A printable plan for the week before an exam
Seven days, counting back from the paper. Early in the week, the topics you are weakest on. Mid-week, questions on them. The last two days, light review and sleep, because a tired brain gives back more marks than a final cram takes. The sheet has a sleep line and a food line on it deliberately.
Last updated 20 August 2026 · Written and checked by the GCSEwiz team
What is on the sheet
- Seven days planned backwards from the paper
- A shape for the week: content, then questions, then rest
- Sleep and food on the page, not treated as optional extras
1 sheet · A4 portrait · black and white
Your printer dialog also offers Save as PDF if you want a copy on your phone.
The week before
Counting backwards. Day 1 is the day of the paper.
| Countdown | Date | Topics | How (questions, recall, past paper) | Sleep by | Done |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days to go | |||||
| 6 days | |||||
| 5 days | |||||
| 4 days | |||||
| 3 days | |||||
| 2 days | |||||
| The day before |
The day before
- Light review only, of things you already know
- Bag packed and checked against the exam day list
- Route and start time confirmed
- Something to eat in the morning, ready
- Off screens an hour before bed, and a normal bedtime
If you have several papers in one week, fill a sheet for each and put them side by side. It is the only reliable way to see the collision coming.
The shape of the week
Front-load the difficult content. Days six and seven out are where a genuinely unlearned topic can still be learned, and where you have the patience to do it properly.
The middle of the week belongs to questions, because knowing a topic and answering on it are different skills. The last two days are for consolidation and sleep. A topic you meet for the first time on day two rarely survives the paper, and trying to learn it costs you the rest.
Sleep is on the sheet because it changes marks
A late night before a paper reliably costs more than the extra hour of revision buys. Recall, attention and the ability to read a question carefully all degrade when you are short of sleep, and reading the question carefully is where a surprising share of marks live.
The night before is the one that matters most, but the pattern across the week counts too. Two weeks of four-hour nights cannot be repaired by one early night on Thursday.
When there are five papers in one week
Some weeks in the season are brutal, and the honest answer is that everything cannot be revised. Triage: the paper that is soonest, and within it the topics carrying the most marks.
Fill in a sheet per paper anyway. Seeing the whole week at once usually reveals a free evening you did not know you had, and it stops the paper on Friday getting no attention until Thursday night.