Sunday night, three midterms
Jordan is in first year at university. Calculus is on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, psychology on Friday.
On Sunday night Jordan writes a plan. Calculus tonight, chemistry on Monday, psychology on Thursday. Two hours each.
Calculus takes all of Sunday and most of Monday. On Tuesday night chemistry is still unopened, and the plan is a list of things already late.
Everyone's guess comes in short
In 1994, Roger Buehler, Dale Griffin and Michael Ross at the University of Waterloo asked 37 final year students when they would hand in their thesis. Then they checked the real dates.
Their best guess
34 days
how long the thesis would take
What it took
56 days
on average
These were good students. When we guess, we picture the task going to plan and quietly leave out the times it did not.
In the same paper, one group first wrote down how long similar assignments had taken them before, and how that matched this one. Then they guessed. 60% finished by their guess, against 29% who just guessed.
Remembering alone was not enough. The past only helped once they linked it to the task in front of them.
Plan with last time's numbers
For each midterm, count what is on it. Chapters, lectures or problem sets, whatever your course uses.
Now remember the last time you revised one of those for a test. How long did it really take, from opening the book to done? Use that number, not the one you hope for.
Multiply them, then share the total over the nights before that exam.
One midterm at a time
Put the three answers on one page. The earliest exam gets the first nights, and the others share what is left.
If it does not fit, you have learned that on Sunday instead of Tuesday night.
If time slips past you without you feeling it, this helps even more. Last time's number does not ask you to feel how long an hour is.
Three numbers on one page
Next term, Jordan sat down on the Thursday before midterm week. The last calculus chapter had taken nearly two hours, not forty minutes.
Five chapters, three nights: about three hours a night. It would not fit, so calculus started that Thursday, and the plan held.
Tonight, write down one number: how long your last chapter really took. That is the first step. The other midterms can wait for tomorrow.
Plan2Ace
The page works. Plan2Ace does the sums for you.
Give it your next midterm's date and it splits the topics into days, with the minutes for each. Miss a day and the plan redoes itself. Prefer paper? The method is the point.
A few more questions
What if I have never had a test in this course?
Use the closest thing you have done, like a chapter from a similar course. Or time yourself on the first chapter tonight and use that number for the rest.
What if the numbers do not fit?
Then you found out with days to spare, not at midnight. Give the most time to the topics your lecturer spent longest on, and go lighter on the rest.
Does this work for finals too?
Yes, and it gets easier. By finals you have midterm week as your last time, so you already know your real number.
Got ten minutes?
Write your midterms on one page with last time's numbers. Or let Plan2Ace do the sums. Free to start.
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