A note before we begin: the beast-mode timetable is for students willing to enter beast-mode. It is not enjoyable, and it is genuinely demanding. But if you follow a timetable along these lines, you will be able to look yourself in the mirror at the end of your exams knowing you gave it everything you had.
A few things worth checking before each study session:
- Have all the equipment you will need to hand — red pen, black pen, calculator, water, paper, textbooks.
- Make sure you do not have anything you do not need — mobile phone in particular.
- Where possible, study from printed copies of textbooks rather than screens. Screens tire your eyes and brain more quickly.
- Set yourself up so that nothing will interrupt your focus during each session.
The timetable
First study session: 08:30 – 10:00
If I am in a good sleeping pattern — and I should be — these are my most productive 90 minutes of the day. I use them for something conceptually demanding that requires careful focus to understand.
Break (30 minutes) — Step outside for fresh air. Grab something nutritious (a banana works well). Listen to some music or watch a short episode of something — but only if you have not been studying from a screen. A 30-minute walk is ideal. Too much screen time is genuinely counterproductive.
Second study session: 10:30 – 12:30
Because this session is longer, it is worth alternating between passive study (reading) and active study (questions, exercises, past papers). Two hours of unbroken reading is unlikely to remain productive throughout.
Lunch (90 minutes) — Eat something substantial and healthy. Get outside again. Enjoy the break from mental work.
Third study session: 14:00 – 16:00
As per the second session.
Break (1 hour) — Have a snack. You will need it by this point.
Fourth study session (optional): 17:00 – 19:00
Whether this fourth session is necessary depends on a number of factors — how consistently you have worked through the year, your age, your exam timetable. If you do include it, choose something less demanding, as you will inevitably be more tired and less efficient.
Maths comes easily to me, so I might use this session for medium-difficulty maths questions. If you enjoy writing, you might draft an English paper. Productivity may dip from earlier in the day, but with the right task there is still useful work to be done.
Exercise — whenever it best suits you
Healthy body, healthy mind.
This is essential during periods of intense study. Without it, you will glaze over and stress will accumulate.
Do some form of physical exercise — running, yoga, swimming, weights — it does not particularly matter what, as long as you get your blood flowing. This is the most effective remedy I know for the cabin-fever of extended study periods. Do not underestimate it.
Dinner — whenever it best suits you
Wind down and bed — 23:00 at the latest
Yes, there is still time to relax and do as you wish.
You should not be going to sleep after midnight during this period. At the risk of sounding like my mother: "one hour before midnight is worth two after."
A few closing observations
- This is a proposal — adjust it to suit you. You may, for example, prefer to begin the day with exercise. Each to their own.
- Total proposed study time is 7.5 hours. The emphasis is on quality. There is no merit in staring blankly at a page for ten hours.
- This is the structure I used during my Easter holidays. It is a guideline, not a rule. If you are genuinely behind, you can fit an additional two hours in during the evening — one advantage of starting early. At university I always added that extra evening session; at GCSE and A-level, I did not.
- How you distribute subjects across the sessions is up to you. It often makes sense to follow up reading on a topic with questions on the same topic — for example, an hour on electromagnetism followed by questions on electromagnetism before moving on. The one thing to avoid is grinding to a halt on a single subject. If you need to switch to keep things fresh, switch — a full day of physics can be a lot even for me.
- The whole timetable depends on a good sleep cycle. Some exams begin at 9am, so 8am needs to feel like a natural waking time — which it will, once you are in the routine. The key to making the beast-mode timetable work is getting up and getting started early.
- This is no more demanding than a typical day in the professional world — an 8:30am start, finishing around 7pm. Looked at that way, it is not so unreasonable.