How many mock tests do you actually need?
More isn't better after a point. What matters is the gap between the mock and what you do in the 48 hours afterwards.
Students ask for more mock tests when their score stops moving. Usually the mocks aren't the problem — the 48 hours after each one is. A mock you don't review is an expensive way to practise the mistakes you already have.
Six, spaced properly
For a typical eight-week preparation, six full-length mocks is the right number: one diagnostic at the start, four spaced roughly ten days apart, and one in the final week. Any tighter and you're testing fatigue rather than ability.
- Week 1 — diagnostic, untargeted, to find the real starting point.
- Weeks 2–7 — one every ten days, each followed by a review session.
- Final week — one mock, no later than three days before the exam.
- Never two full mocks in the same week. Score drops there are noise.
The review is the actual work
For every wrong answer, write down which of three reasons applies: didn't know it, misread it, or ran out of time. Those need completely different fixes, and lumping them together is why students grind through practice without improving. A test with twelve mistakes usually reveals only two or three real patterns.
One mock reviewed properly is worth four taken back to back.
Simulate the conditions, including the boring ones
Same start time as your real exam, no phone, no pausing between sections, and the Listening played once at full length. Test-day stamina is a skill, and it's the one students most often discover they're missing on the day itself.