Look At Where You Are. Look At Where You Started.

A friend of mine and I were both struggling to get ourselves motivated to do the homework for the subjects we were not good at.

One day my friend asked me if I remembered playing pretend. She then started describing our school in a way you would see in fantasy films and games.

Maths turned into war strategies Paraboles were used to measure how high your spear would go and where it would fall down to the ground.

Economics turned into trading weaponry between our fantasycountry and our allies.

PE/Gym/Gymnastics turned into combat training. And so on and on and on and on!

Together we found this way of motivating ourselves to give our best at everything.

You’re never too old to play pretend! Motivate yourself by turning studying into a game! And go for the highscore!

Lots of love and take care,

Hey lovely studyblr friends! I just discovered this new and wonderful app called Lost On Campus. I’ve only been playing around with it for about 5 minutes, but I just had to let you all know about it! You can select your university from the list avaliable, and it gives you a map of the uni, complete with building names/numbers, room names/numbers, coffee shops, toilets, and so much more!!! Super dooper handy for orientation weeks/first-years, as well as everyone else too, of course :D It also has a textbook trade/purchase system for second-hand/discounted books!

the part that leaves you at your desk at midnight with a raging headache. the part that leaves you pulling your hair out while trying to finish a topic. the part that leaves your mind aching from having to cram as much material into it. the part that leaves your heart hurting from all the pressure you’re putting on yourself. 

Tips for your First Year at Uni (particularly for people not staying on campus)

1. Make friends quick. You’re scared? So is everybody else! Everybody wants to find friends, the faster you strike up conversation the better. Everybody is in the same boat, I promise!

2. Experiment with how you’re going to take notes until you get it down. It’s taken me a year and a half to find something that works for me, and I KNOW if I’d experimented more in first year I’m sure I’d have had it down faster. First year is all about testing your boundaries and working out how you work best.

3. USE YOUR PROFESSORS. I know it’s scary but they are there to help you. If you don’t want to talk to them in front of the class, talk to them face to face after class or during office hours, if you can’t do that, email them! Technology is great!

4. Be Organised. Find out when and where your classes are, work out what your assignments are, what format they’re in, when they need to be handed in, how they need to be handed in, what your reference format is, when your exams are, how they want essays to be formatted (and then learn how to edit). I talked about some great essay writing books in my writing notes post and I absolutely recommend getting the Kindle versions of them.

5. Listen and absorb. Not everything in lectures and seminars is important but you need to learn what is in important and what isn’t. I can tell you now you’ll be mid essay or assignment and you’ll think “Ooh what was that thing the Professor said in that lecture?” and if you haven’t listened properly or taken good notes, you won’t be able to remember and you won’t have it written down, but you will have some obscure reference you will never need.

6. Get a part-time job (depending on how intensive your course is) I only do 12 hours a week each term (not by choice) and having a part-time job not only means I haven’t had to dig into my maintenance loan this year, but it also gives me something to do in the long breaks between terms and during the week.

7. Find and value your support system. I owe basically everything to my parents and I try to always remember that. I would have completely lost it many times without having my uni friends to talk to and commiserate with. The people you surround yourself with should be people you want to be surrounded with.

8. Have fun! I don’t advise that you party it up every weekend, but next Tuesday I’m going to an Open Mic Poetry Night hosted by some other students and for every poem you read on stage you get a free drink! I’m staying overnight in a hotel with my best friend and I think it’s going to be great! It’ll be nice to have some non-class time to hang out with everyone.

9. Appropriate self-interest is important. You’re at university to learn and enrich your future, but it shouldn’t impede your now. Try to take breaks when you need them, use your weekends and holidays and down-time. Look after yourself.

to all the students who weren’t born smart, please know that hard work and perseverance can go miles farther than just being smart.

to all the students who feel tired from all-nighters and tests, it will be worth it in due time. don’t give in.

to all the students who have to study full-time and still work, please take care of yourself. it’s ok to rest.

to all the students who struggle due to mental or physical illness, please know that you are a great role model. you are the epitome of “no-excuses”.

and to all the students,

you are so brave to study. you are brave to learn and work hard to achieve your dreams.

you are so kind. kind enough to study for the future generations, for your family, and most of all, for yourself.

you are so strong. i admire how you manage to wake up in the morning and get shit done, even when you feel like falling apart.

you are intelligent. you are intelligent and wise enough to never stop learning.

you are a student. and i believe that all students are good because either way, they live to learn for themselves and for the world.

you are loved.

- obsessing over graph paper (we don’t have much in singapore, so maybe this is just a singapore studyblr thing)

- constantly stocking up on flash cards

- choosing which colour scheme to use *eeny meeny miny moe*

- trying to neaten up the desk before taking photos *scrambles to push everything away*

- selectively choosing the notes that look most aesthetically pleasing for photos

- crying over other people’s amazing notes *crais* TT

- scrolling through printables and saving them without actually using them

@lucythefangirl13, I did some intense googling to try find some articles that weren’t just “sleep more!” and here’s the result (although a few are still short and bulletpoint-y). I hope there’s *something* in here that can help!

10 Tips For Navigating Your Way Through Brain Fog

Forgetfulness (Brain Fog)

School tips

Lifting the Fog: Treating Cognitive Problems

Coping with Brain Fog & memory and concentration difficulties

10 Ways to Reduce and Manage Brain Fog

Tips for Surviving High School With Chronic Illness

Coping with Fibro Fog

Some Concrete Tips for Communicating Chronic Pain in an Educational Setting

I already mentioned that @chroniccurve is like the holy grail of spoonie school resources, and this is THE post to read: College and Chronic Illness: 19 Tips to Study Strong and Fight the Fog

My personal additions:

Adaptable pens help for upper limb problems because traditional pens are quite straining. Even switching from ballpoint to ink can be a huge huge help because there’s less drag on the paper.

I haven’t looked too much into it, but Dragon is the market leader in dictation software.

F.lux warms your screen after sunset so it’s less straining on your eyes.

Anki is a flash card app that lets you choose whether the card is easy, medium or hard and asks it again later accordingly (spaced repetition) - it’s really good for things like vocabulary but there’s a lot of typing involved in initially creating the cards.

Cal Newport’s blog is probably the single greatest contributor to my academic success. Seriously. ANYONE who’s studying needs to read his tips.

GOOGLE CALENDAR. Pretty much everyone has a smartphone these days and having a calendar synced in the cloud is so so useful. Paper is good for many other reasons, but you can’t beat this accessibility for scheduling, especially when it’s SO EASY to forget deadlines when you’re sick. Push notification are invaluable.

- ̗̀ motivational wallpapers by ann shen ̖́-