Making a Study Schedule

 

Start your study schedule early in the year. 

The best time to prepare a study schedule is at the beginning of the school year when you receive the syllabus for each course. Start by writing down all major homework assignments, quizzes, tests, and exams on your calendar.
Color code your study schedule for each subject.
You can start a study schedule at any point in the year, but it is best to start as early as possible. You can even make individual study schedules for final exam time.

Work backward from important deadlines. 

Once you have the important dates on your calendar, add in other important study deadlines before these hard deadlines to stay on task. Add in tasks like “review lecture notes,” “skim textbook chapters,” “rework homework problems,” etc. Give yourself at least a week to study for big tests.

Identify free time in your schedule. 

Write down everything that you are obligated to do each day (classes, meetings, extracurricular activities, exercise, etc.) on your calendar. Once you have everything on your calendar, you can figure out how much free time you have each day. Make a list of all of the time you have for each day and how large the blocks of time are. Your schedule might look something like this:
Mon: two 2-hr blocks
Tues: three 1-hr blocks
Wed: 4 hrs
Thurs: two 2-hr blocks
Sun: 6 hrs

Schedule these blocks for study time.

 The material that you need to cover each week will change, but take a look at your schedule at the beginning of each week or for the next two weeks and plan what you are going to work on. You may need to read for one class, do homework for another, or work on a project for a third.
One-hour blocks of time between classes are a great time to review notes or flip through flashcards. Take advantage of these times and you could add 4-8 hours of study time to your schedule.

Include breaks every two hours.

 If you have large blocks of study time on the weekends, make sure you schedule in breaks. If you have five hours of time to study, take a 30-minute break in the middle to give your brain time to process and decompress.
If you find you are easily distracted, try setting a timer and working in 20-30 minutes chunks with a short 5-minute break between chunks.
Reward yourself when you take a break by getting a snack or drink or playing a game. You might also time your study sessions so that when you're done you can go do something fun with your friends. This way you'll feel like you're working towards something, even if you don't particularly like studying.
You also want to make sure you have time for fun and social activities. Don’t schedule every second of free time for studying because you will be unlikely to stick to that

Stick to your schedule. 

A schedule is only good if you actually follow it. The study schedule is not absolute. If you need to revise it as you go along, definitely do that. You may find that you work a lot better in the morning and have trouble working in the afternoon. Use this information to your advantage and try to maximize your morning study time.
Schedule the more important and/or difficult material for your best study times. Work on the easier material when you are not at your best.
Make sure your schedule is flexible and can accommodate emergencies or conflicts as they may arise.