Simple Schedule for IELTS

This post was crafted in response to a friend from Bangladesh, who will sit for the test in a couple of weeks. His question was about how I scheduled my preparation phase to get a desired band in IELTS. From what I knew, this phase is very crucial as most of the candidates have very limited time to prepare for the test. Therefore, a good plan for preparation is essential to avoid you mess up the whole progression.

Hence, here are some basic principles I employed for planning:

1. Design an achievable plan with actionable steps that works well for you.
2. Search for workable materials and resourceful people for guidance.
3. Stick to the plan, don’t procrastinate or work overload till burn out.
4. Be consistent and stay focused on every step that drives you to success.

One month before sitting for the test, I checked all the details and had my registration done online. Then, I scanned through all the criteria, marking schemes, and real test questions to ensure that I had a clear idea on how to pass the test. After getting used to the test format and criteria for every band, I set targeted band for every section and started looking for IELTS materials and draft a schedule for it.

Basically, I scheduled on a small note and set my preferable time range for every section, here is the daily schedule that I followed for three weeks before the test:

1. From 10.00 am to 11.00 am~ Listening (Practiced a variety of questions from YouTube). 

2. From 11.00 am to 12.00 pm~ Reading (Kindly refer to the IELTS Liz Reading Practice which I found it is very useful for practicing.)

3. From 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm ~ Writing (Got any topic randomly from any IELTS website, and took it as a real test)

I didn’t set time for practicing speaking, but I watched plenty of mock tests and tips on YouTube when I had free time. Additionally, watching international news in English is a great method to improve my listening skills. It stimulates our auditory systems and train our brain to capture different slang of English spoken by native speakers from different countries. However, one method doesn’t fit all, so just keep trying and find the one that suits you best. I would like to know your thoughts and feel free to share it.

Photo credit: Alexas-Fotos / Pixabay / CC BY-NC