What should you do if you only have 10 days before your IELTS exam?
As you can imagine, these final days are vital!
Listen in today for details about what to do for the final ten days before your exam.
Today’s question
Today’s question comes from YouTube.
Hello Aubrey, Lindsay and Michelle. I am very happy because you teach us reading tips in 15 days. I would say I have 10 days for my exam. Please give me advice on achieving IELTS 9 from Listening and Speaking.
Many activities target both listening and speaking at the same time.
Today we’ll share 3 things you should be doing in the final 10 days before taking IELTS that will make the most difference for your scores.
#1: IELTS listening practice
By this time, you should be completing timed IELTS listening sets every day.
Don’t just do full tests passively.
In the final 10 days, focus on intensive correction.
After each listening section, do the following:
- Check every wrong answer carefully.
- Find out why you missed it. Being aware of the mistakes you are making will help you avoid repeating that mistake on test day.
- Spelling
- Distraction
- Paraphrasing
- Numbers
- Accents
- losing focus
- Replay difficult sections and read the transcript while listening.
What should your routine look like?
You should be completing one timed listening section daily.
Spend 20–30 minutes reviewing mistakes for each of these question sets.
Repeat aloud difficult sections, mimicking the speaker’s pronunciation and word stress.
This improves both listening accuracy and speaking fluency at the same time.
#2: Use high-scoring chunks
For speaking, don’t memorize long scripts.
Instead, prepare flexible phrases you can use naturally across many topics.
Examples:
- “I’ve always been someone who…”
- “What stands out to me is…”
- “I go back and forth on that.”
- “At the end of the day…”
- “That’s not something I’d thought much about before, but…”
Practice combining these with common topics like work, travel, technology, food, routines, and education.
This raises fluency and coherence much faster than memorization.
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#3: Work on one weakness at a time
Record yourself daily and focus on improving just one speaking weakness at a time.
Many students try to improve everything simultaneously, which can slow progress.
Instead, follow a schedule like this one, adjusted according to what you need to work on:
- Day 1–3: focus on avoiding long pauses
- Day 4–6: focus on pronunciation and sentence stress
- Day 7–8: focus on adding examples/details
- Day 9–10: do full mock speaking tests
Which errors should you listen for?
When recording yourself, listen for:
- repetitive vocabulary
- unnatural pauses (“ummm…”)
- grammar mistakes you repeat often
- answers that are too short
A simple improvement like extending answers from 15 seconds to 40–60 seconds can significantly improve your Speaking score.
To target listening and speaking skills together, listen to 10 minutes of a podcast and then summarize it aloud.
Think of an IELTS question on the topic or have AI create one.
Then, listen to the next 10 minutes.
This will keep you actively building both listening and speaking fluency on the topic.
Use this 10-day strategy
For the last ten days before your exam, we recommend this schedule:
- 60–90 minutes listening daily
- 30–45 minutes speaking daily
Be sure to prioritize quality of practice over quantity.
Focus on consistency, not perfection.
Takeaway
In the last 10 days, your focus should not be learning huge amounts of new vocabulary.
Instead, focus on sharpening habits and reducing mistakes.
Set reasonable goals so you can keep your motivation and confidence up.
For all the strategies you need, sign up for 3 Keys IELTS.
Do you feel ready for your IELTS exam?
Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
