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Usually a lot goes into planning your semester, you need to think about assignments, plan breaks and other schedules to work around. It can be a lot of work however, it is a study strategy that will pay off in the long run. So, how do we go around planning for a semester? There may not be many complications involved but it does take some time on the front end and follow-through on the back end. That is also often why students may not want to do this as it seems like extra work.
While it may be true that planning your semester is extra work, it often results in a big-time pay off. We are talking specifically about less time spent, lesser late night study sessions that may stress you out and ultimately, better grades.
So, if you are convinced that is a good idea, try out these four steps on how to develop a plan for your semester that would save you a lot of time.
1. Plan your semester in writing
First, you need to make sure to write it down when you do this. It can be on an ordinary old calendar or on s agenda/planner that is specific to you.
If you are paperless, just type out your plans on a digital planner or calendar. Google calendar is a good tool to use for you rescheduling needs where you can have reminders emailed to you.
2. Use your syllabus to plan your semester
This is extremely important. If you do not have a syllabus yet, you can’t really do this. You require a syllabus.
We are specifically looking for assignment due dates as that is the biggest piece of information for this first step. It is also very important that you have an idea of how big a project/assignment really is. In order to plan your calendar effectively, you will need to know how much of it will be taken up by working on a project.
For example, if you just have a few pages to read then it is not very big and should not be a problem. However, if you need to read a few books, you would do well to start thinking in the long terms rather than the short term.
3. Record all big events and due dates for your semester
This is “putting feet” to your syllabus. Having a syllabus is not going to be much help if you are not going to use it. You need to put down the due date as they appear. If you have a paper calendar, you need to make sure that you have a way in which you can identify what is an assignment due date and not is not a due date. Therefore by example, consider writing due date in red.
If you are using Google Calendar or something similar, we would recommend you creating a calendar color for all your due dates. This will help you know what you need to in order to make sure your submissions are on time.
4. Break those due dates into daily tasks.
Recoding your due dates is good however, it is not the only thing will you be doing when planning your semester. You need to break them down into daily tasks as well.
This is the key factor in being a productive student. If you do not break your task down into daily tasks, you can get caught unprepared when bigger projects or assignments near their due dates. For example, you may forget about a research paper and all of a sudden it becomes due the next day. That does not change the fact that you would need to work on them for two at the minimum (in most cases).
So, don’t get caught off guard during this semester. Start planning from the beginning and good luck!
