Come on kid, this is your dream.

I love seeing that, for once, there are more reblogs than likes

making money

tutoring! one of the easiest to make good money in limited time! you don’t have to make home calls if you sign up to an online tutoring agency and tutor over skype

sell your old clothes. to friends/classmates or online (eBay or depop are my favourite platforms)

sell your old notes. this is easily done online and a good way to make a little extra cash

sell your skills. sites like etsy and redbubble are good places to make money off your creative talents

saving money

save £1378 in a year with my free printable

make coffee and tea at home. those daily £3 coffees add up quickly

take your own mug to coffee shops. if you can’t resist the temptation of a coffee shop coffee take your own mug. pret a manger gives you a 50p discount if you bring your own mug and caffe nero gives you double stamps

don’t carry money with you all the time. this will just make you tempted to spend

never buy another bottle of water. carry a reusable bottle with you, bottled water is very very overpriced considering most cafes will refill your bottle for free

don’t use apple pay. if you always have access to money you’ll be much more tempted to go into that shop and buy the top you passed in the window

food prep! carry snacks and a packed lunch with you to avoid pricey snack bars and ready meals. this is also an easy way to be healthier

home cook. this is always cheaper than eating out and 99% of the time cheaper than pot noodles/ramen. home cooking is even more affordable if you do it in bulk or with friends

borrow and download free ebooks and audiobooks as much as possible

make good use of the library. instead of buying books borrow them for free, a library membership is often free if you belong to a university/college but a membership is still often cheaper than buying lots of books if you’re a big reader

bring reusable bags to avoid paying for plastic bags and be kinder to the environment.

go paperless. avoid printing costs and look after the environment

cut your own hair. going to the hairdressers is expensive and can be saved as a treat but if you just need to trim your split ends there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it yourself or get a friend to help you

pre drink! if you are going out then drink alcohol at home it’s much cheaper than buying it in pubs or bars

other

use cash. it’s much easier to avoid spending money and stick to your budget when you can see exactly how much you have 

keep track of your saving and spending. i love the ‘pocket expense’ app. this will also show you what things you are overspending on 

collect coupons and loyalty cards. points make prizes!

And no, the first tip isn’t to ‘just start’, or to whip out your 84727 coloured pens, agenda, and colour code your life. 

1. Give yourself incentive: You’re a lot more likely to actually do the work if you tell yourself you’re going to watch a movie in 3 hours, rather than having an abyss of time to finish that chapter. 

2. Start early: I’m assuming most of the readers are on summer break now. I’m not asking you to start studying from the evening you finished your exam, but start at least one month before your school begins, so you can ease into the next school year. Here’s how to go about it:                                                            Get the total syllabus - You can mostly find this online, or on the school website. 

 Decide how much you want to cover over the summer - Don’t try to learn the entire 2-year course in 2 months. Start with around 2-3 chapters to give yourself a head-start. 

Get the textbooks - Again, you can mostly find these online, or at your library. If you can’t locate them online, ask someone! There are many websites dedicated to that particular board of education, and most of the textbooks come with a CD that has the book in .pdf form, and most people would gladly send you the first couple of chapters.

Stay away from past exam papers - I say this because past exams are limited, and you want to ensure that you have enough resources to practice from before your actual exams. Practice the Excercise questions in your textbook instead. Or if you really really want to practice more, invest in a question bank. 

3. Determine how you learn best: Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t only 3 kinds of learners. See for yourself:

And while we all feel we’re stress learners, that’s not quite the deal. If you have the time, try out each of these methods to find which one would suit you on the long term. 

4. Don’t movie into the library: I know it must be tempting to just sit in the library all day, but 4 hours of blogging in the library is still 4 hours of blogging. Going to the library just gives you the illusion of productivity, if you don’t do anything there. 

5. Ask you friends/family to help you stay focused: Tell them to confiscate your technology or turn off the wifi when you’re studying. Download whatever material you need for college work, or use a website-blocking app. (There are a zillion of those floating around.)

6. DON’T. HIGHLIGHT. Unless you abso-frikkin-lutely have to. Highlighting leads to passive reading. You start studying on autopilot, and there’s no point of having 4 pages of neon orange that you don’t remember reading. 

7. Note-taking: Sure, all the studyblr pictures of notes with MacBooks and sharpies and Staedtler pens might look ‘aesthetic’ but don’t try to replicate that if it don’t work for you. If you lie to scribble down your notes on newspaper margins with a black ball pen, then by all means, do that. There really is no point having an ultra-pretty study guide that you don’t really use, or worse, don’t have time to use.

8. Cut your flashcards out of paper for short courses. I find this especially helpful for vocab, etc, because it’s just a few words that I will become familiar with quickly. Use proper flashcards for things like definitions and mnemonics, as you’ll be needing these on the long term. (Also, I’m sorry I can’t help you more with flashcards, as we don’t get those in my country. It’s like I live in Narnia, minus the cool stuff.)

9. Do all the practice problems: This one is pretty self-explanatory. 

All that’s stopping you from doing this is you. All you need is discipline. This took me ages of learning the hard way that that’s literally all it is. Discipline. It’s finding the root core of WHY you want to study WHY you want to eat healthier and it needs to be something strong that you can hold on to. Such as being top of your class, going to med school, practicing a good routine for after high school, wanting to feel better by eating better, want a longer life etc. etc.

Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos.  You can always check the audit course or no certificate option so that you can learn for free.

American Sign Language

ASL University

Arabic

Arabic for Global Exchange (in the drop down menu)

Arabic Without Walls

Intro to Arabic

Madinah Arabic

Moroccan Arabic

Catalan Sign Language

Intro to Catalan Sign Language

Chinese

Beginner

Basic Chinese

Basic Chinese I. II, III, IV , V

Basic Mandarin Chinese I & II

Beginner’s Chinese

Chinese for Beginners

Chinese Characters

Chinese for HSK 1

First Year Chinese I &  II

HSK Level 1

Mandarin Chinese I

Mandarin Chinese for Business

More Chinese for Beginners

Start Talking Mandarin Chinese

UT Gateway to Chinese

Chino Básico (Taught in Spanish)

Intermediate

Chinese Stories

Intermediate Business Chinese

Intermediate Chinese Grammar

Dutch

Introduction to Dutch

English

Online Courses here

Resources Here

Faroese

Faroese Course

Finnish

A Taste of Finnish

Basic Finnish

Finnish for Immigrants

Finnish for Medical Professionals

French

Beginner

AP French Language and Culture

Basic French Skills

Beginner’s French: Food & Drink

Diploma in French

Elementary French I & II

Français Interactif

French in Action

French for Beginners

French Language Studies I, II, III

French:Ouverture

Intermediate & Advanced

French: Le Quatorze Juillet

Passe Partout 

La Cité des Sciences et de Industrie

Frisian

Introduction to Frisian (Taught in English)

Introduction to Frisian (Taught in Dutch)

German

Beginner

Beginner’s German: Food & Drink

Conversational German I, II, III, IV

Deutsch im Blick

Diploma in German

Rundblick-Beginner’s German

Advanced

German:Regionen Traditionen und Geschichte

Landschaftliche Vielfalt

Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew

Know the Hebrew Alphabet

Teach Me Hebrew

Hindi

A Door into Hindi

Business Hindi

Virtual Hindi

Icelandic

Icelandic 1-5

Indonesian

Learn Indonesian

Irish

Introduction to Irish

Italian

Beginner

Beginner’s Italian: Food & Drink

Beginner’s Italian I

Introduction to Italian

Italian for Beginners 1 , 2, 3 , 4 , 5, 6 

Intermediate & Advaned

Intermediate Italian I

Advanced Italian I

La Commedia di Dante

Japanese

Genki

Japanese JOSHU

Japanese Pronunciation

Sing and Learn Japanese

Tufs JpLang

Kazakh

A1-B2 Kazakh (Taught in Russian)

Korean

Beginner

First Step Korean

How to Study Korean

Learn to Speak Korean

Pathway to Spoken Korean

Intermediate

Intermediate Korean

Nepali

Beginner’s Conversation and Grammar

Norwegian

Introduction to Norwegian

Norwegian on the Web

Portuguese

Curso de Português para Estrangeiros 

Pluralidades em Português Brasileiro

Russian

Beginner

Easy Accelerated Learning for Russian

Advanced

Reading Master and Margarita

Russian as an Instrument of Communication

Siberia: Russian for Foreigners

Spanish

Beginner

AP Spanish Language & Culture

Basic Spanish for English Speakers

Beginner’s Spanish:Food & Drink

Fastbreak Spanish

Introduction to Spanish

Restaurants and Dining Out

Spanish for Beginners

Spanish for Beginners 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Spanish Vocabulary

Intermediate

Spanish:Ciudades con Historia

Spanish:Espacios Públicos

Advanced

Corrección, Estilo y Variaciones 

Leer a Macondo

Spanish:Con Mis Propias Manos

Spanish: Perspectivas Porteñas

Swedish

Intro to Swedish

Swedish Made Easy 1, 2, & 3

Ukrainian

Read Ukrainian

Ukrainian Language for Beginners

Welsh

Beginner’s Welsh

Discovering Wales

Multiple Languages

Ancient Languages

More Language Learning Resources & Websites!

To which I nodded solemnly, both out of agreement, surprise and also a healthy amount of awkward fear. He nodded and went, “You get it.”

I thought that would be the end of it.

Except ten minutes later he came back and told me he found out (she’s bi) and that both of us have a shot. I said “You more than me.” because he’s attractive and popular. 

My math teacher was trying to fix the rolling whiteboard and he just offhand said “This would be easier with a wrench”

Annabell, a solid white and completely deaf pit bull that used to let mom draw on her belly

The World’s Ugliest Tom Cat, who turned out to be the cuddiest teddy bear of an animal

Cocker spaniel named “Captain”

Stupid, the Cat

Litter of baby raccoons

Three more cats

A completely bald and extremely anxious canary that sang beautifully, but only at 4 AM

Baby Squirrel that grew up in the house and then refused to move out

A Genuine Thoroughbred Racehorse who was a spectacular athelete but had a habit of running races in the wrong direction.  Benny turned out to be a terrific trail horse instead.

Turtle

Snapping Turtle

A bucket full of 43 goldfish left over from the fair.  Mom counted once they were all in the bathtub in the backyard with the snapping turtle.

Another cocker spaniel named “Major”, who had the tremendous talent of eating green beans silently

Red-tailed hawk he found on the highway, and sucessfully nursed back to health and released.

Dummy, Son of Stupid

Strange, the dog that lived under the porch and only came into the house at night.

An “abandoned” baby deer.

Spooky, an alleged dog.  

Joey the parakeet whose tricks were  1. drinking tea out of a tiny cup 2. threatening to peck out people’s eyes 3. wearing hats

A Really Big Toad he found behind the factory, because the other auto workers were discussing using it for target practice.  Mr. Grumpity was guardian of the rosebed for several years and granny’s (his mother) favorite animal he ever brought home.

Gretchen, a St. Bernard that had to be shaved from her prior owner’s neglect, and spent a week hiding from sight with such success in the house that they thought she’d run away.

Arson, Burglary and Murder, three frankly adorable little kittens.  They did not change the names, much to the regret of the cop who lived three doors down.

Yet another Cocker Spaniel, named “Colonel”

Cardinal (bird)

Canada Goose (Demon)

Once in the nursing home, he had a “pet” 12-point whitetail buck that would come to his window to be fed corn and get headskritches, inexplicably named “Florence”