#studgram

April 11th, 2021

27+28/100 days of productivity

I must admit that this weekend wasn’t really productive. Academically. 

I cooked, cleaned the house, tried to reorganize my notes, gave my doggo a bath, repotted my plants.... Spring cleaning in short. 

Also I felt a bit down and lonely, so I went for a walk while it was still sunny. This week the weather should be crazy - rainy, sunny, snowy and rainy again. 

For tomorrow, I have lots of plans: 

- quizlet flashcards for at least 30 minutes

- type plant physiology notes in Notion

- medschool entrance exam quiz (do at least 100 questions) 

- workout (30 minutes tabata) 

- another medschool quiz (this one will be done before going to bed, for a better sleep :D)

- and not to forget - short physics at 10am, maths at 11am and chemistry at 1pm

I will try to complete all the tasks, but I am sure it’ll be difficult in terms of time. 

Pick a core value: Your college application is a story and your admissions essay should be an intro to that story. You can make your story stick out from others by picking a value that's important to you or one that has shown up at different points in your life. Latch on to that value and emphasize it in your essay. Example, for me it was curiosity, I had always been a curious child and it has manifested itself in different ways in my life. My college application narrative was that I was a person who was learning to embrace curiosity not as a character flaw but as a strength. Yours might be tenacity, transparency, creativity, growth, the list goes on! Really spend time to think about a value or belief that has persisted in your life and make sure it is evident in your essay,

Have an arch: A common misconception about the college essay is that it needs to be a sob story. This is a misguided misconception because while it can be good to illustrate the adversity you have faced, it loses its value if there isn't some sort of change that follows. The point of the essay is to show how you got from point A to C so by stopping and dwelling at point b you lose the meaningfulness of your essay. How would you be different if what you're talking about never happened? By asking yourself some questions you get to the core of why your essay even matters.

Keep it concise: The college essay is only about 650 words so it doesn't give you a lot of time to yabber on. It's that short because it wants you to get to the point. A common mistake is using the first half of your essay as an intro. That's too much. Think about how you ration your essay. The intro should be short and pack a punch. You don't even have to start at the beginning, start your essay at the climax of your high school metamorphosis and carry them through that. Because of the time restraints, it might be more helpful to start at the climax bring the readers down by offering some context and then ending on a strong note by offering some new perspective. Note: your essay doesn't always have to have a happy ending but it should have drawn some conclusion, the conclusion can be open-ended but it should still be there.

7/13/19: day 56/100

today has been pretty good! i got up early-ish and did some reading over breakfast and coffee. i finished another level of duolingo, and i made lemon thumbprint cookies with my cousin. i’m planning on spending the rest of the evening doing some more cooking and reading.

[adapted from my blog]

Hey guys! As you probably know, I just started my second semester of college, and I learned a very valuable lesson my first semester -- NOT to take back-to-back classes. Here are some reasons why taking back-to-back classes isn’t the best option in college.

🔮 Walking between classes takes more time than you think. Sure, you can run from one lecture to the next in 15 minutes -- but what if you get hungry or need to use the restroom? You don’t have any time to take care of your needs. Plus, sometimes classes will let out later than the posted time, so you may be more pressed for time than you think.

🔮 In college, classes tend to be either lecture- or discussion-based -- both of which you need to be present for. In high school, a lot more time was dedicated to solo or group work, meaning that you could spare a few minutes and dart out to use the restroom, for example. However, if you do the same in college, you’ll likely miss something super important -- plus, people tend to judge you for that sort of thing (yikes).

🔮 Having more time between classes allows you to be more prepared and relaxed for your class. This goes hand-in-hand with my first point. If you’re running in to lecture at the last minute, you don’t have time to set up your supplies, drink some water, or take a breather. Allowing for more time between classes enables you to get to class a few minutes earlier, and gives you time to mentally prepare yourself for class.

🔮 Taking classes back-to-back actually inhibits your learning. Researchers have found that your brain is continuing to commit information you’ve learned in lecture to your long-term memory up to an hour after class has ended. If you take back-to-back classes, the material you covered in the last class will be “overwritten,” making it harder to recall later on. On the contrary, if you do something that requires less brainpower and does not involve new information, such as grabbing coffee with a friend, your brain has the time to store the information you learned in your long-term memory, and you will remember it more easily later on.

As always, let me know if you have any feedback, or any requests for topics for me to write on! Don’t forget to check out the companion post on my blog for the full-form, more descriptive article. (:

January 6, 2017

Here’s my song list system I’ll be using this year! I’ll try to post it every end of each month so you can see my favorite songs every month. Would you like me to do a Spotify Playlist? Let me know in a comment!