Here at Brainscape, the conviction that daily habits are the stepping stones to even the loftiest of goals—like graduating from school or college, running a four-minute mile, or writing your first novel—is so deeply coded into our thinking, there isn’t a team member among us who doesn’t make use of some kind of daily planner or habit building app. Actually, come to think of it, Brainscape itself is the ultimate study habit app!
But for those of you who are looking for customizable study planners, class schedules and exam countdown templates to easily capture your daily learning goals, priorities, and deadlines, we’ve got some really pretty Google Sheet templates you can copy and use, absolutely free of charge. You’ll find them below. Simply click on the design you like the look of and it’ll open that design in Google Sheets.
But first…
How to make your very own study planner with our templates
In the section below, click on the study planner preview you like (or all of them) and you’ll be magically teleported to Google Sheets. These templates are read-only because we don’t want anyone accidentally making any edits to them duh. To create your own copy (which you can then customize):
- Click “File” and then…
- In the drop-down menu, “Make a copy”
- Name your unique copy, and
- Choose where you want to save it:
Now you’ll see all the usual editing tools available to you in Google Sheets and you can start editing! If you’re still struggling, this two-minute YouTube video PERFECTLY explains how to make an editable copy of a read-only template. (Thanks Rick Bray!)
And with that said, here are our free study planner templates!
Daily / study planner template 1
Laid out in the beguiling rainbow colors of Brainscape’s confidence-based rating system, this totally customizable study planner breaks every hour of the day into 15 minutes, perfect for laying out finer-grained details of your daily commitments, classes, and goals.
The template starts at 05:00 AM and ends at 22:30 PM but you can easily customize the start and end times based upon your own chronotype (What’s a chronotype?). This study planner can also be used as a daily schedule and is perfect for people of all ages and stages of their education or career!
Daily / study planner template 2
For those of you who love the sweet dopamine spike of checking off the items you’ve successfully completed, you’ll love this daily study planner, which has even more customizable features. Within the sheet itself, you’ll notice a few fillable fields at the top that allow you to specify the:
- Start time of your planner to coincide with your wake-up time or perhaps the time you arrive at school, college, or work, etc. It’s up to you!
- Time intervals, whether you prefer to break your day down into 15, 30, or 60-minute time slots. (Just remember to write the actual number in minutes and not hours.)
- Week start date, which’ll detail the day and date at the top of every column, saving you from having to write it out each week.
Daily / study planner template 3 (exam countdowns)
If you’ve got a big exam coming up, these exam countdown schedules will help you break down all the work you need to do between now and your deadline. We’ve got study planners with two-week countdowns, three-week countdowns, one-month countdowns, and three-month countdowns for major exams that require a lot of time to prepare for!
A few things to remember:
- The more specific you are with your daily study goals, the better; so make sure you detail the exact topic(s) or chapters you aim to cover each day and the specific study-related tasks you wish to accomplish, such as making notes, working through flashcards, practicing the Feynman Technique, etc.
(You might want to read this article on how to set SMART goals first!)
- These templates are YOURS to customize! If you need more rows per day or more days in general, simply “insert row” (or copy and paste a few rows). If you need fewer, hit that “delete” button! You want your exam countdown schedule to correspond with the exact number of days you have left.
- Make sure you schedule a couple of rest days—or at least additional cushion days—for those major exams that require long-haul study, like the MCAT or MBE. You don’t want a sick day or two to derail your entire study planner.
- Read ‘The best 22 test-taking strategies used by top students’ to really equip yourself with the best toolbox for performing well in exams.
Two-week exam countdown planner
Got finals coming up? Or a pretty big college test? This two-week exam countdown planner will help you plot your path towards success, even if you've got a ton of other work on your plate.
Three-week exam countdown planner
For major high school and college assessments (like finals), this three-week exam countdown planner provides the perfect study runway to send you into that exam confident and fully prepared! It's also particularly useful if you find yourself so busy, you can only really spare 30 minutes to an hour per day to study!
One-month exam countdown planner
For those big exams that require a full month to prepare—or for students who like to give themselves a longer runway with a whole lot less cramming—this one-month exam countdown planner is your template to success! (Think: NCLEX study planner)
Three-month exam countdown planner
You're not messing about here! We're talking the MCAT or even the MBE... if you've got the biggest exam of your life barrelling towards you like an Earth-bound asteroid, this three-month exam countdown planner is the emergency NASA mission that'll help you plot your path to victory!
Your next steps…
Charting out a road map toward your academic or professional goals is a powerfully motivating way to actually crush them. It gives you that 30,000-foot view over where you’re headed, which is why the team here at Brainscape is such a huge fan of using study planners, daily schedules, and exam countdown templates like the ones we’ve made for you!
Now that you’ve taken that first, essential step towards getting organized, the next thing you can do is equip yourself with a study tool that empowers you to learn TWICE as fast as the traditional study methods you may have been using until this point.
Yeah, I’m talking about adaptive digital flashcards!
Download the Brainscape app (free), head on over to our extensive library, and get the right flashcards for the subjects you’re studying. Schedule just 20-30 minutes of daily flashcard practice into your study planner, and I can just about guarantee that you’ll do better than pass your subjects and exams… you’ll crush them!