IELTS Exam Cancellation

January 3, 2017

If you’re taking the IELTS, there are two types of IELTS exam cancellation that you should be aware of: cancelling test dates and cancelling test scores.

Rules for Cancelling Your IELTS Test Date

There are a few very different reasons you might cancel an IELTS test date. Maybe you need to reschedule your IELTS for a different time due to schedule conflicts. Maybe you’ve fallen ill or had some other emergency shortly before the test. Or perhaps you’ve simply decided not to take the IELTS anyway.

The IELTS has rules that cover these varied reasons for cancelling an IELTS test date.

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First, if you want to be guaranteed a refund on your IELTS, you need to cancel your testing session at least five weeks before its date. If you cancel a scheduled IELTS exam at five weeks (or longer) in advance, you will get your money back…. Or you’ll at least get back 75% of your IELTS booking fees. IELTS will still keep the remaining 25% of what you originally paid as a cancellation fee.

If you give the IELTS less than 5 weeks notice when you cancel, you aren’t guaranteed a refund. However, you may still be able to get a refund with short-notice cancellation if you cancelled due to illness or injury. To apply for a short-notice refund on a cancelled IELTS, you’ll need to provide acceptable documentation of your health problems.

One additional important policy to know: the rules for cancellation and refunds are the same whether you are cancelling and rescheduling, or are just cancelling. Rescheduling your IELTS doesn’t make you any more eligible for a refund. Moreover, you can’t simply transfer the fees from your cancelled session to your new, postponed IELTS registration.

How to Cancel Your IELTS Test Date

Cancellations of test dates are handled by local IELTS testing centres. As a result, you need to go to your regional IELTS website to download the IELTS exam cancellation forms and get instructions on where to send the forms. To give just two examples of regional web pages for this, here is the IELTS exam cancellation page for IELTS Toronto, and here’s the IELTS exam cancellation page for the British Council in India. If you’re not sure where to find your local IELTS cancellation instructions online, contact the IELTS centre where you booked the exam.

The IELTS Exam: Cancellation of Scores

A different kind of cancellation need can arise once you’ve actually taken the IELTS test. Sometimes, your scores are much lower than you had hoped, and you don’t want universities to see them.

While most standardised exams let you cancel disappointing scores, the IELTS does not. Here’s the good news, though: generally, universities only care about the highest score you get. So if your score is far too low, you can simply retake the IELTS for a better score and still get accepted to university.

Author

David Recine

David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he’s helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in many scholarly articles, his Master’s Thesis is featured on the Reading with Pictures website, and he’s presented at the WITESOL (link to PDF) and NAFSA conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru. Come join David and the Magoosh team on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, or connect with him via LinkedIn!

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18 responses to “IELTS Exam Cancellation”

Diksha sharma

August 22, 2017

My exam is held on 26 august in ludhiana.and i am from ambala.there is a big issue ragarding my reaching to ielts test centre.because of baba gurmeet ram rahim hearing in c.b.i court panchkula; all the roads will be blocked. This is a court orders that not a single vihcle are allowed on roads from 24 august to 26 august.because 25th is a judgement day and anything can happen.public who love baba rahim will take action.and i think noboday can reach to their ielts centre.i war can be held .so what can i do? Can i defer my exam??

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  August 23, 2017
  
  Hi Diksha,
  
  You need to contact your exam center and the British Council to find out what can be done. We wish you luck!
  
  Reply
Fariha Afzal

July 23, 2018

HI,
I have registered for the IELTS academic mistakenly actually had t register for IELTS UKVI. Can you please guide me what should I do since my exam is on 2nd August and I am left with less than 5 weeks so cannot ask for the refund. I will be really thankful if you can guide me.

Reply
1. David Recine
  
  July 25, 2018
  
  Actually Fariza, you can still get a refund. But with less than five weeks left, you’d get a refund of 75% of your fees, rather than a full refund. Under your circumstances, I think it might not hurt to ask for an exchange. By this, I mean that instead of getting your money back, you see if you can apply your original fee to the IELTS UKVI fee. To see if this is possible, call your test center, explain the situation, and ask. When you call your test center, you cold also check to see if a full refund is possible. and exchange or fill refund are not guaranteed, of course. But it never hurts to ask!
  
  Reply
Suhrob

September 19, 2018

Hello.
My name is Suhrob and i’m from Uzerkistan. My IELTS exam is gonna be held on October 13th, in my mind i am not confident enough whether to take the one, as my writing is poor. There are 23 days left till my exam. Nowadays Im thinking about putting off or cancellation, what can you say about this please help me. Full refund is not guaranteed, right?

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  September 21, 2018
  
  Hi Suhrob,
  
  Beceause you are within 5 weeks of your test date, you will only receive a partial refund. I recommend that you contact your testing center for more information!
  
  Reply
  1. Nitya Pandey
    
    March 4, 2019
    
    My exam date is 23 March 2019, but I am not fully prepared for it. Can I postpone my date normally or I need to give some strong reason for it. Help me please.
    
    Reply
    1. David Recine
      
      March 6, 2019
      
      You can definitely cancel and postpone your date this short notice. The only downside of this is that you are not guaranteed a full refund if you cancel less than 5 weeks in advance, as mentioned in this article. But again, you definitely can cancel and reschedule at any time before the test date!
      
      Reply
RSR

February 3, 2019

I’ve registered for ielts general, I still have 50 days time for my exam, now i want to cancel it, shall i get any refund, since i don’t have any medical reason to fill in the cancellation form, i just don’t want to take the exam, sending just the cancellation form without reason will be considered by British council for refund?

Reply
1. David Recine
  
  February 6, 2019
  
  Yes, you are eligible for a refund. And no, you don’t need to give a reason. As long as you cancel more than 5 weeks in advance, you can get 75% of your money back, no questions asked. 🙂 (Unfortunately, IELTS will keep 25% of your original fee, even with this much advance notice of cancellation.)
  
  Reply
2. Riya
  
  March 3, 2019
  
  I have registered for IELTS but couldn’t pay for it through online method as my card didn’t support international transactions. How can I get the registration cancelled immediately so that I can re-book asap using an international card?
  
  Reply
  1. David Recine
    
    March 6, 2019
    
    How stressful! In this case, you should be able to simply go in and cancel– you haven’t paid for anything yet, so you won’t lose money on the cancellation. Or you may be able to ignore that previous registration, since it’s incomplete and unpaid for, and just do a new registration.
    
    If the online IELTS registry system isn’t letting you do either of those two things, I recommend calling the test center that you selected when you attempted to register for the test. They should be able to help you straighten things out. (You may also want to call them for advice before you try anything else!)
    
    Reply
Mimi

November 11, 2019

I wanted to register for November but I met the deadline closed. I was trying to apply for the December exam and mistakenly requested for refund. Now I have a couple of days to register for December and I don’t know how I can reverse the request!

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  February 2, 2020
  
  Hi Mimi,
  
  We are a test prep company, I’m afraid we aren’t able to help you. Please contact your test center for more information!
  
  Reply
Ankit Sharma

November 1, 2020

Hi on the day exam I had high fever and suffering from UTI and was admitted. But then also I went to the exam centre but the hotel authorities did not let me inside and I missed my reading writing and listening test .. how can I reschedule the test . I have all the necessary medical documents.

Thanks in advance

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  November 13, 2020
  
  Hi Ankit, I’m sorry to hear about this issue! You should contact ETS directly for more information on next steps.
  
  Reply
Sanjana prabhu

March 16, 2022

Won’t be able to study further due to sudden financial issues in my family. Can I stil cancel? If so then how wil I provide medical certificate

Reply
1. Magoosh Test Prep Expert
  
  April 9, 2022
  
  Hi Sanjana, We’re so sorry to hear about your sudden financial issues. Note from the blog article that “if you want to be guaranteed a refund on your IELTS, you need to cancel your testing session at least five weeks before its date.” I hope this helps a bit! Best of luck to you. 🙂
  
  Reply