Making the most of your blocus: schedule, sample day and method

What is the blocus?

In French-speaking Belgian universities, the blocus is the period with no classes that comes before an exam session. UCLouvain’s glossary describes it as two to three weeks devoted to exam preparation, at the end of the first and second quadrimesters.

The vocabulary varies from one institution to another. UCLouvain splits the year into three quadrimesters and schedules an extra session from mid-August, presented as a second chance to pass the year. Many students call it “second session”. For your dates and your rules, the reference remains the calendar and the academic regulations of your faculty.

A dated example: the 2026-2027 calendar of UCLouvain’s Faculty of Science

Here, as an example, are the periods published by UCLouvain’s Faculty of Science for 2026-2027, in a calendar updated on June 19, 2026. Other faculties and other universities may have different dates. This faculty numbers its sessions in the order of the year: January is the 1st session, June the 2nd and August-September the 3rd.

The January blocus covers the end-of-year holidays: decide right now which days you won’t work. The session then lasts almost three weeks, and the free days between two exams are part of your schedule.

• End of 1st quadrimester classes: Saturday, December 19, 2026.
• Blocus: from Sunday, December 20, 2026 to Sunday, January 3, 2027.
• 1st assessment session: from Monday, January 4 to Saturday, January 23, 2027.
• Pre-blocus and spring break: from Sunday, April 18 to Sunday, May 2, 2027.
• Blocus: from Sunday, May 16 to Sunday, May 30, 2027, after classes end on May 15.
• 2nd session: from Monday, May 31 to Saturday, June 26, 2027.
• 3rd session, in August-September: from Friday, August 13 to Wednesday, September 1, 2027.

How do you make a blocus schedule by course and by credits?

Credits give a first measure of the weight of each course. According to UCLouvain’s glossary, one credit is a flat 30 hours of learning activities: a 6-credit course therefore represents, on paper, twice the workload of a 3-credit course. Then adjust for your actual level in each subject and the exam format.

Finally, split each course into chapters, assigned to half-days: this split is easier to readjust than an hour-by-hour schedule, which breaks at the first delay.

• Write down each exam with its date, its number of credits and its format: written, oral, multiple-choice or open questions.
• Count your real working days, without the rest days you give yourself.
• Keep one buffer day for the unexpected and one or two days of mixed review.
• Split the rest in proportion to the credits, then move half a day to the course where you’re weakest.
• Put the course of your first exam at the end of the blocus, so you come to it with fresh material.

What does a typical blocus day look like?

The durations below are suggestions to adapt to your own pace. The idea: learn when you’re rested, test yourself afterwards, then finish with a short review that prepares the next day.

Stop at a fixed time and keep a real break in the evening. A good day is measured by what you can do without notes at the end, more than by the number of hours spent at your desk.

• Morning, about 3 hours in 50-minute blocks separated by 10-minute breaks: study a new chapter of the syllabus, with your own diagrams and definitions.
• Early afternoon, about 2 hours: questions without notes on this chapter and on yesterday’s, then correction with the syllabus.
• Late afternoon, about 1 h 30: exercises or questions in the exam format, written or out loud.
• Evening, 15 minutes: write the outline of today’s chapter from memory, note the mistakes to go back to and prepare tomorrow’s task.

Why test yourself rather than reread other people’s summaries?

Rereading gives a feeling of familiarity: you recognize the sentences, without knowing whether you could recall them on your own. In their review published in 2013, Dunlosky and his colleagues rank practice testing and spaced practice among the most useful techniques, and rereading or highlighting among the ones with low utility. Testing yourself means answering first, then checking in the course.

Summaries shared by other students raise another problem: you don’t know what they left out, or whether they follow this year’s version of the course. Use them to check your understanding, after you’ve written your own version of a chapter.

In Fichea, you can import a chapter of your syllabus as a PDF, generate a multiple-choice quiz where every answer is explained and ask a question about an unclear passage: the answer relies on quoted excerpts from your document. If your exam has open questions or an oral, also practice writing or explaining out loud.

How do you manage fatigue and last until the session?

The blocus lasts long enough for fatigue to build up. Keep regular bedtimes, move a little every day and protect at least half a day of rest per week. If you reread the same page three times without remembering anything, change tasks: switch to questions, to an exercise, or take a longer break.

If you work badly alone, look for a framework. Some universities or student associations organize supervised blocus sessions, with a room, shared hours and sometimes support: ask your faculty. And if stress or sleep become hard to manage, talk to your university’s student support service or to a health professional.

Frequently asked questions