IELTS Official Opiniones 25

I am very disappointed with the IELTS assessment process. Despite paying a high fee, there is no transparency — candidates are not allowed to access their own answers or understand how their scores were determined. This makes it impossible to verify whether the marking is fair and accurate.
Due to these concerns, I will be raising this matter with NSW Fair Trading and not only! That hast to finish!!!!

The examiners had problems and after 3 attempts i wasnt allowed to try again. Same problem happened for my friend. Only one of us has gotten a refund and it has been 3 week.

During my online test, I got a proctor from india who was, first of all, hard to understand and, secondly, not able to read my ID details properly, even though previously during my speaking exam I had absolutely no problem with that. So with this way, I would like to thank him and IELTS for ruining my possible master's studies. THANK YOU!

Awful mangement and customer service. Charged me and then cancelled my test for not completing my profile. Send a reminder at 5am and cancelled my test at 7am sunday morning the same day. Absolutely no understanding from them whatsoever. Please do yourself a favor and use TOEFL. This is a complete scam

Probably the worst system and customer service in the whole world. Please, do yourself a favor, and never take this english test! Complete scam!!

Complete scam.

At the day of my speaking test I suffered connection issues TWICE. Even though I had ensured everything was working on my end, had done all the preliminary connection tests etc., the exam portal closed down the second I entered the zoom call with the examiner. They grant three test tries, so needless to say I was anxious to attempt connecting for the third time. This time, however, I was able to attend the zoom meeting, but the examiners sound was not working. I had once again ensured that this was not due to a fault on my end, but the examiner closed down the meeting and my final attempt was done. I immediately reached out to the support team to explain the situation and that the technical issues was not on my end. However, they kept restating that I only have three attempts and that I would have to book a new test since they were unable to give me a refund. I have now spedn more than 250€ on a test I was unable to take due to their fault, and they refuse to refund or provide a new test attempt. Completely unacceptable.

This feels like nothing more than a profit-driven scheme.
Everyone knows that to reliably pass this exam, you’re expected to pay for a mentor who shows you exactly how to structure the written portion. It’s a convenient way to increase revenue—candidates already pay a high fee to take the test, and then must pay even more for mentoring to have a real chance at succeeding.

What credible institution requires test-takers to sign a declaration stating they cannot request a corrected copy of their exam or an explanation of their grade? If the process were truly fair and transparent, there should be no issue with providing that information—unless the goal is to push people into retaking the exam for additional profit.

Furthermore, what kind of organisation makes exam results disappear after two years, as if the test never happened? I understand that results may expire, but that doesn’t justify refusing to acknowledge that the exam was taken or that a grade was earned. That information is factual and was paid for.

Unless, of course, the intention is to conveniently encourage people to pay to sit the exam again.

Terrible exam experience. Early closing of exam and violation.

I participated an exam almost 6 months ago. While I had still more than 30 minutes in last part, writing seciton, my exam was closed by proctor without giving me any warning or information.

They were also very rude, and instead of participating in exam where I paid a fee, they made me feel like a child who is being punished. And yes, this early closing of exam caused me to write only 1/3 of the essay which I was planning to write, and I received 6 point where my other sections are 7.5 on average. I failed on writing and some of my university applications just because of these proctors. Avoid IELTS for your own benefit.

Charging £170 to re-mark a single test is a complete scam and abuse of the peoples’ situations. How can the entire day of four tests be ~£250 and a single re-mark is almost the same price? There is also ZERO transparency on what takes place. It’s within their interest NOT to change the mark because then they would have to refund the money. This is clearly a quick money making scheme for them. The reviews speak for themselves.

Many pepole have said this already, but I'll say it again. They are thieves. I paid for an online test and I presented it with not issues but several days later they told me that my results were permanently retained because I was found supposedly cheating adn I was not, and they didn't provide me any evidence of that cheating even when I request it. So they simply refused to give me my results with no reasons and they have the audacity to recommend me to appeal but they charge me another 40USD (or something like that I don't remember exactly)if I want to do so

They have cancelled my exams two times because, according to them, I had “incorrect or insufficient personal information” when the information was correct and complete. When I contacted them by mail to, at least get a refund, they didn’t give any solutions and kept on repeating the same information again and again: that my passport was not valid when it was!. Because of this I have lost 500€ that I won’t be able to get back because of their no refund policy.

I registered for the exam approximately 20 days in advance. However, just one day before the scheduled date, I received a notification that my test had been cancelled — with no option to reschedule and no possibility of a refund.

Initially, I was told the cancellation was due to missing profile information. Then I was later informed it was because I am from Cuba. At no point during the registration process was this limitation made clear.

IELTS has cancelled my test without refund because I did not upload my passport up to 48h before the test. If this is mandatory, why is this step not included in the registration process? To make the registration as easy as possible to get more money (due to the terrible refund policy)? If no refund is issued within 5 weeks of the test date, why does it matter if a passport is uploaded 48 hours or 1 second before the test, as they get the money anyway?

It seems that the testing institutions are exploiting their monopoly and all of this feels very much like a scam. I cannot recommend them.

IELTS is there as an imperialist institution to exclude minorities based on unfair policies and exams that favour dominant cultures and lifestyles. There are many academic studies pointing to this, and I hope more studies will come out in the future. I went to search about this after I got my test cancelled because I was using a hotspot internet, as I had no wifi at my home. Other, more advantaged people would never face this unless they wanted to cheat because they mostly have wifi at their houses. At my house, I don't have it because I need to save money, and unfortunately, I overlooked their rule about it. This was an accident, as I had read their instructions many times, but I overlooked this information for being under stress due to different circumstances in my personal life. I told the test taker, without having been asked about it, that I was using a hotspot, and she cancelled the test immediately. I had taken the speaking test the previous day without any issues because nobody asked me about it and I also did not know it was not allowed. They only knew about the hotspot because I told them the next day. The test taker said she was going to cancel my test and that I should speak to the customer service, and that she was sure they would have a solution. There was no solution and no refund, and the customer service was horrible. The person talking to me closed the chat when I had asked her to wait a minute because I was doing printscreens of the conversation. Knowing this, she or him said: "are you there? because of lack of answer I will close the chat" -- this was an act of bad faith!
IELTS are thieves!! They are gaining money by exploiting the needs for work and study from vulnerable people and taking advantage of their monopoly!!! How can you have a policy that STEALS 268 euros from someone because of a misunderstanding, while it was clear that there was no intention to cheat???? THIEVES!!!

When taking the speaking test online, the person giving me the test had a technical issue so we had to cancel the test. They first tried to blame it on me and refused to reimburse it. When I argued against this, they said they would send a refund. It has been 1 month now and I still did not receive the money. I sent over 4 follow up emails in which they keep giving the exact same answer "Apologies for the delay. Please note that we are working to release the refund at the earliest. Kindly allow us some more time.".

I am extremely disappointed with my IELTS UKVI test experience (Reference Number: A4-PK011-C-12923359).
Both my Speaking and Writing modules were assessed by examiners from my own region (Pakistan), leading to unfair focus on grammar and accent instead of fluency, coherence, and communication skills.
Serious concerns of examiner bias arise when candidates and examiners share the same background.
I urgently request re-marking of both modules by senior native English-speaking examiners (from the UK, USA, Australia, or Canada) — not by any non-native English-speaking examiners.
Fairness and transparency must be guaranteed.
I expect immediate corrective action.

My daughter has done her oral exam on Friday and had her other test planned last (Saturday) at 15:00.
Upon starting one of your team members told her to change rooms (because it was not totally empty) and to start over the elaborate log-in procedure.
However, when she wanted to log-in again it was impossible and she could neither start nor re-schedule the test.
No one can be reached by phone…
It’s very frustrating.
My daughter is a serious, diligent and hard-working pupil. She made the required efforts and has basically been sent off for no reason and without assistance.
She needs this certificate to apply for her bachelor in university by the end of March.
Since Saturday we've been trying to get the test rescheduled by calling in vain to the exam team phone number +32 2 899 75 20
All without succes, always looping around with the same AUTOMATED reply messages.
I noticed just now the score on Google for their service is 1,9/5 with only bad reviews. Wish I would have seen this earlier.
Totally unprofessional.

Very disappointing experience with IELTS. The management system is slow and lacks transparency, especially when issues arise, such as withholding results without clear explanations. Considering the high cost and the importance of the test for academic and professional opportunities, I expected better professionalism and support. I would not recommend it.

A big scam, is just a way to rip of the people

Wasn't able to take the exam at the first date because of a missing document. They canceled it without refunding me, over $200 down the drain...