#kkaitstudies

09.03.20 | apparently the sleeping beauty castle was based on the neuschwanstein castle, which was built by a gay king named ludwig ii.  he nearly bankrupted bavaria with the project and was declared legally insane.  he died 11 days after the castle finished construction

how i use google drive for university - pt 1: digital notetaking  by kkaitstudies

idk about you but i’ve tested a bunch of note taking methods. in my last few years of university, i was indeed lazy and rarely referred back to the professor’s slides in the course shell. i opted to read off the slides in lecture and take notes. while MS OneNote is great, i found myself enjoying Google Drive much more. so here is a quick overview of how i take notes using Google Docs. 

folders are your friends

make separate folders for each of your courses. google drive even gives you the option to change the colours of the folders. in these folders, add any relevant coursework such as the syllabi, readings, and your notes document.

use one doc for notes per course

once you receive the syllabi, take some time to take note of required readings, and assignment deadlines. i have created a free template you can save to your own google drive that you can access here. fill out:

- course code & name - prof’s name, office hours, and email - date(s) for each week of class - weekly readings (tip: if you have online readings, you can link them in the doc!) - & open the document outline (view > show document outline)

you also don’t have to use all these features. T B H, i didn’t do weekly readings. a lot. oops. BUT i did always pay attention in lecture. i simply deleted the “reading notes” header every week i didn’t bother to read.

make use of early access to lecture slides, headers, etc. 

some profs (bless their souls) post the slides sometime before the lecture. if you have the time, copy the lecture slides into your notes. and if they don’t...type real quick to get all the info as it’s happening (or go back to slides online after lecture to see what you missed out on). i separate lecture topics with headers, with the bullet points underneath (see above). if there is anything that the prof says during class that isn’t in the lecture slides, i will change the colour of the text to a different colour. any important concepts or testable material are highlighted.

...and that’s how i take notes! everyone is different. not all note-taking methods work for everyone. this is what worked for me in my last 2 years of uni. hopefully a similar structure works for some of y’all! also, let me know what you think and @ me if you end up using my template. have a great semester!

08.28.20 | i’m back for sophomore year and just as bad at centering text as usual! are y’all back in school yet? 

jul 9 19 ♡ time to (re)learn how to code! a lot of the jobs that i'm looking at consider knowledge of html/css as an asset, so it's time to get it tgt and improve.

how i use google drive for university - pt 3. gmail & google calendar by kkaitstudies

please note: my university is partnered with google, so all of my digital correspondents operate like a personal gmail/gcal. this may not be the case for you or your university. this is how i kept my university inbox and calendar clean.

create email labels/sublabels 

creating labels to move these emails into is a LIFE SAVER. consider labels for the following categories: 

- general university emails - faculty and program-specific emails - student groups you’re a part of - internship correspondence  - general correspondence/conversations - each individual course you’re taking that semester

how to create labels, sublabels

1.   in the dropdown menu to the left, click “Create new label” 2.   name your label accordingly 3.   hover over the new label and click the 3 dots > select a new label colour 4.   move all emails pertaining to this category into the folder

tip: google automatically sorts labels alphabetically. if you want certain labels to stay at the top, insert a special character before writing such as an asterisk or period. when i wanted a label to show up at the bottom, i started the label with a “z” before typing the actual name. 

at the end of the semester

1.   in the dropdown menu to the left, click “Create new label” 2.   name your label according to the year or semester - ex. 1st Year Fall 3.   hover over the new label and click the 3 dots > select “Edit” 4.   check off “Nest label under” and choose the label from step 2. all email correspondents will still be in organized folders, but tucked away. 5.   select the label from step 2. hover over the new label and click the 3 dots > select “Hide” 

inputting classes into google calendar

1.   in google calendar, click “Create” to make a new event 2.   input the course code, location, and colour if you’d like 3.   change the date and time to the date of your first class. 4.   click “Does not repeat” and in the dropdown menu, select “Custom” 5.   select “Ends: On” and select the last date of that class. save all of your changes. this class will now show up in your calendar every week automatically until the end of your semester.

doing more with google calendar

there’s plenty that you can also add to your calendar! consider using the following:

- study room bookings - club/sports events - meetings with group members/profs - designated study time - meals/hangouts with friends

and that’s how i used google calendar and gmail! i hope y’all enjoyed this series and found it useful. let me know if there’s anything you’d like to know more about, and i will definitely try to make a post about it. good luck!

how i use good drive for university - pt 2: grade tracker by kkaitstudies

am i the only one that always needs to know where i stand in a course? no? good, bc do i have the grade tracker for you. i made my first version of this grade tracker back in my 2nd yr of uni, and have since updated it to its current version. here is what i track and what you need to do to fill it in.

download a free copy of the grade tracker template here

step one: subject info fill in: course code & name, prof’s name, class times & locations, and office hours

step two: assignment due dates, type, task, and weight fill in: due date (ongoing on top and descend by date), whether it’s a group vs. individual assignment, name of the task, and the overall weight the assignment counts for

step three: mark and weight towards final  as the semester rolls on and you receive marks, input the mark (in %) you received in the Mark column, and how much it counts towards your final mark in the Weight Towards Final column.

extras: average and ongoing total calculator the sheet is already programmed to calculate your progress. your course average (mean) will automatically change as you input marks, as will the ongoing total towards your final mark. 

extras: tabs!  there are tabs for different sheets at the bottom of the page for Semester 1, Semester 2, School GPA Scale, and Instructions

tip: create grade expectations with an add’l column you know when you’re halfway thru the semester and you’re like “man... i’m just trying to pass with a __%” add a column to the right of the Weight Towards Final column and play with numbers to see what you need on each assignment to get whatever you need to finish with your ideal mark even if it is just a 50 bc sometimes it just be like that. 

that’s how i tracked my grades throughout university! it gave me a lot of peace of mind bc i always knew where i stood in the course so long as my profs kept on top of grading. if you have any questions or use this template, feel free to message me! i’d love to get some feedback. enjoy your semester!