I’ve got most of my school help articles linked here, but I wanted to share some of my best tips since you’re probably going to be starting school soon. Whether you’re being homeschooled, in public school, or in college or graduate school, most of these tips will apply to you and hopefully set you up for success this semester.

1) Set a plan

Next week’s article is adjacently related to this point, but setting a plan for your schoolwork will help you plan your week. Now, I’m not talking about whether you should sign up for 8am Calculus 1 or 2pm Calculus 1 (although my vote would be for 8am). If you’ve been with me since the beginning of Back to Stable Hill, you’ll see this coming: get a planner. Now, I’ve tried digital planners (see tip #4 below), and I keep going back to a physical planner. Last year, I purchased a leather planner and I just have to get a new insert each year, and I love that thing so much. I am one to easily stress myself out, and if I write everything down, it’s one less thing for me to worry about. All of my assignments get placed into my planner the instant I have access to the course schedule, and I even list any chapters/assigned reading items. With my current graduate course load, I’m only taking two classes at most at a time. When I was in undergrad, I would color code the assignments to the class, so it would save space in my planner and I could see what I had to do easily at a glance.

The next part of this tip is planning out your week. What do you have to do? For me, that includes teaching violin, teaching at a university, teaching homeschool biology, working my full time other university job, making sure I still see people I care about, and not submit my assignments late. To save my sanity, I write in my planner that my graduate school assignments are due a day earlier than they really are. Here’s how a general week in my life looks:

Monday: Full time job, violin lessons, university teaching, download and gather information needed for my class assignments.

Tuesday: Full time job, homeschool teaching, university teaching, complete assignments for one class.

Wednesday: Full time job, homeschool teaching, university teaching, complete assignments for other class.

Thursday: Full time job, university teaching, write and review Back to Stable Hill, review assignments for both classes.

Friday: Full time job, university teaching, homeschool grading, review and submit assignments for both classes.

This plan gives me enough time to get my assignments done (around the rest of my life), and make sure they’re submitted before the Sunday deadline and ensuring that I don’t have to work on weekends. Your week will look different, but if you can set a general plan and stick to it, it will ease the stress that often comes with a new semester. Stay tuned for next week for my thoughts on that.

2) Do you need the textbook?

Ah, the age-old question. Maybe it’s because I’m in graduate school, or that I’m tired of buying textbooks because I feel they are a scam. Obviously, it’s up to you, and I have a whole article on ways to get your textbook for cheap (or free). What I do now in graduate school is not buy the textbook. I will find an old version, or ask libraries to inter-library loan it for me. I ask my city library and the university library that I work at (since my university I attend is out of state). I found that every time I manage to get my hands on the textbook, maybe 10% of my classes actually require me to use it. And if there are stipulations that the required text is cited…well, let me just say that I have not once had points deducted for citing the book and instead using a previous edition. Direct quotes will likely get you caught, but if you’re just using the book for general course content…. Is it unethical? Maybe, but the cost for a textbook I’m not ever going to use is greater than me using the incorrect edition in the citation.

How you approach this is up to you and your anxiety, but I’m finding that I don’t stress myself out if I don’t have the textbook anymore. 90% of the time the courses (at least in my experience) don’t even use the text. If it’s a digital access book, which I really think is a scam since you have to pay for it to complete the course, you can’t get around it, and I will say that was one of my major grievances with my undergraduate education.

3) Know how to communicate with your professor

I have had a ton of different professors throughout my academic journey. It can be intimidating reaching out to your professor, and I’ve got several articles on different approaches. If you have a question about how to ask for an extension, or how not to ask for an extension, or if they’re willing to be a reference for you, how to argue with your professor when they’re being unfair (because they are not perfect, after all), and several others. The bare bones of this point is to address them by name (with title), be polite, and make sure your communication is above board, in case you have to escalate to the dean. If you are snippy or rude or mean in your email, then if it gets escalated, the college will very likely side with the professor, not you. There are times you need to stand up for yourself, and there is a post coming that will cover this topic more in depth. But in your communication, you should always be nice and get your point across politely.

Also, make note of what communication mode your instructor prefers. I have met some that refuse to answer emails. Personally, I tell my students I have 24/7 access to my email, so if they want to get ahold of me quickly, email me. Otherwise, I do check the learning management system communications, but not nearly as often. It’s pretty easy to communicate with your professor (and it’s also easy to go above them if they refuse to, which does happen), but you need to remember to use the messaging system they say they check, and to do everything above board in your communications.

4) Know how to take notes for you

I’ll be the first to admit that I can get lost in the stationary aisle. I love gel pens, and pretty notebooks, and fancy paper, ooh – some stickers over there…and purple post it notes! I clearly need everything. Add in a couple of aesthetic study-with-me YouTube videos and I’ll be making a plan to take notes for the version of me that I think I am…not the one I am now.

My note taking process has changed (or evolved) throughout my academic journey. As I was being homeschooled, I didn’t really take many notes other than working through math problems. For my Associate degree, I tried taking digital notes, carrying my laptop and updating Google docs with my notes. The organization lasted about a month, and I can’t even find any of those notes today.

For my Bachelor’s degree, I had gotten much better at figuring out how I needed to take notes. If I was given access to the powerpoint, I would turn that into a study guide, printing it out and taking it to class to write notes beside the slide. Physical notes work much better for me than digital. I can type faster than I can write, but I don’t retain much information. I also learned that I need a better organizational system. While separate notebooks eventually collided into random notes, I kept one way to organize my notes that I still use – color coordination. I still remember that biochemistry notes were written in neon green, microbiology notes were written in purple, and ethics notes were written in red (because I was failing the class).

For my Master’s degree, I continued with handwritten, color coded notes. Now for my Ph.D., my classes are structured differently, and I don’t really take notes anymore. It’s more me reading current literature and dissecting the information (which is a different process, but does still involve my gel pens!).

Some people don’t need to take notes, they’re just good at remembering. Some find that digital notes are better. Some people handwrite their notes on their tablet so they can paste in images from the book (which I would just print out and tape into my notebook). The moral of the story is, everyone learns differently, and what works for one person may not work for you. Figure out what notes you need and stick with it. Experiment to find what’s best, but once you find it, don’t change it because you saw a cute YouTube video and think that could totally be future you.

5) Ask for help as soon as you think you might need it

It’s not a bad thing to ask for help. Most of your professors are more than happy to meet to explain topics for you (after all, that’s what they’re paid to do). Especially if you are taking a more complicated or shorter class. I took organic chemistry over summer in six weeks, and no one told me that would be a bad thing to do (add this to the list of reasons why you should not rely on your academic advisor). By the second week, when I realized that I could not dig myself out of the hole I was in, it was too late to do anything about my grade. I ended up with a D in the class and had to retake it. That’s the only class I’ve had to retake, because it taught me a valuable lesson. As soon as you realize you’re maybe going to need help – ask.

At my four year university, I took biochemistry, and thought I understood it until I got a horrible grade on my first exam. I immediately went to my professor and asked for help. He met me a couple times a week, and he knew that I knew the material, I just didn’t seem to understand his quizzes. He would let me come back after I took an exam, and if I could explain to him what the correct answer was, he would give me credit. He didn’t make it easy, but he helped me. I went from a D to an A in the class, gained him as a mentor, and even a reference down the road for jobs and my graduate school application.

Colleges often have tutoring services, and I’m sure those are helpful, but I don’t use them. I go directly to the professor. If they send you to a tutoring service, then (in my opinion) they’re not doing what they’re paid to do. Make sure that you ask for help as soon as you think you might need it – it might just save you from having to torture yourself with organic chemistry again.

Bonus Tip: Be early and do the extra credit!

I’ve already touched on the first part of this tip in #1, but don’t wait until the last minute for submitting your work! Life is busy, and things happen. A doctor’s appointment or a sick day might throw off your whole week. If you get your work done as soon as you can, it’s one less thing for you to worry about forgetting. And while it may seem more stressful if you give yourself a shorter deadline (i.e. 4 days instead of a week), you’ll find that you really enjoy those three extra days where you get a break in your schoolwork. I stay very busy, but I still have my weekends free, and that is really important for me to be able to take a little break from everything that I do.

Lastly, do any and all extra credit that is offered. I see this especially with the homeschool biology classes I teach. Maybe 5% of the class submits the extra credit, and those are usually the students who already have an A. Extra credit usually is not that much more work (and I’ve even had syllabus quizzes be extra credit points), and it will boost your grade on days when you’re just not prepared for that test.

Do you have any tips for the start of the school semester? I finished my summer semester yesterday and am starting my fall classes Monday!

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