I’d already spent two and a half years working as a software engineer before I decided a masters in the US was the next right move for my career. Ten university applications, one IELTS attempt, and a lot of strategic Plan B thinking later, here’s my Leap Scholar review, in my own words, on how I scored a 7.0 overall and landed at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Q1. Tell me a bit about your background and why you decided to go back to school.
A) I’m a 2020 computer science graduate from Manipal University Jaipur. After that, I did a six month internship at Amazon in Bangalore and then joined a product-based company called Commviva, where I worked as an SDE1 for about two and a half years before getting promoted to SDE2. Last year I decided I needed a masters, mainly because moving up to a team lead role or beyond needed deeper knowledge in areas like database management and system design, things I felt I hadn’t fully mastered on the job.
Q2. Why the US specifically, and not somewhere else?
A) For computer science, I genuinely think the US is the best place there is. Every major tech company, Tesla, Amazon, and Microsoft, has its headquarters there, and most of the innovation happening in AI and open-source technologies traces back to people working in Silicon Valley. I did look at other options. Germany has public universities offering free education, but the competition is intense, and you really need to learn German if you want a job there afterward. The UK has a lot of one-year masters programs, but I wanted two years, enough time to actually learn deeply and do some research along the way. Canada was ruled out almost immediately; visa rejection rates there are extremely high right now. The US was the clear choice once I laid it all out.
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Q3. Were you worried about visa uncertainty in the US, given how competitive H1B has become?
A) A little, sure. The H1B system runs on a lottery right now, so there's genuine ambiguity about whether I'll get a work visa after graduating. But honestly, I'm not too worried about it either way. If I get to stay and work in the US, great. If I end up coming back to India for a good job instead, that's completely fine with me too.
Q4. What worried you most as you started this whole process?
A) More than IELTS specifically, it was whether I'd actually get into my dream universities. That concern sat with me from day one, regardless of how strong my profile or job experience already was. Getting into a good university felt like the single biggest factor in the whole plan working out.
Q5. How many universities did you apply to, and how did it play out?
A) I applied to ten in total. Three of them were genuinely ambitious and my dream schools: UT Austin, Georgia Tech, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The rest were safer options: Arizona State University, San Jose State University, Stony Brook University, Texas A&M, University at Buffalo, and University of Maryland, where I specifically applied for their software engineering program. Out of my three ambitious picks, I got into just one, UIUC. Every single safe school accepted me. I chose UIUC without hesitation, and I'm heading there this August.
Q6. Do you think having that many safe options was the right call?
A) Completely, and I'd tell anyone applying abroad to do the same. Most of those safer universities, places like Arizona State, Buffalo, and the University of Maryland, don't even charge an application fee, so applying to them costs you nothing but time. Competition for the ambitious schools varies wildly year to year, and you genuinely don't know if it'll be a tough year until you're already in it. Having safe options isn't settling; it's just smart risk management.
Q7. How did you first find Leap Scholar?
A) I attended a free counseling session in Bangalore, in Indiranagar, and got assigned a counselor there who helped me understand exactly what my applications would need. That same conversation is where I learned about their separate IELTS preparation course. I did some of my research into the ideal score I'd need and what other resources existed in the market, and I kept running into genuinely strong success stories tied to Leap Scholar's IELTS course specifically. Before that, I'd tried self-studying with YouTube and other free resources, but I found them impersonal, with no live doubt-clearing available at all.
Q8. What did the actual course structure look like once you enrolled?
A) I had a dashboard with mock tests, the ability to schedule speaking sessions with teachers, dedicated grammar classes, and vocabulary sessions run like quizzes or games every alternate day. I also had a personalized daily session every morning at 11, with one teacher assigned to just three or four students at a time. The first week focused entirely on speaking, then reading, then writing, one module at a time, which genuinely made a difference in how deeply I understood each section. We also had a Telegram group where the teacher quickly responded to any doubts we had.
Q9. How was your experience with the AI speaking evaluation tool?
A) Honestly excellent. Before that tool existed, I'd have to book a slot with a human teacher a week in advance, and since those appointments filled up fast, getting one immediately was genuinely difficult. Once the AI tool came in, I could just walk into a mock speaking test whenever I wanted. It was also surprisingly accurate; it listened to every word I said and gave a predicted score based on that, but the most valuable part was that it also pointed out specific areas I needed to work on, which is what actually drove real improvement.
Q10. Which module was hardest, and which came easiest?
A) Writing was the hardest for me, which I think is true for most people. Listening was the easiest by far. For writing specifically, I worked through the mock tests on my dashboard, one twenty-minute task and one forty-minute task, and just kept attempting them repeatedly. My early scores were low, and I realized that many of my mistakes were due to grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and vocabulary gaps. I spent real, focused time fixing exactly those issues, and that's what eventually turned the section around.
Q11. Did you take any full mock exams before you began formal prep?
A) Yes, there were ten to fifteen full mock tests available on the Leap Scholar dashboard, and I took several of them about one to two weeks before my actual exam. What struck me was how closely my mock scores matched my real exam performance. Leap Scholar's question bank is clearly built to mirror the actual test closely, which made the mocks genuinely useful rather than just a formality.
Q12. Walk me through your actual exam day.
A) My test was in Hyderabad. I got there around 7 am and had to wait before being allowed in, and I was genuinely nervous during that wait. Once they took my fingerprint, checked my passport, and took my photograph, I was let inside, and in that moment I consciously told myself to stop being nervous and just focus on the listening module, since that's what came first. After listening, reading, and writing were done, I had a two to three-hour break before speaking, which happened later that same day, around 4 to 4:30 pm, and lasted only ten to fifteen minutes.
Q13. What were your final scores?
A) Listening came in at 7.0, reading at 7.5, writing at 6.5, and speaking at 7.0, for an overall band of 7.0. I'd honestly been hoping for around 6.5, so a 7.0 exceeded what I'd targeted. It matters too, because while most safe universities accept a 6 or 6.5, the more ambitious programs generally need a 7.
Q14. How did your parents react to the score?
A) They were genuinely happy, at the end of the day it was a good result for all of us.
Q15. Would you recommend Leap Scholar to others?
A) Without question. It's not just the IELTS prep; Leap Scholar covers university applications and general guidance, and right now they're actually helping me prep for my visa interview too. Booking a combined biometrics and visa interview slot is notoriously hard, and their dedicated slot-booking team handled that for me. I'm also doing mock visa interviews through them. Between all of that, I'd tell anyone heading abroad to go with Leap Scholar without a second thought.
From a self-assessed weak spot in writing to a 7.0 overall band, and from ten university applications down to one confirmed seat at UIUC, this journey is a reminder that a well-built Plan B and consistent, targeted practice matter just as much as raw talent. For anyone weighing how many universities to apply to or nervous about their weakest IELTS module, this Leap Scholar review is worth reading closely.
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