Before you book, if your lessons will be in mainland China
Lessons run on Google Meet. Google services are generally not reachable in mainland China without extra tools. The UK Foreign Office's China travel advice, checked on 5 October 2026, lists Google among the services that are permanently blocked there. The sources checked for this page do not name Google Meet itself, so this page cannot tell you whether it opens on your network.
Please check that you can open Google Meet from where you will have the lesson before you book, and message Mike first if you are not sure. No other platform is promised. You can reach Mike at mkcenter007@gmail.com or +84 383 390 963 (Zalo, WhatsApp and Telegram on the same number).
What this page adds for Chinese-speaking students is practical: whether you can reach Google Meet from mainland China, time zones, and where to register for the test. The sessions themselves are the same one-to-one sessions every student gets, built on your own answers and essays and taught in English. Mike's 12+ years of teaching have been in Vietnam, Turkey and Iran, and this page does not claim a special method for Chinese speakers.
When one-to-one tutoring helps, and its limits
One-to-one tutoring is good at one specific job: finding out what is holding your own English back and spending the hour on it. The work is built around your own answers and essays, not around the pace of a whole class. That helps most once you know the basics and can name the skill that is below your target.
It has a clear limit. One hour with a tutor cannot replace your own practice. The session shows you what to fix and how to practise it; the improvement comes from the practice you do before the next one.
There is no fixed number of sessions that raises a score by a given amount, so this page does not give one. It depends on your starting point, your target, the skill and how much you practise between sessions. Mike promises no band and no timeline.
What a session with Mike covers
Sessions are live, one-to-one video lessons of 60 minutes over Google Meet, taught by Mike himself in English. Feedback comes during the session, not days later. A session can work on any of the four skills.
- Speaking. Parts 1, 2 and 3 in the real test format: Part 1 on familiar topics, Part 2 a talk of up to two minutes from a cue card after a minute to prepare, and Part 3 a discussion of more abstract questions. Mike gives feedback on what he heard across the four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. See IELTS Speaking coaching.
- Writing. Task 1 and Task 2 marked against the public band descriptors. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 in the Writing band. See IELTS Writing feedback.
- Listening and Reading strategy. Working out where you lose marks and how to approach each part under time pressure. Listening takes about 30 minutes, with 40 questions, and the recording is played once; Reading is 60 minutes with 40 questions. See Listening coaching and Reading coaching.
Written progress notes are added to your account after each session, and a session can be recorded if you ask. The online IELTS tutor page has more on how sessions run. Prices on the linked pages are Vietnam prices; yours is shown on the booking page.
Feedback is on your own answers
Sessions correct your own Speaking answers and your own essays during the session. Advice from ielts.org and IDP is against memorising answers. The ielts.org Speaking advice says examiners are highly trained to spot memorised answers and that scripted responses may lead to lower scores. Its Writing Task 2 guidance says a formulaic, learned response that closely matches the question will not address the task appropriately and will lose marks. IDP's article on memorising reaches the same conclusion, though it accepts that some formulaic language is normal in an essay.
Will my accent lower my Speaking score?
The ielts.org article on Speaking myths says accent is not an evaluation criterion and that any accent is acceptable as long as you are intelligible. IDP's article on the same question says you do not receive a score for accent; what counts is how clear and easy to understand your speech is. Pronunciation is still one of the four criteria, so being easy to follow is worth practising.
Choosing between one-to-one and a group class
Neither is better for everyone. One-to-one suits you if you know which skill is below your target and want your own essays and answers corrected. A group class often costs less per hour and gives you classmates to practise with, which can suit you better while you are still building the basics.
You can combine them. There is no fixed course or subscription at Band Booster IELTS, so booking a session does not stop you from taking a class elsewhere. The private tutor versus group course page compares the two in more detail, using Hanoi as the example.
What Mike does not do
- He does not promise a score. No band, outcome or timeline is guaranteed, and progress depends on your starting point and the work between sessions.
- He does not register you for the exam. Band Booster IELTS is a private tutoring service. It is not a test provider and is not affiliated with any of them.
- His lessons are not in Chinese. Teaching is in English. The website interface is available in Chinese, which can help you find your way around the site, but if you want explanations in Mandarin, this service is not the right match.
About Mike
Mike holds the Cambridge CELTA (July 2017) and has taught English and IELTS for more than twelve years in Vietnam, Turkey and Iran. He has taught more than 500 one-to-one sessions, and his own IELTS result is 7.5 overall with 8.5 in Speaking. He is based in Hanoi, Vietnam. The about Mike page has more detail.
Time zones, booking and prices
The booking calendar shows open slots in your own timezone, wherever you are. For reference, Hanoi is UTC+7 all year. Singapore is UTC+8, and so is mainland China's standard time, Beijing Time, so both are one hour ahead of Hanoi (sources: Singapore's Standard Time Notification, a Chinese Academy of Sciences web page on Beijing Time, and the IANA time zone database). The IANA time zone database also shows that none of the three currently uses daylight saving.
No price is quoted on this page, because regional pricing applies; your price is shown on the booking page before you pay. A 30-minute trial session is available once, on your first booking. It is the same live, one-to-one format in a shorter session, so you can judge the feedback before booking a full hour. Payment options are shown on the booking page too.
After you pay, the Google Meet link and a calendar invite arrive by email straight away. You can reschedule at no charge up to 12 hours before the slot; cancellations inside 12 hours are not refunded.
Where to register for the IELTS test
Band Booster IELTS does not run the test, so register with the test providers. Fees and dates are set by them and are not quoted here. In mainland China, the British Council's Chinese-language IELTS site says the test is hosted jointly with the National Education Examinations Authority (NEEA) of China's Ministry of Education, with registration through NEEA's site. IDP's China site says that candidates in China, excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, can book IDP's computer-delivered IELTS through the official IELTS website. So more than one organisation offers the test there.
The booking instructions are on the British Council's China IELTS site and on IDP's China registration page. If you are in Singapore, Malaysia or elsewhere, use the provider pages for your own country.