Little Study Session

💙 USE : P5UWRD

Listen to everything they’re taught, not just hearing

Take notes

Listen to opinions they don’t like

Be open to having their minds changed

Don’t listen to music with words when studying

Practise

Commit

Keep a regimen of self-discipline even in the face of a lack of motivation

Take breaks

Sleep regularly and more than expected

Work very hard during the day

Exercise

Plan in advance

Get small tasks done when there isn’t time to do bigger ones

Engage

Take failures as a learning curve

Think positively

Do their best work at the start of the year so they get more slack later

Talk to those who teach them

Debate

Do a little every day instead of all at once

Ask for help

Help others

Drink water

Work hard but work smart

Know what study setup is their most productive

Hold themselves accountable

Figure out which work is a priority

Don’t waste time re-reading as a form of studying

Find out things they don’t understand

Test themselves frequently

Work backwards through things to understand why something works

Learn more than they need

Have more interests and hobbies than just academics

Find out the most important concepts in a course

Learn the most important 20% of the course to get 80% of the grade

Don’t complain

Tailor their courses to focus on what interests them the most

Play hard after working hard

Read in advance

Know how to say no but don’t say no unless they have to

Take every opportunity they can

Eat well

Defend their personal beliefs

Don’t use other people’s successes/failures as an excuse for anything they do

Don’t let studying become the main part of their life

Understand that everything is temporary

Set goals, short- and long-term

Put their phones away/on silent when studying

First of all a disclaimer: No, you can not study them in one or two days. But depending on the topic and how fast you can read, you can do it in one or two weeks!

Factors on which your needed time depends on:

How complex the topic is

How long you need to read a page

How fast you can write

How easy it is for you to understand the text

Basic explainations before I go into detail:

There are two ways of studying: global and and analytical studying

Analytical studying means you really go into detail, try to understand every single word and try to get as much information in the topic as possible. You are studying the topic very precisesly and need the small details to understand it. This is great to understand the topic profoundly.

Global studying means you barely go into detail, but rather try to get an overview over the topic, its most important aspects, and the basic connections. This is great to realize what the most important connections and facts of this topic are, and in what relation the facts stand to each other. 

Studying in four steps:

1. The first thing you need to do is read through the whole text and make an excerpt. This step will take you the longest, some days or even some weeks. Basically the best way to do this is to follow these steps:

Look through what you have to study. Hopefully it has chapters, if not, try to split it up into chapters of about twenty pages. This amount works at least for me best. If you have a short concentration span, rather make more chapters with less pages. If you have a long concentration span, make less chapters with more pages per chapter.

Set a realistic goal how many chapters you can read and excerpt in a day. Try to stick to this goal. If the text is easy to read and the font a normal size, one needs about one to two minutes to read a page. If it is difficult to understand or a small font, you may need three to five miutes, so keep this in mind when setting your daily goals.

This goal can vary from day to day. If you know that one day you have a long and exhausting lecture, set the goal lower than for a day were you won´t have any distractions. 

Make sure you make this plan early enough. The later you do it, the higher is the chance you have not enough days to get through the text!

Now read a chapter and try to understand as much as possible of it. Focus on it as best as possible, because this is one of the most important steps. If you have problems staying focused, here is my masterpost on how to stay focused.

If your concentration is lost after reading this chapter, take a short break. Then, and it is really really important that you only do it afterwards you read the whole chapter, do an excerpt of this chapter. If you do not know what an excerpt is or how to make on, click here.

By doing the excerpt at the end of the chapter, you revise it for the first time already.

Do this for every chapter you need to study. If you have time left, you can revise the excerpts you already made, but your focus should be on getting through the whole text once. 

2. Read thoroughly through your whole excerpt. While doing this, try to recall as many details of the original text that you didn´t write down. Not only read the excerpt, but focus on the relations and connections, realize the meaning and consequences of what you are reading, understand their impact on the subject matter and the topic. Don´t learn it by heart, instead understand it and try to comprehend it with a logic that allows you to recall the realtions without studying them intensively. Do this at least once, if you have the time better do it twice. The harder the topic is for you, the more often you should do this step. This step should take you about one or two days.

3. Skim over your excerpt. Set your focus on the keywords you wrote down in colour and try to recall the most important keywords associated with them. If you have enough time, repeat this once or twice, but you do not have to if you feel you are already very good.This step should take you some hours or a minimum of one hour.

4. Skim over the headings and subheadings of your excerpt. While doing this, try to recall the words you focused on in step three. Only the most important keywords, realtions and connections should cross your thought in this step. This step should take you less than an hour.

After step four, you will be prepared for your exam! Just try to calm down, and most importantly, do not try to recall every little detail now. It will only stress you and give you the feeling that you cannot recall them, which is more often than not totally false. Everytime I used this strategy, I could recall most of the details when writing the test! Also do not revise right in front of the test. You will only confuse yourself and start to panic.

The concept behind this method:

Remeber I tought you the basics of global and analytical studying in the beginning? Well, these are exyctly the background for this method.

Step 1 = analytical

Step 2 = semi - analytical

Step 3 = semi - global

Step 4 = global

Pretty easy once you see it this way, right?

Tip for revising

It helps a lot of people to walk around while doing step 3 or 4!

the curve of forgetting describes how we retain or get of information we absorb.

day 1: you go into a lecture knowing 0% and come out knowing 100% of what you know (regardless of whether you know it extremely well or not)

day 2: you did not do any reviewing of your notes from day 1 therefore you have lost 50%-80%

and as the days progress we forget less and less

think about midterms! notice how around midterms when you’re trying to study for something (that you haven’t been reviewing for regularly) it feels like the material is VERY difficult and almost as if you’ve never learned it before

formula to reshape the curve

within 24 hours of your lecture spend 10 minutes reviewing the material

a week later: it will only take 5 minutes to REACTIVATE the same material

ultimately, you will reshape the curve  

day 30: by this day your brain will only need 2-4 minutes to recall

information on the curve of forgetting was taken from the university of waterloo (x)

my formula to reshape the curve using the information above

before class: spend 10 minutes PREVIEWING the material. 

after class: spend 10 minutes REVIEWING the material

do this regularly. this will be your preview/review system for each class.

a week later: try to review a week later. i know that school/life can get pretty hectic, but try to make sure you are reviewing regularly.

maybe record yourself saying some important details/concepts from your notes the night before and on your daily commute to school plug in those earphones and listen to it. i am an auditory learner and i find that listening to my notes before i go to bed and right when i wake up have truly helped me retain information. studies have shown that the best time to study is right before going to bed and right when you wake up.

a month later: after a month, review what you’ve learned so far in your class. trust me this will be a very very short review. everything will look very familiar to you and it won’t look as difficult as it used to.

basically your review schedule should be the following: 

1 hour before learning the material

1 hour after learning the material (or within 24 hours of learning it b/c i know we’re all very busy people)

1 day later

1 week later

1 month later

remember everyone learns, studies, and retains information differently!! my personal belief is that your technique is what matters most. it is not about your innate ability/talent. find a technique that works for you.

more suggestions:

active learning > passive learning

when taking notes use the Cornell method. it forces you to ask questions and summarize what you’ve learned.

set frequent, short, review sessions

test yourself constantly! there are so many resources online. 

people who are under stress have difficulty remembering things so CHILL OUT

don’t rush, take your time

repetition is key

practice MAKES PERFECT

group items together

fish, vitamin b12, and green tea can help w/ memory

Some days hit you like a ton of bricks, and for those who already struggle, those days can be even harder. Hopefully, these little tips can give you a boost in your darkest moments.

1. Open a window, let some light and fresh air in. You might not want it now, but it will help you feel better in the long run.

2. Take a shower. Sometimes, this can be more difficult than we expect, but that’s okay. Just letting the water hit your back, or washing your face can make you feel more refreshed.

3. Work on a hobby that gets you going. Unfortunately, as good as it feels in the moment, lying in bed and watching netflix while the work you have piles up will only make you feel worse. Now, maybe you can’t tackle your assignments right now, but sitting up and drawing your favourite character or watering your plants while blasting some music will get you in a better mindset.

4. Change your music. Sometimes we need to listen to a sad ass song and just get all our emotions out, but once that’s done and dusted, don’t dwell. Listen to some up-beat music (if I may, I recommend our Pick Me Up Playlist by You) and try to keep your environment from matching your mood.

5. Get a healthy snack and drink some water. Never underestimate the power of good nutrition. If you can’t handle the thought of a full meal, some fruit will suffice for now. But remember what you eat fuels your body, so if you can bring yourself to fitting in a remotely well-balanced meal, you’ll be all the better off.

6. Make a list, pick one, simple task, and get it done. Maybe you have laundry to do and it’s piling up. Maybe you have to wash down the kitchen counter. Maybe you have a worksheet for school. Maybe it’s just making the list. Whatever you need to get done, write it down, and rather than letting that overwhelm you, pick one thing from that list to tick off. Slowly but surely, you will be able to tackle the bigger things.

7. Go for a walk. Getting some fresh air and simple exercise will refresh you without tiring you out. Bring some water, or maybe make it a trip to get some of your favourite snacks and a smoothie from Jamba Juice. If you’re struggling to get up and out, having something nice to look forward too can motivate you. 

8. Think of why you’re feeling this way, and then let it go. More often than not, there is a reason you’re struggling to get up and out. Understanding the root of this feeling can help you move past it, tackle it, or keep it from holding you back.

I’m headed into my 3rd year of uni, so I thought I’d make a post sharing my tips on how to do well in school, not burn out, and keep your mental health relatively stable.

1. Snacks - seriously, don’t leave home without at least 2 substantial snacks in your bag. If you’re go-go-going all day and suddenly your sitting in a lecture about to crash cause you haven’t eaten anything all day, you’re gonna want snacks. Some suggestions: Cashews (they’re not super loud/crunchy, so they’re perfect for lecture snackin’), a granola bar, an apple, cherry tomatoes, trail mix.

2. Don’t buy the textbook before you go to your first class - I’ve worked at a university bookstore for 2 years, and every year, people end up buying 700$ worth of first year text books, and then they don’t even use them. Wait. and then wait some more. If there are required readings, then get the textbook, if your prof says there will be questions from the textbook on the exam, then get the textbook, but trust me, for 90% of first year classes (and a lot of other ones) you don’t need the textbook. SAVE YOUR WALLETS

3. Take notes efficiently - honestly the best way to take notes, is type up the lecture notes that are provided, BEFOREHAND, and then during lecture, fill in the blanks/add information/take down any important things your prof is saying as you go through the lecture on your laptop in a different color. This way you’re much less likely to miss any important information, you won’t be confused about what to take down, and you won’t fall into the trap of taking down notes that are already being provided to you. After class, or while making study notes, copy these notes out by hand to remember what you learned.

4. Keep it simple - pretty notes are GREAT if you have the time, but once you get to upper level uni, and you have 100 slides of notes to turn into study notes, you will not have the time to make your notes look aesthetically pleasing. Just get the info down so you can focus on learning it.

5. Have a designated study space - i did all of my highschool homework and studying in my bed, and 90% of the time, I ended up falling asleep. My bed wasn’t going to cut it for uni, so I got a cheap ikea desk, and it’s made me so much more organized and productive.

6. Take as much ‘you time’ as possible - take a bath. light candles. binge watch a tv show. veg out with a book for 4 hours if you have the time. do your makeup super special one day. get yourself that venti pumpkin spice latte with extra whip whenever you feel like it. Uni is a shitty time I’m not gonna lie. It’s stressful as f*ck, and whenever you can spare a couple hours or a couple dollars to TREAT YO SELF, do it.

7.  If you have anxiety, CUT THE COFFEE. caffeine is a huge trigger for anxiety. Caffeine takes away from your sleep, messes with your adrenalin systems, and can make you super paranoid and anxious all the time. 

8. If you think your in the wrong major, change it - I started in geology, and I HATED IT. Now I’m in psych and I love it. It is never too late for a change of program. If you think you’re doing something you don’t wanna do, or your not enjoying it, don’t do it.

9. For mornings you have to be ready and out the door, or if you’re a person who always runs late, have a getting-ready routine and get it down pat. Have a mental list of things you need to do, and things you need to remember, and find out how much time it takes you. Get up at 8am, shower, wash face/brush teeth, get dressed, do makeup, pack bag, remember keys, wallet, laptop, notebook, pen and train pass, have breakfast, put on shoes, leave by 9am.

10. Utilize your time in transit. - finish a reading, go over flashcards, read study notes, listen to an album you’ve been meaning to listen to, read a book, read some fanfic, idk but don’t just sit there unless just sitting there is what you need.