Tools · Resources
Resources: everything you need, in one place
You don't need a shelf full of books. These are the few resources that really move your band: real exam papers for practice tests, a little English every day, and honest feedback on your writing and speaking.
Cambridge books for tests. Everything else for every day.
Use the Cambridge IELTS books for every timed test, because they are real past papers. Use the websites and apps below for daily listening, reading and new words, and the AI prompts for feedback.
What to use
The best books, websites and apps
Four groups, each with one job. Start with the first item in each group.
Practice tests
Real exam papers for every timed test
- Cambridge IELTS 16–20 (Academic)Past exam papers. Use them for all mocks, in order from 16.Book
- British Council: Take IELTS (opens in a new tab)Free practice tests, including the computer-delivered format.Free
- IELTS.org (opens in a new tab)Official public band descriptors for Writing and Speaking.Official
Writing and Speaking
Models to learn from, and a real person to talk to
- IELTS Simon (opens in a new tab)Model essays by a former examiner. Copy the structure, not the sentences.Free
- IELTS Liz (opens in a new tab)Free lessons, Task 1 types and Speaking topic lists.Free
- A speaking partner or tutorOne real mock interview a week from Lesson 4 onwards.Live
Vocabulary and grammar
The words and rules that lift your band
- Anki (opens in a new tab)Free flashcards with spaced repetition. 15 minutes a day.App
- Academic Word List (Coxhead)570 word families. Sublists 1–5 cover most of what you need.List
- English Collocations in Use, AdvancedFor Lexical Resource at band 7 and above.Book
- Grammar for IELTS (Cambridge)Lessons 3–6, for your most frequent errors.Book
Daily input
A little real English every single day
- BBC Learning English (opens in a new tab)6 Minute English, with transcripts, for shadowing.Free
- TED Talks (opens in a new tab)Lecture-style listening for Section 4.Free
- The Conversation (opens in a new tab)Articles by academics, very close to IELTS Reading passages.Free
How to use them
A simple routine with these resources
- 1
Test
Take a timed Cambridge test, mark it, and write every mistake in your error log.
- 2
Feed
Every day: one BBC or TED clip, one article from The Conversation, and your Anki cards.
- 3
Fix
Paste your essay or speaking transcript into an AI chat with a prompt below, then rewrite it.
Feedback
Feedback prompts for AI
Writing and Speaking only improve with feedback. Copy a prompt, paste it into any AI chat, and add your essay or a transcript of your recording at the end.
Writing feedback
Task 2 essay · band per criterion · 5 key errors
Act as an IELTS Academic examiner. Score my Writing Task 2 essay on the four public band descriptors (Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy). Give a band for each and an overall band. Then list the 5 errors that cost me the most marks, with corrections, and rewrite my weakest body paragraph at band 9. Question: [paste the question] Essay: [paste your essay]
Speaking feedback
Transcript · 3 criteria · better phrases
Act as an IELTS Speaking examiner. Below is a transcript of my recorded answer. Score it for Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy (you can't hear pronunciation, so skip it). Quote every grammar mistake with a correction, suggest 5 more natural or precise phrases I could have used, and give me one follow-up Part 3 question to practise. Question: [paste the question or cue card] Transcript: [paste your transcript]
General Training
Taking General Training instead?
Most of this plan works for General Training too. Only two things change.
Writing Task 1
You write a letter instead of describing a chart.
Reading
A stricter table: about 37 out of 40 for band 8.
The same as Academic
Listening, Speaking and Writing Task 2, so the rest of the plan applies unchanged.