First, be honest with yourself. Most students tend to overestimate their abilities rather than the opposite. Be aware of where you stand in terms of proficiency. It’s harder to do this without a mentor, as most people aren’t honest with themselves or give themselves too much credit. A proper assessment and diagnosis of your skills solves half the problem.
Second, treat the IELTS as a test that measures your English, nothing more, nothing less. I’ve spoken with many students, and a common mistake they make is fixating on solving as many practice tests as they can. Preparing for the IELTS is more than just mindlessly doing practice tests. This approach can also backfire, as you might end up developing bad habits, especially in speaking and writing.
Thirdly, focus on the rubric, and strictly adhere to it. It tells you what you need to get a certain band score. It's also a great metric while testing yourself.
I'll also break it down for each module
Writing - Stick to the standard structure of a traditional IELTS essay. Don't use templates, it'll end up lowering your band scores. Most examiners have checked thousands of exam essays and are often used to seeing those templates. Also, focus on your grammar and vocabulary. YouTube is your best friend! Coherency is just as important. A good trick to improve your vocabulary is using online word frequency analysers to know how to use a specific correctly. *DO NOT USE AI* it'll make your writing sound more generic and verbose. You need versatility and uniqueness.
Listening - it depends on the medium. I find Computer Delivered IELTS listening much harder. Instead of trying to spot a specific word that you think will be the answer, follow the overall conversation. Something I did in the listening module was marking the text while following the conversation. It made the whole process much more intuitive. However, the answer might not always be right after the expected points. It can get unpredictable at times. Work on improving your active listening.
Reading - Reading is very tricky. I believe it takes the most effort to get better at it. The best way to do this is to take an assessment test. Take a few tests covering all kinds of exercises and questions. Diagnose your weaknesses and try to get better at them. Reading is also about strategy, there are definitely a few "tricks" to get better at every exercises. I recommend watching videos by IELTS advantage specifically for reading. You should also read outside of IELTS reading, make it your habit. Read a specific number of pages everyday. It'll help you a lot. Stick to Cambridge readings.
Speaking - I always tell this to students taking the IELTS : 'You don't speak the same way you write'. Conversational English is way different from written English. The IELTS speaking test is not an interview, it is a conversation, so treat it as such. However, you still need to be careful with your grammar. You should be able to form complex sentences when speaking. Be confident and relaxed. The best way to get better at speaking English is recording yourself. You would be surprised how different you sound than you always expected, and that's the point of it. You get much more self conscious while listening to your own audios and can judge yourself much better than simply trying to do the same while you're speaking.
I hope this helped! Good luck to you guys.