Semester Week Calculator
Which teaching week a date falls in, counting from the first day of term and skipping a mid-term break, with the weeks left and the date the term ends.
Term calendars count teaching weeks, and a break in the middle means the calendar week and the teaching week drift apart after it.
How the semester week calculator works
Term calendars count teaching weeks, and a break in the middle means the calendar week and the teaching week drift apart after it. Count the days from the start of term, turn them into a calendar week, then remove the break weeks that have passed.
The result names the teaching week, says when the date is inside the break, and reports the weeks left and the last day of the final teaching week.
Formula: calendar week = ⌊days since term start ÷ 7⌋ + 1; teaching week = calendar week − break weeks already passed
Worked examples
| Inputs | Teaching week | Note |
|---|---|---|
| After the mid-term break | Week 8 of 13 | calendar week 9, teaching week 8 |
| Inside the break | Mid-term break (week 1 of 1) | calendar week 8 is the break |
| No break, term over | Term finished | calendar week 14 of a 13-week term |
FAQFrequently asked questions
How is the teaching week counted?
From the first day of term: days 0–6 are week 1, days 7–13 week 2, and so on. Once the break has passed, its weeks are subtracted, so the teaching week is lower than the calendar week for the rest of the term.
What if the term starts mid-week?
Weeks are counted in blocks of seven days from whatever day term starts, so a Wednesday start makes each week run Wednesday to Tuesday. Most institutions start on a Monday, which keeps the two aligned.
My term has two breaks.
Enter the first as the break and treat the second by adding its length to the first, if both have passed, or run the calculator twice. A single break covers most semester calendars; trimester and quarter systems often have none.
Does the end date include exams?
No — it is the last day of the final teaching week. Examination periods and reading weeks after teaching ends vary by institution and are not part of the teaching-week count.
Where these figures come from
- Brysbaert (2019), Journal of Memory and Language — How many words do we read per minute? — the 238 wpm silent reading rate, from 190 studies
- Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency — the Australian higher education regulator
Last checked: September 2026. Reading and writing rates are from published meta-analyses, cited on the page.