With a 5-Day Study Plan, you set yourself up for success by starting early and pacing out your study sessions in a way that maximizes your learning potential so you can do your best on your exams.
We’ve all heard of college students pulling infamous “all-night” study sessions before exams. And you might have excelled in high school just by cramming in a study session the night before an exam. In college, however, you need to alter your approach.
College exams will likely require you to recall and think critically about more material than you can study in one all-night session. On top of that, researchers have found that students learn more effectively by spreading out short study sessions over multiple days or even weeks than in one or two lengthy sessions. The baseline recommendation for college test-preparation is that, at minimum, you adopt a 5-Day Study Plan.
How to Create a 5-Day Study Plan
Step 1: Space out your exam preparation over a period of at least 5 days, devoting 2-2/12 hours each day to studying.
Step 2: Divide your material into 4 or more sections or chunks. Each chunk of information will be either prepared or reviewed in a 2-hour study session.
Step 3: In each study session, prepare and cover a new section of material, then review what you studied the previous day.
Step 4: Use
active study strategies to prepare and review study materials.
Step 5: Self-test. Attempting to recall information from memory is scientifically proven to aid learning better than repeated review.
Examples of Ways to Prepare and Review
Each preparation strategy (left column) has a corresponding review strategy (right column).
Preparation Strategies |
Review Strategies |
Develop study sheets |
Recite study sheets |
Develop concept maps |
Replicate concept maps from memory |
Make word cards |
Recite word cards |
Make question cards |
Recite question cards |
Make formula cards |
Practice writing formulas |
Make problem cards |
Work problems |
Make self-tests |
Take self-tests |
Do study guides |
Practice study guide info out loud |
Re-mark text material |
Take notes on the re-marked text |
Make a list of 20 topics that might be on the exam |
Recite the list of 20 possible exam topics |
Do problems |
Do “missed” problems |
Make an outline |
Recite notes from recall cues |
Summarize material |
Recite summary out loud |
Make charts of related material |
Re-create chart from memory |
List steps in a process |
Recite steps from memory |
Predict essay questions |
Answer essay questions |
Answer questions at the end of the chapter |
Practice reciting main points |
Prepare material for study group |
Explain material to study group |
The 5-Day Study Plan Table
Choose one of the strategies from the table above, or your own, and use them in the “Action” columns below.
Day |
Action |
Material |
Approximate Time Needed |
Tuesday |
Prepare |
Oldest/hardest chunk of material |
2 hours |
Wednesday |
Prepare
Review |
2nd oldest chunk of material
1st chunk of material |
2 hours
30 minutes |
Thursday |
Prepare
Review
Review |
3rd chunk of material
2nd chunk of material
1st chunk of material |
1.5 hours
30 minutes
20 minutes |
Friday |
Prepare
Review
Review
Review |
4th chunk of material
3rd chunk of material
2nd chunk of material
1st chunk of material |
1 hour
30 minutes
20 minutes
10 minutes |
Saturday |
None - Relax! |
|
|
Sunday |
Review
Review
Review
Review
Self-test |
4th chunk of material
3rd chunk of material
2nd chunk of material
1st chunk of material
All material |
30 minutes
20 minutes
10 minutes
10 minutes
1 hour |
|
|
Total time |
11 hours |
Monday |
TEST! |
|
|
Example 5-Day Study Plan
Sample 5-day study plan for an Animal Science course:
Day |
Action |
ANSC Material |
Approximate Time Needed |
Saturday |
Prepare |
Make question cards over History of the Horse |
2 hours |
Sunday |
Prepare
Review |
Make question cards over Breeds of Horses
Review History of the Horse |
2 hours
30 minutes |
Monday |
Prepare
Review
Review |
Make question cards over Methods of ID
Review Breeds of Horses
Review History of the Horse |
1.5 hours
30 minutes
20 minutes |
Tuesday |
Prepare
Review
Review
Review |
Make question cards over Anatomy, Conform, and Gaits
Review Methods of ID
Review Breeds of Horses
Review History of the Horse |
1 hour
30 minutes
20 minutes
10 minutes |
Wednesday |
Review
Review
Review
Review
Self-test |
Review Anatomy, Conform, and Gaits
Review Methods of ID
Review Breeds of Horses
Review History of the Horse
Self-test all material |
30 minutes
20 minutes
10 minutes
10 minutes
1 hour |
|
|
Total time |
11 hours |
Thursday |
TEST! |
|
|
Reference:
Van Blerkom, Dianna.
Orientation to College Learning. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2004.
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