I’m Looking Forward To The Day Where I Can Be That Cliche Girl That Studies And Gets Shit Done In A

what to do when everything’s a mess

Wash your hair. Don’t worry about all those articles online about the best haircare products of 2019 and whatnot, get in, wash it like you usually do, get out. Leave it to air dry, it’s less work for you.

Brush your teeth. Even if you brushed them this morning and are probably going to brush it tonight, do it anyway. Especially if it’s exam time, all that tea or coffee you’re most likely downing (props to you if you only study with water) probably makes them feel kind of gross.

I know most of these lists tell you to run a bath, but let’s face it, for those of you who even have a bath in the first place, the thought of filling that tub and sitting there in complete silence for a couple hours seems like a trek. And ironically exhausting. So instead, just brush your hair, take a nap (set a nice soothing alarm) and once you’ve gotten out of bed, wash your face or at least splash cold water on your face.

CLEAN clean clean clean CLEAN. Easier said than done, but at least start by clearing one messy component of your area; it could be your floor, your desk or your bed. You don’t need to clean and re-organise your entire room marie condo-style for you to actually have a reason to take the time to clean in the first place. A little goes a long way, and you don’t ALWAYS need to do the hard yards ya know.

I would say read a book, but sometimes your brain is melting or buzzing so it can’t really focus on anything lengthy. So instead, find someone reciting a poem online, and just listen to it. I recommend Jeremy Irons and his voicing of tons of T.S Eliot poetry, or Allen Ginsberg reciting his own poetry (Howl is a classic).

If you’re one of those people who drowns their sorrows by listening to music, don’t listen to music!! Don’t reinforce your pain!! So to that I say, listen to a podcast. If the classic podcast genre of true crime is a little too stressful and you’ve already cried twice today, listen to interviews with actors, screenwriters and directors. It can be really refreshing to listen to people you already enjoy the content of talk about their work. I recommend Awards Chatter and Happy Sad Confused.

Stop staring at screens! Just physically sit outside for a bit, you don’t need to go for a jog or do a general workout, just…sit. People-watch, try and memorise the exact scene in front of you, from the mis-en-scene to all the colours and sounds and the way the sunlight feels on your eyelashes. Write it down if you want to, you could even denote a single notebook to your little outdoor descriptions. Or just write on a napkin. To each their own.

Have you eaten today? And I mean something hearty, something that isn’t primarily made out of air and salt. Something that falls under the umbrella of snack does not count; meal is more like it. If not, eat. Preparing food might feel exhausting, but so’s going a relatively long amount of time without something nutritionally substantial.

If you’re feeling emotionally heavily, get out a notebook or even just a scrap of paper, a pen and cry until your eyes are as blurry as can be. With tears down your cheeks, scribble out how you’re feeling. Don’t bother with how neat or messy it is, whether the sentences even stay on the lines, it’s not about being aesthetic. In fact, it’s about being as messy as possible. Let all of it out, and let is act as a physical manifestation of what’s going on in your head. Don’t fight it or deny it, relieve yourself by both constructing and understanding yourself. 

i promise you this: whoever you're becoming, however much effort you're putting in everyday, whatever it is you're working towards outweighs the person you've been and the mistakes you've made. who you are today matters. you are not ruined.

“I’m not everything I want to be, but I’m more than I was, and I’m still learning.”

— Charlotte Eriksson, Everything Changed When I Forgave Myself

meirl

Super helpful!

College Note-Taking System

Having cohesive and effective notes is one of the key skills I think one should have, especially in an academic setting. When you’re receiving a ton of information each day, you want to be able to keep track of that and remember what you’ve learned. I’m constantly trying out ways to make my note-taking more effective and tailored to my needs. Here’s what my note-taking system looks like so far.

Quick note: click on the images for better quality!

Class Notes

Taking notes in class is an invaluable way to keep track of the new knowledge you’ve gained. However, depending on the mode in which the lecture material is conveyed, I take my notes differently. Here’s a summary of how I take my notes for each type of lecture, as well as some examples from the classes I’m taking now.

Slides (e.g. Macroeconomics)

Macroeconomics is a class in which you should be able to intuitively understand a lot of concepts but also remember a lot of things. Because of this, I’ve tailored my note-taking method and habits to achieve that goal.

I write my notes by hand because handwriting is more effective in committing things to memory.

As for what I actually do - and this is what I’ve done for other classes in which the professor/lecturer uses slides:

Read/skim over the slide.

Read each bullet point as the professor goes through them.

Copy it down if it’s straightforward or write it down in a structure and diction that I understand better (not necessarily in my own words - sometimes it’s just restructuring, e.g. splitting things up or joining different bullet points together).

Take note of any other important details the professor says about any particular point unless I think it’s intuitive or common sense.

Here’s an example from a Macroeconomics lecture.

Oral Presentation (e.g. Anthropology)

During classes in which the professor just speaks and doesn’t use much visual material, I listen before I write instead of attempting to write down every single detail mentioned.

Also, I type up my notes instead of handwriting them since the exams are all open-book so I don’t really have to commit things to memory.

Here’s what I do:

Listen for a cue that tells you what this particular part of the lecture will be about (and write it as a heading).

Write down main ideas and their supporting facts/details. If the facts/details come before the main ideas, then I’d usually draw an arrow.

Write down ideas and details from readings in their own section/subsection.

Sometimes, my professor also shows short clips in class, in which case I’d write down the message that I think the clip was meant to convey, as well as things that the professor points out that I didn’t think of on my own.

I’d also look up concepts/ideas/people/events (in real time) that are important to my understanding of the lecture material.

Here’s an example of a Google Docs document from an Anthropology lecture.

Demonstrations and Sample Problems (e.g. Computer Science)

Classes in which the lecture is mainly going through demos and problems are kind of tricky, because you want to know and understand what the professor is doing, but you also don’t want to be writing down every single step that’s being executed. Here’s what I’ve found to be the most effective so far:

If there are any, I import the slides/handout onto OneNote and annotate directly on the slide. If not, I just write down things like definitions, important concepts, and syntax-related things.

I focus on understanding what the professor’s doing with the demo or problem.

I then summarize the steps they took and

Write down comments and points they brought up, e.g. common errors, desirable habits/practices.

Also, these kinds of classes are usually classes in which you’d learn better when you actually do problems yourself, so I definitely learn more when I do assignments and labs than when I’m in class.

Here’s an example from a Web Programming lecture.

Here’s one from an Object Oriented Programming and Data Structures class. I often draw things to help me visualize the general points.

Rewritten Notes

My rewritten notes have definitely changed a lot since high school. Since most of my classes don’t require a lot of memorization, I organize my notes in such a way that they’d be easy to index or find information from. Here are some of the ways I do that:

Establishing a Visual Hierarchy

Having a well-defined hierarchy helps me flow through my notes really well as i read them. It helps me organize information like a mind map without actually making a mind map - I know the big topics and their subtopics and sub-subtopics and details … basically it’s easier to see how these ideas fit together.

But why don’t I just make mind-maps? See, the thing is, a lot of my notes require sequential or linear thinking, e.g. in macroeconomics it might be the sequence of events following a change in the economy, or in computer science it might be a general algorithm for solving a certain type of problem, or it might be proving or deriving a certain equation. These sorts of things just generally don’t work well with mind maps. Instead, establishing a visual hierarchy in my notes helps me organize different ideas while retaining the linear nature of the information.

Here’s what the hierarchy looks like.

Here is an example from my Web Programming class, which is a purely project-based class, so no prelims or exams. As you can see, I draw rectangles around important terminology so that I can easily find them while I’m working on a project. I also include examples from in-class activities as well as notes on syntax so I have an idea of how to implement certain things. These examples and notes are further grouped by terminology/concept.

Structuring Them for Easier Flow

My syllabi for my college courses are nowhere near as detailed as the syllabi for my high school courses - those of you who take/have taken Cambridge exams would know. In college, my syllabi are only lists of topics and not what you’re expected to know for each topic. Because of this, I have to find a way to arrange information so that I can achieve the most comprehensive and cohesive understanding of that topic, i.e. so that the flow of my notes is similar to the flow of my thinking.

For example, in my economics notebook, I like to have the details first (e.g. the separate markets: the goods market, the assets market, and the labor market) and then the big picture later (IS-LM-FE). Some people prefer the other way around - seeing the big picture and then going into the details - which I can understand and have done myself for certain topics.

Making Use of Proximity and Spacing

I very much dislike notes without good use of spacing and grouping things together. Keeping related ideas in visual proximity helps your brain (or at least mine) organize this information. It’s also a lot easier to find things and visualize your notes when they’re not just a huge chunk of text.

One thing I should probably mention is that I don’t use colored pens anymore because it just takes a lot of time to switch pens and think of a color palette. I also don’t have much use for it. In the past, I used color to help me memorize and group things in different categories, but now, I’ve found that there aren’t a whole lot of categories I need to keep track of, and when I do, I can do so with just one pen but changing the style of the text.

And that’s what my note-taking system currently looks like. It’s working well so far, but I still think there are other things I could try out that might be a better fit.

So yeah, hope this was helpful, and as always, feel free to drop an ask if you have any questions, or even if you have any suggestions or would like to share your note-taking system. Have an awesome week!

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

major mood

Are you in love with someone?

Nah I got shit to do

relatable

I once heard that being in IB is procrastinating homework by doing less important homework. If that isn’t true I don’t know what is. I literally was disappointed that I had finished an assignment earlier because now it means I have to work on a project that I really don’t want to do.

OneNote is literally god’s gift to this earth. [ header art ]

I downloaded OneNote onto my mac air through my school’s office365 [which is a microsoft email login thing but is easily accessible on any kind of device and you can just delete the email acc later if you want]. OneNote can be accessed on a laptop, computer or ipad/tablet. i believe OneNote is available on the appstore as well?

I use OneNote as a digital bullet journal / planner and to write down all my study notes. i also have actual books for my study notes but i tend to prefer OneNote.

OneNote is super easy to use! think of it like an actual book:

1. DESIGNING THE COVER

When you open OneNote for the first time it will ask you to create a Notebook. You can name it whatever you wish and even choose the colour of it! You can have as many Notebooks as you like, so go wild !!

2. CHAPTERS

In your Notebook, you can have “chapters”, called sections or tabs. Depending on whether you use OneNote as a bujo or for study notes, these tabs can look like this:

3. PAGES

Time to fill your chapters! These pages will contain all of your content. Whether that’s a weekly spread in your bujo or a page on DNA molecules in your humanbio Notebook. You can have as many as you want! Pages on OneNote tend to look like this:

Once you click on which page you want, it’ll open !

4. SPREADS [for planners]

Spreads are completely personalised and customised depending on you! Anything you do in your physical bujo you can do on OneNote. Habit checker? Tables? Homework diary? Inspirational quotes? Cute doodles? Day-to-Day planner? 

This is just an example of mine, you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT with yours !!

5. STUDY NOTES

My study notes are basically just what my teacher says during class or puts on the board, which is why they’re almost always in bullet point form like this:

But obviously, you can edit your notes to be however you’d like them !!

6. OTHER INFO

One feature i really like about one note is the fact you can make the paper look like whatever you want. such as blank paper, margined + lined paper, graph paper etc. this is really helpful when writing notes and especially drawing diagrams !!

also, across the top is literally everything you’ll ever need.

IN CONCLUSION:

Please download OneNote !! it’s so user-friendly and customisable. I was honestly shocked that more people weren’t using OneNote in the studyblr community. It’s such a lifesaver near test + exam time because all of your notes are in one place !!

also, OneNote autosaves and doesnt close if you close your laptop [as long as you’re not logged out or the computer is shut down] so you’ll never lose your work !!

HERE is another post about me yelling about OneNote lmao

If you have any questions or problems, feel free to ask !! ((-:

(image credit) due to 8tracks’ limited availability to the US and Canada, i’ve had to make the switch from 8tracks to Spotify and i could not have regret it in the slightest. thus, i’d like to share with you the greatest benefits i’ve come across during this exam season ~ enjoy!

the theory of everything soundtrack: lifechanging. this is omnipotent for any subject, for any situation - complete with instrumentals for any mood. +check out “cambridge, 1963″, “rowing” and “the wedding”.

kill your darlings soundtrack: much like the “theory of everything” soundtrack, it is so reminiscent of soothing and motivational atmospheres. throws you into a world of romanticised poets of the 1940′s. +check out “typing” and “plan on a boat”.

500 days of summer soundtrack: for something indie, calming and motivating at the same time. throws you into an indie romance and tbh, you’re gonna love it. +check out “please please please let me get what i want”, “sweet disposition”, “quelqu’un ma dit” and “hero”.

all the little lights, passenger: if i’m going to suggest an artist’s ENTIRE album to you to study from, this has to conquer them all. his indie pop/folk compositions perfectly accompany any revision session. +see bastille, kodaline and the neighbourhood for similar.

relive harry potter! : complete soundtrack for all 8 movies of the franchise. didn’t want it? too late, you’ve got it.

studio ghibli collection: the magic that is joe hisashi and hayao miyazaki, complete in one playlist for all your focus/relaxing needs.

8.5hrs of disney: 175 of the most timeless tracks from the animation industry of our childhood.

spotify’s intense studying #classical collection: i haven’t yet tried this one however i’m going to, especially with over 14hrs of listening time.

sensuality: i found this just the other day however it’s a beautiful collection of bass-heavy, strong-beat, simple melody pieces.

my own revision essentials playlist: this works without fail for myself, perhaps it can offer you something too - however do make your own and collate some tracks which are 100% no fail for you!

and finally, your discover weekly playlist: i’ve linked mine, however spotify creates this playlist for you on a weekly basis, publishing every monday to provide music recommendations. i cannot emphasize how incredible this service is and the amount of music i’ve discovered is phenomenal!