IELTS in four weeks: a plan for all four skills with a fixed date

When the date is fixed, the question changes from “how do I get better at IELTS” to “which few things can move in 28 days”. This plan answers that for all four skills at once: where the arithmetic lets a month help, what to measure first, how the weeks run and what to leave out.

What four weeks can and cannot change

IELTS publishes nothing on how much a band can move in four weeks, and this page does not present a study-hours figure as research. What a month can do is shown by the scoring rule. IELTS.org says the overall band is the average of the four sections rounded to the nearest half band, with an average ending in .25 going up to the next half band and one ending in .75 going up to the next whole band.

That rule makes the target a sum. For an overall 6.5 the four bands must add to at least 25, and for 7.0 to at least 27; each half band in one skill adds 0.5. Take Listening 6.5, Reading 6.5, Writing 5.5 and Speaking 6.0: the sum is 24.5, an average of 6.125 and an overall 6.0. Writing up half a band to 6.0 makes the sum 25 and the average 6.25, which rounds up to an overall 6.5. Take instead Listening 6.5, Reading 6.0, Writing 5.5 and Speaking 6.0: the sum is 24, and Writing at 6.0 makes it 24.5, which is still 6.0. That candidate needs a second half band elsewhere. For a target of 7.0 from an overall 6.5, the sum needs to reach 27: one half band if you start at 26.5, and up to four half bands if you start at 25. The band score calculator lets you try your own four.

So the honest target is a half band in the skill with the most headroom, and sometimes in a second. Patterns can move in four weeks: a recurring grammar slip, a Task 1 report with no overview, a habit of running out of time in Reading. Breadth is a different job: this plan treats the vocabulary you know and the speed at which you read English as work for months, not for four weeks.

Week one: find the weakest skill

Week one is a diagnosis, one timed piece per skill, before any plan. IELTS.org’s test format pages give the shape to time yourself against.

For Listening and Reading, take a full 40-question paper and put the raw score through the calculator. A score out of 26 or 20 has no row in IELTS.org’s 40-mark table, so the site’s Reading practice test (two passages, 26 questions) and Listening practice test (two parts, 20 questions) are drills, not bands. For Writing, write both tasks in one hour and use the Task 1 practice and the essay checker for the structure, remembering they are not band scores. For Speaking, sit the mock and take the self-assessment.

IELTS Mentor AI, a paid iOS and Android app for Academic IELTS practice, marks full Reading and Listening tests the moment you finish, reports Speaking and Writing as a band range against the four IELTS criteria, and shows what to fix next on one Skill Map; that is one way to do this week, and the pieces above are another. End the week by writing down one skill, with one thing to fix in it.

Weeks two and three: the daily shape

Rotate one skill a day and give the weakest skill two sessions a week. A workable week: Listening on Monday, Reading on Tuesday, Writing on Wednesday, Speaking on Thursday, the weakest skill on Friday and again on Saturday, and Sunday for rest or a light review.

Each weekday session has two halves. Spend about 35 minutes on a timed piece, then about 15 on a review of the marked evidence: every wrong answer sorted by question type in Reading and Listening, every lost criterion in Writing, one recording replayed in Speaking. The review changes the next session, and without it the timed piece is only exposure. At weekends, use the extra time for a longer piece in the weakest skill, such as a full Writing task pair in one hour or a full Reading paper. Keep the target of each session to one thing: a question type, a criterion or a pattern. Three targets in a session means none of them gets corrected.

On days when the evening goes and you have 20 minutes, keep the shape of the 20-minute Speaking guide in any skill: choose one item, do it twice with one change in between, check one thing, and note what to fix tomorrow.

Week four: exam conditions

Sit a full four-skill mock on day 22 or 23, in the order of the test, with the timings above. Day 24 is for review: mark it, sort the losses and choose the last two things to fix. Days 25 and 26 are half-sessions in the weakest and second-weakest skills. Days 27 and 28 are light: a short review, a check of your identity document and the route to the centre, and sleep.

The timing of results matters if a deadline follows the test. IELTS.org gives 1 to 5 days for IELTS on computer, so count them into any application date. Beyond that, week four is for making the format familiar, not for new material.

What moves fastest in a month

Listening

Some Listening marks are lost to rules, not to English. IELTS.org says you lose the mark for writing more than the word limit, and IDP says a wrong spelling is marked wrong. Practise the completion types counting the word limit by hand, starting from common mistakes and traps and form, note and table completion. The step to the next band is in Listening band 6 to 7.

Reading

Reading moves through pace and question types. IDP advises no more than 20 minutes on each part, and IELTS.org lists eleven question types, so the habit to build is spotting the type before you read the passage. Start with how to finish Reading in 60 minutes and Reading band 6 to 7.

Writing

In Writing, three things respond to a month: an overview in Task 1, a clear position in Task 2, and length, since IELTS.org gives at least 150 words for Task 1 and at least 250 for Task 2. All three belong to the Task Achievement or Task Response criterion. Writing band 6 to 7 lays out the next step.

Speaking

In Speaking, Part 2 timing is the quickest fix: IELTS.org gives one minute of preparation and one to two minutes of talk, so practise filling the time. The other is one grammar pattern that recurs in your recordings; change that one and leave the rest. Speaking band 6 to 6.5 covers the step.

What to drop

Drop new vocabulary lists: in a month they add little you can use under pressure, and the words you already own are the ones that come out on the day. Drop whole textbooks, because reading about the test is not sitting it. Drop a second mock every day, since the review is where a mock pays off and there is no time for a review of two. And drop any skill that already meets your target, other than one short session a week to keep it where it is.