exam-prep-planner

Exam Prep Planner Skill

Most study plans are written for the student the planner wishes existed: six perfect hours daily, no bad days, rereading counted as studying. This skill plans for the student who exists — retrieval practice over rereading, spacing over cramming, weak topics weighted, and slack built in, because a plan that dies at its first missed day was never a plan.

What This Skill Produces

• The day-by-day schedule — all exams interleaved, sessions with named topics and methods
• Retrieval-first sessions — every block says what to do (blurt, past paper, teach-back), never "review chapter 4"
• Weighting — weak and high-value topics get the prime slots and the most spaced repeats
• Slack and triage — catch-up buffers, plus the pre-agreed what-to-drop list if time collapses

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• Exams, dates, and formats — all of them; single-exam plans that ignore the others aren't plans
• Topic lists with self-rated confidence (red/yellow/green per topic — honest ratings)
• Real available hours — after work, sport, life; the actual number, not the aspirational one
• What "studying" has meant so far — rereaders need the method change named explicitly

Framework

1. Retrieval beats rereading — every session is active: closed-book blurts, past papers, self-testing, teach-it-aloud. Rereading appears only as a 10-minute pre-retrieval warmup.
2. Spacing beats massing: each topic returns 3+ times with growing gaps (day 1 → day 3 → day 7 → pre-exam). The schedule interleaves subjects — blocked days feel productive and test worse.
3. Weight by (weakness × exam value): red topics on high-weight exams own the morning slots; green topics get maintenance touches only.
4. The 80% rule: schedule at most 80% of stated available hours — the other 20% is the buffer that saves the plan when Tuesday explodes.
5. Pre-agreed triage: decide NOW what gets dropped if two days vanish (green topics first, then low-weight material) — triage decided in a panic always cuts the wrong thing.

Output Format

Exam Prep Plan: [N] weeks · [exams]

Real hours/week: [stated] → scheduled: 80% = [n]h · Method note: [the change from current habits]

The schedule

| Day | Slot | Exam/topic | Method (what you'll actually do) | Repeat # |

|---|---|---|---|---|

Weekly retrieval checkpoints

[End of each week: one mixed self-test across everything touched; scores drive next week's re-weighting]

If it goes wrong

Missed 1 day → [absorb via buffer] · Missed 3+ → [the triage list, in drop order]

Quality Checks

• [ ] Every session names a retrieval method — zero "review/reread" blocks
• [ ] Every red topic appears ≥3 times with growing spacing
• [ ] Total scheduled ≤ 80% of stated hours
• [ ] All exams share the calendar, weighted by date and value
• [ ] The triage list exists before it's needed

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not schedule rereading as studying — recognition feels like knowledge and tests like its absence
• [ ] Do not plan 100% of available time — a plan without slack is a countdown to abandonment
• [ ] Do not block whole days per subject — interleaving tests better than it feels
• [ ] Do not spend prime hours on green topics because they're pleasant — comfort studying is procrastination with flashcards
• [ ] Do not build guilt into the plan — a missed day triggers the buffer protocol, not a spiral; the plan's job is to survive