I run a small business back home, and IELTS was the only thing keeping me from expanding it through a one-year MBA in the UK. English isn’t my first language, and I was more nervous about this exam than almost anything else in the whole application process. Here’s my Leap Scholar review, in my words, on how I went from being scared of skimming a reading passage to scoring exactly what I needed on my first attempt.
Q1. Tell me about yourself and why you wanted to study abroad.
A) I was doing my Bachelor of Commerce in India, and alongside that, I was running my own business. I wanted to expand it, and I felt a one-year MBA would let me do that without losing two years the way a regular MBA in India would. That’s when I decided to target the UK specifically, because they have their Russell Group, the same way the US has its Ivy League, and that’s exactly what I wanted to aim for.
Q2. How many universities did you apply to, and how did that go?
A) I applied to thirteen or fourteen Russell Group universities. Funding was a real concern since I was self-funded, with no loan. I got a conditional offer from Manchester and admissions from Durham, Warwick, and Queen’s University Belfast. A few other universities rejected me because my BCom was from correspondence, what we called the School of Open Learning back in Delhi, and it didn’t meet their regular-degree criteria. I ended up at Queen’s, and honestly, after visiting Glasgow and Leeds for summer school once I was already here, I realized Queen’s academics and curriculum are just as strong, even though its ranking looks lower. I think that’s mostly down to marketing, not actual quality.
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Q3. Why was IELTS your biggest worry?
A) Because English genuinely isn't my first language. I'm confident with grammar and tenses, but my vocabulary isn't strong. I'm a good public speaker in Hindi, but that confidence didn't automatically carry over into English. Reading and speaking were the two sections I feared the most, mostly because I wasn't good at skimming at all.
Q4. What score did you actually need?
A) Queen's required an overall band of 6.5, with a 6.5 minimum in every section. My personal target was higher; I aimed for an overall score of 8. But I genuinely wasn't sure how I'd perform, especially in a first attempt, so I wanted proper guidance rather than gambling on it alone.
Q5. How did you come across Leap Scholar?
A) Through an Instagram post, actually. I tried the free course first, and it included evaluations across all four sections, reading, speaking, writing, and even listening, with two or three free listening tests included. That gave me a real feel for the exam format and helped me build a study routine before I committed any money.
Q6. What made you go from the free course to buying the full one?
A) After finishing the free course, I got a call from someone at Leap Scholar. They started with a normal conversation, asking about me, and through that conversation they basically assessed my English level. That mentor explained clearly why the full course made sense for me. On top of that, I already had friends who'd enrolled with Leap Scholar, some for IELTS and some for their university counseling through a separate team. Their feedback gave me the confidence, or really the trust, to go ahead and commit.
Q7. What did the full course actually include?
A) A lot more than I expected. There were vocabulary resources, extra grammar classes, and booklets that ran alongside the main course; attendance wasn't compulsory, but I went through most of it, and it genuinely repaired my vocabulary. I also booked a full mock exam through Leap Scholar and scored a 7 band on it, which made me quite familiar with the actual exam pattern going in.
Q8. Did you use the AI speaking evaluation tool?
A) I tried it once or twice, and it was fairly accurate; it gave me scores close to what I eventually got on the real exam, around 6.5 to 7. But I found it wasn't as good as the three or four one-on-one speaking sessions I had with an actual person. The AI can tell you academically where you're lacking, but it can't catch something like stammering the way a human coach can. Getting that kind of specific, human feedback is what really corrected my mistakes.
Q9. What was working with your coach like?
A) My coach, Ms. Homera, was incredibly supportive and explained every section clearly. I booked personal five to ten minute sessions specifically to clear doubts around skimming, since that was my weak point, and that helped enormously. Her advice that stuck with me most was to focus on understanding the question fully before rushing into an answer.
Q10. What tips actually helped you, section by section?
A) For reading, beyond the skimming practice, I learned to expect twisted or indirect answers and to build up my vocabulary using the IELTS vocabulary notebook from Leap Scholar, since reading passages lean heavily on synonyms. For listening, the tip was about attention span: listen word by word, and if you miss something, let it go immediately rather than dwelling on it, because dwelling costs you the answers that come right after. For writing, I had to properly learn connectors and academic transitions, since UK academic writing leans hard on referencing, Harvard referencing specifically at my university, which is very different from how we write in India. For speaking, the advice was simply to be genuine. Faking an accent doesn't help or hurt your score; examiners can tell anyway, so just answer honestly about your life without forcing anything.
Q11. How did your actual exam go?
A) I scored exactly 6.5 in every section and 6.5 overall, which is the minimum required by Queen's. Honestly, I expected worse; I thought I might land around 6 or even fail. Listening is the section I know I could have scored much higher on, potentially a 9, if not for some mistakes I made on the day, mainly in the third section, where the speaker's pace was fast enough that I lost track of several words. My coach reassured me afterward that this score was genuinely good, that it met my university's requirement, and that no one checks your IELTS marks again once you've cleared the bar you needed. I didn't attempt a second sitting, since chasing my personal target of 8 wouldn't have added anything practical at that point.
Q12. What's the one thing you'd tell someone prepping for IELTS?
A) IELTS isn't really about how good your English is. It's about tricks, specific tricks that you don't just pick up from YouTube or general practice. In my ten days on the course, I felt my English go from around a 5 out of 10 in my head to a 7 or 8, and that jump came almost entirely from the specific tips my teachers gave me, not from generic English improvement.
Q13. Would you recommend Leap Scholar to others?
A) Yes, especially to anyone prepping for IELTS. The combination of live classes, practice tests, the AI speaking evaluation, and one-on-one feedback gave me a genuinely clear picture of what to expect on exam day. If you stay consistent and actually follow your teacher's guidance, I do think it can get you the score you need.
Q14. Lastly, what has studying in the UK actually been like, beyond IELTS?
A) Completely different from India in ways I didn't expect. Exams here are mostly replaced by assignments, and that meant learning to work through stacks of journals, doing independent research, and understanding referencing properly, since referencing yourself without citation counts as plagiarism here. I also had to learn to cook from scratch for the first time, and I genuinely didn't know how at first. I miss my mother and everything she sacrificed for me to get here, more than I usually let myself admit. But I've become far more independent, disciplined, and punctual, people here respect scheduled time in a way that's rare back home, and I think that discipline, combined with the international exposure of studying alongside classmates from all over the world and being taught by professors who've come from places like the London Business School, Harvard, and Stanford, is exactly what will set me apart when I step into a managerial role again, whether that's here or back in India.
This journey proves that hitting your number matters more than pursuing a perfect score. For anyone weighing IELTS against a real budget and a real deadline, this leap scholar review is worth sitting with.
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