What is your school work organization system?

AI Thread Summary
Effective school work organization systems vary widely among students, especially transitioning from high school to college. Many students recommend using a combination of binders and notebooks tailored to each class. A common approach includes having one binder per technical class, supplemented by a folder for handouts and practice problems. For non-technical courses, a single durable folder and a spiral notebook for notes are often sufficient. Some students prefer to keep a large binder at home for comprehensive course materials while using a smaller one for daily tasks to avoid carrying excessive weight.Planners are utilized differently; some students rely on mental tracking of due dates and appointments, while others find value in writing down confirmed exam dates from syllabi. There is a consensus that organization is crucial for success in challenging subjects like Physics, and many emphasize the importance of maintaining order in notes and assignments to facilitate studying and preparation for exams. Overall, the key to effective organization lies in finding a personalized system that balances portability with comprehensive record-keeping.
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What is your school work organization system? For example, how many binders do you use (one for each class, only one, or one at home and one in back pack, etc). Do you use the monthly or weekly part of your planner, or both? Please give me details of how you successfully keep yourself and your work organized. As a college freshmen, I really have no idea. Back in high school, I used a plastic folder and threw EVERYTHING in it. At one point, a one subject plastic folder, designed to hold perhaps 10 sheets of paper at most, was stuffed with 200+ pieces of paper! I know this just will not work in college... right?

I ask this in the Physics board because I know that if one is able to do well in Physics and in other subjects in school, one has planned his/her time very well and is very well organized... or tell me if my assumption is wrong. lol Thanks so much for your help.
 
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One folder, one notebook for notes, one notebook for homework that isn't typed per class. A general "scratch notebook" for everything else.

Everyone is different though.
 
One notebook per class (with included folder), one notebook for homework, one notebook for scratch work.

No planners, schedules, or calendars - all due dates and appointments are stored mentally (I've never been late or missed an assignment).
 
i tried big binders, but they became to massive to carry around, so you might want to keep 1 HUGE binder at home for an entire course, and a smaller one for daily use, then transfer old notes / homework to it as you complete sections of the course. then for the final everything is already in order and documented.

for daily use:

technical classes: 1-1.5" binder for each class, and a folder. i punch holes in printer paper and fill the binder with that, pulling 10 sheets out for class notes, or whatever is appropriate, date and number each page as i go, and replace them in order at the end of lecture. the folder is for hand outs, practice problems, etc. handouts get hole punched and put back into the binder corresponding to the date, same goes for graded hw, tests, etc. this is for all math / science / engineering.

non-technical courses: i put everything in 1 durable folder that gets pretty beefy over the length of the course, and use a 1-sub spiral notebook that i don't remove the sheets from to take notes every day. i don't skip pages, but date the start of every lecture.

in the past I've used assignment planners to input the CONFIRMED exam dates for all of my courses from the syllabus on the first day, but the school I am at now is pretty flaky on those dates, and have flown by the seat of my pants this semester with respect to that.
 
Hey, I am Andreas from Germany. I am currently 35 years old and I want to relearn math and physics. This is not one of these regular questions when it comes to this matter. So... I am very realistic about it. I know that there are severe contraints when it comes to selfstudy compared to a regular school and/or university (structure, peers, teachers, learning groups, tests, access to papers and so on) . I will never get a job in this field and I will never be taken serious by "real"...
Yesterday, 9/5/2025, when I was surfing, I found an article The Schwarzschild solution contains three problems, which can be easily solved - Journal of King Saud University - Science ABUNDANCE ESTIMATION IN AN ARID ENVIRONMENT https://jksus.org/the-schwarzschild-solution-contains-three-problems-which-can-be-easily-solved/ that has the derivation of a line element as a corrected version of the Schwarzschild solution to Einstein’s field equation. This article's date received is 2022-11-15...

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