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I was talking with my coworker about going back to school. The both of us want to go back but are unsure what to do and we’re both mildly concerned about our study habits. Most of our anxieties stem from past experiences and generally poor study habits. We both didn’t seem to know the difference between critical understanding needed to pass the class and know the material and memorization to just pass exams. It got me to thinking if we didn’t know how to foster better study techniques, who else was having that issue? So here is my studying master post!

Study Skills:

Give yourself enough time to study- Don't leave it until the last minute. Ideally, for every one credit hour in which you enroll, you will spend approximately two to three hours outside of class studying. Therefore, to help determine the course load most appropriate for you, use the formula: 3 credit hours (1 course) = 3 hours in class per week = 6-9 hours study time per week. That can add up! To help sort out time management, set up a timetable for your studying. Remember to utilize your syllabus effectively! Write down how many exams you have and the days on which you have to sit them. Then organize your study accordingly. You may want to give some exams more study time than others, so find a balance that you feel comfortable with. 

Organize your study space- Try and get rid of all distractions, and make sure you feel as comfortable and able to focus as possible. I need everything completely tidy and organized in order to concentrate. Think about what works for you, and take the time to get it right.

Use different study sources- Don’t just look at your notes, diversify your study aids! Use revision notes, flowcharts, study guides, study groups, and old exams. I like using old exams the best because this helps you get used to the format of the questions, and - if you time yourself - can also be good practice for making sure you spend the right amount of time on each section. 

Other tips & tricks:

Snack on brain food- Keep your body and brain well-fuelled by choosing nutritious foods that have been proven to aid concentration and memory, such as fish, nuts, seeds, yogurt, and blueberries. The same applies on exam day - eat a good meal before the test, based on foods that will provide a slow release of energy throughout. Sugar may seem appealing, but your energy levels will crash an hour later.

Take regular breaks- Develop a study routine that works for you. If you study better in the morning, start early before taking a break at lunchtime. Or, if you're more productive at nighttime, take a larger break earlier on so you're ready to settle down come evening.

Drink plenty of water and exercise- I cannot stress this enough. My first go at college, I ate like trash (and had the expanding waistline to prove it) and therefore felt like trash. I didn’t eat well, I guzzled coffee and Mountain Dew like my life depended on it, and I wouldn’t carve out time to get my body moving. If you don’t feel good, you won’t do well. It’s so easy. Get to the gym for an hour or two each day by finding something (whatever it is) you can do consistently 5-7 times a week. It’s easy to grab a bottle of water and to eat your food groups while you’re studying. You’ll thank yourself each and every day if you do that. Trust me on that.

Plan your exam day- Make sure you get everything ready well in advance of the exam - don't leave it to the day before to suddenly realize you don't know the way, or what you're supposed to bring. Check all the rules and requirements, and plan your route and journey time. 

Other resources:

How To Study Better - Best Study Techniques

Scientifically Proven Best Ways to Study

GAH I’m so stressed. I’m rewriting accounting notes with a more, minimalist approach. I don’t usually go overboard with doodles and banners and such but these are rly just bare bones titles/subtitles with bullet points.

Sorry for the image quality tho, a combination of writing in fluorescent colours and dim, fluorescent lighting is not a good one for the sake of taking pictures.

Exams have, and still do, give me anxiety. I have never been the best taker and a lot of that can be chalked up to poor study skills. Before I begin a new chapter in my academic career, I think it’s best to examine how to become an effective test taker. I have always felt that being a good test taker means I understand the material in a thorough sense, to the point where I can teach someone else the same material in my own words and with my own methods. However, test anxiety is a very real issue many of us face. So how do we make it through midterms, finals, and entrance exams?

Tips & Tricks:

Positive Self-Talk- According to a NYT article, “How to Be a Better Test-Taker,” a study published in the journal Emotion, Dr. Beilock and four co-authors in 2011 found that with students anxious about math, the more stress hormone they produced, the worse they did on a test; students with low math anxiety did better the more cortisol they produced. The best way to combat this is to flip the script. Remind yourself that damp palms and a pounding heart accompany all kinds of enjoyable experiences: riding a roller coaster, winning a sports match, kissing someone you really like for the first time. It’s important to be mindful. Recognize that you have these feelings, but associate them with better, more positive things. 

Write it down- This is another way of being mindful. The aforementioned article recommends that for 10 minutes you write about your feelings regarding the exam to clear your mind of test-related stress, freeing working memory that can be applied to the exam.

Go into exam day with a game plan- Now that we have our study skills down it’s hard to think where to begin, which contributes (at least for me) to poor study habits and going into the exam uninformed. Use the syllabus effectively, it’s one of your best resources for the class. It’s the best way to help you make a plan. Don’t cram for your exams, they hardly sneak up on you. Start planning from the first class to curate a study schedule. Much of my anxiety comes from feeling underprepared because I never planned for the exam or even thought of what the exam must look like. Much of my study posts can be simplified into three tips:

Use your syllabus 

Make a study calendar 

Make studying part of your DAILY routine

The syllabus is arguably the most important resource a student has to guide them through the semester. It’s honestly the most underrated key of success to a student’s arsenal. It seems pretty easy to use, but it took me until the last two semesters of college to use it properly and pay it any mind. So here are 4 tips and tricks to use your syllabi (syllabuses?) this semester:

1. Use a syllabus to prepare the rest of your schedule

Syllabi are not meant just to tell you what is going to be due later in the semester. They’re given to you (in part) so that you can know in advance how much of your life will be given to a particular class. It’ll help you prepare for exams, papers, and projects so you can carefully schedule in preparations for these things in advanced. I cannot count how many times I would be stunned to learn there was a major exam next week and how unprepared I was. With a syllabus, you can schedule when to begin prep and map out what material will be covered on that exam. If you’re like me and had a part-time job, internships, club events, and a boatload of other demanding classes in the mix of all that, you can properly schedule when to study, what exactly to study, how to study, and to pepper in practice exams.

2. Use a syllabus to finish projects early

When you have a full semester, it’s really helpful if you get some things finished early. You’ve probably noticed that at the end of the semester, every class piles up. You have 5 research papers due in two weeks, three major exams, and another 6 or 7 books you have to finish reading. Even if you’re like me and you have everything down to an exact science, it’s hard to focus on academics with everything going on. I know I should be studying for exams up until the moment the exam’s given, but it’s a lot easier to focus when projects, readings, and papers can be done weeks in advance. I even had a professor layout different paper topics for the semester on the very first day of classes, but with other professors, I always had an idea what they were looking for a semester’s worth of papers after day one.

3. Record due dates on your own calendar — don’t leave them on your syllabus

This was a trick I picked up right away so I wouldn’t be surprised when exams and assignments cropped up especially when my calendar is staring me in the face the moment I wake up.

4. Use a syllabus to define your daily task list months in advance

As soon as you have your due dates recorded, you can define a to-do list for each day. This is going to allow you to know a long way in advance what each day will hold. It helps to plan the rest of your life. It helps spread out the workload especially during finals when you’re at your wit's end!

Helpful Resources:

How to Use Your Course Syllabus

**DISCLAIMER: I still live with my parents (who support me in terms of allowing me to live rent-free, I don’t have a cell phone bill, I mooch off their streaming services, and I don’t have to pay for the food I eat in their homes) and I don’t have much debt so these methods were the best way for me. Not everyone has the ability to be this aggressive with their debt or credit history as I am privileged to be. I also want to make clear that I am not a financial expert by ANY means. If you’re in desperate need of financial advice, don’t listen to a person on Tumblr, go to a real professional. Again, I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL. **

I recently made a new friend who is a few years older than me. She has been asking me to help her with saving money and she’s not the only one. I’ve had a few friends in the last couple of weeks ask me for financial advice. I’m only 22 and, thus far, I’ve only ever taken a money 101 class my freshman year of high school and college microeconomics 4 years ago, but I was very lucky to have parents (especially my mother) be very candid with me about how money works. Of course, that did not mean I didn’t make A LOT of financial mistakes especially the first year after graduating with my first bachelor’s degree. I’ve decided to make this a series to best describe each situation and how I fixed it. 

Each financial mistake and how they are fixed is extremely unique to each individual but my goal with this series is to help people (especially students and postgrads) not make the same mistakes I did after I graduated college. 

So here are is my first top financial mistakes and how I fixed it.

I overused my credit cards- My first goal out of college was to build and diversify my credit. To be candid, I have a car loan, student loans, and my two credit cards. I’m an emotional spender. 2018 saw the end of college, the start and end of a new job, the start of another new job that was significantly less busy than the previous one, the desire to go to medical school, paying for community college, and ultimately withdrawing from the said community college when I no longer wished to be a doctor, my first break up, and turmoil in my home that ultimately led me to move in with my dad. In short, my life was kind of all over the place as I attempted to figure my life and goals out. I charged my Chase and Discover cards on food, clothes I still haven’t worn, and expensive products I convinced myself I needed. By October, I had accrued nearly $2500 in credit card debt. On top of my other bills and low income, that’s not good and my credit score reflected that. I also didn’t realize that the current and statement balances were two different numbers, the higher representing what I owe including interest.