Exercise books? (1 Viewer)

[Casablancas]

I know theres a thread on this sumwhere, but I cant find it.
What do u bring/use at uni? Loose leaf, binders, 120 exercise books? Lecture note pads, sectioned??? Or do laptops king these all?

 

[Aerath]

What I'm going to get (and what was suggested by numerous friends in Uni), was those Spirax notebooks with five different divided section. Each section can be used for each of your 'subjects', and each have a pocket to put all handouts in.

 

[babikakez]

I've also got those spirax notebooks (though I only get the four subject ones), plus display folders to store lecture notes and any other handouts.

I've tried having separate notebooks for each subject, but I would always bring the wrong ones. I don't like using ring binders because they become so bulky to carry.

IMO, four subject notebooks win hands down.

 

[Absolutezero]

I just take exercise books and my laptop. Really, it doesn't matter what you use. As long as things seem ordered to you, go with it.

Spiral bound books are alright if you know you'll need to be ripping out a lot of pages.

 

[philphie]

be warned though. if you are careless with spiral bound they will bend everywhere, you will be pricked, and pages will fall off easily

 

[babikakez]

be warned though. if you are careless with spiral bound they will bend everywhere, you will be pricked, and pages will fall off easily

No worse than the pages I lost in my non-spiral book last year

 

[philphie]

my eng adv book, all the pages had ripped off and eventually all i had left in it were loose sheets in no particular order, made it hell for me to revise

 

[Andi0390]

I personally have problems with the 4 subject. The idea is good and sound, and I do like them for some things but I think there are problems. Many lectures seem to offer a slide print out - one of these for each lecture will quickly make your 4 subject document areas too thick. There aren't heaps of pages in each section, and if you fill one up you have to start carrying around additional books. If you lose your 4 subject (i'm a losing things person, if you're not then maybe its ok) then everything is gone for every subject. You can easily leave it at home and then everything is out of whack.

I have a ring binder which I leave at home all the time. One of those large ones. To school I bring a ruled a4 pad with holes down the side. I take notes on this. I also bring one clear sleave and a paper clip, I put handouts etc in here. When I get home I remove the notes, put the in the correct part of the folder, and do the same with print outs. That way I have everything in one place.

If I take my little laptop then I print out my notes.

When doing essays I like to print out journal articles. Maybe not environmentally friendly but I get so much more from it if its right there, high lighted, noted etc. When I am finished with my printed out journal I also put that in my ring folder, along with the draft versions of my essay. It keeps everything all in one thing.

Once the semester is over you write the details on the binder, and store it away with your text books for whenever you need to remember what you learnt.

The upside of this system is:

Not much to carry everyday
If you lose what ever you have on any given day, you have only lost one day of notes
It keeps absolutely everything all together
Filing stuff away gives you a chance to read over your days notes
If its too hassely to do everyday make an "inbox" on your desk for once a week
If you borrow paper, get excess print-outs - whatever - then you can still put it all in

Its up to you. While its not really that "important" what system you use, make sure you find one that works for you. Nothing is worse than when you know you had a page of notes and it can't be found, and you need it.

 

[chewy123]

I used 192 pages exercise book in the first semester. Sort of a misjudgement, end up using less than half of the book, and the cover got all torn up because of heavy textbooks in my bag.

I recommend spirax, 120 pages seem alright, the good thing about it is that you can easily tear it out if there are spare pages, without making it look ugly, and you can flip it to A4 size to fit in those small lecture room tables,and the binds can withstand the weight of textbooks so it wont wear easily.

 

[Dr_Fresh]

just a few loose sheets of paper to take down potential exam questions or anything that isnt in the 300 page study guide we get at the beginning of the year or online.
personally, i wanted one of those small 8 inch laptops to go on facebook, email etc in boring lectures/tutes.

 

[annabackwards]

This is probably a stupid question, but why would you need to be ripping out a lot of pages? :/

 

[dafs2]

This is probably a stupid question, but why would you need to be ripping out a lot of pages? :/

For people who want to organise their notes in their spirax notebooks when it comes to exam time.. they're usually a messy, mass combination of lecture notes and tutorial readings, so it's nice to divide and clean up (plus to get rid of useless pages with dumb drawings from bored lecture times). This is much easier for when it comes to study time.

 

[rx34]

I really dislike the thick spirax books that are subdivided for 5 courses. Firstly, uni is not high school, in uni you may only have 1-2 subjects per day, especially for commerce (12 hours contact time). Taking that chunky book filled with papers is really heavy. Secondly, what happens if you lose that one book near exam period? Then you're screwed. Thirdly, I usually need 120pages per subject and more pages for subjects like accounting. I hate finishing one bit of the book and using a new one.

What works best for me is to go to the uni bookshop, buy 4 individual 120pg books. I like to buy the individual hard plastic cover books so there will be no dog ears. It costs a bit more but it's worth it (abt $2). Then I get 4 cheap folders to file my papers. I also bring a plastic folder to uni everyday to store tute handups and looseleaf paper. This is a great method for me and it really helps come exam time to get those HDs and Ds

 

[babikakez]

The reason why I use the 4 subject notebook is because I'm only at uni 2 days a week, so I pretty much have all my units on both days. I tend to write on my lecture slides rather than my notebook, so I don't use up pages there, so the 80 pages in each section are plenty. When I had 120pg books I didn't even get halfway through them, so not a big deal. I also only do 3 units, so that fourth section is there in case I use up too many pages in another section.

However, I also have open book exams in 2 units, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to type my notes up nicely as I go ready for the exam.

And anna: I often had to rip out pages in my book last sem because I was too lazy to do my hand-in tute work on a separate piece of paper. If I was more organised it wouldn't have been an issue.

 

[sam5]

I'm only at uni 2 days a week

2 days a week?

What course r u doin?

How many contact hours?

I think im lookin at between 22 - 25 contact hours this year, and i want fridays off.

 

[babikakez]

2 days a week?

What course r u doin?

How many contact hours?

I think im lookin at between 22 - 25 contact hours this year, and i want fridays off.

Arts/Commerce, 9 contact hours per week. Its only 3 subjects, but thats full time for my uni because once you're in second year, each subject is worth more credit points.

 

[Absolutezero]

Arts/Commerce, 9 contact hours per week.

Lucky. I'm Creative Arts/Commerce and I've got about 30 contact hours.

 

[annabackwards]

For people who want to organise their notes in their spirax notebooks when it comes to exam time.. they're usually a messy, mass combination of lecture notes and tutorial readings, so it's nice to divide and clean up (plus to get rid of useless pages with dumb drawings from bored lecture times). This is much easier for when it comes to study time.

Oh i see, thanks for explaining it to me

 

[mcflystargirl]

This semester i am going to go with things which i did last semester and it worked great!

a four subject notebook with pockets for note taking e.t.c and tutorial notes
4 display folders one for each subject which each plastic sleeve has a single weeks notes stapled together (e.g First sleeve has week 1 second has week 2)

I have also used a binder and hole punch before but i found that if you lose this folder by leaving it in a classroom (lucky i found it) then you lose everything! But if you are confident you will not lose it this can be a good alternative.

 

[kjerste]

Those refill papers with the plastic stuff in the margins, dividers for each subject and a huge ringbinder.
Don't like exercise books because the covers get all bent and I hate bringing a backpack to uni. It's just convenient to just have one big thing to carry with my arm. Come lecture time, you just sit down, open up your ringbinder and you're all set. No fiddling with zips or bags.