What the Exam Revision Planner does
This exam revision planner works backwards from your exam dates to a day-by-day plan. You list each exam's topics with a confidence rating, and it gives weaker topics more study sessions, schedules spaced reviews 1, 3 and 7 days after you finish a topic, respects your rest days, and tells you plainly whether everything fits in the time left.
The rules are stated on the page rather than hidden, the plan is built in your browser, and it can be printed as a tick-off checklist or added to your calendar.
How to use it
- Write each exam as "Name | date" in YYYY-MM-DD form, and list its topics underneath, each starting with a dash. Add "| 1" to "| 5" after a topic for how confident you feel; 3 is assumed if you leave it out.
- Set the day you start revising, the hours you can revise each day and your session length.
- Tick your rest days. At least one a week protects against burn-out and gives the plan slack for bad days.
- Choose Build plan. Read the fit check first: it says, exam by exam, whether all the study sessions fit before the exam and how many spaced reviews could be placed.
- Print the checklist or download the calendar file, and rebuild the plan whenever your confidence ratings change.
Reading the results
A topic rated 1 gets five study sessions and one rated 5 gets one. The idea is to spend time where it changes your mark most, not where it feels comfortable.
Reviews marked +1 d, +3 d and +7 d are short revisits of a topic after its last study session. Spacing your practice like this is one of the most reliably helpful study techniques in learning research.
Sessions are filled earliest-deadline-first: topics for the soonest exam come first, and reviews are placed before new study on the same day. If a plan does not fit, the shortfall is shown in sessions, never silently dropped.
Worked example: three exams in four weeks
A student has Biology in 21 days (Cell biology 2, Genetics 4, Ecology 3), Chemistry in 24 days (Organic reactions 1, Bonding 4, Rates and equilibrium 2) and History in 28 days (Cold War 3, Source analysis 2).
Study sessions needed are 6 minus confidence: Biology 4 + 2 + 3 = 9, Chemistry 5 + 2 + 4 = 11, History 3 + 4 = 7 - 27 in total.
With 2 hours a day and 45-minute sessions there is room for floor(120 / 45) = 2 sessions a day. Over four weeks with Sundays off that is about 24 revision days, or roughly 48 sessions - enough for all 27 study sessions and most of the spaced reviews, so the fit check shows every exam as fitting.
Limitations: what the result does not prove
- Confidence ratings are your own judgement. Test yourself with past papers or the Quiz Generator to check them, and update the plan.
- Every session is the same length. Big topics may need splitting into smaller ones in the list to get the time they deserve.
- The plan does not know about lessons, work shifts or other commitments on particular days; lower the daily hours or mark rest days to allow for them.
- Revision stops on the day of each exam, and nothing is scheduled for an exam once it has passed.
Privacy: where your data goes
Everything you paste, type or drop is processed in this browser tab. It is not uploaded, logged, stored or sent to analytics. Session recording and tag-manager scripts are switched off on this page.
Standards and sources
- Cepeda et al. (2006) - Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks, Psychological Bulletin
- Dunlosky et al. (2013) - Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should I start revising?
Early enough that the fit check shows every exam fitting with its spaced reviews. For most students that means several weeks for a full set of exams; the planner shows immediately whether your chosen start date is enough.
What is spaced repetition in revision?
It means coming back to a topic after increasing gaps rather than cramming it in one go. Each return makes the memory easier to recall later, which is why the plan revisits topics 1, 3 and 7 days after you finish studying them.
Should I revise one subject at a time or mix them?
Mixing usually works better. Because topics for several exams are available at once, the planner interleaves subjects within days while still prioritising the nearest exam.
What if the plan does not fit?
Start earlier, add daily time, remove a rest day, merge small topics or, if none of those is possible, accept lower coverage and focus on the topics that carry the most marks. The fit check tells you how many sessions you are short.
Can I tick off sessions as I go?
Yes, each session has a checkbox, and the print view works as a paper checklist. Ticks are not saved when you close the page, so print it or use the calendar file to keep track.
Last reviewed by the A2Z.Tools team against the sources listed above.
