IELTS General Training Study Plan: A 6-Week Schedule
A realistic six-week IELTS General Training study plan with weekly goals, daily tasks and mock test checkpoints, built around your weakest skill and target.
Six weeks is a common preparation window for IELTS General Training, especially for candidates applying for Canadian immigration or work abroad who already use English day to day. This plan assumes about 60–90 minutes on weekdays and one longer weekend session. Adjust the balance once you know your weakest skill.
Write down the band you need in each skill, not only overall. For Canadian immigration, IRCC converts each skill to a CLB level separately. For example, CLB 7 requires IELTS General Training 6.0 in each of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking, while CLB 9 requires 8.0 in Listening, 7.0 in Reading, 7.0 in Writing and 7.0 in Speaking. Confirm the current table on the IRCC website, or see all levels in our score converter.
How to describe graphs, tables, processes and maps in IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: a four-paragraph structure, the overview, key language and common errors.
Goal: know the test inside out and find your weakest skill.
Day 1: take a full timed mock test (Listening, Reading, Writing; record a Speaking practice).
Day 2: review every Listening and Reading mistake. Label each one: vocabulary, spelling, word limit, distractor, True/False/Not Given confusion, or time.
Day 3: read the Writing task formats. Write one letter (Task 1) without a time limit.
Day 4: write one Task 2 essay without a time limit.
Day 5: Speaking Part 1 practice: record answers to ten familiar-topic questions.
Weekend: fill in the table above and rank your skills from weakest to strongest.
Reading: full 60-minute sections. Track the time spent per section.
Listening: full 40-question tests.
Writing: Task 1 and Task 2 together in 60 minutes, with Task 1 in about 20 minutes.
Speaking: a full three-part practice test, recorded.
End of week: full mock #3. Compare with your baseline.
If one skill has not moved, change how you study it, not just how much. For example, if Writing is stuck, get feedback on specific criteria (Task Achievement/Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy) rather than writing more essays in the same way.
Most candidates hit a week where scores do not move. It usually means one of three things:
The same error type keeps repeating. Check your error log. If "Not Given vs False" appears ten times, spend a whole session on that distinction alone.
You are practising without review. Doing more tests without analysing them rarely helps. Halve the number of tests and double the review time.
Writing and Speaking lack specific feedback. "Write more essays" is not a plan. Identify the weakest criterion and target it: for example, developing each main idea more fully for Task Response, or using a wider range of linking for Coherence and Cohesion.
Full-length, real-format practice is the backbone of this schedule. EnglishHub's IELTS General Training simulator has 50 full mock tests and 200 practice sets, with AI feedback on Writing and Speaking. The first mock is free, so you can do your Week 1 baseline right away: start an IELTS General mock, or explore the IELTS General hub. Plans and pricing are on the pricing page.
EnglishHub is an independent practice platform and is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Always confirm language requirements on the official IRCC website.
Frequently asked questions
Is six weeks enough to prepare for IELTS General Training?
It is enough for many candidates who already use English regularly and need to raise their score by about half a band to a band in one or two skills. If your baseline is well below your target, plan for longer.
How many hours a day should I study for IELTS General?
This plan assumes about 60 to 90 minutes on weekdays and a longer session at the weekend. Consistency matters more than long, irregular sessions.
How often should I take a full IELTS mock test?
Take one at the start to find your baseline, then roughly every two weeks. Taking a full test every day leaves little time to fix the problems it reveals.
What band do I need for CLB 7 with IELTS General?
IRCC's equivalency table sets CLB 7 at 6.0 in each of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Always confirm the current table on the IRCC website.
A practical guide to the IELTS General Training letter: formal, semi-formal and informal tone, a simple structure, useful phrases and mistakes that cost bands.
How IELTS turns raw marks into bands: Listening and Reading conversion, Writing and Speaking criteria, overall rounding rules and what each band means in CEFR.
