A six-week study plan

Six weeks of steady work, about ninety minutes a day, is a sensible preparation for someone whose English is already at a working level. This plan is our suggestion. Change it to fit your time and your weak areas.

Before you start

1. Confirm which version you need and the band you need in each section, from the organisation itself.
2. Take one full practice test from the official sample materials, under real timing, to find your starting point.
3. Note your two weakest sections. They get extra time every week.

Week 1: know the test

• Read the test format and band scores pages.
• Try each question type once, slowly, without a clock.
• Start a vocabulary notebook by topic.
• Speak English aloud for ten minutes a day. Record one answer.

Week 2: Listening and Reading method

• One listening practice a day. Check answers, then listen again with the wrong ones in mind.
• One reading section a day in twenty minutes.
• Keep an error log: for each wrong answer, the reason.

Week 3: Writing Task 2

• Read the four criteria pages, starting with task response.
• Write three essays this week from our practice questions: plan five minutes, write thirty, check five.
• Compare each with a sample essay. If you can, have a teacher or a fluent friend mark one.

Week 4: Writing Task 1 and Speaking

• Three Task 1 answers: data for Academic, letters for General Training. Twenty minutes each.
• Speaking every day: five Part 1 questions and one cue card, recorded.
• Listen to your recordings for long pauses and repeated errors.

Week 5: full tests

• Two full tests, on two separate days, under exact timing with no pauses.
• Between them, work only on what the error log shows.
• Practise Part 3 with a partner if possible.

Week 6: repair and rest

• One more full test early in the week.
• Review your list of personal grammar errors and misspelt words.
• Read the common mistakes page once more.
• The day before: light revision only, and sleep.

A daily ninety minutes

Use the timers

Our practice timer has the official times built in: 20 and 40 minutes for the writing tasks, 60 for reading, and the one minute and two minutes of Speaking Part 2.

If your level needs more than six weeks

A plan like this sharpens test skills. It cannot raise general English by several bands in a few weeks. If your first practice test is far below your target, give yourself months, not weeks, and spend most of that time on reading, listening and speaking real English every day.

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Independent practice site. IELTS Practice is not connected with, approved by or endorsed by the British Council, IDP IELTS or Cambridge University Press & Assessment, who jointly own IELTS. The practice tasks and sample answers here are our own; they are not official test questions, and we do not award bands. Facts about the test were read on ielts.org on 12 November 2026. For registration, fees, dates and official sample tests, go to ielts.org.