morning sunshine

It may just be me, I don’t know. But every single time I see this on my dash or on someone’s blog or anywhere else, I kind of just breathe a sigh of relief. That’s one more person who cares. That’s one more person who doesn’t hate me.

Because it means so much, especially when all the media is spewing out is that I’m a terrible person and no one wants people like me near them. It means so much because I’m tired of people who won’t sit next to me in class, or who choose to join the longer line at the grocery store because they don’t want to be beside me and my family. It means so much when I have to lift my head any time someone says the words Islam or Muslim because I’m scared that they’ll say something that’ll hurt, when I have to pay attention to the news because who knows what so and so is saying now, who knows which of my people are being attacked now, who knows what’s going to happen to me now.

It means so much because I’ve been given the idea that the world is against me. And a huge part of it may be, but at least I’ve been reminded that some of it, just a small group of people, acknowledges that I’m a person too. That people like me are just that, people.

Here are some general tips I’ve summarized from my experience this year in dealing with a bunch of demanding classes!

Plan. Everything. 

This tip is especially for my fellow procrastinators as I’ve never been able to focus completely on a huge task. Do yourself a favor and divide a daunting project into smaller portions and predict how long it will take you to complete the task (it doesn’t matter if its inaccurate). Now since you know how long each sub-task will take, you can use With this method, you’ll find yourself utilizing time much more efficiently as you’ll finish a huge task bit by bit each day. 

(Personal Favorites Marked with 🌟 )

Time Management Methods, Websites, and Apps:

🌟 Schooltraq (future post coming up about this website/app!)

Bullet Journaling (masterpost by @studyign​)

🌟 Momentum (a chrome extension)

Habitica (Previously HabitRPG)

MyStudyLife (there’s an app for both android and ios!!!)

myHomework  (there’s an app for both android and ios!!!)

Notetaking and Studying

To be rather blunt, the majority of studyblr is focused around pretty notes that have been revised many times and most pictures of notes with a lot of notes on here have a lot of notes primarily because they are aesthetically pleasing. I’m all for pretty notes but remember that the universal goal of studyblrs is to succeed and if you have a lot of work to do, you don’t have time to color-code and rewrite everything to look neat. Even if you don’t take too long to make your notes look nice remember that every second counts!

Methods:

Taking Notes in Class/Lecture Notes by @studyquirk​

Efficient Notes in Class by @hexaneandheels​

Making Revision Notes by @raistudy​

How to Make Study Guides by @studybudyblr​

How to Revise by @youaretheairinmyalveoli​

Stress Relief

Remember it isn’t always about studying! Taking a break will help you do better as well so don’t be afraid to do something fun in fear of not getting your work done! 

Calming Music and Websites:

Rain Sounds

Nature Sounds Mixer 

🌟 Coffee Shop Sounds (Coffitivity)

🌟 The Quiet Place

5 Don’ts of Crafting a Good Essay

Let’s start with the things you should avoid first:

Rushing through It

Always keep in mind that writing an essay also requires you to do extensive research, brainstorming, and proofreading, in addition to actually writing it. Each of these segments is time-consuming, which means you need to start managing your time a lot better if you don’t want the quality of your essay to suffer.

Failure to Use the Appropriate Language

Your essay is one place where you should avoid the use of jargon, colloquialisms, or slang. The tone with which you should address the reader should be both formal and informative. While it’s easy not to say “hey, y’all” in your essay, some examples, such as using “children”, instead of “kids”, are a bit harder to spot.

Relying on Gimmicks

While wanting to make your essay stand out is a good thing to have in mind, you should rely on your writing and the strength of your arguments to achieve that goal. By all means, restrict yourself from using “clever” gimmicks such as clip art, doodles, or jokes in your essay.

Plagiarism

Whether you are intentionally quoting or paraphrasing entire passages from various sources, or simply not citing your sources properly, you are committing an act of plagiarism, plain and simple. Make sure to include a list of references, or a bibliography if you will, at the end of every essay you write.

Not Editing Your Essay

Since an essay is a good opportunity to show off your writing chops, it is absolutely unforgivable to have it contain grammar or spelling errors, which is why you should always proofread it thoroughly. In addition to that, editing should include going over some of your ideas and improving them if there is room for it.

5 Do’s of Crafting a Good Essay

Always implement these 5 tips when writing an essay:

Brainstorming

In order to come up with a topic for your essay, or the best way to approach one given to you, it would be a good idea to do some serious brainstorming. Instead of taking the first idea that pops up inside your head and running with it, organize your thoughts first, so you can extract the right one which will become your thesis statement.

Conduct Thorough Research

You may have some great ideas and concepts that you’ll want to introduce in your essay, but if you don’t have the data necessary to support your theories, they’re not going to stand, which is why the research process is so important when crafting a well thought out essay.

Structure Your Essay

Before you start writing, come up with an outline for your essay. In addition to breaking up your essay into three basic parts, which are the introduction, the body, and the conclusion, you should introduce each idea using a separate paragraph, so that you can properly develop each one, and make it easier for the reader to follow.

Always Present Your Thesis Statement in the Introduction

The introduction of your essay should always contain your thesis statement. That way, you clearly indicate what you are going to be discussing in your essay and what the final conclusion will be.

Write the Introduction and the Conclusion Last

While it may seem logical to write your essay in a linear fashion, starting with the introduction, you should always write the body of your essay first, and then come up with the introduction and the conclusion last. It is those two segment that serve as a summary for your essay, so you need to have the body completed before you can wrap up everything.

4 Effective Essay Writing Tools

Every student should check out the following 5 essay crafting tools:

Mindmeister – Mindmeister is a mind mapping app which can help you during those initial stages of brainstorming. Use it to flesh out your ideas and concepts you will be using for your thesis and the outline of your essay.

Edugeeksclub – Another useful way of improving your essay writing skills would be to get in touch with professional writers and editors at EduGeeksClub, which can help you during every stage of essay creation, from brainstorming and research, to writing and editing.

Turnitin – Making sure that your work is original as possible is easier than it ever was before, thanks to Turnitin, a plagiarism-detection tool, which also provides its users with some useful peer feedback.

Easybib – Easybib is a powerful online tool which enables you to create bibliographies for your essays in over 7,000 different citation styles, including MLA, APA, and Chicago.

notes to self 

you’re lovely, and you are not a mess.

your skin has nothing to do with anything. yeah, it’s an important organ and you should take care of it but don’t tear yourself to shreds over some spots. 

you are not a waste of space. 

everything is survivable (except the last thing). 

this, too, shall pass. 

your GPA does not reflect your worth. 

you deserve to be treated well and kindly. 

breathing does wonders. 

don’t be ashamed of liking/loving things. just love them. 

your weight/thighs/tummy also do not have any correlation to your worth or awesomeness.

you are loved.

gardenias are wonderful; flowers are wonderful; let your mind be the garden you always wanted. take care of it. 

Whack At It Wednesday || 02.03.2016

Don’t take that perversely. I know some of you did. On Wednesdays, not only do we wear pink, but I also would like to use these 24 hours to try something new. Take a whack at it!

Today, I tried some studyblr swatches. I saw the lovely @studytildawn post some and I fell absolutely in love. Not very risque, I know, but it was still something new.

This post was requested, so here we go! If you have a topic you’d like me to cover, just send me an ask :)

Success in math class is based on a combination of three things: effort, time, and resources.

1. Effort

Work through EVERY practice problem that is assigned/suggested for your class

If you’re not told to do any, go through your textbook and work through a bunch

Usually doing 20-30 problems per topic will get things to stick really well

The goal is to overlearn! If you can do really hard questions, the basic ones will be super easy and you’ll have tons of confidence with them

If you don’t have a textbook, google the topic you’re working on and “practice problems” and some should come up

When you go through problems, check your answers. If it’s correct, awesome! If it’s incorrect, reflect on where you might have made your errors, then try the problem again. Work through the problem until you figure out how to get it right

This process of repetition and trial-and-error will help you learn things most effectively

(You can always skip it and go back during your next study session if it becomes too frustrating)

Don’t give up if a section gets difficult!

2. Time

You should expect to spend at least 2 hours outside of class for every hour you spend in class per week (in university)

(This amount really depends on the difficulty of your current topic and how long you take to to get through problems)

In high school it most likely won’t require as much time, since more is taught in class, but if you’re in a particularly difficult section, you may need to try to get in a little more practice time.

Don’t try to cram all of your problems into one study session the night before an exam!!!!!

Do a section or half a section of problems per day to pace yourself so you don’t get overwhelmed.

3. Resources

Sometimes these two things alone aren’t enough, and that’s okay! It’s totally normal to need a little extra boost in math classes (and school in general).

Check to see if your school has math tutoring (quite a few have it for free!)

Go to your professor’s office hours for help- they want to help you do well!

Ask a friend for help.

Look online for resources! (most are free)

Khan Academy

Shmoop

Math.com

CyMath Problem Solver

Algebra Calculator

Other Tips

Try helping out some people in your class with their homework, if you can! If you’re able tor eteach it to someone else, you most likely understand the topic right well.

If you’re a visual learner, Kahan Academy is a lifesaver. He works through problems and color codes number so you can actually see how and why the 3x becomes -6xy in the next step.

Don’t save everything for the night before the test!!!!

Work through the practice tests in your textbook for whatever topic you’re covering once a week so you can apply a combination of skills at once.

Do these practice tests again before an exam.

This will also help you stagger your learning more so you don’t have to cram before a test!

Don’t be afraid to mix and match for color schemes too!

It’s alright, we have all been there. We have all experienced the dreadful moments when we just really don’t want to work and would like to lie in bed instead. Here are some tips that can help you to get motivated and stay away from your bed:

Break down your tasks. Try to just force yourself to sit down with your laptop or pen and papers, and write down all the things you have to do. This can make you realise what you actually have to do, instead of just constantly telling yourself “I have tons to do help” without clearly knowing what’s your direction.

Next, focus on progress. Focus on the effort and time you spent on the tasks instead of the result first. Time and effort is something you can actually control, and remember to reward yourself for that.

Try to do easier tasks first. If you are not motivated at all, there is no point to read a huge chunk of information you probably cannot understand, or do an extremely difficult math paper that you won’t be able to do anyway. In this situation, the last thing you would want to do is to make yourself feel frustrated. Instead try to make yourself accomplished by completing little and easy tasks first. You will eventually be able to get back on track.

Find your peers to work with you. Having someone beside you to motivate you and to work together makes the whole thing less boring and tedious, and if studying and interacting with friends is actually an effective learning strategy for you, this method works even better.

Stop waiting until you have sufficient information to do something. That is never going to work. This will just going to be your excuse to delay and procrastinate. Try to start working on what you have instead, you will find completing the task so much easier later on.

Just start working. Tell yourself that you will just type one sentence, or solve one problem and you can take a rest. This way you will, at least, feel less guilty since you did work on something that day, but you may also find the motivation to continue working.

That being said, it’s definitely normal that we have days when we are just less productive, after all we are all humans and we do need breaks. Just make sure you have the right balance. Good luck and stay motivated! x