If you found my site because you’re looking for free IELTS materials, welcome!
There are lots of FREE lessons, YouTube videos, podcasts, examples, tips and challenges on my site and you can find even more daily downloads and videos on all my social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest (see links below).
You can also click on the CATEGORIES in the sidebar if you’re looking for specific practice and different question types and FAQs to ask about the test.
Looking for a free IELTS Course?
If you’ve come to this page because I sent you the link, it’s possible that you asked me to give you my courses, feedback or time for free.
As I get asked this question several times a day, I wrote this response.
I hope you can understand why I had to write it. Please do read it to the end as I think it could help change your mindset, which could be holding you back from getting a higher score.
There are many important reasons why I cannot give away my life’s work, and I will outline some of them below.
1. When things are free, we do not value them.
If you don’t pay for a course, it is likely that you will not value it.
You might even think that the course is worthless because it is free (‘Why would she just give a whole course away for free?‘) and it will probably sit in your inbox unused.
And all that time, money and effort that I spent making the course will be wasted. Or you will start it and not finish it. Because you have nothing to lose.
This will not help you improve your IELTS score.
2. ‘When you pay, you pay attention’.
When you have invested money in a course, you are much more likely to take it seriously, to do the work it requires and to actually finish it.
Because if you didn’t finish it, you’d think you had wasted your money.
Knowing that you have paid for the course will give you greater commitment and a reminder to do the work required – you will feel guilty if you don’t.
This WILL help you improve your IELTS score.
3. ‘You get what you pay for’.
There are TONS of free IELTS materials online. You do not need to pay for a course.
So why are you interested in mine?
Do you suspect that it’s probably better than all the free stuff you’ve been looking at? Well you’re right. It is. And there’s a reason for that. I’ve invested in my training and qualifications so that I can help you. I’ve spent my time working on the materials so that I can help you. I’ve made sacrifices to make my course the best it can be.
This will save you time and money in the long-term.
4. I’m here to help you make progress, not excuses.
Have you already worked through all my free materials? If you have, great. You will get even more out of the course because you will have a head start. If you haven’t, then asking for a free course may be just a way of delaying or avoiding the hard work. Free materials are there if you want them.
A course gives you access to a teacher who has invested in their own training so that they can make sure you make progress.
5. ‘But teachers should help people for free’
Why are you studying IELTS? I guess to get a job. Why do you need a job? I guess to earn money. Why do you need money? I guess because you need to buy stuff. Why do I sell my courses? I need to buy stuff too.
Do you know many teachers who drive around in expensive cars, take expensive holidays and spend their time drinking cocktails on the beach? No I don’t either. Teachers work hard and are not the type of people who will take your money and run.
They do not have a huge company helping them sell their courses. They work long hours and have to learn all the tech, without any help. The return on investment is very small, believe me. We are all just trying to make a living.
If teachers can’t earn money, they can’t help anyone.
6. ‘But I’m a student’
Yes, and I’m a teacher. Being a student doesn’t entitle you to get everything for free. Would you expect to walk into a hairdresser’s, a garage, a nail bar, a dentist, a solicitor’s, a restaurant and get a free haircut, meal, treatment etc? Then why would you ask a teacher to give up their time for free?
That suggests that you think a teacher’s skills are worthless and of no real value.
If a teacher’s skills have no value, why do you need a teacher?
7. ‘But my country doesn’t have credit card facilities’
I’m very aware of the difficulties some students face in their country and I’m sorry that this is the case. I totally sympathise, which is why I put so much free material on my website. Unfortunately, I live in a country where I have to pay for everything on a credit card, because even a small cup of coffee costs $3.
Everyone has different circumstances. We all have to pay for things and we don’t all have the means. By giving you my course for free, this will prevent me from making more courses and helping other people, because I will not be able to afford to do this.
If you pay for a teacher, the teacher will be able to help you more.
8. ‘How come he gets a free course, and I have to pay?’
The people who pay for my courses, who have perhaps sacrificed something else in order to access my materials, would be pretty annoyed if they found out I was giving away free courses to anyone who asked.
This would be very unfair to students who pay for my help.
9. ‘What’s in it for me?’
You tell me that I should give you a free course. How will that benefit me if I give my courses away for free? Would you give your hard-earned cash away to strangers for nothing in return? I would be really interested to know how you will compensate me for my time and investment in you.
If you ask people to work for free, they are unlikely to put much effort into helping you.
10. Life lessons
If you do well in your IELTS test, and go to live/study/work abroad, you will work in cultures where it is quite offensive to ask people to work for free. If they volunteer to help you for free, that’s great. But you should never ask them. This can be considered an insult to people’s intelligence and they might get annoyed. As a teacher, I have to warn you about this in case you make the same mistake.
If your car breaks down, you pay a mechanic. If you have toothache, you pay a dentist. If you can’t pass IELTS…
Finally, what you might not realise is that…
…I pay a lot of money to provide you with all my free materials.
For this website which I bought for $1500, I pay for
- a web developer ($80 an hour)
- website retainer fees ($20 a month)
- a person to fix it when things go wrong ($39 per fix)
- a website hosting company ($39 a month)
- $10 commission for each student who buys a course
- a video hosting company (Vimeo $280 a year)
- WiFi ($59 a month)
- video editor (Camtasia $280)
- graphics editor (Canva $12.95 a month),
- Streaming software (Ecamm live, $14.99 a month)
- a podcast host ($10 a month) to give you my free materials on your phone
- email provider (MailChimp $19.99 per month) and numerous apps to tell you about my free posts ($36 a month) to name but a few.
- PayPal and Stripe fees
- Currency exchange fees
Working as a freelancer, I get no paid holidays, no sick pay, no pension and no insurance.
If I did not receive some money in return for the hours and hours that I spend hunched over my computer I would not be able to continue to provide free materials.
I hope that makes things a little clearer.
If you’ve invested money in taking the IELTS test and you don’t want to spend any more trying to pass it, then carry on using all of the materials freely available on the net.
But if you’re investing in yourself, your career and your future, then invest in a course that will help you get the score you need little faster.
Do you need motivation, high-quality materials, a roadmap, feedback, guidance and an IELTS specialist teacher?
Join the Members Academy today.
Get instant access to all courses, challenges, boot camps, live classes, interactive and engaging classes, 1:1 support, and a friendly tight-knit community of like-minded learners to get you to Band 7+.
