Emily Studies

Recently, i have hopped on the bullet journal train! i was always scared to bullet journal because i was so intimated by all the customization to bring it to it and I always thought a planner was much easier and user-friendly. But now that i have tried both ends of the spectrum, I would recommend a bullet journal. But you are not here to hear my opinions. You are here to find out if a bullet journal or a planner is better for you. I'm going to give you details that entails to owning both of these amazing organizational tools. 

Planner:

let's start off with something everyone is familiar with, a planner. every one knows what a planner is, something you can buy at the store that helps you plan out your day.

the best parts about a planner is pre-organized layouts it is less time consuming.

Planners are also more user-friendly and easily accessible.

You can go to your local store and grab a planner. While with a bullet journal, it is more hard to find a dotted notebook at the local store.

Along with it being more accessible, planners are also less time consuming. You can open the planner and be ready to go while bullet journals, you would have to make and plan your layouts. this can also intimated some people since they are so many different layouts you can do with a bullet journal.

Bullet Journal:

now, bullet journals are not that bad. A bullet journal or bujo, is a blank journal where you can add anything you want.

the best parts about a bullet journal is it is 100% customizable.

you can add anything ranging from a habit tracker to a gratitude log. unlike planners, you can choose your own layouts that fit to YOUR needs. instead of relaying on small generic layouts. if you are usually more busy on monday's then you are on tuesday's, then you can create monday's space to be bigger.

a bullet journal is a great place for your creativity. this goes in hand with making your own layouts. you can add doodles and make it personalized.

a bullet journal is also generally more cheap than a planner. depending on how much paper you use, a bullet journal only costs around $8-10 while a planner costs $10-15 depending how much you want.

They are both great ways to plan and organize your life, which ever you think would be good for you, post on tumblr and tag me! #emilyystudies

hey guys! i just wanted to share some tips on how I became a straight a student. i know grades should not be an obsession but I do think they should matter to a certain extent.

Now your grades should not define who you are but if you want to further your academic career, you came to the right place.

Tip #1: Find motivation and display it! when i was little, my biggest motivation was to make my parents proud. now older, i know that is not the healthy but that did motivate me to a lot of things like focus in school. but yours can be anything! what i like to do is go on pinterest and search up images that motivate me and add all it into a collage. I put this collage as my wallpaper on my computer so i can be reminded of it. you can print it out and frame it too! how to make a vision board! 1. search up motivating photos on pinterest (ex. your dream job, places you want to visit, ect.)

2. then go to canva and arrange them how you want to them.

if you don’t want to make a whole wallpaper, you can make a pinterest board!

check out mine here for inspo.

Tip #2: Get organized

you cannot be a straight a student if you do not know where your assignments are. you have to have a filing system—you cannot put papers into your bag. if you are not into the big filing folders or “each folder per class”

My filing system is this:

i bring one folder to school: in that folder i keep all my homework from different classes as well as notebook paper.

then i have a 5 subject notebook i take my notes in. i am going to go indept on how i take notes in a later blog post but i rewrite my notes when i get home.

then i have a science, math, and spanish notebook that i keep at home. depending on what classes you need notes it, you can buy a notebook to that class and keep it at home to study with.

Tip #3: Start using a planner

you need to start using a planner! it will save you from missing deadlines and keep you on track. you can use a physical or digital planner—I use both. My digital planner is my study life and for my physical planner i use my bullet journal.

it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be efficient and helpful. the purpose of your planner is to be useful and if you don’t use it, then how can you be mad when you miss a deadline?

Tip #4: DO NOT CRAM , instead plan out your review.

I am not going to lie, I do cram from time to time. And sometimes I do a get an amazing grade and sometimes I don’t. But I learned that when I plan my review and space it out, I tend to better. I posted a blog post on how I revise here! But if you plan out your reviews ahead of time, your brain would retain the information longer and process it better.

I use the application Anki to help me review flashcards! Now I got more into depth in my How i revise post but basically Anki plans out what you need to review that day for you. It is completely free on computers!

Tip #5: Set up a distraction free study area (and make it cute so ur inclined to study)

Let’s be honest, if you are not motivated to study somewhere, are you really going to study there? Hence, setting up an aesthetically cute study area! Now, this does not have to be something straight from Pinterest, it could literally be a clean desk with a pencil cup.

But make sure you also have everything you need! Like water or the homework you need to get done (sounds silly but i’ve done it before) This reduces your chances of getting up and getting distracted.

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Now how would one apply this to their life? These are habits and habits need to be formed. You cannot implement this tips all in one day and expect them to stick. You need to slowly integrate this into your studying routine. This took me 3 years to implement and I am still working on it to this day. You need to trust the process and yourself.

another day, a bunch more homework!

question of the day:

what is your favorite way to plan?

these are my favorites study websites that i think are essential to my success in school. Of course, quizlet and notion are my favorites too but i tried doing websites that aren’t that popular so you can find new resources. 

Khan Academy 

My Study Life

Easy Bib

Slides.go

Quillbot

Habitca

Cousera

The Online Writing Lab

my socials:

hey guys! so a new semester just started and we are now learning new topics. But if your classes are like mine, they build on what you learned from last semester. So it's very important to review all the topics you learned all together so you can prepare if your teacher is likes to give you a cumulative final.

to start off, i just wanted to say everyone reviews and relearns topics differently. there are many techniques but this post is focused on active recall and summarization.

my two favorite ways to revise/relearn topics is flashcards and summaries.

Flashcards:

flashcards are amazing if you want to remember topics quickly. but also if you want to use them properly, you need to space out your learning by using the technique called spaced repetition.

if you want to learn more about it - read this article

basically to sum it all up, spaced repetition is where you space out all your learning/studying into sizable chunks. This is a form of active recall because it is forces your brain to recall information after a period of time of not learning it—so you actually know the information and not just memorize it.

the best way to implement this system into your study routine is to use the program Anki.

Anki is a free program that automatically space your flashcards out when you rate the cards from 1-3. You can import flashcards from Quizlet by using a free add on or you can create your own flashcards into the app itself.

download it here.

but if you like to write your flashcards out by hand, you can use the Leitner system which divides your flashcards into 5 groups: every day, every other day, once a week, once every two weeks, before the test.

every card starts in the first group—every day. then if you get it right, it moves onto the next group. You keep on doing this until every card gets to the last group.

Summaries:

i absolutely love summaries. it helps me to condense everything into a paragraph that i can easily read and remember. i love to use these the night before a test day or when i am studying for finals since they are a condense copy of the topic.

i actually use emma studies printable. download the chapter summary here. (you can just download it by putting page 10 in the pages section)

i like this particular study printable because it has a space for your methods you can use to revise, notes, and a 1/10 system of you understanding the whole topic.

for the chapter summary and key points portion, i put all the things i struggle on. when i study, i go through my notes and see what questions i am struggling on. So i would put the notes onto the chapter summary.

if you don't want to print out the printable, you can take a piece of paper and just write your summary there.

hey guys! I am a big planner and I love to plan in advance of everything.

I am taking the SAT in june 2021 and i decided to show you all how i plan. I know it is a bit overkill planning 6 months in advance but you can never be too prepared!

to start, i have two options for everyone: notion or google docs.

Notion is a free note taking app that i absolutely love and is using.

Google docs a free web based note taking site

you can use other programs or plan all of this on paper but these are the two i recommend.

how i plan:

1. Gather your supplies

at first i ordered all the prep books i needed which  are what i based my study schedule around.

2. Add up all the chapters and divide it by weeks remaining

if you are in a time crunch, i would add up all the chapters you need to finish and divide it by the amount of weeks you have left.

for example: if you had 36 chapters you need to get through but you only had 4 weeks.

36/4 - 9 chapters per week (which seems a bit extreme so plan accordingly)

but if you are like me and like to plan in advance, work backwards. Pick how many chapters you would like to complete per week and work backwards from the test date. Make sure to included plenty of days for practice tests too!

3. Write out a rough draft on google docs.

you can skip this step but i wrote down all the chapters and what i need to do on a google doc.

as you can see i separated the math section from the reading & writing. i also separated it by prep books too! this is super helpful in organization and gives it a cleaner look.

4. Add into notion

if you use notion to plan out your entire life like me, this step is essential! I basically made a whole new page dedicated to  sat prep and i important all my plans and divided into weeks.

I also included a monthly overview.

I hope this helps you on your SAT/ACT tests and gives at least a bit of structure to your study routine! 

How i make my notion covers!

I recently started using notion, a note taking app. It’s super clean and modern with all these cool features, if you guys want a review on it, let me know!

I notice that notion lets you use emojis and covers to decorate your notes! So, I started to make them. I almost have one for every single page! Some are of course subtopics so I would use the same one. 

How to make a cover!

I usually go on pinterest to look up my photos. I would just search up the topic and copy and paste some pictures into canva. 

The dimensions are 1500x500 but you can use my template right here! 

The gray area is where the pictures are supposed to go because that is where they show up in notion. 

Then download the pictures and import it into your notion notes!

Hey! I just upload a video on youtube on how i planned out my week! check it out!!!

https://youtu.be/aOWDWL3kC_k

Questions:

Mon - What is your biggest tip for staying focused?

Use the pomodoro method. 25 min work, 5 min break. Super great for people with low attention span, I will be making a whole blog post about how to stay focused! 

Tue - What is your biggest tip for not getting cabin fever?

Take walks, just by yourself. You can still go outside and take walks but you have to socally distance yourself. Go outside, get fresh air. 

Wed - What would be your advice to you from five years ago?

Don’t date that one boy because you want a boyfriend. And popularity doesn’t matter that much!

Thu - What is the best advice you’ve ever been given (e.g. from a teacher of friend)?

5 years from now, no one is going to talk about that embarrassing moment. 

Fri - What is your biggest tip for organising your study space/study materials?

Have a place for everything, but keep it off of your table surface!

Sat - What is your best tip on how to relax?

Put on a face mask and watch netflix. 

Sun - What is you biggest tip to someone starting to learn your major/favourite subject/degree?

Take notes and listen your teacher!

These apps are amazing and i recommend them for every student! 

Apps included:

Quizlet

Google Calendar

Google drive

Libby

Forest/Flora

Photomath

Onenote

Khan Academy

Spotify

Connect Q&A

Receipt Pal 

Week 3 - thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday.

Thu - What is the song that makes you happy no matter what?

Highest in the room - Travis Scott

Fri - What is your favourite TV programme at the moment (on Netflix etc)?

Gossip Girls!

Sat - Where is your favourite place in the world (eg a city you’ve been to, a restaurant, or a particular hiking spot)?

Los Angeles, California.

Sun - What is your favourite joke?

I have too many!

So lately I've been throwing myself into books because of quarantine. I love reading so much because it takes so long, which is great because I don't have anything else to do. I love to see a view from the eyes of someone else. Reading a book takes me on an adventure!

Choose a book that interests you.

Now this might be a given but I learned that I read more If I read a book that me made want to turn the pages. Like I’m really into romance so I read books that are teen dramas and romance. If you don’t know what you like then look at what you watch on tv. If you watch a teen drama show then explore teen dramas, if you like mysterious then read mystery books. A book is like a tv show expect you have to read.

Click here for my April recommendations of books!

One chapter rule.

Before you buy a book, read the first chapter and see if it interest you then buy it. This will keep you from stopping early because you don’t like the book.

Quit early.

if you come along a book you might not like then put it down. Return to the library. If you are powering through the book, you might not even enjoy the book so why waste time on something you aren’t going to enjoy. Put it down and read something else.

Make a goal.

All of us want to reach our goals right? Make a reading goal for you and you only. For example, this year I want to read at least 30 books, if I don’t reach it, that’s fine I have next year. But I want to try my hardest to reach that goal. Then when you reached it you can give yourself a reward, like a night out. You don’t have to make long term goals, it can be short-termed. Like 1 chapter per night for an episode of a tv show.

Keep track.

I like to keep track of what I’m reading, like a reading log. I have a whole FREE reading kit printable that included reading logs, what to read shelf, books reviews, everything! Keep track of what you want to read to make sure you are on track to that goal. If you don’t like paper and prefer something on your phone, Goodreads is a great way to track your reading goals. Follow me!

Have a time set out to read.

This creates room for habits to read. Reading before bed can be a great way to introduce reading to your habits. Many people, including me, read before bed because it makes us sleepy and can help move your sleepiness along. But you can read in the morning, while commuting, or while waiting for class to be over.

Give yourself deadlines.

Deadlines are great to help you finish a book before it’s due to the library. But if you are stressed out by school, don’t pressure yourself to finish the book. It’s always going to be there, the essay that’s due is more important.

Enjoy yourself.

Reading isn’t a chore, it’s a way to relax and unwind. It’s a form of entertainment, so treat it like one. If you feel yourself not entertained than take a break from reading for 10 minutes than get back to it.