Are you studying for IELTS every day but still struggling to improve your band score? A well-structured IELTS study plan can change that, because simply doing more practice tests isn't always the answer. Many students spend too much time practising skills they're already good at, while the weaknesses that are keeping their scores down remain unchanged. A good plan helps you focus on the areas that need the most improvement, practise all four test sections regularly, and track your progress so you know exactly what to work on before test day.
We've built two IELTS study plans for you: a one-month intensive plan if your test is close, and a six-month plan if you also want to raise your English. Both cover all four sections every study day, include full-length practice tests, and use our AI Tutor on your weakest band criteria. Both work for Academic and General Training. Follow the plans below, or download the two free PDF guides. If you'd like to see everything the course gives you first, read our guide to the BestMyTest IELTS preparation course.
This plan is for you if your English is already intermediate or better and your IELTS test is within the next four weeks.
Is your test less than a month away? Four weeks isn't long, but it's enough if you spend it well. You won't have time to rebuild your English, so this plan keeps you focused on the test itself: you'll learn how every IELTS question type works, practise all four sections every study day, and get rid of the mistakes that cost you the most marks. Your practice load goes up through the first three weeks. In the last week you'll ease off, spend your time on your weakest criteria, and take a final full-length test.
Start with a diagnostic full-length test so you know your current band in each section. Then work through every Reading and Listening question type, record your first Speaking answers, and write your first Task 1 and Task 2 responses. Review each result so you can see which criteria need the most work.
Raise your daily question count and learn a strategy for each question type, such as how you handle True/False/Not Given or Matching Headings. Use AI Tutor lessons on whatever your Week 1 reviews showed you, whether that's paraphrase recognition, pronunciation or Task 2 paragraphing.
Move most of your practice to exam timing: about 20 minutes per Reading passage, Listening parts played once, Task 1 in 20 minutes and Task 2 in 40. At the end of the week, take a second full-length practice test and compare it with your diagnostic.
Keep all four sections going at a lighter volume and give your extra time to the two or three weaknesses that still show up in your reviews. Take your final full-length test early in the week, review it, and then rest before the exam.
Click a week below to see how much you'll practise across its six study days. You'll notice the totals climb from Week 1 to Week 3 as you get faster, then drop in Week 4. That's deliberate: we want you walking into the test rested, not worn out.
A quick note on the Speaking numbers: a Part 1 set is a group of short interview questions on one topic, and a Part 3 practice is a run of related discussion questions. On a full-length test day, the test replaces your usual exercises. Use your next session to review the result section by section before you go back to the schedule.
So what does one study day look like? You'll work on all four sections. Start with Reading and Listening, because you can check those answers quickly. Then give Speaking and Writing the bigger blocks, since you need time to record or write and then read your feedback. Save the last block for AI Tutor exercises on whatever your reviews showed you that day.
Treat the 150 minutes as a guide, not a rule. If you write a Task 2 essay and review it properly, you'll probably go past 45 minutes, and a Part 2 cue-card session is quicker than a full Part 3 discussion. Let the session run long when the review is worth it. Whatever you do, don't skip the review; that's where the improvement happens.
| Activity | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading questions | 10–12 | 13–15 | 17–19 | 12–14 |
| Listening questions | 10–12 | 13–15 | 17–19 | 12–14 |
| Speaking | 2 practices | 2–3 practices | 3–4 practices | 2–3 practices |
| Writing | 1 task/day | 1 task/day | 1 task/day | 1 task/day |
| AI Tutor | 20–30 min | 20–30 min | 20–30 min | 20–30 min |
These are your targets for an ordinary study day. Write one Task 1 or Task 2 response every day and alternate them through the week; you'll find the rotation in the writing schedule further down the page. For Speaking, rotate Parts 1, 2 and 3 so that you never leave a part untouched for more than two days.
Keep in mind that how many questions you finish matters far less than what you do with the ones you got wrong. Every mistake you review and fix with AI Tutor is a mark you're less likely to lose on test day. If you have more than a month, keep reading, because the six-month plan below gives you room to improve your English as well as your technique.
This plan is for you if you need to raise your overall English, not just your test technique, before you sit IELTS.
Have six months? Good, because you can use them to improve the English behind your band score and not just your exam skills. In the first half of the plan you'll spend most of your time on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening and pronunciation, with a steady but modest amount of IELTS practice alongside. In the second half you'll flip that balance: timed passages, complete Listening parts, full Speaking interviews, two-task Writing tests, and regular full-length practice tests.
The chart below shows how your study time should divide between English fundamentals and IELTS practice each month. You'll practise all four sections from the first week, but in Months 1 and 2 you'll give the bigger share to AI Tutor lessons that fix the weaknesses your reviews keep showing you. As those weaknesses disappear, you'll move more of your time to timed IELTS practice.
A suggested split of your study time. If a practice test shows one section falling behind, move some time back to the fundamentals that section depends on.
Learn the shape of the test, take your first full-length practice test, and start repairing the English weaknesses it shows you.
Keep the same routine with more questions a day, and go after the mistakes you keep making from week to week.
Add exam timing to most of your sessions, widen your Speaking topics, and close the month with a full-length test.
Work at full exam pace in every section and raise the quality of your Task 1 reports or letters and your Task 2 essays.
Two weeks of timed section practice, then two full-length tests that you compare side by side.
Rehearse under real conditions, clear your last recurring errors, and ease off in the final week.
Your first three months run on one routine. Each study day you practise, you review the result, you fix the weakness behind your mistakes with AI Tutor, and then you test the repair on new questions. What changes from month to month is the volume: you'll answer more Reading and Listening questions a day, do more Speaking sets, and spend a growing share of your time on timed work.
Your Reading and Listening questions a day. Add one Writing task, your Speaking sets and 20–30 minutes of AI Tutor on top.
Answer the day's Reading and Listening questions, record a Speaking set, and write a Task 1 or Task 2 response. Make sure you cover the question types you find hard as often as the ones you find easy.
Go through each wrong answer and each piece of band feedback. Ask yourself whether the cause was your English (a word you didn't know, a number you misheard, a grammar slip) or your technique (reading too slowly, missing a distractor, not answering the whole question).
Open the AI Tutor skill or lesson that matches the cause and work through it. If you keep missing Matching Headings, for instance, a lesson on paraphrase recognition will do more for you than another ten questions.
Go back to fresh IELTS questions or a new prompt and watch for the same mistake. If it's gone, move on. If it's back, repeat the lesson before you add more practice.
Your goal: Learn how every part of IELTS works and find out which English skills are holding your band down.
Take a full-length practice test in your first week; your section bands will tell you where to start. For the rest of the month, keep your daily question count low and give the bigger share of each session to AI Tutor lessons on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening and pronunciation. Record short Speaking answers and write short responses from the start, so your feedback begins early. Don't worry if this month feels slow. You're laying the ground for everything that follows.
| Section | Daily practice |
|---|---|
| Reading | 7–10 questions |
| Listening | 8–10 questions |
| Speaking | 1 Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3 practice set |
| Writing | 1 Task 1 or Task 2 response |
| AI Tutor | 20–30 minutes of targeted skills and lessons |
Match each lesson to a mistake you actually made. If your True/False/Not Given answers keep going wrong, you need the lesson on telling a contradiction from something that isn't there. If your Task 2 feedback says your ideas aren't developed, you need the lesson on backing up a main idea with reasons and an example, not a grammar lesson.
By the end of Month 1: you'll know the format of all four sections and you'll have a short list of the English weaknesses that matter most for your band.
Your goal: Turn last month's list of weaknesses into a shorter one while you handle more questions a day.
Keep the four-step routine and raise your daily counts. Half of your time now goes to IELTS practice, so start learning a method for each question type, and note which types you still get wrong after you've used the method. Keep writing one task a day, and move from single Speaking parts to sets that cover Parts 1 to 3.
| Section | Daily practice |
|---|---|
| Reading | 12–15 questions |
| Listening | 13–15 questions |
| Speaking | 2 practice sets covering Parts 1–3 |
| Writing | 1 Task 1 or Task 2 response |
| AI Tutor | 20–30 minutes of targeted skills and lessons |
Watch for the mistakes that survive from one week to the next. If you lost a Listening answer to a distractor, where the speaker corrects a time or changes a decision, do the distractor lesson before you attempt more Listening parts. If your Task 1 report lists every figure, do the lesson on picking out the main features. Let the band feedback on each Writing task choose your next lesson, rather than guessing.
By the end of Month 2: you'll read and listen with better comprehension, you'll have a method for each question type, and your Speaking and Writing feedback will show fewer repeated errors.
Your goal: Keep your accuracy while you add volume and exam timing.
Most of your sessions now include a timed element: a Reading passage in about 20 minutes, a Listening part played once, a Task 2 essay in 40 minutes. Give the hardest question types extra attention and practise Speaking on topics you haven't met before, so that your Part 3 doesn't depend on a familiar subject. End the month with a full-length practice test and compare it with the one you took in Month 1.
| Section | Daily practice |
|---|---|
| Reading | 17–22 questions |
| Listening | 18–23 questions |
| Speaking | 2–3 practice sets covering Parts 1–3 |
| Writing | 1 Task 1 or Task 2 response |
| AI Tutor | 20–30 minutes of targeted skills and lessons |
Once you add the clock, you'll see new mistakes. If you run out of time on the third Reading passage, you need a skimming lesson. If you lose Listening answers because you were still writing the previous one, you need note-taking practice. Keep going back to AI Tutor for the errors that timing brings out, and keep the lessons short so you still have time for the timed practice itself.
By the end of Month 3: you'll finish most sections close to exam time, your section bands will have moved up from your Month 1 test, and your repeated mistakes will be down to a handful.
Your goal: Work at full exam pace in every section without losing accuracy, and push up your Speaking and Writing bands.
From now on you'll do Reading and Listening at exam timing every day: whole passages against the clock and complete Listening parts without pausing. In Speaking, practise two-minute cue-card talks from brief notes and the abstract questions of Part 3. In Writing, work on the things that decide your band, such as a clear overview in Task 1, a position you carry through the whole of your Task 2 essay, and the range and accuracy of your grammar and vocabulary. Keep writing one task a day, and take a full-length practice test at the end of the month.
| Section | Main improvement target |
|---|---|
| Reading | Timed passages, skimming, scanning and paraphrases |
| Listening | One-listen comprehension, note-taking and distractors |
| Speaking | Part 2 fluency, Part 3 development and pronunciation |
| Writing | Task 1 organization and Task 2 argument development |
For Speaking, use the pronunciation feedback on each recording to pick two or three sounds or stress patterns you'll work on, and practise speaking in thought groups rather than word by word. For Writing, compare each task's band feedback with the previous one and give your next lesson to the criterion that moved the least.
By the end of Month 4: you'll finish Reading and Listening inside the time limits, you'll hold a two-minute Part 2 talk comfortably, and your Task 1 and Task 2 responses will be organized and on task.
Your goal: Make your performance consistent across whole sections and whole tests.
This month you'll spend most of your time on timed practice and review. In the first two weeks you'll work section by section; in the last two you'll build your week around full-length tests. After each test, sort your lost marks by question type and by band criterion, then give your remaining study time to the two or three causes that come up most often.
| Week | Study focus |
|---|---|
| Week 17 | Timed Reading passages and complete Listening parts every day |
| Week 18 | Full Speaking interviews and 60-minute two-task Writing tests |
| Week 19 | Full-length practice test, then AI Tutor work on the weakest criteria |
| Week 20 | Second full-length test and a side-by-side comparison with Week 19 |
It's tempting to keep practising the section you're already good at. Don't. If your Listening is on target and your Writing is a band behind, that's where your extra time goes, even though Listening practice feels more rewarding. And keep your daily Writing task going on every day that isn't a test day.
By the end of Month 5: your two practice tests will score within half a band of each other, and both will sit close to your target.
Your goal: Arrive at the test confident, rested and free of your old recurring mistakes.
Everything you do this month happens under exam conditions. Practise the Writing paper as a single 60-minute sitting with both tasks, run complete Speaking interviews, and take two more full-length tests. Between them, work only on the errors you already know how to fix.
| Week | Study activities |
|---|---|
| Week 21 | Full-length practice test and a thorough review of every section |
| Week 22 | Intensive practice on your weakest question types and band criteria |
| Week 23 | Final full-length practice test and a last review of recurring errors |
| Week 24 | Light practice, a complete Speaking interview, topic vocabulary review, and rest |
Don't take on new strategies in your last week. A half-learned method will cost you more marks than a familiar one. Keep your final two days short, go over your topic vocabulary and your Speaking notes, and make sure you sleep properly before the test.
By the end of Month 6: you'll know the test, you'll trust your methods, and your practice results will sit steadily at the band you're aiming for.
| Activity | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 7–10 | 12–15 | 17–22 |
| Listening | 8–10 | 13–15 | 18–23 |
| Speaking | 1 set | 2 sets | 2–3 sets |
| Writing | 1 task/day | 1 task/day | 1 task/day |
| AI Tutor | 20–30 min | 20–30 min | 20–30 min |
Read these numbers as guides, not quotas. On a full-length test day, the test replaces your ordinary targets, and on a day with a long Task 2 review you'll get through fewer questions. What you should keep fixed is the routine: practise, review, fix, apply.
One more thing: a higher question count only helps you when each wrong answer teaches you something. Through all six months, use AI Tutor to raise the English behind your band, not just to get through more questions. Next, let's look at your daily writing practice, and then at how to prepare for each section.
Whichever plan you follow, you'll write one task every study day and alternate the two task types. If you're taking Academic, you'll describe a chart, table, map or process for Task 1. If you're taking General Training, you'll write a letter. Both of you write an essay for Task 2, and the rotation below also cycles through the main Task 2 essay types, so none of them will be new to you on test day.
| Day | Task |
|---|---|
| Monday | Task 2: opinion essay |
| Tuesday | Task 1: Academic report or General Training letter |
| Wednesday | Task 2: discussion or two-part question |
| Thursday | Task 1: Academic report or General Training letter |
| Friday | Task 2: problems/solutions or advantages/disadvantages |
| Saturday | Task 1: Academic report or General Training letter |
| Sunday | Rest or optional review |
After each task, read your band feedback criterion by criterion: task achievement or response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy. Take your lowest criterion to the matching AI Tutor skill, such as supporting details, paragraph organization, sentence variety or grammar, and then rewrite your weakest paragraph before the next day's task. It's a little tedious, but it's the fastest way to move your Writing band.
As your test gets closer, replace the single task now and then with a full 60-minute Writing paper covering both tasks. Remember that Task 2 counts for twice as much as Task 1, so give it the bigger share of your hour and of your review time.
Each section rewards a different mix of English skill and test technique. Below, we'll tell you what to practise in each one, which mistakes to watch for, and how to use our AI Tutor to fix the cause rather than the symptom.
Let's start with the two things that run through every section. Two of your four band criteria in Speaking and Writing are lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy, and the same vocabulary and grammar decide how much you understand in Reading and Listening. Work on them every week, not only when a lesson points you to them.
Aim for words and structures you can use correctly under time pressure. A rare word used wrongly will cost you more than a common word used well.
In the Reading test you get 60 minutes for three passages and 40 questions, with no extra time to transfer your answers. If you're taking Academic, your passages are academic articles. If you're taking General Training, you'll read workplace and everyday texts and then one longer article. The question types are the same for both, and each one needs its own method.
Build your accuracy first, then bring each passage down to about 20 minutes.
In the Listening test you'll hear four recordings and answer 40 questions, and each recording plays once. The parts get harder as you go: an everyday conversation, a monologue on a general topic, a discussion in an academic setting, and a lecture. You need the exact detail and the overall meaning at the same time.
Outside your practice sessions, listen to English in several accents every day. The test uses British, Australian and North American speakers, so make sure you're comfortable with all of them.
Your Speaking test is a face-to-face interview of 11 to 14 minutes in three parts: short questions about yourself, a two-minute talk from a cue card, and a discussion of more abstract questions. The examiner scores your fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation.
For Part 2, practise making notes in your one-minute preparation time and speaking for the full two minutes without stopping early.
Your Writing paper lasts 60 minutes. Task 1 is a report on visual data if you're taking Academic and a letter if you're taking General Training; Task 2 is an essay for both and carries twice the weight. Your band comes from task achievement or response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy.
Give yourself about 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 for Task 2, and leave two minutes at the end of each to check your grammar and word count.
Whichever section you're working on, you'll improve the same way, with a four-step loop:
Answer Reading and Listening questions, record Speaking responses, and write Task 1 and Task 2 responses, so that every skill gives you evidence of where you stand.
Look at your wrong answers and your band feedback and name the cause: a vocabulary gap, a grammar habit, a pronunciation issue, weak organization, or a question-type method you haven't learned yet.
Complete the lesson or interactive exercise built for that cause. Each one teaches you the skill and makes you use it before you leave.
Go back to new IELTS questions or a new prompt and check that the error has gone. If it hasn't, repeat the lesson before you add more practice.
Keep all four sections in every week, but let your reviews decide where your extra minutes go. As your results settle, move more of your time to timed practice and full-length tests.
Keep in mind that the band you're after is a measure of your English, and the test is only how it's measured. Every lesson that removes a cause of error raises your band on questions you've never seen. That's what you're really preparing for.
BestMyTest IELTS Study Plans · For IELTS Academic and General Training · Suggested targets, not official IELTS requirements.