Planning your study

Each time you sit down to study, give yourself a certain amount of time to complete that day’s work, whether it’s half an hour or all evening. But remember, just sitting at your desk watching the minutes tick by doesn’t count as studying!

You also need to decide what exactly you will study within that time, so here are three questions to ask yourself:

• How much time do you have?
• What needs to be done?
• By what time?

Now use the sample planning templates to break down your study time by subject and by day.

Use this template to get started. For each of your subjects, write down what you want to get done by the end of the week.

Now decide what you’re going to do to make these aims a reality. When you’re filling out the revision planner, keep the following in mind:

Give yourself one or two rest days. At the start of the school year, two rest days are fine. Closer to exams, allow just one.

Choose three specific things that you are going to do in each study session. Start these three things with active verbs like learn, write, prepare, revise or plan. These words clearly show that you are going to get something done. Avoid words like go over or go through. These are too general. Structuring your revision well means a beginning, a middle and most importantly, an end!

Remember the ABCs:

• Aim identification
• Be definite
• Carry out the plan

Once you’ve decided what your aims are and what your rest day(s) are, use this revision planner to map out your study for the week by listing all your subjects. You can download this revision planner here.

This allows you to monitor your studying. Make careful notes about what you have done and when, including when you need to revise again closer to the exam.

For each revision planner you do, match it with a study tracker.

Keep all your revision planners and study trackers. They will help you to see what you’ve done throughout the year.

After you’ve done weekly planners for a few weeks to get the hang of it, you could then do monthly planners. This will give you even more control of your learning.

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