Creating Your Study Schedule

Establish short-term and long-term goals for studying

It will be easier to create and manage your schedule if you know what you want to achieve at the end. This will also help you identify areas that you need to focus on.

• Short-term goals might include passing a test in a week, finishing a paper within 2 weeks, or memorizing a presentation in 10 days. For these projects, break up your tasks by day.
• Long-term goals might include getting into a certain college, winning a scholarship, or landing a certain job or internship. For these, break down your goals by week and month to make them more manageable.
• Make sure you know exactly how much time you have for each of these goals. Write the end date down and calculate how many days, weeks, and months are left. For example, what is the deadline for a college application or when are your exams?

List all the subjects you need to study

Perhaps the first step in creating your study schedule is to list all of the subjects and courses you need to study for. Putting your obligations on paper will help you get a better idea of what you really have to do. If you have specific exams to study for, list these instead of courses.

Figure out what you need to do for each subject or exam

Now that you’ve written down all of the different subjects you need to study for, you need to figure out what you need to do for each course. While your time commitment and other obligations for a specific class might vary per week, chances are you’ll find out that over the long-haul, you’ll need a certain amount of time per subject.

• If you have a study guide or a textbook with review sections, use it to narrow down what you list.
• Reserve time for reading.
• Reserve time for reviewing your notes.
• Reserve time to create exam study guides, if you'll need them.

Prioritize your list

After you’ve made a list of all the subjects or exams you need to study for and figured out what you need to do for each, prioritize the list. Ranking each class in importance will help you figure out what subjects you need to devote the most time to and which subjects should get your best time slots.

• Put a number, starting with one, next to all of your subjects or exams. If you need the most time for math, give it a one. If you need the least time for history (and you have five subjects to study for), give it a five.
• Take into account difficulty of the subject or exam.
• Take into account the amount of reading you will need to do.
• Take into account the amount of reviewing you will need to do.

Divide your available time during the week into study blocks 

Before you go on, you need to divide up your available time during the week into study blocks. After you do this, you can go and assign your blocks to a subject.

• The trick to creating a study schedule is to plan to study the same time every day so you actually have a schedule you can memorize without constantly checking. By creating a routine, you’ll build a positive study habit.
• Check if there are times or days of the week you can always study during. For example, you may be free 3-4 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday. If possible, try to schedule your studying then, because a regular, set routine can help you get into a studying mindset and into one more quickly.
• Schedule study sessions in 30 to 45 minute blocks. Shorter time blocks are easier to find and to schedule than longer blocks.
• Create blocks for all of your available time.
• If you have a certain amount of time before an exam, create a reverse calendar instead of a weekly schedule.