Leap Scholar Review: Eight Years Into My Career, I Went Back to School for an IELTS Exam

Eight years into an engineering career, I found myself prepping for IELTS the same way I once prepped for entrance exams. Here's my Leap Scholar review, in my own words, on why I chose to pursue an MBA in Germany after nearly a decade of work experience and how a deliberate reading-and-listening strategy got me to an overall band of 8.

Q1. Tell me a bit about yourself.

Hi everybody, I'm Shouvik Das. I'm from India, originally from Kolkata; that's where I was born, raised, and educated, though I was based in Gurgaon for work. I'm an electrical engineer by training, with both a bachelor's and a master's in the field, and I spent almost eight years working in renewable energy before deciding to pursue an MBA.

Q2. Why an MBA after eight years, and why abroad specifically?

Across my professional roles, I worked in engineering, business development, and project management, and what became clear over time is that technical skill is only one part of the picture. To actually move up, you need managerial skills too, finance, and project management, that broader toolkit. So I felt the time was the right stage in my career to pursue an MBA, layering new skills on top of the industry experience I already had. For the past five years, I'd also been working for a German company, based in India but tied closely to their European office, and that gave me real exposure to European systems. I found the cost of education in Germany genuinely affordable compared to India and other abroad destinations, and that's what tipped my decision toward Germany specifically.

Q3. What's the actual difference between doing an MBA right after graduation versus after gaining experience?

Both approaches have their place, honestly. In India, an MBA doesn't really have preconditions; you can join right after graduation in any field, much like any other master's degree. In Europe, it's structured differently. MBAs there generally require prior work experience, while fresh graduates instead pursue something called a Master's in Management, or MIM. In terms of actual effectiveness, both paths work, but having real industry experience going in genuinely helps your future prospects and gives you leverage to negotiate roles, rather than starting at an entry-level position the way a fresh graduate typically would.

Q4. How did your family react when you told them you wanted to move abroad?

I'd actually been planning this move for two to three years before I acted on it. I told my parents early on that I wanted to eventually leave my job for an MBA but that I was waiting for the right opportunity at a genuinely prestigious school. I looked into options in India too but found the admissions process there overly focused on entrance exam scores alone. Germany's application process felt more holistic; it considered my GMAT score, my work experience, the basic German I'd been studying, and my international exposure. My parents were quite open and supportive throughout, happy for me wherever I landed an opportunity.

Q5. When did you start your IELTS preparation, and how did you find Leap Scholar?

I was targeting the September 2025 MBA intake, and in Europe there's really just one window a year for that, with applications opening around November 2024. I wanted to start as early as possible, but the Diwali and festival season in India that October and November delayed things a bit, so I actually began my IELTS prep right after Diwali 2024. I found Leap Scholar through online marketing, Instagram reels, and some YouTube videos. I checked out a couple of other IELTS coaching providers too, but Leap Scholar's study plan and pricing felt like the most optimal fit for me.

Q6. What happened when you first reached out?

I requested a callback through their website and heard back the very next day. We discussed my plans, and I started with a mock test to get a sense of where I actually stood. After that, I had a one-on-one conversation with one of their counselors, who recommended a course type based on my mock score. I was given two or three options and chose the online classroom format, which ran for a month total, two weeks covering the full syllabus, and two weeks of revision.

Q7. What was your experience with the counselor and the overall setup like?

I was genuinely pleasantly surprised. The counselors were straightforward from the very first interaction, not pushy or sales-driven at all. Having that initial mock test to gauge where I stood was really helpful too; I scored around 6.5 in that first attempt, against a personal target of 8, and that made it easy to plan out a realistic timeline. There were no hidden clauses or surprises waiting for me later. It felt like a genuinely honest, transparent process from the start.

Q8. What did that first mock test tell you?

It was more of a miniature test than a full-length one, touching a little on everything without any real preparation going in. I don't remember my individual module scores from that one, just the overall score, which was 6.5. Speaking and writing stood out as my most difficult sections at that early stage.

Q9. How did you feel walking into the actual exam?

Genuinely calm, not particularly nervous. My course had included a lot of mock testing, sectional and full-length, and I'd done every single one, so the format felt familiar going in. My exam sequence had listening and writing first, speaking at the end, and my speaking round was done in person rather than over a camera, which I found noticeably easier. The topics I got were close to things I'd already practiced through Leap Scholar, so there were genuinely no surprises anywhere in the exam.

Q10. Walk me through your university application process in Germany.

I applied to seven universities in total. Leap Scholar's admission package covered assistance for six applications, and I handled one, ESMT Berlin, on my own. Through Leap Scholar, I applied to HWR Berlin, which offered me admission but wasn't a priority for me; EBS University, a private school I treated as a backup and also got into; Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, my absolute top priority; Mannheim Business School, my second priority, and WHU, my third priority. I also applied to HHL Leipzig. I got offers from Frankfurt School and Mannheim, got rejected by WHU, and got called for an interview at HHL, but by that point I'd already finalized my offer at Frankfurt.

Q11. How does studying in Germany compare to your experience in India?

I did my bachelor's at Jadavpur University in Kolkata and my master's at IIT Kharagpur, which was a very different, specialized experience compared to a typical multi-stream university. Frankfurt School itself is technically a state-approved private university, an important distinction, since Germany's public universities are largely tuition-free but simply don't offer MBA programs at all; those are exclusively run through private institutions. The environment here has fewer students, and there are noticeably more procedural steps involved for pretty much everything compared to what I was used to in India. Teaching style is different too; Indian education, at least in my experience, leans heavily on textbook-driven, theoretical instruction, while here it's far more self-directed. Professors introduce a topic broadly and expect you to dig into the actual depth on your own.

Q12. What was your final IELTS score, section by section?

I scored an overall band of 8. My teachers made it clear early on in prep that the bulk of scoring gains realistically come from reading and listening, since speaking has natural ceiling effects on how much you can improve, and writing scores hinge heavily on complex sentence structure and other technical factors that are harder to push quickly. So I focused heavily on reading and listening technique, particularly time management within the section, and practiced extensively through Leap Scholar's materials. For writing, I wrote pieces regularly and sent them in for review, getting specific feedback each time. For speaking, I went through around ten mock sessions, and honestly, I started out quite rough, with a lot of filler words and hesitation, but worked steadily to cut that down. I ended up with a 7.5 in speaking, a 7.5 in writing, and an 8.5 in both reading and listening, which combined to give me an overall score of 8.

Q13. Would you recommend Leap Scholar to others considering IELTS or studying abroad?

For IELTS specifically, if you're taking their courses, the structure itself is genuinely solid; the real differentiator is just following it consistently. Ultimately, IELTS is about practice; most people already know the fundamentals. It's the volume and consistency of practice, how many mock tests, and how many hours a day that separates a 7 from an 8. More broadly, for anyone planning to study abroad, I'd say plan early, ideally one to two years ahead, and do your own initial research before approaching any consultancy, Leap Scholar included. Know which universities and courses you're actually targeting, and read the requirements thoroughly to make sure you genuinely meet them. If you're specifically targeting Germany, pay close attention to the APS certification process; there have been some recent changes to it, and it's a long, demanding process that's worth starting as early as a year in advance.

From an initial mock score of 6.5 to an overall IELTS band of 8, and from eight years in engineering to an MBA offer at one of Germany's top business schools, this journey is a reminder that experience and fresh preparation aren't mutually exclusive; sometimes the second act just needs the right strategy behind it. For anyone weighing an MBA abroad, this Leap Scholar review is worth reading closely for those with years in the workforce or who are wondering how to prioritize their IELTS prep time.