Free printable

A printable countdown wall planner for the run-up to exams

Eight weeks across one landscape sheet, counting down rather than up. Each week gets a single named focus and a box per subject. Counting down works because "five weeks to go" prompts action in a way that a date in May does not, and one page on a wall is harder to ignore than an app you have to open.

Last updated 20 August 2026 · Written and checked by the GCSEwiz team

What is on the sheet

  • Eight numbered weeks, counting down to your first paper
  • One focus line per week, so a week has a theme instead of a mood
  • A box per week per subject for what got done

1 sheet · A4 landscape · black and white

Choose landscape in your printer dialog, or Save as PDF to keep a copy.

Countdown to my first paper

Number the weeks backwards. Week 1 is the week your exams start.

My first paper is
Which is in
weeks
CountdownWeek beginningThis week is aboutSubjectSubjectSubjectSubjectDone?
8 weeks to go
7 weeks
6 weeks
5 weeks
4 weeks
3 weeks
2 weeks
Exam week

Write the subject names into the four blank column headings yourself, picking the four you most need to move. Everything else still gets revised; these four get the wall.

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Why counting down works

A calendar tells you what day it is. A countdown tells you how much room you have left, and those prompt very different behaviour. "Thursday 14 May" is abstract in February; "six weeks to go" is not.

The risk is that a countdown becomes a source of dread, which is why each week has a focus line. A week with a name is a week you can finish. A week that is only a number is a week you can fail.

What a week should be about

Early weeks suit content: the topics that are still genuinely unlearned. Middle weeks suit questions on that content. The last two or three weeks suit timed papers and the specific things that go wrong under time pressure, because that is the only period where practising the pressure is realistic.

Writing "everything" on the focus line is the same as leaving it blank. Pick one thing, even if it feels too narrow.

Eight weeks is enough to move a grade

It is genuinely enough time if the practice is aimed at the right topics. GCSEwiz aims it: questions chosen from where your mastery is weakest, adapting as it changes, so the eight weeks are not spent revising what you already know.

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