WHY CREATE A STUDY SCHEDULE?
Planning creates freedom. You may say, me? Plan? No way. I don't want to be up tight. I don't want to lose my spontaneity. I want to be free. One way to feeling calm, peaceful, powerful and free is to have a plan. Often when you are worried and hassled it is because you don't have a plan.
Planning frees you from constant decisions. Having a study schedule makes it easier to plan guilt free time to spend with your friends rather than constantly deciding whether to study or to play.
Planning and action create your life. Planning alone is ineffective. Nothing in our lives changes without action. The value of planning is that it promotes actions that we consciously choose.
Step 1: Make a “Finals Overview” chart below to get a general sense of what you have ahead of you this finals season.
| Course | Final Type | Due Date & Time | Percent of Grade | Percent Remaining | Difficulty |
| Example 101 | Project | May 6, 10:00am | 25% | 80% | 2 |
Course: Write your course title. If you have multiple finals for one course, list them separately.
Final Type: Write the type of the final. Examples include essays, projects, or exams.
Due Date & Time: Write the date and time that the final is due. For in-person final exams, write the date and time of the exam.
Percent of Grade: Write the percentage of your grade that this final is worth. It can usually be found in the syllabus.
Percent Remaining: Estimate how much of the assignment you have left to complete or study for. Ex. I only have the introduction done, so I probably have 80% of the paper to complete. Ex. I have only studied two of five units, so I have 60% of the exam to study for.
Difficulty: Rate the course by how difficult the content is to complete. If the course is easy, rate it 1. If the course is challenging, rate it 2. If the course is very difficult, rate it 3.
Step 2: Multiply the percent remaining by the difficulty of the course. This will give you a number which represents the amount of effort you will have to put into the final given the percentage remaining and the difficulty of the final.
| Course | Final Type | Percent Remaining | Difficulty | Percent Remaining * Difficulty |
| Example 101 | Project | 80% | 2 | 1.6 |
Step 3: Rank each final from highest to lowest.
The highest numbers at the top of the list are the finals which you should prioritize. The lowest numbers at the bottom of the list are the finals which you do not need to prioritize immediately. Note: If a final is worth a very small/large percentage of your grade, you might want to prioritize it less/more accordingly.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Step 4: Block out times to study for or complete each final in your existing calendar, as if studying was any other event. Don’t have a calendar? Ask the ALR Office for one!
Tips for time blocking: Be as realistic as possible. Think about the additional events you might have during finals week, as well as when you study best, and when you might want to take a break!