Thank you all! ❤️

They said “Thank you.”

Total honesty time: I was a slacker in high school. I don’t mean that in the sense that I got bad grades, or that I didn’t do extracurriculars. I mean that in the sense that I was the kid who got good grades without having to try, so I never did. Try, that is. This meant that when I got to college, I got a surprise: professors want you to actually study! Like, with the textbook and everything! Needless to say, I had a rough time figuring out how to do this “studying” thing, and I know I’m probably not alone in this boat. The good thing is, I’ve figured this out, for the most part, so now you can learn from my mistakes.

Assume every class is going to be your hardest, going in. The day you don’t assume you’re going to have to put in five hours minimum studying for the first real test in a class is the day you will really regret. Until you get a feel for a certain professor, treat it like it’s super hard.

Schedule in studying time and STICK WITH IT. DO THIS. Or else you will end up like me, making friends with the other lone person who inhabits the study lounge at 1 am. Don’t be me, guys.

Never underestimate the power of teaching others. Seriously, I definitely have kinda taken advantage of my classmates, because I’m the person who tries to explain stuff and writes out the impromptu study guides. By teaching them, though, I’m actually prepping MYSELF to wreck the curve. Basically, once you know it well enough to explain it to others, you’re golden.

Do ALL the readings. The professor that assigns the most readings is also the professor who expects you to have learned the most from them, in my experience. Also, don’t just highlight stuff: write important points that you would want to highlight in your notes. Highlighting is just coloring for grownups - it’s fine, but it’s not going to help you learn. It’s just going to catch your eye later.

Don’t judge a professor’s tests by their lecture style. Imagine: a sweet little 5 foot nothing professor, dressed to the nines every day and super kind to everyone. My professor who fits this description causes about a third of her students to retake her classes every year. Bigshot business guy with a ridiculously high consulting rate and a weird robe he always wears? 98% pass his classes. Focus on the material, not the prof.

Save your homework assignments. It turns out that in college, homework is 95% of the times something that you can actually study from. Do it, do it well, then hang on to it.

Know your preferred study habitats. Do you like to study around a lot of people or by yourself? Are windows a distraction or a necessity? Is the library great or just too far away to bother with? Keep an eye on when you study best and then try to replicate it later.

Get rid of unnecessary distractions. Turn off your phone. Notifications are Bad for concentration. Close your email unless you absolutely need it. Have a drink and someone to nibble on if you use that as an excuse to avoid studying. Maybe avoid studying with that one person if you are distracted by existing near them.

Plan out regular breaks. Tell yourself every half hour you can go on Facebook, or wander down the hall and talk to someone, or read a chapter of that thing you’ve been working on. Just have something planned out that you can actively work towards. Not just having an abyss of time to fill with studying can be really useful.

As for studying itself:

Notecards, re-writing notes in a different format, having someone quiz you, making study guides, and writing practice essays about stuff have all been super useful for me in some respect or another.

Other studying help:

Seven 

Study

Moods 

Rain generator

Coffee shop chatter

How to Study

How to Study pt. II

Bullet journal guide

Bob the animator: “Ok, so, there’s gonna be a broken piece of a sign that says ‘KL’ on it. Can you draw that?”

Frank the animator: “Yeah, sure, how’s this look?”

Bob the animator: “Well, if it was ACTUALLY a broken piece of a sign that says ‘Klondike,’ it wouldn’t have a big gap after the letters, but whatever. We can fix it in the closeup.”

Frank the animator: “Uh… ok. Shouldn’t I change it in the first shot?”

Bob the animator: “Nah, leave it, but give the new one some wood texture, and make it smaller… oh, and change the lengths of the spikes. The kids won’t notice.”

Frank the animator: “More like this?”

Bob the animator: “Yeah, yeah! And for the final scene, make it REALLY big, and remove the texture, and… heck, make it two spikes instead of three. Two is better.”

Frank the animator: “Alright, it’s done. Are you sure no one will ever notice all these haphazard, illogical changes?”

Tidal power

Tidal power is a type of renewable marine energy produced with underwater turbines called hydrokinetic subsea turbines. 

As exam season approaches I’ve had a huge amount of questions about how to deal with stress or anxiety when studying, or before an exam. Here are some tips/strategies that work for me and I hope can help you too! 

Coping with stress and anxiety:

Take time out - if something in particular has triggered you, or if you are just feeling anxious about what you are revising, remove yourself from the situation and try and calm yourself down.

Go for a walk - it could help to calm you down and distract you if you go for a walk outside and just focus on that rather than what is stressing you out.

Distract yourself - this could be anything from calling a friend on the phone, reading a book, watching a TV show. Distracting yourself when you begin to feel anxious can help prevent a full blown anxiety attack, although obviously you can’t just ignore the stressful topic indefinitely!

Talk to someone - I am quite open with my family, and it really help to just vent at my sister or parents sometimes. It just helps get it out of my system, as well as them helping me rationalise the things I am anxious or stressed about.

Breathing exercises - these don’t work for everyone, and some people find that breathing exercises make them more anxious. But if they work for you they can be a really useful tool to help you calm down.

Mindfulness exercises - again these don’t work for everyone, but there are some great apps and youtube videos that will take you thorugh different mindfulness exercises.

Get enough sleep - this is so so important for the exam season! Try and get a good 8 hours sleep each night. I strongly suggest against late night studying/cramming before an exam. Really try and go to bed early, and you’ll be more refreshed the next morning, feeling optimistic about the day rather than groggy and sluggish.

Rest if you are ill - I know a lot of you will feel compelled to continue to study if you are ill, but you have to give yourself a break! Stress can have physical effects and if you are ill then your body is telling you you need to rest and take time for yourself. Plus the work you do when ill isn’t likely to be effective/efficient, so it’s worth giving yourself the time off, so that you can recover quicker and get back to your normal self. If you do want to do some work then maybe watch videos - this way you can still be revising but not having to think especially hard.

It’s okay to say no - often people feel stressed when they have a lot going on, and they are just constantly jumping from one thing to another. It’s okay to say no to things and take time for yourself. Just recently I decided to not do an EPQ because I thought it would be taking on too much; you have to make sure that between school and revision and extra-curricular things, you have time just to relax.

Staying calm before an exam:

Get a good nights sleep - as mentioned above, it is so so important that you are well rested before an exam - so don’t be staying up until 3am madly trying to cover the entire course in one sitting!

Set an alarm - ensure you have an alarm set at a reasonable time in the morning, there’s nothing that stresses me out more than a risk of being late to an exam.

Pack your bag the night before - if you get all your things ready the day before the exam there will be no frantic stressing out in the morning because you can’t find your protractor or calculator!

Eat a good breakfast - or lunch if it’s an afternoon exam. It’s really key that you have fuel to get you through the exam.

No last minute revision - I think that at this point you aren’t going to learn anything new; you are as prepared as you are, and you just have to go with it. Don’t panic yourself by frantically reading through notes or running around asking people questions.

Don’t get there too early - you don’t want to be late to an exam, but you don’t want to be hanging around the exam hall for ages before the exam with nothing else to do but stress out! If you do get to school/uni a bit early, maybe have a little walk around outside, or find a friend you can talk to to distract you.

Staying calm during an exam:

Take a minute - before you actually start writing (maybe do this when they’re reading out the general instructions for exam conditions etc.) just take a minute to sit, breathe and think good thoughts - memories or things you’re looking forward to doing in summer. This can help calm you down if your anxious about being in the hall - this just takes you away for a minute.

Focus on you - try and act as if there’s no other students in the room with you. Don’t look to see how much others have written or if they’re finished. There’s no point being distracted or comparing yourself to other people, just focus on yourself.

Read the question - take your time to really read the question and think about what it is asking you to do. It can be easy to read a question and start to freak out because you don’t understand what it means at first. Take your time and don’t panic!

Plan you answers - taking 5 minutes to plan your answers will help reduce your stress and anxiety later on in the exam, because there’ll be no moments of ‘AHH WHAT DO I WRITE NOW’ because you will have already make a plan that covers all the content you’ll write about.

Skip questions if you need - don’t get freaked out if you don’t know something straight away. Move on, and you might recall the information later on in the exam, and you can go back to it then.

Take a break - if you start to feel very anxious in the exam, just put your pen down, breathe, close your eyes and have a break for a minute or two.

Hey, hunties!!

I’ve been part of this studyblr thing for like three weeks and yall have all these motivational posts but none of those work for me, specially those that say “take a deep breath and count to ten.” However, if they work for you, then you go and take all the breaths you need, gurl. So this is what I prefer to do to motivate me to study:

Listen to some empowering-ass music right before you study - yall listen to that classical stuff, which is cute, but you don’t want cute, you want something that will get you in the mood to KICK ASS like this song and this playlist. 

Give yourself pep talks  - go to your bathroom, flush in case the person before you didn’t, then look at yourself in the mirror, and tell your lazy ass to GET IT THE FUCK TOGETHER OR ELSE YOULL END UP LIVING IN A CAVE.

Compliment/reward yourself every two minutes - you need to stay positive throughout the painful process of doing all that schoolwork, so constantly remind yourself that you’re amazing and that you’ll get a better grade on the test than that idiot Mike who throws erasers at you in class (this got personal). 

DRINK WATER/MOISTURIZE  - your body does not function well if your thirsty or if you’re ashy, so get that lotion out, honey.

Read inspirational quotes - these can come from pamphlets that you got at the hospital or even celebrity gossip magazines from 2007. Example: “Lindsey Lohan is out of control” can you get more inspirational than that???

division

square roots

dividing percentages

IT EVEN FOILS

AHAHAHAHAHA-

oh my god

or plot graphs

even 3D graphs!!!

School is hard! And it’s even harder to make yourself pick up those books and start studying.. So this is how I get ready to revise:

Get Comfy!

wearing uncomfortable clothes will ruin your concentration

who wants to wear jeans all day anyway????

so put on those sweatpants and get cozy!!

my fav outfit: fleece-lined leggings, a tunic sweater, and fuzzy socks!

in the summer I love athletic shorts and a t-shirt 

also put your hair up!

I like a braid or my signature study bun

but a ponytail will do

Get Moving!

exercising can help you retain information! 

as seen here

make sure to keep it light not so much that you’re sweating

do 15 jumping jacks, 10 sit-ups, and 5 push-ups!

or take a quick walk around the house

trust me, it will make your day ten times better

Snack Time!

make it healthy

too much sugar will make you feel crummy 

go with something that has more vitamins, fiber, and protein!

make some on the weekends to avoid wasting time

some of my favorites

blueberry banana smoothie bowl <– it just says smoothie but add less milk to make it a bowl

banana nut muffins (you can add chocolate chips if you want)

pomegranate 

baby carrots and sweet peppers

pistachios!!

trail mix (homemade is the best)

pretzels dipped in cashew butter

tell me if you have more!!

Clear the Area

keep your desk clean

here are some cute organizers! X X X 

try not to keep extra supplies on the top of your desk

it can get cluttered really quick!

keep all books, stationery, notes, etc. close at hand

open your windows and let natural light in!

Get Relaxed & Pumped!!

save a few motivating quotes and read them

turn off your phone!!!

take 2 minutes to breathe and listen

drink some water!!

START!

do one easy assignment

like a worksheet

then move on to something creative

write part of an essay or work on a project

now, do your hardest assignment

and Finish It!!!!

do something simpler

do another worksheet

revise and condense from today’s lesson!

work on things you have to memorize

vocabulary

use flashcards or other methods like summary foldables (one of my favs thanks sareena! @studyign​)

After Studying

time to relax!

clean up your space

read!

go on tumblr (you’ve earned it)

watch netflix or youtube

paint your nails

spend some time on your hobbies

get some SLEEP

YOU’RE DONE

all the pre-studying shouldn’t take more then half an hour

don’t procrastinate!

take breaks when studying (I suggest the pomodoro method)

most of all, HAVE FUN STUDYING

Much Love!