A group IELTS class teaches the format well. What it cannot do is tell 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 the job of a private tutor. 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.
What a private tutor does that a class cannot
In a class the teacher 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, not on a marked sheet days 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.
Who teaches the sessions
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.
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.
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.
Reading
Reading is 60 minutes and 40 questions across three sections, in both Academic and General Training. A plateau here is often about time rather than vocabulary, so sessions look at how you approach a passage, where your minutes go and which question types cost you most.
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 sentence is holding a paragraph at 6.0 and how to rewrite it. 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 one to two minute talk 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 IELTS Speaking coaching.
Sessions are not limited to the exam. General English (conversation, pronunciation, job interviews, presentations, work email) is available at 450,000 ₫ per hour in Vietnam.
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.
Prices
The prices below are for Vietnam. Students elsewhere see their own currency automatically, through regional price tiers. Current offers are shown on the booking page.
| What you book | Length | Price in Vietnam |
|---|---|---|
| Trial session (once, first booking only) | 30 minutes | 150,000 ₫ |
| IELTS coaching session | 60 minutes | 500,000 ₫ |
| 3 sessions booked at once (10% off) | 3 × 60 minutes | 1,350,000 ₫, or 450,000 ₫ per session |
| 5 or more sessions booked at once (20% off) | 5 × 60 minutes | 2,000,000 ₫ for five, or 400,000 ₫ per session |
| General English | 60 minutes | 450,000 ₫ |
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. A PayPal account is not required; cards can be used through PayPal guest checkout.
- 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 free of 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.
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 is cheaper for that stage.
- You want the cheapest course available. At 500,000 ₫ an hour, or 400,000 ₫ in a block of five, private coaching costs more per hour than a class, and there is no way round that.
- You want a promise. No band is guaranteed. 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.
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.
Questions this page has not answered: write to mkcenter007@gmail.com or message +84 383 390 963 on Zalo, WhatsApp or Telegram.