Setting up

The first thing Bandzen asks for is a short wizard, four steps and a summary. It is the only thing it knows about you that it did not measure, and each answer changes something you will see later. You can change any of them afterwards in Settings.

The four steps

1. Which test, and when. 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. The test date is optional — with one, 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.

2. Target band. 5.0 to 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.

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

4. Daily study minutes. One of 20, 30, 45, 60 or 90. Setting the size of a day in your plan this way — rather than free entry — is what keeps the plan's maths simple: a task always divides evenly into a whole session.

Your timezone is 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.

Before you finish

The wizard ends on a summary screen — "Here's your plan" — built from your four answers, so you see what you are about to commit to before you submit it.

What happens when you finish

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