Verdict up front: IELTS Simon remains one of the most trusted names in IELTS writing instruction in 2026 - an ex-examiner whose radically simple method and Band 9 model answers have aged remarkably well, now hosted at ielts-simon.study. The ebooks and videos are worth their one-off prices.
We rate it 8.5/10; for measured practice with feedback, IELTSbiz is the stronger platform.
Some IELTS teachers built brands; Simon built a doctrine. "You don't need difficult grammar to get Band 9" is still, fifteen years on, the most quietly radical sentence in IELTS preparation - and it happens to be true.
What is IELTS Simon?
IELTS Simon is the teaching identity of Simon Corcoran, a former IELTS examiner from Manchester who left his university job in 2010 to teach IELTS full time.
His daily-lesson blog became one of the most widely read IELTS resources ever created: short posts, each making one point, backed by model answers written to genuine Band 9 standard.
A practical 2026 note: the original blog's hosting platform shut down at the end of September 2025, and the content migrated to ielts-simon.study, the current members' site, alongside the long-standing ielts-simon.com homepage.
If you find dead links to old blog posts around the web, that is why - the material is not gone, just moved.
The paid catalogue is deliberately small: a set of ebooks collecting his best lessons and model answers by module, and a video course walking through his method for each paper, sold as one-off purchases with lifetime access.
Who is IELTS Simon for?
Simon suits candidates drowning in complexity: anyone who has been told they need "advanced vocabulary" and "complex structures" and watched their score fall as their sentences inflated. His method strips writing back to clear position, clear paragraphs, precise simple language - and examiners reward it because clarity is what the descriptors actually describe.
He also suits budget self-studiers: the accumulated free lessons plus a modest one-off ebook purchase amount to a complete writing education for less than most monthly subscriptions.
He fits less well if you need interactivity, personal feedback, or polished modern production - the materials are text-first, minimal and unchanged in spirit from the blog era.
What you actually get
The lesson archive
The migrated archive is the foundation: years of daily lessons covering every module, searchable by topic. The Writing Task 2 material is the crown jewel - dozens of full Band 9 essays with the thinking explained, demonstrating again and again that simple, well-organised English scores at the top of the scale.
The ebooks
The ebooks collect and organise the method by module - Task 1, Task 2, Reading, Speaking - into downloadable PDFs with model answers and commentary. Their value is curation: the blog's best decade, arranged as a syllabus instead of a scroll. They are one-off purchases; check ielts-simon.study for current prices as of 2026.
The video course
The video course walks through the method on real-style tasks across all parts of the exam, in the same plain register as the writing: no theatrics, just an examiner's eye moving through a task the way he wants you to. Lifetime access comes with the one-off payment, and lessons or sections can be bought separately.
Pricing (as of 2026)
| Tier | What you get | Price (as of 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Lesson archive | Years of daily lessons and model answers | Free / members' site |
| Ebooks | Curated method and model answers by module, PDF | One-off purchase - check site for current prices |
| Video course | Method walkthroughs for every paper, lifetime access | One-off purchase, sections available separately |
Prices have historically been modest one-off sums rather than subscriptions - part of the brand's long-standing fairness - but verify current figures on the site, especially post-migration.
Pros and cons
Pros
Genuine ex-examiner authority - the method describes the descriptors from the inside. The most convincing Band 9 model answers in the business, precisely because they avoid showing off. One-off pricing with lifetime access. A "simple is better" doctrine that measurably helps over-complicated writers. Fifteen years of consistency.
Cons
No feedback loop: Simon teaches and models, but nothing in the product reads your writing or marks your answers. The materials are static and text-first, with production values from the blog era. The 2025 migration left broken links scattered across the wider web.
And there is no practice engine or measurement - you study the method, then must source timed practice and scoring elsewhere.
Verdict: 8.5/10
IELTS Simon earns an 8.5/10. As pure writing instruction it is still arguably the best-calibrated material available anywhere, at honest one-off prices, from a teacher whose examiner credentials show in every model answer.
The missing points are the modern ones: no feedback on your work, no practice engine, no measurement. Simon tells you what good looks like; he cannot tell you how far from it you currently are.
The best alternative: IELTSbiz
Full disclosure before this section: IELTSbiz is our own platform, so weigh that as you read. We think the case stands on the facts either way.
Simon's method and IELTSbiz's measurement are two halves of the same preparation. Once his lessons teach you that a clear, simple essay scores Band 9, the operational question becomes: is my essay that essay yet?
The IELTSbiz Writing Checker answers it in seconds, grading against all four official criteria with sentence-level reasons - and its accuracy is published: IELTSbiz's study of 1,200 essays found AI band scores matched human examiners within ±0.5 bands in 94.2% of cases.
Reading gets the same treatment Simon's static materials cannot provide: Cambridge-style generated passages by question type, trap-level feedback on every wrong answer, and per-question-type band tracking that turns weeks of practice into a visible trend.
Pricing keeps the Simon spirit: free to start with no card, then $6.99/month or a one-off $29 lifetime plan (pricing) - the lifetime option being exactly the kind of pay-once fairness his ebooks pioneered.
The honest pairing: Simon's ebooks for the doctrine, IELTSbiz for the loop - write, check, fix one criterion, repeat. Between them a self-studier gets what a good tutor provides, for under $50 total as of 2026.
IELTS Simon vs IELTSbiz at a glance
| Feature | IELTS Simon | IELTSbiz |
|---|---|---|
| Price (as of 2026) | Modest one-off ebook and course purchases | Free to start; $6.99/month or $29 lifetime |
| Writing feedback | Model answers and method, no marking | AI four-criteria band report in seconds, study-validated |
| Reading practice | Lessons and strategies, static | Unlimited generated passages with trap-level feedback |
| Band tracking | None | Per-question-type band tracking across sessions |
| Free tier | Large free lesson archive | Full practice loop with daily limits, no card |
Beyond Writing: the reading and speaking materials
Writing made the name, but the other modules deserve a note.
The reading lessons teach a spare, repeatable passage-attack method - read the questions' demands first, locate by keyword and paraphrase, answer from the text rather than from opinion - that pairs naturally with his general distrust of tricks.
There are no speed-reading gimmicks, just procedure, which is why it holds up under exam pressure.
The speaking materials apply the same simplicity doctrine out loud: full, natural answers in plain English, with model responses that sound like a fluent person talking rather than a textbook reciting. For candidates who have been coached into overwrought "advanced" answers, the recalibration is often worth half a band by itself.
Listening gets the lightest coverage of the four - reasonable, since listening improves through volume of practice more than through method, and volume is exactly what a lesson archive cannot provide.
The cross-module constant is the voice: one examiner's judgment, consistently applied. That coherence is rare and valuable - and it is also why the materials pair so well with a practice platform that supplies the volume and the measurement the archive deliberately does not attempt.
Why simple English outscores complex English
The doctrine deserves its own section because so many candidates disbelieve it. The Writing descriptors reward accurate and appropriate language at every level - and penalise error density hard.
A candidate producing error-free simple and compound sentences demonstrates more control than one producing broken conditionals, and control is what the Grammatical Range and Accuracy descriptor actually measures.
Simon's model essays prove the point by existing: they contain no exotic vocabulary and no acrobatic grammar, and they would score Band 9 because every sentence is precise, every paragraph coheres and every part of the question is answered. The sophistication is structural, not decorative.
The practical translation for your next essay: only write a sentence pattern you can finish correctly under pressure. Range grows in practice, not in the exam hall - the exam is where you deploy what is already reliable.
Ebooks or video course: which to buy first
If you must choose, the writing ebook is the higher-yield first purchase for most candidates: Writing is the section where the method is most distinctive, where self-study most often goes wrong, and where model answers carry the most information per page. It is also the cheaper experiment.
The video course earns its place for candidates who process demonstration better than text - watching the method applied to a live task teaches pacing and decision-making that the page cannot. Reading-weak candidates should note the reading materials specifically: the passage-attack method is simple and repeatable.
Because everything is one-off with lifetime access, sequencing costs you nothing: buy one, use it fully, buy the next if the first earned it.
What the 2025 migration means for you
Practically, three things. First, old bookmarks and forum links to the blog-era URLs are dead - search for the lesson title at ielts-simon.study instead, as the material largely survives at the new home.
Second, purchases and membership now run through the new site, so treat it as the canonical source and ignore third-party rehosts of his PDFs, which are both unauthorised and frequently outdated.
Third, the migration is a useful reminder about single-teacher resources generally: archives move, platforms close. Take notes as you study rather than relying on the URL being there next year - the method fits comfortably in a notebook, which was always rather the point of it.
How to study the Simon method properly
Do not read model answers - reverse-engineer them. Take a Band 9 model, outline its paragraph logic in four lines, then write your own answer to the same question from that outline before re-reading his. The gap between the two drafts is your personal syllabus.
Then quantify the gap: run your version through the Writing Checker and see which criterion sits lowest. Simon's simplicity doctrine most often lifts Grammatical Range scores - because error-free simple sentences beat broken complex ones - but only measurement tells you whether that is your cap or whether Task Response is.
For the surrounding field, see our guides to the Band 7 essay structure, how Writing is actually scored, and the best IELTS websites in 2026.
Bottom line: who should choose what
Choose IELTS Simon if you want the clearest doctrine in IELTS writing from a genuine ex-examiner, at pay-once prices: study the free archive, then buy the writing ebook when you want the method as a syllabus. Over-complicated writers - the Band 6.5 candidates drowning in memorised "advanced" phrases - benefit most and fastest.
Look elsewhere first if you need modern production, interactivity or any feedback on your own work; the materials are deliberately spartan, and they mark nothing.
Choose IELTSbiz for the loop the archive cannot close: a validated four-criteria checker to score the essays Simon teaches you to write, generated reading passages with trap-level feedback, and per-question-type band tracking - free to start, $6.99/month or $29 lifetime.
The method tells you what Band 9 looks like; the measurement tells you your distance from it, essay by essay.
Together they cost less than $50 as of 2026 and cover what a private tutor charges hundreds for: doctrine, practice and verification. Few pairings in IELTS preparation are this cheap and this complete.