As with learning English, there are a variety of factors that can influence how long it takes to increase your IELTS score. However, I will attempt to use a variety of sources that should help to give an estimate.
The most useful source for this is a research article that investigated how much students improved their IELTS score after 10-12 weeks of a full-time English course (about 200-240 hours) in private language schools in Australia and New Zealand (Elder and O‘Loughlin, 2003). The research showed that students increased their score by an average of about 0.6 of a band overall after a course of 10-12 weeks. However, there were differences in how much students improved in the different sections. On average, students improved their score by almost 0.8 of a band in listening whereas it was only 0.4 for reading. There were also big differences between individual students as some students managed to increase their score by quite a lot in this period whilst some students saw very little improvement in their score.
As with language learning in general, according to the research, it seems that it is easier to make progress at the lower band scores. For students who started the course at band 6, they had a less than 50% of increasing their overall band score over the period of a 10-12 week course (Elder and O‘Loughlin, 2003). Interestingly, the study also showed that the most successful age group were those students who were aged 20-25.
Another useful piece of research investigated score gains in the writing section of the IELTS test (Green, 2005). It also showed that students are more likely to increase their score at lower levels, e.g. a student with a 5.0 is more likely to increase their score by 0.5 of a band (to 5.5) compared to a student who already has a 6.5 and is trying to increase their score to 7.0. The article also notes how previously (before 2002), IELTS partners (Cambridge English Language Assessment, the British Council and IDP: IELTS Australia) used to provide the following statement about score gains:
‘It has been shown that individuals can take up to 200 hours to improve by one IELTS band’
(IELTS, 2002, p22 cited in Green, 2005). However, Green advised that this advice could not be supported by evidence and IELTS no longer provide such information about how long it may take a candidate to improve their IELTS score.
It is also quite useful to look at some different universities and how long they estimate that it takes to go up an IELTS band. Most universities in the UK offer pre-sessional English courses to students as an alternative to achieving the IELTS band score that they need for their chosen course. Whilst there is some variation, most universities suggest that it would take between 6 to 10 weeks (about 120-200 hours) to increase an IELTS score by 0.5 of a band. However, there are quite a few commercial factors that also influence the decision of what courses universities offer to students at different band scores, so it might be wise not to place too much emphasis on university pre-sessional courses.
Obviously, as with the research outlined above from Australia and New Zealand, students taking an on-campus intensive pre-sessional course will be in an English-speaking country and so would get the benefit of being surrounded by English much of the time. The only drawback of such courses is that there is relatively little time for self-study for each hour of class time (students would normally have around four to five hours of classes per day from Monday to Friday). However, if you are learning for 6 hours a week, then there is more opportunity for self-study between lessons and so slightly fewer class hours might be needed than in the examples above (but more self-study).
What is interesting is the difference between how long is suggested it might take to improve an IELTS score above compared to how long Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press suggest it might take to move up one band on the CEFR, e.g. A2 to B1, B2 to C1, etc. It seems that these predictions are a lot more optimistic than for how long it takes to improve an IELTS score. One reason might be that the IELTS test is not just an assessment of general English level but an assessment of how well a candidate can communicate in an academic context. This is likely to mean extra preparation involved (e.g. learning how to do the writing part 1 and part 2 task) as well as learning more specific language that is common in academic contexts.
However, I would guess that the biggest difference is to do with the first language of many students who take the IELTS test. Remember that the predictions by Cambridge Assessment (see here) were for learners in an ideal situation, e.g. learners who share the same writing script as English (e.g. French, German, Spanish, etc.) whereas most of the students who take the IELTS test and were involved in the studies mentioned were from either East Asia or the Middle East. This means that most candidates for the IELTS test are likely to have a first language (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) that is very different to English and so would take longer to make progress in English.
Overall then, it seems that a figure of about 200 hours of lessons is probably the best guess of how long is needed to increase by 0.5 of a band on the IELTS test on average for students who have Mandarin as their first language. Obviously, it is possible to do it in less, but this depends on many factors (see here), and especially on how much effective self-study you are able to do.
References:
Elder, C., & O’Loughlin, K. (2003). Investigating the relationship between intensive English language study and band score gain on IELTS. International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Research Reports 2003: Volume 4, 207.
Green, A. (2005). EAP study recommendations and score gains on the IELTS Academic Writing test. Assessing Writing, 10(1), 44-60.
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