How long should I revise for before taking a break?
Somewhere between 25 and 50 minutes of work followed by a real break of 5 to 10 minutes suits most people. The exact split matters far less than actually stopping when the timer says so. Long unbroken sessions feel virtuous and retain badly, and the guilt that stops students taking breaks at all is the more common problem.
Last updated 12 August 2026 · Built and checked by the GCSEwiz team
Minutes of work, then minutes of break.
Working
25:00
When the break starts, actually stop. Working through it makes the next block worse rather than making the day longer.
The break is part of the method
Breaks are not the reward for revising. They are the bit where what you just did settles, and skipping them makes the next hour worse rather than making the day longer. Plenty of students know this and still feel guilty every time they stop, which is why this timer counts the break down as deliberately as the work.
If you find yourself working through the breaks, that is worth noticing rather than admiring. It usually ends in the kind of burnout that costs a fortnight.
Pick a length you will honour
Twenty-five minutes is the well-known one and suits days when starting is the hard part. Fifty suits work that needs a run-up, like a past paper or an essay. On a bad day, ten minutes is a perfectly respectable session and vastly better than the nothing it is competing with.