Hey! Im Eszter Pharmacystudent 20 🍇💜

hi everyone! i’ve been studying from home from january this year as i am doing all my coursework online this year. it’s been tough adapting to this new way of learning but i figured i could share a few of my tried-and-true tricks with you all as we are all in the same boat right now. a lot of us adapted to the school-style learning environment and spending time with ourselves right now is really hard. i want to help as much as i can. remember that above all, it’s trial and error with working out how you study best! and with that, here we go ﾟ･:*｡(ꈍᴗꈍ)

1. your mental health comes first no, seriously. i know it’s said over and over again, if you don’t take care of your body and mind, you’re NOT going to have the mental energy to throw yourself into hours of study each day. when you plan your day, include things like showering, eating good foods, taking walks, messaging a friend. the more you put your mental health on the back pedal, the less work you are going to be able to get done. journal. be creative. work out what makes you feel good. do those things every day. i’ve found that doing something creative every day helps me - creating something outside of myself, and expressing how i feel, whether it’s drawing, poetry, colouring in, painting, or collage. by the way, you can’t skip over this one. your. mental. health. comes. before. study. 

2. study when you feel good a common mistake people make is forcing themselves to study. that can be okay. sometimes you need to force yourself into those first 5, 10, 20 minutes before you get into the flow of it. but if you’re hunched at your desk, irritated, tired, with nothing going through your head, your study isn’t going to be effective. what’s worse, your brain is going to associate that irritable fuzzy feeling with study, making you want to do it even less. but studying when you feel good, your brain will associate those feelings with it. study when the material seems clear, challenging in a good way, and when your body feels good. you’ll notice the difference this brain association makes SO quickly. stop studying when you stop feeling good, come back later. (also, giving yourself study snacks also makes it more enjoyable!)

3. make yourself a dedicated study space you’ve heard it before. but, really. reserve this space (i use a desk in my bedroom) specifically for studying. no phones allowed. don’t let  it get messy. decorate it a bit with plants. paste the walls with notes, diagrams, pictures you love. this is your study space. come here when you study, and when you finish, leave it alone. there was a study done that showed students who had a designated ‘study lamp’ at their desk, which they only used when studying, performed better than students who didn’t! this is also part of the ~brain association~ thing, and it works with the tip above. this should be a place where you study when you feel good. a positive space. i have my desk facing the wall so i don’t get distracted by anything else (such as staring longingly at my bed).

4. so you’re in a rut - it’s time for a ~dopamine detox!~ THIS. if you find yourself watching youtube 5 hours a day, while study seems impossible and you’ve become overridden with guilt, this is for you. things like  youtube, netflix, video games, and music all give the brain high amounts of dopamine. (guess what doesn’t? that’s right. studying.) if you spend your morning on instagram and youtube, you’re not going to want to switch off and start studying. the dopamine change will cause your brain to feel like studying is slow, difficult, sluggish, hard. we all know the feeling. but imagine like when you sleep, that dopamine resets. if you avoid your high-dopamine triggers - youtube, facebook, music, your phone - you’ll find that study becomes easier. not hard, challenging and refreshing. interesting. set yourself a time for your ‘dopamine detox’ - for example, i sometimes tell myself i won’t let myself on my phone / youtube / spotify until 4pm. (however, you can let yourself read, go for walks, journal, etc. during that time.) part of the idea is you find yourself so bored you actually WANT to study - what else would you do? i highly encourage you all to try this. it’s the best way, i’ve found, to get out of a rut.

i hope these can help you. studying from home is hard. but it doesn’t have to be miserable. i also want you to remember that we are going through a global freaking pandemic, and in an ideal world, we would not be forced to study at all. but, alas. keep yourself afloat, everyone. i’m proud of all of you. it’s okay to get a lot done some days and not much on other days. your study productivity does not measure your worth. your mental health does not measure your worth.  you are kind, strong, and hopeful.

don’t spend more time more time making your notes than actually revising them

note-taking itself honestly isn’t the best study method when used by itself; you’re overloading your brain with content and you can go on autopilot very quickly 

the key to note-taking being extremely useful for your studying is making testable notes. before uni I was into flashcards, but I was definitely guilty of making the mistake I first outlined; taking forever to actually flashcard everything and not using the flashcards enough times. the easiest way to get around this is making cornell notes, and I 100% recommend doing so digitally.

type your lecture/class notes like you would normally, and then in a separate document, create a table with two columns and make the column on the left side significantly narrower. copy the lecture notes you took and paste them into the larger column on the right. colour code these notes if you wish (I recommend it). I personally underline headings, use arrow subheadings, have yellow highlight for terms and bolded orange for any important information.

write the cue questions in the narrower column. 

this cuts down the time you take to actually organise/make your revision notes like no tomorrow, so when exams come around you can just say the cue question, recite the information verbally or write down your answer depending on what type of learner you are, and write down the information you missed on a blank sheet of paper.

rule of thumb: don’t handwrite EVERYTHING. it takes forever, and time is of the essence. type the things that will help you understand content, handwrite content that is super vital/you struggle with, which are definitely not mutually exclusive. think of typing as the bones and flesh, handwriting for the bones and any flesh that you keep forgetting about. weird analogy, let’s move on.

don’t listen to music when you study. or at least, try not to. this is crazy for me to say personally, because in high school I HAD to have music to be able to do any work. but first year has led to this bizarre shift of not listening to anything at all, and I recommend trying it out. if it’s still not working, I have a suggestion; listen to a genre of music that you NEVER or RARELY ever listen to in any other area of your life (preferably a genre with limited words). for me that was jazz. that way, you’ll only associate the playlist with studying. sometimes when I have zero motivation, I play my jazz playlist to get myself working, and then around 5 minutes in I have to pause the playlist to focus on my work. i never thought that would ever happen but here we are.

this one’s a little more ~controversial~ but don’t take super rigid and routinely breaks. say you have a system of studying for an hour and taking a ten minute break. a lot of the time, this will work and satisfy you. but sometimes, you’ll get to around the half an hour mark, and already feel tired/drained/antsy/not in the mood/done with the content already, you name it. it’s better to take a micro break then to re-energise so you can plough through that revision than wait for your scheduled break; you’ll probably spend the rest of the hour unfocused and impatient, and by the time you get to your break you’ll probably end up taking a much longer one than you anticipated because you were tired long before. will you ever actually return to your work that day? hm.

so, allow flexibility for study and break times. 

examples of micro breaks; making a beverage, writing a quick journal entry, decluttering your desk (depending on how messy your desk is tbh, don’t worry, we’ve all been there), checking the news, staring at the wall for a bit (again, we’ve all been there), finding study quotes on google, looking at pictures of Elle Woods etc etc etc

if you’re in a time crunch and you can’t do as many timed essays as you need, please type up essay plans (I say type instead of handwrite because typing makes it 500 times easier to edit and add sections). low-key for certain subjects plans can be more helpful than writing full essays

past papers are your best friend, but only if you; mark them, write down why you got an answer wrong (usually best for calculations or mcq), edit your response with the marking criteria (usually best for short answers), rewrite the marking criteria word for word if your answer and the criteria answer are vastly different (i.e the energy of reading and comparing the two and wondering if the responses were for two completely different questions or alas even courses), redo the questions you get wrong (all of them pls). simply doing a past paper and adding some ticks and crosses here and there isn’t going to do anything, there’s no magic involved.

voice memos are also extremely helpful, especially if you’re an auditory learner. don’t drone out information for each topic word for word (the voice notes will be like three hours long, and if that isn’t enough to demotivate future you, listening to it will feel…well…will you feel anything at all? that’s the true question), but definitely record yourself explaining a topic or question type to yourself. voice memos are also really great for working on assignments. trying to flesh out your thesis? record yourself and title it thesis. trying to figure out what the heck your arguments should be? record yourself and title it what the heck are my arguments. trying to understand a crucial part of set reading? title it help me what is happening with ‘title of set reading’

13.4.20

○ a man

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looking for :

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10.05.19

ap world notes in progress! ft. my favorite color sky blue ☁️

I know that most people, like me, are studying for midterms right this moment. Mine are actually this week. But to help us all use our time in the best way possible, here is a guide for high school and college students alike.

Do not try to fit in with the crowd. High schoolers especially. Right now, many high schoolers, including my friends, are not studying or worrying about midterms. And yet, they are going to wish that they were wise like you so that they could ace those exams and develop good study habits for the next level of education.

Your notes and materials do not need to be aesthetic. I find flashcards and notes with a lot of color help me the most. Invest in good quality products, such as the Zebra brand. My favorite study tools are a college ruled notebook, 4 by 4 notecards, black ink pens, my mildliners, whiteout, and the washi tapes I found on sale. The washi tapes were not for functionality, though. Maybe that’s not such a good example.

Remember to eat and sleep. Planning an all-nighter? Take a nap. Don’t know if you’ll have time to cook? Prepare a smoothie, acai bowl, or my personal favorites: Peanut butter toast with bananas or Greek yogurt with berries and granola. Just make sure what you put in your body is going to fuel it for the hard work you are preparing for. And DRINK. WATER.

Remember to take your makeup off if you wear makeup and don’t have enough time for a full skin care routine. I usually take my makeup off with a wipe and my eye makeup with a cotton ball and makeup remover, wash my face with my favorite Misumi wash, and load on the moisturizer because people, it’s winter and it is cold and windy outside. And for the love of all that is good and holy, please take a shower. And exercise! Just five or ten minutes! Walk your dog, go on a jog, do some yoga, ride a bike, jump rope! Just do it!

Half done is better then nothing. Make the flashcards, but go to bed if you are too tired to study. Do half of the revision. Just do something, if not everything! You do not have to revise and then study in one night! Make time for the things that YOU enjoy, like reading a book, listening to music or a podcast on Spotify, or journaling! Enjoy the week.

Do not consume copious amounts of coffee or energy drinks during exam week. It’s so tempting, but limit yourself to three cups of coffee and zero Red Bulls- yeah, zero!- and opt for green tea or lemon water. And again, STAY HYDRATED!!!

After the exams are over and break is here, give yourself a pat on the back, put your fuzzy socks on, make some hot cocoa and relax. You deserve it.

I always have a terrible problem over breaks where I have the mindset that having a real break is staying up till 3, waking at 10, getting dressed and brushing my teeth at 5 in the evening, not showering but once a week- ew- and then totally wasting my break. Don’t do this. The only exercise I got was walking outside to feed my dogs, cat, and horses. I literally felt like crap. Please, please, PLEASE don’t do this! Also, write everyday, so that when you are back at school, your hand doesn’t feel like it has never held a pen in your life.

Give yourself a week or maybe two and enjoy the holidays. And then, as soon as the New Year is upon us, start getting yourself back into work mode. Make a game plan. What are you planning to achieve? Are you planning to use a new organization setup? What are your goals? Buy all necessary supplies and download the apps. Start brushing up on what you last covered in your classes. Then, start going to bed and getting up as early as you do during school. You will be glad you did.

Make sure you have literally everything covered- from your classes, to your meals you have planned for the week, to your supplies, to your outfit you have planned for tomorrow- and be prepared. It will be so much easier in the morning, and you will be starting your new semester and 2020 off right, feeling awesome! Now go out there! Confront the problem! Succeed and kick some asteroid! I believe in you!