Get Ready to Study!

Have a Successful Semester!

Before my first college semester, I scoured the internet looking for tips and hints as to what college was going to be like.  I stared and studied the campus map, and tried to memorize where all my classes were that fall.  I thought hard about when would be the best time to shower in a communal bathroom. And when I scanned through the Dorm Shopping Lists from stores like Target, I created this massive idea in my head of what was expected of me as a college student.  Sadly, and obviously, store catalogs and Google results don’t prepare you for college, but I hope this article prepares you to have a successful semester academically.

Organization:

Everyone is different when it comes to organizing their school things.  Some like to use only binders and some will use one binder for all their things.  Some girls can even get away with only using a tote to carry all their stuff!!!  I really don’t get how they can manage that because my backpack stuff usually turns me into a pack mule.  I use a binder and a folder for each class, and I keep post-its, tabbies, highlighters, and mostly pens in my pencil bag.  I also use binder dividers to separate my stuff by certain categories such as by course, topic, play, chapter, or novel.  No matter what, it’s up to you to find the best way to keep your stuff organized.

School Hack: paper clips make really good bookmarks!  They don’t slip off the pages and you can move them to point out special parts of a page!

Paper clips seriously make good book marks
- Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace

A Good Planner System:

Choosing a planner is a very important thing to do- they are a lifesaver!  You need a planner that has monthly sections and weekly sections with enough room to write notes about homework assignments and deadlines, and miscellaneous notes for errands/meetings.  If attendance matters to a class, keep those marked in the monthly sections.

At the beginning of every semester, I go through the Academic Calendar on my school’s website and add in all the days we don’t have class.  Then I go through all my syllabi and do the same and add assignments to the month AND the day sections.  If I have a paper or a test, I write the note into my planner a week in advance, the Monday or Friday before the deadline, the day before the deadline, and the day of the deadline.  This really helps me mentally see what the week will look like.

I also organize my courses with different colored highlighters.  Doing so visually organizes my schedule and tells me what my whole week, month and semester is doing.  If I didn’t block out what needed to be done for each class with bright colors, I would just be swimming in tasks and black ink.

This was a busy November 2016

Desktop:

Keep all of your syllabi in hard copy AND electronic copy- Schedules change, expectations on assignments are adjusted or you need to look at the syllabus in class right there at your desk. Either way, a hard copy is always good.  Things are also a lot easier if you keep the syllabi on your computer desktop.  You already have access to them online, just make it easier to get to.

I keep my school documents pretty organized by year-semester-class, but this year I had to look at my syllabi so many times that I got irritated with having to log onto my student account and click on ten things just to open up one document and scroll down to one page.  So I started keeping the files right on my desktop and then if I needed to check something out, it was one click away and not ten.

Oh so organized!

Connections:

Getting connected with your instructors, Teaching Assistants, and other faculty members is a very important thing.  School is your job no matter what your other circumstances are, and TA’s, and professors are your future letter of recommendation writers.  Be productive and active in your classes, make your presence known to them.  Show them that you are engaged in class, and go to Office Hours if you have questions- instructors love helping the students who ask for it.

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Show your instructors that you’re a smart, hardworking woman, establish a relationship with your instructors and you might get a good letter of recommendation for a future job.  Don’t feel intimidated by your new college life, face it head-on.  Even though the shopping catalogs didn’t help me, finding Pinterest later did and I hope that my advice will help you in the future, regardless of your class-standing.  It’s never too late to prepare for a successful semester.  

FIRST PUBLISHING RIGHTS GO TO MONTANA WOMAN MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2017 ISSUE