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What Band 7 actually requires in each of the four skills, how the overall band is calculated, and where most candidates actually lose it — the map to read before picking a skill to train. Updated for 2026: what changed when the paper test was retired worldwide, and what didn't — covered in full in Part 1.4.
Download PDFThe real visa, registration and university thresholds behind the number — and the fastest honest route there once you know which one is yours. Updated for 2026: the UK Skilled Worker visa's English floor rose from B1 to B2 on 8 January 2026 — one of several thresholds Part 1.6 checks against your own target.
Download PDFWhere to stop polishing and start practising — a stopping rule for each skill, an honest readiness check before you book, and a rule for where the freed-up hours go. Updated for 2026: Part 6 covers the One Skill Retake (one retake per test, within 60 days), and the Writing self-test in Part 2.3 should now be timed on a keyboard, not by hand, unless you're sitting Writing on Paper.
Download PDFWhat each of the six official question types is trying to trip you up with, and the specific habit that beats it — question type by question type, section by section. Updated for 2026: with answers typed as you go and only a 2-minute check window replacing the old 10-minute transfer, spelling discipline and the recovery drill matter more than ever.
Download PDFEleven official question types, ranked by how many marks they carry and how cheaply that mark is won — a map for where your sixty minutes actually pay off. Updated for 2026: Reading changes less than the other skills under computer delivery — there was never a separate transfer step to lose, so this map still holds.
Download PDFWhat separates a 7.0 from an 8.0 in each of the four skills — and why the gap is almost always about error pattern, not knowledge.
Download PDFWhat separates a band-6.5 sentence from a band-7 sentence under each of the four official criteria — the exact word, clause or connector that changed, and why an examiner reads it differently. Updated for 2026: where Writing on Paper is offered, Part 2 weighs the real trade-off — typing makes fixing a sentence cheap, so by hand more of your revising has to happen before the sentence goes on the page.
Download PDFBand 7 Speaking still pauses, still searches for a word, still corrects itself — what it does not do is lose the listener. Short marked-up transcripts, pauses and all, show exactly where the line between 6 and 7 sits in each of the four official criteria; then one original Part 3 answer is decoded across all four, and a thirty-second check runs the same test on your own recording. Updated for 2026: Speaking is the one skill the move to computer leaves alone, and Part 2 looks at One Skill Retake from Speaking's side.
Download PDFAn overall 6.5 can be one half-band step from 7.0, or four. Add your four scores — 7.0 overall needs a total of 27 — and count your own steps; see which skill they must come from when your requirement sets a minimum per skill; and read your results together, against the measurement figures ielts.org publishes, to tell a real wall from the ordinary movement of a score. Then find what repeats in each skill, and choose between a re-mark, a One Skill Retake and a full resit by the number of steps you need. Updated for 2026: the retake conditions, and what the paper test's withdrawal means for your next sitting.
Download PDFA Writing 6.5 is often two criteria at band 7 and two at band 6, and the public band descriptors explain why it repeats: a criterion reaches 7 only when every band-7 feature in it is there. Find your two from marked essays, or from three counts if you have no teacher. Then use the fix for each: answer every part of the task, take two ideas further instead of listing four, and make the long sentences you already write correct. Task 1 is included, Academic and General Training, and each fix comes with a count, so you can see whether it has held before you book again. Updated for 2026: the checks are built for the test on computer, typed and without a spell checker.
Download PDFA 30-day plan for the last half band, built on one rule: practise what holds you at 6.5, and use full tests only to measure it. Week 1 finds your wall from a full test and turns it into one sentence with a count. Then three weeks of drill, about an hour a day, each drill taken from the skill book that teaches it, with a checkpoint on new material every seventh day. On Day 30 the stopping rule decides: two checkpoints on target in a row, and you choose between a One Skill Retake and a full resit; anything less, and the plan says what to run next. Four candidates go through the same thirty days and end in four different places. Updated for 2026: the retake's 60-day window and the test on computer.
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