Stepora · USMLE study planning
USMLE Schedule Maker — Build Your Study Schedule in Minutes
A schedule that lives in a spreadsheet dies in a spreadsheet. Stepora's schedule maker takes three inputs — your exam, your date, your real daily hours — and builds a living day-by-day plan that adjusts itself when you fall behind, instead of quietly expiring.
Give the maker your Step (1, 2 CK or 3), your exam date and the hours you honestly have each day. It works backwards from the exam: question volume ramps up gradually, NBMEs land every 7–14 days, the Free 120 sits 3–7 days before test day, and every day is handed to you as a single mission — no planning decisions left for you.
How the schedule maker works
1. Three inputs, nothing else
Your exam and date, your daily hours (weekday vs day-off hours are separate — working students need both), and the resources you actually own: a question bank, Anki, First Aid, Pathoma or Sketchy. No 40-question onboarding form.
2. A real plan, built backwards from exam day
The maker divides your total work by your real days — not by the days you wish you had. A baseline self-assessment goes in week 1, full self-assessments repeat every 7–14 days, question volume ramps instead of starting at maximum, and the final two weeks taper into revision and the Free 120 instead of new content.
3. Autopilot runs the day
Each morning the plan becomes one card at a time: this block, this subject, this many questions — with a timer. Mark it done, partial or missed; missed work is re-spread automatically across your remaining days. You only ever select; the plan does the arithmetic.
What a generated day looks like
| Time block | Mission | Why it's there |
|---|---|---|
| Block 1 | 40 timed questions — Cardiology | Questions are the curriculum; timed mode builds exam pacing |
| Break | 10 minutes, phone away | Short, protected breaks keep the next block honest |
| Block 2 | Review Block 1 + error log | Every miss goes into one of five error buckets, which decides tomorrow's drill |
| Block 3 | Anki reviews (capped) + due cards | Reviews are capped so Anki never eats the whole day |
| Evening | Weak-subject drill, 25 minutes | Your weakest subjects quietly get more time, every week |
Working only 2–4 hours a day? The same maker shrinks the day instead of breaking it — see the study plan for working doctors. Preparing on a deadline? The per-Step guides below show the week-by-week shape the maker follows.
Schedule maker vs a spreadsheet template
- Spreadsheet: static the day you make it; one sick week and every date is wrong; you re-plan by hand.
- Stepora: the same starting schedule, but it re-plans itself — missed work rolls forward, NBME scores adjust the load, and the exam date stays protected.
- Cost: the maker and your full plan are part of Stepora Pro at $1.99/month — less than a single NBME form ($62) by a factor of thirty.
Prefer paper first? Download the free USMLE study schedule template, fill it in, then let Stepora run it when the manual upkeep gets old.
Turn this schedule into a plan that runs itself
Stepora takes your exam date, your hours and your resources, then runs every day for you — one mission at a time, with NBME tracking and automatic replanning when life happens.
Build my plan — $1.99/monthFrequently asked questions
Is the USMLE schedule maker free?
Starting is free: you can build your plan, see your phases and your NBME chain, and tour the app before paying. Running the full autopilot day-by-day is Stepora Pro at $1.99/month. The downloadable schedule template on this site is completely free.
Which exams does the schedule maker support?
Step 1, Step 2 CK and Step 3. Each Step has its own resources, subject list and self-assessment chain — Step 1 is pass/fail so the plan tracks pass probability, while Step 2 CK and Step 3 track a predicted score range.
What if I fall behind the schedule?
Nothing breaks. Missed work is re-spread over your remaining days automatically, low days drop to a small minimum (a few questions plus Anki reviews) instead of collapsing, and your self-assessment dates re-anchor so the last one still lands at least a week before your exam.
How many hours a day do I need?
The maker works with what you have: 2–4 hours a day on a longer timeline, or 8–10 hours a day in a dedicated period. It will also tell you honestly if your date and your hours don't add up, and offer a longer timeline instead of an impossible plan.
Keep planning
The maker follows the same structure as these guides — read the one for your exam, then generate yours: