How to study for an exam: a step-by-step plan
Work backwards from the exam date, test yourself from day one and keep the last days for review. A plan with flashcards, practice papers and a worked example.
To study for an exam, work backwards from the date. List what will be examined, share it over the days you have, learn each part in small amounts while testing yourself from the first day, and keep the last days for review and practice papers. The order matters less than starting early and quizzing yourself instead of rereading.
The method in a few lines
- Count the days between now and the exam.
- List the topics from the syllabus and from past papers.
- Split the days into a learning period and a few review-only days at the end.
- Study by recalling, not rereading: cards for facts, problems for methods.
- Do a past paper under exam conditions every week, and more at the end.
- Turn every mistake into a card or a problem to redo.
Why it works
Three findings do most of the work.
Testing yourself teaches. In 2011 Karpicke and Blunt ran two experiments with 200 students in total. Practicing retrieval produced more learning than studying the same text while drawing a concept map, including on questions that asked for inferences. Most students had predicted the concept map would work better.
Techniques differ a lot. In 2013 Dunlosky and colleagues rated ten study techniques. Practice testing and distributed practice got the highest utility rating. Summarizing, highlighting and rereading, which many students lean on, got the lowest.
Spacing needs a start date. The best gap between two study sessions grows with how long you need to remember (Cepeda and colleagues, 2006). For an exam, that is the number of days left: what you need on exam day should be seen well before it, and more than once. Read more in spaced repetition.
A fourth effect works against you: people underestimate how long their own tasks take. The research calls it the planning fallacy. One remedy it suggests is to break plans into smaller steps and commit to specific actions at specific times, which is what the plan below does.
How to run it, with an example
Say your biology exam is in 30 days. The course has 8 chapters, and you decide that about 240 flashcards cover the facts. The rest is problems and past papers.
- Fix the end. Write the exam date down and keep the last 2 days for review only. That leaves 28 days of learning.
- Work out the pace. 240 cards over 28 days is about 9 new cards a day. If that pace looks too heavy, you learn on day 1 that you must cut cards or find more time, instead of finding out on day 25.
- Share the chapters. Two chapters a week for four weeks. Write the cards for a chapter the day you study it, not in the last week.
- Review daily. Cards due come before new cards. Reviews are short because each day's new batch is small.
- Add a past paper every week. Do it in the time you will have on the day, without notes. Mark it, then write a card or a problem for each mistake.
- Use the last 2 days to review and rest. No new material. Redo the questions you missed, and read your list of mistakes.
| Week | Chapters | New cards a day | Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 and 2 | 9 | A first paper to see the format |
| 2 | 3 and 4 | 9 | A paper, mistakes into cards |
| 3 | 5 and 6 | 9 | A paper, a list of weak topics |
| 4 | 7 and 8 | 9 | A timed paper |
| Last 2 days | None | 0 | Review and redo mistakes |
This is an example, not a rule: the right number of cards and papers depends on your course. What stays the same is the shape. Learn early, test often, and leave the end free.
When cards are not enough
Cards are good for definitions, dates, formulas, vocabulary and the steps of a method. They do not teach you to solve a problem or to write an argument. For those, do problems and past papers, then use cards for the facts you needed and did not have.
Mistakes to avoid
- Rereading and highlighting as the main method. It feels productive because the text looks familiar. Familiarity is not recall.
- Cramming the cards in the last week. A schedule needs time to space the reviews. Late cards are better than none, but not as good as early ones.
- Studying only what you like. List the topics and look at the ones you avoid first.
- Skipping past papers. They show the format, the timing and the questions you cannot answer yet.
- No review-only days. If you are still adding new material the night before, you are not reviewing.
- Rewriting the plan every day. Change it once a week, after a past paper, with real data.
- Treating cards as the whole course. You still have to understand the material. Cards fix it in memory afterwards.
In Prior
Prior's Flashcards can pace a whole course for you.
- Put the course in a pack: one top-level deck with a subdeck per chapter. See Decks and packs.
- Open the deck and choose Add a study plan, then Exam.
- Pick the Importance (Low, Normal or High) and the Exam date. You can also choose Follow a task or an event, so the date moves when the task or the event does.
- Review each day. The deck screen shows the countdown, the pace and how many cards you have learned out of the total.
In exam mode, Prior spreads the new cards still left over the days before the exam. It keeps 0, 1 or 2 review-only days at the end for Low, Normal and High importance, and never more than a quarter of the days left. No card is scheduled for a date after the exam. The target retention is 88%, 92% or 95% for the three levels. The plan governs the pack and all its subdecks. When the exam is over, the deck offers Keep learning every day or New date. The details are in Study plans.
A few things around the plan help:
- Create a task for the exam with its due date, and see due dates and times and reminders so it shows on Today.
- Put your weekly past paper in the calendar, or let time blocking place study sessions around your classes (a Pro feature).
- Run each session with the Focus timer. The Pomodoro guide explains the method.
- In Deck settings, Daily reminder sends one notification when cards are waiting.