School Supplies to Stock Up On for the Start of Your Semester

By Danielle Wirsansky on September 24, 2017

School is back in session and to make this the best semester ever, you have got to start off strong! In order to ace your classes, you need the proper supplies. But what supplies do you truly need to in order to make this semester a success?

Read on to learn about the school supplies you should invest in to make this semester rock.

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Stapler

Owning your own stapler is always a good idea. In high school, you could always staple your paper when you got to class. Your teacher always had some spare school supplies for the students to use. This is NOT the case when you are in college. Professors are traveling from class to class just like you are and have no time or space or strength to carry office supplies with them to each classroom for the hundreds of students that they serve.

You also cannot rely on other students carrying around their own stapler in their backpacks — and even if they are, will they let you use it? If they let one person use their stapler, they will have to let everyone use it. If it is a big class, then they just lent their school supplies to 200 students — and ran out of staples. Who will reimburse them? Not the fellow students who just used up all their staples.

Dog-earring your paper is not a good idea either. It is very easy for your pages to be separated and if a professor only finds half your essay, then only half of your essay is going to be graded. How can they grade you on something that can’t be found? By the time you figure out why you got such an abysmal grade and try to work it out with the professor (if you even can), it will make you wish that you had just used a stapler to begin with and avoided the whole ordeal.

Lesson learned: own your own stapler.

Writing utensils

Students always seem to think that they have some kind of writing utensil on them, whether it be a pen or a pencil, and often do not. It is not a good idea to come to class without a way to write! Your professor will probably not loan you a pencil and depending on your class, your fellow students might not either.

If you were not planning to write your notes down but type them instead, perhaps you should reconsider. Researchers Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles told the following to NPR:

“When people type their notes, they have this tendency to try to take verbatim notes and write down as much of the lecture as they can. The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective — because you can’t write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefited them.”

Even if you remain unconvinced — typing notes is the way for you — what if you have an emergency? You forgot your charging cord at home and run out of battery or you are not able to sit near an outlet in class or your computer gets the blue screen of death — what then? If you at least have a pencil on hand, you can take some kind of notes. But if you have no computer and no writing utensil, you might be plumb out of luck.

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Water bottle

Having a water bottle in class with you might not seem like a school supply, or even like something that important to have with you in class. However, it can really help you succeed this semester. Having to get up out of class to get water or to go to the bathroom can be avoided if you carry around a water bottle all your own! You can drink what you want when you want without missing anything important in class. You will be hydrated, which is more important than many students realize.

According to the University of California Davis, “Your brain is about 75 percent water. When your brain is functioning on a full reserve of water, you will be able to think faster, be more focused, and experience greater clarity and creativity …

“Water is also essential for delivering nutrients to the brain and for removing toxins. When the brain is fully hydrated, the exchange of nutrients and toxins will be more efficient — thus ensuring better concentration and mental alertness.”

If you have been interested in bringing a water bottle to class but have been deterred by the fear that it might spill in your book bag and ruin books, papers, and electronics, then perhaps investing in a leak-safe, temperature controlled water bottle might be a great option for you.

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