The number nobody in the coaching business puts on a banner. যে সংখ্যাটা কোনো কোচিংয়ের ব্যানারে থাকে না
The IELTS partners publish test-taker performance by country every year. In the latest release, Bangladeshi Academic candidates averaged an overall Band 6.0. India averaged 6.6, Pakistan 6.4, Nepal 6.2. Four in ten Bangladeshi candidates scored below 6; fewer than one in five reached 7.
IELTS-এর মালিক প্রতিষ্ঠানগুলো প্রতি বছর দেশভিত্তিক ফলাফল প্রকাশ করে। বাংলাদেশি একাডেমিক প্রার্থীদের গড় ওভারঅল ব্যান্ড ৬.০ - প্রতিবেশী সব দেশের নিচে। ১০ জনে ৪ জন ৬-এর নিচে, ৭ পায় ৫ জনে ১ জনেরও কম।
Source: IELTS test-taker performance, most recent published year. We wrote the full breakdown in Bengali.
Monetising, not teaching. শেখানো নয়, বিক্রি করা
Walk into most IELTS centres in Dhaka, Chattogram or Sylhet and you are sold a course: three months, a batch of forty, a photocopied Cambridge book, a "mock test" marked by whoever is free. The business model is hours. It earns the same whether you go from 5.5 to 7 or sit the real test twice more at ৳22,000 a time. Nobody in that chain is paid for your band going up.
So the things that actually move a score go missing. Nobody tells you that Band 7 in Reading is 30 correct out of 40 and Band 6 is 23, and that the seven questions in between are almost always True/False/Not Given and Matching Headings. Nobody sits with you on the computer interface you will actually use on the day. Nobody marks your Writing on the four criteria the examiner uses, or tells you in plain Bengali what "coherence" means when you lose it.
বেশিরভাগ কোচিংয়ের ব্যবসাটা ঘণ্টা বিক্রির - আপনার ব্যান্ড ৫.৫ থেকে ৭ হলো, নাকি আবার ২২ হাজার টাকা দিয়ে পরীক্ষা দিলেন, তাতে তাদের আয়ে কিছু যায় আসে না। তাই যে জিনিসগুলো আসলে নম্বর বাড়ায়, সেগুলোই কেউ শেখায় না।
What the market sells
- Three-month batches of forty, priced per month
- Paper mock tests for a computer-delivered exam
- "Band 8 guaranteed" on the banner, no data behind it
- Writing "checked" without the four marking criteria
- Speaking practice with the person sitting next to you
What actually raises a band
- Full mock tests on the real computer interface, timed like the day
- Every question type explained in Bengali, with the trap it sets
- Writing marked on Task Achievement, Coherence, Lexis and Grammar, with corrections
- An examiner you speak to out loud, as often as you want
- A weak-spot tracker that tells you where the next seven questions are
Where it came from. যেভাবে শুরু
IELTS Mates was built by one person while he was preparing for his own IELTS. He went looking for something that explained the test properly in Bengali and practised it properly in English, found nothing, and started building it instead - the mock engine, the question-type guides, the speaking examiner - in the weeks before his test date.
He will admit he spent more of those weeks building the app than preparing with it. He sat the exam and scored Band 7. He was not chasing a high score; he needed a pass and got one with time to spare, mostly by understanding how the test is marked rather than by studying more English.
"I got a 7 while building the thing instead of studying. Anyone who takes this seriously for a few weeks can get at least a 7. And 9 is not magic - it is the same test, read carefully, with the traps already known."
The founder. He would rather the product carried his name than he did.যে বানিয়েছে, সে নিজের পরীক্ষার আগের কয়েক সপ্তাহে প্রস্তুতির চেয়ে অ্যাপ বানাতেই বেশি সময় দিয়েছে - তবু ব্যান্ড ৭ পেয়েছে। তার কথা: যে সিরিয়াসলি নেবে, সে অন্তত ৭ পাবেই; আর ৯-ও অসম্ভব কিছু না।
What we are here to do. আমরা যা করতে এসেছি
Give Bangladeshi candidates what a score actually needs, at a price below one hour with a private tutor, in the language they think in. Explain in Bengali, practise in English, mark the way the examiner marks, and show the number going up. If the country's average moves from 6.0 because of this, that is the whole point.
IELTS Mates is operated by Legacy Script. It is not affiliated with the British Council, IDP, Cambridge or the IELTS partners; the practice material is the official Cambridge past-paper series, used with rights.
Two full mock tests are free. Start there.
No card, no batch, no three-month commitment. Sit one test on the real interface and see your band today.
দুটো পূর্ণ মক টেস্ট ফ্রি। আজই একটা দিয়ে নিজের ব্যান্ড দেখে নিন।