My Study Method

MASTERPOST

Hi! This is going to be pretty long and I have tried my best to cover as much as I could. If there are any specific requests, please message me on my personal blog! (Linked in the description.)

Study stuff

How to make a study schedule 

Daily printable planner (with to-do list)

By the hour detailed planner (printable)

2015 printable calendar

Improve vocabulary in 5 minutes

Cornell note-taking method

More note-taking

10 general study tips

Crash Course

Best damn tutoring

Math tutor

Khan Academy (obvs)

University of reddit

Coursera

edX

Ways to boost your note-taking

Awesome study flowchart

Websites to increase productivity

Get shit done even when you don’t feel like it

How to not freak out during finals

Subject-specific tips:

Square root calculator

Cube root calculator

Oil painting

Reading a painting

Free language tutorials (20 LANGUAGES)

Shakespeare deaths infographic

A HUGE ASS WRITING TIPS MASTERPOST 

Synonyms for commonly used words

Put your feelings into words (I know, I know, it’s complicated. Maybe this will help?)

Common grammar mistakes

More common mistakes (after all, to err is human)

Masterpost with music to influence your writing

Words. You’re welcome.

Try this math game

Wolfram Alpha

Text books are fucking expensive. Go here, okay?

How to not say the word ‘very’

‘Everyday compounds’ infographic

Online courses masterpost (apart from the sites I’ve mentioned)

Nervous system chart

Endocrine system chart

Common pre/post fixes chart for med students

Types of stitches (???)

Learn programming

COLLEGE! 

How to grow the fuck up (masterpost)

How to become an adult (masterpost)

Dorm essentials checklist

THIS DORM CHECKLIST!

What to do with your major

Read this before you join a Sorority/Fraternity 

Deal with a hangover

Food to buy

Fix your leaky faucet

Remove a carpet stain

Organise your closet

More food to buy

WINTER SURVIVAL

FOOD BC WHY NOT

100 Ramen recipes

Triple Chocolate and Salted Caramel Cookies

Really nice recipes. Every hour.

Healthy, but tasty snacks

Apple pie inside a fucking apple

Disney inspired recipes

Deep dish mug cookie

Food hacks

Recreate food porn

More food porn recipes

Hello everyone! I asked you if you wanted me to do this post and many of you seemed really surprised that I actually have 19 subjects. Welcome to Croatia, people haha.

So, first I’m going to tell you more about how it works in my school. I’m going to one of Croatia’s many Gimnazija’s (in my case opća gimnazija) [opcha gimnazia]. It is a school where you learn a very good amount of general information. I’m in the 3rd year (or as you would say junior year) What classes am I taking? Croatian, English, German, Music education, Art education, Psychology, Logic,  Sociology, History, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, PE, Religion, Information technology (an elective subject that every student has to take (from opća gimnazija)), and I have 2 additional subjects which are different in learning (and very very optional) DSD (for German diploma) and advanced Physics.

One class lasts for 45 minutes with a 5 minute break, a day has around 6-7 classes, with a big break after the 2nd period for 15 minutes (some schools have up to half an hour). My school has two shifts of students (this year the 3rd and 2nd year are together, and the 1st and 4th year). The first shift: 7:10 am-1:05 pm, and the second: 1:15 pm- 7:10 pm. One week you are the first, the other week you are the second shift, so you have to be really good at organising your time. We have two different schedules.

Here’s an example of my schedule for one day:

1. Math 2. Math 3. Psychology 4. Physics 5. German 6. Chemistry  7. Biology 8. DSD

You of course have to have a notebook for each subject and a textbook (and maybe a workbook if required)

I eventually come home by 3 pm and start with my homework and studying.

Okay, now how I organize my time and my tips.

Pay attention in class and take notes.

This has saved me a ton of times. I always learn a lot more when someone explains it to me the first time and taking notes is a must. If you want, you can always rewrite notes, but for me, the best way is to just re-read them 2-3 times when you get home or the day before you have your next class. You will always follow up with your class and studying for an exam won’t be that hard.

Do your homework as soon as you get home.

I always do it as soon as I can because that way I won’t push it aside and forget about it. Also, doing it immediately helped me to have more time to study something else.

Get a bullet journal.

This is important because writing down your tasks helps a lot when getting them done and with organization. I also like to keep track of my exams, my grades, my habits and important dates. What helps is making a study schedule in your bujo. Here’s how you can do it.

Revise every subject the day before.

As I said before with notes, reading a few pages of your textbook or notebook hleps keeping up with your subjets. Doing that for every 19 subjects seems impossible but if I take 20 minutes for a subject I have tommorow that’s 2,5-3 hours which works. If I really don’t have that time I revise on the bus, or when I arrive in school.

Set priorities.

When I have an english essay for tommorow and a math exam, I will learn more for my math exam. I do this because I have set priorities for those subjects. I maybe have already an A in engish and a B in math, so of course I’m going to learn for something harder. Another example is that I’m going to need the math later because I’m going to work as a math teacher and not as an english teacher when I finish uni.

Weekends can save you.  Holidays are your best friend.

All that work that I have set aside I can do on weekends and I can study more for the following week.

Doing your summer/winter work is really important for not getting stuck in that pile of work.

Find your best study place, and your speciall style of studying.

Not all of us can study in our bed, or at a desk. Not all of us learn by re-writing everyting. Finding what works best for you can save you so much time.

Here 2 helpfull links:

- types of studying

- learning styles

You don’t have to be a perfect student.

Accepting that I don’t have to be a straight A student but doing my work as if I am helped me achieve my goals. You have to do your best in order to achieve what you dream of. But, if being a perfect student means that you have no social life, or that your health is in danger it’s not a good option.

Thank you so much for reading and hope that helps some of you. Do you want to see a what’s in my backpack and my daily study routine?

xoxo, V.  ❤

“I’ve been living alone so long, everything about me’s private. I’m surprised anyone’s able to understand a word I say.”

— Kurt Vonnegut, from Mother Night; “Werner Noth’s Beautiful Blue Vase,”

Achieving your full academic potential: Things to Avoid Doing

Things you may want to avoid doing in the future. 

 Doing, wait, not doing these things always works for me. 

Staying up late. 

 Sleep is yes.  And as my speech coach puts it “there are only so many all nighters a person can pull before they just can’t”.  Not only will staying up uber-late make the next day a battle between you an a surprisingly pillow-like desktop, if you’re tired, your work probably won’t be the your best.

Over-scheduling. 

 It’s easier to look at a schedule with 3-4 assignments than it is to look at one with 9-10.  When scheduling, if you have a plethora of assignments, prioritize.  Write down the most important assignments, and leave any others off the page or in the margins.  You only have so many hours in the day and it’s better to complete the most important tasks than none at all.

Pro-tip: The Pareto Principle.  The Pareto principle revolves around the 80%-20% ratio.  Allow me to explain, if you have 10 pieces of work, there are probably only two of them that will take up 80% of the work.  And 8 of them that will take up 20% of the work.  The key to prioritizing is finding those two assignments (or however many = 20% in your workload) and doing them first

Working in bed or laying down.

 NONONONONONONONONONO.  This is how “cat-naps” happen.  You swear that you’re going to get straight to work and then your phone on the bedside table lights up.  It’s too hard to organize a book, a notebook, and a laptop on a bed without moving the laptop off of your lap.  So why not check it?  

Working in bed helps the boogeyman grow under it.

Over-working.  

If you take on more than you can handle, you will not get the results you want.  It’s perfectly alright to challenge yourself.  In fact, it’s great.  But, there is a difference between being ambitious and stressing yourself out.  If it’s too much, go back to the Pareto principle and prioritize. 

Drinking excessive amounts of coffee and energy drinks. (Especially in the afternoon.)  

One (maybe two, if you ordered a tall) cups of coffee in the morning is fine.  But in the afternoon or the evening, stick to exercise, healthy snacks, and naps.  Sugary energy drinks as well as coffee that contain caffeine can speed up your heart rate, cause stress, and irregular breathing patterns.  If you become addicted to caffeine these things will accelerate and can end up hurting you detrimentally.

Over-using productivity apps.  

Productive apps are awesome, if used correctly, don’t abuse them.  It was difficult for me to use productivity apps on my phone at first because the other things on my phone would distract me.  If you plan to use productivity apps on you phone and computer make sure that you have the self-control needed o use them properly.

Tumblr. - I’m only half kidding

Those are the general ones, these are a bit more subject specific

Math/science

Falling behind. 

 In other classes falling behind is not recommended, but is usually fixable by reading a few chapters or asking a friend for notes.  Because of arithmetic’s complex nature that relies not only on facts, but applying them it is very difficult to master one a concept while you’re supposed to be mastering another.  Often, learning one key concept can help you with many other assignments, not learning key concepts can make those other assignments 10x harder.

Receiving low homework scores.  

In all of the math classes I’ve been in, the homework scores were more of your grade than your test homework.  Always turn in your homework, even if it feels impossible, try your best, and never leave your paper blank.  Even if you got all of the answers wrong, many teachers will give you serious credit for trying and failing rather than just failing.

Learn everything from the teacher. 

 There are a plethora of online math resources that are awesome, and math teachers usually only teach one method of solving a problem.  Try Khan Academy , For Dummies, or IXL.  Or look around a bit, there are a lot of other great sites, those are just my favorites.

Learn everything. (This is usually for science.) 

 In science (especially in biology and Earth sciences.) you are introduced to a myriad of concepts and vocabulary words that might seem like too much to memorize.  Don’t.  Look at what your teacher puts emphasis on and memorize that. Also, if you are using a textbook, there is a good chance that the textbook is filled with notes on the ‘key concepts’ or learning requirements for each chapter.  These are also things that you should attempt to memorize.

English/writing/history/ other humanities

Not develop an opinion. (Especially in history) 

 If there’s anything a english/ writing/ history teacher loves, it’s an opinionated student.  Textbooks give you facts and figures, and you can interpret them however you want.  So, do just that.  This will show your teacher not only that you are interested in his or her subject, but that you are engaged in the material that they gave you.

Ignore teacher comments. (No matter how small.) 

 It isn’t fun to read nit-picky comments about your work.  Especially on your writing.  But look at them.  Even if you receive a good grade on a paper, applying corrections on your next one will ensure that you get a better grade the next time.  

Staying quiet in class.  

I understand that for some people this one is hard, for some people this one is practically impossible.  But teachers love it.  If you can, voice your opinion and answer questions in class as frequently as possible.  I’ve even received extra credit for being verbally engaged in class more than other students.

Not trying to learn everything.  

This one is a lot like the ‘not ignoring teacher comments’.  A lot of information slips through the cracks (especially in english)  that pops back up on exams.  Because most of what is learned in an english class is not drilled into you like it would be in a math or science class, to do well, you have to drill yourself.  I’ve been told the difference between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ plenty of times, but I didn’t truly learn it until this year when I had to study it for an exam.

Pro-tip: Don’t challenge your teachers.  They determine your grades.  Momentary satisfaction is not worth a bad grade.

Hope this was useful!

Note taking masterpost:

An anon requested this today. I though I had already made one, but apparently not.

General note taking and guides:

Combining lecture and reading notes

Resources about making chapter outlines

Recognising key points in a lecture / reading (for efficient note taking)

10 tips for good note taking in lectures

Guide to note taking (the major approaches and techniques)

What to do after you take your notes

Organising a notebook

Taking notes that work (By Dustin Wax)

Top note taking tips

An example of me using cornell notes

Visual / Pretty Notes:

Visual guide to illustrating notes

How to make your notes prettier!

Pros and cons of pretty notes

Guide to colour coding

Guide to my graphic notes

How to make notes cute and neat

Inspiration: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 /

Electronic Note taking:

Guide to taking typed notes

Handwriting versus typing your notes

Organising your typed notes

Note taking apps

PLEASE MAKE A REAL COLLEGE TIPS POST BC I WAS TRUSTING THE ONE FROM THE FIRST YEAR UNTIL NOW

minimize gaps in your schedule if you’re commuting unless you work better on campus, in which case schedule large gaps and stay on campus all day

use academic advising services as early as possible to formulate your post-grad plan. don’t leave it until third or fourth year and risk missing prereqs, work/volunteer experience or references

networking sucks ass but guess what? you have to do it. figure out what your classmates are doing, who they’re speaking to, etc

make sure your profs know you. sit near the front, see them during office hours (make up questions if you have to), attend events, pick their brains. you might get an academic reference out of it or even a grad student position 

you most likely have an online portal. visit it hourly. leave it for even a day and you will miss something

find out what textbooks you need before the semester starts and download the e-book, buy it used, whatever. just don’t fuck yourself over within the first couple weeks waiting for your book to arrive

read your syllabus very carefully. set all dates in your phone with an alarm days prior

get credit audits every year to make sure you’re on track to graduating when you anticipate

don’t take evening classes. you’ll never get anything done prior to class like you planned. ever. 

HELLO AGAIN EVERYONE! 

I thought that since in the last few days I’ve been working on organizing my school supplies I share a bit about how i organize my binders! I hope this helps some of you a little bit! :)

Things You’ll Need:

One set of dividers for each binder

One 1 ½” binder per class, per semester

Optional Supplies:

Labels

Step One:

Lay out one full set of your dividers and decide what kind of organizational scheme you’re going for. Possible systems include:

Chronological Order – This is usually the best choice if you haven’t received or won’t receive a full and detailed class syllabus. In this system your first divider will show you where all of your important documents for the class are held (for example: you might put thing like project outlines here). The next divider will separate where regular handouts and class work from the rest of your papers. After your handouts, you’ll want to create a section for your in-class notes. Following this, you’ll want to place a divider to separate your homework assignments. These two sections are where the chronology of the class comes into play, because you’ll want to date everything and keep it in chronological order. After your homework assignments you’ll want one final divider so that you have a place to keep all of the marked tests and assignment rubrics you’ve got back from your teacher/professor.

The Sandwich – This system works best when you receive a full and detailed class syllabus. At the front of your binder, create a section using one divider for important documents (like the syllabus). After this, create one section for each major unit you’ll be covering in class. After these sections, you want one final one for tests and rubrics that have been graded and handed back to you.

If you feel that colour coding helps you stay organized, try to stick to one system for all of your binders; this way you can use the same colours in all of your binders for their respective sections (e.g., red for important documents, green for graded tests/rubrics, etc.).

(Optional) Step Two:

If you’re planning on labeling all of your binders, now would be a perfect time to do so. Possible uses for the labels might include: using one on the front/spine of the binder detailing the name of the class, the teacher, and the building and room in which it’s held, or using them to label each of your dividers with the names of their sections.

Step Three:

Insert all of your dividers into your binders, making sure to add a little bit of loose-leaf paper where you need to. If you’re using a notebook instead of loose-leaf for your homework or other things, make sure you still add a bit of paper – just for those days when you’re in a rush or you’re just not feeling well and you totally didn’t forget your notebook… ;)

Step Four:

Step back and admire your work, then remind yourself that the things that go in these binders are important, but they aren’t so important that they can ruin your life. You’ll be okay if you don’t reach your targets, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to reach them. Do your best and recognize that that’s the extent of what you can do. I believe in you.

Now before I finish, I’d like to add a small disclaimer: by no means am I saying that the methods of organization are the only or the best methods to use, however they are the ones I’ve always used and I’ve found they work quite well. If your teacher wants you to organize in a certain way, use that way, and if you have a system that you like and find works well for you, feel free to message me – I’d love to learn about it!

I hope everyone has/has had a wonderful first few weeks of school! If you haven’t or you’re feeling overwhelmed, my ask is ALWAYS open if you want to talk! I love you all, and I BELIEVE IN ALL OF YOU ♥

To be prepared is half the victory

Organising a Notebook:

I was looking at methods of keeping notebooks organised and I came across a really interesting blog post (source) that I want to share with you all. All of the pictures in this post come directly from the original blog post.

Make your entry into your notebook. In the example photographs, they have recorded a Chinese recipe.

Go to the back of the notebook and add a tag or title, e.g. “Chinese” on the left edge of the page.

Go back to the first page where the entry was, and on the same line number as you wrote “Chinese” make a black mark on the edge. You make this mark so that even when the notebook is closed, the mark is visible. After repeating this for various recipes, you now have various tags visible on the notebooks edge.

If you ever wanted to find a Chinese recipe, you simply look at the index, locate the label, and look along the visible edge which has been tagged as Chinese. Then just flick to each marked page.

You’re not limited to one tag per page. You could tag a page 2 or 3 times. So if you jot down a chicken stir fry you could tag it as “Chicken” and “Chinese”.