<p>This is another Frosh FAQ thread for college upperclassmen to answer.
Based on your Frosh experience, what did you find necessary/unnecessary to bring class Frosh year. Please make this thread useful by making your posts insightful. Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>Bring a pen or pencil. Maybe a notebook. Bring your books if you need it (say in a math/science, foreign language, or in a class where you need the book to look at for discussion). Have a little loose leaf on hand. In lecture classes bring your laptop if you only want to half listen to the lecture.</p>
<p>That’s about all you need. If you need anything else, they will tell you.</p>
<p>it’s baaaaaack.</p>
<p>Notebook and pen. The books should stay in your room unless the teacher says otherwise, it’s really weird to still see people walking around with huge backpacks that weigh 15+lbs. Bring you laptop if you type faster. And a quick tip, Microsoft Word on most Macs (I’m not sure about PCs) can record onto a document, so you can record the lecture and type notes on the same document at the same time. I wouldn’t recommend doing it though, because some professors are a little edgy at being recorded and it would suck to get caught.</p>
<p>My system last year was a three subject notebook for each class, with one of those plastic binders with pockets for all handouts and papers. The three subject was too much for most classes, but just enough for a couple, so it’s tough to say what to go with. You could probably get away with one big five subject, but if you need to have your notes separate (like I do), that’s not ideal.</p>
<p>It really comes down to how YOU do things. I’ve seen a lot of different sorts of systems.</p>
<p>I use a 5-subject notebook and binders when needed, like for classes with a lot of handouts or notes on powerpoint that I can easily follow and add notes.</p>
<p>Couple pens, mechanical pencils (can’t stand normal pencils), highlighter or two.</p>
<p>I’ll take books to classes that need them but most won’t use the book in class, especially if it’s a big lecture. Took my laptop to class a lot freshman year but rarely used it for notes and haven’t taken it to class the last two years, and I’ve seen improvement.</p>
<p>Well, first semester in college I used one folder for all five classes. By the end of the year that folder fell apart, lol. So second semester I had a folder and a notebook for each class even though I never once had to take notes in English- I already knew everything we did like the palm of my hand thanks to a little something called middle and high school English.</p>
<p>If your professor doesn’t specify the first day I’d take your books just in case. Eventually you’ll see the pattern in their teaching and whether or not you need to. </p>
<p>I’d be afraid a computer would be too distracting to me in class. The last thing you want is to give into the urge to go on facebook the moment your professor walks around your side of the classroom and glances over your shoulder. I think a better plan would be to take notes in a notebook and then type them up later- it’s a good way to go over your notes.</p>
<p>Edit:</p>
<p>Oh, and something I learned. I found a lot of my notebooks still had tons of empty pages in them at the end of the semester so I just tore out the notes from the previous semester and used the new pages instead of buying new notebooks.</p>
<p>Pretty much what everyone else said - bring a pen/pencil and one notebook for each class. It’s an easy way to stay organized and keep everything together, and you have a nice, chronologically-ordered set of notes to study from when exam time comes around. Don’t bring textbooks unless asked by the teacher or it’s obvious that you should (for example, a math discussion class where you work out problems from the book -_-).</p>
<p>I think it’s unnecessary to bring a laptop to class. My freshman year I brought it a couple times, but it’s more of a distraction then helpful and it’s annoying to hear people typing in class. </p>
<p>Even though you mostly take notes in pens, always bring pencils too, & highlighters! Sometimes it’s good to have pens and highlighters in a few different colors to make your notes easier to read.</p>