This guide turns the theory from the planning post into a calendar with real dates.
The example is based on a competitive exam with 25 topics, plus an oral presentation that we will treat as one more topic. The same method works for other long, high-stakes exams that take most of a year to prepare, such as a bar exam, a medical licensing exam or a professional certification like the CPA. Your exam is eight months away and you have many hours of work ahead of you. The challenge is not only getting through the syllabus: you also have to remember what you have learned, practice applying it to cases, and reach exam day with enough time left to check what you can really do.
1. Block out the key dates first
The exam is on day 224. Day 0 is a Monday, and Sundays are rest days.
- Day 224: exam.
- Day 223: rest.
- Days 189–222: final preparation, with mock exams and a buffer for the unexpected.
- Days 0–188: studying the topics, retrieval sessions, practice cases and, if required, your teaching portfolio or other written submission.
In the final phase you have 30 study days, not counting Sundays. You can spend one session a day on a timed mock exam of a topic and the other on correcting it, reviewing your mistakes or practicing cases.
If you have to submit a portfolio or any other document, write down its deadline too. That obligation takes priority over the general calendar: you cannot put it off until you have finished the syllabus.
2. Find out how long things really take you
Write down:
- How many sessions you need to learn a topic.
- How much you remember the next day without looking at your notes.
In this example we start from a simple assumption: two initial sessions per topic. Each session lasts between 60 and 90 minutes, about 75 minutes on average.
The first session is for understanding and organizing the content. The second is for consolidating it and checking how much you can reconstruct without your notes.
Two sessions may be enough for some topics and not for others. That is not a problem: later retrieval sessions will reveal the gaps and let you spend more time on what you have not mastered.
3. What to do in each session
Each session has a specific task:
- Initial study: learn a new topic or complete its second session.
- Retrieval: reconstruct from memory a topic you studied earlier, then check what you have forgotten.
- Practice case: solve a case and correct it.
- Portfolio: make progress on the documentation your exam requires.
How to study a topic for the first time
In the first session, understand the content, identify the main ideas and organize the topic into an outline that makes sense.
In the second, try to rebuild that outline without looking. Develop the main points, find the gaps and review your mistakes.
The goal is not to memorize every sentence mechanically from day one. It is to build a structure you can retrieve later. Try to connect the content so that it makes sense to you.
How to do a retrieval session
A retrieval session does not mean rereading the topic. It means trying to remember before you look at your notes.
A retrieval session of about 75 minutes can be organized like this:
- 15 minutes: write the outline from memory.
- 35 minutes: develop the content or answer questions without looking anything up.
- 25 minutes: compare with your notes, identify mistakes and review the sections you forgot.
These times are a guide. A topic that requires two hours of writing in the exam may need an adapted task, but the idea is the same: first remember, then check and correct.
4. Sample calendar: the first month
Let’s turn the rules above into a real calendar. Day 0 is a Monday, each study day has two sessions, and Sundays are free. This post includes only the first month; you can download the full calendar using this link.
In the example, each topic gets two study sessions on different days. The quick retrieval comes three or four days after the second one. The first formal retrieval comes three weeks after that second session. From then on, the following ones are spaced about six weeks apart.
These are practical intervals for building the calendar, not a universal formula. If your results show that you forget too much, or that you remember easily, adjust them by moving the retrieval sessions closer together or further apart.
| Day | Session 1 | Session 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 0 · Mon. | Topic 1: study 1 | Topic 2: study 1 |
| 1 · Tue. | Topic 1: study 2 | Topic 2: study 2 |
| 2 · Wed. | Topic 3: study 1 | Topic 4: study 1 |
| 3 · Thu. | Topic 3: study 2 | Topic 4: study 2 |
| 4 · Fri. | Topic 1: quick retrieval | Topic 2: quick retrieval |
| 5 · Sat. | Topic 5: study 1 | Topic 6: study 1 |
| 6 · Sun. | Rest | Rest |
| 7 · Mon. | Topic 3: quick retrieval | Topic 4: quick retrieval |
| 8 · Tue. | Topic 5: study 2 | Topic 6: study 2 |
| 9 · Wed. | Topic 7: study 1 | Topic 8: study 1 |
| 10 · Thu. | Topic 7: study 2 | Topic 8: study 2 |
| 11 · Fri. | Topic 5: quick retrieval | Topic 6: quick retrieval |
| 12 · Sat. | Topic 9: study 1 | Topic 10: study 1 |
| 13 · Sun. | Rest | Rest |
| 14 · Mon. | Topic 7: quick retrieval | Topic 8: quick retrieval |
| 15 · Tue. | Topic 9: study 2 | Topic 10: study 2 |
| 16 · Wed. | Topic 11: study 1 | Topic 12: study 1 |
| 17 · Thu. | Topic 11: study 2 | Topic 12: study 2 |
| 18 · Fri. | Topic 10: quick retrieval | Topic 9: quick retrieval |
| 19 · Sat. | Topic 13: study 1 | Topic 14: study 1 |
| 20 · Sun. | Rest | Rest |
| 21 · Mon. | Topic 11: quick retrieval | Topic 12: quick retrieval |
| 22 · Tue. | Topic 1: formal retrieval 1 | Topic 2: formal retrieval 1 |
| 23 · Wed. | Topic 13: study 2 | Topic 14: study 2 |
| 24 · Thu. | Topic 3: formal retrieval 1 | Topic 4: formal retrieval 1 |
| 25 · Fri. | Topic 15: study 1 | Oral presentation: study 1 |
| 26 · Sat. | Topic 13: quick retrieval | Practice case (new case, timed, then corrected) |
| 27 · Sun. | Rest | Rest |
| 28 · Mon. | Topic 14: quick retrieval | Topic 15: study 2 |
| 29 · Tue. | Topic 5: formal retrieval 1 | Topic 6: formal retrieval 1 |
Each retrieval session includes the attempt to remember, the comparison with your notes and the review of mistakes. They are not three separate tasks to count individually.
Each day includes at most two retrieval sessions, on different topics. If more than two fall on the same day, the extra one moves to the next study day, which is why some intervals stretch by a day.
How to continue after the first month
From day 30 onward, apply the same procedure:
- Set aside one Saturday a week for the practice case, and spread out the weekly sessions you need for the portfolio.
- Fit the remaining topics into the available sessions.
- Schedule each topic’s second study session for the next day or two days later.
- Add the quick retrieval about three or four days after that.
- Schedule the first formal retrieval three weeks later and the following ones every six weeks, until the final phase begins.
5. Practice cases from the start
Solving practical cases is a skill: you learn it by working through cases, not by reading solutions.
From the fourth week on, spend one session a week on a new case. Work without your materials, time yourself and correct the result when you finish.
Use different cases so you learn to apply what you have studied to new situations. If you make a significant mistake, work on that problem again a few weeks later, ideally with a similar but not identical case.
In the example we set aside 24 practice sessions before the final phase. That figure is an estimate you should adapt to the requirements of your exam.
Research by Butler and colleagues found that practicing with different examples can improve the transfer of learning to new problems [5]. That is why it is better to vary the cases than to repeat the same one.
6. If you have to submit a teaching portfolio or other written work
The portfolio needs its own calendar, because it has a deadline and may take longer than you expect.
If there is an oral defense, practice the presentation too. A portfolio submitted months earlier can be forgotten, so it is worth retrieving its structure, objectives and assessment criteria from memory. Treat the oral presentation as one more topic so that you learn it well.
7. Check that the work fits in the calendar
Before going further, add up the sessions needed for every task.
You have 162 study days in the initial window, with a maximum capacity of 324 sessions if you do two a day. Everything above adds up to 239 sessions. That leaves plenty of room for breaks and free slots you can use for extra sessions on your weakest topics.
Don’t confuse having hours available with having a calendar that works. The check consists of assigning tasks to real sessions and making sure they don’t overlap.
If the plan doesn’t fit, first cut the extra retrieval sessions for topics you know well. Don’t drop the basic retrieval sessions or sacrifice the final mock exams.
8. Prepare the final phase with mock exams
During days 189–222, spend one session a day on a mock exam of a topic, without notes and under real exam timing. Pick the topics at random, not in syllabus order.
Then use another session to correct the mock exam, identify gaps and work on your mistakes. Correction is part of the training: don’t leave it for another day.
Also set aside sessions for full practice cases, respecting the length and conditions of the real exam. The example includes five additional full practice cases during the final phase. To fit them in, some afternoons will replace the regular retrieval session with a full case.
The buffer days are for catching up on delays or repeating the mock exams that went worst. If you are on schedule, review your most frequent mistakes without trying to learn large amounts of new content.
On day 223, rest. On day 224, take the exam.
9. Review the plan every week
Spend ten minutes checking what you have completed and what you need to change.
- If a session falls behind, reschedule it without automatically pushing back all the following ones.
- If you have gone two weeks without keeping to the calendar, recalculate it with your real times.
- If you repeatedly fail a topic, schedule an extra retrieval session.
- If you remember a topic easily, you can space out its next retrieval.
- If tasks start piling up, reduce the load before it turns into a permanent delay.
References
[1] Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the “planning fallacy”: Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 366–381. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.366
[2] Rawson, K. A., & Dunlosky, J. (2011). Optimizing schedules of retrieval practice for durable and efficient learning: How much is enough? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140(3), 283–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023956
[3] Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1095–1102. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x
[4] Latimier, A., Peyre, H., & Ramus, F. (2021). A meta-analytic review of the benefit of spacing out retrieval practice episodes on retention. Educational Psychology Review, 33, 959–987. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09572-8
[5] Butler, A. C., Black-Maier, A. A., Raley, N. D., & Marsh, E. J. (2017). Retrieving and applying knowledge to different examples promotes transfer of learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 23(4), 433–446. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000142
[6] Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1