The ParrotTalk journal
Notes from building a 100% free IELTS practice site with AI feedback. What I tried, what broke, and what actually helped candidates.
Opening the doors, and keeping them open
The day ParrotTalk went from a private project to an open public beta, what real users taught me, and the honest plan for measuring the scoring.
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Rewriting the FAQ around proof, not promises
Rebuilding the FAQ from the actual code rather than from what I wished were true, and admitting a real gap.
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Starting to measure whether any of this works
Installing measurement early, looking at genuinely tiny numbers, and refusing to tell myself a flattering story about them.
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The day a passing test lied to me
My test suite was green. The site was broken. The day a passing test told me a comfortable lie.
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The bug that mattered most: never losing your progress
The most important fix of the whole project was not a feature. It was making sure a reload never costs you your answers.
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The honesty pass: cutting every claim I could not stand behind
The day I read every page as a suspicious stranger and struck out anything I could not stand behind.
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Ten bugs, and letting you submit one section at a time
An unglamorous bug-fix day, and the feature hiding inside the bug list: practice in the time you actually have.
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Teaching a parrot to grade a voice in one day
Building browser voice recording and AI Speaking feedback in a single day, and the messy fight it took.
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How our AI scoring works, and how accurate it is
How the band is estimated, what we calibrated to make it fair, and why it is a compass, not an official result.
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I couldn't find an IELTS site I liked, so I built one by talking to an AI
How ParrotTalk went from a one-day prototype to a real IELTS practice platform, built in the open, one honest fix at a time.
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