We have all been tempted to leave any pending task until the last moment, but if it is also about studying for an exam, the consequences of that decision can be disastrous. Proper weekly planning will be of great help when facing study in an organized manner, establishing priorities and times to increase your productivity. Learn how to make a weekly study plan to optimize your performance and face new challenges.
Study calendar: what is it?
We have already talked about how to make an outline to study , but what about a calendar? A study calendar is a planned schedule in which the subjects that we have to study are distributed . For it to be really effective, it must specify how much time we are going to dedicate to each task and for this, it is first necessary to evaluate issues such as the difficulty of the agenda or the real time we have, so we will ensure that the distribution will be correct.
Weekly study planning: keys to good planning
Planning for the study is essential but it must be correct for it to be really effective:
- Before sitting down to design your study calendar, you should organize yourself taking into account the topics and the material you are going to work with and, of course, your schedules .
- The most appropriate thing is to focus on a weekly plan that reflects the study times for each day that should be adapted to your own personal rhythm . Not everyone needs the same hours of study.
- To avoid fatigue or loss of concentration, you can alternate content so that the task is not so monotonous.
- Do not run away from the most complex issues , sooner or later you will have to face them and it could turn out that you need to spend more time on them than you originally planned. So the sooner you address them, the sooner you’ll know if you need to restructure the schedule.
Set the objectives based on the exam planning
As with any strategy that requires planning, you should start by setting your goals . They must be concrete and measurable . Remember that you are preparing a weekly calendar, so even if you keep in mind that the important thing is to pass a certain subject or an opposition, for example, start by establishing what goals you intend to achieve week by week without losing sight of the exam planning.
Consider the total time you have to study
If you are faced with the task of how to prepare for an exam , first of all you must be clear about how many hours you can dedicate to studying , for this you must know how much time you dedicate to the rest of your day-to-day activities. The best way to verify this is to write down your actual hours for a couple of days and from there analyze whether it is necessary to readjust those times that you spend on meals, friends, sports, work or sleeping. You must set priorities .
Establish a schedule for the study and the time you will dedicate to each block
Knowing how much time you will be able to dedicate to the study, it is time to distribute it. You will have to divide the subject into blocks and evaluate the difficulty of each one to determine how much time you are going to invest in it. In that weekly study plan, it should be reflected what you are going to study in each hour but also the time you will dedicate to rest , since it is very necessary to increase productivity.
Although there are many study techniques , they all coincide in something, planning over several days, in which, in addition to studying, you will have to review what you have already learned.
Review and update the calendar weekly
Once you start studying you will realize how useful the calendar is, but keep in mind that it is a flexible tool . As you progress you will check if you should redistribute the times you have defined. That first schedule they have designed can be modified to better suit your needs. Perhaps you have not properly assessed the difficulty of a topic, the times for rest or there will simply be days when something unforeseen arises.
Proper time planning will allow you to get the most out of your study hours. On the other hand, if you follow a calendar, you will be creating a study routine that you will quickly internalize, both physically and mentally, and it will be less and less difficult for you to concentrate on the task.
