SyllabusPlanning study time by weightage
The marks table of a syllabus is a ready-made guide to where your time should go. Here is a simple way to turn it into a plan, and the points where judgement must take over.
The method
- Write down the units and their marks from the course structure.
- Count the study days you have for the subject.
- Give each unit days in proportion to its marks: days for a unit = total days × marks of the unit ÷ marks of the paper.
- Round to whole days, making sure every unit gets at least one.
- Hold back about a fifth of the days for revision and full papers.
Worked example
Class 12 Mathematics, 2026-27: six units, 80 marks. Suppose 60 days are available, of which 12 are kept for revision, leaving 48.
| Unit | Marks | Share | Days out of 48 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relations and Functions | 8 | 10% | 5 |
| Algebra | 10 | 12% | 6 |
| Calculus | 35 | 44% | 21 |
| Vectors and Three-dimensional Geometry | 14 | 18% | 8 |
| Linear Programming | 5 | 6% | 3 |
| Probability | 8 | 10% | 5 |
Calculus gets 21 of the 48 days. That looks like a lot until you remember that it has five chapters and 35 marks.
Where the simple rule needs adjusting
- Difficulty. Marks measure importance in the paper, not how hard a unit is for you. Move days from units you find easy to units you find hard.
- Length. A unit with many chapters and few marks still takes time to read. Do not starve it.
- Order. Some units depend on others. Integrals cannot come before differentiation.
- Groups of units. Where the Board gives one figure for two units, plan for both; you cannot know how the marks will fall.
- Conditions. Leave out, or shorten, chapters that the syllabus says are assessed only in school. Our subject pages note these.
Do not skip small units
A 5-mark unit of one chapter is often the best bargain in the paper: little time for certain marks. Proportional planning gives it few days, which is right, but it must get them.
Across subjects
The same idea works for dividing a week between subjects, with one change: every main subject carries the same 100 marks, so start with equal time and then shift towards the subjects where your marks are lowest. The marks you gain by moving from 50 to 70 are easier than those from 85 to 95.
The planner
Our study planner does the arithmetic for any of the subjects on this site: choose the subject, give the days, set the share to hold back for revision, and it produces a table you can print or copy. It is a starting point. Adjust it with the points above.
Always check the official file. This page is a summary of the CBSE curriculum for 2026-27, made from the subject file on cbseacademic.nic.in, which we read on 12 November 2026. CBSE can revise a syllabus by circular during the year. Before an examination, download the current file from the official site. This is an independent site, not connected with CBSE.