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I’m back after a few grueling weeks since I have to juggle my summer classes and review all at once (and everyday at that). I know I was supposed to post a photo after my last post but failed to do so. 

Now I’m just updating here to share something (that I know it may be boring and MAY not be related to this study blog anyways lol)

Right now, I’m in a break from studying (reviewing) so I’m just lurking through social media accounts. I can’t post pictures yet because I haven’t rewritten all my review notes haha! There are like 16? topics that I have to rewrite (and draw). I can’t bring myself to write when I have the time because it’s really hot here in our country even though it’s rainy season right now.

While reviewing, of course I get stressed. I don’t know if this is weird but I relieve my stress by studying other languages! I’m currently studying Korean and Thai. For Korean, I can already translate some words but still having a hard time constructing sentences. For Thai, I recently started studying. I had a hard time with the tone marks but I know I’ll get through haha! I became familiar with the characters already but I still have a long way to go since I have to study more vocabs. The sentence structure isn’t different from the English sentence structure (S-V-O). Unlike the Korean sentence structure that uses S-O-V. 

Also I’m getting unmotivated since the examination MIGHT be moved to a later date due to the pandemic so I need to keep a clear mind for now so I won’t get burned out.

It’s me again! No photo posts for this week since classes are taking up most of my time right now. So while I’m here having a quick break, sipping my iced cold coffee, I’m going to share the struggles of having an online class or lecture in this pandemic.

Most of the universities and or schools shifted to online learning since the pandemic started. For some, it may be an advantage, for others, it is a struggle. Especially when the student doesn’t have enough resources to attend an online lecture. 

At first, I was ecstatic to try the online learning as it is my first time experiencing it. Days passed, I started to get tired with the setup because of the following reasons:

1. My class starts early in the morning and runs for 2 hours. The next class is after an hour break then another 2 hours then 30 mins break then another 2 hours.

2. I’m sitting all day long (which is not good for my back I know, I’m having back pains every now and then)

3. It strains my eyes looking at the screen. I can feel my eye grade going up. 

4. It’s hard to have an online discussion since the explanations are typed down. The professors are having a hard time to explain it. 

5. Video discussions is also a struggle. Need to have a quiet environment so it won’t disturb the call. (In my case, it’s very hard to find a quiet environment here which sucks)

So far these are the struggles I’m having right now. Just curious though, are you guys attending online classes right now? If yes, then what are your struggles with this set up? and what do you think is its advantages for you? :)

I’ll be leaving again. My time’s up. Time to go and ace this exam I’m going to take later!

It’s been a few days since the last time I posted. I just had free time right now since recently I’ve been taking my LAST!!! summer classes and on top of that, I’m taking review classes too. Everyday from 10AM-9PM I’ve been studying and I admit it’s quite tiring. But who am I to complain? I chose this so I have to do my best to finish it! 

For now I won’t be posting. Instead, I’m going to share something about how I motivate myself to study and do my best.

Whenever I tend to overthink things and slightly panic, I take a deep breath and rethink when things are overwhelming while I’m studying. Rest. That I can tell you. You need to rest, don’t push yourself too hard. (I know because I also pushed myself to my limit at times and tend to flunk on my exams). 

Sometimes when I’m taking a pause or break, I list down the things I have to do (it helps!) or if you’re not fond of listing down things by writing it down, you can type it down on your phone! Other times, when I wake up, I list down the things I have to do that day mentally and repeat it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I’m finished with the tasks I’m supposed to do. It helps (for me lol).

DAY 5: Sunsets

I finally finished my Algebra topics yesterday and today we’re tackling Electricity and Magnetism. It’s quite a broad topic but overall, it’s fun to study this one! There are less(?) computations and more on principles. 

As one of my professors always say “The principles will guide you to the formula” which is true. As long as you know how to work your way around the principles, you’ll eventually get the correct formula and vice versa. If you see a formula and know what those factors/coefficients/values are, you’ll remember the principles easily. 

Way back then I didn’t quite digested what my professor said but when I took up higher year subjects, there I can say that those principles will really bring you to the formula. It’s like a tip(?) for students like me who are weak with memorizing the formulas. 

Anyways, it’s nice studying while the sun is out. I’ve been studying from noon until the sun set.

Beverage of the Day: Thai Milk Tea

It makes me feel comfortable to drink something while studying you know? I don’t know if you guys do feel like it too haha!

DAY 4: Word Problems

Today I continued with our online lectures about Algebra and one part of it is Word Problems. I usually hate these things way back then because it plays with your mind and you really have to think or breakdown the problem to see what you are looking for and what formulas are you going to come up with, with the given problem. Though I hate it, I’m still here, studying about it. 

Eventually, I enjoyed it especially when you’re breaking down the problem by “Given”, “Required”, “Equation”, “Solution”, and “Answer”. It feels neat to look at your solutions like that (but you won’t see that in my notes because since this is a review and it’s kind of a fast paced that’s why).

It feels like the  “Given”, “Required”, “Equation”, “Solution”, and “Answer” can be applied in real life you know? Well minus the equation in some aspect but it can still be there. 

Anyways, moving on. Tomorrow I’ll be tackling about Electricity and Magnetism. I hope I won’t d word with the amount of videos/lectures I’m going to be watching. 

Also it takes me almost half a day with just two 13 to 19 minute videos because I kept on pressing the pause button and write down everything from principles to problems. Since I believe that writing these down will make me remember it more than just watching it and storing it in my brain haha!

Of course I won’t be motivated today without the help of my good old friend, coffee. Just a TMI, the post yesterday... After I took that photo, I accidentally hit the tumbler with coffee on it and it spilled over my notes and laptop :”). Good thing the laptop is still in a good shape but my notes :). I had to rewrite it today but it’s only two pages so that’s fine haha!

DAY 3: Writing down notes while having a nice drink.

My photo isn’t that appealing so apologies for that haha! I just used my phone camera. Well today, we had another online lecture. We tackled about Algebra (which I took up 6 years ago). 

At first I was scared because I thought I forgot everything about it but thankfully my brain cooperated with me haha! I got to answer some practice question and even remembered the topics I had way back then. It was like a trip to memory lane? ‘Cause I remember how I struggled during my freshmen year and now I’m here, reviewing for the actual board exams! 

While reviewing, of course I can’t go on with a nice cup of iced cold coffee! Usually I have 2 cups of coffee a day but for now, I need only one since I’m not going to stay up all night today! 

DAY 2: Essentials I need for reviewing.

I’ve started my online review sessions (why online? Yes it’s because of COVID-19). Here are my essentials while studying! Take note, this is not all of it!! It’s just the things I need to take down notes with and the pens I use. If I include all of my study materials/essentials, you’ll see a stack of papers, well most of them are handouts and formulas. Soon I’ll be posting the formulas I’ve printed (and written down).

So let me explain what are the essentials I have on the first photo.

A notebook: This notebook is where I jot down notes about the topic I’m studying for the day. As you can see, there are terms and formulas. I’ll post a photo soon on what’s inside the notebook!

Scratch Papers: These scratch papers were from my handouts and the papers I’ve used when taking an exam (p.s. Our professors doesn’t say how many papers we’ll use during the exam so we just opt to have extra just in case.) Once the papers are given back, sometimes I have unused paper. There are also cover pages here that I flipped around since the back part is clean so why not use it!! I’m literally recycling all my papers (which is a good thing) and stapled them up. Now this is where I write down the problem solving multiple choice questions. As you can faintly see, the first part is math and calculator techniques. I’ll show you next time what is inside of it. Just a sneak peak ;)

Ruler: Yes I am an Engineering student but that doesn’t mean I can draw a perfect straight line (lol) but kidding aside, I use this to make my notes clean. Especially when I’m writing down formulas an boxing the final answer.

Earphones: Dual purpose. One, it’s for me to listen to music while studying. Sometimes I prefer to listen while studying because it makes me calm but sometimes I also prefer not to listen while studying because it’s distracting (especially when I’m close to losing my braincells). Two, it’s for my online video lectures and meetings. Since we are conducting an online review session right now due to the pandemic, I always need to have my earphones with me since I’m not the only person in the house and I can quite listen to the professor clearly instead of using my laptop’s speaker.

Laptop: Of course, one essential is the laptop. Well it’s obvious why is it an essential but I’ll just explain it. My other review materials are here, all in docx or pdf formats (also my wallet is going to cry if I print all of it). Also I use this to watch my online lectures/discussions and join a meeting for a group discussion. Also when taking a break, I can easily navigate through my sns. 

Calculator: What is an Engineering student without a calculator? Since we, Engineering Students, have subjects that needs a calculator, IT. IS. AN. ESSENTIAL. Imagine if you’re going to take an Engineering Economy exam, how are you going to solve those annuities without a calculator :)  Might as well sleep it off and cry because you forgot the most important thing. Yes. A. CALCULATOR. Also there are lot of calculator techniques that you may not know during your undergraduate days. It’s just a simple thing but can do lots. 

Pens: Yes these are the only pens I use as of the moment. A black, blue, and green pen and one mechanical pencil. I’ll explain later how I use these pen colors (lol)

Pencil Case: My pencil case doesn’t look like one. It looks like a pouch but yeah I have lots of pens inside (including pens that won’t work anymore), my small ruler and my small flip book (the one I posted before).

Okay since I explained the essentials. I’ll be now sharing the pens in the 2nd photo. (from Left to Right)

Black Pen 1: This pen, or as we call it here, a sign pen is what I’m using when I’m writing down terms, problems, solutions etc. Plus my hand writing looks neat and pretty to look at when I use this one.

Black Pen 2: This is a 0.3 pen which I use when I’m having online group discussions and I have to write FAST. I don’t know if I’ll ever post my scratch papers with notes that I quickly wrote because it’s a LIVE discussion so I can’t afford to lag behind :-). Fun note: this is a refillable one so you’ll just have to buy the ink and voila~ 

Green Pen: A 0.5 pen that I use when I write titles/terms/formulas I NEED to remember. I also use this to box the answer for the multiple choice questions. This is also refillable!

Blue Pen: I use this pen when I write headings of the topic. I don’t usually use this much unless I have to write down what number is this problem, the “solution”, “given”, “how to solve via calculator techniques” etc.

Mechanical Pencil: I love this mechanical pencil because first of all it’s green. (P.s Green isn’t my favorite color but it’s soothing to look at). I only use this when I have to write down my understanding that isn’t included in what my professor said or shown on the screen.

These are what I am using as of now. I don’t know what more will be added but we’ll see in the future posts :) Another apologies since my handwriting sucks big time. My Engineering Drawing/Drafting professor would give me a failing grade because my hand writing isn’t neat enough lol just kidding. 

Well that pretty much sums up this post. So I’ll be leaving for now and be back for Day 3! Oh and I recently made a ko-fi, if you like my posts, you can buy me a coffee ;u; it’s on my sidebar with the big green button lol

DAY 1: Preparation for my review classes.

So I’m going to have my review classes soon for Engineering Board Exams soon and I need to up my preparation. Since I’m not a smart student (lmao), I need to prepare these things to remember. I’m still in the process of writing the remaining standards lol. There are different topics included in this flip note e.g. Electronics, Microwave Design, Communications and such.

Feedback Control Systems.

Taken last July 2019.