Prep Tracker

Study for three hours without finishing a topic and the work remaining goes up by two

The estimate divides hours spent by topics completed, then multiplies by topics left. Twelve topics in eighteen hours is 1.5 hours each, so eight remaining topics need twelve hours. Spend three more hours and finish nothing: your rate becomes 1.75, and the remaining estimate climbs to fourteen. You did the work and the finish line moved away from you.

How it works

• Turns topics completed and topics total into a percentage of progress.
• Derives your own hours-per-topic from what you have already done.
• Projects the hours left by applying that rate to the topics you have not started.

progress = topics completed ÷ total topics × 100
hours per topic = hours spent ÷ topics completed
hours remaining = (total topics − topics completed) × hours per topic

Worked example

Twelve topics of twenty completed, eighteen hours spent.

1. progress = 12 ÷ 20 × 100 = 60%
2. hours per topic = 18 ÷ 12 = 1.5
3. hours remaining = 8 × 1.5 = 12
4. after three more hours with no topic finished: 21 ÷ 12 = 1.75 per topic
5. hours remaining becomes 8 × 1.75 = 14, an increase of 2

Sixty per cent done and twelve hours to go. The estimate is a mirror of your own pace, so a slow session makes the remainder look longer rather than shorter.

Reading the result

• Because the rate is recalculated from all your hours, an unfinished topic is counted as cost without progress. That is arithmetically correct and psychologically brutal, so read a rising estimate as the model catching up with reality rather than as a bad sign about you.
• Most people work through the easy topics first, which makes the early rate flattering and every later estimate too optimistic. If the topics you have left are the ones you have been avoiding, expect them to run well over 1.5 hours each.
• Topics are treated as interchangeable units, and they never are. One line in a syllabus can be a twenty-minute read and the next can be a week, so the count is a rough proxy for the work rather than a measure of it.
• The model cannot see whether the studying worked. Hours spent and topics ticked off say nothing about recall under pressure, which is the thing the preparation is actually for.

Common questions

Why did my remaining hours increase after studying?

Because the estimate divides total hours by completed topics. Adding hours without adding a completion raises your hours-per-topic, and that new rate is applied to everything left. Finishing the topic you are on will pull the number straight back down.

Is the estimate reliable early on?

Not very. With one or two topics completed, the rate rests on a tiny sample and swings wildly with each new one. It steadies once you are several topics in, and it is most useful as a trend across sessions rather than a single reading.