<p>What type of school supplies to you guys recommend buying for an incoming freshman?
Do we need binders, spirals, dividers? Any input would be nice thanks!</p>
<p>Lol this isn’t high school buddy, improvise.</p>
<p>I used one 3 subject college rule notebook the entire year. It lasted me 2 semesters and I still had at least 30 or so pages left. I wrote down so little it was crazy. I didn’t take my laptop to class either, I just really didn’t write much at all.</p>
<p>it can also depend on your major. everyone says engineering majors need a ti-89 for instance.</p>
<p>It all depends on the type of student you are, and it might change over the course of your college career. If it helps to give you an idea, here’s what I do:</p>
<p>I prefer electronic stuff, so I use OneNote on my laptop to organize all of my lecture slides, notes, HWs, etc. I have one binder that has a bunch of sleeves and polyfolders in it so I can slip in handouts, etc., and it has some paper in it. I keep all my calculations (for HW assignments that don’t require my work to be shown) in a composition book so I don’t lose loose sheets of paper. I purge everything at the end of the semester and only keep the necessities at home for reference for future classes, but since I have almost everything electronic I don’t have much to store. I have lots of stickies and post its with me to flag my physical text books (I don’t like to highlight) and then a calculator. </p>
<p>I know people who have created binders for every class and print out every handout, article, piece of literature, etc., which I think is excessive but it works for them, and I know people who think what I would even be too much. I’d say start with the bare minimum that you are used to or feel that will help you maintain the materials and stay on top of deadlines, etc., you can always change it around or buy more folders, binders, etc., later if you feel you would benefit from it.</p>
<p>How should I go about taking notes in classes? Do yall think using a regular old notebook will satisfy or should I bring my laptop?</p>
<p>For my GOV 312 class, which was my big “take notes” class, I just used a regular spiral and a pen. It worked fast enough for me. I wrote only what I thought was necessary. If you take notes of every word, you’ll end up getting too much. To be fair, I never actually went back over my notes, since I was confident enough for the exams without doing so.</p>
<p>I don’t like to bring my laptop around much.</p>
<p>Again, it’s all about the type of person you are. I type all my notes, that’s just how I like it. I type very fast, so I get any outlines down quickly and them I’m able to focus on the content of the lecture and annotate while people with pens are still trying to copy stuff down. I also often annotate lecture slides if the professor has made them available ahead of the lecture, and the software I use allows me to search every thing when I’m trying to find notes or materials on a certain topic without rifling through a bunch of papers or trying to remember the dates the material was covered. (Can you tell I’m very OCD? lol)</p>
<p>I should note that I have a netbook, so it’s very easy to take my computer with me every day and I get about 10 hours out of my battery. I’m not sure how much I would enjoy having to find plugs all the time if I carried around my larger, heavier laptop.</p>
<p>LOL, this brings back memories from my early days at ACC. man, was i nervous :)</p>
<p>For “technical classes” like math and science related where you need to draw graphs, diagrams, equations, ect. I like to use pen and pencil.
For non-technical classes such as humanities and social studies, I use One Note, and sync my notes/schedule to my iPhone with “DocstoGo” (App on appstore) for some on the fly studying (walking to and from classes). I’ve been using google documents recently, and I like it a lot, plus it’s free, and syncs automatically to a cloud server which you can access from your phone.
Also a way to store handouts/loose pieces of paper you pick up in class (syllabus, handouts, problem sets); I like to use individual folders for every class. </p>
<p>If you want a recommendation on pencils or pens:
[Amazon.com:</a> One Dozen Zebra Model M-301 Pencils - Black: Office Products](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Dozen-Zebra-Model-M-301-Pencils/dp/B0006FJ0UA]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Dozen-Zebra-Model-M-301-Pencils/dp/B0006FJ0UA)</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> BIC Atlantis Retractable Ball Pen - 15 ct Black: Office Products](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/BIC-Atlantis-Retractable-Ball-Pen/dp/B0034DTLM8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1278593159&sr=1-4]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/BIC-Atlantis-Retractable-Ball-Pen/dp/B0034DTLM8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1278593159&sr=1-4)</p>
<p>That usually lasts me a whole year, but I’m forgetful and tend to misplace things very frequently.</p>
<p>PS: I can’t stress enough the use of technology in studying, in reviewing my notes for the day walking in between classes and in my free time I’ve effectively cut a big chunk of my study-time out. You just have to write your notes in a way that makes it easy for you to review and synthesize.</p>
<p>Alexlin have you tried Webspace for your docs instead of Google Docs? You can’t open and edit like Google Docs, but it’s free and provided by UT - webspace.utexas.edu for anyone that wants it. I like the share feature, so group items or notes that I want to give to someone who needs them can be accessed without knowing the person’s email address, which can be pretty handy in a rush.</p>
<p>For math and science classes that required a lot of calculation I just used pen and a spiral for each. For government classes or any other lecture/note-intensive classes, I used my laptop to take notes since it was easier to use the search function in Word to locate certain terms I needed. My laptop is a 13.5 inch HP so it’s easy to carry around and I was able to take it anywhere (which I did).</p>
<p>I also use Google calendar to schedule absolutely everything from class times, important due dates, times I would go to office hours, appointments, gym, weekly organization meetings. Each of these would have its own color in the calendar. This was another reason I had my laptop with me most of the time.</p>
<p>Plus, it’s easier to keep things organized electronically. It reduces all the potential clutter of papers and binders in your room. Oh, and be sure to bring a flash drive! I wouldn’t suggest bringing a whole lot of notebook paper (very rarely used it), binders, spirals, and all that when you move in. Just buy things as you need them at HEB or the co-op. You don’t want to have a million extra spirals laying around.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all of the input this definitely helps!</p>
<p>I get a 1 inch folder for every class with pockets and put a stack of paper in each one. Every loose-leaf paper handed out goes into that class’s folder. As for taking notes, many people these days use their laptops and type them out, but it really depends on how your wired to learn. My accounting professor last semester and during his summer 1 session pointed me out during class to make the point that I do so well in his class because I hand write what he says during the lectures, aside from doing the 300 homework problems a day. He told us when he was studying for the CPA exam, he use to write information down to help him remember it for the exam and then he threw the pieces of paper in the trash right after he wrote it. He passed on his first try. </p>
<p>I honestly think its the best way to learn any subject. You retain the information you are trying to learn since your taking the effort to actually write each word out. That whole experience seems rigorous but thats why its so beneficial. I’ve always wrote my notes, even though I have a 13inch macbook pro. I’ll pretty much write everything down and put stars next to things that will be on the test. Anyways, good luck.</p>