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Piuiii

Just today I got to see a chess book that I remember reading as a little kid. While it didn't give me a lifelong passion for chess, it did give me a lifelong passion for fantasy for its artwork.

The book is "Chess for Young Beginners" from 1975, and here's some of the artwork:

Like, this artwork goes hard. I especially appreciate the colour scheme for the black pieces, with its browns, bronzes, reds and oranges.

This artwork is amazing, evocative, exciting and dramatic. I recommend giving it a look if you have a chance - you can probably scrounge up a PDF of this thing with a bit of searching.

Poderoso.

A good plan.

How I prepare study plans

Preparing study plans is one of my favourite ways of planning my work.

They allow me to know the exact amount of work I have to do and the exact amount of time it will take meyou to get everything done. 

I suppose we all have a personal way of doing a study plan, so here’s an easy, step-by-step post about how I prepare a study plan !

1. Take 10 pages out of your study material

Whether your study material is a book or notes you took in class, choose 10 pages out of it.

Do not pick the easiest ones ! This would ruin the whole experience.

2. Start studying and time yourself

Start studying those 10 pages, and time yourself while doing it.

Study normally, like you would do on any particular day of studying : you can highlight passages, annotate your notes/textbook, draw a mind-map, make a short flashcard,… Anything work-related that you would normally do.

3. Check the time it took and don’t worry if it seems like a lot

At the end of the 10 pages, stop the timer and check the time it took you to go through your work. Write that result down.

Do not feel like rubbish if it took you a lot of time to get through 10 pages : you might have made flashcards or mind-maps, or wrote some things down… There are subjects that might be tricky to study (like anatomy or other horrible things that med students have to go through - they are the bravest after law students ;-) ). There are subjects you’ll hate and those will take an awful lot of time… In short, some things will be hard and it’s better to know exactly how much time they take than just roughly estimate it… and get it all wrong !

For instance, it takes me an hour to get through 10 pages of Family law. This is because I highlight my notes and my statute book, I add post-its to my statute book and I quiz myself with the little exercises that the teacher gave us in class. All this takes a lot of time.

4. Repeat steps 1 to 3

And do this for every subject you are studying during the semester.

5. Estimate the time it will take to study the entire material for each subject

After having gone through 10 pages for every subject, divide each of your study material by 10. It will give you the amount of time (in hours, days or even weeks) that you need to cover all the material for every subject.

For instance, I have 279 pages to study to master Family law. Since I need one hour to study 10 pages of it, I’ll need 27.9 hours to get through all of it. One again, write the result down for every subject.

6. Prepare your pens and write your chapters down !

This is when things get funnier !

Take back your study material and write the headings down. By headings, I mean the subdivisions of your material. Depending on the subject you’re studying, it could be “parts”, “chapters”, “sections”,… Whatever the name, write that down and do not forget to note how many pages are included in each headings.

7. You can make step 6 funnier but do not lose too much time !

When preparing your study plan, you can unleash your creativity and end up with really good-looking things.

A really cute study plan can motivate you to study.

You can also use bullet points and check them when you’ve finished a heading. This is what I do and let me tell you something : it’s extremely rewarding to check headings. You feel accopmlished, serious and hard-working !

However do not lose too much time working on your study plan. It is there to help you going through the real work you need to do, and should not distract you too much from all the stuff that needs to be done in order to be ready for finals.

8. Prepare a weekly planner

If you already have a weekly planner, use it.If you do not, prepare one. There are cute ones available here on Tumblr (check @emmastudies : her printables are awesome).

Use it to write down your classes, your commuting time, your meals, the time it takes to wash your hair… everything you have to do in a week. This is what I call “Group 1”.

Do not forget to plan some “mental-health” time = activities that allow you to forget about college : sport, reading, meeting up with friends, shopping, family time,… This is what I call “Group 2”.

Group 1 activities are compulsory : you cannot cancel them and have to build your schedule around them.

Group 2 activities are not compulsory : you can move them around in your schedule.

9. With that weekly planner, draw a plan of action ! 

Using your weekly planner, check how many free hours you have. By free hours I mean the periods of time when you have absolutely nothing to do : no classes, no commuting, no essay writing, no laundry to wash.

Compare this result with the time you need to get through the study material of your different subjects. 

Fill the blanks in your schedule with the headings of your different subjects. For instance, every Monday, I have a three-hour free period between two classes (Family law and European and Comparative Law of Torts, just so you know - we’re getting intimate, don’t you think ?). I’m staying at uni during those three hours and usually go to the library. So, if a chapter from my Corporate law class takes three hours of studying, I will write this down on my weekly planner and plan to study this chapter during that period.

Alternate the subjects ! It is no use studying one single subject for a whole week : you’d end up studying things that were not covered in class (this is difficult). Plus, studying the same subject for a week is just boring.

10. If you end up not having enough time, cancel a “Group 2” activity

If you realize that you won’t have the time to cover everything you need to cover during a week, move a Group 2 activity (from Monday to Friday night, for instance) or cancel it(apologize to your friends of family if they were involved and agree to meet them later).

This is an extreme solution, but you might need to resort to doing it if your week is really busy with Group 1 activities. Here’s my method for a perfect study plan. I hope it will be useful.

Good luck with your studies. I’m sure you’ll all ace your exams !!

Esse tá fora dos trilhos.

E se o adversário chutar quando ele abaixar ?

💪

Bem completo. 😀

Study Techniques:

SQ3R Reading

The Pomodoro technique

Online Pomodoro timer

Feynman Technique

100 Things to do in your study break

Develop active learning strategies

Cramming (last minute option)

Study Methods, Tips, and Resources:

How to make flashcards (electronic and paper)

What to write on flashcards

Uses for flashcards

Creating and using mindmaps

Studying using textbooks

The benefits of textbooks

How to annotate

Tools for referencing

Tips for visual learners

How to read journal articles critically (by marielstudies​)

Top 5 Study Tips to Achieve your Study Goals

How to pull an all nighter

How to pull an all nighter (2)

Studying vocabulary

Study guides

How to create a study guide (by studyspoinspo)

Using whiteboards

Assignment Calculator

Learning how to learn (by strive-for-da-best)

Get good grades (Youtube)

Memory:

Learn how to memorise and find the memory techniques that work best for you.

Here’s an interesting article about long term memory.

6 research tested ways to improve your memory.

Here’s an ask about how to memorise material.

An ask about forgetting material within a few hours.

Some memory tips (by astackoftextbooks)

Learn instead of memorising

Thinking and memorising

Time Management:

How to prioritise tasks

Apps for scheduling

Creating a revision timetable

A post about making a timetable (by grxeek).

How to keep your revision focused

An online study planner.

Motivation/Procrastination:

Reasons to study

Blocking apps/extensions for phones and computers.

Reasons to study now

10 tips for getting started on an academic task

How to deal with family distracting you from study

How to stop procrastinating (Youtube)

10 Tips for managing procrastination

Questions to ask yourself for motivation

How to improve your concentration

Quick concentration tips

Get Motivated (Wikihow)

Choosing the appropriate study environment

Short and sharp motivation

Stress Relief:

Stress relief techniques and ideas

The 10 Best Yoga Poses for Stress Relief

Relaxing Yoga Poses for Beginners

20 Easy Steps to Stress Relief

Relaxation Techniques

23 Science Backed Ways to Reduce Stress

25 Destressing Techniques

Deep Breathing Exercises

Three Guided Relaxation Videos

Vent Anonymously Online

A sleep calculator here which will calculate when you should go to sleep/wake up (depending on what you’re working out) based on sleep cycles. This will make sure that you wake up refreshed and ready to work.

Problems with sleep

Failure anxiety

Do nothing for 2 minutes

Calm (meditation site)

Health:

There’s also some information here about studying with mental illness from MIND.

There’s a really great post here about depression in university (by landofstories)

There’s a similar post here about studying with depression (by bloggerforstudentprogress)

Studying with ADHD

Studying maths with dyscalculia

Managing test anxiety

Self help: test anxiety

Emergency Compliment (for when you’re feeling down)

Studying with dyslexia

Revision and exams for people with dyslexia

Study skills for dyslexic students

How I coped with OCD at university

Study skills and OCD

Study skills and OCD PDF

Music:

Nature sounds in calmsound

Sounds of rain

Beethoven

Coffee shop sounds

More coffee shop sounds

Mix sounds (soundrown)

Sounds of the ocean

Whitenoise

Study mixes on 8tracks

Music to boost concentration

For the exam:

Exam preparation

Exam life hacks (by studyblob)

The best ways to prepare for exams

Exam tips

The day before an exam

Tips on Taking Multiple-Choice Tests

How to write a great essay (by englishlit-chic)

Psychology Essay Exams (gives an example and how to answer)

Looking after yourself after exams

Oral tests and exams

Writing and presenting a good speech

Links, Games, etc.:

Live panda camera (for destressing; you wouldn’t believe the amount of time I spend watching this camera).

Live animals

Try to find the ten gnomes

Origami

Create your own nebula

Easy magic tricks

DIY Home Spa (BY @recoverykitty)

Brownie in a cup

Cookie in a cup

Muito fofo

Cat plant

(via)

Masterlist for learning languages

Brick-by-brick language learning challenge

Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across

my tips for a language study plan

topics for new vocabulary

how to find a language partner

my tips for how to practice writing in your target language

Recommendations for Learning Languages & Other Stuff

Learning a language = learning a culture

Vocab list templates: #1, #2

Some easy Fantasy books to read in your target language

Language Learning Tips: #1

6 tips for learning languages

App for organizing your language-learning (and anything else): Trello

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Requests / Asks:

-> you can find all my answered asks by searching for #ask, #ask response or #request

Indo-European Language Families

Improving your vocab

German infinitive & when to use it

English word order

How to find a language learning partner

Changing a game to your target language & "harmful" learning strategies

Can you get away with just using "das" the majority of the time in Germany?

Do you have any tips on how to improve your writing in your target language?

Do you have any resources/methods about how to reach an academic level in the language you’re learning (& how to improve your writing)?

Do you have any linguistic recourses on Ruhrpott-Deutsch?