper places to get one.

No. Your essay is read and marked by a person. It is not pasted into ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI tool for any part of the marking, scoring, or feedback. It is not added to any training dataset. It is not shared with any third party.

This matters because AI marking tools collapse on the two criteria that move bands the most — Task Response and Coherence — and the whole point of paying for human marking is to get a human read.

The single biggest complaint about every IELTS marking service in this market is that the feedback is generic. We know. The report is structured to make generic feedback impossible: the "to reach Band X.5" sections point to actual sentences in your essay, the Band 8 model is written to your specific prompt, and the 14-day plan is built from what your writing revealed — not from a stock list of what an "average Band 6 candidate" needs.

The sample report on the home page shows what specific feedback looks like before you spend a pound. Read it.

Within 48 hours from the moment you submit. Most reports are returned in 24–36 hours. If we ever can't meet the 48-hour window, you'll hear from us by email before the deadline — not silence.

If you need faster turnaround, an Express (sub-24-hour) option is coming soon.

Free feedback has three failure modes that most IELTS candidates have already experienced: the band estimate is wrong, the advice is generic, and the reply is slow or never arrives. £24 is the price of skipping that cycle and getting one calibrated, specific, on-time read on your writing.

If you've spent £180–£250 on the test fee and need to lift half a band, £24 is small compared to the cost of retaking. If you haven't booked the test yet and just want a casual read, free options are probably fine for now.

If the report doesn't meet the standard of the sample on the home page, write to hello@ieltspt.com within 7 days of receiving it. We'll either re-mark the essay or refund you. This isn't a marketing promise — it's how a one-person service has to operate to stay credible.

Yes — both Academic Task 1 and Task 2. General Training Task 1 (letter writing) is supported. Submit either, and the diagnostic structure stays the same. The £99 5-pack lets you submit any combination of Task 1 and Task 2 essays.

You pay £99 once and receive a code. Each time you submit an essay, you enter the code instead of paying — the pack tracks your remaining submissions automatically. The 5-pack works out to £19.80 per essay (an 18% saving on the single price) and is designed for candidates working through a 2–6 week prep cycle.

Either. Most candidates submit something they've already written at home — that's the primary path. If you'd rather we set a task for you, the home page has a "Give me a task" option that serves a prompt from our task bank. Both paths produce the same diagnostic report.

Type your essay into the submission box on the site, or paste it from your own document. The Task 1 minimum is 150 words and the Task 2 minimum is 250 words — the official IELTS minimums. Essays significantly shorter than this can't be marked fairly against the descriptors and will be flagged in the report.

Not directly. This service is Writing-only by design. Writing is the criterion-heaviest skill and the one most candidates lose the most points on, so we focus there. Speaking, Reading, and Listening modules may be added later, but we'd rather do one thing well than several things adequately.