What are suggested materials for High school/College?

Question

I am a High school junior and am enrolled in a school called SAS, in Miami Dade, which is Dual Enrollment High School full time. I am going to take 3 high school classes (honors and APs) and the rest will be college classes. Here are the courses:

AP American History

AP English Language

Pre-Calculus

Anatomy Lab

Art Appreciation

Introduction to Psychology

I want to be prepared when I enter class the first day of school with the right materials. I know I’m going to need binders, and notebooks, but which type are the best? And calculator wise, my teacher told me about the T-84 or something of the like, but it’s about 120 dollars. For the classes listed above, what kind of calculator would you suggest?

Any other materials you’d like to mention?

Thanks in advance.

p.s. I don’t have much money, so I need the most economical route. : )

Answer 1

When I took Pre-Calculus, I had a TI-84 Silver Edition. I got it my sophomore year of high school, and I still have it now as a sophomore in college. I know that they're expensive, but they're worth it in the long run and will last you a long time. If you can't spend this money, look into a Casio or HP graphing calculator, I think that they are a little less expensive than the TIs. The only problem with this was that many of my teachers didn't know how to work the Casios and HPs and were very well versed in TI functions. Look through sales flyers, because I know around this time the graphing calculators will be on sale.

In my high school classes, I used my graphing calculator all the time. In college, my calculus professor didn't let us use calculators on exams, so I stopped using it on homework, etc. But I did use it in other classes, like statistics, chemistry, etc. So even if you don't use it for your college math classes, you'll use the graphing calculator's capabilities eventually.

Other than that, I would get notebooks and folders OR binders, but not all 3 for each class. If you have a binder, you can use looseleaf paper and hole punch all of your loose papers. So if you're looking for economy, I'd go with binders alone for the classes like American History, English Language, Pre-Calc, Anatomy and Psychology. I'm not too sure about Art Appreciation - I'm not familiar with classes like that.

What I usually do is just use looseleaf paper on the first day of all my classes, and then gauge what I need based on the professor and what his/her teaching style is like. For example, if your professor uses power point slides that you can print out online and use to take notes, I know I need a binder. If I have to take notes from the lecture slides, or the professor uses an overhead projector, I'll be okay with a notebook.

Good luck!

Answer 2

No such thing as "the best" binders or notebooks--depends on your preference. I didn't use notebooks in college, just looseleaf.

As for the calculator, ask the teacher again what features you need to have for the calculus course. I honestly didn't need a graphing calculator for my university calculus course so find out if you actually need a graphing calculator. If not, just any calculator with scientific capabilities will do.