Study Time Planner

Written byOleh Soloninupdated 10 September 2026

Topics or questions

Minutes per topic

Start of revision

Exam date

Rest days a week

Result

Hours a day15
Schedule assessmentover four hours a day is not a realistic plan; start earlier
Topics a day20
Study days2
Days in total2
Hours in total30

Honest arithmetic instead of 'I'll manage'

Works out the daily study time needed to cover every topic before the exam, allowing for rest days.

Revision fails on arithmetic rather than laziness: forty topics at forty-five minutes is thirty hours, and if the exam is a week away that is more than four hours a day with no days off. Almost nobody sustains that.

The calculation shows the load while there is still time to change it. If the answer exceeds two hours a day there are three options: start earlier, cut the number of topics, or accept that some material will go uncovered.

What this calculator shows

The hours of study needed each day
Topics per day and the number of study days available
Whether the resulting schedule is realistic

What to keep in mind

Rest days are subtracted evenly: the number given per week is not counted as study time.
No time is reserved for revision. In practice a first pass takes about two thirds of the total preparation time.

FAQs

How much time does exam preparation take?

Work it out from the volume: topics times minutes per topic. Forty topics at forty-five minutes is thirty hours of first-pass work plus about as much again for revision.

How many hours a day can I study effectively?

Two to three hours of focused work is the ceiling for most people. Beyond that returns fall away quickly.

Should I plan time for revision?

Always. Material covered once is gone within a week; spaced revision takes roughly half the time of the first pass.

What if the schedule is impossible?

Cut the scope deliberately rather than by accident: identify the topics that come up most often and cover them properly, instead of skimming everything.

Worked example

Six weeks for forty topics

Input: 40 topics at 45 minutes, 1 August to 15 September, one rest day a week

Output: 0.77 hours a day across 39 study days

Note: Under an hour a day, with room left for revision. The same material in two weeks would demand two and a half hours daily, which is a different life entirely.

Useful links

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Study Time Planner

Result

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