(Hyper)Planning 101
Let me preface this with a few points:
- I am mainly going to center this guide on how I plan my schedule for the year and for the quarter; so, I will have to restrict myself to the confines of my college, University of California — Los Angeles.
- This is not an absolute guide, I am not laying to the fact that this is the definitive way of planning your school schedule.
Okay, let’s start.
It helps to have an organization spreadsheet or even just good ol’ pen and paper for this, since it does help to have a visual guide. Since, I’ve already made mine. I think it’s best if we make an imaginary person.
Let me introduce you to Nahoj, he is a second-year (pre)Applied Mathematics major looking to complete the Specialization in Computing. His track record goes:
Fall First Year: Math 31B, Physics 1A, and Computer Science 31.
Winter First Year: Math 32A, Physics 1B, and a GE.
Spring First Year: Math 32B, Computer Science 32, and two GEs.
Nahoj is looking into what he should take for the next year, in order to complete more of his GEs, his major requirements, and also his Specialization. He knows he has to take the next math class in the sequence, but he doesn’t know what he should take for his other classes.
Here’s where planning begins.
What you will need:
Excel (or any spreadsheet or pen and paper).
Your DARS (Degree Audit Report) which you can find here.
Schedule of Classes, which you can find here.
We open up Excel, and we start detailing out all of his requirements, using DARS where it lists all of the requirements he has from GEs to major to specialization.

Now I can’t show all of it in one screenshot, but you get the jist of the format of the spreadsheet.
On Nahoj’s DARS, he finds that he has already completed a few of his general education requirements (and some classes) even before starting at UCLA, colored in with gray.
Looking at his requirements, he has a lot of options on which classeses he can take. So right now, in his head, he has Math 33A already scheduled into his Fall Quarter. But he still needs at least 8 more units to satisfy full-time requirements.
Nahoj could take Math 33A, Physics 1C, and Computer Science 33, but he remembers how well he did with that kind of workload his last fall quarter, and he knows it’ll turn out bad.
Nahoj could take Math 33A, Physics 1C, and a GE. Perfectly reasonable, it’s two classes for his major and another GE. Sucks that he can’t work on his specialization this quarter, but it’s fine.
But which GE should he take? This is where the Schedule of Classes (or the Class Planner if you prefer to use that) comes in. You can search up specific GEs and what courses will cover that GE. He finds a few good ones just in case the first choice gets filled before he can enroll.
But now, he wants to see if he can plan the rest of his year out.
This is where the Class Planner isn’t so helpful since it doesn’t show which classes are offered for the following Winter and Spring quarter. But, the Schedule of Classes is still temporary and is subject to change at any time, so watch out. (If you’re crazy, like someone, you do research on when classes are offered during the past quarters and years.)
He knows he has to take Math 33B, and maybe this time he’ll do Computer Science 33 to finish off the series. Nahoj checks to see if Computer Science 33 is even offered during Winter quarter, and to his luck it is! Maybe, he should do the same thing he did Fall quarter, two major/specialization requirements and one GE.
Spring quarter, he can take his first upper division math class, Math 115A, but he notices that it’s actually Linear Algebra… again. Math 33A and Math 115A cover the same subject of math, but he doesn’t have it in consequential order. So he has two choices:
1) Take 33A Fall, and 115A Winter (since 33B isn’t a prereq of 115A), then take 33B Spring.
2) Take 33B Fall, 33A Winter, then take 115A Spring.
But looking at the grand schedule of things, he really shouldn’t take his first upper division math class alongside the notorious Com Sci 33 and Eggert. So, maybe Option 2 will work best.
So far, he has Math 115A scheduled for Spring, but how about the rest of his credits? It is an upper division math, maybe he should relax and double up on GEs and so he has time to focus on the new level of Math. Maybe he should try to do an elective class for his specialization. It’s really up in the air right now.

Until Nahoj decides later on what he wants to do, we leave it in the spreadsheet as a notated color, so when he looks back at it, he knows those two things are related.
He marks the GEs with yellow, because he knows how volatile those GEs are. But it’s a good practice to note that you’ll be taking a 5 unit GE during that quarter, just so you can see your total units for that quarter.
Nahoj can do this for the rest of the four years he has at UCLA, but he decides to take a break.
So let’s escape the World of Nahoj, and go through some of the thinking and steps that I really want to take away from that whole simulation.
1) It’s always good to look at the bigger picture of your schedule and curriculum, like when Nahoj saw that Math 33A and Math 115A should really be taken consecutively.
2) But it’s also good to know your own limitations in how much you can do given a certain task, like when Nahoj realized that 3 STEM classes might be a little killer for him.
3) Realize that this planning is highly volatile and will change constantly, especially with GEs and the bloodbath it takes to get into one.
If you do end up doing the whole four years planning, there should be some benefits you find from it.
1) Seeing that you can indeed accomplish things within four years, since I know a lot of people are scared they might have to stay over another year or quarter. Also if you can’t finish in time, then look at 3) on this list.
2) Seeing that maybe the courses in your major aren’t actually want you even want to learn (I had to go through this plenty of times when I was still juggling Computer Science, Cognitive Science, DESMA, and Math/CS).
3) Realizing when you should be able to back off on maxing out your units or when you should start carrying a bit more weight to actually finish in the 4 years you give yourself, since Nahoj here was slacking and taking 3 classes a quarter, highly unrealistic, to be frank.
As a little afterword,
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P.S. Sorry if there’s a lot of mistakes (grammar, punctuation, syntax). I haven’t written anything in a long time.
In all the excitement, I forgot to actually talk about the other part of the “Planning” section, and that’s “How do I plan fun into my schedule”.
I’m probably going to go over it more in another article. But the main jist is to just plan when you’re going to be working on work and stick to it, then have fun on the off times.
So, let’s say, you have math homework and you know from your track record, you’ll probably take 2 hours to complete it. So, set up two hours of your time solely dedicated to finishing that work. Then, after you can have a small fun. Not a full on party just yet, you still have that essay to write. So from your track record, you know this length of an essay draft will take you 3 hours to write in one sitting. With your mind fresh from the little fun you had, you should be able to sit and do this.
Trust me, if you can get through all your work in one sitting (“The grind never stops” — Floormates from Rieber Terrace 8 West Lounge), then you will feel so good when you party. Partying without having to worry about the work you have to do after is the best way to party.
But! If you do find yourself in the situation where you really don’t have time to party or have fun, then you need to revise how you work. Sir, ma’am, person, I maxed out my credits one quarter with Computer Science 32, and I still managed to have fun. It was shortlived most of the time, but fun nonetheless.
The End. I think.
