A group IELTS class can teach the format well. What it often has less time for is telling you why your own Task 2 essays keep landing on 6.0, or which sound in your speech an examiner would notice first. That is where a private tutor can help. This page explains what one-to-one online coaching with Band Booster IELTS involves, how a session runs, what it costs and how booking works, so you can judge the fit before you pay for anything.
Your IELTS tutor in Hanoi: Mike, CELTA-certified, 8.5 in Speaking
Every session is taught by Mike. He holds the Cambridge CELTA (July 2017), has 12+ years of experience teaching English and IELTS in Vietnam, Turkey and Iran, and has taught 500+ one-to-one sessions. He is based in Hanoi, where he currently teaches 250 students across 10 classes at Newton Grammar School. His own IELTS result is 7.5 overall with 8.5 in Speaking. There is no team of tutors: the person you meet in the trial is the person you will work with afterwards. The about Mike page has the full background.
Being in Hanoi is not a requirement. Sessions are on Google Meet, and the calendar shows open slots in your own timezone, so a student in Da Nang or Melbourne gets the same session as one across the city.
What a CELTA means for an IELTS tutor, and what it does not
The CELTA is a teaching qualification awarded by Cambridge, and Mike holds it. It is not a band score and it is not a role in marking IELTS tests: his own IELTS results, 7.5 overall and 8.5 in Speaking, are a separate fact. A qualification and a score tell you different things, so check both before you pay; the next section shows how to check the CELTA entry yourself.
Band Booster IELTS does not promise a band. Results that students have reported back are 6.0 to 7.5 overall, 5.5 to 7.0 in Writing and 6.5 to 8.0 in Speaking, but progress depends on your starting point and the work you do between sessions.
This page is for students looking for a private IELTS tutor, not for people looking for a CELTA course.
How can I check a CELTA-certified IELTS tutor before I pay?
Nobody can objectively rank IELTS tutors, this page included; what you can do is check each point below against public information before you pay. The guide to choosing an online IELTS tutor goes through the questions in more detail.
| What to check | Band Booster IELTS | Where you can verify it |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching qualification | Mike holds the Cambridge CELTA (July 2017), a qualification in teaching rather than in marking exams. The number on his certificate, 501/1891/2, matches the entry for the "Cambridge English Level 5 Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA)" on Ofqual's register. The register shows the qualification is real; because the name on the certificate is covered, it does not show who holds it. | The certificate, with the name covered, on the about Mike page. Open the CELTA entry on Ofqual's Find a regulated qualification service and compare the qualification number shown there (501/1891/2) with the number on the certificate; Ofqual is a regulator of qualifications in England. Cambridge's CELTA page describes CELTA as a qualification for teaching English as a foreign language. |
| Published price | In Vietnam, 500,000 ₫ for a 60-minute session, charged per session rather than per course. Students in other countries see their own regional price, in their own currency, on the booking page before paying. | Your own price is shown on the booking page and in the pricing section of the home page before you pay. |
| Paid trial | In Vietnam the 30-minute trial is 150,000 ₫, once per student, on the first booking: a real one-to-one session with Mike, so you hear how he corrects your English before you book more. | Choose the session type on the booking page; open times are shown in your own timezone. |
| Promised band | Band Booster IELTS promises no band and no timeline. The result depends on your starting point and your practice between sessions. | If any tutor promises a band or a date, ask for the conditions in writing. Here, the pages and the FAQ state that no band is promised. |
| Rescheduling and cancelling | You can reschedule up to 12 hours before the slot; cancellations inside 12 hours are not refunded. There is no subscription and no package to commit to. | The FAQ and the list of what is included on the booking page. |
The CELTA check covers the qualification only. A direct way to judge the teaching itself is the paid 30-minute trial: one session with Mike, one-to-one, before you decide on more. You also receive a receipt from the payment provider and another from the site, and the site never sees or stores card details.
Online IELTS tutor for students across Vietnam
Lessons run live on Google Meet, so a student in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang or any other city books the same one-to-one session. The calendar shows each open time in your own time zone, and Vietnam is on the same UTC+7 clock as Mike. In Vietnam a 60-minute session is 500,000 ₫ and the paid 30-minute trial is 150,000 ₫. You can pay by VietQR bank transfer, PayPal or USDT, and you can message Mike on Zalo at +84 383 390 963 before you book.
Living in Vietnam as a foreign resident or teacher
Lessons are in English, so you do not need any Vietnamese. IELTS has two versions, Academic and General Training; tell Mike which one you are taking and your test date if you have one. You register for the test itself with the test provider, and the provider pages for Vietnam are linked in the section on taking IELTS in Hanoi below. If you have no Vietnamese bank account, PayPal and USDT work. For the difference between the two versions, see the page on Academic and General Training.
Online IELTS tutor in Hanoi: lessons are online, not at your door
Mike is based in Hanoi, and every lesson runs live on Google Meet. Here one-to-one (also written 1-to-1, 1-on-1 or 1:1) means only you and Mike on the call, with no group and no classmates. There are no home visits and no classroom or group classes, so a student in Hanoi joins from home on the same UTC+7 clock as Mike, and a student in another city or country joins in the same way. If you want to know where the exam itself takes place in Hanoi, see the page on IELTS test venues in Hanoi.
Living in the UAE? See a private IELTS tutor in Dubai and the UAE for one-to-one lessons, with the booking calendar shown in your own time.
Studying from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman? See online IELTS tutor for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
What a private tutor offers that a class may not
In a class the teacher usually has to aim at the middle of the room. A one-to-one session has no middle: the whole hour is about your writing, your speaking, your errors and your target band. In practice that changes four things.
- Diagnosis before drilling. The session can start by finding which of the four criteria is holding a skill down. A student stuck on 6.0 in Writing because of grammar needs different work from one stuck there because of task response.
- Feedback in the moment. Corrections come during the session, while the sentence is still in your head, rather than on a marked sheet returned later.
- Time where you need it. If Listening is already at 7.5 and Writing is at 5.5, the sessions go to Writing. Nobody waits for the class to catch up.
- A written record. After each session Mike adds progress notes to your account, so the next one starts from what was actually covered.
None of this makes a class useless. It makes a tutor the right tool for one job: closing the gap between the band you have and the band you need, once you know the basics.
Marketplace, centre or self-study: what to check
This is a short version of the comparison in the guide to choosing an online IELTS tutor, which has the full table. It names no provider and quotes no price. Terms vary inside every type, so treat each row as a prompt for questions, not a rating.
| Type | When feedback arrives | What to check before paying |
|---|---|---|
| A tutor found on a marketplace | Varies by tutor: during the lesson, afterwards in writing, or both. | The qualification the tutor names and who awarded it; whether the same tutor teaches every lesson; the cancellation and refund rules; the full price before you pay. |
| A language centre or group course | Varies by course: during class, on marked work returned later, or both; how much of your own Writing and Speaking is marked or heard also varies. | Class size; who marks your Writing and how often; whether your own Speaking is heard and commented on; refund rules; any promise about results. |
| Self-study with published practice material | Immediate for Listening and Reading, against answer keys; for Writing and Speaking only if someone else reads or listens. | Whether you can explain every mark you lose and whether anyone can honestly comment on your Speaking. |
How a one-to-one session runs
A regular session is 60 minutes, live on video, and can be recorded on request so you can rewatch a correction later. What happens inside the hour depends on the skill you are working on.
Speaking and Writing at a glance
| Skill | The test, according to ielts.org | What you do in a session | What you keep afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speaking | An interview with an examiner, 11 to 14 minutes, in three parts: Part 1 introduction and familiar topics (4 to 5 minutes); Part 2 a long turn on a task card, with one minute to prepare and up to two minutes of talking (3 to 4 minutes including preparation); Part 3 a discussion (4 to 5 minutes). Four criteria, weighted equally: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, Pronunciation. | Mike runs Parts 1, 2 and 3 in the real test format and gives feedback in the moment on the four criteria. | Written progress notes in your account after the session; a recording on request. |
| Writing | 60 minutes: Task 1 (at least 150 words, about 20 minutes) and Task 2 (at least 250 words, about 40 minutes). Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1. Criteria, weighted equally: Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2), Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy. | Your Task 1 and Task 2 are marked against the public band descriptors and gone through with you in the session, with the corrections explained. | Written progress notes in your account after the session; a recording on request. |
Sources: ielts.org, Speaking format, Writing format and scoring in detail.
Listening
The Listening test is 30 minutes, 40 questions in four parts, and the recording is played once. In a session you go back over the parts where you lost marks, work out why (a spelling slip, a distractor, a lost place in the recording) and practise the habit that stops it recurring. There is a separate page on IELTS Listening coaching.
Reading
Reading is 60 minutes and 40 questions across three sections, in both Academic and General Training. A plateau here can come from timing as much as from vocabulary, so sessions look at how you approach a passage, where your minutes go and which question types cost you most. There is a separate page on IELTS Reading coaching.
Writing
Writing is 60 minutes: Task 1 (at least 150 words, about 20 minutes) and Task 2 (at least 250 words, about 40 minutes). Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 in the Writing band, so it usually gets more of the session. Mike marks your work against the public criteria: Task Achievement or Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. You see which paragraph is costing marks, why, and how the correction works. If Writing is your main problem, see the IELTS Writing feedback page.
Speaking
Speaking is an 11–14 minute interview in three parts: Part 1 on familiar topics, Part 2 a talk of up to two minutes from a cue card after one minute to prepare, and Part 3 a discussion of more abstract questions linked to Part 2. Mike runs the parts in the real test format, then stops to work on what he heard across Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. There is a separate page on one-to-one IELTS Speaking with a CELTA-certified teacher.
Sessions are not limited to the exam. General English (conversation, pronunciation, job interviews, presentations, work email) is also taught; ask Mike or check the booking page for it.
How booking works
- Open the booking page. The live calendar shows Mike's open slots in your own timezone.
- Choose a session type and a slot. On your first booking you can take the 30-minute trial.
- Pay by PayPal, bank transfer in Vietnam (VietQR) or USDT. You get a receipt from the payment provider and another from the site.
- Immediately after payment an email arrives with the Google Meet link and a calendar invite. The same email has a link to set up your account.
- Your account keeps session history, receipts and progress notes, and lets you rebook.
The website interface is available in English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, Korean and Japanese; the teaching itself is in English. Vietnamese readers can also read the Vietnamese version of this page.
Online IELTS tutor prices in Vietnam
The prices below are for Vietnam. Students elsewhere see their own region's price in their own currency, through regional price tiers.
| What you book | Length | Price in Vietnam |
|---|---|---|
| Trial session (once, first booking only) | 30 minutes | 150,000 ₫ |
| IELTS coaching session | 60 minutes | 500,000 ₫ |
| More than 5 regular sessions in one order (10% off until 31 December 2026, once per student, on the first qualifying order) | 60 minutes each | 10% off the 500,000 ₫ price |
A block is a discount for booking several sessions together, not a contract. There is no subscription and no package to commit to; you pay for the sessions you book. The pricing section on the home page keeps the current list.
Payment methods
- PayPal. Cards can be used through PayPal guest checkout where PayPal offers it for your country and payment.
- Bank transfer in Vietnam by VietQR.
- USDT on TRC20 or BEP20.
The site never sees or stores card details.
Rescheduling and cancellation
You can reschedule at no charge up to 12 hours before the slot. Cancellations inside 12 hours are not refunded. The trial can be taken once, on your first booking only.
Who it suits, and who it does not
One-to-one coaching is not the right choice for everyone, and it is better to say so here than after you have paid. If you are weighing a private tutor or a centre, that page sets the two side by side.
It suits you if
- You have taken IELTS, or a full timed practice test, and know which skill is short of your target.
- You need a specific band for a visa, a university offer or a job, and the deadline is real.
- You want your own writing and speaking corrected, not model answers to memorise.
- You will do the work between sessions. An hour with a tutor does not replace practice; it directs it.
It probably does not suit you if
- You are a beginner who still needs the basics of grammar and vocabulary; a group course may suit that stage better.
- You want the cheapest course available. At 500,000 ₫ an hour, or 10% less when you book more than 5 sessions together (once per student, on your first qualifying order, until 31 December 2026), private coaching can cost more per hour than a group class, depending on the course.
- You want a promise. Band Booster IELTS does not guarantee a band. Results students have reported back are 6.0 to 7.5 overall, 5.5 to 7.0 in Writing and 6.5 to 8.0 in Speaking, but progress depends on your starting point and the work you do between sessions.
- You want to be taught in Vietnamese. The site works in six languages, but the teaching is in English.
Taking IELTS in Hanoi: where students book the test
Band Booster IELTS is private coaching. It does not register candidates for the test or set exam fees or dates. IELTS in Hanoi is booked with a test provider: IDP IELTS Vietnam and British Council Vietnam each publish their own test dates and fees, and you register and pay on their pages. Fees and dates change, so this page prints neither; the pages on IELTS test dates, fees and registration in Hanoi and test venues in Hanoi explain how the booking works.
Not sure yet? The 30-minute trial is taught by Mike, one-to-one over Google Meet, with feedback during the session. It costs 150,000 ₫ in Vietnam, can be taken once, and commits you to nothing further. Book a trial session in your own timezone. Still unsure whether you need coaching at all? Read do you need IELTS coaching.
Questions this page has not answered: write to mkcenter007@gmail.com or message +84 383 390 963 on Zalo, WhatsApp or Telegram.