TOEFL study plan for one month — how to prepare for the TOEFL

This one-month TOEFL study plan is intended for self-study students preparing for their TOEFL exam date. It assumes roughly two hours a day, six days a week, and it front-loads the skills that take longest to move — Speaking and Integrated Writing — so they get the most repetitions before test day.

Week 1 — Diagnose, then build vocabulary

Sit a full-length practice test under timed conditions before you study anything. Your section scores tell you where the month should go. Spend the rest of the week on academic vocabulary in context: read one long-form article a day and note every word you had to guess.

Week 2 — Reading and Listening technique

Both sections reward note-taking discipline more than raw comprehension. Practise the three-column note format for lectures, and learn the seven Reading question types well enough to recognise each one instantly.

Week 3 — Speaking and Writing templates

Record every Speaking response and listen back the same day. For the Integrated Writing task, build a fixed paragraph structure you can deploy without thinking so your attention stays on the content of the lecture.

Week 4 — Full tests and review

Two complete timed tests, three days apart, with a full review of every wrong answer in between. The final two days are for rest and logistics — not new material.