#ib study tips

A few quick tips that work for me :) hopefully they can help you too!!

1. Don’t overwhelm yourself with work! (You’ll drain yourself and the quality of your work won’t be half as good as you can make it)

2. Sleep well! Having a good nights rest will help you pay attention and stay focused in class :)

3. Ask questions for clarification! I used to be really bad at this because I was always so nervous to ask in front of the entire class, y’all to your teachers they’re there to help and are almost always available at lunch or before/after school to help :)

4. Plan ahead! Even just writing down in your calendar that a test is coming up will help you mentally and visually take note of the time you have to study. It’ll help you understand concepts with more time and help you be a little less stressed the night before a test!

Hope these helped! Feel free to message me if you ever wanna talk <3

By class

Write the name of the class, and then the assignment

By due date

Write the day the assignment is due, along with the assignment

By difficulty level

Organize the assignments from easiest to hardest, or vice versa, and write them in that order

By length of time they will take to complete

Organize the assignments putting the assignments which will take the shortest amount of time to those that will take the longest time, and vice versa

By assigned date

Write the day the assignment was assigned, along with the assignment

By favoritism

I’ve decided to take up the 100 days of productivity to keep up with posting on this blog and try to stop procrastinating :)

So far today I’ve written notes on the new textbook we got in history class,, my friend and I decided to split up the chapters so we can cover as much ground as possible while maximizing our time.

I recommend this especially for large textbooks you need to read. I would say to try to read the whole book, but notes wise : divide and conquer. That way if you forget something you can rely on the notes to jog your memory :)

Hope y’all have a great day!

Feel free to message me whenever 🧡

And it can be easy to get swept up and filled with anxiety. Remember that these exams will pass and everything will work out in the end, as cheesy as that sounds.

Remember not to burn yourself out. My friend made a lovely schedule for me to study for my Paper 1 Chem exam on Monday. It’s as follows:

- Spend Friday reviewing a unit you like, do other course work, relax

- Saturday workworkwork, review, do math, whatever you NEEDA do to feel comfortable

- Sunday, a chill day, review units you’re still not 100% on, but don’t burn yourself out the night before your exam, be well rested

And can I say what a blessing?? She’s lovely and great at chemistry so I tend to follow her advice for things like this.

BUT

Remember that not all study methods work for everyone,, my friend made this full well knowing what kind of learner I am and how much I value sleep. Create notes that help you, they don’t have to be pretty, they can be simple.

My best study notes I made were just a series of cue cards to study for the hell called Stalin Week at our school, and since then I try to use that note taking method.

With a new semester around the corner, take time to understand how you learn best and implement it :)

Feel free to message me if you need to talk <3

Start early!

Planning your week should start Saturday night. The week officially begins on Sunday, and Saturday night is the day to figure out everything that will be happening. By doing this, you do not have to spend meaningless time on the Sunday which commences your week with tasks such as planning. Everything should already be planned.

Find out what is on your plate for the upcoming week

Look at your school’s portal, or the syllabus, whatever your instructors use to inform you of tests, quizzes, essays and other assessments. Write down what is coming up this week!!! Know everything there is to know about what will be on your plate.

Use color

Color is an extremely effective categorization tool. It can allow you to distinguish between tests, quizzes, essays, homework assignments, extracurricular activities, health, personal activities, and more. Assign a color to each subsection of your plan, and create a key so you’re aware of what’s happening. Stay true to this color key, and don’t stray from it.

Prioritize

Your plan should feature the most important things to complete and the least important. However, your plan should also establish a general understanding of the ranking system these assignments fall under. If you have a very important test coming up which will count for a large portion of your grade, it should be featured earlier in and stressed more clearly in your plan. Utilize highlighters to clarify the importance level of different assignments.

Make time parameters

Making a plan is very important, but assigning time blocks to the plan is arguably even more important. Consider what you do every day after school. Think about how much you do after every day, and at what times you will be doing homework. Consider the length of time it takes to complete each assignment. Then, assign time blocks to each assignment. For example, you could assign “English Essay” for 4 pm - 6 pm, then “Break” from 6 pm - 6:30 pm, then “Math Worksheet” from 6:30 pm - 8 pm. This will keep you on track and going to sleep at a reasonable time.

Leave time for fun

It cannot be all school all the time - it is not healthy or conducive to effective living. Leave time for fun and breaks. This can manifest in reading a nice book in between assignments, or planning a hangout session with friends during the week. You only get one childhood, and you can NOT spend the entirety of it in academic mania.

Feature your extracurriculars and appointments

When you plan out everything, you have to include e v e r y t h i n g. This means that you must feature any meetings you have for extracurricular commitments, doctors appointments, personal appointments and more. This will ensure your plan is truly accurate.

Make copies!!!

Put your plan EVERYWHERE. There should be a copy in your planner, a copy in your bullet journal (if you have one), a copy on your desk, a copy on your mirror, and more. Put the plan anywhere you look often, and anywhere it won’t be drowned by other things.

U S E I T

The new Netflix show you’re just WAITING to watch but don’t want to be interrupted by school work

The new book on your shelf

A trip to your favorite spot - anywhere, anytime, just go

Hanging out with your friends!

PERSONAL TIME - just be by yourself. It’s more fun than it sounds, trust me.

Sleeping in - take the opportunity and love it

Splurging - were you avoiding spending money this week? SPEND IT ALL. RIGHT. NOW.

Sibling bonding time

TLC for Y O U - check out my self care tag for tips and tricks!

Have a system and stick to it!

Find a way that works for you in regards to school supplies and organizational methods. Some common ones include a folder for each class, a binder for each class, a notebook for each class, etc. Once you’ve found this system, and you’ve seen concrete evidence that it is effective (i.e. increased scores, less stress, etc) DO NOT CHANGE THE SYSTEM! The fact that the system is working is proof that you should continue what you’re doing!

Use a planner! Use a planner! Use a planner!

I can NOT stress enough the necessity to use a planner. Rely on the planner as if it is your own first born child, and your lifeblood. Planning is essential to staying on track with assignments and turning things in on time. Without them, you’re sure to not succeed.

Have a clean space

If your study space is not clean, then your thoughts will be as cluttered as the space is. Cleaning your study space will assist you in filtering out your schedule, and determining what needs to be done versus what will be done later. Filtering like this assists in the organizational process.

Keep your physical and mental health the main priority

There is absolutely, positively NO WAY to become organized if your physical and mental health are slacking. Your personal self needs to be prioritized over any assignment, ALWAYS. This is the key to success.

Normalize breaks

UTILIZE A CLOUD-BASED, GLOBALLY ACCESSIBLE SYSTEM

This is the largest, most imperative tip I can provide. Recently, my mac crashed and the only way to fix it without dropping a grand was to wipe it entirely. If I hadn’t been using google drive for the majority of my notes over the past 4 years in IB, I would have been royally screwed. So pick an online program that works for you, learn it, and love it. Google is a personal favorite of mine.

ENSURE THE SYSTEM YOU PICK CAN DO EVERYTHING YOU NEED

Many students, especially college students, cannot survive on a word processor alone in this day and age. Whatever system you pick to do your notes on, ensure it has a powerpoint and excel equivalent, along with whatever else you may need to get along.

PLAY WITH IT

Don’t walk into class your first day using your new computer or tablet having never played with the word processing system you intend to use. Familiarize yourself with the system you are working with. See it’s glitches, it’s flaws, and master it. This will make class the day of painless

PRINT THE NOTES YOU MAKE

If you’re doing your notes online, the best way to review them is to PRINT PRINT PRINT. Once you have finished typing them, this will allow you to highlight and review effectively while utilizing your available resources to make changes and addition. This is a hands-on form of material review before the occurrence of an assessment.

ENSURE IT IS ACCESSIBLE OVER ALL DEVICES

The most functional aspect of cloud-based systems such as icloud and google is their functionality across devices. Before you select a program to use, ensure that your chosen one does have this functionality. This will allow for an expedited, more pacified form of note taking.

COLLABORATE!

In lecture-based courses, it is often hard to catch the entirety of what the teacher is saying. A great aspect of cloud-based systems is their functionality for group notes. Invite a couple of your friends to work with you on a group document for that day’s lecture. If there was a critical point that you missed in your haste, chances are one of your groupie’s got your back.

SAVE OFFLINE

Saving offline ensures that if you’re studying on a plane, in an area with no service, or if you simply run out of data, your back is c o v e r e d. This is an incredibly useful function for college students traveling from home to school.

AVOID SPEECH TO TEXT

In the moment, it may seem like an ingenious plan to simply turn on the speech to text function of whatever word processor you select, and allow it to pick up the lecture word for word. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. Audio processing programs like these are often flawed. There is nothing worse than having no notes on the day’s lecture due to personal negligence

DON’T ENTIRELY ABANDON WRITTEN NOTES