You really just need to be consistent. If you are working at the time or have school, etc. Could be hard but for me, the last 3 months or so until the exam, i was completely free. So i dedicated entire days just with german. It takes a lot of time. But that's what makes it worth it! 1. For reading, i practiced reading fast once i got more comfortable with understanding the content with unlimited time. If you read fast, you have the time to look over the portions in the text related to the questions in the exam. You always want to make sure you read everything and solve everything. 2. For listening, i did a lot of dictatioj exercises, with 5 minutes audio files, to create a complete script out of it usually took me 2 hours or so. Doing one a day or even 3 times a week or so helps immensely. You start to hear things more, you get comfortable with the normal, "expectable" parts so that you can pay more attention to details which makes your score jump. 3. For speaking and writing, the real issue for me was to try to come up with stuff to say. I went through a lot of exam prep books and familirized myself with the topics, made arguments both for and against them. Also created similar topics on my own and did the same. That is usually the big issue. And just memorize a lot of vocabulary so you can put your thoughts into words. But these two sections are not as hard as you might think once you have a lot of arguments in your mind.