biochemistry studyblr

24.04.20 // 15:14 // Quarantine Challenge day 26

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

so i recently got my resume critiqued and learned a lot of things

if you’re in post-secondary education, don’t include your high school (especially if you’re in your last 2 years). employers really don’t care about high school because it was so many years ago 

include your intended graduation year. don’t just say “2014-present” because you could be planning to graduate next year or in 6 years and how will employers know?

include your major under education and any educational goals you may have such as professional certifications. this will show recruiters right off the bat what you are planning to do in the future and will give you a leg up if you’re applying to an internship related to those goals 

don’t just make a huge list of skills. anyone can write that they have strong interpersonal skills and are good at critical and analytical thinking. for each skill you list, give some examples that prove you really do have it. try not to use examples from your experience section, put something new so the recruiter doesn’t have to read about your work with the yearbook committee three times 

don’t make a huge list of skills!!! choose a few that are relevant to the job you want

don’t use the word “skills”, use something that sounds more professional like “qualifications”

including an objective isn’t mandatory but it can help recruiters to see at a glance where you are going in the future and if you are a good fit for their company. if you do include one, make it detailed but short because hiring managers don’t like reading 

in your objective, focus on how you can benefit the company and how you’re right for the job, not the other way around 

provide all contact info, including address, home and cell phone and email. use your university or college email because this makes you look much more professional than a hotmail account does

if your GPA is higher than 3.50 (when measured on a 4.0 scale), you should include it. however be prepared because you may be asked about it in the interview

include if you’ve ever gotten recognition in past jobs or clubs for outstanding performance like employee of the month or a VIP award. this shows that you’re dedicated to what you do 

For the record, I flunked every class I was taking in fall semester of 2001. I’ve also failed every online class I’ve ever taken. I feel so much for my kids this spring–and summer–and looking like fall as well.

If your grades slide this semester, be kind to yourself. And see what your college is doing for you in terms of grading–every student at my school has the option to make every class they’re taking pass/fail and not count toward their GPA–but a pass still counts toward graduation and toward prerequisites. 

We’re all getting ready to be kind to students coming into subsequent classes who might be less ready than they’d hoped. If you missed something next semester, be frank with your teachers in fall–we have a lot of resources to give you, and we want to help. 

If you’re struggling, it’s okay. Please send your professors an email, because if we haven’t heard from you since we went online, we are worried about you–but if you just can’t with school at this point, we understand. Take care of yourself. Do what you need to do.

Read the entire question twice to look for tricky wording. If you’re allowed to write on it circle or underline words like NOT or EXCEPT or other things your brain might skip over. This will make it less likely you’ll skip over them.

Read all the answers before answering. Sometimes the wrong answers are so stupid you don’t even have to work out the problem or try to remember the thing.

If the entire test is about the same subject (Colonial America for example) answers might be found in previous questions. Like question #6 might ask who wrote Common Sense. You might remember that back in question one it said “In Common Sense by Thomas Paine” and there’s your answer. This happens a lot more often than you’d think.

If you don’t know the answer cross out the answers you know are incorrect. If there are four answers but you know one of them is wrong your odds of guessing right just went up from 25% to 33%. If you can eliminate two answers then you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right.

If you can’t eliminate any answers at all guess C. The placement of correct answers isn’t completely random and C is the answer slightly more often than other answers. If you guess randomly your odds of getting the answer right actually goes down.

Read study guides and take practice tests. Actually read them. Especially if they’re written by the same person who wrote the test you’ll be taking. You’ll be more likely to pick up on their quirks and what kind of trick questions they write if you use the study material. You’ll also know what to study and what to leave.

For sections where there’s a list of words you have to match to definitions read the words first. You’re probably more likely to know the definition of a word then the word that goes with a definition. (or time period or math method or whatever). Answer the ones you know and leave the ones you don’t until you’re completely done with that section. Then look at your remaining words and definitions and match them to the ones that sound the least ridiculous.

Don’t take a test on an empty stomach unless you’re fasting for religious reasons. I don’t care if you haven’t eaten breakfast in twenty years. You’re gonna eat something before you take that test.

it’s kind of early holidays however we don’t want to completely forget what we’ve learnt however we value mind-off time however this is year twelve however physical and mental collapse ain’t welcome please and thank you so here you go.

some baby itty-bitty lil light things to do here and there so holidays aren’t advancing you towards that next spicy burn out sesh but also so we don’t return to school as useless as the school planner they hand out at the start of the year… if we actually even go back hah… the idea is that these are short and pack a punch:

open your math/bio/chem/phys/whatever textbook to a random chapter and do three random questions - make sure you mark your responses and if you struggle, congrats! you found an area you’re a bit rusty on and can revise briefly now or note it down for later. the main thing is- ensure you do something about it some point soonish.

pick a syllabus objective for a subject or a topic in a subject and blurt out everything you know - write, draw, sketch etc. down everything you know, or if you’re super lazy, just say it out loud. if it’s on paper, check what you’ve written and add things you’ve missed by looking at notes or a textbook. active recall, peeps.

watch a khan academy vid or a crash course vid - five minutes while lying in bed and then you can go back to that episode of glee whatever. what i like to do with my current glee obsession: between each episode, watch a biology video related to ecology. expose that brain to info again.

set a timer for fifteen minutes and do as much of an assignment as you can, and do it as focused as you can - if you can, stretch it out to a few pomodoro sessions (twenty-five minutes work, five minutes break, repeat) but lately my motivation and concentration has been pretty low so i’ll opt for fifteen minutes on my history assignment, and then i’ll disappear into the pool for an hour and then hop out and do another fifteen. the key is the bite-sizedness of this method: do this four times a day and that’s an hour of focused assignment work. for holidays, that ain’t bad at all…

make a mindmap - pretty easy on the brain and can be fun (pull out the ol’ coloured pencils). make links between topics (i do this for bio a lot) and summarise main categories/characteristics/points of info. will probably do a whole post on mind maps, i- cannot recommend enough. good study tool when it comes to exam season as you get a nice umbrella view of what you need to cover.

drill through flashcards for eight minutes - don’t know why, but eight minutes is the magic number for flashcards. don’t have any? quizlet, or time to make some. don’t have to be pretty. facetime friends and drill them together.

read through the exemplars for the assessments coming up - if you haven’t already, have a squizz at the sample responses for each assessment that have been released by your state currriculum authority. note what you have to do to achieve a high level response, and what’s the difference with a high level and mid or low level response. try to maximise your marks. look at the assignments you’re doing right now and see how you’re comparing so far. keep doing this throughout the year. 

organise your binder/papers/folder/desk/bag/pencil case - not really a proper study thing, but staying on top of your shiz can seriously keep you efficient and improve that academic performance. if you’re like me, by the end of the term, your bag and desk is a wild jungle of paper and just- trash. finally got the time to reorganise- so do it. 

Working with tert-butyllithium. 

This one is a quite useful and well known chemical. It spontaneously ignites on air. tert-Butyllithium is a chemical compound with the formula (CH3)3CLi. As an organolithium compound, it has applications in organic synthesis since it is a strong base, capable of deprotonating many carbon acids, including benzene. tert-Butyllithium is available commercially as hydrocarbon solutions; it is not usually prepared in the laboratory.

tert-Butyllithium is a pyrophoric substance, meaning that it easily catches fire on exposure to air. While it is possible to work with this compound using cannula transfer, traces of tert-butyllithium at the tip of the needle or cannula may catch fire and clog the cannula with lithium salts. Here we transferred it with a plastic syringe under N2 atmosphere. 

Everyone is very much focused right now on Years 11 and 13, whose exams have been cancelled, but Years 10 and 12 will more than likely have exams next year that aren’t - and this time off means you’re losing a lot of teaching time. Whatever measures end up being taken for you next year, it’s important that you are still preparing yourselves for the eventuality that every exam goes ahead as normal. Even if it doesn’t, it’s better to be over prepared than underprepared. I imagine you’ll have been given resources to help you with this, but it’s not the same as being at school/college/sixth form.

So, if you need help with chemistry, French, German, biology or maths, I am happy to answer your questions. I took these subjects at A level and achieved A*AAAA, and I achieved 11 A* grades at GCSE. I am now doing a chemistry degree at a Russell Group university. I taught myself the A level maths course in a year, on my own - I know how difficult self-teaching is and I know that there will be people who will struggle more than others with this. I’m not saying this to brag at all; I’m saying that I am more than qualified to give you some tips if you would like them!

I have no doubt that your teachers will be doing their best to help you as well; I am just offering to do what I can because these are unprecedented circumstances. Nobody knows what next year will look like, or even if we’ll be able to return to our respective institutions in time for the new academic year. The best thing you can do for yourselves is to keep your heads down and do the best you can to keep learning, ready for your eventual return.

I know you probably feel a bit lost (or maybe you don’t - lucky you!) without a teacher in front of you to guide you, but if I were in your boat - and to some extent I am, because I still have to think about standing myself in good stead for next year - I’d be looking to do all I could to minimise my disadvantage.

(Obviously I am busy with my own work as well so I won’t be able to respond immediately, but wherever I am available I will try my best to give you a different perspective on a topic, or perhaps point you towards some new resources if I know of any!)

25/03/2020; 47/100 days of productivity with @studiesandcaffeine ;

here here here (there’s more sites saying the same thing)

it’s called PMDD (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) and it’s basically PMS but make it Super Hardcore, it’s a hormonal disorder and to my knowledge they’re not exactly sure what causes it - there’s theories tho - but there seems to be little research on it anyway. As I said it’s similar to PMS in terms of symptoms [mood swings, lethargy, cramps, changed sleeping pattern, libido, appetite] but the symptoms get so severe that they are interfering with your daily life and impacting it negatively. Especially in terms of psychological symptoms, while it doesn’t go that far for everyone who has it and also not every month, a lot of the people who experience it are sent into a severe depressive episode beause of it and it’s really not rare at all for them to experience legitimate suicidal thoughts that go away the second they get their period (or up to two days in from what I’ve read).

I’ve read different claims on how many people it affects, some sources say 5%, others 8%, others say 2% so I don’t know about that, but menstruating people need to know this lmao. Not knowing that your suicidality is caused by a literal physical disorder that you have can be so dangerous, especially when you already struggle with such issues anyway or are trying to recover from mental illness and don’t realize that your “relapses” are symptoms of an actual disorder.