How GIO works

1. How GIO works

GIO is not a question dump. It keeps a running picture of your level, decides what you should do next, and opens full mock tests only when they will tell you something useful.

1. Measure. A free level test gives you a starting band for each skill — four separate numbers, not one average.
2. Plan. You set a target band and how many hours a week you can study.
3. Practise. Each day you get 3 suggested items, weakest skill first.
4. Test. Once you have covered all four skills, a full mock test unlocks.
5. Adjust. Your mock result updates each skill band, and the next round is rebuilt around whatever is still holding you back.

Steps 3 to 5 repeat. Nothing here is a fixed syllabus — every list you see is rebuilt from your latest results.

2. Accounts & verification

You can look around, take the level test and try a test without an account. An account is what makes your results persistent, and a verified email address is what unlocks anything involving money or entitlements.

What needs a verified email

• Buying any plan, and claiming a free plan
• Topping up AI credits
• Starting an adaptive study plan from your level test result

Verification is a single link sent to your inbox. If it has not arrived, you can resend it from the notice shown after sign-in.

Trying GIO without an account

• Guests and unverified accounts get 1 mock test and 1 AI scoring run.
• The limit is counted per account and per device, so making a second account on the same browser does not reset it.
• Guest results are temporary. They are kept for about 120 minutes so that asynchronous Writing and Speaking feedback can finish, then removed. Create an account before you take a test if you want to keep the result.

3. Start with the Level Test

The level test is free and is the starting point for everything adaptive. It is a short version of the real thing rather than a quiz.

It covers one section of each of the following:

• Listening
• Reading
• Writing Task 2
• Speaking

Why it comes first

• Your result becomes the starting band for each skill your plan is built around — they are kept apart, because they are rarely the same number. A learner at Listening 7.5 and Writing 3.0 needs two different kinds of material on the same day.
• It sets the difficulty of the material you are shown next, skill by skill.
• Writing and Speaking are scored against the same four criteria the real exam uses, and those criteria — not just the band — decide what you practise next.
• Adaptive Learning asks you to complete it before opening the learning hub, so that the first recommendations are based on evidence rather than a self-estimate.

You can take it as a guest, but sign in first if you want the result to feed a study plan. Start the level test.

4. Choosing a plan

Plans differ in who decides what you study. Adaptive decides for you; the packs hand you the material and let you choose.

Which one fits

• Adaptive Learning — you have a target band and a deadline, and you do not want to spend energy deciding what to study. Mock tests unlock as you progress (section 7).
• Mock Test Pack — you know your weaknesses and just want full, timed exams on demand. Pick the module you are sitting: Academic or General Training.
• Course Pack — the technique is the gap, not the practice volume. Video lessons per skill.

The packs and Adaptive stack without conflict. Owning a Mock Test Pack opens those exams directly, independent of the adaptive unlocking cycle.

5. Your daily plan

When you open your learning hub you are asked for two things: a target band (between 5.5–9.0) and how many hours a week you can study (3, 5, 7, 10). Everything after that is derived.

How the 3 daily picks are chosen

Every candidate in your pool is scored, and the highest scoring ones are shown first.

Weakness is not measured per skill only. Inside it, 35% comes from how you do on that particular topic. If your Reading is steady at 6.0 but economics passages keep going wrong, economics passages move up while the rest of your Reading stays where it is. A topic only counts once you have answered at least 5 questions on it — below that it is noise, not a weakness.

Two more rules worth knowing

• Material you have already seen is demoted, not hidden. Unseen passages come first, but revisiting something for review stays possible.
• The list is rebuilt, not ticked off. Finishing an item recalculates the ranking, so tomorrow's picks reflect today's result rather than a queue fixed on day one.

Have not started a plan yet? See how Adaptive Learning works.

6. Practice sessions

A practice session is one section of one skill — a single Listening set, one Reading passage, one Writing task, one Speaking part. It is the unit your plan works in, and it is short on purpose.

• Listening and Reading are marked the moment you submit, with the answer key and, where available, the audio script.
• Writing and Speaking have no automatic right answer, so you can request AI feedback on the submission. That costs credits — see section 11.
• Everything you attempt stays in your history for review, and you can bookmark individual questions to come back to.

Practice sessions do not consume your mock tests, and they are what opens the next mock test round.

7. Unlocking mock tests

On an adaptive plan, full mock tests are locked by default and open one round at a time. This is the single most asked-about behaviour on GIO, so here is the whole rule.

1. 1 Cover all four skills

   Complete at least one practice section in each of Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking. A skill whose current band is already at your target band counts as done — you don't have to practise it first.

2. 2 1 mock test unlocks

   Built for you section by section — each skill at its own current band, from passages and topics you have not met.

3. 3 Your result names the gap

   The 2 weakest skills in that result become the next focus.

4. 4 Close it, then the next round opens

   Complete 2 more sections in each of those 2 skills to unlock the next mock test. Again, a skill already at your target band is not held against you.

Why it is gated at all

A mock test is only informative if something has changed since the last one. Taking four in a row produces four versions of the same score and burns through unseen material you will want later. The gate forces the practice that makes the next result mean something. Once you have reached your target, the question changes from "has something improved?" to "can you do it again?" — so the gate steps aside.

What "assembled for you" actually means

A round is not picked off a shelf. It is put together at the moment you start it, and four things decide what goes in.

• Each skill gets its own difficulty. Your Listening section is built at your Listening band and your Writing tasks at your Writing band. Averaging them into one number would hand the same learner material that is far too hard in one skill and far too easy in another — and neither would measure anything.
• Passages you have already worked through are excluded, whether you met them in practice or in an earlier round.
• Topics you have already covered are pushed down the list. A different passage on a subject you have just studied is still a re-run for the person reading it.
• Two learners at the same band do not get the same test. Where several passages fit equally well, the choice is varied per learner, so your round is yours.

Details

• The difficulty of each round follows your updated bands, not the ones you started with — every skill moves independently as its results come in.
• Mock tests you have already completed stay open permanently for review.
• The level test is never gated — it is the starting measurement.
• If you own a Mock Test Pack, those exams are open immediately; this cycle only governs the ones included with an adaptive plan.

8. Taking a test

Timing

Timings follow computer-delivered IELTS.

The clock only runs while you are in that part. Moving from Reading to Writing pauses the Reading timer; it does not keep draining in the background.

If your connection drops or you close the tab

• Answers and remaining time are saved in your browser every few seconds, so reopening the test restores where you were.
• Signed-in members also checkpoint to the server, so you can resume the attempt.
• Speaking recordings that already uploaded are restored too — you do not re-record them.

Speaking

Each Speaking question runs preparation → recording → done. Allow microphone access when the browser asks; the recorder shows your input level so you can confirm it is picking you up. A recording with no audible speech is rejected rather than silently sent for scoring.

9. How scores are calculated

Listening and Reading

• Marked automatically, then converted to a band with the official IELTS raw-score conversion tables. Reading uses different tables for Academic and General Training, exactly as the real exam does.
• A section you attempted but got nothing right scores band 1. A section you did not attempt at all scores 0, and 0 counts in your overall average.

Writing

Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1, so your Writing band is (Task 1 + 2 × Task 2) ÷ 3. Your Writing band is only final once both tasks have been scored.

Overall band

• The average of your scored skills, rounded to the nearest 0.5.
• Parts still waiting for AI feedback are excluded until they finish, so your overall band rises or falls when Writing and Speaking arrive. That is expected, not a bug.

What your result changes

• Each skill band is updated on its own. Your overall band is what you see at the top of the report, but it is the four separate bands that decide the difficulty of your next round and your next practice list.
• A skill you skipped is not treated as a zero for planning. It counts as 0 in the overall average, exactly as the real exam would, but your plan keeps your last real measurement for it — skipping Writing once does not reset your Writing level.

10. AI feedback for Writing & Speaking

Writing and Speaking are scored by AI against the four official IELTS criteria. Scoring runs in the background: you can leave the results page and come back, and the status updates in place.

What you get

Timing and retries

• The analysis itself usually finishes in under 30 seconds. Allow a few minutes end to end — at busy times your submission waits in a queue first, and Speaking takes longer than Writing because the recording is transcribed.
• A failed run is retried automatically. If it fails permanently, the credit is returned to your balance.
• You can ask for a re-score of a part you already had scored; a re-score is a new run and costs a credit. Each part can be re-scored up to twice.

AI feedback is a training signal, not an official IELTS result. Use the criteria comments to see why a band was given — that is where the study value is.

11. AI credits

Credits pay for AI analysis only. Practising, sitting tests, automatic marking, answer keys and video lessons never cost credits.

Where credits come from

• GIO Adaptive Learning includes 10 credits.
• GIO Adaptive Learning — 60 Days includes 20 credits.
• Top-ups are available in My page › AI Credits: 10 for $4.90 · 30 for $14.90 · 100 for $49.90.

If you run out mid-result

Nothing is lost. The parts that could not be scored are held with your answer or recording intact and marked as awaiting credits; top up and run them, and they pick up where they stopped. Credits do not expire, and they are not withdrawn when a plan's access period ends.

12. Your access period

• Access starts at purchase and runs for the number of days shown on the plan (plans without a stated period run for 90 days).
• Buying a second adaptive plan while one is running does not overwrite it. The new one is queued and starts the moment the current one ends, so no paid time is thrown away and only one plan drives your recommendations at a time.
• AI credits have no access period — they sit in your balance until used.
• A free plan, such as the level test hub, does not expire.

When a plan expires

Your history stays: past results, feedback, scores and bookmarks remain readable in My page. What stops is access to the plan's content and new recommendations. Renewing restores the hub and picks up from your existing band history rather than starting you over.

13. Tracking progress

Your learning hub also shows a per-skill picture. Listening and Reading are driven by your accuracy across everything you have answered; Writing and Speaking follow your most recent scored bands, since there is no right-answer count to accumulate.

14. Video courses

Courses teach the method — how to attack a matching-headings task, how to structure a Task 2 argument, what examiners listen for. They are the right answer when practice alone has stopped moving your band.

• Lessons resume from where you stopped, and progress is recorded per lesson.
• Your courses live in My page › Lectures.
• See what the GIO Full Course Pack includes.

15. Billing & refunds

• Payment is by PayPal, which also accepts cards. Your email address must be verified first.
• You are charged the price shown at checkout. If a promotion is running, the promotional price is what is charged — there is no separate code to enter.
• Access is granted as soon as the payment completes; it appears in My page › Orders.
• For a refund, contact support with your order. Refunds can be full or partial, and a refunded plan's access normally ends at that point. Credits already included with a plan are not clawed back.

16. Getting help

• FAQ — microphone problems, questions not loading, submission errors, password resets.
• Contact & help — search first, then ask if it is not covered.
• Q&A — post a question and get a reply. Spotted a wrong answer key? Report it there with the test and question number; corrections go into the question bank.