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How many new flashcards a day should I learn before my exams?

Ten new cards a day suits most GCSE decks, as long as the last card is met at least two weeks before your first exam so it has time to come round again. Every new card brings reviews with it: it comes back the next day, then after 2, 4 and 8 days and longer. Put in your deck and your exam date below to see what that adds up to in minutes a day.

Last updated 26 October 2026 · Built and checked by the GCSEwiz team

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How the plan is worked out

Each card climbs a ladder. A new card comes back the next day. Every time you answer it right, the gap before it comes back doubles: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and then 64 days. A card you miss drops back down and comes back the next day. That is the same idea as the five boxes of the Leitner system, with a couple of extra rungs for long revision runs.

The gaps are never allowed to run past your exam. As the date gets closer each gap is cut shorter, so every card is fresh on the day rather than half-forgotten. The planner adds it all up for your whole deck, allowing about ten seconds a review and half a minute the first time you meet a card.

Why it is busiest at the start and the end

While you are still meeting new cards, every day brings its new ones plus the reviews of the cards from the last few days, and those reviews pile up quickly. Once every card has been met, the gaps grow and the same deck takes far less time a day to keep.

Then, in the last week before the exams, the gaps are cut short and every card comes round again. That week is often the heaviest of all, and it works as a final run-through, so leave time for it. Stopping for a few weeks in the middle is what makes a deck heavy at the wrong moment, because the cards that were due all come back at once.

How many new cards a day?

The number that matters is the date your last card is met. Too few new cards a day and some of the deck is still new when the exams start; too many and the reviews swamp you. Anki's own manual warns that 20 new cards a day means roughly 200 reviews a day once they start coming round. For most GCSE decks, five to ten new cards a day is plenty.

If the planner asks for more new cards a day than you can face, the deck is too big for the time left. Keep the cards for the topics you find hardest, and leave the ones you already know cold for a quick run-through near the end.

What getting cards wrong costs

A card you miss comes back the next day, and the day after if you miss it again, so the share you get right changes the time far more than the size of the deck does. Switch the planner from 9 in 10 to 1 in 2 and, over a few months, the same deck takes two to four times as long.

Cards you keep missing are usually trying to hold too much. Split a card that asks for three things into three cards that ask for one each: you will get more of them right, and each one will take less time.

The deck, already written

Writing the cards is the slow part. GCSEwiz has free flashcards for every topic in Maths, English Language, English Literature and the sciences, each with a question on the front and the key points on the back, to swipe through on your phone or print four to a sheet. No account needed.

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