Work out a realistic weekly revision plan. Enter your level, number of subjects, time until exams and target intensity to get suggested hours per subject and in total.
Your plan: 8 GCSE subjects, 8 to 12 weeks, focused intensity
2
hours per subject / week
16
total hours / week
2.5
hours / day (6 days)
Indicative, not a rule. Commonly recommended totals in the final run-up sit around 15 to 20 hours a week; adjust for coursework, energy and how far you are from your target grades. One full rest day a week is part of the plan.
This is a rule-of-thumb model, not research-grade science. The baselines mirror what UK study-skills sources (Seneca Learning, Save My Exams, Immerse Education) commonly recommend: roughly 1.5 hours per subject per week at GCSE during term time, 4 to 6 hours per subject per week at A-level, scaling up as exams approach.
Your target intensity and time remaining apply multipliers on those baselines. The output is deliberately a suggestion to adapt, revision quality (active recall, past papers, marking against the scheme) matters more than the raw hour count.
If a subject is stubbornly behind, a specialist tutor can pinpoint the weak topics and focus your revision hours where they move the grade. TutorLab tutors set their own rates and you contact them directly, no agency fees, see what tutoring costs in 2026.
A commonly recommended baseline is around 1.5 hours per subject per week during term time, so 12 to 15 hours a week across 8 to 10 subjects, rising to 15 to 20 hours a week in the final run-up to exams. Quality matters more than quantity: active recall and past papers beat re-reading notes.
Study-skills sources commonly suggest 4 to 6 hours per subject per week at A-level. With three subjects that is 12 to 18 hours a week, scaling towards the top of that range in the final term before exams.
Yes. Beyond roughly 20 to 25 hours a week most students hit diminishing returns, retention drops and burnout risk rises. This calculator caps its suggestion at 30 hours a week and recommends one full rest day. Shorter, focused sessions with breaks outperform marathon days.
Earlier and lighter beats later and heavier. Starting 3 or more months out at a steady pace lets you cover every subject twice and leaves the final weeks for past papers and weak-topic repair, rather than first-pass learning.
No. This calculator gives an even split as a starting point, but you should weight hours towards your weakest subjects and the ones with the biggest gap to your target grade. A tutor can help identify exactly which topics are costing you marks.