Читать книгу The High School Survival Guide - Jessica Holsman - Страница 10

As for determining whether to keep a separate folder or binder for each subject, ultimately, the choice is yours. If you tend to get lots of handouts that need to be filed for each subject or repeatedly find yourself adding to your set of detailed notes, then it might be worthwhile to keep a separate folder or binder for each of your subjects. This way, all of your notes and handouts will be carefully organized and you can avoid having to resort to cramming all of your many papers inside!

Out With The Old And In With The New

Apart from needing to decide on how you plan to organize your work throughout the year, it’s also important to spend some time organizing last year’s notes. As you enter high school, the workload is known to become increasingly complex and the amount of notes and handouts you receive will likely grow as well. With each year that you progress forward along your academic journey, you will no doubt notice your teachers building on the material and skills that you learned during the previous year. For this reason, I highly recommend holding onto your old class notes. While some students do, others admit to throwing out their old class notes or even confessing to tearing out pages as a means for stress relief following their end of year exams. I was not one of them. In fact, ever since my kindergarten teacher sent me home with my first finger painting, my mother has made it her mission to create what looks a lot like a shrine to commemorate all of my work from school!

While it’s certainly not necessary to keep notes from as long ago as your primary school years, it can serve you well in the future to organize and hold onto the notes you take in high school. Keep your notes for at least one to two years in case you need to refer back to them in the future. Set aside as little as one afternoon during the holidays to sort through your old class notes and file them somewhere safe. If you have typed your notes, it can be useful to have them bound and neatly organized into one book that you can easily flip through. Folders make for convenient storage solutions for all of your loose handouts, while you might like to keep your old notebooks organized in a set of magazine racks or line them up next to each other in your closet.

Getting A Head Start

Another important part of preparing for a new school year involves familiarizing yourself with your class texts. Use your spare time wisely during the holidays and consider opting for one of your class texts as your book of choice for the month. Make it an enjoyable exercise by setting aside some time each week to sit on the couch curled up with a cup of tea, or for those of you who are fortunate enough to spend your holidays somewhere warmer, by the pool or lying on the beach. Reading your texts in advance will give you a competitive edge, freeing up your time during the semester and allowing you to focus less on the specific outcomes in the book and more on analyzing the characters and key underlying themes throughout the story!