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How many hours would you recommend studying per day?

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Thank you so much! That is very helpful and I think I'll try that method if you don't mind!:smile:
Reply 21
Original post by Georgia Brown
I currently study for 2 hours per day, but I feel as though it's not helping me very much...I can't remember most of the information that I have studied!

All help and advice is very much appreciated!


Try creating a revision timetable. It is the most helpful thing in terms of working out how much you need to work and when to be in a good position by May/June.

It also gives you daily or weekly targets (in terms of content covered) that once you've met, you know you can relax stress-free.

To create one, I'd start by writing down the title of each section of content in each of your subjects (6-10ish sections per subject at GCSE) and how many hours of work you think you'll need to do on them in order to be confident.
Then create weekly plans and spread out the work roughly evenly across the weeks from now to May (give yourself 25 hours max of work a week).
At the start of each week, plan exactly when you're going to do the work you've set around whatever you have on that week.
Reply 22
I do like 2/3 hours weekdays and I'm aiming for around 4-6 hours on weekends. I prefer to do this but some people may only study around 1-2 hours weekdays and study more on the weekend for example. If I were you I'd maybe increase your 2 hours/ day to around 3 hours/day. That's a 50% increase. You said it's not helping you very much, this probably means you try and revise more effectively and find different study methods that work for you.
Original post by Rabbit2
Halfway through grad school, i decided that i had to clean up my act. I was studying for hours, but much of what i studied was never on a test. I hit upon the idea of 'targeting' my study based upon the time that the instructor spent on each topic, and the amount of work they did. As an example, just talking about something would rate a 1 to a 3 as level of effort. I would multiply the time spent by the level of effort. A medium complexity talk for 5 minutes would result in a 'score' of 5 x 2 or 10. I would add up all the times that a particular topic was discussed during the grading period, to get the 'total score' for that topic. I would then 'rank' the topics highest score to lowest. I then would pick the top ranked topics off the list as potential test questions. The first time i did this, i hit the guy 100% - i had EVERY exam question on my 'sample exam' and NO extras. Subsequent attempts were nearly as good. Good luck!!

Thank you so much for your advice, I really appreciate it!:smile:
Original post by peeked
I do like 2/3 hours weekdays and I'm aiming for around 4-6 hours on weekends. I prefer to do this but some people may only study around 1-2 hours weekdays and study more on the weekend for example. If I were you I'd maybe increase your 2 hours/ day to around 3 hours/day. That's a 50% increase. You said it's not helping you very much, this probably means you try and revise more effectively and find different study methods that work for you.


Ok, thank you very much for your advice!:smile:
Original post by joey-G
Try creating a revision timetable. It is the most helpful thing in terms of working out how much you need to work and when to be in a good position by May/June.

It also gives you daily or weekly targets (in terms of content covered) that once you've met, you know you can relax stress-free.

To create one, I'd start by writing down the title of each section of content in each of your subjects (6-10ish sections per subject at GCSE) and how many hours of work you think you'll need to do on them in order to be confident.
Then create weekly plans and spread out the work roughly evenly across the weeks from now to May (give yourself 25 hours max of work a week).
At the start of each week, plan exactly when you're going to do the work you've set around whatever you have on that week.


Ok, thank you very much for your advice!:smile:
I think it’s best to try and break up revision in chunks rather than try and squeeze everything in at once. Personally on the weekdays i do around 2 hours of revision and i’m in year 11 (i cant do any more hours because i stay behind for revision sessions and bc i live far, by the time i get home i dont have enough time to study). If you’re in the same year as me then you should be doing more on the weekends too . Definitely more than 2 hours
Original post by Georgia Brown
I currently study for 2 hours per day, but I feel as though it's not helping me very much...I can't remember most of the information that I have studied!

All help and advice is very much appreciated!

hours dont matter its how much you've covered and how much you understand, if it takes 2 hours just to do one chapter so be it at least you understood it. My advice if you're studying from a textbook then you know those yellow boxes or questions at the end or inbetween the chapters, do them and check your answers. My point is that you have to quiz yourself when doing a chapter, i know it takes a long time to do them but at least it gives you sign that if you understood the topic or not. You could also do pastpaper questions on that topic which i think is even better since t helps you practice for the exam.
good luck!
Reply 28
If you do more than 2 hours every day then you clearly don’t have a social life
I would recommend looking at doing a quiz on what type of learner you are. It can help give you a bit of an idea what type of revision would likely be best for you.

I'm partly a visual learner, so adding lot's of diagrams and colours really helps me remember things. If I need to remember a certain process whilst doing a question (especially 4,5, or 6 mark ones) I'll draw out a mini version of what happens. I can then remember all the things that happen in that process.

Most definitely revise smarter, not harder. It's best to find the right technique for revision instead of just doing more of a method that isn't working. I do revision in 30 minutes slots. The best 30 minutes has a five minutes break, then another session and a ten-minute break, then 30 minutes and another five-minute break. That way I don't end up having my attention wander after a few hours of revision. It's also much better than doing a massive chunk of several hours with an hour's break at the end. It's shown that your brain stops paying attention after around 30-40 minutes, which is why teachers often do a different activity or task after around that time period. It helps you keep attention and retain information if you don't do everything in one big chunk of work. I know some people like to do as much work as they can in one go and if that works for them it's fine. But I do find doing shorter sessions can help.
I can do about 3-4 2 hour past papers in a day so have I just done 6-8 hours of revision
Original post by JustACoincidence
I would recommend looking at doing a quiz on what type of learner you are. It can help give you a bit of an idea what type of revision would likely be best for you.

I'm partly a visual learner, so adding lot's of diagrams and colours really helps me remember things. If I need to remember a certain process whilst doing a question (especially 4,5, or 6 mark ones) I'll draw out a mini version of what happens. I can then remember all the things that happen in that process.

Most definitely revise smarter, not harder. It's best to find the right technique for revision instead of just doing more of a method that isn't working. I do revision in 30 minutes slots. The best 30 minutes has a five minutes break, then another session and a ten-minute break, then 30 minutes and another five-minute break. That way I don't end up having my attention wander after a few hours of revision. It's also much better than doing a massive chunk of several hours with an hour's break at the end. It's shown that your brain stops paying attention after around 30-40 minutes, which is why teachers often do a different activity or task after around that time period. It helps you keep attention and retain information if you don't do everything in one big chunk of work. I know some people like to do as much work as they can in one go and if that works for them it's fine. But I do find doing shorter sessions can help.


Thank you very much for your help! I really appreciate it!:smile:
An hour or less.


I get A*'s and A's on most of my work.

Edit: I'll probably do more around Easter-ish.
Original post by angelinahx
An hour or less.


I get A*'s and A's on most of my work.

Edit: I'll probably do more around Easter-ish.

Wow! Well done!😀
Original post by Georgia Brown
Wow! Well done!😀


Thank you! :smile:

Not sure I could study as much as you tbf, that takes dedication :smile:
for every 1 hour revision session you do you only remember the first 10 mins so it is best to break up your revision into slots with breaks
Original post by angelinahx
Thank you! :smile:

Not sure I could study as much as you tbf, that takes dedication :smile:


thanks😊
Original post by jordanb-h
for every 1 hour revision session you do you only remember the first 10 mins so it is best to break up your revision into slots with breaks


OK, thanks😊
Original post by assassinbunny123
hours dont matter its how much you've covered and how much you understand, if it takes 2 hours just to do one chapter so be it at least you understood it. My advice if you're studying from a textbook then you know those yellow boxes or questions at the end or inbetween the chapters, do them and check your answers. My point is that you have to quiz yourself when doing a chapter, i know it takes a long time to do them but at least it gives you sign that if you understood the topic or not. You could also do pastpaper questions on that topic which i think is even better since t helps you practice for the exam.
good luck!


Thank you very much😊
Are you having 10 mins break every hour? Also what are you doing for revision?

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