I Love God

1. start studying a week before every quiz/test. seriously.

2. watch youtube videos/ted talks on the topics you are learning about.

3. get lots of sleep! sleep helps you process the day’s events, including what you learned.

4. write out your notes. it’s proven that handwritten notes help you learn better than typed out notes.

5. don’t just read what your professor gives you. find academic journals, books, etc. that correspond with your subjects.

6. read the news! especially in the social sciences/humanities, connecting concepts with current events helps you understand and process more easily.

7. exercise! this doesn’t have to be going on runs or lifting weights, it could even just be going for a 20 minute walk. just get your blood pumping, it’ll help you focus.

8. study at your desk. it may be tempting to study in bed, but your brain connects your bed with sleep, so you’ll get tired more quickly.

9. reviewing notes doesn’t have to be something you sit down and do for an hour. skim through them and test your memory while eating breakfast!

10. expand your study time throughout the day to avoid burnout. for example, rather than studying for 5 hours straight, study for an hour here and there in between your activities.

11. make your notes organized and easy to read, but not distracting. bright colors and flashy notes may seem better, but can sometimes distract from the purpose of the notes.

12. use apps such as quizlet. this way, you can go through definitions while waiting in lines or walking to class.

13. it’s more important to know concepts rather than facts. for example, you should be able to take what you know and apply it to different situations, not just the situation the textbook gives you.

14. just because the professor doesn’t require you to read textbook, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. it helps explain concepts in a different way than your professor, and a lot of times hearing two different explanations for the same concept helps you understand it.

15. read in advance. read the textbook before your professor begins going over the chapter, so when he/she does, you can easily follow what they are saying.

16. do any extra credit work that comes your way. even if you don’t need the extra boost now, you might later.

17. go to class!! if you always skip class and show up at office hours completely lost on the concepts, they’ll laugh in your face. they’ll take you 100x more seriously if you show up.

18. however, if you are sick, take a day off. it’s more beneficial to you in the long run. 

19. learn how to say “no”. if you have an 8 am the next day, don’t stay out until midnight with your friends. 

Hey youuu! Welcome to the first post of my back to school mini series! I think these short posts may be a good way to put you in the best mood for your new academic year (and if you have already started, good luck!!).

Today I want to talk about how to adopt new habits to incorporate into a new routine. Whether you want to eat healthier, study more or even just flossing every night, this post is for you!!

So how do you start new habits in the easiest and most natural way? Here are my tips!!

First of all, remember to do things for you and not for the others. Don’t start a new habit because someone said you have to. A new habit has to be beneficial for yourself and has to make you feel good and proud of your accomplishments. Doing things for someone else never ends up well, and only cause pain and frustration! You have to make yourseld proud in the first place.

Make a list of the habits you already have and that you do everyday without even thinking about it (like brushing your teeth, showering, eating breakfast, going to bed, etc)

Then, make another list of the things that you must do and that are main priorities (going to school, walking your dog, etc).

Now take these 2 lists and think about how you are going to incorporate the new habit you want to adopt. For example, if your goal is to eat healthier but you go to school everyday, try to bring your own food from home at school. You have to include this new habit in the most naturally way so in the beginning it doesn’t feel like your day a big mess that stresses you out (because if it does, you’ll soon stop practicing the new habit)

Start small. But like, very small. If your goal is to get fit and you’ve never really worked out in your whole life, it will be hard for you to go to the gym everyday and you’ll probably end up unmotivated. That’s why you have to take little steps, steps that are so small you can’t find any excuse to not do them. For example, let’s say you want to drink more water. In order to do so, you can start by drinking a glass of water every morning. Then, add another glass of water at noon, etc. You can do this for every kind of habit. You want to workout more? Start doing 5 pushups everyday, then 8, then 10, etc. You want to study more? Add 30 minutes of studying everyday, then one hour, etc. Starting really small is the best way to gently incorporate a new habit and stick to it!

Put a reminder of your new habit. Make a tracker in your bullet journal, or just put an alarm on your phone that sounds like “hey honey it’s time for you to do your daily workout”. It’s easy to “forget” about the new habit, especially if you have other stuff going on in your head. Having the reminder helps you each time to take the decision of doing it or not and makes you think twice before not showing up for your new habit!

Reward yourself.This is the most important part : you did your homework? Tell yourself that you made a good job! You read only 2 pages on the textbook? Amazing! At least you did something! You just did 10 squats? Congrats you smokin’ hot babe! That’s how it works. That’s how you will stick to your new goals. Buy yourself new clothes or stationery if you managed to stick to your new habit for 2 weeks. Eat your favorite meal, do a face mask, anything. Every steps counts as much as the reward! Be proud of your accomplishments even if you judge them to be small (for example : you ate only one biscuit? Well done! A week ago you would have eaten the whole box!)

Find your motivation : I invite you to read my article that I wrote a few months ago about it :). Think about why you want to change your daily routine, what this will bring you in your everyday life and also imagine what your life will be in for example 2 months, 6 months, a year from now!! For me it’s always a big mood booster to think this way !

It is said that you have to stick to a new habit for at least 3 weeks in order to make it part of your new routine so keep going !!

I hope these tips will help build new routines that will get you closer from your goals.

What habits do you want to incorporate in your routine guys? Let me know in the comments!

Hello friends!

This is the time… the time to host my first ever giveaway on Tumblr! I am giving away a fruit-themed bundle of stationery items as well as some personal favourites. Here’s the information:

T H E  P R I Z E

There will be two (2) winners total.

First place:

A Wing Sung 659 fountain pen with a pack of 5 compatible black Pilot cartridges + 4 fruit gel pens + 3 plain black gel pens + a pack of 6 highlighters

A Rhodia Rhodiarama dot grid sewn-spine A5 notebook (perfect for a bullet journal or just notes!)

4 colourful grid rolls of washi tape + 1 roll of sakura washi tape + 1 roll of peach washi tape + 1 roll of lotus flower washi tape

A random fruit pack of post-its + a pack of strawberry page marker and round post-its + a pack of decorative fruit stickers

A watermelon pencil case

A handwritten letter from me!

Second place:

A Platinum Preppy fountain pen with 2 packs of 2 black Platinum cartridges

1 roll of watermelon washi tape

A Rhodia No. 16 orange dotpad (A5) (perfect for summaries, mindmaps and to-do lists!)

A handwritten letter from me!

H O W  T O  E N T E R

You must follow me on Tumblr (I’ll check!).

You need to reblog this post (likes don’t count). Please reblog from your main blog.

You need to be over 18 years of age or have the consent of a legal guardian.

You must be willing to communicate your full name and address if you win.

The giveaway ends on July 31st, 2018! The winners will have 72 hours to claim their prize when contacted (please make sure your askbox is open and/or chat is possible from non-followers!).

I M P O R T A N T  N O T E S

This giveaway is not affiliated with or sponsored by Tumblr or any of the shops the goods will come from. I am spending my own hard-earned money for this.

Since a majority of the items are shipping from China, there could be a delay between the end of the giveaway and the time at which I am able to ship out the prize. Thanks in advance for your understanding.

You can block the tag litera2kga if you don’t want to see this post anymore!

(i’m using this as a tool to figure out how i need to spend my time and what my “why” is because i’m having a hard time figuring out what i should be doing right now. and u guys get to witness it! )

1.) independence

i want to be more financially independent and take some strain off of my parents. i want to keep up with my tuition contribution each year, and i want to be able to eventually pay for my own car and my own bills by the time i graduate. i also want to be building a larger savings & thinking about my future. (but tuition and car first) 

2.) mental and physical health

i want to have a healthy relationship with my body, exercise, and food. i also want to be calmer & more collected, and i want to have meaningful and healthy relationships with the people in my life. 

3.) being mindful of my time, money, and resources

@justjasminestudying and @ecarlatenotes requested a French version in my How to Study series. I actually have a Youtube Video on how to study languages that you should check out!!

During Class

Take note of your teacher’s pronunciation

Try finding someone in your class who is as dedicated as you and see if they’re willing to speak in French with you on a regular basis as this would help both of you.

Revision

Flashcards!!

With all languages I recommend making flashcards with key vocab, english translations on one side and then the French equivalent on the other side.

(As always I recommend Quizlet as a form of making electronic flashcards that can be accessed through any device)

Sentences!

It’s great to know your key vocab but you need to know how to put them into sentences and use them effectively so practice! practice! practice! 

Write a diary in French

Watch French TV shows!

Oral Exam

Ask your teacher what topics or questions that could be brought up in the exam and review your vocab for these topics.

Practice! Practice! Practice!! 

Record yourself speaking in order to assess your own pronunciation.

Listening Exam

Practice listening by watching TV shows, listening to French music, watching French YouTubers, listening to French podcasts!!

Writing Exam

This one for me is purely learning vocab and using practice papers!!!

Check out my other posts in this series:

History

Psychology

Biology

I think this really needs to be said to all the high schoolers freaking out about AP exams, SAT scores, and ACT scores. Hell, even to those who are applying/applied to colleges or other things. The number that you end up reading off the collegeboard site does not determine your worth. The number that you end up reading off the collegeboard site does not determine how smart you are. The number that you end up reading off the collegeboard site does not determine your future. Only you, as a person, can determine that. I know it’s hard, I’m still in high school too. But I think you guys need to, have to, know that even if you get all A’s and a 1450+ (or 2200+) on the SAT that it doesn’t automatically guarantee you a job. You could end up going to Stanford, MIT, or Harvard but end up in a bad place. The school you end up going to doesn’t necessarily grant you a job either. Okay, yes, it makes it a little bit easier but either way, you’re going to have to work hard for everything to get where you want. All of you are so much more important than some score or letter grade. Y’all are gonna do great, as long as you have the passion and drive to work for it. Having straight A’s and perfect scores does not mean you will survive in the real world. Now, this isn’t a way to make you feel better or myself (since I’m not a straight A student either) about all of this because honestly it’s all so true.

I saw that a lot of you wanted these~ Disclaimer: You still have to know English and the basics of math for these. This goes especially if you’re not a native speaker - your English needs to be at a pretty good level.

General:

Read. A lot. Whenever you see a text that’s at least a paragraph or two long, take time to practice skimming. If you’re bored and have a little time, take something, for example a food wrapper, and try to find occurrences of a word (for example “Acid” for food) as quickly as possible. Hard mode: look for synonyms.

Practice filling out the answer sheet. This is a massive time-sink for a lot of people, so you should practice to eliminate it. Print out an example answer sheet and try filling out the circles quickly and accurately without distracting yourself a lot. Hard mode:Try doing it while not focusing only on the circles - look away or start thinking about the next question.

Check. A lot. The main goal of this strategy is to leave yourself enough time when you’ve filled out an answer for each question when you’re calm, know the questions and can focus on checking. Try and go through the questions, thinking, “This question tests this and that.” If you have the time, look at each answer and identify the error in it (harder for the math questions, but loads of fun if you can do it).

Think in patterns: Whenever you’re stuck on an example question, don’t just check the answer. Try and understand how the person found it, if this question is similar to others you have seen. The SAT only uses a few different types of questions, there will rarely be something to surprise you if you know the common patterns.

Rest: The SAT is a very demanding exam. Give your brain time to relax - my advice would be not to do anything mentally strenuous the day before the test. Also, something I found out from competitions - bring chocolate. The sugar in it helps your brain work better and shrug off tiredness and eating it will draw blood away from your brain, effectively hibernating it for the break to conserve energy. Also, it’s just a really tasty snack!

Writing:

Use the right format for the essay. There are a lot of easy points for using the four/five paragraph system. Introduction, Reason 1, Reason 2, Conclusion. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence and follow up with a story from your life or a book/movie to illustrate it. This way, even without using fancy vocab or grammar, you can get the points for structure and critical thought. Now just try not to make any obvious spelling mistakes and call it a day!

Try to quickly find an argument for the essay. They don’t actually rate how intelligent your argument is. So, take a minute or two, breathe deeply, and no matter how stupid your idea is, write it out. (You might still want to take caution with sensitive topics, especially if you’re an international. A dumb mistake I made in my first sitting was bashing on American charity - that definitely did not endear me to the proctors.)

Paragraphs: You have to have experience reading - look at how the topic never changes abruptly. Insert sentences that link what’s written before and after the gap. Final sentences of paragraphs shouldn’t raise more questions.

Sentence questions: Skim through the questions. Try to answer most of them, the first thing that comes to mind, and fill out the answer sheet immediately. Chances are, if it sounds good to you, it’s the correct choice. Do this quickly, then try and do the paragraphs. After you’ve done this, go back to the questions and start checking.

They usually test for a few broad topics. Identify if each sentence fits one of the patterns and answer accordingly. For the others, try and think what error they might want you to make. If you know you have the time, look at each answer in turn and identify the mistake in it. The most common ways for you to change a sentence would be:

Fragments: Try and see if each clause has a subject and a verb. Example: “In the dim light, making his way through the cave.” -> “In the dim light, he makes his way through the cave.”

Subject-verb agreement: Make sure that the subject is the one actually doing the action and singular/plural match. Example: “Gathering stones, the river was blocked by the men.” Did the river gather stones? No.

Consistency: Make sure that something introduced one way is always referred to like that (don’t switch out ‘one’ for ‘you’ or ‘they’). Make sure there are no extra linkers (”Since I was there, but he went too.”). Check if any verbs change tense when they shouldn’t. Don’t compare apples to oranges (”His homework was as good as John.” -> “As good as John’s”).

Adverb or adjective? If it describes a verb, it has a ‘ly’. Example: “She winked playful.” -> “She winked playfully.”

Singular or plural? Make sure not to refer to a plural object in singular. “Pandas, numbering in the hundreds now, is an endangered species.”

Prepositions, linkers, all the small words Sadly, you’ll have to know how they’re used.

Reading

Word fill: Note the answers that obviously don’t make sense. Mark the one of the others that sounds best to you (in the answer sheet, too!). If you don’t know one or more of the words, aim for simplicity. After you’ve quickly answered all of the reading questions, come back to these. Look at the relationships between the gap and the sentence - are you looking for a positive or negative word? Antonyms or synonyms to something before? Try and guess what unknown words mean. This way, you will probably be able to eliminate all the wrong answers.

Reading comprehension: You are not tested for understanding the text. Keep this in mind. What you are actually trying to do here is quickly find synonyms. If the question asks for “Was Anna’s family a) warm b) cold c) the spawn of Cthulhu?”, chances are that the text contains “Anna’s relatives acted chilly.” or something like that. Read the first question. Skim the text until it comes to that topic, then look for synonyms of the answers. Don’t make deductions! If you come across a ‘general message’ or ‘tone of the author’ question, skip it and answer it at the end of the text. The other questions will be in the same order as the answers are mentioned in the text. Checking: If you have time, look at each answer and try to see what in the text could mislead somebody to make that mistake.

Mathematics

Calculator use: My advice would be to not bring a complex graphing calculator. They just slow you down. Try and do most operations by hand, then use the calculator only for, well, calculations.

Basic topics to know: You are expected to be familiar with how to rearrange equations (ab=1 is the same as a=1/b) and solve linear and quadratics; cosine and Pythagorean theorems; number representations of lines and their intersections; median, mean and mode.

Solve like a crab! One of the best things I learnt in “Fun Math” classes was that problems are solved more easily if you work from the answer back. Try and see what you would need (in terms of information) to find the answer. Then look back to the text of the problem - is what you need there? In most SAT problems, it is, or you can easily find it.

Visualise: Especially for distance or geometry problems, make a small chart of what’s happening. Make lines for the distances the cars traveled or draw that pesky cylinder. Try and see in your mind how different elements move and which stay the same.

Here’s a list of things I always do when holiday boredom hits. For people with Depression and anxiety like me, keeping productive is really important for mental health because lazing around for too long allows you to have long periods to think overthink which often leads to self-doubt and self-loathing. I stick to this list to keep my mind busy, occupied and to make sure I make the most of my holidays

1. try out a new, simple recipe

2. go through your email/s & unsubscribe all the random newsletters from sites you signed up for that you don’t actually read

3. go through your cupboards & find clothes, sports equipment, decor, kitchen utensils & electronics that you don’t use so you can donate or sell it

4. Change your sheets on your bed 

5. if you’re feeling bored of your room, buy some cheap bedding in a cute print to spruce up your space

6. learn how to sew a simple square throw pillow cover if you have a sewing machine (there are lots of youtube tutorials on this & it’s soooo easy)

7. go through your itunes library & delete all of that old music you never listen to

8. spend some time on your fav streaming service & find some new music

9. Have coffee alone at a café you have never tried before & just people watch

10. if you don’t know how to ride a bike, learn (borrow a friend’s bike if you don’t have your own)

11. spend a day doing food prep for the future with easily freezable food (like pasta dishes & soups) 

12. check Facebook events to see if there are interesting events nearby you

13. visit a weekend market (there’s always bound to be one somewhere)

14. visit your local nursery & get cute cheap plants (like succulents) & revamp your garden or balcony 

15. if you have a botanical garden nearby, visit & take with snacks & a book 

16. go window shopping

17. watch a documentary with a positive, uplifting storyline

18. go to the bookstore/ library and pick out a new read

19. Go through social media friends/ followers & delete people who you aren’t interested in anymore or who post frankly annoying content

20. if you haven’t spoken to a good friend/ family member, ask if you can give them a call & have a catch up session.

21. clean your kitchen & bathroom (you’ll be surprised what some countertop cleaner & elbow grease can do)

22. Put in effort to drill holes in the wall for the painting/ poster you’ve been meaning to hang up forever

23. clean out the fridge & the inside with hot, soapy water.

24. wash your car (inside & out)

25. email that person you have been needing to contact

26. update old photo frames by getting new, relevant photos printed

27. if you have an S.O., take them on a picnic or treat them to coffee at their fav café - their appreciation will make you feel good about yourself & they’ll think of you as a true romantic

28. delete all of the apps on your phone/ PC you don’t use 

29. go through your photos & delete all the duplicates & useless pics

30. go through your stationary &  throw out all the dried up pens

31. if you’re lucky to have grandparents & they live close by, visit & bring some cupcakes - you have no idea how much they’ll appreciate it.

32. go through your wardrobe & find the clothes with holes & missing buttons & fix them (it’s literally so easy)

33. throw out your socks who have lost their friend through the laundry

34. Take a bath & treat yourself to bubbles, candles, music & a glass of wine

35. clear & sort the pile of papers that’s been on your desk for months now

36. Soak, cut, file & paint your toenails

37. Wash your makeup brushes & beauty blender

38. go through your makeup bag & throw out the expired or used up makeup

39. review your monthly budget, & see if there’s somewhere you could save more because of silly spending habits

40. meditate for 30 minutes with some binaural beats in the background

41. get your ass to the gym, go for a run, do a home workout, go hiking etc.

42. if you have a S.O. write them a little love letter to show how much you love & appreciate them

43. change the light bulbs in your house that no longer work

44. if you have a pet, spend some time playing and snuggling with them

45. Wash your hair & spend some time blowdrying/ braiding/ straightening/ curling it so that it makes you feel all pretty & special

46. if you’re into tats, make a Pinterest board with inspo for your next tattoo

47. Call your mom, tell her you love her. Your dad too.

48. update your wish-list on your fav online store

49. if you feel down/ anxious a lot lately, make an appointment with your therapist to talk it out