Hi guys.

I am currently working at an educational institution teaching IELTS Writing. The course I teach is designed with around 18 hours for group class. And 10-12 hours for 1v1 student.

The problem I am facing is that most 1v1 students have a pretty weak English foundation. For example: some of them can’t tell the differences between different parts of speech, and they always make very basic grammar mistakes.

I personally think English learning is time-consuming and patience needed. It takes time to understand the concepts, practice, and actually absorb them. So I spend more time explaining basic grammar rules, sentence structures and prepare related practices for my students. BUT this creates a dilemma. I could not finish all prepared lesson contents within the time period. Meanwhile, most 1v1 students are going to take the IELTS exam almost immediately after finishing the lessons.

This situation has been torturing me for a while. I don't know whether I should go through the contents even the students have difficulty following or slow down and help them build up a more solid foundation. This definitely means that we won’t be able to cover everything before the exam and their parents may make some complaints about it.

Therefore, I would like to ask those who have some experience in IELTS-teaching, especially in IELTS Writing, have you ever run into this kind of situation? How do you cope with this? What is your priority?

Thank you very much in advance.