activiststudies

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Chadwick Boseman existing

Reblog if you agree

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i dropped off my resume at this place at 1:15 and got called for an interview at 1:45 holy dang

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h o w t o s u r v i v e c o l l e g e

Sleep

Okay listen - I know what you’re thinking. College students don’t sleep, though! And guess what? That’s absolutely true. I’ve had two cups of coffee today already and it’s only noon, but you need to learn how to sleep enough. Your body has limits and you need to learn what those are. I have had multiple friends who have fainted from not sleeping enough and guess what? They don’t perform better on tests that way. Figure out how many hours of sleep you need to get to function well. For me it’s about 5-7 hours per night during the week and about 7-8 hours per night on weekends (and I don’t have Friday class so Thursday nights count as weekends for me). This is probably the limit for keeping yourself healthy enough to function and I subsist off of coffee. If you don’t sleep you are going to get sick and your papers are going to be incoherent and you are going to gain weight from over eating. So just put down that paper, get your 6 hours and start up again in the morning. For majors that are reading based (i.e. English, History, Philosophy, Classics, etc) it is so important to get enough sleep so that you can actually comprehend your readings!

Plan

Your planner does not have to be beautiful, covered with script handwriting and cute small artist stickers to be worth putting time into (more power to you if yours is though — that’s a whole mood). I used Hobinichi Cousin planner to plan my day—chores, homework, and meals—but I also use iCal and an app called Things. My freshman year I thought that just having a paper planner would be fine but it did NOT work out for me. I was always late/forgetting meetings and running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Once I downloaded Things (for my assignments) and inputted work, social events, and when I’m really busy sleep/meals into iCal, I started getting better grades. Take 2 hours to plan. Seriously even if you have 372 things to get done by tomorrow, if you plan and make a linear list of the things you need to get done they will get done better and faster.

Things is a paid app. $10 for phone, $50 for Mac. It’s a bit of an investment for both but I have used it every single day for the past 2 years.

Socialize

Just me here with your local reminder that socialize does not mean you have to party. Let me tell you something, I haven’t gone to a party this entire year (it’s second semester) and I feel completely content about it. I am not saying that going to parties is bad. A lot of people have a ton of fun doing that, but let me tell you something—your social life cannot subsist off of parties alone. Invite people to brunch, make friends with the people in your classes by literally just talking to them (!!!), go on coffee dates with your friends as much as you can, take midnight ice cream runs, 1 am fried chicken runs, 9 pm boba study breaks, invite people over to make cookies, go to the cinema. Deep conversations and long talks will sometimes distract you from your work and guess what? That’s okay. That’s an important part of college too. Don’t shut yourself up in your room all day studying every day of the week. You are going to burn out. You need your friends and they need you!

Work smarter and harder

I cannot say this enough—utilize your resources! Go to office hours. It will literally save you to have a relationship with your professor. Not only are you going to get letters of recommendation, extensions when you really need them, and helpful tips—you can have amazing conversation and insight about grad school, research, and jobs. Go to the library. Not only are there a million books for your research project all grouped in the same section, but there are librarians who can help you find more resources with less effort. Use your databases, but also your own school’s archives. There is a reason we save so many books and newspapers. Also libraries are the absolute best place to study. This year I have tended to go to the most social floor because it keeps me awake and it reminds me that I have other people around me working late as well. Use apps. I’m saying this right now—DOWNLOAD ZOTERO. It will save you. It is an app and a google chrome extension which saves your sources in a database and then generates perfect citations/footnotes for your papers. It is the best thing of my life. Use google drive and keep your documents in organized folders. Organized virtual work is AS important as physical work. Also put some time into your LinkedIn ASAP—the sooner you do it, the easier it will be to keep it up to date.

Take care of yourself

Just be smart about your time and your mental health. Both of those I struggle with every day, but take solace in the fact that other people are going through it too. College is an amazing opportunity and even when it feels completely overwhelming it is still an extremely privileged position to be in. Do why you can to make yourself better, be there for the people who need you, grind on your papers and projects and research. At the end of the day your projects/papers are only going to be as good as your individual capacity allows them to be. Sometimes sleeping an extra hour is as beneficial as an extra hour of studying. Figure out what you need by making mistakes and forgive yourself! We are all just trying to make our way though.

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One of the University of Toronto’s many magical libraries

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I love you 3000.

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I wish you

Clear skin

4.0 GPA

Focus

Clear goals

Love

Affection

Peace

Self love

Good things from the universe

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I live for girls realizing their worth, demanding the respect they deserve and cutting off anything that brings negativity into their lives.

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A huge part of learning is recalling. At some points in the day take a moment to think “what did I learn in class?”. Take one minute to remember. I swear it is such a huge help to make this into a habit. At dinner? “Oh right, we learned about Taylor Series yesterday” In the shower? “We talked about the Civil war this morning” About to do homework? “What was the lecture on… oh right! We’re learning the Bohr’s model”

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you aren’t a bad person if you fail, skip a lecture or procrastinate

you aren’t lazy if you sleep in or can’t finish everything you were supposed to do

you aren’t weak if stress makes you cry and studying is overwhelming

you aren’t a failure, you are simply being a human

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this year, i absolutely bombed the first ap statistics test (i think i got 30%) and since tests were 60% of our grade, my high A in the class went down… to a high F. however, i was able to rescue my grade from certain death using these methods. (i actually brought it up to an A) so if you, too, have a grade that is gasping out its last breaths, never fear, the ambulance is on its way! a small disclaimer-in no way do i claim that these tips will work for every situation, and i’m afraid i don’t know any “quick fixes” that will magically restore your grade to its former glory. 

first, be brutal. now is not the time to be a perfectionist! recognize that you may not get the perfect 110% you dreamt of. also, recognize that life goes on. what’s important is that you pass the class. 

change your mentality. you’re not “stupid” or “bad at x subject” just because you have 1! low grade in 1! class. this kind of thinking will just send your further into a downward spiral and you will be even less motivated to work hard. 

next, analyze at your performance. what about the class makes it difficult for you? is it something small like forgetting to turn it a lot of assignments, or is it something more major like poor test scores? are you doing something less important when you should be studying for this class? is the teacher hard to understand or do you not get along with them? do you find the class boring or a waste of time? now you know what to focus on. in my case w stats, low test and quiz grades were dragging my average down. 

talk to the instructor. as soon as you feel like you may be in jeopardy grade-wise, you absolutely do need to get in contact with the person who teaches the class. make an appointment if the teacher is very busy. explain to the instructor that you are struggling with the class and ask if the teacher has any sort of tutoring or resources to help you understand the material better. do not ask about extra credit or ask “what can i do to get an A?” this makes it sound like you only care about your grade and not about actually learning. even though this might be true in your case, the teacher needs to see that you are making an effort to improve and that you care about the class. do not get angry or start blaming the teacher for the low grade. this will not win you any points (even if you feel the teacher is hindering your learning). if this feels like sucking up, it absolutely is, but sometimes sucking up can be helpful. once you’ve established this relationship with the teacher, go in and ask for help regularly. and push it if you don’t understand. if the teacher is unwilling or unable to help you, or if they refer you to another student instead of helping themselves, you don’t have to make the effort after the first attempt. as long as you at least attempt to form a relationship with the teacher they can’t see you don’t care. 

spend more time on the subject that’s bothering you. study for it in your free time. make it your first priority. by that i mean, do all! the work that has been assigned for that class first and only afterward do work for other things.

be extra! if you didn’t previously make notes or flash cards, make notes or flash cards. look for online resources on the topic like youtube videos or extra practice questions. read the lesson before the teacher covers it in class. try to participate in class even if you’re not confident. you don’t want to walk into an exam feeling you haven’t utilized all your resources.

every point counts. do all your homework. you do not have the luxury of blowing off assignments because they’re “not worth a lot of points.” think of every grade, no matter how small as an opportunity, and do your utmost to get a good score. also don’t neglect extra credit opportunities, even if you don’t typically “do extra credit.” even if it seems tedious or unimportant, it is worth it. 

and if nothing is working, consider dropping the class. there is nothing wrong with admitting you’re in over your head. if you feel there is a strong possibility you will fail the class, you can’t afford to have that on your record. why not drop it and move on to bigger and better things? however, use this as a last resort. administrators do not like dropped classes, as it means more work for them. at my school at least, people cannot drop out of classes after first quarter unless there are extenuating circumstances. if this is your case, you will typically get a pretty good sense of “ahhhh i need to get out” within the first week or two. 

recognize a grade is just a number. it doesn’t measure how hard you’ve worked or how smart you are. it is an often arbitrary assessment of your classroom performance according to a biased observer. sometimes we get “bad grades.” sometimes we fail. but in the words of inej ghafa, the trick is not in never falling, but it is getting back up again when we do. pls don’t discourage yourself or doubt your abilities because of one grade. it may feel terrible now, but i promise you you won’t worry about it in twenty years. 

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Doing well is much easier said than done. The best tip I have is to just do the work. It’s going to suck, but there’s no secret other than doing the work. Though, there are ways to make doing the work easier!

I. Time Management

Have a planner to gain a general idea of your week.

Schedule your time for studying but also schedule time for breaks.

Every morning I check what needs to be done for the day.

I treat college as a 9-5 job with a lunch break. This may not work for everyone, but this thinking allows me to be done by 5, and I usually finish everything for the day by that time.

Take a break after you finish an assignment. Allow yourself to feel proud for finishing and give yourself a reward.

Break up projects into smaller parts, this is incredibly important. It’s easier to do an outline, then a few paragraphs rather than doing an entire essay at once.

It’s not time well used if you don’t focus on the task at hand. If you’re having trouble, get rid of distractions using apps that limit phone/internet usage.

Don’t waste time on techniques that don’t work for you. I don’t rewrite notes, it doesn’t help me study. Instead I do extra textbook problems or I watch a video on the topic. 

Sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself to do the work, to study. Then just do a single problem, a single page or paragraph. Usually starting is the hardest part.

II. Studying & Learning

Be present during class by asking questions and answering problems.

Use phone-locking apps like Forest if you need to to stay focused on the class.

Skim lecture notes ahead of time. You don’t need to take notes on them, the professor will tell you what’s important.

It’s ok if your notes aren’t pretty as long as they’re functional.

Practice problems until you can’t get them wrong.

Try to teach the material to someone else. This will show holes in your understanding. Pretend to teach if you don’t have a friend in the same class.

If you need, study in the library. Honestly, studying at my desk in my dorm has worked just fine for me though.

Do the homework, there’s no way around it. This is probably the biggest tip here. Do the work.

Actually do the homework, don’t just copy answers. Understand the answers. You can’t copy on a test.

Speaking of tests, do as many practice tests as you can find. Once the real test comes around, you won’t be as nervous and it should feel familiar.

Nice pens and notebooks aren’t required. However, spend a dollar and get a pen that writes well enough that you’re not wasting time during class getting it to work. (I’ve been through this)

Do the extra credit. There’s no reason not to, and your grade will thank you.

Go to tutoring, not everyone knows everything. You might even make a new friend since most tutors at my school are also students!

Realistically, you don’t need to do every reading assignment as long as you know what your professor tests on. If you don’t have the time, its fine to only skim the assignment.

Make study groups. If you don’t have a friend in the class, it’s as easy as asking “want to work on the homework together?” In my experience, most people are happy to work with you.

Go to your professors office hours if you need help. Your professors are a valuable resource.

Ask your friends for feedback, I do this all the time.

III. Treat Yourself

Sleep and eat well. Coffee is not a breakfast.

Please, don’t force yourself to cram a subject overnight. This is where time management comes into play.

An over-stressed student is a bad student, but a little bit of stress is healthy.

Find what motivates you. Personally, I wish to become a researcher so I work hard towards that goal to get into a good grad. school.

You don’t have to join a club. I’m not in one, and my social life is just fine since I spend time playing games with friends at night.

But join a club if you want, even for a single day. You might meet some friends.

Really do whatever you want with regards to your social life. Do what’s comfortable for you.

If you need it, colleges have a therapist that you can make an appointment with.

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