IELTS Private Tutoring in Chapel Hill (North Carolina)

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Are you a Chapel Hill-area student seeking to demonstrate your proficiency with the English language by obtaining the highest score possible on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS)? If English is not your first, or native, language, and you plan on attending an English-speaking college or university, you will need to obtain an impressive score on the IELTS to demonstrate your readiness to learn in the English language. While learning any new language can be challenging, those who learn English as their second, third, or fourth language know it can be especially difficult and requires far more effort than simply reviewing vocabulary words. Interactive conversation and dedicated study are needed to truly immerse yourself in the English language, and our experienced tutors at Manhattan Review are ready to help you obtain the score you need to attend the college program of your dreams. When it comes to preparing for an important standardized test, many students enjoy learning in the company of others and find their peers' questions and comments insightful and helpful. Other students, however, know they do not perform to their full capabilities in a classroom-style group setting, finding themselves distracted by others or frustrated when they must alter their own pace of learning to match that of their peers. If you are an ESL student looking to prepare for the IELTS as part of attending an English-speaking college, consider working with one of our world-class private tutors. 

If you are truly seeking to take your IELTS preparation to the next level, working with a private tutor is one of the fastest and most dependable ways to improve your grasp of the necessary information. Working one-on-one with a private tutor has been shown to accelerate learning, helping you master the necessary information to excel on a standardized test while also improving your confidence in your test-taking skills and reducing test-related anxiety. If you know you learn complex information best through individualized attention and a customized program of study, we invite you to contact us at Manhattan Review and learn about our world-class private tutoring options. For those motivated students, there is no need to attempt to piece together your own IELTS study program, hoping you are covering the most relevant and pertinent information or wondering if you are sticking to the most useful study schedule. The dedicated and experienced private tutors at Manhattan Review have deconstructed the IELTS and used their knowledge to analyze every section and every question, creating a syllabus that is unparalleled in the test prep industry. We are fortunate to have secured the services of the best IELTS instructors in the business, and they know just how to guide you to your own standardized test success. When you partner with Manhattan Review, your tutor will begin by identifying your unique learning style. They will then help you leverage the academic strengths you already possess while showing you how to avoid any areas of weakness that might negatively impact your test performance. When you work with a private tutor, you never have to worry about being overlooked or left behind; you also don't have to worry about mastering a concept quickly and then having to wait for the rest of the group to learn it before moving on. When you work with a private tutor, learning occurs on your schedule…you can spend more time on topics that prove challenging for you, and you can move on to new concepts as soon as you have mastered the foundational basics.

The IELTS is one of two major exams used by universities in the English-speaking world to assess English language competency (the other exam is the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or TOEFL). The IELTS is a British examination, and it is therefore favored by many universities in the United Kingdom. The TOEFL is an American test, and many U.S. colleges favor it over the IELTS. A number of postsecondary institutions in both the United States and the United Kingdom, however, will accept either the IELTS or the TOEFL, and we advise all of our test prep clients to verify the English requirements of their preferred undergraduate or graduate program. If you have a choice between the IELTS and the TOEFL, the best solution is to try practice versions of both tests, ultimately favoring whichever one is easier for you. It is important to note that there are some clear differences between the two tests…speaking skills, for example, are evaluated by audio recordings on the TOEFL and by in-person interviews on the IELTS. 

The IELTS is graded on a scale of 1 to 9, with higher scores reflecting a better understanding of the English language and a stronger ability to communicate effectively in this language. Schools such as Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Caltech require a minimum IELTS score of 7 in order to obtain admission to undergrade programs, although incoming students routinely have scores higher than this. Most colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and the United States suggest an IELTS score of 6 to 7 in order to be considered competitive for admission. 

In order to obtain the highest possible IELTS score, set yourself up for the success you deserve and give yourself every possible advantage by partnering with experienced test prep professionals. Manhattan Review has been providing leading standardized test prep resources and materials since 1999, and we are proud to use our experience to help you achieve you own personal and professional success. We take great pride in pairing students with just the right private tutor, and our tutoring options are carefully designed with your specific learning needs taken into account. Whether you have been preparing for the IELTS for a while or have only started thinking about how you will prepare, our tutors can assist you in making the most of your study time, ensuring you cover all the necessary content and material. Our private tutors are eager to teach you the most current and effective test-taking strategies, certain to help you improve your score while also reducing any test-related anxiety you might feel prior to this important exam. Those students who work with Manhattan Review's private tutors consistently gain admission into the top English-speaking colleges and universities in the United States and around the world, including Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, New York University, Columbia University, the University of Cambridge, Cornell University, Duke University, Georgetown University, Oxford University, the University of Chicago, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, Northwestern University, American University, Rice University, the University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. 

The private tutors at Manhattan Review have each experienced their own impressive standardized test successes, but we do not only hire exceptional test-takers…we hire exceptional educators with strong backgrounds in teaching and learning theory. Our tutors are sought-after professionals who specialize in helping students just like you obtain the standardized test scores they need to advance towards their collegiate goals. Whether you prefer to learn in-person or virtually, our tutors are available during daytime, evening, and weekend hours to ensure there is always a time to study that is convenient for you and your busy schedule. Being accepted into leading English-speaking colleges and universities is becoming more competitive every day and having a stellar IELTS score is one of the best ways to make your college application stand out. If you want to take control of your future and ensure yourself a world-class education, we invite you to contact us today to learn more about preparing for the IELTS with a private tutor. Together, we can turn collegiate goals into reality, and there is always a place for you with Manhattan Review.

Meet a Chapel Hill IELTS Tutor: Blake P.

Ever since he was a child, Blake P. has loved to act, even going so far as to stage his own plays in his living room and charging his family members an admission fee to attend his productions. "The price of admission was usually a dollar, and every bit of money I made went right back into sets and costumes for my next production," he recalls with a laugh. Blake's parents quickly found a home for him at their local community theater, and he was fortunate to make strong friendships while learning the art and craft of acting. Blake worked his way up from stagehand duties to earning the starring role in countless productions. When his father's job unexpectedly required the family to relocate from Oregon to France, Blake experienced a significant culture shock, but he remembers being grateful that at least one thing remained the same: "There was a community theater close by our new house," he recalls, "and that helped me make new friends and feel like there was at least one place I belonged." 

As Blake began learning about the respected French cinema, he also found lessons at his French immersion school quite challenging, and his mother found a tutor for him to work with outside of classes. "Working one-on-one with a private tutor really accelerated my learning," he recalls. "It helped me feel so much more confident, I didn't worry about making mistakes, and that helped me use French more in everyday conversations until before I knew it, it was second nature to me." When his mother's company offered to extend her contract, Blake and his sister enthusiastically endorsed remaining in Paris for a few more years, and he soon came to view the City of Lights as his new home. When it was time to apply to college, Blake knew exactly where he wanted to go. "My mom and uncle went to Johns Hopkins University, and it somehow always felt like a family school to me," he recalls. Due to his impressive high school grades and stellar score on the ACT, plus his acting credits and other extracurricular involvement, Blake was accepted to his first-choice college and while at Johns Hopkins, he double majored in education and drama, completing student teaching projects and spending four semesters working in the college's learning lab as a tutor.

After graduating from Johns Hopkins, Blake moved across the country to Los Angeles, known around the world for its films and movie stars. He obtained a master's degree in education from the University of California at Los Angeles, and while teaching underserved high school students, Blake realized how many of his students struggled with the English language, particularly when it came to writing. "I started having students write out lines to learn them for a play, but it became a great way of helping them become more familiar with the English language, too," he shares. "They learned about grammar and punctuation and how words have more than one meaning, and I just kept thinking, ‘I love that I can help with something so important!'"

Blake obtained a TESOL certificate from the University of California at San Diego and after a few more years of teaching drama (and unofficially teaching English), he was recruited by a non-profit organization to teach English and acting overseas. Blake spent more than ten years living and teaching in Japan, Thailand, Bali, Vietnam, and South Korea, and while he loved meeting new people, he also began to like the idea of living in one place for an extended period of time. When his husband was offered a promotion that gave the family a chance to live in Chapel Hill, Blake almost immediately found a home with Manhattan Review, helping ESL students prepare for their own future academic successes. There is regularly a wait list to work with Blake and while he occasionally offers a group prep course, private tutoring and working directly with one student at a time remain his true passion. When he isn't helping the next generation of English-speakers prepare for the IELTS and college, he can be found teaching theater workshops for children, attending community and traveling theater shows across the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, and running with his adopted rescue dog, Oscar.