Setting up

The first thing Bandzen asks for is six answers. They are the only things it knows about you that it did not measure, and each one changes something you will see later. You can change any of them afterwards in Settings.

The six answers

Exam type — Academic or General Training. Decides which writing prompts you are shown. Reading is currently marked on the Academic conversion scale regardless; see How reading is marked.

Target band. Between 5.0 and 9.0, in half steps. It appears in the sidebar, and Progress measures your estimates against it. It does not make the plan harder or easier — the plan responds to what you score, not what you want.

Your current level. A rough guess is fine, and I don't know is a real answer rather than a skipped question. Saying you don't know sends you straight to the diagnostic, because the alternative is planning around a number nobody has.

Daily study minutes. Sets the size of a day in your plan. A plan that asks for forty minutes from someone with fifteen is a plan that gets abandoned.

Test date. Optional. With a date, your plan counts down to it and the sidebar shows the days left. Without one, the plan runs a fortnight at a time, rolling forward.

Your timezone. Captured from your browser rather than asked. It decides when your day ends, which is what makes a study day mean your Tuesday rather than a server's.

What happens when you finish

Two things.

You are granted 7 days of Pro. It starts when you finish setting up, not when your invitation was sent — the point is to see the product working, and that clock should not run while you have not opened it.

Then you go to the diagnostic if you said you did not know your level, or to Today if you gave one.