Last updated: 17 August 2026.
Contact for everything on this page: will@ielts-laboratory.co
1) Privacy Notice
Last updated: 17 August 2026
Who we are
IELTS Laboratory is an independent education provider. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the IELTS partners (British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, Cambridge University Press & Assessment).
Controller for the purposes of data protection law: Will Salisbury, Vancouver, Canada.
What this notice covers
Our website, your account, writing you submit, live sessions you attend, guarantee claims you make, support messages you send, and participation in our research studies.
What information we collect
Account details. Name, email address, and what you have purchased.
Purchases. Handled by our payment provider. We do not receive or store your full card number.
Writing submissions. The essays and tasks you submit, and the diagnostic reports produced from them.
Teacher codes. If you enter a teacher’s code when submitting, we record the code exactly as you typed it, and the teacher it resolves to.
Programme participation. Attendance at live sessions, lessons opened, and work completed.
Guarantee eligibility. Where you claim under the Band Guarantee, the test information described in the Band Guarantee Terms.
Support messages. What you write to us and our replies.
Device and usage data. Standard technical information about how the site is used.
Research consents. Which permissions you gave, and the exact version of the wording you agreed to.
How we use your information
To deliver what you bought, to produce and return your reports, to administer the Band Guarantee, to improve the course, and to contact you about your account and your submissions.
How automated analysis is used on your writing
Your writing is analysed automatically by software, against a fixed taxonomy of writing problems, using a third-party language model provider. Reports are reviewed by a person from time to time as a quality check. There is no human marking of every submission and we do not claim otherwise.
Band estimates we produce are educational tools. They are not an official IELTS score, not a prediction of one, and they carry no standing with any test centre, university, employer or regulator.
Sharing a report with your teacher
If you enter a teacher’s code and say yes to the teacher question when you submit, a copy of that report goes to the registered teacher who owns that code. The report contains quotations from your own writing.
If you say no, or leave the teacher question blank, no report is sent. You can change your answer on any later submission. A report already sent cannot be recalled.
Teachers hold a code that is issued once and does not identify them to anyone else. Teachers are bound by our Teacher Terms, section 7 of this page.
Research participation
Participation in our research studies is optional, separate from buying anything, and free.
Consent is given per submission, and each permission is asked separately: taking part, sharing with your teacher, quoting extracts in published work, and being contacted afterwards. You can answer differently on different submissions.
We record which version of the consent wording you agreed to. Every version is published in full in section 6 of this page and kept there after it is superseded, so the version recorded against your submission always resolves to text you can read.
Participation in a research study requires you to be 18 or over. See “Children” below.
You can withdraw at any time by emailing us, and we will delete your submissions from the study and confirm. The one thing withdrawal cannot undo is material already published, because a published article or video cannot be recalled.
Who we share information with
Categories of provider: payment processing, website and application hosting, database and workflow tooling, automated writing analysis, email delivery, video conferencing, and analytics. A current list of named providers is available on request.
We do not sell your information. We do not pass your writing to anyone outside these providers, except to your teacher where you have said yes.
International transfers
We are based in Canada. Our providers process data in Canada, the United States, the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom. Where personal data leaves the UK or the EEA we rely on the safeguards our providers put in place, including standard contractual clauses where applicable.
If you are in the UK or the EEA, this means your writing is processed outside your country. Where that processing is for research, the lawful basis is your consent.
Retention
Account records: 24 months after your last active use.
Writing submissions and reports: 24 months after your access to them ends. Submissions you gave permission to use for research are kept for 5 years as research data, then deleted.
Test Report Forms supplied for a guarantee claim: 90 days after the claim is settled or the programme ends, whichever is later.
Research consents and the version agreed: kept for as long as the research record exists, because a consent record with no retention outlives the data it justifies.
Interview recordings: deleted once transcribed. Transcripts kept for 2 years, then deleted.
Support messages: 24 months.
Your rights and choices
Depending on where you live, you may have rights under PIPEDA, UK GDPR or EU GDPR to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to the use of your information, to withdraw consent, and to receive a copy in a portable form.
Email will@ielts-laboratory.co. We aim to respond within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to your data protection regulator.
Security
We take reasonable measures to protect your information, and we notify you and the relevant regulator where the law requires it.
Children
Our paid services are not intended for anyone under 16. Our research studies are not open to anyone under 18, and the study consent asks you to confirm your age before you can take part.
If you believe someone under those ages has given us information, email us and we will delete it.
Changes to this notice
Changes are posted here with a new date. Where a change is material we email account holders. Consent wording is never edited in place; a new version is published in section 6 and the old one is kept.
2) Cookie Policy
Last updated: 17 August 2026
What cookies are
Small files placed on your device by a website, and similar technologies such as local storage and pixels.
How we use them
To make the site work, to remember your preferences, to understand how the site is used, and to measure advertising. The last two are used only with your consent.
Types of cookie we use
Strictly necessary. Always on. The site does not work without them.
Analytics. Optional. How people find and move through the site.
Marketing. Optional. Measuring whether an advertisement led to a purchase.
Managing your choices
Change your choices at any time in the cookie settings panel on this site, or in your browser. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will stop parts of the site working.
Contact
will@ielts-laboratory.co
3) Terms of Service
Last updated: 17 August 2026
Acceptance
Buying from us or using our services means you accept these Terms, the Refund Policy in section 4, and where it applies the Band Guarantee Terms in section 5.
What we sell
We teach IELTS Academic Writing through a training cycle: you write, you receive a diagnosis of the specific issues limiting your band, you study material routed to those issues, you write again, and the two attempts are compared issue by issue.
All prices are in US dollars. Payment is processed in Canadian dollars by our payment provider, so your bank may apply a conversion.
Essentials, $9.99. One-time payment, lifetime access. The IELTS Academic Writing book, the online course with Task 1 and Task 2 exercises, the Q&A discussion board, one complete training cycle with diagnostic feedback, and two essay reports comparing your drafts.
Sprint Pro Trial, $29. Full access to the Essentials course, one trial group workshop lesson, and diagnostic reports on two essays. The $29 is redeemable in full against an upgrade to The Sprint or Sprint Pro.
The Sprint, $149.99. A two-week structured programme of 12 working days and 2 rest days, with lifetime access to the material afterwards. 12 modules, diagnostic feedback on every draft, a lesson pathway built from your own diagnostic codes, progress tracking and a structured study plan.
Sprint Pro, $349.99. A founding price of $279.99 applies while it is advertised. Everything in The Sprint, plus live group sessions every second day, 12 lessons per month, limited to 20 students, plus the Band Guarantee in section 5.
Live group sessions
Sprint Pro includes live group sessions, capped at 20 people. Places are first come, first served. Sessions may be rescheduled or cancelled, and where we cancel without offering a replacement we extend your access by the equivalent period.
Sessions may be recorded so that people who could not attend can watch. If you do not want to appear in a recording, keep your camera and microphone off. Do not record sessions yourself.
Attendance at a live session counts towards the Band Guarantee completion gate only where you attended live. Watching a recording does not count. See section 5.
The Q&A discussion board
Posts on the discussion board are visible to other people on the course. It is not a private or confidential space. Do not post anything you would not want another learner to read, and do not post other people’s personal information.
Be civil. We may remove any post and may withdraw access to the board.
You can ask us to delete your posts at any time.
Accounts
Keep your details accurate and your login secure. You are responsible for what happens on your account. Accounts are personal and may not be shared.
Purchases, pricing and currency
The price shown before payment is the price you pay. Prices can change, and a founding price can be withdrawn at any time, but a change never affects something you have already bought.
The trial credit
The $29 Sprint Pro Trial fee is credited in full against an upgrade to The Sprint or Sprint Pro. It is a credit against a future purchase, not a refundable balance.
Marking turnaround
A diagnostic is usually returned within minutes of submission. If something in the process fails, we return it within 24 hours. These are targets, not guarantees, and a missed target is not a breach of these Terms.
Acceptable use
Do not misuse the systems, submit unlawful content, share course material outside your account, submit work that is not your own, post other people’s personal information, use the service to build a competing product, or record sessions without permission.
Work you submit must be written by you, unaided, for the purpose of being diagnosed. Submitting work generated by a language model defeats the purpose of the course and voids the Band Guarantee.
Intellectual property
We own the course material, the book, the taxonomy, the reports we generate and everything else we produce. You own your writing. By submitting it you give us permission to process it in order to produce your reports and to run the service.
Research use, publication and promotional use of your writing are separate permissions, asked for separately, and never taken by these Terms. See sections 6 and 7.
Disclaimers
Services are provided as they are. Our band estimates are educational tools and are not official IELTS scores. We do not promise any particular official result except as set out in the Band Guarantee Terms.
We are not affiliated with the IELTS partners, and we make no statement on their behalf. Requirements set by regulators, universities and employers change; check them at source.
Third-party services
We are not liable for outages or failures of third-party services we depend on, including payment, hosting, video conferencing and language model providers.
Limitation of liability
Except where the law says otherwise, our total liability to you is limited to what you paid us in the three months before the claim. Remedies under the Band Guarantee are not subject to that cap.
Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including for death, personal injury or fraud.
Termination
You can stop using the service at any time. We can suspend or end access where these Terms are breached.
Governing law
British Columbia, Canada, and the courts of British Columbia have exclusive jurisdiction, except where consumer protection law in your own country gives you the right to bring a claim locally.
Contact
will@ielts-laboratory.co
4) Refund Policy
Last updated: 17 August 2026
Your statutory rights come first. Nothing here reduces them.
Essentials, $9.99
Full refund within 14 days of purchase if you have not opened the course material and have not submitted a draft. Once a diagnostic has been produced, the fee is not refundable, because the work has been done.