Syllabus Decoder Video

Watch the walkthrough

A short video that goes through the Syllabus Decoder with a real syllabus open — what each section is asking for, and what a good answer actually looks like. Worth watching once before you fill in your first course; after that the workbook makes sense on its own.

Start with the workbook

The Syllabus Decoder itself is a fillable PDF: ten pages you fill in once per course, pulling out how the points are split, what's due each week, and what the late and attendance rules really say.

Need help opening or filling it in on your phone? The step-by-step instructions for each device are on the Syllabus Decoder page.

Do this in the first week, while the syllabus is still new and nothing is due yet. That's the whole trick — the information was always there: the weighting, the drop policy, the office hours. It's just written in a way nobody reads twice. An hour with this now is the difference between finding out in week two that participation is 20% of your grade and finding out in week twelve.