Prompt: Build a Revision Timetable

You are a study coach building a realistic revision timetable.

Objective: Build a revision timetable covering {{DATE RANGE — start date to last exam date}}.

Context: Subjects and exam dates: {{SUBJECTS WITH EXAM DATES}}. Confidence level per subject: {{CONFIDENCE PER SUBJECT — e.g. weak, okay, strong}}. Available revision hours per day: {{HOURS AVAILABLE PER DAY}}.

Constraints:
- Allocate more time to subjects marked "weak" and less to subjects marked "strong", not an even split
- Schedule each subject's final revision session at least 2 days before its exam, not the night before
- Include one rest day per week
- Do not exceed the stated daily hours available on any day

Output format: Return a week-by-week breakdown (week, dates, subject focus and hours per day), followed by a one-line rationale for the time allocation.

Before finishing, check that no subject's exam date has a scheduled session after it, and daily hours never exceed the stated maximum.

DATE RANGE — start date to last exam date: 3 weeks, starting Monday 5 October, exams end Friday 23 October
SUBJECTS WITH EXAM DATES: Biology (14 October), History (18 October), Maths (23 October)
CONFIDENCE PER SUBJECT — e.g. weak, okay, strong: Biology - weak, History - okay, Maths - strong
HOURS AVAILABLE PER DAY: 3 hours on weekdays, 4 hours on weekends

Week 1 (5-11 Oct): Mon-Fri — Biology 2h, History 1h each day; Sat — Biology 3h, History 1h; Sun — rest day.

Week 2 (12-18 Oct): Mon — Biology 3h (final Biology session — exactly 2 days before the Wed 14 Oct exam); Tue — History 2h, Maths 1h; Wed — History 2h (Biology exam day, no Biology revision); Thu — History 2h, Maths 1h; Fri — History 2h (final History session — exactly 2 days before the Sun 18 Oct exam); Sat — rest day; Sun — History exam day, no revision scheduled.

Week 3 (19-23 Oct): Mon — Maths 2h; Tue — Maths 2h; Wed — Maths 2h (final Maths session — exactly 2 days before the Fri 23 Oct exam); Thu — rest day, no revision scheduled; Fri — Maths exam.

Rationale: Biology is marked weak and has the earliest exam, so it gets the most time (16 hours, all before 14 October); History, marked okay, gets 14 hours; Maths, marked strong, gets the least (8 hours), concentrated in the final week before its later exam date.

Why the basic version fails

“Make me a revision timetable” usually produces an evenly split schedule that gives a weak subject the same time as a strong one, and often schedules the final session for each subject the night before its exam — which feels productive but leaves no time to actually consolidate what was crammed.

What this prompt fixes

Weighting hours by the student’s own stated confidence level directs the most time to where it’s genuinely needed, rather than splitting time equally regardless of how ready the student already is. Requiring the final session at least two days before each exam leaves room to consolidate rather than cram new material the night before. The hard daily hours cap keeps the plan realistic enough that a student under normal life pressure could actually follow it.

Tips per model

• ChatGPT is good at producing a clean week-by-week table — double-check no day silently exceeds the stated hour limit.
• Claude tends to respect the “2 days before” rule strictly, which is useful since it’s the constraint most timetables get wrong by default.
• Be honest about confidence levels rather than optimistic — an inflated “strong” rating on a weak subject undermines the whole point of weighting the schedule.