A Simple Weekly Review Plan for Your Studies

Why plan review by the week

Two findings sit behind the template. A major review rated practice testing, meaning answering from memory, and distributed practice, meaning study spread across days, as high utility (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Another review reported that spaced practice beats massed repetition and that adding tests to spaced practice amplifies the benefits (Kang, 2016).

One more study matters for planning. People who learned a set of facts and were tested later showed that the best gap between study sessions grew as the delay until the test grew (Cepeda et al., 2008). That is one study of one kind of material, not a personal schedule. Our reading is only that the right gap may depend on how far away the test is, and a weekly plan gives you a regular place to adjust it.

A seven-day template

Change the table freely. Swap days, drop a session, or shorten everything. The shape matters more than the numbers: new material on one day, review on several, practice without notes once, and a day with little or nothing. Practice builds in one rest day a week for its streak, and the guide to streaks and rest days explains how that works.

The mixed-practice day comes from the idea of interleaving, which means mixing topics in one session. Its evidence is thinner than the evidence for spacing, so read interleaving: why mixing topics can help before you rely on it.

The weekly check-in

The check-in is a short look back and a short look ahead. It does not need to be long.

1. Count what you did. In Practice, the My progress tab shows reviews for the current week, Monday to Sunday, against your weekly goal.
2. Look at where cards are stuck. The Where your cards are chart shows how many sit in each box. Many cards in box 1 can mean new cards that have not settled, or cards that need rewriting.
3. Test a small sample cold. The guide on tracking memorization progress explains a ten-card check.
4. Pick next week's number of new cards using your due count as the guide, as in how many new flashcards to add each day.
5. Put next week's sessions on a calendar and name one thing to change.

The weekly goal in Practice counts reviews, not minutes, and you can set it from 10 to 500. The tool's own hint is to pick a number you can keep up. If your template has five sessions of 15 cards, that is 75 reviews, which is a reasonable first goal. That sum is our illustration.

Clearing a backlog without panic

Backlogs happen. A busy week leaves cards waiting, and the due count looks bigger than a session. Practice serves the oldest due cards first, so you can chip away at it, and the aim is to reduce the pile over several sessions, not to erase it in one night.

• Pause new cards until the due count is back to about one session or less.
• Split the pile across two or three days, using your usual session size.
• If some cards no longer matter for your goals, remove them from your own deck rather than reviewing them out of guilt.
• Keep the small version of your daily review going so the pile stops growing.

In the habit study that we describe in the daily review habit guide, missing a single opportunity did not materially affect habit formation (Lally et al., 2010). That study followed eating, drinking and exercise habits, so we apply it to studying only as a reasonable bet. Results vary between people. When you want to run the plan with real cards, open a practice deck.

Common mistakes

• Planning seven hard days in a row. Put a rest day or a very light day in the week before you need one, so that a day off is part of the plan and not a failure of it.
• Filling the week with new material and no review. Reserve most sessions for due cards and closed-book questions. New cards create more reviews later.
• Skipping the check-in because the week felt fine. Feeling fine is not a measure. Run the short cold check and look at the due count.
• Trying to clear a backlog in one sitting. Spread it over a few days and pause new cards until the pile is back to about one session.

Frequently asked questions

What should a weekly study review include?

A count of what you did, a look at cards you keep missing, a small closed-book check, a decision about next week's new cards, and a calendar for the next sessions. Keep the whole thing short enough that you will actually do it.

How much time should a weekly review take?

No verified source gives a length. A reasonable first try is about the time of one regular session, then adjust. If the check-in grows into a second study day, trim it back to the five steps above.

What if my weeks are different every time?

Plan by day type instead of by weekday. Name your heavy days and light days, and place the same kinds of sessions on them. Move the template around when the week changes, and keep the Sunday check-in, or whichever day works as your reset.

Does a weekly plan replace daily review?

No. The plan organizes your sessions, but cards still come due on their own schedule. A small daily review, even a short one, keeps the due count manageable between check-ins.

Sources

We opened each source below before citing it. See Methodology and Sources for how we check them.

1. Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. Open the source
2. Kang, S. H. K. (2016). Spaced Repetition Promotes Efficient and Effective Learning. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1), 12-19. Open the source
3. Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing Effects in Learning: A Temporal Ridgeline of Optimal Retention. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1095-1102. Open the source
4. Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998-1009. Open the source