The answer to that question depends a lot on you, on your English level, on how much time you have, on what kind of band score you're hoping to achieve. Therefore, everybody's study plans will be a little bit different. Some advice about different aspects of your study that you should focus on in order to get the most out of your studies and to make a realistic plan for you is provided hereafter.
The first is just learning the exam, learning the test. This involves learning about format. The different types of questions, what the directions will be, all of that kind of thing. It will be related to strategy, so how you approach each type of question in the best way possible.
IELTS produces practice questions they put on their website. They also have full-length practice exams that they offer in book form. Therefore, you can practice your strategies with official materials, but to learn strategies, it's better to go to unofficial sources. Here, on our website, we’re going to provide lots of different materials for you to practice. That's one source, you may want to look for others as well. Books, other resources you can find online. Moreover, probably most of you, if you really need to develop your English, you're taking some kind of English class.
The second factor is your English skills. If your English skills are already as strong as you want them to be. And all you really need is to learn about the test, most students will take about 1 to 3 months in order to really learn the test deeply. After that amount of time, you'll have enough practice where you can really, on test day, know that you understand the test fully. However, some of you have less time than that, others may want to take more. But 1 to 3 months is what it takes most students to achieve that goal.
You are gonna be tested on how you use English on your IELTS exam. So you need to practice those things and get experience practicing. You should also be really focusing on your weakest skills (i.e., writing skill). It's a really important thing to do, especially for speaking and for getting feedback on your writing by interacting with native speakers.
