bibi

You know everything that you possess and have to offer but no one to show or give it to.

You’ve been alone with yourself for awhile and learned a lot on the way and just want to share that growing process with someone.

You often imagine being in a relationship and all the good qualities you have to make it last.

You grow sick of hearing problems from people in relationships because you long for what they have.

You feel sorry for yourself when you’re around couples and often tell yourself to snap out of it to avoid carrying a spirit of jealousy

You feel that you’ll never find someone with all of the qualities you want in a man/women

You sabotage potential relationships with people because you feel that everyone is trying to hurt you.

You participate in the cycle of hurting people because you’ve been hurt before.

You often shield your heart and come off as stuck up or mean because you have given up on finding something real.

You feel that you’re a good person and deserve love.

 Preparing for your exams

Check whether you have anything you haven’t studied. If you do, list them out in a paper/document. Put them into three categories: 

1. Things you are not familiar with at all (that you probably haven’t paid attention during class, and haven’t read through them)

2. Things you have already gone through once and have a rough idea what it is about, but not clear with the details

3. Things you are quite familiar with, that you just want to go through them once again to memorise them

It is very important that you have every content of your exam syllabus on the second level around 2-7 days before your exams (depends on the amount of materials that is going to be on the papers)

So you should make a timetable to go through everything if you still have a few days/weeks

Don’t try to spend so much time actually memorising them for now. The key right now is to understand everything, so that they can be in your long-term memory. 

You can leave other small details and examples (that probably requires your short-term memory) till the last week/last three days before exams.

If you have the feeling that you MUST remember things word by word / very clearly, mark them with a red pen or something to make sure they stand out so you can quickly memorise them during the final review.

You can also make index cards during this stage

Which may help you to organise the information and help you to stay focus (without wasting you so much time in making full and comprehensive notes)

And to quiz yourself during your final review

Final Review - 2-3 days before your exams

Scientific research shows that we are all very good at recognising things, but that does not mean that we are good at recalling them (which is exactly what requires during exams)

So, instead of just reading your notes, definitely quiz yourself using flashcards, or just look at the heading of the notes and recall as much information as possible

“no I have to memorise everything first before quizzing myself”??

No, not really. It is known that even pre-quiz can help you to remember the information better! Quickly quizzing yourself once to understand which areas you are least familiar with so you can focus more on those chapters in your final review

It actually does activate your mind too since you will be curious about the information (after knowing you cannot recall them during the quiz) - that can help you to remember better

Memorise in the right way!

Auditory learner: read the information out loud / try to teach others

Visual learner: recall the information by writing them all out in a piece of blank paper (feynman technique)

You can recall the information better when you are in the same kind of environment (scientifically proven)

That is, if you exam hall is silent, it’s better for you to remember things in silence

Even works for your condition too.

If you take energy boosting drink while your are studying, you can probably recall the information better if you drink them before exams (same as NOT drinking energy boosting drink too)

Write a list of very important keywords / information / equations as a final summary

The morning before your exams

Try not to go through anything new, you probably can’t remember/understand them anyway

The best thing to do is probably simply to go through the summary sheet you made before exams. It will help you to recall all the information you have memorised + you won’t panic since it’s everything that you have already studied

Breakfast, remember. You don’t want to be starving during exams.

As students we get told a lot about study techniques and what to do to study, but this often involves the advice of studying in quiet areas instead of suggesting activities that might actually contribute to good grades. In this post i hopefully will answer this apparently difficult question and give you some ideas to integrate into your own study sessions.

Flashcards

Flashcards are scientifically proven to be a good way to retain information, this may be because as you write the cards out you go over key concepts then you get to test yourself on knowledge in the future as you use the cards. They can also be really fun to design and effective if used properly. They can be used as studying by making the cards one session and then maybe going over and testing yourself in another. 

Practice Problems and Tests

Testing yourself is the most effective way to go over material, refresh concepts and also highlight which areas you may need to focus on when studying. You can usually find these in textbooks, off professors or by searching your course online. One night you may set out to do one chapter’s questions or questions on a particularly hard topic. It’s good to write down any issues you had and research them until you understand. Even more importantly is to do tests under exam conditions and time otherwise you will never truly know what you can do under that pressure.

Brainstorm Page

Like practice problems, this method has many of the same benefits. How it works is that you get a blank page and write all the information you can think of about a topic as if you were doing a summary. Afterwards you read it over alongside your notes and record anything you forgot to mention, these things would be key topics to go over.

Notes Summaries

For some people this technique might not be effective as it is recording information very similarly to how it was first consumed, though if you are a visual or kinetic learner it can be helpful. This way you go over your concepts and condense information so it easier to revise when exams come around. You can jazz this up by using your iPad or making notes bright and pretty so it is more engaging.

Mindmaps

Mindmaps are extremely useful in that they help establish connections between ideas within a concept which often furthers understanding. Similar to above they also help revise information taken in class or in textbooks and condense them in an engaging visual fashion.

Using the syllabus

the syllabus is usually set out in the form of questions or things you will need to know about a topic, these will also be the things you will be tested on so if you nail them you are essentially nailing any test. So in a study session i suggest writing out each syllabus point and answering it as if it was a question given to you in an exam to the best of your abilities and focus on getting a strong understanding of how to fulfil that question.You are normally given this before the start of a class if not you should ask your teacher/prof.

Videos

As a visual learning i find watching videos on topics extremely helpful and a way for information to be explained in a new way. So if you are struggling to grasp a concept try watching a video on it but remember to take notes because that way you stay engaged with the material. Documentaries can also really help in tying concepts together and build understanding.

Forums and Discussion

Have you heard people tell you that if you can explain a topic you know it, well this technique stems from that. Say one afternoon you have time to study, maybe get together with people from your class and try to explain things you’ve learn or discuss the whys and hows behind things you’ve learnt. This is a very social and very engaging ways to further understand course work. as always its good to take notes.

Overlearning

For many universities or classes the real difference between those who study and the top performing students is those who go above expectation. This isn’t saying that you should write a advanced paper on something completely unrelated to your content, however knowing evidence from different articles or the view points of different scholars is going to be the quickest way to show the time you’ve invested into the course. This can be done by reading articles, papers, watching documentaries, arguing in forums, searching Reddit, or anything that allows you to gain different perspectives and a more rich base of knowledge on a topic. Of course this is something you would do after compulsory units are nailed but maybe squeeze in time of a week to research the latest science articles or a different historians view or a new English text.

1. study for yourself, not others. don’t study because you like to say that you spent hours studying (or don’t not study just because you want to seem naturally smart)! do what you YOU have to do and not what others expect you to do.

2. understand, don’t memorize. especially if you’re in college!! 99% of the time the professor would rather you understand why something is rather than just what it is.

3. read the textbook. even if your professor goes over the chapter in class, a lot of times they’ll slip in questions on the exam that they didn’t go over in class but were in the reading. (sneaky!!)

4. don’t wait until the end of the semester to ask for extra credit. you are 20x more likely to get it if you ask in the middle. 

5. eat in class if you have to! not sure if this qualifies as a study tip but i’m including it anyway. if you’re starving there is no way you’ll be able to pay attention in class! keep some snacks in your backpack to eat during class to keep you energized and focused! the professor most likely will not mind, but if they did, it would probably say so in the syllabus.

6. make study groups! i know a lot of people find them distracting, but maybe try to meet with a study group for every class at least one or two times a semester just to make sure you didn’t miss anything in the notes. and who knows, your group might be able to explain tricky concepts to you better than your professor can!

7. take advantage of little pockets of time. do you have 30 minutes between classes? read over your notes! waiting in line for chipotle? pull out a quizlet!! college can get BUSY and overwhelming and you may have trouble finding a large chunk of time to study, so spend the down time you do have wisely!

8. ^ that being said, take breaks! if you just walked out of an exam and you’re feeling pretty brain dead, don’t pull out your notes and study! let yourself have some time to relax before you get back into your rhythm. you don’t want to burn yourself out!

9. don’t forget that you have a final exam! after you finish a chapter exam or quiz, don’t let yourself forget all of that information, it’ll make finals 10x harder! if you have extra study time every once in a while go over some of your old notes to refresh your memory.

10. go to office hours. that’s it. that’s the tip.

11. be flexible with your study time! don’t go to the library thinking “i have to stay here and study for 8 hours for my exam tomorrow or i am a bad student” because a. that is not realistic b. you might not actually need that much time. maybe you only need 3 hours to feel prepared! maybe you are planning on 2 but you really need 4! just be flexible!

12. have a clean & clear work space. we love our decorations and 20 mason jars full of pens on our desks, but at the end of the day, if your desk isn’t functional, change it. it is much easier to focus and get stuff done when you have adequate space to do so.

13. explain concepts out loud to yourself. you may sound crazy, but this works! this helps you work out the best way to explain things for the exam (especially if the exam is in essay format), and you can easily find out how much you actually understand by doing this! just go through your notes and explain all the major concepts. i always pretend i’m a professor teaching it to students (i know it sounds crazy but it really does work).

14. make sure to bring a water bottle to your study sessions. don’t be like me and only drink coffee!! coffee is great and all but doesn’t do much for your energy if you’re dehydrated and you are more likely to crash. water is really important and will keep you energized for a longer period of time!

15. switch between classes you are studying for every hour or so. your brain cannot focus on the same thing for very long, so switching between different subjects will help stimulate it so you can study longer! 

16. NEVER write an essay the day before it’s due! i guarantee it will not be your best work, even if you believe you work better under pressure. your thoughts and ideas need time to develop, and they won’t fully develop if you do it all in one night.

17. if you hit a point in your studying where you can’t focus or learn anymore, go to bed. the information will process in your brain overnight and you will wake up the next day with all the information fresh in your brain, and you’ll feel much more awake and focused on studying. 

18. mind map!! mind mapping will help you connect all the concepts together to better understand how it should all flow.

19. don’t wait to do tasks that will only take 5 minutes. get all of these quick tasks out of the way before you get on netflix (or studyblr tbh). this will help clear up your to-do list and get you into the groove of studying without doing anything too strenuous!

Get yourself into the right headspace and surroundings

Everyone’s different, and it’s really important to figure out what exactly you need to get yourself being productive. 

One of my major issues when it comes to being productive is the fact that I cannot function without constant stimuli. So whenever I need to get something done, I’ll put on an interesting podcast, audiobook, or Youtube video. That way it’s easier to put down whatever I’m doing, since I want to be able to pay attention to what I’m hearing. It also provides the extra stimuli I need when I’m doing something boring like cleaning my room or doing laundry. 

Every time I need to study or do homework, I clean my room first. I’ve noticed that when my surroundings are messy, it’s really hard to get focused on what I’m doing. I’ll get distracted by thinking about needing to clean my room or fold my clothes. So, I usually spend 20-30 minutes straightening up before I try to actually sit down. 

This also means taking care of yourself first. Eat, take a shower, fill up your water bottle. If you’re not taking care of yourself, getting anything done is super hard. So make sure that your needs are taken care of before you get down to business. 

Also, everyone is productive at a different time. I can’t even think about getting anything major done until at least four o’clock. It can take a while to work it out, but try to plan your to-do’s when you’re most energetic. 

Make a list 

This one’s super obvious, but it really helps! I keep all my due dates in my planner, but I don’t actually plan what I’m getting done until that day, because I don’t know how productive I’ll be feeling. 

The first things on my list are things that I need to do for myself, like showering or making something to eat. It might seem odd to write it down, but I have a lot of trouble with self care, and having it on my to-do’s is a good way to remind myself. Because of my PTSD, doing simple things like showering or cooking can be triggering. But if I treat it like a chore, it’s a lot less intimidating. 

I usually start with the most urgent issues, things that absolutely have to be done that day. If I’m feeling super focused, I might add a few things extra that I should do, but can still do at a later date. Don’t overload yourself. If you have a giant to-do list that day, try only writing two of three things down at a time. That way, you won’t get overwhelmed by the massive amount of stuff you have to get done. 

I also use that time to make sure that I have everything that needs to be done written down for the next week or two. I’ll go through my emails, school & work schedule, and check that everything’s there. 

Don’t start with the smallest thing, start with the easiest thing

Cleaning my bathroom can take me half an hour, but It’s still way easier to me than shooting a five minute email to someone. I can procrastinate hitting that send button for weeks. 

The whole “start with the smallest thing” has never worked for me. The smallest thing might take the least amount of time, but it might take way more energy than the other things on my list. If I start off with something that I know is exhausting, I won’t end up getting anything done. 

So basically, start with the thing that you know you can get done. Not the thing that’s causing you anxiety, or you know is a major energy drain, even if it only takes five minutes. Also, you should overestimate your time. If something takes me one hour to do, I’ll give myself two or three hours to do it. That way, I don’t feel like I’m pressuring myself to get something done quickly. 

Take breaks. Often. 

When I’m having a really low energy day, I’ll time myself. For example, I’m going to sit down and work on my homework for two hours. But after that, I’ll give myself an hour long break. 

I honestly think using a timer is the easiest way to get things done, especially when I have a massive break as an incentive to stay focused. Two hours is a long time, and for some people it might only be 15, 30, or 45 minutes. That’s okay! The most important part is knowing your limits, and how long you can stay focused on something before you need a break. When I push myself too hard and don’t take breaks (or long enough ones), I end up crashing, and not getting hardly anything done. 

It also helps if you’re the type of person to get sucked into something and have a hard time watching the time. Even if you’re focused, you still need to take breaks!

Don’t Plan to Be Productive at the End of the Day

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