The short answer
Two to six weeks for most people. The honest answer depends on which problem you have: learning the test takes a fortnight, and raising your English takes months. Sit one full mock before you plan anything — it tells you which of the two you are facing, and that is the only thing that determines the timeline.
The question behind this question is usually “have I left it too late”. Often the answer is no, because a large part of what the test measures is how well you handle its format under a clock, and format is learnable quickly. What is not learnable quickly is proficiency.
Start by finding out which problem you have
Before building any plan, sit one full-length mock under real conditions — timed, no pausing, microphone on, in one sitting. Then compare the estimate against your institution’s requirement.
| Gap to your target | What you are facing | Realistic time |
|---|---|---|
| Within 10 points | A format problem | 2 weeks |
| 20–30 points | Format, plus specific weak skills | 4–6 weeks |
| 40 points or more | A proficiency problem | 3 months or more |
Any practice estimate, ours included, is an estimate. The real test is adaptive and calibrates to you, which practice cannot reproduce. Use the number to decide how much time you need, not to predict your result.
Not sure where you are starting from? Four questions, about two minutes, no sign-up — and you get an estimated score out of 160 to measure the rest of this against.
If you are within ten points: two weeks
You do not have an English problem. You have a format problem, and that is the good kind.
- 01Days 1–3. Meet every one of the 13 question types once, untimed. The goal is recognition, not performance — you should never meet a format for the first time on test day.
- 02Days 4–9. Timed practice, weighted towards speaking and writing. Recognition tasks will not move much in this window; fluency under pressure will.
- 03Days 10–12. Two full mocks, two days apart. Fix the one habit each exposes rather than trying to fix everything.
- 04Day 13. Equipment and environment. Camera, microphone, connection, room, and the rules about what may be on your desk.
- 05Day 14. Rest. Genuinely — the gain from one more day of practice is smaller than the loss from sitting an hour-long adaptive test tired.
If you are twenty to thirty points short: four to six weeks
This is the most common position, and it is reachable. The structure that works is three weeks of building followed by two of testing.
- Weeks 1–3: the producing skills. Writing and speaking, every day, short sessions. These feed the Production subscore and they are where most candidates have the most room.
- Throughout: vocabulary, in use. Words you can produce in a sentence, not words you recognise on a list. The difference is the whole gap between a reading score and a writing score.
- Weeks 4–5: full mocks, weekly. Spaced out, each followed by work on what it exposed. Back-to-back mocks measure fatigue rather than ability.
- Week 6: taper. Light format practice, no new material.
If you are forty points or more short: three months, or rethink
Be straight with yourself here. A gap that size is a proficiency gap, and proficiency moves at the speed it moves at. Three months of consistent work is realistic; three weeks of intensive cramming is not, and booking a test you are not ready for costs you the fee and the time it takes to recover from the result.
Two options are better than cramming: move the test date, or lower the requirement by finding programmes whose published minimum you can actually reach. Neither is a failure.
Preparation that does not help
- Untimed practice, after the first week. It builds a skill you cannot use. Timing is part of what is being measured.
- Memorised templates for speaking. They are audible, they fit the prompt badly, and they cost you the range marks they were meant to earn.
- Vocabulary lists with no production. Recognising a word does nothing for the half of the test that asks you to produce one.
- Repeating mocks back to back. After the second, you are measuring tiredness. Space them and act on what each one showed.
How to tell you are ready
Not by a single good mock. You are ready when two consecutive mocks, taken days apart and under real conditions, both land at or above your target — and when nothing in the format surprises you any more. Surprise is what costs time, and on this test time is the constraint.
The first thing any of these plans asks for is one full mock under real conditions. 7 days of full access is free and no card is needed to start, which is long enough to sit one and find out which of the three positions above you are actually in.
Sit a mock free