A realistic timeline from deciding to sitting the Written
Most write-ups of Written preparation start at “make a study plan”. The real timeline starts earlier, with logistics, and candidates who skip that part end up compressing six months of preparation into three because the paperwork or the roster caught them out.
What follows is a realistic sequence, not an official one. Confirm every eligibility and enrolment detail against the college’s current documentation for your sitting; dates and requirements change, and this post will not be updated to track them.
Six or more months out: decide and clear the runway
- Confirm you can actually sit. Check the current eligibility requirements and the application window for the sitting you want. Do this before any study planning; a missed enrolment window costs you six months no roster fix can recover.
- Tell the people who control your roster. Study leave, conference leave, swaps around exam week: the earlier these are in the system, the more likely they hold.
- Pick your sitting honestly. Count the real weeks between now and the paper, subtract nights blocks, leave, and life, and ask whether what remains funds the preparation you intend. A deferral decided now costs nothing; one decided eight weeks out costs momentum and an application fee.
Four to six months out: build the base
Start the question bank now, in tutor mode, with instant explanations on. The goal in this phase is coverage and calibration, not scores: work through every category, let the early numbers be ugly, and let per-topic accuracy tell you where the real gaps are rather than where you assume they are. Steady volume beats heroic weekends; a modest daily block that survives your roster outperforms a plan that assumes ideal weeks. If you are working nights, we have written a nights-specific schedule.
Two to four months out: target and consolidate
By now your analytics say something. Shift from even coverage to weak-topic rotation: build sessions from your worst categories and from your incorrect pool, and re-clear it as it refills. Keep a baseline of mixed fresh questions running so first-attempt accuracy stays an honest signal while you drill the gaps.
The last four to eight weeks: rehearse the format
Switch a growing share of your time to timed, exam-format blocks with feedback withheld to the end. You are training pacing, stamina, and the discipline of moving on from a question you cannot close. Review of each paper matters more than the paper itself: every incorrect goes back into the rotation.
Exam week
Taper. Light review of bottom lines and your own error patterns, sleep, and the boring logistics of venue, documents, and the day’s timing. The week before deserves its own post, so we wrote one: the week before the Written.
Wherever you are on this timeline, the free samples are a zero-cost way to calibrate where you would start.