‘I don’t have the time to sit down and work on mock papers. And I don’t find it useful to do them bit by bit. Life is too distracting!’ wrote Jorge Gibellini, an Argentinian IELTS candidate who needed an IELTS 7.0 for his Master’s degree. Many candidates, like Jorge, just don’t have the time to set aside hours everyday for IELTS preparation. They are too busy with their academic studies , day job or family commitments. And when they are finally free to sit down to begin their preparation, they are already too tired to take it all in.

So, given this, it is no surprise that many candidates only work with IELTS mock tests — if you do the test enough times you’ll know what to expect, right? Not quite. How can you improve just by taking tests without learning the strategies or understanding what the examiners are looking for? In this post, I’m going to show you how to prepare for IELTS in an efficient, convenient and stress-free way.

Go mobile

You really don’t need to haul your laptop around, looking frantically for a WiFi-equipped cafe to work in anymore. It’s probably more convenient for you to do your IELTS work in small chunks, working through 10-20 IELTS questions during your lunch break, or when your bus is stuck in a traffic jam. Or maybe even right before you sleep.

This is why we’ve now made Road to IELTS mobile-friendly. You can spend 10 minutes on one Reading section, or you can watch a video showing the common mistakes candidates make during the Speaking test. You don’t need to install any apps on your phone — there is a completely free version that you can use here, right now.

Day-by-day you will see yourself doing better as you regularly practise your skills. Check your progress by taking a free IELTS mock test at the weekend. Find out where you need to improve and put extra effort in those areas in your daily practice.

A week of free practice

If you’re really short of time, here is how you can use Road to IELTS Free Version for one week:

Monday: 30 minutes on Reading Practice Zone, another 30 minutes on Listening

Tuesday: 30 minutes on Writing, another 30 minutes on Speaking

Wednesday: Spend a total of 30 minutes reading newspaper articles, watching TEDtalks on YouTube with an emphasis on listening for words and sentence structures

Thursday: the same as Monday

Friday: the same as Tuesday

Saturday: Spend about 3 hours on the IELTS practice tests. Check the answers. Reflect on your progress.

And here you have a total of 4.5 hours of practice, supplied free of charge by British Council IELTS experts, in just one week. Try it now: Road to IELTS Free Version!

Further reading

While you are going through the four sections of Road to IELTS (Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening), look out for your weak and strong areas. This post will help you do this, and show you how to benefit from it.

If you have more than one week to prepare for your IELTS test, here are a few things you can do to get the best possible band score:

• Plan your study time according to your strengths and weak areas – what are you good at and what needs more work?
• Look at frequently asked questions. Here you can get some answers to your own questions and see what others are struggling with too. Browse through these questions we’ve had for the Listening test and the Reading test.
• Visit IELTSPractice.com for more tutorials, tips and practice