Your study plan: diagnostic test, weak spots, weekly routine

Most people prepare for IELTS like this: do a practice test, feel bad, do another practice test, feel bad again. 😩 Lots of effort. Not much changes.

The fix is simple: find out where your marks leak, then plug the biggest leak first. This lesson shows you how, using the app's diagnostic test and your Study plan page. 5 hacks, and you have a plan you can start this week.

Hack #1: Baseline First

Before you choose a single lesson, take the diagnostic test once. Do it honestly.

How to take it:

• Timed, in one sitting, phone away, no dictionary.
• Don't look up answers halfway. A "helped" result is a wrong map.
• No Speaking in the diagnostic. So record yourself answering 3 Part 1 questions and one Part 2 card. That recording is your Speaking baseline.

🧭 Your result is a range, not an exact band. It's a short test, so read it as "roughly here", not "this is my score". Its real value is the list of weak spots.

Hack #2: Biggest Leak

Your result shows two layers. Read them in this order:

1. By skill: which skill is lowest compared with your target?
2. By question type: inside that skill, which types did you get wrong?

Now pick one leak to fix first. The biggest leak is not just "the lowest %". It's the type that is weak AND common:

💧 Leak size = how often you miss it × how often it appears.

A type you got 1 out of 4 right, which shows up in nearly every Reading test, is a bigger leak than one rare type you missed once. Common types in the real test include completion tasks (Listening and Reading), True/False/Not Given and multiple choice.

Two more rules:

• Target first, not ego first. If you need 6.5 in every skill, the skill furthest below 6.5 comes first, even if you prefer practising your strong one.
• Mistakes all over the place? If you lose marks on every Reading type, the leak may be underneath: finding paraphrase, or running out of time. Fix that root skill first.

Hack #3: Lesson Match

Every weak spot has a lesson. Use this table:

Your Study plan page also shows the weak question types your diagnostic found. Use it with this table: the plan says what is weak, the lesson says how to fix it.

Hack #4: Triple Block

Short and regular beats long and rare. Aim for 4–6 sessions a week, about 45–60 minutes each. Each normal session is a Triple Block:

Then build the week around it:

A self-check list is 4 lines, one per criterion. After each essay, ask: Did I answer every part of the question? Is there one main idea per paragraph? Did I repeat the same words? Which grammar mistake did I make twice? For Speaking, play the recording back and check one thing at a time: pauses, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation.

⚖️ Balance check: your weakest skill gets the most sessions, but every skill appears every week. Drop a skill for a month and it can slip.

Hack #5: Why Column

Keep an error log: a notebook or a simple table. One line per mistake. The most important column is why.

How to use it:

• Count the whys every week. The most common why picks next week's lesson. Five "word limit" lines beat a feeling of "I'm bad at Reading".
• Retry old misses a week later without looking at the answer. Still wrong? The fix hasn't stuck yet.
• Log Writing and Speaking too: "forgot an overview", "said very 9 times".
• Don't log only to feel bad. Every line needs a Fix.

Watch the hacks work

Ravi needs 6.5 for a nursing course (Academic). His diagnostic:

• Baseline First: he did it timed in one go ✅. He also records a Part 1 + Part 2 at home, and adds the essay next week.
• Biggest Leak: Reading is furthest below 6.5. Inside Reading, matching information is his worst type (3 marks lost), and it appears in many Academic tests → matching information first, completion second.
• Lesson Match: "Matching information, features and sentence endings".
• Triple Block week: Mon/Tue/Thu = matching information lesson, drill, bank matching questions; Wed = Writing Task 2
  • self-check; Fri = one timed Reading test; Sat = two Speaking recordings; Sun = rest.
• Why Column: after the timed test, 4 of his 7 Reading mistakes say "matched a paragraph from one word I saw". Next week's lesson is decided for him: keep on matching information, then move to completion.

👀 Notice what Ravi did not do: three full mock tests in a row. One timed test a week is enough to measure. The other sessions do the fixing.

Be realistic 🙂

• Nobody can promise you a band. Progress depends on your starting level, your hours, how you practise, and nerves on the day. Short, regular, targeted practice usually helps more than long random sessions.
• Bands can move slowly, especially higher up. Don't book the test from one good day: wait until your timed practice results are steady at or near your target.
• Measuring progress? Use new timed practice tests. Retaking the same diagnostic is a weak measure: you've seen the questions.

Your 10-second checklist

• Diagnostic done, timed, no help?
• One Biggest Leak chosen (weak AND common)?
• Matching lesson picked?
• This week: Triple Blocks + 1 timed section + Writing + Speaking + rest?
• Error log has a Why and a Fix on every line?

Next: Hack Drill (7 planning scenarios, about 7 minutes) → then take the diagnostic: Listening Questions 1–20, Reading Questions 1–13 (Academic or General Training), and the optional Writing Task 2. Your first weekly timed section can be Test 1, Listening, Questions 1–40 (all 4 parts, 30 minutes).