Staying Sane During Exams

Doing well is much easier said than done. The best tip I have is to just do the work. It’s going to suck, but there’s no secret other than doing the work. Though, there are ways to make doing the work easier!

I. Time Management

Have a planner to gain a general idea of your week.

Schedule your time for studying but also schedule time for breaks.

Every morning I check what needs to be done for the day.

I treat college as a 9-5 job with a lunch break. This may not work for everyone, but this thinking allows me to be done by 5, and I usually finish everything for the day by that time.

Take a break after you finish an assignment. Allow yourself to feel proud for finishing and give yourself a reward.

Break up projects into smaller parts, this is incredibly important. It’s easier to do an outline, then a few paragraphs rather than doing an entire essay at once.

It’s not time well used if you don’t focus on the task at hand. If you’re having trouble, get rid of distractions using apps that limit phone/internet usage.

Don’t waste time on techniques that don’t work for you. I don’t rewrite notes, it doesn’t help me study. Instead I do extra textbook problems or I watch a video on the topic. 

Sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself to do the work, to study. Then just do a single problem, a single page or paragraph. Usually starting is the hardest part.

II. Studying & Learning

Be present during class by asking questions and answering problems.

Use phone-locking apps like Forest if you need to to stay focused on the class.

Skim lecture notes ahead of time. You don’t need to take notes on them, the professor will tell you what’s important.

It’s ok if your notes aren’t pretty as long as they’re functional.

Practice problems until you can’t get them wrong.

Try to teach the material to someone else. This will show holes in your understanding. Pretend to teach if you don’t have a friend in the same class.

If you need, study in the library. Honestly, studying at my desk in my dorm has worked just fine for me though.

Do the homework, there’s no way around it. This is probably the biggest tip here. Do the work.

Actually do the homework, don’t just copy answers. Understand the answers. You can’t copy on a test.

Speaking of tests, do as many practice tests as you can find. Once the real test comes around, you won’t be as nervous and it should feel familiar.

Nice pens and notebooks aren’t required. However, spend a dollar and get a pen that writes well enough that you’re not wasting time during class getting it to work. (I’ve been through this)

Do the extra credit. There’s no reason not to, and your grade will thank you.

Go to tutoring, not everyone knows everything. You might even make a new friend since most tutors at my school are also students!

Realistically, you don’t need to do every reading assignment as long as you know what your professor tests on. If you don’t have the time, its fine to only skim the assignment.

Make study groups. If you don’t have a friend in the class, it’s as easy as asking “want to work on the homework together?” In my experience, most people are happy to work with you.

Go to your professors office hours if you need help. Your professors are a valuable resource.

Ask your friends for feedback, I do this all the time.

III. Treat Yourself

Sleep and eat well. Coffee is not a breakfast.

Please, don’t force yourself to cram a subject overnight. This is where time management comes into play.

An over-stressed student is a bad student, but a little bit of stress is healthy.

Find what motivates you. Personally, I wish to become a researcher so I work hard towards that goal to get into a good grad. school.

You don’t have to join a club. I’m not in one, and my social life is just fine since I spend time playing games with friends at night.

But join a club if you want, even for a single day. You might meet some friends.

Really do whatever you want with regards to your social life. Do what’s comfortable for you.

If you need it, colleges have a therapist that you can make an appointment with.

HOW TO TEACH YOURSELF LANGUAGES SUPER EFFICIENTLY

I write this bcz I’m a huge language enthusiast and I’m frustrated about the way most methods and language classes/courses approach the process of learning. I’m not a professional but I have a lot of experience in studying foreign languages: I have taught myself Lithuanian and reached the upper intermediate level (B2) in 4-5 years without much help from others, and in Spanish reaching the same level took me only 2 years bcz I simultaneously studied it at school and already knowing French helped me a little. I want to help everyone who wants to start a new language, does not have the possibility to join a language course or just feels frustrated of the stagnation they might experience in the early phase of learning a foreign language.

So, if you want to learn a new language, I suggest following tips:

• Immerse yourself from the beginning! This is really important so that you can get yourself familiar with the intonation and pronunciation of the language. Listen to radio or tv and try to read whatever you can (ingredient lists from the food packages, newspaper articles, whatever!) it doesn’t matter if you can’t understand much yet, it will come! If you start a language with a new alphabet learn the alphabet really well first thing.

• Get an overview of the grammatical structure of the language! This is often not properly done in language courses where you learn some vocabulary and greetings but after 60 pages of the textbook you still have no idea how many verb tenses or noun cases the language has. Take a look even at the “hardest” topics, bcz they might not be that hard after all. (for example the Spanish equivalent of past perfect is much easier than the present tense) 

 • With that being said, learn to recognise past tenses even when you are still learning the present tense! I find it absurd that most courses expect you to master present tense _perfectly_ before even taking a look at other tenses. Most of the time, in everyday communication, past tenses are used more frequently than the present tense + in some languages mastering the past tense can also help you to form the conditional. So, learn the past tense earlier than most ppl would recommend!

 • In general, study the easiest things first! If you find something particularly difficult you gain more confidence and knowledge if you first focus on what you find more interesting (however, you can’t postpone studying boring topics eternally, especially if you are preparing or hoping to prepare for an exam at some point) In Lithuanian, I taught myself a lot of grammar before learning how to tell the time… and it was ok.

• For material: usually the country’s universities have a reading list on their website which proposes what books one could use to study the language. These are often preferable to handbooks aimed for tourists and some language methods for beginners because those mostly focus on useless vocabulary you might only need when you rent a car or book a room in a hotel. The grammar is often also relatively poorly explained in those “tourist language books”, whereas books that are aimed at immigrants or university students usually focus more on the efficient language acquisition and are written by professors and specialists. If you are persistent enough and google all possible search words in both English and the target language,  you can probably find whole textbooks in PDF format, which you can then save on your laptop.

• Don’t get stuck on vocabulary! Remember that grammar is the skeleton of the language and that vocabulary is the muscles hair and eventually the clothes you use to dress up and embellish your apperance. Vocabulary is useful once you know how to use it. For me, learning vocab is the hardest part of a new language, especially bcz I like starting languages that are not really similar to any other languages I know (consider Lithuanian and Greek when I previously knew Finnish, English, French and Spanish) ofc you need to learn some of it to be able to form sentences but most traditional methods focus on that too much. My suggestion is to read a lot: start by children’s books and comics and gradually get more advanced material. When you read them, make notes!! Look up the words you don’t know and don’t be afraid of using unconventional, seemingly challenging ways to learn, such as buying a bilingual poetry collection and trying to decipher what the original poem says and compare it to the translation. 100% recommend, even for the beginner level + it’s a nice way to connect to the culture but still focus on the language itself, not on the way ppl make breakfast in that country. (That’s something that irritates me a lot in most Youtube’s language videos where ppl are just discussing the traditions of the country in English when you had come there to look for the explanation of grammatical structures or just to hear the language being spoken. smh.)

• A really important thing about vocabulary is to learn all the abstract words, such as conjunctions, really soon! For example, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to use the words therefore and otherwise,  it is almost impossible to try to explain those words without first translating them to another language. 

• Make vocabulary learning more interesting and deep by learning about the etymology of the words you learn. It can be mind-blowing and it helps you to remember the words better.

That’s it!

I hope these tips inspire you in pursuing your interest in foreign languages and facilitate your learning process. I might add more to this if I remember I have forgotten something of great importance. 

A reminder to smol insecure studyblrs

- You do not need midliners to be a good studyblr - You do not need expensive pens to be a good studyblr - You do not need a kanken rucksack to be a good studyblr - You do not need perfect lighting to be a good studyblr - You do not need a mac or iPhone to be a good studyblr - You do not need Japanese stationery to be a good studyblr - You do not need to be at university to be a good studyblr - You do not need plants and flowers to be a good studyblr - You do not need to follow aesthetics to be a good studyblr - You do not need to study red brick subjects to be a good studyblr - You do not need to be neurotypical to be a good studyblr

As long as you are studying SOMETHING and want to create your own content in ANY WAY YOU LIKE and are promoting good study habits and general positive vibes, you are a good studyblr. In fact, you are great. Keep up the good work!!

Good Study Habits (8 Tips)

Start

Make some time to study. Write it down in your planner, bullet journal, hand, anywhere. just make sure you tell yourself to do it and then do it! Starting is always the hardest thing to do. But once you start you will likely get into it pretty fast.

2. Make time for breaks

Being able to schedule in time for breaks is important. You don’t have to study yourself into the ground. Give your brain a break but, don’t give yourself too long of a break. Give yourself a maximum of an hour of break. If your break lasts more than an hour, most likely you are never going to go back to studying.

3. Remember to eat

Do not starve yourself but also do not eat too much. Being satisfyingly full is good, it will help you focus and help you feel comfortable. If you overstuff yourself, then you might get sleepy or you will feel too uncomfortable to the point of not being able to focus. Eat some snacks in between chapters, eat a balanced lunch, and make time for dinner. Good snacks would be: nuts, banana, yogurt, dried fruits.

4. When Studying a new topic, make time to go back and review older topics

Remembering new topics are great, but over time your brain will only remember the new information and eventually forget the old information. Being able to go back to old information for a review will ensure that you remember everything you need to remember.

5. Don’t overwhelm yourself with colors

Being organized with your notes is good! But having too many different colored pens or highlighters in your notes can get stressful and confusing. Having to focus on changing pens every paragraph or getting out more highlighters during a lecture will distract you from actually learning even though you are taking notes. Being able to take fast organized notes while also listen to what the professor is saying is a good balance. Stick with one other pen and one highlighter.

-One black pen for standard note taking (general information)

-One red or blue pen (definitions)

-One yellow highlighter. (dates and names)

6. Notes Index

If your notes have pages and pages of topics, I would make a separate page for an index. This way, you will be able to find a certain topic faster. Wasting time on finding something in your notes will not be necessary with an index.

7. Flashcards

You should make new flashcards for every new topic. That way you will have flashcards to refer to in class, and you can study on the go. It will be easier to pull out your flashcards on the bus, waiting for class to start, and while you do homework.

8. Organize notes later

Being able to sit there and listen while taking notes is important. It is more important than having pretty notes or to worry about having very organized notes. Write down what you need to write down and rewrite it later on.

There are three rules.

1. If you do not go after what you want, you will never have it. 

2. If you do not ask, the answer will always be no. 

3. If you do not step forward, you will remain in the same place. 

Do yourself a favor. Learn to code. Here's how.

I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.

Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changes taking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influence on human life.

(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)

But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.

There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:

Novice

Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:

Dash - by General Assembly

CodeAcademy

w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)

Intermediate

Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:

Khan Academy

CodeAcademy - Ruby, Python, PHP

Difficult

If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.

Programming problems

Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems

Talentbuddy

TopCoder

Web Applications

If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.

Django Tutorial

I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.

Rails Guide

If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:

Cake PHP Book

Symfony 2 - Get Started

Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.

If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.

Best of luck!

little reminders

do you have homework due tomorrow? do it

did you get any homework today? do it

did you get an assignment notification? break it into small chunks, schedule these chunks and make a start on it. 

do you have an exam tomorrow? do some light revision. or if you’ve left it until the last, turn off your phone, put it in your desk drawer and revise until you’re done. make sure you get at least 4 hours of sleep if you’re cramming, 8 if you’re not. 

do you have a quiz tomorrow? do some v light revision, and redo some homework problems or handouts on the topic.

how much tea/coffee/general caffeine have you had today? how much water have you had? switch your next coffee refill to water.

have you brushed your hair? tame that mane.

have you showered? have a warm shower right before you go to bed so you feel sleepy when you come out.

are your feet cold? put on socks.

are you working your hardest? push a little harder. 

when was the last time you allocated relaxing time? pick a cutoff point for your work, whether it’s 9pm or 1am, and spend 15-30 minutes (depending on the time) to wind down by reading a book, talking to family or friends, taking a shower and generally doing whatever you want. 

you can fall in love at 30. you can discover your true passion at 40. you can go back to school at 50. you can learn to draw, or paint, or sing at 60. relax. just because you didn’t do most, or any, of the things considered “young adult milestones” doesn’t mean you never will. there’s no time limit on happiness.

please make sure that wherever you’re at in life, you don’t treat it like a transitory period. don’t waste your college years wishing to already be graduated & have a job. don’t waste your single years wishing for someone to be in love with. if/when those things come, they will come in due time and they will be good. but there is nothing like looking back and feeling empty because you wasted literal years ignoring what you had because you were hoping for something better. while it’s important to better yourself and reach for your goals, don’t neglect the present because that’s where you are now and it’s your now that determines your future. 

STUDYBLR MASTERPOST

STUDY TIPS

Study things in 15 mins by @kantstudies

Study tips from professors by @daisystudies

Studying for History by @universtudy

Revision methods that work by @tangledstudies

Last minute revision tips by @muststudy

Untraditional study tips by @obliviatestudies

STUDY MOTIVATION

Motivation vs Discipline by @tangledstudies

Motivation and discipline by @niqabisinparis

10 things to tell yourself by @sweetpeas-and-appletrees

BULLET JOURNAL

a whole bunch of prompts by @studbylr

everything you need by @bujowsofie

my inspo tag 

MENTAL HEALTH / SELF CARE / BURNOUT

what to do if you fail a class by @jwstudying

dealing with stress in academia by @joyce-grad

dealing with burnout by @eintsein

self care during the school year by @studycation

Studying with mental illness by @tangledstudies

how i destress by @shayshestudies

emotion skills to learn by @surviveschool

UNIVERSITY AND JOBS ETC

cooking as a broke student by @couple-a-hundred-of-em

personal statement do’s and don’ts by @motivastudy

how to answer common interview questions by @adulttalk

things i wish i knew as a freshman by @jwstudying

NOTES INSPO

flashcards w/ cute headings and highlighted info by @planwithmae

pretty notes with lots of colour by @intelliqents

big colourful cards w/ lots of info! by @unistudydiary

study sheet inspo by @studyforwhatmatters

pretty arty mindmap by @the-etranger

mindmap inspo! lot sof inspo and colour-coded by @studysthetics

simple inspo by @studymlk