Is IELTS Practice Hub free to use?

Yes, IELTS Practice Hub is completely free. You can practice all four IELTS sections — Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking — without any subscription or payment.

How does the AI IELTS speaking examiner work?

The AI examiner speaks questions aloud using Microsoft Edge Neural TTS voice. You respond by speaking, and your answer is automatically transcribed using Whisper AI. The examiner then asks a follow-up question, creating a natural back-and-forth conversation. At the end, you receive a band score for Fluency, Lexical Resource, Grammar, and Pronunciation.

What IELTS band score can I achieve with this platform?

IELTS Practice Hub includes Band 6, 7, and 8 level content across all sections. The AI examiner provides specific feedback to help you identify weaknesses and improve toward your target band score.

Does the platform cover both IELTS Academic and General Training?

The reading and writing content is primarily IELTS Academic style. The listening and speaking sections are relevant to both Academic and General Training candidates.

How accurate is the AI band score feedback?

The AI examiner is trained on IELTS scoring criteria and provides feedback aligned with the official band descriptors for Fluency & Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range & Accuracy, and Pronunciation. It is a practice tool and should be used alongside official IELTS preparation materials.

IELTS Practice Hub

1. Who we are

IELTS Practice Hub ("we", "us", "our") operates the website at https://ieltspract.org. We provide IELTS preparation tools including practice tests, strategy guides, and progress tracking.

For any privacy-related enquiries, please contact us at: [email protected]

2. What data we collect

When you create an account, we collect:

Email address — used to identify your account and send you transactional emails (verification, password reset).
Display name — used to personalise your experience.
Password — stored as a one-way bcrypt hash; we never store your plain-text password.
Consent records — the date and time you accepted these terms and our age confirmation, as required by law.

When you use the platform, we also collect:

Practice session results — scores, answers, timing, and band estimates for Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking sessions.
Writing essays and Speaking transcripts — stored to provide AI feedback and to display your history.
Vocabulary progress — which words you have studied.
Usage data — page views and feature interactions, collected in aggregate for analytics.

3. How we use your data

We use your data to:

Provide and improve the IELTS Practice Hub service.
Authenticate you and maintain your session securely.
Send transactional emails (email verification, password reset). We do not send marketing emails without your separate consent.
Display your practice history and progress over time.
Generate AI-powered feedback on your Writing and Speaking submissions.
Comply with our legal obligations.

Legal basis (GDPR): We process your data on the basis of (a) contract performance — to provide the service you signed up for; (b) legitimate interests — to improve the platform and prevent fraud; and (c) legal obligation — to comply with applicable laws.

4. Data sharing and third parties

We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with:

Resend — our transactional email provider, used to deliver verification and password reset emails. Data is processed in accordance with their Privacy Policy.
OpenAI — your Writing essays and Speaking transcripts are sent to OpenAI's API to generate feedback. Data is processed in accordance with their Privacy Policy. We do not use your data to train OpenAI models.
Cloud infrastructure providers — for hosting and database services, under strict data processing agreements.

5. Cookies and session storage

We use a single session cookie (ielts-email-session) to keep you logged in. This cookie is HttpOnly, Secure, and expires after one year. We also use localStorage to store anonymous practice results for users who are not logged in. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

6. Data retention

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. Practice session data is retained indefinitely to support your progress tracking. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it by law.

7. Your rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate data.
Erasure — ask us to delete your account and personal data.
Portability — request your data in a machine-readable format.
Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Children and age requirements

Our service is intended for users aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe a child under 16 has provided us with their data, please contact us at [email protected] and we will delete the data promptly.

9. Security

We use industry-standard security measures including bcrypt password hashing, HTTPS encryption, HttpOnly session cookies, and access controls. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your data.

10. International data transfers

Our servers are located in the United States. If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom, your data may be transferred to and processed in the US. We ensure such transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards, including Standard Contractual Clauses where required.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by email or by displaying a notice on the site. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was last revised.

12. Contact and complaints

For any privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at [email protected].

If you are in the UK or EEA and are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (e.g., the ICO in the UK at ico.org.uk).