Skill library / DeepSeek

Revision Timetable skill for DeepSeek

Most revision timetables fail because they ignore real life: football training, a Saturday job, a family weekend away, or the subject someone keeps avoiding. This skill gets DeepSeek to ask for the facts first, then lay out a plan that gives weaker subjects more time, leaves proper rest, and can be rebuilt quickly when things change.

What it's good for

• A Year 11 student has GCSEs starting in six weeks, eight subjects, and a part-time job on Saturdays, and needs a plan that fits around all of it.
• A parent wants to help their A level child organise the Easter holidays without nagging, using a written plan they have both agreed.
• A student has missed a fortnight through illness and needs the timetable reshuffled so the most important topics and nearest exams come first.

How the skill works

1. Ask for the essentials before planning anything: each subject and exam board if known, every exam date and time, today's date, and how many hours per day the student can realistically study on school days, weekends and holidays.
2. Ask about fixed commitments such as school hours, clubs, work, religious observance, family events and sleep, plus which subjects feel strongest and weakest and which topics within them cause the most worry.
3. Work out how many study sessions are available before each exam, then divide them across subjects, giving more sessions to weaker subjects and to exams that come sooner, and show this split briefly so it can be challenged.
4. Produce the timetable as a plain table, week by week, with sessions of 25 to 45 minutes, a named topic in each, a mix of recall practice and past papers, one lighter evening per week, and a catch-up slot every weekend.
5. Finish by asking what feels unrealistic, then offer to adjust it, and explain in two lines how to rebuild the plan if a day is missed or an exam date changes.

Built-in rules

• Never invent exam dates, exam boards or topic lists; if the user has not supplied them, ask or tell them to check with the school or the exam board's website.
• Do not schedule more hours than the student said they could manage, and always include breaks, meals, sleep and at least one genuinely free evening each week.
• If the time available clearly cannot cover everything, say so plainly and suggest which topics to prioritise, rather than producing a plan that looks full but is impossible to follow.

Example

You: “My daughter is in Year 11, GCSEs start 12 May, today is 31 March. She does 9 subjects, struggles with maths and chemistry, has netball on Tuesdays and works Saturday mornings. Can you make a revision timetable? About 2 hours on school nights and 4 hours a day at weekends.”
Result: A week-by-week table running from 31 March to 12 May that puts extra maths and chemistry sessions on non-netball evenings, leaves Saturday mornings clear, and ends each weekend with a catch-up slot and a short note on how to adjust it.

SKILL.md template

Save as revision-timetable/SKILL.md.

---
name: revision-timetable
description: "Builds a realistic week-by-week revision timetable around exam dates, subjects, school, clubs and family commitments. Use it when a teenager (or parent) is staring at a pile of subjects and does not know where to start, or when an existing plan has fallen apart."
---

# Revision Timetable

## Workflow
1. Ask for the essentials before planning anything: each subject and exam board if known, every exam date and time, today's date, and how many hours per day the student can realistically study on school days, weekends and holidays.
2. Ask about fixed commitments such as school hours, clubs, work, religious observance, family events and sleep, plus which subjects feel strongest and weakest and which topics within them cause the most worry.
3. Work out how many study sessions are available before each exam, then divide them across subjects, giving more sessions to weaker subjects and to exams that come sooner, and show this split briefly so it can be challenged.
4. Produce the timetable as a plain table, week by week, with sessions of 25 to 45 minutes, a named topic in each, a mix of recall practice and past papers, one lighter evening per week, and a catch-up slot every weekend.
5. Finish by asking what feels unrealistic, then offer to adjust it, and explain in two lines how to rebuild the plan if a day is missed or an exam date changes.

## Rules
- Never invent exam dates, exam boards or topic lists; if the user has not supplied them, ask or tell them to check with the school or the exam board's website.
- Do not schedule more hours than the student said they could manage, and always include breaks, meals, sleep and at least one genuinely free evening each week.
- If the time available clearly cannot cover everything, say so plainly and suggest which topics to prioritise, rather than producing a plan that looks full but is impossible to follow.

How to install in DeepSeek

Copy the template above, then open DeepSeek. Start a new chat, paste it in and add: "Please follow these instructions for this chat." DeepSeek can't save instructions yet, so keep our email handy and paste it again next time.

Pro tip

DeepSeek does not keep your details between chats, so save your answers (subjects, exam dates, weekly commitments, hours available) in a note on your phone or computer and paste them in at the start of each new conversation, along with this skill, whenever you need the plan updated.

FAQ

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