Ask anyone who has tried to raise their IELTS Listening score from 4.5 to 7.5, and they will tell you it feels impossible. For Baina, it seemed like a distant dream. A nurse from Ghana, Baina faced a unique challenge in her IELTS preparation.
“I want to give up writing IELTS because I am hearing impaired,” Baina wrote in her first email to me. She felt the material and support available to students like her was non-existent. Most IELTS resources catered to individuals without hearing issues, and Baina’s frustration was understandable. Despite doing OK in other areas — scoring 7.5 in Speaking and 6 in both Reading and Writing — Listening felt like an impossible obstacle. She was devastated, fearing that her dream of working in the UK as a nurse was slipping away.
“I bought two popular online IELTS courses, all of which didn’t help me, because anytime I emailed them that I needed their help, they always told me they have no solution for students like me,” said Baina.
But Baina didn’t give up. She reached out to me for help, even though previous attempts with other coaches had left her feeling dismissed. What followed was an extraordinary journey of perseverance, innovation, and success.
A New Approach to IELTS Listening
When Baina explained her difficulties, I realised that traditional methods wouldn’t work. After researching accommodations for hearing-impaired IELTS test-takers, I discovered that she could have a staff member read the Listening script during the test—along with some other key adaptations. However, this alone wasn’t enough; Baina needed a way to practice.
To bridge the gap, I suggested that she watch someone read the IELTS listening script to her. This allowed her to practice lip-reading in tandem with answering IELTS Listening questions—something that she never had as an option before. Using listening scripts from my books, Baina’s husband would read the text aloud to her while she practiced answering the questions. Little by little, her confidence grew.
The Writing Breakthrough
Though Listening was the primary hurdle, Baina’s Writing needed attention too. She felt uncertainty and fear about the writing component. We tackled that head-on. A month before her exam Baina started to use my book “Target Band 7” and submitted her writing task 1 and 2 for personalised feedback. My team and I focused on helping her improve Task Achievement, Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion and sentence structure – the areas Baina had trouble with. By submitting reports and essays for correction, she learned how to refine her responses, making them clearer and more organised.
Baina didn’t stop there. She practiced under timed conditions, gradually reducing her writing time while ensuring quality. In the last two weeks before the exam, she even printed out writing answer sheets to write on. She said, “That helped me on exam day because I knew how my 250 – 270 words would look like on the answer sheet, so I did not even bother to count my words.”
The Results
On the day of her IELTS exam, Baina felt confident. The special arrangement allowed her to lip-read during the Listening test, and because of her relentless practice, she excelled.
Baina’s results speak for themselves: Listening 7.5, Reading 7, Writing 6.5, and Speaking 7.
Her improvement in Listening from 4.5 to 7.5 went beyond her wildest dreams. Her progress – in just one month – from Band 6 in Writing to a 6.5 was also very impressive!
A Journey to Celebrate
Baina’s success is a testament to her determination and hard work. She didn’t allow her hearing impairment to dictate her future. Instead, she found new ways to overcome the barriers she faced, and I’m grateful to have been part of her journey. Her story highlights the importance of personalised solutions and the power of never giving up.
“Without “Target Band 7” and your advice, I wouldn’t even be close to the 6.5 band,” Baina shared after the test. Her journey shows that with the right guidance and perseverance, even the toughest obstacles can be overcome.
This email from her brings tears to my eyes every time I read it:
“I’m so grateful for finding you in this amazing journey. You told me not to give up and I didn’t. You were the only IELTS teacher online who understood my pains and how it feels to be different.
I truly cannot thank you enough for believing in me and taking time off your busy schedule to explain things to me. That alone means the whole world to me. All the other IELTS teachers I mentioned earlier on truly made me feel terrible. I thank my stars that directed you to my inbox that very day.”
If you’re facing challenges with IELTS, let Baina’s story inspire you. Your journey to success might just be starting.
