Started ELSA prep in late February with an overall score of 4.5 and just got results showing 6.9. Posting this because when I was looking for real improvement timelines I couldn't find many specific accounts - just generic advice. My target was 6.5 for a visa application so I'm happy with where I landed.
The biggest gains came from pronunciation drilling, not grammar study. Went from 4.1 to 6.8 in pronunciation specifically by spending 45 minutes daily on minimal pairs and connected speech patterns. My native language is Vietnamese and the English consonant clusters are genuinely hard - th, str, spr sounds. I recorded myself every single day and listened back the same night, which felt awful but made a measurable difference by week 4.
Fluency score went from 4.8 to 6.7 which surprised me. I focused on reducing pause frequency rather than speaking faster. Counted filler words in recordings and set weekly targets. By week 8 I was down from an average of 14 fillers per minute to about 4.
The areas with smallest gains were vocabulary (4.3 to 5.1) and conversation (4.6 to 6.1). Vocabulary improvement just takes longer. If your target is above 6.5 in vocabulary alone, plan for at least 16-20 weeks, not 11.
Vocabulary gains being slower tracks with my experience. I studied 14 weeks and vocabulary went from 4.7 to 5.4, which felt disappointing but apparently that's just the nature of passive vocabulary building.
Fluency and pronunciation are where you can actually move the needle in weeks rather than months.
The self-recording approach is underrated. Most people resist it because hearing yourself is uncomfortable but the feedback loop is faster than anything else.
Vietnamese to English pronunciation challenges are specific - did you use any particular resource for the consonant cluster work?
The filler word counting strategy is something I hadn't considered. I'm at 4.9 overall and fluency is my weakest area. Starting a recording log tonight.
Going from 4.5 to 6.9 in 11 weeks is a significant jump. The 45 minutes daily pronunciation drilling is the key detail here - most people do 15-20 minutes and wonder why progress stalls.