Students' questions: study schedule

People sometimes ask me to create a study schedule for them, and I have to tell them that I can't. Unless you see the same teacher every day, I don't think anyone can set a study schedule for you - you'll have to do that yourself.

Here are some tips if you're trying to create a study schedule:

1. How much study time do you have? Be realistic - you'll feel bad if you make a promise to yourself and then break it. Start with a small daily target (e.g. 15 minutes of hard work), and increase the amount gradually.
2. Create a good work habit. At first, the habit is more important than the work itself. Once you've established a habit, you'll find it easier to do the work.
3. Consider your study environment. Have you found the right place to study? Perhaps you need a bit of background noise or a fresh cup of coffee to get you in the right frame of mind.
4. When you sit down to study, be strict with yourself and ignore your phone, emails, social media etc.
5. Identify your needs. What do you need to work on most?
6. Collect information. Search this site to see what techniques I recommend for the areas that you need to work on.
7. Start each study session in the same way with something easy. For example, simply reading my latest lesson here on the blog could help to get you started.
8. Get the right balance between testing and training. If you're studying every day, you could spend six days per week training and preparing, and just one day per week testing yourself using real exam questions.
9. If you break your routine, don't worry. Just get back to normal the next day. Adjust your schedule if necessary.
10. Get some help if you need it. At some point you might need to get your work checked or you might have some questions that only a teacher can answer. If you're really stuck, consider taking regular lessons with a teacher who can help you face-to-face.

Comments

[Nora]

Hi Mr, Simon
I took the test yesterday for the second time and I discovered that the biggest problem I have managing the time in the reading and writing section. Although I have trained many times but I couldn't commit to a specific time. I would appreciate your advice about this issue.

If we don't write 150 words in the first task and 250 words in the second task but the number of words that are written near the limit but less than it, How many marks they decrease?

Best regards,

[Avtar Dhillon]

I took the exam on yesterday of speaking
And my Q card was about
A cafe you visit

[WanJing]

b

[Nam Anh]

Thank you very much, Teacher Simon!They are all very useful!

[Nima]

Dear Simon,

I could't find a way to contact you and say thanks, the only option seemed to be posting a comment on your last post.

Thank you for your great website and useful material. This website was really helped me prepare for the test without getting help from a teacher.

I hope every person trying to prepare for IELTS exam finds out about this site in their first stages of preparation.

Again, thank you very much.

[Dannie]

Hi Simon,
I'm a student who is going to take the ielts on April 8th. But I am still sruggling with the expression of figures in writing task 1. Could you please give me some advice or examples about the right use of figures which can make my expression more natural?
I have been following your post recently. Your advice and lessons are all very useful for me. Thank you so much.
Best regards,

[Nodir]

Dear Simon,

Hope you are doing well.

I wanted to ask you about your web page.

How can i use it? I need to improve only my writing. Should i start from very first page or the latest ?

Thanks