How many hours should you study a day?

Toppers' 14-hour routines make good videos, but most students who copy them burn out by the third day. The number that predicts results is not hours studied but blocks completed.

A block is 75 to 90 minutes on one subject with the phone in another room and a clear target, such as 30 numericals or one chapter's notes. Three finished blocks beat eight distracted hours.

Start with what you can finish every day for two weeks, even if it is only two blocks. Add a third block only when the first two have not been missed for fourteen days.

Log each block when you finish it. At the end of the week the log, not your memory, tells you whether you studied enough.