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How to Get Organized for College or Grad School

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Syllabi, papers, books, articles, and downloads all get very confusing by late October if you don't have a plan to stay organized... and unlike High School, your professors don't remind you about upcoming assignments every day! Follow these steps to get ready.

Steps

1. Print out or collect syllabi for every class.
   
2. Purchase your books, a stack of unlined 3x5 cards, and a heavy duty, brightly colored, plastic folder.
   
3. Place all your syllabi in your plastic folder. This is your syllabi folder. Keep it with you any time you study, go to the library, or go to class.
   
4. On every syllabus, highlight what is due the first week in one color. Highlight what is due the second week in another color. Now you can keep an eye on your assignments on a week-by-week basis.
   
5. Assign one card for every book. Holding the card vertically, write the dates that you have assignments from that book only, and next to the date, write the pages that must be read. (Example: write "Chemistry" on the card. Then in one column, write 9/5, 9/12, 9/19, 9/26, or whenever you have class. Next to the dates, write 1-47, 48-102, 151-160,161-194, or whatever your assigned reading is.) Use this card as a bookmark, so you know where you left off, and what needs to be done next. Now you don't have to look in your syllabus to know what to read, just grab the book and go!
   
6. Get a write-in calendar or academic planner, and write the assignments due on certain dates. Don't forget to write down test dates!
   
7. Make a "Project Syllabus" for yourself. Write out a chronological list of every assignment that will require more than one sitting to complete. Now, you can easily look ahead so you don't spend all night writing a paper.
   
8. Draw or write your schedule on paper or on a computer, so you know when your classes will meet. Now schedule out minimum 1 hour of study time for every hour of class time (if you're in grad school, make it 2 hours). Schedule those study hours and don't miss them; treat them as permanent commitments. If you can get ahead early, you'll have some cushion time when your many papers and projects come due at the same time.
   
9. If you have a computer (and if you're going to college in the US, you really ought to), make one desktop folder called "School." Inside, make one folder for every class. These folders are a great place to store downloads that many professors expect you to have.
   
10. Get working! Now you have very little time to spend trying to figure out what needs to be done; you can just do it!
    

Tips

• Don't let the Internet waste too much time!
  
• Cross out completed assignments with a single line so you can review if necessary.
  
• Use a highlighter to help you review, not to point out what you should learn later.
  

Warnings

• Stick to your schedule. If you don't study like you need to, you'll be miserable at the end of the semester, and you won't learn what you need to learn. Isn't that why you went to college?
  

Things You'll Need

• Bright plastic folder
  
• Unlined 3x5 cards
  
• School books
  
• Book bag or backpack
  

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