Olga’s Amazing IELTS Success Story

The following IELTS success story was written by one of our fantastic E2Language IELTS students, Olga. Her story is inspirational and it makes us very proud to have been a part of her journey to IELTS success! Congratulations Olga, and thank you for sharing your story with us!

My life before I became a free and then a paid member of E2Language preparation course can simply be summarized in 3 lines:

• 4 failed IELTS attempts;
• 3 failed TOEFL attempts;
• 1 failed PTE attempt.

Yes, I managed to score all 7s and above in one of the IELTS exams, which many people consider to be a huge success. However, it was a failure in my case because I didn’t get the required 8s in each section to follow my dream and immigrate to Australia. Obviously, I was very upset, and it was clear that I needed to change my preparation strategy in order to finally achieve my so much desired result and become an IELTS success story.

Back then, I wanted to give the PTE another try even though my speaking score was extremely low compared to the IELTS one. I knew that I was not the only person facing such a problem, and people on the immigration forum recommended me to join E2Language webinars with a teacher named Jay. No matter how positive their feedback was, I was yet very skeptical for a number of reasons. There were so many English teachers in my life, from those who said I was already too old to pass any language test with the desired score to those who were only interested in me constantly paying for their “invaluable” lessons.

Being naturally curious, I decided to attend one of the webinars with Jay to see if they really were that helpful as people described them. One day I told my boss that I needed to leave work earlier, went home, opened my laptop, downloaded zoom, clicked on the webinar link…and this is where IELTS success story with E2Language started.

Beginning the Pathway to IELTS Success

First of all, I was very impressed with how professionally Jay was dressed up for a free webinar with people he didn’t even know. For many students, it doesn’t really matter how a teacher on the Internet looks as long as he or she provides the service they are being paid for. For me, it was one of the signs that the teacher I was looking at was a well-educated professional who did really want to help me and others without wasting our time while making us feel like we were in the real classroom.

Secondly, I was even more impressed with how easy it became for me to nail one of the most difficult PTE tasks, Fill-in the blanks, using the tips Jay gave us. Moreover, he didn’t mind explaining the same thing over and over again, giving us feedback, answering our questions during the webinar and sharing his own experience of sitting the PTE test a couple of months ago. Who wouldn’t like to join the E2Language course after that?

Becoming an E2Language Member After a Failure

Despite being fascinated with what I saw and learnt at this webinar, I didn’t become an E2Language member. Why? The answer was quite simple. I was already stupid enough to book my next PTE exam before attending a webinar with Jay. What is more, my exam was in 2 or 3 days after the webinar, and I didn’t have enough time to prepare anyway because of work. Let me add one little detail to what I’ve just said. I also booked another IELTS exam…the day after my PTE test.

Wondering how it all went for me? Well, the result was quite predictable. I failed both the PTE and the IELTS exams. Again. I know that life is not always sunshine and rainbows but I didn’t understand why I was chosen to be the one struggling so much for my place under the sun, the Australian sun. Yet I never wanted to give up on my dream and was always ready to fight. After thinking for a while, I emailed Jay to discuss what the best thing for me to do was. He suggested trying the IELTS one more time as my result was already very close to the desired one. I listened to him carefully and finally became a free member of the E2Language course.

I practiced a lot. I attended all free IELTS webinars, all Core skills and even PTE webinars. I watched them all again and again. I was also reading a lot and listening to the radio non-stop. Believe it or not, I went to bed every single day with the headphones in my ears listening to something in English while sleeping. Crazy times but I really wanted to succeed!

However, what I had to face was another failure. Why again? I blamed it on the flu I had on the exam day. It was a less hurtful explanation for me than admitting that my preparation strategy simply didn’t work. I felt miserable, I couldn’t stop crying and it was like I didn’t know English at all. Telling myself that I was aiming for one of the highest possible results didn’t help much as my confidence at that point of time was very low. At the same time, I didn’t want to find a different teacher to help me score higher.

That’s why I decided to become a paid E2Language member instead and finally stepped on the right path towards my success.

How Paid Preparation was Key in Olga’s IELTS Success Story:

Another three months of preparation went pretty fast. I had two tutorials with Jay, and he was always very supportive. I struggled to score 8s for both speaking and writing as my highest scores were always 7.5. I knew that Jay didn’t score above 8 for the IELTS writing in his first try. In fact, he has never been shy about admitting that (though, he wasn’t happy about it!). His score didn’t scare me away though, and we continued to work together finding the best way to pass the exam.

I had to practice so much that for some time it was a real challenge for me to speak Russian. I was thinking in English, dreaming in English and even talking to my parents in English because I really wanted to win my last battle against the IELTS.

April 28^th and 29^th were my exam dates. When you have to sit the IELTS for the 6th time, it’s becoming quite discouraging. You know the format well and you know what to expect on your test day. However, there were still so many challenges I had to face during my last attempt, from sitting in a stuffy classroom for 3 straight hours to feeling absolutely helpless during the reading section because the questions were too difficult.

I was very concentrated at the exam and tried to do my best but I still wasn’t sure if I could manage to score high.13 days later was the happiest day of my life when I found out that I finally passed the test with the desired marks.

They were as follows:

Listening 8.5

Reading 9.0

Writing 8.0

Speaking 8.0

Overall 8.5

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the result. I’ve taken so many screenshots of it as a proof that I’m not a loser who always fails English tests. I was really proud of myself and I still am. My last result was my IELTS success story as a student, and Jay’s and the whole E2Language team success story too; not only as English teachers but also as the biggest supporters and motivators on my extremely hard journey to success.

In numbers, my IELTS success story looks like this:

• 6 IELTS attempts;
• 3 TOEFL attempts;
• 2 PTE attempts;
• 2 times I had to travel overseas to take the IELTS;
• 2 times I had to travel overseas to take the PTE;
• 10 failures;
• 1 success.

It all cost me a lot as well. As you can see, I was quite hesitant to become a paid member because I had already spent tons of money on preparation with different tutors, and it didn’t pay off.

Now I have to admit that buying the E2Language preparation package was the best investment in my success. I could’ve saved so much time and money and become an IELTS success story sooner if I had stopped being stubborn and joined the course earlier! I have no regrets though as the whole “how to pass the IELTS” process has made me so much stronger.

People usually ask about tips and tricks to pass a particular exam. Mine are very short and simple:

1. Never give up on your dream;
2. Always believe in yourself;
3. Find a perfect teacher/source to prepare;
4. Practice a lot.

Never believe those who say that not all stories have a happy ending. Each story is different. Don’t fight alone. My example shows that the road to success gets much easier once you share it with the truly amazing E2Language team!

Do you want to become and E2Language IELTS success story?

Written by: Olga