Dawn Roan, Founder of Dawn Roan Education, is a Harvard graduate, a 99th-percentile scorer on multiple standardized tests, and an elite admissions, academic tutoring, and standardized test preparation coach who has invested more than 30 years into transforming students’ learning, academic success, test performance, college admissions, graduate education, and career opportunities.

Q: How Do I Set Myself Up for a Successful School Year?

First, define what success looks like for you. What are your goals? What are your top priorities? What are you committed to? What are you willing to do on behalf of your commitments? Brainstorm and write down some lists, including anticipating obstacles and options for how you might work through them.

Second, invest in creating an organization system that works for you and supports you in reaching your goals. At the heart of your organization system should be a physical day planner. If you accidentally delete an appointment on a digital/phone calendar, it’s not recoverable. Also, digital/phone calendars do NOT allow you to see easily, at a glance, everything that is going on during the week or month, but physical day planners do.

PRO TIP 1

I would recommend starting with an hourly day planner that has 15-minute increments of time.

EXAMPLE ACADEMIC DAY PLANNER FOR THE 2025-2026 SCHOOL YEAR https://www.amazon.com/Academic-Planner-2025-2026-Appointment-Productivity/dp/B0DJD5NVCL/

Before each term or semester, ask your instructors for their syllabi. Enter your class times, assignment due dates, deadlines for major projects, exam dates, and other responsibilities into your physical day planner. That way, you can see what your commitments are, you can foresee upcoming issues and resolve them quickly, and you will likely only need to make minor adjustments throughout the term or semester for emergent changes.

PRO TIP 2

Use a distinct color pen or pencil for each class or major activity, so you can easily identify the sources for your tasks. Keep a 4-color pen or a set of colored pencils on your desk and another in your backpack for easy task additions.

EXAMPLE 4-COLOR PEN

https://www.amazon.com/BIC-4-Color-Original-Retractable-Long-Lasting/dp/B002JFR8Q8/

EXAMPLE ERASABLE COLORED PENCIL SET

https://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Erasable-Non-Toxic-Pre-Sharpened-Gradation/dp/B000PCWKBA/

PRO TIP 3

Use a colored highlighter to draw attention to major deadlines for exams, projects, and presentations.

EXAMPLE HIGHLIGHTER SET

https://www.amazon.com/BIC-Highlighter-Chisel-Assorted-5-Count/dp/B000Q5ZGIA/

PRO TIP 4

For additional organization, you can color code your folders, spiral notebooks and textbook covers to be (predominantly) the same color as the ink you selected for each class. For example, I often used the following coding:

GREEN – Science
BLUE – Math
RED – English
BLACK – Art

Feel free to experiment with your system. You can add colors if your schedule is more complicated.

PRO TIP 5

Use color-coded vocab cards for each class. I recommend physically writing down vocabulary and concepts to study for classes because of the additional sensory feedback you receive (touch receptors, auditory, motor-muscle memory, etc.), which significantly improves cognition and memory. If you keep rings of vocab cards in your backpack, you can take advantage of the interstitial time you have between classes, on public transportation, and waiting for meetings or events, repurposing what is otherwise wasted time and leveraging it for study.

EXAMPLE VOCABULARY CARDS WITH RINGS

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Right-Blank-Assorted-Colors/dp/B07F7VGXQB

EXAMPLE CONCEPT CARDS WITH RINGS

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Right-Blank-Assorted-Colors/dp/B0CH3NK1CH/

Creating a planner and an organization system that works for you will reduce the stress you experience during the term or semester and increase the likelihood that you will achieve your goals. Learn from what goes well and what doesn’t go well, and iterate on your organization system to customize it to your needs.

Best wishes on the upcoming school year!

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