Time Management
In a very real sense, registration in a course is your commitment to complete the requirements of that course to the very best of your ability. There are a variety of skills and strategies which will assist you in attaining this goal. One of the more important strategies is “incorporating the class requirements into your overall semester schedule.” This takes planning.
Each class has a number of tests and/or requirements that you must meet by a particular date. In turn, each of these assignments can usually be broken up into a set of manageable tasks. Turning assignments in late or not at all will lower your grade and hurt your overall chance for success in the class.
How do you plan to meet these requirements on time?
Syllabus
You will be given a Course Syllabus for many of the courses you enroll in. In the syllabus, the instructor will outline the requirements of the course, its goals and objectives, curriculum, grading policies, assignments and due dates.
Calendar
1) Read over each course syllabus
2) On each, find all of the graded projects and/or tests which you will be required to complete during the semester,
3) Note each assignment and its due date.
Create Tasks
Each project or test you will complete has a set of preparatory tasks associated with it. For example, to prepare for a midterm – you should have read a certain number of chapters, taken lecture notes, outlined the chapter, and made sense of all of the information together. All of this should have been done before you started to study for the test. For each graded project or test you have been assigned, create a list of tasks which you will need to do to best complete the assignment. Estimate how long it will take you to complete each task.
Day Planner
On a Day Planner indicate when each of your tests or projects is due. By working backwards from each of these dates, begin planning each task you have defined – assign each task a due date and note this on the Planner.