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Introduction
In the journey of academic excellence, a well-structured study schedule can be your guiding light. It provides a clear roadmap, ensuring you cover your coursework effectively while maintaining a balanced life. Here, in this blog, we’ll explore the significance of a thoughtfully designed study schedule and provide tips on creating one that aligns with your unique learning style and goals.
Why Create a Study Schedule?
Let’s say that you have a major final exam due in May. Let’s also say that right now, it’s September. Of course, although the test is so far away, in the blink of an eye, you’ll be sitting down taking that test. But, most people don’t think of the test as being that close to your current date even if it’s months away. And, it’s pretty reasonable why they think like that. But, if you want to shoot sky-high to achieve the best grades possible, it’s better to study less, study consistently, and be dedicated.
There’s two students. The 1st student starts studying for an exam months in advance for just 20 minutes a day. The 2nd student begins studying last minute, and spends 1-2 weeks before the exam spending several hours a day every single day to understand all the information that they are going to be tested on. Who do you think does better? The student that has studied less, but has studied consistently for months with pure dedication, or the student that throws all their studying for the last minute, and having to study so much?
At the end of the day, if you can master consistency, you will get far in life. That tip doesn’t just go for school-related purposes. So, with the help of a study schedule, you can sustain that consistency even easier; which in return, will bring you various benefits in the short and long-term. In addition, you’ll be aware when you are studying too much, or too less (no matter the day).
Creating a Schedule
Now that you’ve learned why you should create a study schedule, we must first create the schedule itself. What are we going to follow, if there’s no schedule to follow? Of course, you can always use a study schedule online, but you need to consider yourself first. Everyone learns differently. How do you learn?
Alright, here are the necessary principles to consider when creating a study schedule:
- How do you learn? There are 4 types of learners: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing learners. Most commonly, people tend to be visual learners, those who learn best from images. For example, a majority of you may likely remember the image demonstrated below, rather than the explanation of a visual learner here. Learning what type of learner you are is critical towards understanding the amount, intensity, and frequency of your studying. Are you the type of person that needs 15 minutes of studying every day to remember information for a class, or 25 minutes? I suggest finding this information out by taking a simple test online, printing out a test sheet from the internet, or just finding out on your own.
- Assessing Your Goals. What grades are you aiming for? What are your long and short-term objectives? Answer these questions and just ask yourself what the point of this study schedule even is.
- What subjects do you struggle with? What are the most difficult subjects for you to study? Is it math? Is it science? What is it? Identify your most challenging subjects or topics and allocate more time to them. Prioritizing this factor ensures that you give adequate attention to the areas requiring more attention than others. Take for example my struggle with Biology. Although it wasn’t the hardest of subjects, it took a while for a chunk of the information spread across the year in that class to stick into my head. As a result, I spent more time studying for that class relative to my other classes (except World History).
- Break it down. Don’t just simply say that you need to study for 140 minutes this week. Instead, spread that across each day. This means that the number of minutes to study across each day would be 20 minutes. Although it is the exact same, psychology, it seems like a smaller number. Doesn’t it?
- Take Breaks. I’m not totally sure if I mentioned this before, but be sure to take breaks during your study sessions. Starting out, it’ll be hard to continuously study for 2 hours straight. Just chill out for a moment and take 5.
- Be Flexible, but not too much. Things happen, so if you need to take out some time out of your study schedule, then don’t worry too much about it. Treat it as taking creatine for exercise purposes. Just because you forget to take it once, doesn’t mean you will lose all your gains (this is taking into consideration that you have been using it for some time by that point).
- But, don’t make excuses. You won’t make the progress you originally if you’re taking out time from your studying schedule just to do other stuff that aren’t a good use of your time. Be accountable. If you take out some time one week, add more time the next week. Balance things out. If you want to improve, stop making excuses and start taking accountability.
- Stay Consistent.
That’s pretty much all there is to know about creating your study schedule. When you create the actual schedule itself, rather than just the outline, I suggest creating it digitally. Leverage Google Calendars, Google Documents, Microsoft Word, Excel Sheets, or really anything else that works for you. If you prefer making it the old-school way on paper, feel free to do so. As long as it works, and keeps you on track, that’s all that matters.
What Should My Schedule Look Like?
If you followed all the steps correctly, your next months should be completed booked with study sessions every single day at a time that suits you. If there’s a day that you need to dedicate to something special, whether that’d be a birthday, vacation, or anything related, be sure to write “break” on that day, on that specific time.
The most difficult part of creating your schedule are the perquisites to be completed beforehand. The easiest part is creating the schedule itself. After all that, you should be completely good to go.
Here’s an exemplar study schedule that you can format off of if you’d like:
| January 25, 2024 | January 26, 2024 | January 27, 2024 |
| Study 30 mins for Calculus | Study 30 mins for Calculus | Study for 30 mins Calculus |
| Study 15 mins for U.S. History | Take a break on U.S. History | Study 30 mins for U.S. History |
As you can see, the ideal study schedule that you all should follow should be simple, easy to follow, organized, and keep you accountable. If you take a break one day, study extra the next day (or whenever you’re next available). Keep accountability and you will achieve the wanted results.
Endnotes
Stay consistent, dedicate yourself, never give up, and you will get far as a result. Even if you don’t like such an idea of studying every single day, you don’t have to. If a subject is easier than another, don’t even bother with such a lengthy schedule. But, if you are struggling in a subject or two, and need assistance this school year, then consider creating a study schedule. If you let it, it will give you the wanted results.
