IELTS practice tests: how to practise so the score moves (the band descriptors as a checklist, timed practice by paper, and the feedback loop on writing)

An IELTS practice test moves your band only when three things follow it. You time each paper to the real limits. You score it against the official band descriptors turned into a checklist, not against a feeling. And you work on the one criterion you lost marks on before the next test. Use the official sample tests from the IELTS website first, one full test every two weeks, with the work between. Here is the method, paper by paper. The general idea behind it is the practice-test method; this page is the IELTS version, in plain English.

Where the official IELTS practice tests are

Start with the official material. The IELTS website publishes free sample questions for all four papers: Listening with its recordings, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. The test's three owners, the British Council, IDP and Cambridge, publish official practice books and an official online practice test as well. These are the only sources that match the real test exactly: the question types, the timing, the accents on the recordings, the length of the texts. A practice test from another website may be close. It may also be harder, easier or out of date, and you cannot tell which.

So the rule is simple. Official first. Use other material only when you have used the official samples.

One thing to settle before you begin: Academic or General Training. Listening and Speaking are the same test in both. Reading and Writing differ. Academic Reading uses texts of the kind found in university study. Academic Writing Task 1 asks you to describe a graph, chart, table, diagram, map or process. General Training Reading uses everyday and workplace texts, and its Task 1 is a letter. Universities almost always ask for Academic. Many immigration routes accept General Training. Check with the body you are applying to, then practise only that version.

How to prepare for IELTS: the four papers in one table

The facts below are the format as the IELTS website describes it today. Check the website before your test date, because details can change, and the paper and computer versions differ a little.

Paper	What is in it	Time	Notes
Listening	4 parts, 40 questions, recordings played once	About 30 minutes	On paper you get about 10 minutes more to copy answers to the answer sheet. On a computer you get only a short time to check.
Reading	3 long texts (Academic), 40 questions	60 minutes	No extra time to transfer answers.
Writing	Task 1: at least 150 words. Task 2: an essay of at least 250 words.	60 minutes for both	About 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 for Task 2. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1.
Speaking	3 parts, face to face with an examiner, recorded	11 to 14 minutes	Can be on the same day as the other papers or on another day.

Each paper gets a band from 1 to 9, reported in whole and half bands, and the four bands are averaged into an overall band. The three written papers are taken in one sitting with no break between them, so a full practice test should be taken the same way at least twice before the real day.

The band descriptors as a checklist

This is the part most candidates skip, and it is why their band does not move.

Writing and Speaking are not marked with one number. The examiner marks four criteria, and each criterion has its own band. For Writing the four are task achievement (Task 1) or task response (Task 2), coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy. For Speaking they are fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. The public descriptors for each criterion are on the IELTS website. Read them there. This page does not copy them.

A band is four criteria. Most candidates practise without ever scoring themselves on the four. They write an essay, feel that it was "okay", and write another. The feeling is not a measurement.

Turn each criterion into three yes-or-no questions, in your own words. Here is one way to do it for Writing Task 2. Ask these of your own essay, with a pen, after every timed attempt.

Task response 1. Did I answer every part of the question, not just the part I liked? 2. Did I give a clear position that a reader could state in one sentence? 3. Did I support each reason with an example or a detail?

Coherence and cohesion 1. Does each body paragraph have one main idea? 2. Does every linking word do the job it is meant for (a contrast word for a contrast, an example word before an example)? 3. Could a reader follow the order of ideas without going back?

Lexical resource 1. Did I use a precise word where I could have used "good", "bad", "thing" or "a lot"? 2. Did I repeat the same key word more than twice when I could have used another? 3. Are my spellings right, especially the words I use most?

Grammatical range and accuracy 1. Is there at least one complex sentence in each paragraph that works? 2. Did I check articles (a, an, the) and subject-verb agreement in every sentence? 3. Did I check the tense each time the time changed?

Twelve questions. Each "no" is a mark you can see. Count the "no" answers per criterion, and the criterion with the most is the one to work on next. You are not giving yourself a band. The examiner's band is the examiner's. You are finding the weakest criterion, which is the one thing the examiner's band depends on that you can change this week.

Timed practice by paper

Each paper has its own timing trap. Practise each one at the real time from the first attempt.

IELTS listening practice. Play the recording once. Never pause it. Never rewind. Write your answers as you listen, and on paper, copy them to the answer sheet in the time given and not before. The skill list is short: the question types of each part, completing notes, forms and tables, hearing the signposting words that tell you an answer is coming (and the distractors that sound like an answer), and getting numbers, dates, spellings and addresses right. Those are the four listening ideas in our IELTS pack, and they can each be drilled on their own before a full paper.

Reading. Three texts in 60 minutes. The first run is always too slow. Do not panic and do not add time. Instead, practise the skills apart from the paper: skimming and scanning for where an answer lives, True, False and Not Given, matching headings to paragraphs, sentence and summary completion, and recognising paraphrase, which is the skill under all the others. Our pack has these five as separate ideas. Drill one for a week, then do a full paper and see where the time went.

Writing. Both tasks in 60 minutes, every time. If your test is on paper, write by hand. Your hand is slower than your typing, and the exam will find that out if your practice did not. Keep to the plan of 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 for Task 2, because Task 2 counts twice as much. The pack's Task 1 ideas are the overview, the language of trends and comparison, and describing a process or map. The Task 2 ideas are reading the question and answering all of it, structure, position and reasons, cohesion and linking, and the mistakes that cost bands.

IELTS speaking practice. Record yourself. Part 2 asks you to speak alone for up to two minutes on a topic card. Set a timer for two minutes and talk until it rings. Then listen back. Our pack's speaking ideas are Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, fluency and repair, and word and sentence stress. Speaking is the paper most candidates never practise under time, and it is the one where a timer changes the most.

Across the four papers, the pack holds 34 ideas: Listening 4, Reading 5, Writing Task 1 3, Writing Task 2 5, Speaking 5, Grammar 7, Vocabulary 3, Spelling and punctuation 2. That list is the skill list this page's error log is sorted by.

The feedback loop on writing: how to improve your IELTS writing score

Most candidates try to improve their writing by writing more essays. It does not work, because every essay has the same weakest criterion and nothing changes it. This is the loop that does.

1. Write under time. Task 2, 40 minutes, by hand if your test is on paper.
2. Score it against the checklist. The twelve questions above. Count the "no" answers per criterion.
3. Mark the one criterion that scored lowest. One. Not all four.
4. Rewrite the same essay for that criterion only. Same ideas, same reasons. Fix only the thing you marked. Fifteen minutes.
5. Write a new essay a day later, with the same criterion in focus. Before you start, write the criterion's three questions at the top of the page.
6. Every two weeks, a full timed test, scored the same way.

Why rewrite the same essay first? Because fixing one criterion on content you already have isolates the skill. If you fix linking words in an essay whose ideas you know, you are practising linking. If you write a new essay, you are practising everything at once again, and the linking gets lost. Metcalfe (2017) reviews the research on learning from errors: an error followed by specific, corrective feedback is learned from, and the correction sticks best when it lands on the exact mistake. The loop is that finding turned into a weekly habit.

Two honest lines. A rewritten essay is practice. It is never something to submit anywhere. And a memorised model answer is a bad plan: it rarely answers the exact question you are given, and examiners are trained to notice one. The loop builds the skill. A memorised answer only hides its absence.

Worked example: one Task 2 paragraph through the loop

The prompt is ours, not an IELTS item: "Some people think cities should limit cars in their centres. Do you agree?"

Here is a student's first body paragraph, written under time. The words are ours, written to be around the middle of the band scale: a position, one reason, no example, two linking problems.

In my opinion, cities should limit cars in the centre. The main reason is the air quality. Cars make pollution and people who live in centre breathe it every day. Moreover, some people need the car for their work, so it is difficult for them.

Now the checklist, criterion by criterion, as yes-or-no.

• Task response. A clear position: yes. Answers the question: yes. An example or detail for the reason: no. Score 2 of 3.
• Coherence and cohesion. One main idea: yes, air quality, until the last sentence. Linking words doing their job: no. "Moreover" adds a point in the same direction, but the last sentence is a contrast. Readable order: partly, because the contrast arrives with the wrong signal. Score 1 of 3.
• Lexical resource. A precise word: partly ("pollution" is good; "make pollution" is weak, "produce" is the usual verb). Repetition: fine. Spelling: fine. Score 2 of 3.
• Grammatical range and accuracy. A complex sentence that works: yes, the "who live in" clause. Articles checked: no, "in centre" needs "the". Tenses: fine. Score 2 of 3.

The lowest is coherence and cohesion. That is the one criterion to fix. Not the article, not the verb, not yet.

The rewrite, same ideas, linking repaired only:

In my opinion, cities should limit cars in the centre. The main reason is the air quality. Cars make pollution and people who live in centre breathe it every day. For example, on days when traffic is restricted, the air in many city centres is noticeably cleaner. However, some people need the car for their work, so it is difficult for them.

Run the checklist again. Coherence and cohesion is now 3 of 3: "For example" signals the example, and "However" signals the contrast. Task response has moved to 3 of 3 as a side effect, because the example arrived. The article error and the weak verb are still there, on purpose. They are tomorrow's criterion, after a new essay with linking in focus.

No band is claimed for either paragraph. The examiner's band is the examiner's. The checklist is the student's, and the checklist moved.

Listening and Reading: the error log by question type

For the two receptive papers, the checklist is an error log. After every timed paper, write each wrong answer on one line with two labels.

The first label is the question type: completion, multiple choice, matching, True, False and Not Given, and so on. The second is the cause. There are only a few: I did not hear or find it; I missed the paraphrase; I spelled it wrong; I ran out of time. After two papers the log shows a pattern, and the pattern is usually one type and one cause.

Drill that one for a week. If the cause is "missed the paraphrase", the work is recall of the paraphrase patterns: the ways a text says the same thing as the question in different words. If the cause is "did not hear it", the work is the signposting words that announce an answer, and cards for the signposting words and collocations are the fastest way to learn them. If the cause is spelling, the pack's confusable-words idea is the list. If it is time, the fix is the skills practice above, not more full papers.

Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that recalling material from memory produced better recall a week later than reading it again, even though the rereading felt better at the time. That is why the drill is cards and recall, not reading lists of linking words.

Speaking: the two-minute habit

Part 2 of the Speaking test is the long turn: you get a topic and a minute to prepare, and then you speak for up to two minutes. Practise it every day. A timer, a recording, two minutes, then listen back with four questions.

• Fluency and coherence: Did I keep going for the two minutes without long silences? When I lost a word, did I repair and continue?
• Lexical resource: Did I use at least one precise word instead of "good", "nice" or "thing"?
• Grammatical range and accuracy: Was there one complex sentence that worked all the way through?
• Pronunciation: Did the key words carry their stress on the right syllable?

Mark each one yes or no, and tomorrow's recording has the weakest one in focus. For Part 3, which asks you to discuss ideas in a more abstract way, the best practice is explaining an idea aloud in simple words as if to someone who does not know it. Explaining it in plain words, the Feynman technique is exactly that skill, and it is the same skill the examiner is listening for.

The plan: eight weeks of IELTS preparation

A plan for about 40 minutes a day. If you have more time, make the sessions longer, not more frequent.

Week	What happens
1	One full official sample test under time, all four papers. Score Writing and Speaking against the checklist. Log Listening and Reading misses by type and cause.
2 to 7	A daily 40-minute session that rotates the papers: two writing loops a week, two listening or reading drills on the top error type, two speaking recordings, and one day for grammar and vocabulary. A full test at the end of weeks 3, 5 and 7, scored the same way.
Throughout	The pack's grammar ideas (tenses, articles, conditionals, the passive, clauses, agreement, complex sentences) and vocabulary ideas spaced across the eight weeks: each one comes back on a later day, not all at once. How to space grammar and vocabulary shows the dates.
8	The last week, compressed: a light diagnostic, the shaky items only, one timed paper, then rest. The last week before a test is the plan; chapter 9 of the free playbook is the same week on one page.

The spacing in the "Throughout" row is not a preference. Cepeda and colleagues (2006) reviewed hundreds of studies and found that the same study time spread over several days produced better recall than one long block, at every delay they measured. Grammar and vocabulary are the IELTS material this applies to most directly. A plan you will actually keep for eight weeks is its own skill, and a study plan you will keep is how to build one around work or classes.

The method on one page

• Official tests first. The IELTS website's samples and the official partners' practice material match the real test. Others only come close.
• Time every paper to the real limits from the first attempt. Hand-write if your test is on paper.
• The four criteria as a checklist: twelve yes-or-no questions for Writing, four for Speaking. Find the weakest criterion. Do not give yourself a band.
• The writing loop: write, score, mark the lowest criterion, rewrite the same essay for it, new essay next day, full test every two weeks.
• Listening and Reading: an error log by question type and cause; drill the top one for a week.
• Speaking: two minutes a day, recorded, four questions after.
• One full test every two weeks, with the work between. The work is what moves the band.