Hi all, I’ve taken the IELTS three times over the past few years for different reasons and I’ve always scored 8 or above. My latest score was 8.5 overall (L9, R9, W8, S8.5). I’ve also taught IELTS for a while and played around with different ways to prepare, from books to online tools. I’m from Nepal (neighbouring country, hope that’s okay here). I did study in an English-medium school, but like most people here I speak my local language almost all the time in daily life. So I’m not someone who grew up speaking English 24/7. If you’re aiming for a 7+ or 8+ and don’t really know how to structure your prep, you can ask me about how I studied for listening, reading, writing and speaking, how I used the Cambridge books, and how I built a routine that I could actually follow without going crazy. My own prep has been pretty simple. During “exam mode” I tried to do one full mock test a day from the Cambridge series when possible. Closer to the test, I wrote at least one Task 1 or Task 2 every day, and I recorded myself speaking so I could notice issues with fluency, coherence and grammar. Over time I focused less on fancy vocabulary and more on being clear, logical and making fewer mistakes. For tools, apart from Cambridge books and YouTube and using ChatGPT for checking essays, I’ve mostly been using an app called Band9Prep for practice and feedback. It’s something I’ve been building and using myself, and it’s been useful for catching patterns in my writing and speaking mistakes. That’s just what I personally use right now; before that it was only books and random online resources. I’m not selling any course or anything like that. If you have questions about IELTS prep, test day, how to plan your month before the exam, or how I would study in your situation, you can drop them here and I’ll reply when I can. my_qualifications: 3× IELTS taker (8+ every time), 8.5 overall (L9, R9, W8, S8.5)