British Language Training Centre

I had a week intensive face-to-face course here and it really helped me to prepare for the IELTS Academic exam. Teachers Nicole and Branwen were very attentive and supportive. They made my knowledge more structured and gave very useful tips on how to improve my writing and speaking performance. As a result I received a very high score for the exam!

I liked this place. I had intensive intermediate and fluency courses "face to face". It was cool because I haven't spoken before courses. I liked first more, because it took more items of grammar and time. But If you don't have a lot of money, Fluency is good. I'm glad now I'm not afraid to speak.

I took the part-time CELTA course (Jan-Apr 2022) and absolutely loved our tutors, Iain and Claire. CELTA is a course designed by Cambridge, but Iain and Claire kept the material fun and were both supportive and fair. The staff were kind and helpful, and I enjoyed my time learning how to teach English. I highly recommended this school for any CELTA student!

Glad I had a good experience with the IELTS test at the BLTC. Fortunately, I don't really recognise some of the bad reviews. (Haven't tried any of their courses by the way.)

Location:
Housed in a historic building in the centre of Amsterdam. Easy to reach on foot and by tram. Although the faculty is quite old, it has all the necessities (toilets, waiting room, lift, decent soundproof windows). Do bear in mind that it is not the most modern exam faculty you will ever experience. You might have some problems with background noise. However, they gave me free earplugs in case I needed them.

Preparation
Make sure you book long before your desired test date. Places can sell out quite quickly. Or you may need some time to save up for the booking fee. After registering, you will receive enough online material to prepare for the exam. The practice test is recommended in any case. Also try to spend some time learning how the test is set up. (Especially writing)

Test:
On the day itself, make sure you are on time! Can't stress this enough. Even if you are a few minutes late, you still get hassle. Especially for the speaking test.

Keep in mind that you won't receive your results immediately after the test. All in all, I had a reasonable experience making my computer exam here.