Commute study calculator: what 20 minutes a day adds up to

How is the result calculated?

The calculator counts the full weeks from today to the first day of your exam, takes off the weeks without commuting and multiplies by your study minutes and commuting days:

$d$ is the days to the exam, $P$ the weeks off, $D$ the commuting days a week and $m$ the study minutes on each; $S$ is the minutes in total and $h$ the hours. Days after the last full week are left out. From the hours follow the rest:

$q$ is the seconds per question or flashcard, $T$ the study hours the exam needs and $L$ the hours of a full study day. The pace starts at the exam’s own: the time allowed for a session divided by its questions, from the same exam formats as our exam pace calculator. The study hours start at the figures prep and careers websites publish – 300–400 for SQE1 (SQE1 Prep, study hours (secondary source)), at least 300 for Level I of the CFA® Program (Soleadea, study hours (secondary source)) (300Hours, preparing for Level I (secondary source)) and 250 for Part I of the FRM® Exam (300Hours, Part I study guide (secondary source)) – which are planning figures, not requirements.

Worked example

From Monday 2 November 2026 to the SQE1 sitting with FLK1 on 12–16 July 2027 (check the official website) there are 36 full weeks. You study 20 minutes on each of 5 commuting days:

At the pace of the exam, 1 min 48 s per question (85 questions in 153 minutes), that is 2,000 questions – 11 on each commuting day. Against the 350-hour figure, the commute covers 17%: as much as 10 full study days of 6 hours, or ten Saturdays at the desk. The other 290 hours, about 8.1 a week, still need desk time.

With three weeks of holiday and no commute, the total falls to 55 hours and 1,833 questions. Over a whole year of 52 weeks, the same habit gives 86.7 hours.

How many questions fit into 20 minutes?

At the pace of each exam itself, a 20-minute commute holds this many questions – before you read any explanations:

Checking the explanation after each answer adds to what the question itself does and corrects wrong answers before they stick (Butler and Roediger, 2008), so plan for fewer questions than the table shows, or use the commute for flashcards and the desk for full question sets.

Why do short sessions work for revision?

Two findings from memory research fit the commute well. Testing yourself – recalling an answer rather than rereading it – strengthens long-term memory more than restudying the same material (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006), and spreading study over time beats massing it together (Cepeda et al., 2006). A large review of study techniques rated both practice testing and distributed practice as highly useful (Dunlosky et al., 2013). The studies were not run on commuters; they show why short, regular recall is worth doing, not that a train is as good as a desk.

In practice that means: flashcards, single practice questions with their explanations, a formula written from memory, a rule said out loud. New chapters, long case questions and timed mock exams need the concentration and the notes of a desk.

How long is a typical commute?

In Great Britain the average trip to work took 28 minutes in 2024: 26 minutes by car, 40 by bus or coach and 64 by National Rail, according to the Department for Transport. (DfT, Transport Statistics Great Britain 2024) Only time as a passenger is study time – never study while driving or cycling. On a 64-minute train journey each way, even half of it is far more than the 20 minutes of the example.

What does this mean for you?

Twenty minutes on five days a week come to about 87 hours a year – about a quarter of a 350-hour SQE1 plan. That will not replace your study sessions, but it can carry the revision that keeps earlier topics from fading. A routine that holds:

1. Choose tonight what you will do tomorrow: one deck or one set of questions, already downloaded for a weak signal.
2. Start at the same point every day – the moment you sit down – so the habit needs no decision.
3. Note the questions you got wrong and look at them again at the desk.
4. On crowded or tiring days, skip it without guilt; the calculator’s weeks off are there for holidays, not for perfection.
5. Check the rest of your week with the study-time budget calculator, and put the desk hours into a plan: the FLK revision planner, the Level I study planner or the Part I study planner.

Which commute mistakes are common?

• Counting the whole journey. Walking, changing trains and standing in a crush are not study minutes; enter only what you can really use.
• Starting new topics on the move. Interruptions every few minutes make new material slow to learn; keep the commute for recall.
• Treating commute hours as the plan. In the example they are 17% of the figure – a useful extra, not the core.
• Studying at the wheel. Reading or tapping through cards while driving or cycling puts you and others at risk; commute study is for passengers only.

Each of our courses – SQE1, the CFA® Program Level I and the FRM® Exam Part I – works in short sessions: an exam-style question first, then the reasoning.

Study aid only – not legal, financial or careers advice. The tool runs in your browser and stores nothing.

High Performer Certs is an independent study platform. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and it is not authorised or accredited by the SRA or the SQE assessment provider. The SQE and SOLICITORS QUALIFYING EXAMINATION trade marks are the property of and are used under licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

High Performer Certs is an independent study platform. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by CFA Institute or the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). We are not a CFA Institute Prep Provider and not a GARP Exam Preparation Provider. CFA Institute does not endorse, promote, review or warrant the accuracy or quality of our products and services. GARP does not endorse, promote, review or warrant the accuracy of our products or services. All questions and explanations are our own original material and contain no CFA Institute or GARP exam, curriculum or practice questions. CFA®, Chartered Financial Analyst®, CIPM® and GIPS® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute. FRM® and GARP® are trademarks owned by the Global Association of Risk Professionals.