With the new school year just a few weeks away, it’s the perfect time to start making preparations. The first day of school always seems to sneak up on you. Most of the time, you end up spending the final days of summer in a last-minute rush to get things done before classes open. Getting ready for the new term can be a stressful affair—from planning your new schedule and stocking up on school supplies to familiarizing yourself with your new subjects and teachers or professors. However, you can easily avoid the back-to-school rush and panic by giving yourself ample time to prepare. How? Read on to find out our top back-to-school readiness tips!

Back-to-School Readiness Tips for All Students

For most students, a new school year often brings a mixed bag of emotions. You’re excited and anxious at the same time. The things you’re looking forward to—new friends, new teachers, new challenges, new learnings—can also be the same things that cause that feeling of dread and uncertainty.  And while all these are part of the school experience, you definitely want to make sure you lessen the stress and anxiety that come with starting a new term. Here are some tips to make sure you get a running start and have your best foot forward this fall!

1.     Review your notes from the past year.

Whether you’re in high school or college, you’ll notice that math and science subjects are cumulative. Meaning, they often build on previous lessons, and concepts are often interconnected. Physics and Chemistry, for example, rely on your knowledge of Algebra to perform computations for density, mass, volume, and other chemistry and physics equations. Reviewing your lessons from the past year will help refresh your memory as well as expand your repository of useful background information or stock knowledge.

If you’re in college and continuing the same area of study, recapping what you’ve learned will also make it much easier for you to pick up where you left off. Reminding yourself of what you did and learned the previous year not only helps put you in the right frame of mind but also builds your confidence for the coming school year.

2.    Go over your new subjects’ syllabus.

Once you’ve reviewed your notes from the past year and refreshed your memory, your next step is to go over the syllabus of the subjects you’re about to take. This is especially important for those courses that you’re taking for the first time or had been challenging for you in the past. By familiarizing yourself with the subject’s content, you’ll get an idea ahead of time of the exact topics you’re covering for the semester. This way, you’ll know what to expect from your teachers and yourself and avoid surprises and being taken aback by requirements that you were not ready for. The syllabus also shows you how each subject is assessed, which allows you to prioritize and focus on the content’s key areas.

3.    Do some prep work for your new subjects.

As much as you’d rather make the most of the last remaining days of your summer break, you might want to set some time aside to give yourself a headstart and do some prep work for the coming school year. If you’ve done your syllabus reading, then you already know what lies ahead.  Use this information to get a leg up on your course demands.

Read the novels, short stories, and other materials listed in your Literature class in advance so that you won’t have to stress about deadlines and finishing them within the time allotted by your teacher. Worried that your skills are a bit rusty for your upcoming Algebra 2 class? Brush up on your Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1 lessons. Overwhelmed by the amount of information you need to learn for your History class? Time to look up reference sites on the internet and read introductions and summaries of the content you’re about to cover in your class.

4.   Make sure to complete your summer projects or homework.

Whether they are personal projects or homework assigned for you to complete over the summer, you’ll want to ensure that you’ve finished them before the new term begins. The last thing you want when starting the new school year is to worry about past obligations, which can affect your focus and drag down your excitement and motivation for the year ahead. Allow yourself to complete these projects within a reasonable amount of time. Waiting to do them at the last minute often means increased stress, which results in rushed or subpar work.

5.    Make a checklist of all the supplies you need, including your wardrobe.

New notebooks, binders, pens, and other school supplies never fail to get students excited about going back to school. But you don’t want to just get what’s cute and shiny—you’d want to make sure you actually prepare the things you’re going to need. Make an inventory of supplies that you already own and can still use, and list down things that you’re going to need to buy.  This also includes your wardrobe. Check that everything in your closet still fits and is in good condition, including your shoes, accessories, gym clothes, uniforms, and winter clothing.

6.    Reach out to your teachers or professors.

Establishing a line of communication and a collaborative relationship between yourself and your teachers or professors is always best done before starting the school year. Particularly, if you have concerns that might affect your class performance or find yourself in a situation beyond your control. This could be a health condition, a learning difficulty, or household and family issues and responsibilities that you would need to fill your teachers in. By doing so, they can help you ensure these concerns don’t cause significant gaps in your learning. Your teachers will appreciate the open communication, allowing them to be more sensitive to your needs and situation.

7.    Begin establishing your school routine.

Give your mind and your body enough time to adjust back to your school routine. If you’ve spent all summer staying up and sleeping in, having to wake up at 6 a.m. all of a sudden can be quite jarring. A week or two before school opens, start adapting the routine that you’re going to be in once classes start. That means sleeping and waking up earlier, eating on time, and doing some light studying or reading in between your other activities. Although summer isn’t officially over, you’d want to make sure you’re slowly but surely getting into the right mindset and settling into your school schedule.

Back-to-School Readiness with Stemly Tutoring

If you’re committed to doing better this school year, then you probably already know the importance of making sure you hit the ground running. One of the best ways to do this is by working with a private tutor who can help you prepare for the challenges that await you. Stemly Tutoring offers comprehensive, individualized, one-on-one math and science tutoring for students of all ages and skill levels.

Our friendly, highly trained, and professional math and science tutoring experts can help ensure your back-to-school readiness by providing you with the right guidance and support in your areas of need—from making sure you have mastered fundamental concepts and skills required for future learning to providing you advanced lessons in key content areas and topics you are most interested in.

Stemly’s math and science tutoring services include Pre-Algebra tutoring, Algebra 1 tutoring, Algebra 2 tutoring, Geometry tutoring, Trigonometry tutoring, Pre-Calculus tutoring, Calculus 1 tutoring, Calculus 2 tutoring, Multivariable Calculus tutoring, Statistics tutoring, General Physics tutoring, Mechanics tutoring, Electricity & Magnetism tutoring, General Chemistry tutoring, Organic Chemistry tutoring, General Biology tutoring, and Biochemistry tutoring. We also offer AP math and science tutoring, including AP Calculus AB tutoring, AP Calculus BC tutoring, AP Physics 1 tutoring, AP Physics 2 tutoring, AP Physics C tutoring, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology tutoring.

Reach out to Stemly Tutoring today to find out more about how we can help!