A high school diploma is one of the most important educational milestones you’ll earn in your life. It’s the foundation for adult life and is required for many career training programs, college, and the U.S. military.

And with high school comes studying. Most students require some amount of studying to master course concepts, perform well on tests, and keep their grades up. In this post, we’ll explore the question, “What is a study plan?” and work on creating one. 

A study plan is essentially a breakdown of how and when you’re going to study for your classes. It also takes into account your goals, upcoming assessments, and other priorities. These tips should help you put together a plan that fits your life, learning style, and needs. 

How to Create a Study Plan

Before starting something new, it’s always a good idea to see what you currently have on your plate.

See where you can naturally fit in study time. Do you have an hour before bed that you usually spend scrolling on social media? What if you woke up thirty minutes earlier in the morning? 

Unfortunately, life gets busy, so you may have to make some tradeoffs. When you’re a student, school should be one of your biggest focuses. If you don’t have time in your schedule for studying, you may need to step away from some other things for a season so you have time to do your best in school.

Everyone has a favorite subject or a class they naturally excel at. Take a look at your course load and determine which courses you’ll need to study for the most. If you know you struggle with math, make sure you build some extra time in your plan for that subject.

The amount of time you spend studying for a class may vary from week to week, depending on assessments you have coming up. If you have a test or quiz in English this week, you may need to adjust your plan to accommodate for more time on that subject.

Do you know what your learning style is? There are a variety of models for identifying learning styles and an abundance of free quizzes online, but they can all be summed up with three senses: hear, see, and touch. 

Do you learn best by listening, reading/seeing something, or doing it? Knowing what your learning style is will be helpful as you think about how you plan to accomplish your studying goals. If you are a visual learner, using flash cards may be helpful for memorizing things. If you are an auditory learner, listening back on old lectures or having a computer program read questions could be helpful. If you learn by doing, you may need to try something for yourself to fully understand it. 

What do you want to accomplish through your new study plan? Perhaps you want to boost your GPA or memorize the periodic table of elements. Maybe you want to start a study group or get an A on an upcoming test. Think through what you hope to accomplish during your dedicated study time and write those things down.

When creating goals, you want to be sure they are S.M.A.R.T., which is an acronym for the following:

By ensuring your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, you’re giving yourself a very specific thing to strive for, increasing your likelihood of achieving it. 

Once you’ve assessed your other priorities, determined how much time you need to study for each class, and set some goals, it’s time to actually map out your schedule. Open your calendar app or planner and start blocking out time to study. You can set aside a large span of time or several smaller chunks throughout the day. 

If you do decide to have longer sessions, make sure to take breaks. An easy way to manage your time is to use the Pomodoro Technique. Set a timer for 25 minutes and study until it goes off. Then take a 5 minute break before setting another 25-minute timer. Repeat this process until you complete your allotted study time. 

Flashcards, practice texts, textbooks, etc. Make sure you have all your supplies in one place for studying. Sitting down to focus and realizing you left your flashcards in another room or a textbook in your locker is a productivity killer. Make sure you have everything you need before sitting down to study. 

Preparing study materials may be an act of studying in and of itself. You can use study time to do things like make flashcards or copy notes. Be sure to consider your learning style when preparing your materials. If you aren’t a visual learner, making flash cards may not be the most effective way for you to study. Similarly, if you learn by doing, reading your notes may not be as effective as copying them out or reading them while walking around.

Once you have a schedule, you’ll need a place to study. We have another blog post on creating a productive study space, but the gist is that you want to have a place that is quiet, free of distractions, comfortable (but not comfortable enough to make you sleepy), and well lit. You’ll also want to make sure the temperature is comfortable. 

You have everything you need to get started on your study plan. Take it one day at a time. You may need to set alarms for yourself at first so you remember when you’re supposed to be studying, but you’ll fall into the routine after a few weeks. 

Remember that you won’t be perfect in implementing your study plan. If you aren’t able to make it the full time you have allotted for studying, don’t beat yourself up. Resolve to try again tomorrow and aim to improve a little bit each day. Especially if you have not been studying regularly, it’s very hard to start a plan from scratch, so it’s important to be kind to yourself and remember that you don’t have to do things perfectly to see progress. 

You’ll want to take additional time to prepare for a test outside of your regular study time. While some of your test-preparation will be built into your study plan, you may want to create a routine for the day before and the morning of a test. 

We have another blog post that outlines how to prepare for online tests, and many of these tips can be applied to exams in general, whether they’re online or in person. Some of the tips we share include:

If you realize that something about your plan doesn’t work for you, make changes. You don’t need to totally overhaul your plan, either.

If you know you are most alert at the beginning of your study session, start with the subjects you need the most help with and save the easier subjects for later during your allotted time, when you’re more tired. 

If you find that you don’t need to study as much or maybe you need to study more than you’ve allotted, make tweaks to your schedule. Your study plan likely will not be perfect at first, but the beauty of it is that you can customize it to your needs, which may change over time. 

About The American Academy

The American Academy is a fully accredited online high school for students ages 15 and up. No matter where you are in your high school journey, The American Academy can help you obtain credits or earn your diploma. 

We offer both individual courses and a full diploma program. This allows you to take a couple of courses to supplement your education or earn your entire high school diploma online. 

The American Academy also offers personalized support from dedicated teachers, Academic Coaches who help students stay on track with their pace and progress, and 24/7 virtual tutors who are available any time of day or night to help with homework.