USING AN ACADEMIC PLANNER

• Make sure you purchase an academic planner (July to August instead of January to December)

• Write your name and phone number clearly and in large letters on the inside cover page so your planner can be returned if lost.

• Use the copier to make a small copy of your schedule (reduce it), and tape this to the inside cover of your planner so you will have your schedule handy when using your planner.

• Record the letter day of each class day (A, B, C, etc.) at the beginning of each term so that you can look ahead and know what day it is.

• You will get the best use out of your planner if you devote 15-20 minutes every Sunday night to writing out the homework you have due for each class Monday through Friday of the following week. This is crucial if you are to manage your time effectively and plan ahead. On Sunday night you can review any due dates for the following week and make notes on any conferences you might need to make to prepare.

• As you get familiar with the kind of homework assigned for each class, you can develop your own system of “shorthand” to write out the homework. For example, languages and maths often have assignments of several parts or stages; these will be good classes to develop a shorthand system for homework recording.

• As you will see in the example below, your planner will look very full some weeks. This is why it is a good idea to use highlighters of different colors to distinguish the classes from one another. See the document on “Color Coding” for more information.

Click here for a pdf version of this page that includes an example of what your planner should look like if you use it properly!

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