10 Student Essentials Often Overlooked

Back 2 School season may be almost over, but that doesn't mean all your shopping is over. Read through this list to learn about student essentials that are often forgotten about.

1. A Sturdy Backpack: Everybody knows to buy a bag for school but high schools become demanding when it comes to the weight on your back. The older you get, the heavier your textbooks become. So, to make sure you don’t break your back lugging heavy textbooks to and from school, buy a bag with thick straps. They use a basic law of physics: the more area, the less amount of pressure concentrated to one place. Trust me, your shoulders will thank you.

2. A Water Bottle: Dehydration kills the student in you. Your brain needs plenty of water to function so grab a reusable bottle and hydrate yourself. Get a bottle that has a capacity of 500 mL or more, so you won’t have to get up too much just to get a refill.

3. A Planner/Agenda/Notepad: When I began high school, my workload increased by a lot and the bigger things took up the storage space in my head. Class notes and song lyrics are often prioritized over remembering deadlines, dates and tasks. My way of coping with the surge of info that comes with being in a higher grade is by writing everything down, from deadlines to ideas to grocery lists. I write it all down in my Notes app and in my planner to make sure that I’m reminded of my tasks on hand regularly. You can even turn a notebook into a planner. Decorate it as you like and plan away.

4. A Quality Scientific Calculator: Forgetting my calculator the day we began stoichiometry was probably the biggest mistake I made in Grade 11. A good scientific calculator should last you a couple of years before you have to replace the batteries or, in the worst-case scenario, the calculator itself. It’s a one-time investment if you know you will be taking a Chemistry, Physics and/or Math course. A good one shouldn’t cost you more than $20, so you don’t have to break bank on, essentially, a counting machine.

5. A Graphing Notebook: I realized the importance of a graph notebook when, at the end of Grade 11, I couldn't make any sense of half of my graphs, because some were either missing or were so haphazardly done that I would've been better off without them. So, I dug out the graph notebook that was a part of the stationery set my previous school sold. I now have all my graphs drawn in one place and they look neat and tidy. If you have a Physics or Math course this year, make sure you have a good graph note book handy.

6. A 30 cm Ruler (Scale): Try drawing a graph with a scale of 1, ranging from 0 to 60, with a 15 cm ruler. It's possible but very tedious. For someone who loves straight lines, I worked with small rulers for long enough. When I starting carrying a long ruler, my experience in math changed. Graphing is so much quicker now. A long ruler is great if you like making tables and charts, as well. It's not big of an investment, either; you can find one for $4 at Walmart.

7. A pack of pencil crayons: I'm not talking about a pack of 64 colour pencils. I'm talking about basic packs with 5 to 10 colours. When I started high school, I thought to myself that now that I'm a big girl, I won't need to use silly crayons and colours. Boy was I wrong. Every teacher I have had, at one point in high school, has told us to use colours to either differentiate between two things or to glam up an assignment. So, for the unpredictable assignments that may require a splash of colour, keep a pack handy.

8. Adhesive supplies: Needing glue or tape can be so unpredictable. You could be pulled into helping a decorating job. Or your notebook could rip from the side. Or you could be reminded of an assignment that is due in an hour and requires a lot of sticking. In situations like these, it's good to have glue sticks and/or tape on you. It's better than having to run around looking for some adhesive assistance.

9. A Thesaurus: Having a dictionary can be nifty and is the advice many English teacher give. But what we usually need more, is a way to keep ourselves from sounding repetitive. A thesaurus helps you by providing many versions of the same word. Carrying a book or downloading a thesaurus app can save you a lot of time when looking for synonyms.

10. A USB stick: Having an external drive to save your work can save you from the hassle of remembering all the passwords to your cloud storage apps and websites. USB sticks also keep your work almost completely safe from viruses. So if you can't rely on your computer to be safe enough to not corrupt your files, get yourself a flash drive. If you have a lot of work, say more than 10 GB, that has to be saved on an external drive, save up and get a hard drive. These are good for storing videos and other large files. They are on the pricier side, but as a student, you may not even need that much space.

There are probably a few other supplies I'm overlooking. XD. But I hope that reading through this list reminded you of something you need. If you feel like I have missed an important essential, please contact me at rueshi25@gmail.com.

Happy Shopping and have a happy school year. -Aarushi