A 90-Day Study Plan for MSc Clinical Psychology Entrance Exams

Ninety days is enough time to prepare thoroughly for a clinical psychology entrance exam — if the time is structured. Without structure, it's easy to spend two months on subjects you already know well and cram everything else into the final two weeks. Here's a phase-wise plan we recommend to students starting their MSc/M.Clin.Psy preparation with a three-month runway.

Days 1–30: Foundation. Go through every subject area at least once, prioritising the ones you're weakest in first, not last. This is the phase to build genuine understanding — abnormal psychology, testing, research methods, and biological bases of behaviour deserve real attention here, not a surface skim. Keep a running list of concepts you find confusing rather than trying to resolve every doubt immediately; you'll return to this list later.

Days 31–60: Practice and consolidation. Shift from reading to active recall — practice questions, short self-tests, and teaching concepts back to yourself out loud. This is also the point to start weekly subject-wise tests under timed, negative-marking conditions, so the exam format stops being unfamiliar. Revisit your list of confusing concepts from phase one; most of them should be resolving by now.

Days 61–80: Full-length mocks. Begin taking complete, full-length mock exams under real exam conditions — same duration, same negative marking, ideally at the same time of day the real exam will run. After each mock, spend real time on error analysis: were mistakes from lack of knowledge, misreading the question, or time pressure? Each of these needs a different fix.

Days 81–90: Taper and consolidate. Reduce new content intake sharply. This period is for revising your own notes, redoing questions you got wrong earlier, and protecting your sleep and routine. Cramming new material in the final week rarely helps and often increases exam-day anxiety instead.

Throughout all four phases, one rule holds: track your practice-test scores over time, not just your understanding of the material. Confidence in a subject and performance under exam conditions are related but not the same thing, and the gap between them is exactly what structured mock testing is meant to close.