We present two defect correction schemes to accelerate the Petrov-Galerkin finite element methods [19] for nonlinear Volterra integro-differential equations. Using asymptotic expansions of the errors, we show that the defect correction schemes can yield higher order approximations to either the exact solution or its derivative. One of these schemes even does not impose any extra regularity requirement on the exact solution. As by-products, all of these higher order numerical methods can also be...