School shit

PART ONE - IPHONE

part two here

So this is my first post that isn’t a stupid text post or overly bright photo of my stationary, so I hope you’ll like it! It will consist of two parts, one for the ios apps and one for google chrome extensions. Feel free to send me recommendations!

bolded = favourite, cursive = apps I use every day

Note taking and co

Pocket - very useful app to save websites, articles, posts etc and read them offline.           

Keynote, Pages, Numbers - basics if you have an apple device. I actually like keynote better than powerpoint c:

Notability - Very popular app and it really is worth its money. Great for note taking, especially in class!

Evernote - On my phone for over 4 years now. The group feature is so great and I use it for preparing posts

Werdsmith - very clean and minimalistic app for writing, I use it mainly for creative writing.

Microsoft One Note - Simple app for note taking and making online notebooks.

Languages

Leo - a great dictionary in 8 languages. If you log in you can save problem words and make vocabulary lists.

Memrise - My favourite app to learn languages for free. I’m learning Japanese with it!                                                              

Duolingo learning languages for free is always fun and duolingo is so easy to use, it’s even more fun! I use it to practice my Spanish.

Studying

Forest - Who doesn’t know and love forest yet? It’s such a cute application and I use it when I have a long study day/night ahead.

Brainscape - My to go app for flashcards. It has a giant library and it’s easy to make your own. Honestly, I’ve been using it for 3 years now and I still love it.

Mindly - A very beautiful app to make mind maps. I use it for story ideas and school work.

MindNode - also an easy way to make mind maps.

Uberchord - learn how to play the guitar for free c: 

TheSimpleClub - videos, and tutorials of all important school subjects, mainly in German, I think

Notenapp - keep track of your grades - German 

Khan Academy - like the simple club but with a broader spectrum and in English.

Tide - promodoro app with nice background sounds & inspirational quotes 

Swifty - learn how to code in a very fun and simple way! 

Flow timer - another great promodoro timer (they are everywhere). I like the minimalistic look and nice colours.

Inspiration & Motivation

Vantage - Simple but beautiful designed calendar

Calm - Helps me calm down with breathing exercises backgrounds and sounds.

Elevate - games and exercises that help to keep your mind fit 

Pacifica - an app that helps with anxiety and mental disorders with a very kind community

TED Inspiring, interesting and motivating videos on a wide variety of topics.

Others

Textgrabber & Scanner Pro -  Essentials. Scans photos and grabs texts of pdf and other documents and converts them into word/text documents.

Sleeptown - From the makers of forest a very cute app that helps you keep a healthy sleep schedule. I try to use it but I forget it often, sadly. 

Tydlig - not free but honestly the best calculator you can have on your phone! Beautiful and simple it makes math so much more fun!

Spark - organizes your emails (even from multiple accounts) and notifies you if something important comes in. Very neat design.

Moon - cute app that shows the phases of the moon depending on the date.

It’s essay writing season for tons of students!

After being a college writing tutor for over a year, I thought I would share my advice with all you awesome people on tumblr. This is how I write essays, but if you’ve got more tips, feel free to add them below. 

Visualizing the area of a circle

How to make Google do math for you

Prepare for a math exam

Get geometry help

Get algebra help

Snap a photo of a problem & get an instant answer

How to remember pi

Another instant math problem solver

Yet another problem solver

Online ruler

How to multiply big numbers

Data, probability, & statistics lesson

Take practice tests

Printable worksheets

Linear equations masterpost

How to study for a math test

How to find percentages of a number lifehack

Quantitative skills PDF

Factor faster

mawaddahar said to collegerefs: how to get straight As in exams. im craving to get it! help me.

1. Start the semester strong by developing good notetaking methods

A big mistake some people make is by being too relaxed at the beginning of the semester. They’ll take it easy, take some mediocre notes, then start to panic when the midterm comes around. You need to find a good notetaking method ASAP and follow it consistently. Taking good notes is essential to good studying habits. 

2. Study frequently

I say this all the time, but studying every day or every week is so much more effective than waiting until the day before the exam to start studying. Study often and you won’t have to cram at the end of the semester. It doesn’t have to be long, intense study sessions; just study for 20 minutes every day and you’ll start to memorize and retain so much more information than if you’d just waited until the night before the final.

3. Create practice tests

Sites like quizlet can help you develop your own practice tests for classes. Practice tests are a great studying tool because they will help you identify the material with which you’re having issues, so you know what you really need to study and what you already know pretty well. 

4. Attend study sessions

If you’re lucky enough to have a professor or TA who holds a study session, go to it. They know what’s on the exam and they’ll definitely give hints about what you will need to know. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about material you don’t understand. 

5. Engage during class

I learn so much more when I’m actively talking to my professor and answering questions. Just sitting and class while mindlessly copying down notes won’t help you retain nearly as much as actually participating will. 

6. Pretend to teach someone else the material

This is a great studying method because if you can effectively teach someone else something, then you know the material very well. One way that I do this is by summarizing my notes into a concise paragraph that would be able to teach someone the gist of the lesson. 

7. Use all the time you are given for an exam

These are my tips for giving really good presentations in class! It will be slightly more geared towards history, english, etc. and some of the tips might not apply to science classes, but hopefully this helps.! 

Presenting Well: 

Know what you are talking about. When you are giving a presentation, you should be an expert in what you are talking about. Study the topic like it’s your job. 

If you are working with a partner, still make sure you know it all! When I do partner presentations, this is what I do. Decide who is going to do each part of the presentation. This is the part that you should know backwards and forwards. But! You should also have a good amount of knowledge about your partner’s topics. If one of you falters or forgets something, the other can back them up. Also, this helps to make you look more cohesive and less like you just split it in half. 

Be able to answer questions. This ties into my last point. If a classmate or a teacher asks you a question and you have no idea, it doesn’t look good. You should know more information than just what you’re presenting. 

Don’t read from notes. If you stand up and just read from a page, your class might as well be reading this information from a textbook. If you can, don’t use any notes at all. If you absolutely need them, make them super short jot notes, not full sentence pages of notes. 

Organize your slides in a way that makes sense. Start with background information, then state your thesis, then get into your arguments and more detailed information. Don’t put your thesis at the end, or skip over the background information.

Include a conclusion at the end of your presentation. A presentation is basically a verbal essay, so you should be including all of these parts. Restate your thesis and quickly sum up the reasons that you talked about in the presentation. This will help everyone in your audience to understand what you discussed. 

Dress up a bit and try to look really good. I personally believe that a lot of confidence can come from the outside. Looking good and being comfortable with what you’re wearing will make you more confident. Also, a lot of teachers want to see that you made an effort to look professional for a presentation. 

Talk to the class like you’re having a conversation. Obviously, you don’t want to be too relaxed and seem like you don’t know what you’re talking about. But it is really helpful to use your normal language and tone, throw in a couple jokes, and just act normal! It’s always really weird when someone turns into a robot when they are giving a presentation, so try to avoid that if possible. 

Practice in front of someone! This will help you avoid looking awkward and help you go at a normal speed. Also, they can tell you if there was a part that they didn’t understand or anything like that. Try to choose someone objective, that won’t lie to make you feel better. 

Time out your presentation. You have to time out your presentations before you do them. It’s not fair to other presenters and to your class if you go way over the time limit. Time yourself reading through the presentation, then again when you present in front of someone. Maybe leave a bit of time at the end for questions, too. 

Making Good Visuals: 

Use something simple. Unless your teacher suggests otherwise, just use slides or something simple like slides. Unless you are really good with these kinds of programs, when you try and do something like a video or a Prezi, its way more likely that it will look unfinished or crazy. I personally hate Prezi, because it’s way too hard to follow. 

Use a built in slides theme. Again, this might not apply to you if you’re really into graphic design, but for the most part, stick to this rule. When you try and mix your own colours and patterns and fonts, it can tend to look really busy. Try to stick with a preset theme. 

Do not have full sentences. You should not have more than 10 words on your entire slide, if that. A really good photo, political cartoon, graph, or other graphic says way more than an exact copy of the words you’re already saying. Your slides are a visual to back you up, not the main focus. If your class has to take notes on your presentation, this might not apply.

Don’t use a white background. Pure white makes your eyes hurt. Change the background colour to a really pale grey, one shade lower than white. This will help your audience focus on the slides better. 

We’ve all had those English assignments where we’re asked to read a text, usually a novel or play, and are then asked to make a point about the book and prove said point in a paper.

But how do you build an argument when your point isn’t necessarily one that has pro or con (for or against) sides? (Like pro-death penalty or anti-abortion.)  

It’s easier than you may think.

First off, find something to write about; a thesis (your “point”).

Try to find something that interests you. For example, if you have interest in women’s studies, perhaps you can write about female roles in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart or Miller’s play “The Crucible,” or whatever it is you’re reading. You can also do this if you’re anti-government or like learning about various cultures.  (or whatever!)

If you’re assigned a point or can’t find one you’re interested in, try to keep an open mind. Going in with a bad attitude will only make things harder, boring, and may show negatively in your grade. If you go in open-minded, you may even learning something you do find interesting.

Next, is to figure out how to back your thesis with supporting points.

Okay, you may not be able to do the pro/con thing, but when trying to figure out how to support my point/thesis, it can be easier for me to think of things in a debate setting. By this I mean, I try to think of how someone could try to disprove me. Then I go about researching/re-reading so I can rebuff those “against” points.  So in other words, I go at things a little backwards.

When it comes to outside resources (resources outside your book), take advantage of any academic databases your school subscribes to (things like Ebscohost, MLA Bibliography, etc.) These databases are the best ways to find scholarly articles. If you can’t access these databases or if your searches are coming up dry, try Wikipedia. And yes, I know you’re yelling “Mary, I can’t use Wiki, it’s not a reputable source!” But you can look at the arthur’s sources. Those may good and well be scholarly and reputable articles. 

Also, don’t be afraid to ask your teacher or a research librarian for help. Your teachers may have their own sources (books, etc.) on whatever you’re reading, and librarians know all sorts of research strategies that us normal folks do not. Trust me, I know that doing your own online research can be socially easier than physically asking for help, but sometimes you just have to. I’ve botched some grades just because I was too afraid to ask for help.

Now, it’s time to begin the actual writing process.

Do whatever pre-writing process works best for you, even if that means just jumping head first into writing. For these sort of papers, I jot down my supporting points in the order I want to address them. I also bullet point my “evidence” under the corresponding point. Kind of like a really sloppy and lazy outline.

It’s good to think of your points/evidence/examples as a hierarchy. (THESIS>Main Supporting Points (usually three or four depending)>Evidence/Examples per Point)  

Make sure to include quotes! For literary based papers quotes and other forms of textual evidence are super important! (During your pre-writing you may want to note the page number that your quotes are located on.) It’s best to know what quotes you’re planning to use before you begin actually writing. Never just fit in a quote later, because your assignment calls for a certain number of quotes.

And what do those quotes need? CITATIONS. Also, remember to cite even when you’re just paraphrasing material. 

With keeping the above suggestions in mind, just go ahead with your usual writing and editing process.

***If you have issues with analyzing your book, I have a tip post here that may prove useful. 

Here’s a few steps to get some perfect straight-As!

Preview your classes: this might sound silly to some of you, but honestly it helps a lot. Try to force yourself to read through your textbook or notes that you know your teacher will be teaching the day before class, so that you can have a slight idea of what’s going to happen tomorrow. Try highlighting the texts, or, if you’re feeling in the mood, do some outlining! Trust me, you will be so much more confident in class and that will also help you to only jot down things that’s not in your textbook. Lazy people are in fact the ones who do the prep work because they want to save time in the future!

Take class notes: Having previewed your class, you’ll realise class is in fact quite fun (shocker here). When your classmates are trying so hard to copy everything down from the powerpoints, you only have to write down things that aren’t included in your notes/textbooks. And, since you should have figured out the things you didn’t understand the night before, you can pay more attention on those parts during class, or even ask your teachers about it!

Outline Notes: When you’re home after school (preferably) or during the weekend, try to combine your class notes and textbooks together and make your perfect outline notes. Do your outline notes after every class instead of waiting till your teacher finishes a chapter/section. It will help you to keep track of your classes!

Study guides: After a chapter/section, it’s good to narrow it down to a nice and simple study guide. Try to omit information that’s already in your brain from your outline notes and reorganize it into a study guide. The whole process will help you to review the knowledge once again and at the same time give yourself some good source for studying for finals.

Index cards: this should be the last step. I usualy prepare index cards when I’m studying for a test. Before the test, I will use my study guide to study, and write down key information (either some main points or parts that I can hardly remember) onto the index cards. The night before/ the morning before the test, the only thing I’m holding is my index cards. So while all your pals are holding their large pile of notes and cramming in the hallways, you can confidently walk with only some cards!

BACK TO SCHOOL

high school supplies lists

back to school shopping list

the broke student guide to buying school supplies

keep your school bag organized

how to organize your desk

getting organised… and keeping it up

what to wear on the first day of school

how to prepare for a new semester

how to wake up early

the “secret” to doing well in school

how to study effectively and have a great school year

make a list of topics to cover in the next school year

an app that organizes your time for you

STUDY TIPS

things to keep in mind before you start studying

how to start studying

can’t start studying?

how to take a study break

things to do on a study break

planning your study time

10 mistakes when studying

studying: what to avoid

what to avoid

ways to avoid burnout

important things to remember

how to stay organized

5 tips on keeping your attention in class

Sunday checklist

what to do if you haven’t studied enough

when studyblr tips contradict…

MOTIVATION AND DISCIPLINE

5 tips for staying motivated

some tips to stay motivated

motivation tips

how to motivate yourself

give yourself an incentive

how to stay motivated

how to get motivated when you don’t feel like doing anything

what to do when you don’t feel like studying

why discipline is better than motivation

form good habits

don’t break the chain

how to stick to your plan

the curve of forgetting

websites/apps that will help you with procrastination

blocking apps and extensions

how to overcome procrastination

the science of procrastination, and how to beat it

NOTE TAKING

the Cornell method

the Cornell method 2

how to take good notes

note taking method

another note taking method

in class notes

5 tips for mindmapping

symbols and abbreviations for note taking

various types of subheading

fancy handwriting

ESSAYS

how to write an essay

essay writing tips

how to approach poetry analysis in an exam

guide on punctuation

Word will format your entire paper

do your eyes a favor and change the background color

tools for referencing

social media citation guide

100+ words for SAT

transition words

synonyms for “different”

synonyms for “shows”

synonyms for “suggests”

synonyms for “said”

synonyms for “increase” and “decrease”

synonyms for words commonly used in students’ writings

45 ways to avoid using the word “very”

RESEARCH AND FREE BOOKS

free research

free textbooks

free study resources

cheap online bookstore

why you shouldn’t use torrents to get free textbooks and what to do instead

English literature masterpost

60 awesome search engines for serious writers

how to utilize Google Scholar efficiently

Zotero

BULLET JOURNALS AND PLANNERS

guide to bullet journaling

guide to bullet journals

pros and cons of bullet journals

sample bullet journal legend

bullet journal tips

5 bullet journal page ideas

bullet journal setup

bullet journal setup 2

bullet journal setup 3

bullet journal setup 4

bullet journal setup 5

weekly spread

planners review

PRINTABLES

daily and weekly planner

today’s plan of action printable

today’s hustle

daily planner, essay planner, assignment planner

weekly planner

weekly class planner

course overview

goal getter, month at a glance and grade tracker

note-taking printables

study printables

studying for exams

study and revision planner

essay planner

THE STUDYBLR COMMUNITY

beginner’s guide to starting a studyblr

the studyblr community map

theorganisedstudent’s blog roll

noteblr: share your notes

IB studyblrs list

IB Kik study groups

The Five Day Study Plan: 

 Exam season is upon us (actually, exam season has been this entire semester for me, really. I’ve had at least one exam every week since January) so I decided to make a little info graphic on the 5-day study plan. 

1. Title

Choose what subject you’re focusing the mindmap on and write the title in a bubble at the centre of the page. If the subject is very broad, make sure to use large A3 paper to fit all the information you need on!

2. Split up your subject

Work out what sub-sections there are within the subject- I chose the mindmap above because the sections are very clear. Working this out before you start writing will help you plan how much space your writing can take up, as well as making you less likely to repeat information in other parts of the mind map. I usually make these sub-sections related to exam questions that can be asked on the subject. Draw an arrow from the centre bubble and write the title of your first section.

3. Elaborate

Now write down the important facts within each section, using arrows coming from the sub-titles. Keep writing brief and highlight important information in a bright colour so that you can easily scan the mind map later to see the key facts. Use bullet points if you find it hard to write concisely. I also like to use illustrations to make my mindmaps stand out (although there aren’t any on the mindmap above because I was trying to keep it qite minimal) I find that if I add funny pictures to the information, I remember it better.

4. Extras

If there is anything else important that doesn’t fit your categories, put it around the edges of the mindmap. In the map above, I’ve added some examples of past exam questions in a space at the top right of the mindmap. Sometimes I even staple down flashcards or important handouts that are related to the subject! Try adding your own little touches and see what you find most useful.

I hope this helps you to study in a more creative way! x

another style of mindmap that I often make

my post on how to take good notes

~Trust me on this one~

1. Do the questions at the end of the chapter. I know everyone says this but DO THEM. My textbook had various question types (multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer) and was extremely helpful. On a similar note, I also suggest making a collaborative Google Doc for questions for the class. I did that for balancing equations and had 30 kids each contribute a question or two. Very helpful.

2. FOCUS ON LAB REPORTS. I cannot emphasize this enough. Spend time on your lab reports. They will boost your grade and give you a further understanding of the topic if you work hard. If your teacher doesn’t offer extra credit, think of lab reports as your extra credit. They are that helpful and important.

3. Sum up complete chapters on a single side of a flash card. That way you can boil it down to the important equations and terms. Before a test, I usually made 4-10 flash cards of notes that I brought with me on the bus, looked at during breaks, and drilled into my head.

(These can be applied to any high school science course)

Don’t worry too much! You still have two months, so you should have enough time to prepare for the exams. Here are some tips that may help:

Understand the formulas before actually memorising them. You should try to find the connection between the formulas, understand the theories behind them.

Practice so that you can familiarise yourself with the formulas and concepts. The more you practice, the easier it is for you to understand them and their application.

Use flashcards or videos online to help you learn the topics. If you struggle with understanding the content, online videos are awesome since they can explain the concepts to you. You may also make use of flashcards to memorise the formulas. Here is how I take note for math.

Remember to review errors. Math is not just about the final answers, but the process for each solution as well. Remember to look at how you work out the problems to see if you actually understand the concepts behind.