Terms and conditions

Band 9 is an independent IELTS preparation service. We give you a free diagnostic test that estimates where you stand, and we offer paid help to close the gap.

We are not affiliated with IELTS, Cambridge, the British Council or IDP Education. We cannot enter you for the exam, change a result, or give you an official score. Anyone telling you otherwise is not us.

• The placement test — thirty questions, including a grammar section IELTS does not set — gives you an estimated band range, not a band. A range is the honest output of thirty questions; a single figure would be a guess wearing a decimal point.
• A full past paper, sat whole, gives you a band for that paper, converted on the published IELTS scale. IELTS releases four anchor points per paper and says the exact marks needed vary slightly between test versions, so the figure is as precise as that scale is and no more.
• Neither is your IELTS band. An IELTS result averages four skills, each marked by the official exam on the day.
• Listening and Reading are marked by a machine, against the answer key.
• Writing and Speaking are marked against the four official criteria for each: by AI, or by an IELTS examiner if you buy that. Either way the result is practice feedback, not an official score.
• It is not a prediction. Nothing here guarantees the score you will get on the day. What you do between now and then matters more than what this test says today.

One account per email address, and one student per account. Keep your sign-in to yourself — anyone with access to your inbox can get into your account, because that is exactly how the sign-in works. If you are on a shared computer, tick the box that says so.

AI marking works on up to two devices per account — for example, a computer and a phone, or any two. Signing in on a third device stops AI marking on the one you used least recently. What you buy is for you: an account shared with others, or used to resell what it bought, may be closed.

You can delete your account and everything in it at any time from Account settings in your dashboard. If you would rather, email hello@band9.uk and we will do it for you.

Listening and Reading practice is free, and every new account can have one Writing task and one Speaking test marked by AI for free. Everything else is paid.

Payments are taken by our payment provider on its own secure checkout, in US dollars, at the price shown there when you buy, including any tax it adds. It handles your card or other payment method; we never see it. Your purchase is added to the Band 9 account with the same email address you paid with. If you do not have an account yet, one is made for that address, and you simply sign in with it.

• Marking by an IELTS examiner (a Writing task, three Writing tests, or the full evaluation): you send your work from your dashboard when you are ready, and the marked feedback is returned within 48 hours of each submission.
• Live Speaking tests are held online, face to face with an IELTS examiner. You ask for a time between 2 and 7 days ahead, and we find an examiner who can take it, usually within a day. The booking is confirmed when an examiner accepts your time, or when you accept another time an examiner offers you, and we email you the details and the link to join. If nobody can take your time, you choose another time or a full refund for that session. The session is recorded, and your examiner shares the recording with you by private link.
• Moving or missing a live Speaking test: you can reschedule a booked session free from your booking page, as often as you need, until 12 hours before it starts; we check the new time with your examiner and confirm it by email. We email you a reminder 24 hours before each session. If you have not joined 15 minutes after the start, the session counts as used: your examiner kept that time for you and is paid for it, and we email you to let you know. If your examiner has not joined 15 minutes after the start, tell us from your booking page: you then choose a new time, free of charge, or a full refund for that session.
• AI plans start as soon as the payment goes through. Their limits are below.

All marking on Band 9, by AI or by an examiner, is practice feedback. It is not an official IELTS score and cannot be used as one.

• AI Practice Plan, weekly: AI marking for up to 6 full Writing tests (Task 1 and Task 2), 6 AI rewrites and 5 Speaking tests in any 7 days.
• AI Practice Plan, monthly: up to 30 full Writing tests, 30 AI rewrites and 15 Speaking tests in any 30 days.
• Unlimited Writing, monthly: AI marking for every Writing task you write, with a fair-use limit of 3 full Writing tests a day.

The limits count over the last 7 or 30 days (or the last day, for Unlimited Writing) rather than from your billing date, and free up on their own as older marks drop out of that window.

Plans renew automatically at the end of each period, at the same price, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time from the billing page your payment receipt links to, or by emailing hello@band9.uk. Cancelling stops the next payment; the plan keeps working until the end of the period you have already paid for.

• Not used yet: if you bought examiner marking or a live Speaking test and have not sent any work or held the session, you can have a full refund within 14 days of buying. Email hello@band9.uk.
• If we cannot find an examiner for a live Speaking test at a time that works for you, or your examiner does not join it, you can take a full refund for that session at once from your booking page, whenever we ask you to choose. You keep any other sessions you bought.
• Once your work has been marked, it cannot be refunded. Marking is a service delivered to you, and sending your work is asking us to start it straight away. The same applies to a live Speaking test once it has taken place, or once you have missed it without rescheduling.
• If you disagree with your marking, ask within 7 days of receiving it and a second look is free, once per piece of work.
• Plans can be cancelled at any time, as above. The period you have already paid for is not refunded.

A refund, or a payment you dispute with your bank, takes back what that payment bought straight away: a plan stops, and unused marking or sessions are removed. An account with repeated refunds or disputes may be closed.

Nothing here takes away any right the law gives you that cannot be taken away.

The writing, design, code and marking on this site are ours. Please do not copy them wholesale or resell them.

Some practice material reproduces published exam content. That content belongs to its publishers, not to us, and it appears here so you can practise on it. We claim no ownership of it and we grant you no rights over it.

Your answers and your results are yours. We use them to mark your test and show you your report, and for nothing else — see the privacy policy.

Do not try to break the site, scrape it, hammer the sign-in, or use it to send anyone anything they did not ask for. We may close an account that does, and we will tell the person why.

The free tests are free, and they come as they are. We do not promise the site will always be available, that it will never contain a mistake, or that any result or marking will match your eventual exam score. If you find a mistake, tell us and we will fix it.

Nothing here limits our responsibility for anything the law does not let us limit.

If these terms change, the date at the top changes with them. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

Questions about any of it: hello@band9.uk.

See also our privacy policy