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What I learned during one year of online school, and what another year may look like

Just some raw facts

first and foremost, pay attention in class, or at least try to. I spent the majority of my classes browsing through meaningless memes on Pinterest or chatting with my friends, and I regretted it as soon as exams came around.

try doing something physical doing your class, as this reduces the chances of you drifting off and/or losing focus (I personally chose to doodle mindlessly, nothing that involved too much brain power and focus)

all your organization systems fail you

and finding a planning system takes months, but once you find it, STICK TO IT. mine was a hybrid weekly and daily planner with absolutely no other spreads (except a separate calendar). efficient and less time-consuming to make.

you feel motivated in random bursts and will plan out the entirety of your remaining year and then forget about that plan the next day

routines seem appealing as you try to get your life together from the ever-increasing slumps but then your realize they just make everything even more monotonous that they already are

sticky notes are the shit. like seriously. I had sticky notes in my textbooks, past papers, study notes, and even other sticky notes. they’re versatile and a great way to jot down information quickly and right on top of where you want it (a paragraph on your textbook, for examples)

do not rely on just your textbooks, especially since it’s 10 times harder to ask for help (and by the time you get around to meeting your teacher, you might actually forget about it). ask anyone around you for help – friends, family – and use all the resources you have.

online learning resources are astronomically underrated. while I was struggling in multiple subjects all by myself, I decided to expand the resources I used for studying. My favourites through my senior year were:

OpenStax (FREE textbooks on a variety of subjects groups, by Rice University)

Khan Academy (need I say more?)

Crash Course on youtube, especially for AP Exams (I’m not a part of the US education system btw, and the resources I’m mentioning are applicable to everything)

online pdf versions of textbooks

tons of youtube channels (too many to list here,)

use your phone/computer’s night light. trust me it works wonders. plus, it’s cheaper than blue light glasses if you already own a phone/computer (most have it built in). also known as a blue light filter/yellow light.

a little bit of gratitude each week will help you keep your sanity (coming from a former skeptic)

sleepless nights will be common, especially with all the screen time, but you’ll learn to live with that.

and mental health will just go down the drain

but it will all be okay

you get both your grades and confidence high

i speak from experience

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some things i’ve learned while studying in quarantine

drink more water instead of more coffee.

weekly goals are bullshit. set yourself 3-day goals. you’ll be less laid-back.

don’t just mindlessly stare at words. before you start studying, know your approach to it. have a plan.

summarizing the concept in your own words is the key part of taking notes. don’t just copy things down, convert them into your own way of talking, your own vocabulary, no matter how dumb and unprofessional it sounds.

don’t let the “studyblr aesthetic” fool you. studying doesn’t have to be pretty. summaries and notes can be messy as long as they’re comprehensible. you can always rewrite and reorganize them later. (honestly, you better do. and you better keep them.)

don’t throw away the papers you’ve solved your problems in. staple them to the fucking textbook. you need to see them constantly. cause you’ll need reminders of how far you’ve came, when you’re feeling discouraged.

don’t be an armchair analyst for your issues. if you have an idea then act on it.

remember: the exact point where it becomes difficult, is where your growth begins. take a deep breath, and try to focus on the paragraph in front of you.

get off your high horse and understand that if you’re a zero, you won’t go to 100 in a couple of days. first, you’ll need to reach 30, then from 30 to 60, and then from 60 to 90. nobody is 100 everyday. that happens very rarely.

you need to have fun everyday. you need to have peaceful time every single day. even on exam night. especially on exam night, actually. so make sure you’ve studied enough so you can have some time to yourself.

once you’re on a roll and in need of some challenge to stay on track, start writing down your studying hours. tell yourself you’re not allowed to do less than 80% of what you did yesterday. whatever the hell it was, even just one hour. so if yesterday you really studied for like, say 8 hours, today your goal is to study for at least 6 and a half hours. if you can’t keep up with that, make it 70%, or 60%. 

be forgiving of yourself. be kind to yourself. even if you bounced back and lost your streak. start again. as slowly as you did before. take your time. it’s okay, you were there once you can get there again.

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‘eat the frog' method

Hi all, it’s werelivingarts. I just stumbled across this method called ‘eat the frog’, which means you get the most difficult or important task out of your way first. I actually have been using this method for a long time, hope this post gives you a new way of managing your time and productivity! 😜 ❤️

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” – Mark Twain 

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How do i deal with test anxiety?

There are a lot of strategies that you can use to deal with text anxiety! This is a common problem that students face, and there are several well-tested methods for overcoming it:

Develop good study habits. This might sound a little bit obvious, but you are less likely to be anxious about a test if you feel well-prepared for it. Get into the habit of preparing for a test well ahead of time - don’t cram the night before. Have regular, short study sessions every night in the weeks leading up to a test. Don’t just re-read your notes a few time; actively test your understanding of the information by creating flash cards, writing summaries of key information, and doing any practice tests or old exams that are available. Ask your teacher, professor or TA if you need clarification on the material. Attend any test prep sessions your TA or teacher offers, or join a study group. Study in a well-lit, comfortable environment, and put your phone away while you study. 

Get a good night’s sleep before the test. Going into a test feeling tired and drowsy is a recipe for anxiety. Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for making sure your brain is prepared for the test - a well-rested brain is much more likely to not “blank” when you see the test questions. Again, this requires good study habits, and avoiding a last-minute cram the night before the test. 

Ease up on the caffeine. Caffeine only gives you the illusion of alertness - in reality, it just speeds up your heart rate and makes you anxious. Don’t drink coffee, high-caffeine tea, energy drinks or soda on the day of an exam, or during your study session the evening beforehand. Instead, get the energy you need from a good breakfast and lunch with lean proteins, whole grains, and fruits and veggies. You’ll be much more alert for your test, without the anxiety.  

Learn some relaxation techniques. Before - or during - a test, have some relaxation techniques on hand that you can use to calm any anxious butterflies. This could include meditation exercises, mindfulness exercises, deep breathing or stretching exercises. You can find a lot of great tutorials for this stuff on YouTube - practice these techniques ahead of time, so that you can find the ones that work best for you, and be ready to use them on test day. 

Request test accommodations. Talk to either your teacher, your professor, your school counsellor or your university’s office of disability services about possibly getting some accommodations to help you with your test anxiety. This can include things like being allowed to write the test in a separate room, or having extra time to write the test. At a university or college level, this may require that you have a diagnosis of a learning or anxiety disorder - most disability offices can help you get assessed for a possible disorder in order to get these accommodations. 

Talk to a mental health professional. Test anxiety can come from deep-seated fears and anxieties, and the best way to make test-taking easier is to treat those fears and anxieties on a deeper level. Therapies like CBT can be extremely effective for helping you work through those concerns, so that you can do your best on exams without being overcome by test anxiety. Any school or university should be able to give you resources for mental health professionals that address test anxiety. 

Hope this helps! Have a great semester!Miss Mentelle

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cellular respiration and washi tape //

I'm still not sure if I'm going to go back to university for my in-person classes, as it's in a city with a lot of coronavirus cases; what are your universities doing?

insta: goblinstudies

// listening to: "more" by Keshi

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Stay healthy, sweet people! 

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had a long to-do list today and am so happy to scratch off most of the tasks on there✨ i had a lovely morning typing up my review for dread nation (link in bio for my blog & full review!), ran some errands, brainstormed some ideas for @mythoughtful.space, and read!☺️ what have you all been up to lately?🧡 (at Perth, Western Australia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCTeHlanT5w/?igshid=ik1evmevnho0

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5 jul ‘20

throwback to the last few times i actually went out for classes and studied/chilled in cafes. how time flies and how things change within such a short span of time. we’re into the second half of the year. and no, 2020 isn’t cancelled. better days are ahead of us!!

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not so much study tips, more thoughts on university/studying in general

although these posts are abundant, i like to have my own collection of study tips/uni thoughts

- i’ve been viewing my studies as an office job, mostly because of the 9 to 5 mentality. i am not one for night studying, i have tried and tried and felt guilty when i heard others talk about their late night study sessions, but it is just not for me. which is fine, because with this 9 to 5 idea i have created working days for myself and i can use my evenings for extracurriculars, books, friends, netflix 

- the train has (weirdly) become one of my favourite study spots. of course this really depends on the public transport you use. i am on a train for two hours a day, no transfer, and i either go to a silent area (have not yet seen this elsewhere, but dutch trains have carriages in which there is complete silence) or i put in my earpods. i love this because when i come home, i have already done so much work, e.g. organized my lecture notes of that day, inserted my professor’s comments into my paper etcetera

- although i’ve also learned to recognize when i am just done. sometimes i have had enough and it is way better to accept that and then i either listen to some music and stare at the passing landscape, or i watch an episode of the crown. when feeling exhausted, there’s no point in pushing and forcing yourself

- this goes for many many aspects: comparison will kill you. it is often still my tendency to compare myself to others on all levels - grades, kindness, clothing, weight, work ethic - but i make the effort to not ‘indulge’ in it. what my therapist told me has really helped: just notice that the urge to compare is there but then leave it be. like it’s a tiny spider crawling on your leg; you don’t have to do something with it

- on the topic of work ethic: don’t listen to your fellow students. don’t listen to what some wonderful academic says (online). don’t even listen to what your professors say regarding study hours. it has often made me feel very uncertain, but i think it is way better to figure it out yourself. to build up a feeling of trust towards yourself, so you can really start to notice, to feel, when you have done enough. that is something only you should be able to judge and not some external source

- sometimes i get overwhelmed with this sensation that i have not done enough, that i am lazy and have accomplished nothing. however, every (every!) time i have noticed this to be untrue. so perhaps i have not studied every chapter, but i have studied other chapters. i found the cliché of looking at what you have done to really be true. it helps me put things into perspective, i think we can really underestimate ourselves in how much work we have done. what you consider to be 20% may actually be 60%

- motivating internal monologues are completely normal and actually very good! give yourself that motivating speech, it’s like a snow track that becomes deeper and clearer everytime you repeat it 

it helps me to look back on these at times, has been in my concepts for a while now (like some kind of motivating internal monologue) but i want this to have a place on my actual blog, because i believe tips like these (less focused on studying and more on coping with the whole world of studying/academia) are important as well 

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More math notes and strawberry milk!

#digital notes #engineering #math #studyblr #studying #motivation #engineer #productivity #mathblr #strawberry #drinks #strawberry milk #mathematics #study aesthetic #note taking #engineerblr #calculus #linear algebra

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23.5.2020

Messy desk! :)

( click on the pictures for hq )

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05.20.20 // what do you get when you have 6 signaling pathways, like 13 different agonists and antagonists you can combo together to query said signaling pathways with, and a PI who says, “why don’t you send me your experiment plan by this afternoon”? the answer: a feral hot MESS

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Linear Algebra!! Learning about complex numbers & applying De Moivre’s Theorem

#linalg #studyblr #study notes #school #algebra #engineering #engineer #mathblr #math #notes #digital notes #mine

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first year uni tips

i started taking college classes with absolutely no preparation when i was fourteen. now i’m finishing undergrad, and these are my tips for first years in college. but remember that you are smart enough to know what’s right for you.

a word about 8 ams

every college advice post says that waking up for an 8 am class in high school does not mean you will be able to in college. that’s true. 8 ams might not be wise for you. but they also might be! i’m not a morning person. i have severe insomnia. 8 ams are the fucking worst. but i took them for the last three semesters because my schedule needed it. just balance your needs. think before you add classes. but remember that these classes exist for a reason.

communication

check. your. email. forward your school account to your personal one. download the app. set up notifications. just check your goddamn email or you will show up to cancelled classes, not study for last minute quizzes, miss study guides and other tips, not know about extra credit, etc. don’t be afraid to email your professors. put your class code and section, if applicable (ex: ARTH 110.01), in the subject line and use formal, polite language. tell them when you are going to miss class! ask them questions! this will all be easier if you take the five minutes to introduce yourself after class or in office hours the first week. and you’ll be a lot better off when asking for recommendation letters.

supplies

i haven’t bought supplies for college because i seriously overbought my senior year of high school and haven’t needed much for college anyways. i’m a soc major and art history minor, and these are the supplies i actually use for my classes:

scrap paper (or laptop) for class notes

notebook for revised notes (literally, i’ve used one three subject notebook for all of my classes from the last year)

planner

stapler!!!

a few pens

a few pencils

a few high lighters

(optional) abundant sticky notes

(optional) cute pens and markers

time management

let’s talk about that planner for a second. i’ve been balancing an intense course load for five years now. the last year has been the easiest for me, but i still couldn’t survive without my planner. i write down every single test and assignment the moment the due dates are given, usually out of the syllabus. (and meetings for projects/work/extra curriculars!) i personally need weekly spreads and daily to do lists, but i also like monthly overviews. don’t get sucked into bullet journal culture if it’s too much for you. there is nothing wrong with buying a five dollar planner and doing nothing pretty inside of it. do whatever it takes, but know when you have responsibilities.

extra curriculars

it’s okay if you don’t get involved in college! school is hard! making friends is hard! social anxiety and other barriers are hard! instead of overwhelming yourself trying to do it all, try out one thing you might be interested in. don’t be afraid to join but work at the edge of your comfort zone. i did exactly two things outside of school and work in college, but i truly loved being a part of both. (and i had to put my mental health before my resume.)

new experiences

college is for exploration. all the clichés are true. take a class you’ve never heard of that isn’t related to your major. take a lot of classes that aren’t related to your major. try spending time with people who don’t look, sound, dress, believe, and live exactly like you. listen to academic discourse and contribute to it. you’re in one of the greatest times of your life for discovering new perspectives and new ways of existing. soak it all in.

shitty advice

everyone has their ideas about what you should do in college and with the rest of your life. some of it will be good advice, some of it will be bad. and even the good advice might not be good for you. listen to others’ ideas but listen harder to yourself. no one knows you better. no one knows what you want and what you can handle better. maybe nothing in this post makes sense for you. that’s okay. i promise, you’ve got this.

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academia things that genuinely make me happy:

large textbooks filled with extra papers which hold the answers to the problems you thought were too brilliant to be thrown away, or the simple short summary of a part you were struggling to understand before

having your textbook absolutely ruined by highlighters and sticky notes all over it, those little tips and ideas you picked up from the lesson. anyone who opens that book immediately knows that you’ve studied the crap out of it and know the concept by heart. “this is the most annotated book i’ve ever seen” is literally the highest form of compliment for me.

solving math or chemistry problems to a soundtrack album or ambient sounds, extra points if it’s in afternoon lol

when you’re so focused and keen on getting to the final answer that your hand physically can’t keep up with your eagerness so you end up with the most incoherent solution. but you’ve finally got the answer right!

being self-taught in a subject or a few chapters of the textbook, and still smashing the quizzes and the exams

coming up with a new solution to the problem, or seeing the problem from a new perspective, and finally being able to solve it because of just that.

confidently walking out of the exam room. 0 doubt in your mind that you crushed it!

actually feeling how you’ve grown academically, and how much more knowledgeable you are compared to the beginning of the semester

casually and confidently having conversations with a professor about your studies, exchanging ideas and discussing the existing theories, methods, on-going research and all

all of this is everything i want in life- god 

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Also I had to be a fully online student for a semester would anyone like tips lmao or is that like annoying coming from a now teacher