Class Schedule Planner
Lay out your week of classes and catch anything that overlaps or lands too close together.
Class Schedule Planner
tipsforstudents.org
Add your first class above and your week will fill in here.
Build the week before you register, not after
What a laid-out week shows that a course list does not
A list of five courses tells you almost nothing about what your week will feel like. The same five classes can be four calm days or three brutal ones, depending entirely on where they land.
Laying them out is how you find that out while you can still change it. Registration is the one moment you have any control, and it usually passes before anyone has looked at their week as a shape rather than a list.
The gap that is not a clash
Why ten minutes is the number to watch
Every scheduling tool catches two classes booked at the same time. That is the easy one, and your registration system will usually refuse to let you do it anyway.
The one that actually costs you is different. Two classes that do not overlap by a single minute, ending at 9:50 and starting at 9:55, in buildings a ten minute walk apart. Nothing in the system flags it, because on paper it is fine. You find out in week one, and then you are late twice a week for a semester.
Ten minutes is not a number we picked. It is the standard passing period most registrars build the timetable around, usually described as five minutes to clear the room and five to get set up in the next one. That is why standard blocks run 9:00 to 9:50 rather than 9:00 to 10:00.
So anything under ten minutes is not just tight, it is under what the schedule itself assumes you have. Treat the warning as a prompt to go and look at where those two rooms actually are before you commit.
Things worth checking while you are here
Five minutes now, a better semester later
- Put your job and practice in too. A schedule that only shows classes hides the actual conflict, which is usually a shift or a training session rather than another lecture.
- Look for the day you have nothing. A free weekday is worth more than an easy hour, because it is long enough to hold an internship, a lab shift, or a real block of study.
- Check when you are eating. Four classes back to back through the middle of the day looks efficient in a list, and is much less efficient by week three.
- Notice your hardest class. If the course you are most worried about is at 8am on a Friday, that is a decision, not an accident. Make it knowingly.
- Count your class hours. The planner totals them under your list. It is a useful reality check against the study time the rest of the week has to absorb.
Print it and put it somewhere
The version that works when your phone does not
Save as PDF gives you a clean sheet with just the grid and your class list on it. For the first two or three weeks of a term, a printed copy on a wall or in the front of a binder gets checked more often than anything on a phone, mostly because you do not have to unlock it.
Once the week is set, the useful next step is deciding what happens in the gaps. Our pomodoro timer covers the studying itself, and if your usual spot is full there is a list of places to study when the library is closed. If you are still choosing courses, the GPA calculator will show you what this term needs to do to your average.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to what students ask most
Do I need an account?
No. Nothing is sent to us and there is no signup. Your schedule is saved in your own browser, so it is still here when you come back on the same device.
Will it tell me if two classes clash?
Yes. Any two classes that share a day and overlap in time are flagged in red. Classes that run back to back, where one ends exactly as the next begins, are not treated as a clash because that is normal on a timetable.
What is the warning about gaps?
If two of your classes are less than ten minutes apart on the same day, you get an amber warning. This is the problem most timetables hide: the classes do not overlap, so nothing looks wrong, but you have eight minutes to cross campus between them.
Does it handle Saturday and Sunday classes?
Yes. Weekend columns appear as soon as you put a class on one, and stay hidden otherwise so you are not looking at two empty columns all term. Weekend classes are common at community colleges, where Weekend College programs at places like Houston City College and Austin Community College run whole degrees on Friday evenings and Saturdays.
Why does the time list start at 7am and end at 10pm?
Because that is the teaching day. US registrars generally define the academic day as running from about 8am to 9:50pm, with standard blocks starting on the hour or the half hour. The list starts an hour earlier than that to catch early lab and clinical sections, and stops where real classes stop.
Can I use this for a quarter or trimester system?
Yes. The planner lays out one week, and a week works the same way on semesters, quarters, trimesters and 4-1-4 calendars. Only the length of the term changes, not the shape of the week.
How do I enter a lab or discussion section?
Add it as its own entry. A lab that meets Thursday afternoon is a separate line from the lecture that meets Monday and Wednesday morning, and adding it separately is what lets the planner spot clashes with it.
What if a class only meets every other week?
Add it on the days it meets and note the pattern in the room field, for example "Science Hall 214, odd weeks". The grid shows one typical week, so an alternating class will look like it meets weekly.
Can I plan around a job or practice?
Yes, and it is worth doing. Add your shift or practice as if it were a class, with a name like Work or Team practice. It then shows in the grid and gets checked for clashes exactly like a course does.
Will my schedule still be here tomorrow?
On the same browser, yes. If you clear your browser data or switch devices it will be gone, which is why the print output matters: once it is a PDF or on paper, it does not depend on us at all.