Spaced Repetition Schedule: A 1-3-7-14-30 Plan for Exams

Last updated: 9 Oct 2026 · Author: Abdalla Idris, maker of Focus Flow

A simple spaced repetition schedule reviews new material 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days after you first learn it. The gaps widen because each successful recall lets you wait longer before the next one. For exams, build the schedule backwards from the exam date so your final reviews land in the last few days, and let a flashcard app handle the dates once you have more than a few topics.

Key Facts

The 1-3-7-14-30 pattern is a popular rule of thumb, not a schedule proven to be optimal. Use it as a starting point.

Why the Gaps Widen

Spacing your study is one of the best-supported ideas in learning research. In a review of ten common study techniques, Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) rated distributed practice (spreading study over time) as one of only two high-utility techniques. The other was practice testing, which is exactly what a flashcard review is.

How long should the gaps be? The most useful study for students is Cepeda et al. (2008). More than 1,350 people learned a set of facts, reviewed them after a gap of up to 3.5 months, and were tested up to a year later. The best gap depended on how far away the test was. For a test one week later, the best gap was about 20 to 40 percent of that delay; for a test a year later, it fell to about 5 to 10 percent.

Two practical lessons follow:

• The further away the exam, the longer your gaps can be. A topic you will be tested on in three months can wait weeks between reviews.
• When the exam is close, the gaps must shrink. One week out, reviews every day or two make sense.

How to Build a Schedule Backwards From Your Exam Date

Start with the exam date, not with today.

1. Mark the exam date and the day 1 to 2 days before it. That is your final review for every topic.
2. List your topics with the date you first study each one.
3. Add reviews at 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days after each first study date.
4. Drop any review that falls after the final review day, and make sure each topic gets at least two reviews before it.
5. If a topic starts too late for that, compress it: for example 1, 2 and 4 days after first study.

Here is a worked example for an exam on day 28, with the final review on day 26.

Notice what happens near the end: later topics get shorter gaps. That matches the Cepeda finding, and it is why starting topics earlier makes the last week calmer.

Can You Use Spaced Repetition One Week Before an Exam?

Yes, in a compressed form. With seven days, study each topic once, then review it the next day, two or three days later, and again the day before the exam. You will not get the long-term memory benefit of a month-long schedule, but you will still beat rereading. Our one-week finals plan shows how to fit these reviews around several papers.

What to Do When You Miss a Review

You will miss days. The schedule survives if you handle them calmly.

• Do the missed review today. Do not wait for the next scheduled date.
• If you still remember it, carry on from today. Your next gap starts from today, not from the missed date.
• If you have forgotten it, treat it as new: review again tomorrow and rebuild the gaps.
• Do not double up to catch up. Spread the backlog over two or three days so tomorrow does not become a wall of overdue reviews.
• Cap your daily load. A smaller set of reviews done every day beats a huge pile done once a week.

How Much New Material Per Day?

Every new topic or card you add today creates future work. On a 1-3-7-14-30 schedule, one topic studied today brings five reviews over the next month. Add ten new topics this week and you have signed up for fifty reviews.

That is why the most common way to break a schedule is adding too much at once. A few habits keep it under control:

• Add new material at a steady pace, not in one big weekend dump.
• Keep review sessions short, ideally one Pomodoro, and do them before adding anything new.
• Watch the next few days, not just today. If tomorrow already looks heavy, add less today.
• Cut cards you no longer need once a topic is off the syllabus.

If you would rather stop when a review set is finished than when a countdown ends, the Flowmodoro timer counts up instead. Reviewing with classmates? A private Focus Room keeps everyone on one shared Pomodoro timer, with chat saved for breaks.

Fixed Schedule vs Algorithm (SM-2 and FSRS)

A fixed schedule gives every topic the same gaps. An algorithm adjusts the gaps for each card based on how well you remembered it.

SM-2 is the classic algorithm from SuperMemo. In its original description, the first interval is 1 day and the second is 6 days. After that, each interval is the previous one multiplied by an "easiness factor" that starts at 2.5 and changes with your answers. Cards you find hard grow slowly; easy cards jump ahead.

FSRS is a newer scheduler that Anki now offers as an option. According to Anki's FSRS FAQ, FSRS tends to give longer first intervals than SM-2, but it is more conservative with cards you have known for a long time.

When should you use which?

Free Template

You do not need to download anything. Copy this layout into Google Sheets, Excel or a notebook.

In a spreadsheet, put the first study date in cell B2, then use these formulas in the next cells: =B2+1, =B2+3, =B2+7, =B2+14 and =B2+30. Format the cells as dates and fill the formulas down for each topic. Delete any date that lands after your final review.

Automate It With Flashcards

Once you have more than a handful of topics, tracking dates by hand becomes the work. Flashcard apps do it for you.

Focus Flow's flashcards use SM-2. When you review a card you rate it Forgot, Hard, Good or Easy. Cards you rate Good or Easy come back after 1 day, then 6 days, and then at gaps that grow with your ratings. Cards you rate Forgot or Hard go back to a 1-day gap, so your weakest material gets the most practice. You can study only the cards due today, or only your weak cards, and a 7-day forecast shows how many reviews are coming.

For exams, the Exams page adds a second layer. It counts down to each exam and marks review days that get closer together as the date nears, so your timetable and your flashcards point in the same direction.

If you want the theory behind all this, read how spaced repetition works. If you are coming from Anki, see free alternatives to Anki.

Focus Flow is free to use. Create an account at focusflowstudy.com, add your exam date, and make your first deck today.

For the forgetting curve and the SM-2 algorithm behind this schedule, read how spaced repetition works