Guide · Updated June 2026
How to add your syllabus to Google Calendar
Every syllabus is a PDF graveyard of dates: assignments, exams, readings, drop deadlines. Here's how to turn it into a real Google Calendar you can actually use — the manual way, and the one-click way with Sylly.
TL;DR
Doing it by hand takes 30–60 minutes per syllabus. Sylly reads your PDF and builds the full semester calendar — classes, assignments and exams — in under a minute. Join the waitlist →
The manual method (step by step)
Make a calendar for each class
In Google Calendar, click the + next to "Other calendars" → Create new calendar. Give it the course name (e.g. BIO 210) and pick a color. One calendar per course makes the week easy to scan and easy to toggle on and off.
Pull every date out of the syllabus
Open the syllabus and list every dated item: class meetings, assignments, quizzes, midterms, the final, project milestones, paper drafts, last day to drop. Don't skip the small ones — that's where missed points come from.
Add recurring class meetings
Create an event for your first lecture, set the right start and end time, then under Does not repeat pick Weekly on Mon/Wed/Fri (or whatever fits). Set the end date to the last day of the term.
Add every assignment and exam
Create each due date as its own event on the right calendar. Use the full assignment name in the title so it's searchable later ("BIO 210 — Lab Report 2" beats "Lab Report").
Turn on reminders that actually fire
Add two notifications to each due date — one the day before, one two hours before. Anything else gets ignored. Repeat for all of your classes.
The fast way: let Sylly do it
Doing the above for one syllabus takes ~30–60 minutes. For four or five classes? An afternoon. Sylly was built to skip that work entirely:
- Upload your syllabus PDFs — drag and drop, one or all of them.
- Sylly extracts classes, assignments, exams and important dates automatically.
- You get a color-coded semester calendar plus a personal "My Plan" view you can drag and drop.
- Export or sync to Google Calendar so everything shows up next to your other events.
FAQ
Can I import a syllabus PDF directly into Google Calendar?
Not natively — Google Calendar doesn't read PDFs. You either copy events in by hand, or use a tool like Sylly that parses the PDF and creates the events for you.
What about iCal / Apple Calendar / Outlook?
Same idea. Any calendar app that supports the .ics format can subscribe to a Sylly-generated calendar — Apple Calendar and Outlook included.
Will I have to redo this every semester?
With the manual method, yes. With Sylly, you upload next semester's syllabuses and the workspace rebuilds itself.