Best IELTS Preparation Websites: What Each Offers

Use official samples to learn the task instructions, lessons to work on a question type, and individual feedback to understand errors in your own answers.

IELTS.org and the British Council are official IELTS sources. Liz, IELTSbuddy, IELTS Advantage and IELTS with Fiona are independent teaching websites. A teacher's sample answer or estimated band is not an official IELTS result.

Official IELTS Practice Websites

IELTS.org: Start with the correct sample test

IELTS.org separates Academic, General Training and Life Skills samples. Choose the test you have booked before downloading exercises. These materials are useful for checking how a task is presented, what the instructions allow and how answers are recorded.

British Council IELTS Ready: Free and Premium access

The free IELTS Ready package includes two full mocks. Premium includes 40 and is linked to a British Council test booking, with access from registration until seven days after the test. The full mocks provide Reading/Listening scores and model answers; Writing/Speaking AI feedback is listed as an upgrade.

If you booked through another provider, use the preparation entitlement attached to that booking. A free account and a booking-linked Premium account are not interchangeable.

Independent Websites for IELTS Lessons

IELTS Liz

IELTS Liz organises free material by Listening, Reading, Writing Task 1, Writing Task 2, Speaking and vocabulary. Its topic lists and model responses make it easy to move from a question to a lesson. Use a model to examine how the response answers the prompt, then attempt a different prompt yourself. Advanced lessons and e-books are separate products.

IELTSbuddy

IELTSbuddy combines practice exercises with sample essays, graph descriptions and vocabulary lessons. It is useful when you want to compare your paragraph organisation or choice of supporting details with an example. Courses and e-books are sold separately from the free lessons.

IELTS Advantage

IELTS Advantage has free guides for the four skills, including separate Task 1 and Task 2 resources. Its paid VIP course advertises human feedback on submitted work. The number of marked submissions and the option to resubmit matter when comparing its feedback package.

IELTS with Fiona

IELTS with Fiona offers individual courses covering areas such as Academic Task 1, Task 2, pronunciation and Listening, as well as an all-course Academy. The Academy lists three months of access. Notes and worksheets can be downloaded, while course videos and slides remain online. This distinction matters if you want resources you can keep after access ends.

Choose Academic or General Training Materials

Listening and Speaking are the same for Academic and General Training; Reading and Writing are different. A folder labelled only “IELTS practice” may mix both versions.

For example, learning to describe a line graph will not prepare you to choose the right tone for a complaint letter. Zollege's Writing Task 1 examples cover different task formats; choose the relevant type before attempting a response.

Which Resources Help with Each IELTS Skill?

For Task 2, attempt one of the IELTS essay questions before reading its sample. Write down your position and the purpose of each paragraph first. This makes it easier to see whether the difficulty is understanding the question, finding support or expressing the idea.

A full mock is useful for checking performance across a complete section. A short lesson is better suited to one repeated error. Repeating full tests without reviewing that error produces more scores, but little information about what to change.

What Useful Writing and Speaking Feedback Looks Like

Writing is assessed for task achievement or task response, coherence and cohesion, vocabulary, and grammatical range and accuracy. Speaking also considers pronunciation and fluency. A useful review connects these criteria to passages in your essay or moments in your recording.

An anonymised marked response shows how detailed the corrections are. Look for an explanation of the problem and a revision you can apply, rather than a band number followed by “practise more”.

For a paid feedback package, confirm who assesses the response and whether you can ask follow-up questions about the corrections.

Free Preparation or a Paid IELTS Course?

Free samples and lessons can cover a large part of preparation. A paid package is easier to justify when it supplies something missing from your current materials: detailed corrections, a live speaking review or a sequence of lessons for a specific weakness.

For a student who understands essay structure but repeatedly misses part of the question, another library of model essays may add less than a review of two complete attempts. For a student unfamiliar with question types, a feedback package may be premature: first work through samples and one set of lessons.

Choose a websiteresources, access and test version Choose the supportweak skills, feedback and courses

1. Website comparison
2. Access conditions
3. Academic or General Training

1. Practice by skill
2. Feedback checklist
3. Before buying a course