Who teaches, and how a lesson runs
Every lesson is taught by Mike himself, so you work with the same teacher each time. He holds the Cambridge CELTA teaching qualification (July 2017), is based in Hanoi, Vietnam, and has taught English and IELTS for 12 or more years in Vietnam, Turkey and Iran. In his own IELTS he scored 8.5 in Speaking. About Mike has the details.
Lessons are one-to-one, live on Google Meet and in English. A regular lesson lasts 60 minutes. There are no group classes, and no subscription or package to commit to: you book a lesson when you want one.
What a lesson can cover
- Speaking: Parts 1, 2 and 3 in the real test format, with feedback in the moment rather than days later.
- Writing: Task 1 and Task 2, marked against the public band descriptors.
- Listening and Reading: the focus of a lesson on their own, or mixed with the other skills.
- General English: conversation, pronunciation, job interviews, presentations and work email.
After each lesson Mike leaves written progress notes in your account. The pages on Speaking for students in Turkey and Writing feedback show how those lessons run.
Lessons and terms at a glance
| Term | What applies for students in Turkey |
|---|---|
| Who teaches | Mike, in every lesson: Cambridge CELTA (July 2017), 8.5 in Speaking in his own IELTS. |
| Format | One-to-one, live on Google Meet, in English. |
| Lesson length | 60 minutes for a regular lesson. A paid 30-minute trial can be taken once, on your first booking. |
| Commitment | No subscription and no package. |
| Rescheduling | At no charge up to 12 hours before the slot. A cancellation inside 12 hours is not refunded. |
| Payment | The booking page lists PayPal, bank transfer in Vietnam, and USDT on TRC20 or BEP20. PayPal's own Turkish page says PayPal stopped operating in Turkey in June 2016, so check which option you can use before you book. |
| Time difference | Turkey (UTC+3) is four hours behind Hanoi (UTC+7), all year. Slots appear in your own time zone. |
| Band score | No band, outcome or timeline is promised. |
How booking works from Turkey
- Open the booking calendar and pick a slot; every time is shown in your own time zone.
- See the exact price on the booking page, then pay with one of the options it lists (see the payment section below).
- Receive the Google Meet link and calendar invite by email right after payment.
- Join your one-to-one lesson, in English, with feedback during the session.
- Find written progress notes in your account afterwards.
Turkey is four hours behind Hanoi, all year
Turkey keeps UTC+3 all year. The IANA time zone database puts Istanbul on a fixed +03 offset from September 2016 onwards with no daylight saving rule, and its Asia file puts Vietnam (the Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh zone, which covers Hanoi) on a fixed +07 offset, also with none. So while both keep those rules the gap stays at four hours: when it is 12:00 in Istanbul, it is 16:00 in Hanoi.
The calendar on the booking page shows every slot in your own time zone, so you do not need to convert anything. Mike's calendar decides which slots are open and no particular hours are promised. If you can study only at fixed times, look at the calendar first.
What lessons cost and how to pay
The booking page shows the exact amount for the regular 60-minute lesson and for the paid 30-minute trial before you pay. The trial can be taken once, on your first booking.
The booking page lists three ways to pay: PayPal, a bank transfer in Vietnam, and USDT on the TRC20 or BEP20 network. The bank transfer is for students in Vietnam. PayPal's own Turkish page says PayPal stopped operating in Turkey in June 2016 and that its customers in Turkey cannot send or receive money, so read it before you plan to pay with PayPal. If you are unsure which option you can use, message Mike first: mkcenter007@gmail.com. The pricing section of the home page has the general picture.
Booking the IELTS test itself
Band Booster is a private tutoring service, not a test centre: it does not register candidates or set exam fees. You book IELTS with a test provider. ielts.org's list of test centres in Turkey lists British Council and IDP IELTS centres in cities including Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya, and states that IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP IELTS and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. IDP's Turkey site lists IELTS Academic, General Training, IELTS for UKVI, IELTS Life Skills and One Skill Retake, and links IELTS Online under its Academic options; its test dates page leads to registration. Dates, fees and booking rules belong to the providers, so this page quotes no exam fee or test date.
Speaking in the test and Speaking in a lesson
IDP's Turkish page on computer-based IELTS says Reading, Listening and Writing are done on a computer while Speaking is face to face. ielts.org describes Speaking at a test centre as a face-to-face session with a trained IELTS examiner. IELTS Online is offered in some countries for IELTS Academic only, with Speaking by video call; organisations decide whether to accept online results, and UK visa tests must be taken at a test centre. A Google Meet lesson with Mike is practice for the Speaking test, not the test itself.
The details sit on separate pages: test centres by city, the computer-delivered test, IELTS Online and IELTS for UKVI.
All guides for Turkey
- Booking, ID and test day
- Computer-delivered IELTS, Turkey
- IELTS Online in Turkey
- IELTS Speaking tutor Turkey
- IELTS for UKVI in Turkey
- IELTS test centres, Turkey
- Istanbul
- Turkish universities and IELTS
How lessons with Mike can help with this
Lessons give you practice and feedback; they do not replace the test, which you still sit with IDP or the British Council. If your result will go to a university, an employer or an immigration office, first check which test and score that organisation asks for on its own page, then use the lessons to work on the skills that score rests on.
Your first booking can be the paid 30-minute trial, which lets you try a lesson with Mike before booking more. No band is promised: progress depends on your starting point and on the work you do between lessons. For students under 18, a parent or guardian first agrees to a short consent letter before the booking is made. Open the booking calendar to see times in your own time zone.
