In January 2017, at the 4th year of my Bachelor's degree in Economics, I found out that I would have to take the Academic IELTS (and GMAT, but more on this later) to enter a Master's program in a business school. For admission I chose 3 German universities and 2 leading Russian ones – Graduate School of Management (SPbSU) and New Economic School. In Germany, education is free, and in Russia I wanted to have admission grades high enough to get a full scholarship. Paying for the education was not an option – I did not want to ask $17 000+ from my parents.
I booked my test for February 18th, and began to prepare on January 20th.
My level before passing the test was B2 (which correlates with the band score of 6.5–7.0). I wanted to pass on C2 (8.5), that is, go up by 2 levels.
Not spending a penny.
How did I do it?
At first I clearly set my goal. After that I made a planner for the month, in which I outlined my classes for each day. The first thing I needed to do is to understand what my weak side was. I passed a mock test on the Internet and realized that everything was pretty bad (especially when setting a timer). Worst of all was Writing – I did not know the structure of answer to typical tasks, and the ideas did not get into my head quickly enough.
Following my plan, I spent at least an hour per day for each section + wrote 2 essays. Of course, on some day I could not write 2 essays, on others – write more, but overall I practiced writing roughly 50 essays. I used full tests, which are relatively easy to find on the Internet.
My plan looked something like this:
▪️ Day 1. Reading – a full test, working on errors, translating all new words. Listening – a half of the test, listening several times until I answer all the questions, working on errors. Writing – 2 essays.
▪️ Day 2. Listening – a half of the test, listening several times until I answer all the questions, work on errors. Speaking – asking a friend to conduct 1 full test on speaking with me, recording myself, writing out linking words and phrases for better speech. Writing – 2 essays.
▪️ Day 3. Reading – repeating the words written down the last time, doing 1 full test, working on errors, translating all new words. Listening – a half of the test, writing down the most difficult chunks of the tape. Writing – reading about strategies for answering typical questions, writing down introductory and linking words, writing 2 essays.
And so on, all 29 days. In 1.5 weeks after the beginning of preparation, I began to set a timer. I was very frustrated that from time to time I spent more time than necessary, but the tight deadlines forced me to work harder.
Last week before the exam
I tried every day to complete a full test from beginning to end with a timer. The hardest part was to practice Speaking, but it was nice that many of my friends spoke English and I could ask them to practice with me. However, if you do not have such friends, diligently record yourself speaking in front of the mirror. Then listen several times and think of passages that you might improve.
Try to expand your vocabulary in that short time – especially when there are several days left until the Day. Repeat all the new words that were written down before, look for thematic lists of words on the Internet. To get stuck on the exam just because the word has either flown from your head, or cannot get in – is the worst scenario.
And most importantly, there is no point in worrying. Use all possible time for preparation, because who else will put all this knowledge into your head, if not you? And nerves here just will make it worse 😉
I almost did not worry before the exam and was completely calm during all sections except Speaking. Because I really lacked practice with it (and I ended up being the least satisfied with the result). But it helped a lot indeed to learn a lot of difficult words at the last moment - I tried my best to show that my lexical recourse was not basic.
What planners did I make?
Frankly, I used only the monthly one, but sometimes I made a daily planner as well. If you want to download, print and use my planners for free (I made monthly, weekly and daily ones), you can find them in PDF in the description box to the video below ⬇️