The Secret to my Success

A Student’s Guide to the Galaxy

My school binder is my academic compass.  My binder serves a special purpose; it holds everything I need for school.  On a daily basis, I get compliments from teachers, friends, and random students walking down the hallway about how organized my binder is.  What is the secret to my binder driven popularity?  I have my binder divided into sections, based on their importance in school. 

My first classification is whether homework is classroom critical.  What exactly is classroom critical?  Classroom critical is the standard I place on papers and utensils that are essential for my success in all periods of the day while in the classroom.  For example, if I should come to the unfortunate circumstances in which I have to take a pop quiz, I need to be able to pull out a pencil like a cowboy pulls out his gun in order to maximize last minute study time.  In order to do this, I sharpen each of my pencils before first period each day, and I slip them into individual sleeves on the inside cover of my binder.  That way, if one of my pencils should break in battle, I’m only a swipe away from a new one.  Another thing I classify as classroom critical is homework.   For the majority of my classes, homework is distributed everyday and is counted for a grade.  Though I do not need to retrieve my homework from my binder as quick as I may need a pencil, it is still classroom critical because of its grade significance.  Therefore, I have designated a specific folder, and further subdivided this folder based on my classes for the sole purpose of holding my homework.

My second classification is future critical.  It may not seem like it, but future critical may be even more important than classroom critical.  Yes, anybody can get out and turn in homework for a good grade, but what sets a student apart in the eyes of a teacher is preparedness.  Who do you think the algebra teacher will notice when she suddenly calls out for her students to pull out their calculators.  She will notice the one with the calculator neatly placed on the corner of his desk, with his hands together smiling.  The reason why my calculator is so accessible is because I have created a pocket on the edge of the binder for all things I could potentially use during the day.  In this little pocket, I keep tiny, but important things, like highlighters, post-it notes, white-out, page tabs, a dictionary, paperclips, staplers, tape, and of course my calculator.  I do not use all these items regularly but if I had too, I could whip them out before anybody else.

The final standard I apply to my masterpiece is the exam critical classification.  For an item to be exam critical, it must meet the following requirements.  It must bare information worth keeping, inform or remind me of future or important dates, and in some but not all cases, be specifically provided to me for the purpose of reviewing for an exam or test.  Probably the most important possession I have in my exam critical section of my binder is my calendar.  One may think that the calendar should belong in the future critical classification section.  This controversial issue has been the subject of many past and likely future debates, however I continue to apply my calendar to the exam critical protocol.  The reason why, is that the only dates I write on my calendar are the dates of important exams and tests.  For this reason, the calendar is exam critical, but if I were to also include dates of assigned homework, quizzes, or other relatively minor events, one could argue the placement of my calendar in either the future critical or even classroom critical classification section.  To supplement the important dates provided to me by my calendar, I have notes, review guides, and handouts that could be helpful when studying for an exam or test.  These items are not important nor potentially important on a daily level, so they have found a nice comfortable home in the back of my binder, where they do not often get in the way.  I keep the paper items in a folder while my calendar is firmly attached to the inside back cover of my binder.  I come to think of my binder as the repository of all knowledge and usefulness pertaining to school.  Without out it, I would meet my unquestionable demise.  It plays an integral part of my success in school