GCSE Revision Timetable

Managing your GCSE revision time can be a daunting task. One way to overcome this is by using an effective and well-structured revision timetable. With this resource, you can manage your time efficiently, prioritise your tasks easily, and improve your chances of exam success.

Why do I need a GCSE revision timetable?

A GCSE revision timetable is not just a piece of paper, it helps you to get started with your revision and provides a roadmap to achieving your goals. Here’s why having one is important:

• It gives you an organised plan to help you divide up your time effectively across your GCSE subjects and topics.

• You’ll improve your time management. Your revision timetable helps you dedicate sufficient time to each subject to stop the stress of last-minute cramming.

• You can identify your strengths and weaknesses by mapping out subjects and pinpointing the areas that require more attention.

• You can enhance your productivity by having a schedule that helps you stay on track with your revision.

Questions to answer before creating your timetable

Before you dive into creating your GCSE revision timetable, start by answering these questions: 

• What grade do you hope to achieve?

• What grade are you currently working at?

• What are your stronger/weaker subjects?

• What are your stronger/weaker topics?

• What are your favourite subjects?

• What gaps do you need to fill to achieve your desired results for each subject?

• How much time do you have before exams?

• What are your priority subjects and topics?

• What subjects/topics are you most and least confident about?

• How will you break each subject into topics? 

How do I make a GCSE revision timetable?

You can create an effective GCSE revision timetable in a few easy steps:

Start with exactly what you need to revise

This might sound obvious, but your revision timetable needs a solid starting point. Write down every subject you will be sitting an exam for and leave plenty of space in between to break this down even further – we’ll explore this later. 

It’s also useful to write your subjects in order of your most confident to least confident. Using the questions you answered above, take a look at where you identified your strengths and weaknesses and then order your subjects accordingly. 

Break each subject into topics

Now you have your subjects listed, it’s time to break it down into specific topics and modules. This will help you reduce your revision into manageable chunks and make prioritisation easier. 

To do this, it’s a good idea to look at your course textbooks and syllabus to identify the different topics within each subject. Through this exercise, you’ll also make sure you don’t waste time on something that won’t come up in your exam. 
If you already have your exam timetable, you can really drill down your revision with a simple calculation. For each subject, identify how many days you have until your exam and divide the days by the number of topics you have to revise. This will help you pinpoint how many topics you will need to revise each day. 

Set your grade goals

Have you thought about what grade you want to accomplish in your exams? Defining your goals will help provide a benchmark for your revision journey. Write clear grade goals for each subject so that your revision plan helps you start taking steps to achieve them. 

Set your priorities

We understand it can be tempting to revise the topics you’re most comfortable with, rather than tackling the ones you find difficult. However, it’s important to prioritise these challenging topics to give yourself the time to really understand them. So, when you come to filling out your revision timetable, start with your least confident subjects first.
That being said, don’t completely neglect your most confident subjects – you’ll still need to set aside time to revise for these too! 
Try and take a balanced approach across all subjects and make sure you allocate time to refresh the topics you revise early on. 

Be flexible

While consistency and routine are key to revision success, you also need to be able to adapt if and when things change. Set aside time to review your revision sessions and make any adjustments based on your progress and evolving needs. 
It’s also important to keep time free for breaks, social activities like meeting up with friends, and holidays. There will be particular days that you will want to keep entirely free of revision, that’s ok. In fact, it’s what you should do! Your revision timetable allows you to plan enough in advance to factor in some relaxation and prevent burnout.
Your breaks can also be flexible. If you’re in the middle of a revision session and feel like your concentration is fading, take a break and you’ll come back refreshed and ready to retain information. 

Be realistic

As part of being flexible, you should also be realistic about what you can achieve. 

To avoid overwhelming yourself, don’t plan revision for every spare hour of your day and instead, set realistic study durations and leave gaps to be able to move things around if something crops up.

Make it creative

Your revision timetable doesn’t have to be boring! Use a different colour for every day of the week or for different subjects – however you decide to colour code your revision timetable, make it your own and something you can easily read.

GCSE revision timetable template

To help you create your GCSE revision timetable, we’ve provided a template as a guide. Use this template on a week-by-week basis or get really creative and make your own from scratch. 

How do I use the revision timetable template?

1. Subjects: List down all your subjects on the horizontal axis of the timetable.

2. Time slots: Allocate specific time slots on the vertical axis for each day.

3. Topic breakdown: Underneath the timetable, break down each subject into topics – use the questions you answered above to order these most confident to least confident, we’ve provided a scale to make this easier.

4. Grade goals: Write down your grade goals next to each subject to help keep you motivated.

5. Review: Take a look at your timetable and make sure you add review sessions and breaks, and keep it flexible to adapt to your progress and requirements.

Starting your GCSE revision can be overwhelming but with a well-organised revision timetable, you’ll be able to break this down into manageable tasks to help boost your confidence and productivity. 

Once you have created your timetable, it’s time to put it into action with some revision. Save My Exams has created extensive GCSE revision resources, all carefully crafted to ensure you only revise what you need to know to succeed in your exams. If you want to revise smarter, not harder, take a look at our GCSE revision notes.