AI prompt for making a study plan

Written for Claude. Compiled as a planning / strategy task — turning a goal into an ordered, actionable sequence of steps.

<role>
You are an experienced strategist who plans backwards from the outcome.
</role>

<context>
Time available: {{time_available}}. Topics to cover: {{topics}}. Where I am weakest: {{weak_areas}}. How I am assessed: {{assessment}}.
</context>

<task>
Make a study plan for {{exam}}.
</task>

<approach>
Work through the problem step by step before giving your answer. Show the reasoning that actually drives your conclusion rather than a tidy summary written after the fact.
</approach>

<constraints>
- Weight time toward the weak areas and the heavily-assessed topics, not evenly.
- Include spaced review of earlier topics, not one pass through.
- Schedule active recall and practice questions, not only reading.
- Leave one unscheduled session a week for overspill.
- Order steps by dependency, not by importance. A step must never require the output of a later step.
- For each step, state the concrete output it produces and how someone would know it is finished.
- Name the assumptions the plan rests on, and what would have to change for the plan to fail.
</constraints>

<output_format>
Respond in Markdown. Use descriptive headings, and keep paragraphs to three sentences or fewer.
</output_format>

<success_criteria>
Before you finish, check the output against every item below and fix anything that fails.

- Every topic is revisited at least twice before the exam.
</success_criteria>

Now, make a study plan for {{exam}}.

Open this in the prompt builder to add your own context and see what would improve it most.

What makes making a study plan hard to prompt for

Study plans fail by allocating equal time to every topic and scheduling reading rather than retrieval. They also assume perfect adherence, so one bad week destroys the whole schedule.

Why this prompt works

Background comes before the instruction

The model reads the situation before it learns what to do with it, which stops the instruction being diluted by everything that follows. The task is then restated as the final line, where models weight it most heavily.

Rules a planning / strategy task assumes but nobody writes down

Order steps by dependency, not by importance. A step must never require the output of a later step. For each step, state the concrete output it produces and how someone would know it is finished. These are added automatically because leaving them implicit is the most common reason this kind of output disappoints.

Success criteria the model checks itself against

Stating how the output will be judged gives the model something concrete to verify before it finishes. Prompts without criteria produce work that is plausible but incomplete, because nothing defined when it was done.

What to replace

Check the output before you use it

• Check the weak areas get more time than the strong ones.
• Confirm every topic appears at least twice, spaced apart.
• Look for slack. A plan with no spare sessions collapses the first time life interferes.

The same prompt for other models

Identical content, packaged the way each model reads most reliably.

## Role

You are an experienced strategist who plans backwards from the outcome.

## Context

Time available: {{time_available}}. Topics to cover: {{topics}}. Where I am weakest: {{weak_areas}}. How I am assessed: {{assessment}}.

## Task

Make a study plan for {{exam}}.

## Approach

Work through the problem step by step before giving your answer. Show the reasoning that actually drives your conclusion rather than a tidy summary written after the fact.

## Constraints

- Weight time toward the weak areas and the heavily-assessed topics, not evenly.
- Include spaced review of earlier topics, not one pass through.
- Schedule active recall and practice questions, not only reading.
- Leave one unscheduled session a week for overspill.
- Order steps by dependency, not by importance. A step must never require the output of a later step.
- For each step, state the concrete output it produces and how someone would know it is finished.
- Name the assumptions the plan rests on, and what would have to change for the plan to fail.

## Output format

Respond in Markdown. Use descriptive headings, and keep paragraphs to three sentences or fewer.

## Success criteria

Before you finish, check the output against every item below and fix anything that fails.

- Every topic is revisited at least twice before the exam.

Now, make a study plan for {{exam}}.

**Task**

Make a study plan for {{exam}}.

**Role**

You are an experienced strategist who plans backwards from the outcome.

**Context**

Time available: {{time_available}}. Topics to cover: {{topics}}. Where I am weakest: {{weak_areas}}. How I am assessed: {{assessment}}.

**Approach**

Work through the problem step by step before giving your answer. Show the reasoning that actually drives your conclusion rather than a tidy summary written after the fact.

**Constraints**

- Weight time toward the weak areas and the heavily-assessed topics, not evenly.
- Include spaced review of earlier topics, not one pass through.
- Schedule active recall and practice questions, not only reading.
- Leave one unscheduled session a week for overspill.
- Order steps by dependency, not by importance. A step must never require the output of a later step.
- For each step, state the concrete output it produces and how someone would know it is finished.
- Name the assumptions the plan rests on, and what would have to change for the plan to fail.

**Output format**

Respond in Markdown. Use descriptive headings, and keep paragraphs to three sentences or fewer.

**Success criteria**

Before you finish, check the output against every item below and fix anything that fails.

- Every topic is revisited at least twice before the exam.

Now, make a study plan for {{exam}}.