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[liejanda]

Hey guys, so I’m nearing the end of my senior year, and it’s been great so far! I accomplished my academic tasks efficiently and didn’t burn myself out, and I think the main contributor to my success as a student is my organization system. This system has been refined throughout my high school years, but I think now I’ve finally found the most effective methods.

Please remember that this isn’t the only organization system you can adopt; this is just the one that works the best for me, and I hope that by sharing it with you, you’ll gain a new perspective on how to stay organized as a high school student.

The first thing I wanna talk about is my notebook system, which I briefly mentioned in my Guide to Note-Taking.

My notebook system comprises three types of notebooks: the Everything Notebook, the subject notebook, and the revision notebook.

The Everything Notebook

The first stage is in-class notes. I only bring one notebook to school every day. I call it my Everything Notebook, and this is where I write down all of the notes I take in class. This way, I don’t have to lug around six notebooks where I’m only going to use a few pages in each of them that day.

Subject Notebooks

At the end of the day, I would revise my notes and compare them to the syllabus so I know where we are in the learning process. I would then transfer my class notes from my Everything Notebook to my different subject notebooks. This is stage two. I also start to jazz up my notes because I use the notes in my subject notebooks to study for tests.

In addition to my class notes, I include material from my teachers’ notes that they might not have elaborated on, as well as points in the syllabus (I’m currently taking A2) that were only glazed over briefly, or not at all, in some cases. (Note: this does not mean they completely skip a chapter or topic; it’s more like they missed a few bullet points that should be in my notes but aren’t. An example would be if we’re learning about phenol reactions and the teacher forgot to mention the use of FeCl3 as a test for phenol.)

Revision Notebooks

Stage three comes a little later, when exam week is just around the corner. Essentially, I rewrite and improve my notes from my five different subject notebooks into a single revision notebook or binder. (Recently, I’ve opted for a revision notebook because they’re lighter and easier to carry around.)

Because my teachers don’t always teach in the order of the syllabus, the first thing I do is organize my notes according to the syllabus. I would then fill in any other missing gaps in the material that hadn’t been filled in stage two.

When compiling material for my revision notebook, I use as many sources as possible: my own notes, my teachers’ notes, youtube videos, online sites, and my favorite, the mark scheme! I add in some answers from past papers (explanations only, so no calculations) mainly to secure marks. It’s safer to memorize definitions straight from the mark scheme than from the textbook or from handouts. I also do this to ease my memorization, especially for topics that require lengthy explanations. It’s a lot easier to remember the 6 points I need to explain the principles of NMRI than to remember everything in the four-page handout my teacher gave me.

Folders and binders are essential to organizing your papers. Some people keep a single accordion folder for all their papers, but for me it’s just too heavy to carry around all the time. The same goes for subject folders that are brought to school every day.

Instead, my binder/folder system comprises my Everything Folder and my subject binders.

The Everything Folder

The folder I carry with me to school every day is this A4 folder I got from Tokyu Hands. It has 5 pockets, one for each day of the week, so all the papers I receive on Monday will go behind the first divider, and so on.

Some people also keep blank papers in their folders; I don’t because my school has its own lined paper and graphing pads that I keep under my desk that I use if a teacher asks us to do an assignment on those papers. If I do work at home, I prefer to just use a plain A4 paper or a legal pad.

Subject Binders

At the end of the week, I’ll sort my papers into my subject binders. Sometimes I’ll keep some papers in the folder if I think I’ll be needing it the next week. This usually only applies to worksheets because all my teachers’ notes are available on Google Classroom, so I can access them even if I don’t physically have them.

Each of these binders have sections inside them:

Physics: 1 for handouts, notes, and tests, 1 for Paper 4 (Theory), 1 for Paper 5 (Practical Planning). I included extra tabs to mark the different topics in the handouts section.

Chemistry: same as Physics.

Economics: 1 for Paper 3 (MCQ), 1 for Paper 4 (Case Study and Essay). A lot of my Economics material is online, though.

English: 1 for Paper 3 (Text and Discourse analysis), and 2 for Paper 4 (Language Topics, which includes 1 for Child Language Acquisition, 1 for World Englishes). Past papers, handouts, and notes all go under their respective topics.

Mathematics: I just keep everything together because I never revise math and just constantly do past papers.

This makes it easier for me to revise each subject because I can just take one binder with me instead of a messy folder with everything just shoved in there.

I keep a magazine file for each of my A-Level subjects (English and Mathematics are combined). All my textbooks, revision guides, and subject notebooks are kept here, so if I need to revise one subject, that’s the magazine file I’ll take out.

These magazine files prevent any small things (like my book of flashcards) from being shoved to the back of my bookshelf, or materials from different subjects from getting mixed up.

In my senior year, I mostly plan using this app called Edo Agenda. It syncs across all my devices for free and has all the features I need: a to do list to organize tasks, monthly and weekly calendars to organize events, a journal to organize notes and memos.

I used to bullet journal regularly, but it takes too much time during weekdays, so now I just bullet journal for the therapeutic effects it gives me, and I use an app for organizing tasks and events. Sometimes at the end of each week, I’ll transfer my tasks to my bullet journal and then decorate the page, but again, this is just for its therapy.

Organizing your school supplies is just as important as organizing your papers and notes. With a more organized backpack and pencil case, you won’t waste time looking for your things at the bottom of an abyss.

Pencil Case

I don’t find it necessary to bring so much stationery to school unless I plan on making notes at school (usually during revision week).

Backpack

Because we’re already in the revision term, I don’t really carry a lot of things in my everyday backpack, just the following:

Pencil case

Everything Notebook

Everything Folder

Revision notebook

Kindle

Phone

Wallet

Earphones

Calculator

Speaker

Drinking bottle

A pouch with things like a hairbrush, pads, and lip balm

And that’s all for now! I hope this post will help you organize your school life (if you haven’t already) or at least provide some useful insights on some ways to stay organized as a high school student.

[liejanda]

rip gaypril of 20gayteen but welcome to the best of months: gay

[liejanda]

Let's get back to it.

[liejanda]

i arrive in the 80s

world: ruled

rains in africa: blessed

dreams: made

[liejanda]

It's time to get shit done again. I failed at completing the #100daysofproductivity challenge. Not because I wasn't productive, but I failed to be productive in an orderly manner, and that's exactly what I need at this point. So here's to order and structure.

[liejanda]

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ONE! Don’t ignore this in your writing!

[liejanda]

Sunday afternoon, time to register my students' marks and plan my lessons for the upcoming week. #100daysofproductivity (37/100)

[liejanda]

As part of the educational master's programme I'm enrolled in, I have to complete an assignment that requires me to design a lesson series based on two skills. I'm working on a lesson series that I designed last year that merely needs some tweaking to make it a suitable series for this assignment. It's interesting to have a good look at my own work though. There's always things to improve on. #100daysofproductivity (36/100)

[liejanda]

My students did a formative test today and tomorrow I want them to analyse their mistakes, so they'll be able to do a better job next time. For now, that means I have to mark a test in one day AND create a self-evaluation sheet my students can use in class tomorrow. #100daysofproductivity (35/100)

[liejanda]

Sometimes planning my lessons for the next day takes hours and some days it only takes a second to figure out what it is I want to do and how I want to achieve the goals we’ve set. #100daysofproductivity (34/100)

[liejanda]

OK, OK... No updates for two days and this time, I didn't to anything productive. Well, I travelled to Berlin and had a blast, so I didn't waste my time, but there was simply no time to do anything work- or study-related. And I don't regret it at all 😇. Anyhoo, back on track, summarising an article on how to give students feedback during speaking activities. #100daysofproductivity (33/100)

[liejanda]

I'll spent the weekend abroad, but that doesn't mean I can't spend some time on my studies. #100daysofproductivity (32/100)

[liejanda]

Summarising and revising is the name of the game. Today: how do I make sure my students are able to use the feedback I give them on their writing most effectively. #100daysofproductivity (31/100)

[liejanda]

For some reason it's so incredibly satisfying to use every last page of a notebook. The green one has perfectly served its purpose, but it's time to move on. Summarising one of the articles I have to read for the upcoming lectures. #100daysofproductivity (30/100)

[liejanda]

No 100 days of productivity updates for the last three days, but that doesn't mean I didn't stick to the challenge 😇. Friday was probably the most productive day in a long time: started teaching again for one, but apart from that I spent time sorting out the magazines we'll be using, making some more vocab lists, updating the information that's available online for our students, and reading an article I have to read for my studies. Anyhoo, here we are again and today I'll be focusing on my studies and nothing but my studies. Ready, set, go! #100daysofproductivity (29/100)

[liejanda]

No fancy-looking notes to be found here today, but a part of my lesson plan instead. I actually gave my pupils homework for our first class. I asked them to summarise their summer holiday in three words without mentioning any countries or cities, and send me these three words. In class, I asked my kids to do a couple of rounds of 'speef-dating' to ask about each other's summer holiday. Subsequently, I gave them a worksheet on which they found a list of keywords, and, in pairs, they had to figure out which keywords belonged to which student. The pair that would be the first to complete the form would win some sweets. #100daysofproductivity (28/100)

[liejanda]

Tomorrow our first lessons of this first quarter will start. In year 4, we'll be using Home Front by @bbcradio4 to practise listening for details. During our first class we'll be using the assignments that I designed. After that one lesson, each group (consisting of 4/5 students) will be asked to create their own listening assignments which will be used in class. So today, I am working on the worksheet we will be using during our first class. #100daysofproductivity (27/100)