About Band 9 Vault

Band 9 Vault is a free, independent study site for IELTS Academic. It exists because IELTS preparation is usually scattered across a dozen places: grammar in one book, listening audio on a video site, vocabulary in a notebook, and no record of what is actually improving.

What it is

Everything sits in one place and is connected. Study notes cover sentence structure, tenses, cohesion, vocabulary, punctuation, and the errors examiners notice most. Full listening and reading mock tests run on the real clock and mark themselves the moment you submit. Short drills cover spelling, True/False/Not Given reading, error correction, and vocabulary review. Every result is recorded, so the site can tell you where you actually stand rather than where you feel you stand.

Who it is for

Learners who are somewhere around Band 6 or 6.5 and need to reach 7 or higher, especially those studying alone without a teacher to mark their work. The material assumes you already speak some English and want the specific gaps closed, not a beginners' course.

Where the material comes from

The study notes are written for this site. The practice papers are collected from publicly available IELTS practice material so that learners have enough papers to work through; they are for private study only. If you own material used here and would rather it were removed, write to us and it will be taken down.

What it is not

This is not the official IELTS test and not an official practice product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the British Council, IDP Education, or Cambridge University Press & Assessment, who jointly own the IELTS trade mark. Band scores shown here are estimates for practice, not official results.

What it costs

Nothing. There is one plan, it is free, and no part of the site is held back for a paid tier. An account exists only so your results and saved notes follow you between devices.

Create your free account ↗

Common questions

Everything learners ask most often, answered plainly. If yours is not here, write to us.

How it works

Most people open a study site, read three pages, and never come back, because nothing tells them what to do first. Here is the order that works, and why.

Step 1 — Take one mock test before you study anything

This feels backwards, and it is the most useful thing you can do. A listening or reading paper takes under an hour and gives you a number. Without that number you are guessing at your own level, and learners almost always guess wrong in one direction or the other. Do not revise for it. A score that flatters you is worth nothing.

Take a mock test →

Step 2 — Read what the result actually says

After you submit, every question is listed with your answer beside the right one. Do not skim it. Go through the ones you got wrong and put each into a group: did you mishear the word, not know the word, misread the question, or run out of time? Four different problems, four different cures. Most learners discover that one group is far larger than the rest, and that group is your real work.

Step 3 — Fix the grammar behind the mistakes

The note library is arranged by what actually goes wrong, not by chapter order. If your errors are tenses, start with the tense notes; if sentences fall apart in writing, start with clauses. Save a note with the star and it waits for you on your profile. Reading a note you do not need is time you did not spend on the one you do.

Step 4 — Drill in short sessions, most days

Ten minutes of spelling, True/False/Not Given, error correction, or vocabulary review beats a three-hour session at the weekend. The vocabulary drill schedules each word to come back just before you would have forgotten it, so the words you find hard return more often than the ones you know.

Step 5 — Test again, and compare

After a week or two of drills, sit another paper. Your profile keeps every result with its band, so you can see whether the line is moving. If two papers in a row show no change, the problem is not effort — it is that you are practising the wrong thing, and step 2 needs doing again.

How long this takes

Half a band usually takes four to eight weeks of steady practice. A full band takes longer. Anyone promising faster than that is selling something. What moves the number is consistency: a short session most days beats a long one now and then, every time.

A note on the band scores here

The band you see is your correct answers converted with the standard IELTS band table for that paper. It is an honest estimate for practice, not an official result, and the real exam has pressures a practice paper cannot copy. Treat it as a direction, not a promise.

Create your free account ↗ Read the common questions →

Contact us

Questions, mistakes you have spotted, a broken audio file, or a copyright concern — all of it is welcome. One person reads these, so please allow a few days for a reply.

Email

[email protected]

What to include

• For a mistake in a note or an answer key: the page name and the question number.
• For a broken test or audio: the test number and what you saw on screen.
• For an account problem: the email address you registered with, never your password.
• For a copyright request: the material in question and proof you own it, and it will be removed.

What we will never do

We will never email you asking for your password, and we will never ask you to send it in a reply. A genuine password reset always comes as a link you request yourself from the sign-in box.

Privacy policy

Short version: we store what is needed to run your account and your study record, nothing else. We do not sell your data, we do not show adverts, and we use Google Analytics only to understand how the site is used.

What we store

• Your account: email address, the display name you choose, the date you joined, and your plan.
• Your password: never in readable form. Only a bcrypt hash is kept, which cannot be turned back into your password.
• Your study record: test and drill results (score, total, date), saved notes, notes marked as read, vocabulary review dates, and your writing draft.
• Password reset links: only a hash of the link is stored, and it expires after one hour or once used.

Cookies

One cookie, named ielts.sid. It holds a session identifier so the site knows you are signed in. It carries no personal information and is removed when you sign out. Google Analytics may set its own cookies to measure site usage. If you study without an account, your progress stays in your own browser's storage and never reaches our server.

Other services

A few things on the page come from elsewhere. Typefaces are loaded from Google Fonts, Google Analytics helps us understand how visitors use the site, and some listening audio is played from the site that hosts it. Those services receive your IP address as part of any ordinary web request, and their own privacy terms apply. Nothing about your account or your results is sent to them.

Who can see your data

Only you. Every study record is tied to your account and returned only to your own signed-in session. We do not share, sell, or hand your data to advertisers or data brokers.

Deleting your data

"Reset my data" on your profile clears your whole study record immediately. To delete the account itself, email us and it will be removed along with everything attached to it.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that affects you, the change will be described on this page rather than made quietly.

Terms and conditions

By using Band 9 Vault you agree to what is written below. It is written plainly on purpose.

The service

Band 9 Vault is a free study site offered as it is. We try to keep it accurate and available, but we do not promise that it will be free of mistakes or always reachable, and it may change or close at any time.

Not the official IELTS test

This is an independent study site with practice material only. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the British Council, IDP Education, or Cambridge University Press & Assessment, who jointly own the IELTS trade mark. The trade mark is used only to describe what the material prepares you for.

Band scores

A band shown after a test is an estimate produced by applying the standard band tables to your correct answers. It is not an official result, it does not predict your exam result, and it cannot be used as proof of your English level for any institution.

Your account

You are responsible for keeping your password to yourself and for what happens under your account. Use a real email address you can reach, because a forgotten password can only be reset through it. We may close an account that is used to attack, scrape, or disrupt the site.

Using the material

The notes and drills are here for your own study. You may read them, print them, and practise with them. You may not republish them, sell them, or present them as your own work. Practice papers collected from elsewhere remain the property of whoever owns them.

Liability

The site is free, and we accept no liability for any loss arising from using it, including any exam outcome. Your preparation and your results remain your own responsibility.

Contact

Questions about these terms go to [email protected].

Disclaimer

This page states plainly what Band 9 Vault is and is not, so nobody relies on it for something it cannot do.

No affiliation with the IELTS owners

Band 9 Vault is an independent study site. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or connected in any way to the British Council, IDP Education, or Cambridge University Press & Assessment, who jointly own and administer IELTS. The name IELTS is used here only to describe the exam this material prepares you for.

Band scores are estimates

A band shown after a test is produced by applying the published band tables to your correct answers. It is a study aid, nothing more. It is not an official IELTS result, it does not predict what you will score on exam day, and no university, employer, or immigration authority will accept it as evidence of your English. Only a genuine test sitting produces an official band.

Accuracy of the material

The notes and answer keys are prepared carefully but are not guaranteed to be free of errors, and practice papers gathered from elsewhere sometimes carry mistakes of their own. Where an official source disagrees with something written here, the official source is right. Report anything that looks wrong and it will be corrected.

No professional advice

Nothing here is teaching, immigration, or admissions advice. Decisions about which exam to take, when to sit it, or what score you need should be made against official guidance and, where it matters, with a qualified adviser.

External material

Some listening audio is played from the site that hosts it, and typefaces load from Google Fonts. We do not control those services and are not responsible for their content or availability. Copyright in practice material collected from elsewhere stays with its owner; if you own such material and want it removed, tell us and it will be taken down.

Availability and liability

The site is offered free and as it is. We do not promise it will always be reachable or error-free, and we accept no liability for any loss arising from its use, including any exam outcome. The full terms are on the terms and conditions page.