How to Make a Study Schedule, Step by Step

The 7 steps in detail

1. List every deadline

Go through each syllabus and write down every exam, quiz, essay and lab due date in one place. This is what the rest of the schedule is built around, so don't skip anything small.

2. Block out fixed commitments

Put in everything you can't move: classes, work shifts, sports, commuting, meals and sleep. Study blocks go in the gaps, not on top of them.

3. Count your real free hours

Add up what's left. Be honest: if you're wiped out after a late shift, that evening isn't study time. A plan built on hours you don't really have falls apart by Wednesday.

4. Rank your courses

Order courses by how soon the next big deadline is and how hard the material is for you. The top two get the most blocks and your most alert hours. Courses you're comfortable in get shorter, lighter slots.

5. Give every block a task

"Study biology" is easy to put off and hard to finish. "Do 20 practice questions on cell respiration" has a clear start and end. Favour tasks that make you retrieve information: practice questions, past papers, flashcards, explaining a topic from memory.

6. Spread subjects out and review daily

Put each subject on two or three different days rather than one long session. A large review of learning techniques by Dunlosky et al. (2013) rated distributed practice (spacing study out) and practice testing as the two highest-utility techniques, and rated rereading and highlighting as low utility. A 20 to 30 minute daily flashcard review covers both. Our spaced repetition statistics page collects more of the research.

7. Keep a buffer and review weekly

Leave one block a week empty. When something takes longer than planned, it goes there instead of wrecking the next day. Every Sunday, spend 15 minutes checking what slipped and moving blocks for the week ahead.

Sample weekly study schedule

Here's a worked example for a student taking calculus, biology, chemistry and history, with classes until 3:30 pm on weekdays. Copy it and swap in your own courses and times.

That's about 14 hours a week. The two hardest courses (calculus and chemistry) get the 4:00 pm slot, each subject shows up on at least two days, and Friday's first block is the buffer.

Variations

Exam in one week

For a longer version, see how to study for exams in 7 days.

Semester-long schedule

• Keep the same weekly template all term so it becomes routine.
• Two to three weeks before each midterm or final, swap some regular blocks for past papers in that course.
• Make flashcards the same week you get the lecture, so revision is review rather than first-time learning.
• Rebuild the template when your timetable changes, not every week.

Working students

• Plan around your shift pattern first. If shifts change weekly, redo step 2 every Sunday.
• Use two or three longer blocks on days off for problem sets and essays.
• Use short gaps like commutes and breaks for flashcards. Fifteen minutes is enough for a review session.
• Keep the buffer block. You'll need it more than anyone.

If you study best late, a study schedule for night owls shifts the same structure later in the day. Grad students can use this graduate school study schedule.

Filling the review blocks

The daily review slot only works if you have cards to review. Making them by hand from every lecture takes a lot of time. StudyCards AI turns lecture PDFs and slides into flashcards you can study on the site or export to Anki, which can schedule reviews with the FSRS algorithm. For other ways to test yourself, see these active recall techniques.

Turn your lecture PDFs into flashcards