How To Create A Revision Timetable
- Buy a diary, calendar or get a large piece of paper to create a poster;
- Fill in your regular school timetable as well as your exam timetable;
- Enter your other regular commitments such as social events, sports, and work;
- Allocate time for breaks, dinner, and unexpected events;
- Decide what subject you need to spend the most time on and which ones the least;
- Calculate how much time you have available and divide the time among your subjects;
- Fill in the rest of your timetable with your subjects and try to plan the subjects reasonably - e.g. mix hard and easy subjects, and keep sciences or languages together;
- Start revising and try to stick to your plan as much as possible
Check out some more tips here!
1. Try and fit your revision around your daily life
First things first, decide what you’d think is best to use for your timetable. Is it a big A3 poster, an Excel sheet, an agenda or calendar. From there on we recommend to do is to break up your day into half an hour session. It’s better to go for half an hour instead of hourly sessions because it will make you feel like you’ve done more. When you revise for an hour you then completed two sessions instead of one and that’s how you can trick your brain. Moreover, it gives you more flexibility to plan around your normal life - dinner, breaks, sports, etc.
2. Fill in your daily life and school timetable
Once you have broken up your week into half an hour sessions, then start filling in when you’ve got school. Then fill in your actual commitments like clubs, sports, volunteering or work. While doing that give yourself half an hour either side of these commitments to plan for traveling there, and any other delays. Also, do not forget to plan a couple of breaks and dinner. And keep some room for your homework, as that will be ongoing.
3. Enter your exam subjects
You would then have a blank canvas that you can use to plan your revision. There are no set rules on how much revision you have to do and how much per day. This is all very individual. However, it’s usually best to allocate more time to the subjects that you’re a bit struggling with and spend less time on the subjects that you already grasp very well. It’s also for you to decide whether you prefer to do a lot of the same subject on a single day or do multiple sessions of different subjects.
Also, think about the repetition of your revision schedule. Most students create a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. This will quickly create a routine and can make you mentally prepare better for the revision sessions. We don’t recommend one over the other. This is really for yourself to decide. But take into account that one week you probably have more classes than the other. So an exact repetitive schedule might not always be the best.
Tip: Revise a subject on the same day as you had classes for that subject. In that way, you can instantly make sure whether you understand it or not and get a feeling for how much revision time you would need to allocate.
4. Colour code your subjects for a clear overview
Another useful tip is to Colour code your template. If you give each subject a different Colour, then you can see at a glance what you’re doing and keeps the overview nice and clear. Also, do not worry whether you do not always revise as much as you planned. It happens. As long as you’ve done some of the subjects that you’ve put down on that day, then don’t worry. There will be opportunities to revise more for those subjects.
5. Start revising and try to stick to your plan
You also don’t have to follow the schedule exactly at the minute. If you planned to revise Biology at 8 pm but instead did it at 11 am, then that’s fine. The schedule is not meant to dictate your life. It’s a helpful tool that keeps your revision more organised and helps you stay on track. With that being said, it’s totally fine to make slight adjustments as you’re progressing. After a couple of weeks, you’ll have a good feel for what subject you now grasp very well and you might realise that can revise much less, whereas for other subjects you might need to allocate more time. Keep the schedule as a living document and keep a realistic view on how well it suits your current state. But the more you stick to your initial plan, the higher the chance you will be fully prepared for your exams.
Tip: Leave some room open during the weekends to catch up any revision sessions that you skipped during the week. If you’ll do that every weekend then you will make sure to never fall behind and be completely ready for the exams.
So there you have it, our best advice on how to make your revision timetable. Give it a go and send us a photo of your schedule. We’re curious to see how creative you can be. For more tips on revising check out our Ultimate GCSE & A-Level Revision Guide.
