Time for another Happy Planner Review! This time it’s the student planner (academic year). It has a very similar layout to the Color Block Happy Planner.

Quick facts

• Size: 7″ wide x 9.25″ high
• Reversible laminated cover (i.e. different patterns printed on each side)
• Disc binding – add and remove pages as often as you please
• 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
• 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
• Tabs
• Colorful inside pages
• 12 month duration
• August to July (academic year)

Let’s take a closer look!

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more planner videos!

The Cover

The usual laminated cardstock cover that all Happy Planner’s have:

Approx 0.75 thick

The cover is MAMBI’s usual style with a different design printed on the back

At the front of the planner are 2 class schedule pages which are really the only student specific pages in the entire planner.

Next is the future log / annual planning pages that could be used for exam dates, vacations, birthdays etc.

Then the planner jumps straight to the monthly & weekly planning.

Monthly

Each month has a monthly planning page, divider with tab and 2 page calendar followed by weekly spreads.

Differnent color schemes & dividers throughout.

The monthly calendar starts Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread).

There isn’t anything student specific on the calendar except for the little light bulb box at the bottom which could easily be covered up with a quote sticker, bill stickers etc.

Unfortunately like all the other MAMBI planners, it has split boxes (forgot to take a photo but it’s when they split a box diagonally into 2 rather than restarting the dates on the top row).

Weekly Planning

Starts Monday (not consistent with the monthly calendar that starts Sunday).

There’s 7 sections for each day which could be used for your 7 classes or 6 classes and a misc section.

I’m not in school or university anymore but I still like these types of layouts for categorised planning. E.g. cleaning, meal planning, travel planning, blog, miscellaneous, most important tasks, appointments, bills etc.

Related: 50 Category Ideas for Color Coding Your Planner

There isn’t much on the weekly that is student specific other than ‘upcoming tests’ which could easily be covered up with a header sticker (tutorial on how to make them here).

At the back is 1 lined notes page. If MAMBI could make an entire refill pack with just these notes pages that would be great 🙂

Tabs

The tabs are MAMBI’s usual big cardstock tabs with different colors for each month.

Pen Testing

I didn’t end up keeping this planner but have done pen testing in other Happy Planners I own. Here are the results of that pen test:

The Happy Planner has one of the thickest (best) papers I’ve come across. There is really only ghosting (and a little bit of bleed through) for the marker pens (Staedtler Triplus Color & Sharpie Fine Point).

Pros of the Planner

• Very few student oriented pages – anyone could use this planner
• Nice colors used throughout the planner
• Monthly planning page
• Discbound – add, remove and rearrange pages as often as you like
• Affordable
• Thick paper resistant to pen ghosting
• Different dividers for each month

Cons of the Planner

• If you want to use this as a student planner, there aren’t many student related pages

Would I use this planner?

Yes. I love the flexibility of discbound planners and the weekly spread is very functional.

If I was a student thinking about using this planner, I probably wouldn’t. There aren’t enough student oriented pages.

If you’re not a student, you may prefer Happy Planner’s Color Block layout (very similar but without any references to study).

More planner reviews:

• Kikki K Student Weekly Planner Review  
• TUL Student Planner Discbound Notebook
• Bloom Teacher Planner

Planning Tips:

• How to store planner pens (5 ways – and my favorite method!)
• 8 Ways to use highlighters for Bullet Journal Spreads
• Making printables: 10 Reasons why I use Photoshop instead of free software 

Browse all posts

Found this post helpful? Pin it!