Syllabuses? Syllabi? Keeping up with your classes

Hey! Tara here, and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and I also talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.

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So, if you’re anything like me then you value everything being clearly organised. You can see everything that’s going on at a glance and you don’t want to miss anything out so you keep up with all of this. I’m going to show you how I manage all of my classes and know exactly what’s happening with each one and when.

Making a Syllabus for all classes

Now I love colour coding. Each class has a specific colour and that colour ties into a OneNote notebook colour and a Google Drive folder also with that colour, because that makes it easier to back up notes and essays. First things first are to sort out which classes are which colour.

Once you’ve done that you’re ready to start making the syllabus. Create a table like the one below, replacing the classes I’m taking with yours and the colours with whichever colours you use for the classes.

I shorten the names down (eg. Diss is dissertation) and have added a ‘General’ column. The very first column is for the day and week number, second column is for the date. This way I can keep track of deadlines or any other important dates once the classes start. Weeks that don't count as teaching weeks will be filled with a lighter shade of the above colours.

Once I find out the syllabus for each class I put what lectures, seminars and assignments I have onto this. This way I can see exactly what classes I’m going to have, and what exactly I’m going to need to look up beforehand.

So you have a filled in syllabus for each class, colour coded and organised exactly how you like. Now you can start working out where you’re going to need to prepare, study and review if that’s something you do. So I prefer to prepare as much as I can for each class to make the most of it, and say I know classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays- then I make Monday and Wednesday prepare days, Friday a review day.

Tips

1. Write your assignments in a different colour and bold so they stand out.

2. Write in any required reading (and when you’re going to do that)

3. If you can, print it and put it in the front of your binder or notebook so you can always refer back to it

4. For deadlines change the box colour too – I make mine the darkest and have white text

I also use Google Calendar to help me organise my classes; what I’m doing goes on the syllabus, what classes I have goes on my calendar and when and where are reserved for my Timetable app.

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