bridie

We all find ourselves in a pinch when studying for a particular subject, or some concepts or just studying in general. And then we play the blame game - I’m stupid, I suck at studying, I dumb, yadda yadda yadda.

But sometimes, the fault isn’t ours. Our study skills are largely influenced by external factors that have nothing to do with our brain (because well all humans have the same brain to begin with, yeah? It’s just some know how to use that thing, and some are still learning how to). So here’s so ways that might help you make the most of all sorts of things that are thrown your way:

1. Teachers

Teachers influence our academics deeply and therefore it is important to know how to adjust our methods according to the types of teachers that teach us!

“The best teacher ever”

You love them, and are generally doing well in their class.

They know how to balance the amount of speech and writing part in class just perfectly and their explanations are heavenly.

For their subjects, practice papers are the best because they’ll help you lock all the info in your mind for eternities.

Solve as many tests as you can find, and get all your doubts solved by them at the end and I promise you will never have difficulty with that particular chapter again!

“The I’m-gonna-fill-the-board-with-my-marker teacher”

Doesn’t even bother speaking, just enters the class and starts writing up stuff in the board.

Class is generally noisy because their backs are turned towards you 90% of the time.

Just copy down everything form the board. Don’t leave out a single word.

Review whatever you’ve written once you get home and find out what is it that you don’t understand.

You’re lucky if they teach you math /physics /numericals based topics, because you have an entire guide on how to solve each type of sum with steps and formulas!

Once you’ve marked your doubts, take them to the teacher, or to any other teacher who teaches the same topics and get it cleared. Pretty sure you’ll rock their subject!

“The speaker”

Babbles on and on all the time, doesn’t know that the board exists.

Won’t even breathe in between the doesn’t care if nobody is listening - they’ll finish their part at all costs.

Try recording their lectures, you don’t necessarily have to take notes in class.

Once you get home, play the entire lecture and take notes now - you’re most likely to cover all important points.

If there’s something you don’t understand /think you missed, get your doubts solved by them or maybe online. This way you can do some time pass in class while not missing out at the same time!

“The quiz master”

Asks hella lot of questions, engages the class as much as possible.

Best thing to do in their class is to sit in front (it won’t make you a loser really) and listen to their questions carefully, note them down and participate.

Participating will get you noticed and also help build your confidence - and you get to impress the teacher so it’s a win win!

Prepare some questions for them in advance and keep asking, this will create a sense of ‘I’m a good student’ kinda thing in you (trust me I feel like a heavenly potato) and get your queries solved!

2. Subjects

There are subjects that you’re so good at you could practically teach them, and then there’s math (no offence, math lovers). And physics. And chemistry. And everything that you don’t know.

Problem solving subjects

Math and physics can be a real pain, but referring to solved examples in your textbook, or your teacher’s solutions makes then 37363x easier.

A list of formulas is a must, I prefer sorting my formulas chapter wise in sticky notes but you can totally make a ‘formula + solving methods cheatsheet’ to help for finals!

Practice problems are life savers!! Keep solving until you’re pretty sure you’ll crack these types of questions.

Mostly there is a certain way of solving certain problems, figure out that common way for a bunch of problems and nite the method down. All you need to do during the exam is figure out what type of problem you are dealing with and how to solve it will be known to you automatically!

Find a good teacher - maybe a school teacher, a tutor, a classmate or maybe your dad who happens to be a math expert. You need one person to guide you through the “numerical labyrinth”. There are many awesome people on the Internet (studyblrs I’m looking at y'all) who can help.

“Theory based subjects”

History and essay writing type of subjects can be difficult to tackle, since there’s no logic you need to apply here - they only test your memory half the time.

Bullet points are so helpful when taking notes for such subjects idk I just fall in love with words that are bullet pointed.

Aesthetic note making, embellishments and all that jazz totally works here because the more time you spend with the information, the better you remember it and are able to retain it.

Try recording the lectures and playing them in your free time (as podcasts and all), maybe when cleaning your room or making yourself breakfast or doing mundane chores.

I once slept with my earphones on and was playing ‘the French revolution’ and the next day I topped our test on that topic. Now this may not be a legit tip but hey - you’re sleeping. Come on.

“Diagram and sciency subjects”

Most of us consider biology to be our favourite, but fail to do well in it sometimes. This is because we’re studying the whole thing wrongly.

Biology can be a very visual subject so all you artists bring out your creativity!

Imagining the structures of your body, an animal’s body, plant’s body, cell’s body heck any body will help you clarify the concepts in your mind.

Try breaking up large words to understand what they mean. I began learning Latin (and abandoned the effort) to grasp the biological terms better and it helps! Your language is strong - your biology is strong.

Aesthetic notes all the way down!

Chemistry can be made pretty looking with colourful reactions on paper, and there’s always mnemonics to make it fun.

I always try to form mnemonics which reference my favourite songs/dialogue /fandom stuff to spice stuff up. For example, to remember the preference order of functional groups during nomenclature I came up with “PS Sam Winchester Loves Eileen And they go on A date Next friday” (hey spn peeps how’s this?). Write down the first initial of every word you need to remember and come up with combinations, you’ll love it!

“Easy af subjects”

Personality Development and Social Science were these type of subjects for me.

All I did was read through the textbook the night before exams and I’d get a pretty good score.

Tree diagrams and tables often help with these.

Explaining the stuff to someone does the job too!

“Languages”

Three things - Duolingo /memrise /any app, flashcards, YouTube.

Your textbook is likely to have lots of practice activities, solve each one of them.

YouTube will help you with the pronouncing part - check out songs in your target language to improve!

Grammar is important, so you understand your grammar in the beginning and your base is strong.

Come up with terms in your head in your target language, although they’re wrong - there will be a point where you’ll be thinking in that language as a habit.

Don’t be afraid to mispronounce, vomit words as much as possible.

If you don’t have a vocabulary book, make one right away!

Langblrs are so amazing don’t let that resource slip out of your hands!

3. Random tips

Change of environment usually motivate you so keep changing your study space from time to time.

Ana Mascara, study with jess, @studyquill @revisign @tbhstudying @studywithinspo have some fabulous YouTube channels and they make ‘study with me’ vids too which are just too motivating so check them out!

Khanacademy, CrashCourse, ASAP science are there to clear your doubts - use the resources!

Keep two notebooks - one for class which has messy notes and scribbles and another for home with the neat and aesthetic ish.

Keep track of your portion and note your syllabus.

Highly recommended - study journal. Want me make a long ass post about it? Lemme know!

Playing teacher is a promised way to engrave the info in your mind. So go teach your friends or mom or dog or teddy! Teach me if you want to!

Make sure you have a no study day at least once 2 weeks? Because it’s important. We don’t want to get burned out!

Ted talks can be motivating!

Writing mock exams is so helpful you should totally do it!

Sleep is more important than you think it is, so sleep. Go dream the hell out!

That’s all for now folks, hope this helps a bit! My inbox is always open if you guys have any questions!

They cheered for the baby and booed everyone else. This is the greatest thing 

FIX YOUR SLEEPING SCHEDULE (1-2 months)

Try to wake up earlier every day. Like 5 - 10 min earlier than the day before. Until you wake up any time before 8am or so…

If you struggle with waking up & snooze button is you bff:

Put your alarm clock as far away from the bed as possible.

Drink a glass of water right after you wake up.

Pour another glass of water on yourself right after you wake up.

Prepare some coffee the night before, leave it by your bedside, drink it after you wake up.

Have your blinds/curtains open, so that it’s bright after you wake up.

Try to go to bed 5-10 min earlier than the night before.

Track how many hours of sleep you’re getting. Aim to get at least 7h per day or 49h per week. 

Increase your sleeping hours incrementally. Aim to get at least 1h of sleep more than the previous week. For example, if this week you slept for 41hrs, aim to get an extra hour of sleep next week, so it’s 42h.Once you get enough hours of sleep and wake up early-ish.

Try to keep your sleeping schedule consistent. It is really important to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.  Even if it’s weekend. Or even if that means, you getting less than 7hrs of sleep that day. I’d say waking up at the same time everyday is the most important step, which will help you the most with fixing your sleeping schedule.

START EATING HEALTHY (1-2 months)

This step really depends from person to person, but firstly I suggest you take some blood tests to see if you have any deficiencies, etc. Especially, if you struggle with cravings.  

Try intermittent fasting, if you struggle with binge eating or overeating. As it will help you to learn to listen to your body better: when it’s hungry, when it’s full, etc. It’s really simple, there are many methods of Intermittent fasting, but I’d suggest 16/8 for the beginners. (Google it for more info)

DRINK ALL THE WATER. Again, if you’re not drinking enough water, try to level up your water game incrementally. Download some water tracking app on your phone to help you. Drinking water will make you more energetic, increase your metabolism, and decrease you appetite (among many more benefits).

Track what you eating. I would really suggest tracking your meals for around a month. Because, most of the time people have no idea that what they’re eating is unhealthy. Again, download an app to your phone for that.

Make your own meals once in a while. Not only this will save you money, but it’ll help you to see what’s really going into your body.

Eat less meat and more veggies/fruits. Go to your local market and buy some veggies/fruits, you have never tried before. I’m sure you’ll find your new favs. Eat/buy less meat. Not only it’s good for the environment, but it is good for you, too. Get a veggie burger instead of the beef one, etc.

Cut dairy. Find your new favourite milk substitute. Advice: Oat milk is really good with the tea and oatmeal/porridge; hazelnut milk is amazing on it’s own; cashew milk goes well with cereals.

Learn more about nutrition in general. It will help you to make better food choices and it will make eating healthy much easier in general, because once you understand all the chemistry behind the food and what it does to your body, you kinda don’t want to make yourself feel worse. Here are some free resources: - Human nutrition course from Alison.com - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2 - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition - What I’ve Learnt YouTube Playlist - Human nutrition course from Alison.com - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2 - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition - What I’ve Learnt YouTube Playlist

GET PHYSICALLY FIT (2-6 months)

Define your goals. Do you want to lose weight, do you want to get stronger, gain weight, be able to climb stairs without losing breath, run 5k?

Remember - you’re half-way through. Being physically fit has a lot to do with what you put into your body. So, if you fulfilled the previous step of eating healthy - you are half way through!

Make a plan. A Reasonable plan. Be honest with yourself.

Start small. Like, 5 min exercise in the morning. Or doing 10 sit ups per day. Don’t do anything overwhelming, like running 5k everyday if you haven’t run for the past 5 years.

Make sure that you kinda like what you’re doing. If you absolutely hate running - don’t do it. Hate doing sit ups in the morning? Try some yoga instead.

Explore until you find what you like. You don’t have to go to gym to get fit, especially if you hate it. Find a type of exercise, which you actually like. Maybe it’s dancing or hiking, taking your dog for a walk. Sign up for several trial lessons of various sport clubs. Ditch ‘em if you have them until you find something that you love. Stick with that.

Do the small changes in your everyday life. Stairs>Escalator, Walk>Drive, Do some squats while brushing your teeth, switch from regular desk to standing desk, etc…  Find ways to incorporate being active into your everyday life

Track your effort instead of your progress. You cannot really control your progress that much (especially if your goal was to lose weight). However, you can always control your effort. So track it instead. This will leave you more motivated. As you will be able to see that you can do more and more everyday. Whereas, if you tracked your progress, you may not always get the result you hoped for, which might demotivate you and make you upset, wanting to quit.

BEAT DEPRESSION

Do the previous 3 steps and you’re half way through.

See a therapist/doctor. Depression is an illness, requiring medical treatment. So, get it. Remember: there is absolutely no fucking shame in having a mental illness.

Get some extra support. Talk to your friends or family. Or maybe someone on the internet.

Write it out. If you don’t want to talk - write down your thoughts. It can be just as helpful. It’ll help you to understand yourself better, see problems in your thinking, etc.

Distract yourself from yourself. Get someone/something to take care of, so that you can, for a moment, stop thinking about yourself and focus on something else. E.g, get a plant, or a dog, or a fish.

Self-care day. Dedicate at least one day per week for self-care. Take yourself out, either to a museum or some fancy cafe, do some stuff you like, whatever your hobbies are, do some physical self care: bath, face mask, manicure, etc., listen to some nice music, watch a film…..

STOP PROCRASTINATION

Celebrate your victories instead of mourning over your loses.So the only thing you’ve done today was write one sentence for your 20 page essay? Amazing! Buy yourself a candy for that!! I mean, you could’ve done nothing, but you didn’t - you wrote that one sentence and that’s worth celebrating.

Do it for only 2 minutes. If there’s an important thing you’ve been putting off for a while, tell yourself that you will only spend 2 minutes on doing it. If after 2 minutes you don’t want to do it anymore, great, stop it. However, after 2min. you actually might want to do more. No pressure either way.

Track your productivity. Track how much time you’ve been productive that day. Try to increase that time by a little bit every day.

Always forgive yourself. So, it’s been a week and you’ve done nothing? Don’t sweat it. Let it go. Blaming yourself will bring you absolutely nothing. Nothing good will come out of your negativity on yourself. So stop it. Forgive yourself and start again. And again, if you need to. Never stop trying. Always pick yourself after you fall. Beating procrastination and increasing your discipline is a skill. And all skills can be build on. There is nothing in you stopping you from changing. Remember that.

LEARN HOW TO DO TAXES (1h - 1 day)

Go to google.com.

Type in: “How to do taxes *the name of the country you’re living in*”

Read the results.

GET MENTALLY STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE PHONE CALLS

Remember that just as with beating procrastination, making phone calls is a skill. And, again, skills can be learnt.

Get a new SIM card.

Top it up.

Dial some random numbers and pretend to be a salesman, selling whatever you like.. E.g., trying to sell broadband, cable tv, trying to get people to donate for some charity… Or whatever really… Me and some friends used to pretend we’re selling kittens or wood logs. Alternatively, you can pretend that you dialed a wrong person and talk about whatever, e.g. “Hey, Jess!! You wont believe what I saw today!! *start telling a made-up story*…”

If you get uncomfortable - just drop the call. No consequences whatsoever.

Repeat until you build up your game and your phone-call anxiety starts to diminish.

Maybe you’re having a stressful day. Maybe you just need a deep breath. Maybe you just didn’t realize how stressed you are. It’s okay! You deserve love and warmth in your life.

Are you comforted by words? 

Here’s an Emergency Compliment

Here are some kind words you can personalize with your name 

Here are 15 more emergency compliments 

Here is a Self Esteem Boosting Confidence Machine 

take a moment - video 

believe in yourself - video 

Inspiration from Jacksepticeye - PMA 

encouragement from Mr. Rogers - video 

you are ENOUGH - video 

Do you need to hear some pleasant ambient sounds?

How about rain sounds you can customize? 

You can listen to a cafe here  

or how about a crackling fireplace?  

ASMR? Stimming? 

Soap cutting ASMR - video 

more soap ASMR - video 

a 4 hour ASMR video to help with sleep 

ASMR face and scalp massage - video

ASMR slime - video 

the most satisfying video in the world 

more satisfying videos 

Lora Zombie speed painting - video 

Agnes Cecile speed painting - video  

the fastest workers in the world - video 

how candy canes are made - video 

Mr. Rogers shows how crayons are made - video 

How about a game or activity distraction?

Play 2048 here 

A whole website of free games!  

play chess against a computer 

Here are some coloring pages you can do online!  

Play Flow online here 

here’s a game where you stretch a giraffe’s little neck to give kisses 

Learn about the history of life on earth with PBS Eons 

Do you need something soothing?

Control the pattern of rain here! (flashing colors warning)

try doing nothing for two minutes 

Vent to a stranger online for FREE!  

weavesilk, where you can create a soothing pattern 

have you ever been to the nicest place on the internet? 

watch Bob Ross bring joy to painting - playlist 

How about a laugh?

Vines you can show your grandparents 

History of the entire world, I guess  

History of Japan 

Rhett and Link caption fails 

Thomas Sanders Vines 

The Demented Cartoon Movie (warning for flashing colors) 

The ASDF movie 1-11 

The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon by Richard Gale  (warnings for some bruises and some violence)

Rhett and Link VS Hank Green - SHUT UP AND DANCE 

It’s going to be okay. Today may be the worst day of your life - but tomorrow won’t be. Life is a series of ups and downs, and that means there’s going to be good and bad. Drink some water, let yourself cry if you need to, and get a good night’s sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning. 

HOW TO TAKE NOTES FROM A VIDEO

It could be a simple video taken from YouTube, a full-length documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman, or a dusty, old VHS tape of Bill Nye the Science Guy – it’s pretty much guaranteed that at least one of your professors will, at some point during the year, be showing you a video related to something you’ve discussed in class.

As someone who’s struggled with paying attention while quickly writing notes down at the same time during a video, here are some quick tips that I’ve come up with to not only help me in the process, but maybe some of you as well! :)

IN CLASS:

Listen for the six key questions: who was involved, what happened, where did it happen, when did it happen, why did it happen, and how did it happen. You’ll want to write down these details to fully understand what the video was focused on.

Only write down key phrases and short sentences that seem important. You can look up the definitions of the words and do more research later when revising your notes.

When the video is over, raise your hand and ask your professor questions about certain things that you didn’t understand or didn’t have time to write down.

Ask your professor after class if they can send you the link to the video so you can rewatch it on your own time.

ON YOUR OWN:

Watch the video all the way through first without taking any notes. Then, watch it a second time w/ note taking. This way, you’ll already know what important concepts will be mentioned and you’ll know what to pay the most attention to. (Feel free to ignore this tip if the video is over 30 minutes long!)

If the video is lengthy, pause the video whenever an important concept is talked about or mentioned to write notes.

Consider turning captions on (if provided) while watching so you know the correct way of how to spell certain words and phrases.

Watch with headphones on so any outside noises don’t distract you.

Look up more videos related to that topic! Especially if you’re more of a visual learner (like I am).

Generic tips

Selfcare guide

Self care by @kimanoir

Eleven self care tips for students by @theorganisedstudent

12 steps for self care

Self-care to do list

Some little self care things by @irinastudies

Self-care guide by @thetrevorproject

101 self care ideas when it gets too much by @microstvdy

Self care by @littleredstudies

Finals self care by @rubypolar

Self-care instruction manual by @hufflepuffwannabe

Some self care tips by @lovefulls

Self care by @lazyhermione

15 self care ideas by @kaleylearns

Little self care things by @flowerais

Self-care by @mlstudies

Self care by @likelyhealthy

A very brief guide to selfcare by @ejlandsman

My favourite selfcare tips by @rubynerdy

26 selfcare activities by @sheisrecovering

Sleep

Guide to sleep by @educatier

Tips for balancing sleep & education by @brbimstudying

The perfect night sleep starts long before you get into bed by @paintitbright

How to go to bed early and actually fall asleep by @post–grad

Water

How to drink more water ft printables

Hydration masterpost

Breaks

Take a break

Types of study breaks for every situation by @samsstudygram

Tips for getting better rest

Treat yourself

Simple ways to treat yourself by @anitastudy

Pennyfynotes guide to treating yourself by @pennyfynotes

25 No/Low cost self care acts by @gaygirlhustle

Feel good

How to feel better by @bbangstudies

Feel good by @librarystudies

7 ways to feel better by @p-antarei

If you are having a bad day by @theblacksiren

Destress

Easy ways to destress by @parisgellerstudy

Stress relievers by @noteology

How to deal with stress by @studywithclover

Apps to help you destress by @gracelearns

Burnout

How to deal with study burnout by @eintsein

How to avoid education burnout by @neuroticmedblr

Mental health

Saving your grades from a mental health crisis by @smartstudy

Chronic illness + studying by @studysenior

Coping with mental health by @overstudies

Studying with depression by @rannedomblr

Anxiety

Anxiety distraction games by @peachou

Anxiety masterpost by @dotgrids

Why doing something relaxing does not help with your anxiety by @merrybitchmas91

Meditation and focus

Study sounds

Others

What to do with notebooks by @tbhstudying

Podcasts for students by @studyquill

Period masterpost

Dealing with eye strain by @studylikeaslytherin

Listen by @studyblr

50 healthy, productive and fun things you can do without looking at a screen

How to live a better life by @wilstudies

Fitness and health for the busy student by @abby-studies-art

Friendly reminders taken from @cwote

Your mental health is more important than your grades

You are good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, and strong enough

Don’t just be good to others, be good to yourself too

Embrace all that is you

You will be okay

Just breathe. It will be okay.

Be proud of yourself for how hard you’re trying.

Be nice to yourself

Don’t beat yourself up. You are doing the best you can.

Be gentle with yourself, you’re doing the best you can.

Better things are coming.

Loving yourself is the greatest revolution.

Remind yourself, you deserve to be happy

Respect yourself. Don’t let others tell you who you are.

Learn to say no to people and things that make you unhappy.

Enjoy your own company.

Forgive yourself.

Never apologise for how you feel

Give yourself some credit. You’ve come pretty far.

Mental health is just as important as physical health.

Surround yourself with good vibes

Stop worrying about people who aren’t worried about you.

If you find you are surrounded by toxic people… Cut. Them. Out.

Other masterposts made by me

notetaking masterpost

college advice masterpost

apps for students masterpost

Someone on reddit asked about it. And it turns out there’s a logical-ish reason:

all of the other players pair off with their man to prevent anyone else entering into the fight … so it’s a form of self policing. 

[…] The players basically want to prevent 2 on 1, etc. fights and by finding a “hugging” partner so there’s no ganging up on one guy, even on accident. They do it because it’s fair. And it’s kind of cute sometimes.