Studybrl - Blog Posts

11.06.2024

Second day of school and gosh was it exhausting, i somehow seemed to have forgotten how tiring school really is :")

Today was a full on Computers and Accounts day T-T

Completed Accounts homework and reviewed some concepts we learnt today

Prepared computer notes for lesson 1 (only half)

Economics assignment 90% done

10.06.2024

It was the first day of school, just got my textbooks and the whole class spent the day talking and doing nothing. Classes start tomorrow but I'm starting sooner this year. I'm keeping this as a tracker for progress so... Yeah

Read 1 chapter of Business studies and English

Completed 50% of the assignment in Economics

Revised last year's accountancy notes

Goals for the next (last) year of highschool!

As much as I love that this is the last year I'm gonna stay in school, I may need to work extra harder to manage everything.

So, I'm gonna keep this goal list as a reminder and motivation!

Personal:

Have a better sleeping schedule (impossible but let's try)

Exercise everyday (Also impossible but let's ignore this)

Maintain good mental health (laughs in hysteria)

Pray Tahajjud everyday (atleast try)

Recite Quran everyday

Search for some jobs and college research (mostly after October/December)

Academic:

Get a 97+ % in my finals (aiming 99 or 100)

Study the lessons in the same week they're completed

Study everyday for 2 hours

Finish assignments soon as possible

Study on weekends

Extra curricular

Keep revising my Arabic

Finish a book a month

Go on my first and last field trip some how!!

Maintain this blog (duh)

Escape P.E practice (spare me)

Improvements to be made in:

English (both academic and non academic)

Confidence

Public speaking (I'm so bad at this)

Lessening screen time

"Push harder than yesterday if you want a different tomorrow."

Affirmations I use before entering my exam room/hall.

This does not define your future but don't mess this up. I'm fine. I have prepared the whole year for this. I will not put it to a waste. I know more than I think I do. I am calm, focused and composed and I am certainly not panicking. I did my best. God will do the rest. Your past self is proud of you. Your future self is counting on you. An exam is nothing but a test of your knowledge. You got dreams to chase, darling. Do not be scared of something which has no power to hurt you physically. You are so close to the victory. Don't you dare give up now. I am so damn proud of trying so hard. Don't stress. Do your best. Forget the rest. There's no way that I'm going back with something that I don't like. You can do this.

Hope this helps xD

How to do group projects? (If you're selected as the leader of the group)

I hate group projects, it's not necessarily the project rather, the people are not cooperative enough so here's some tips I use when I was chosen to do a PPT and a damn play with 13 members.

(Pictures aren't mine!)

Take phone numbers

Even though my teacher discouraged the idea of it, I still took the numbers of all the members and saved it on the same day the project was given even though the deadline was a month later. You should make sure that you have the necessary means of communication to every member.

Plan and outline within 3 days!

Make an outline of what needs to be done, plan out who's going to do what, how they'll do it, when will they complete it etc etc. The reason i do it within 3 days is because you'll get the base of how you'll do it because generally in group projects, by the time everyone completes the work and gives it to you, it would take atleast a week or two, if you start early, you'll complete earlier than everyone else

No group chats!

I personally don't prefer this because one i realised everyone just didn't reply expecting others to reply, especially when your group is big! So... Dms!! Just send the instructions personally, yes, it takes alot of time but it makes up for the energy wasted in group chats that involve unnecessary talks and questions.

Both face to face and text reminders!

When you've assigned work to every member, make sure they actually do it because you'll be the one responsible. Not gonna lie but reminders help especially when the deadlines are closer. Just a message like "Hey, friendly reminder about the XYZ project."

Save your own name!

This is something I'm really careful about. The accusation that you're being biased and assigning easier work to friends and people I'm close with. So, i figured that the best way to avoid it is to write all the work and the names of members in alphabetical order and assign accordingly. If the member can't do it, then I'll discuss and swap. It saves a hell lot of drama and actually results to better outcomes.

Back up

Make sure that there's always a second in command. This was a mistake I did, on the day of the 2nd project (the play), I was in one of the competitions and our teacher had started with our group first... I didn't exactly tell anyone that everything about the characters assigned to members and the narrations were in my bag so they had to scramble alittle but in the end, our group did the best play despite the situation so that's what you're aiming at. Your group needs to manage without you.

Flexibility

Do not, under any circumstances, expect everything to go well! You need to expect hindrances, like gurl, come on. A mistake I made in the PPT project, i made the PPT and told 4-5 people to explain it because that's how it was supposed to be done but in the end, ALL THE 4-5 PEOPLE HAD TO BE IN SPORTS PRACTICE so we ended up changing plans last minute. But nevertheless, we got an A-. Tell everyone to prepare accordingly.

Be a little lenient

Personally, when the teacher asked me to give the list of work everyone had done, i did'nt just write nothing for the members who didn't, i have even the smallest contribution because in the end, even one person's scores matters. It affects the whole damn group so be careful when you take out anger and frustration on the members when giving the list of contributions or even while doing the project. The last thing you need is drama.

Contact!

Make sure your members are comfortable enough to clear any questions or misunderstandings with you. If you don't know what's going in the group, you can't maintain the group. Be very clear that they can reach you any time.

Demo!!!

This is really important! Decide on a day and keep a demonstration of how your project is going to be presented. Do exactly as how you're going to do it infront of the teacher. Exchange some points on how to do better during the demo and discuss! It helps you to correct your mistakes.

Hope this helps! :)

If nobody hates you, you're doing something wrong

You're getting distracted again. You've got dreams to chase. Not people to impress. Wake up.

Mental Health > Grades

You need to do it yourself because no one else is going to do it for you.

The results are the sweetest when you've worked for it. Don't. Forget. That

Using multiple senses for studying

So, what do I mean by using multiple senses?  These senses usually employ in multisensory learning as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile – VAKT (i.e. seeing, hearing, doing, and touching)

Some may like to say the words out loud, some may like to hear them and many would prefer to write it down, some like getting hands on work and of course, depending on how you learn, they'll work for you but recently I've been using this method to study and it's so damn helpful.

The method I use is something that is applicable to mostly all subjects except maths and other subjects like physics or chemistry .

All you have to do is first you'll read the content then by looking at the content, you'll make notes about it. Draw small doodles related to it or draw a cycle of the content. Visualize the material! Then, you'll listen to the lecture notes or any videos about the content. And write more notes about it if you've missed any points! Then when you get the grasp of the material, you'll close the notes and you'll explain it to yourself aloud. Your voice needs to be loud and clear so you can hear it yourself. Then repeat! The more times you repeat explaining it to yourself, the better. Do it until you feel like you know the material well enough!

How does this help?

It uses the three main senses used for studying together which creates stronger connections in the brain

You're likely to remember the content for a longer period

Information will come rushing back in a matter of minutes if you had paid attention to it.

It helps you to remember main keywords easily

Enhances creativity

Is an active study method so you need to pay attention otherwise you won't be able to do this.

Hope this helps! Feel free to change this according to your needs. These methods can be experimented with! :)

Affirmations i use to study/get things done!

"You've prepared the whole year for this. Don't let it go to waste." "I can and I will." "It doesn't matter how hard it takes to reach my goal." "It doesn't matter if the other person is more talented than you. There's no rule for them to work more harder than you." "You can wake up anyday and decide to change the person that you are." "Who cares if I'm pretty if I fail my finals?" "One day, you'll leave this world behind so live a life that you'll remember." "If it's a million to one. I'm gonna be that one.” "You can't be perfect. No one can. But you can try to be the best." "Failure is a part of success. Use it in the best way possible." "You are more than capable of handling yourself and your textbooks." "Study like you haven't prayed and pray like you haven't studied." "You came this far only to come this far?" "There is no way I'm going to come back with something I don't like." "Study because learning is better than being ignorant." "Grades aren't everything but they do make your life somewhat easier." "I know more than i think I do." “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”  "Progress > Perfection." "You're doing this for you. Only you. Don't forget that."

It's okay to be bad at something new. Normalize people who want to keep trying without them feeling ashamed for being bad at it.

Weekly Goals

I've been really lazy these past two weeks since summer break started so i think this is a good way to track my progress and productivity.

Complete a course on digital marketing (which I was ignoring for a long time)

Finish atleast 2 books

Complete atleast 5+ lessons in Arabic

Start attending summer course classes (also Arabic)

Clean my closet

Wake up alittle earlier (it's not gonna happen but let's believe it will)

Watch a movie

When the teacher asks you if you have any questions and you have the urge to say "The whole syllabus"

Study Tip - 3

Something I've seen quite a lot nowadays is people studying with timers, like, I still don't understand it... I've asked many people and they're like "It helps us to finish the goal while managing time and we complete our revision sooner"

But the main thing is, they don't remember it for more than a few hours or days... for me the goal is to complete the task perfectly and not to complete it faster than anyone.

Because when you keep looking at the clock, you're worried more about the time than the work. You're more excited about getting a break after that specific time than the actual studying. That is why, when i study, I face towards an empty wall and I can easily work without worrying about the time.

Don't set a time limit for any work, you'll realise how much work you'll actually get done when you're not looking at the clock.

Of course, this doesn't have to work for you but I think that this could help you expand your average study time.

No harm trying it :)

Introduction :)

I know I'm doing this kinda late but it's fine, let's start. Generally I'm a very boring person so anyways xD

About myself:

Isabelle

She/Her

17

English Major

INFP-T

Hobbies:

Reading

Writing

Theatre

Art

Code

Interests:

Literature. Books. Poetry. Quotes. Languages. Miraculous. TV shows (only some). Classics. Jewelry (only black). Nature. Coffee. Photography. Journaling. Cats. Roses. Fan fiction.

Reason for this blog?

I needed motivation to study, and it looked like a good way to monitor my day-to-day progress, hence the name "study-diaries". No promises about being consistent T-T

What can you find here?

Study tips, study progress, techniques, ranting, mental health reminders, books, languages, quotes, motivation etc etc... In short, anything related to studying, languages, books and literature, mental health and self-care.

Note: Whatever pictures I use are not mine unless I specify that they are mine! Most of them are from Pinterest and credits go to their original owner.

Tips for understanding complex topics

I've struggled with this but I'm adapting, you know? So here are some of my tips I use for this :)

If you can't understand it at once, do not think that it is hard

Many times, the topic itself if simple but the way the textbook has described it is complex so go and search for related videos and Google about it until you've got a hint about what it is.

If it's complicated, divide the sentence.

When you find yourself getting completely lost in a topic while banging your head against the wall because it's so confusing.... separate each part of the sentence while you write each part as you say it out loud. It'll help you to atleast get a short idea about the subject.

Read! Read! Read!

Read it over and over again and underline the words you think are important, write them down, explain it to yourself, draw small diagrams around your notes, connect them through visual representation. The more you use different types of senses, the better you understand it.

Give yourself time.

Let yourself grasp what the whole topic is about, do not under any circumstances have a time limit for difficult topics. I took days just to understand how Javascript loops work and I'm still not fully clear about it but i can explain the general, very basic purpose of it.

Explain it to someone or yourself

The best way to learn is to teach, this actually does work. It helps you to put your understanding in words and clear any underlying questions. And lastly...

Handwritten notes!

I cannot stress this enough but things that you've written down generally stay in your memory for longer durations. I also prefer handwritten notes to digital ones cause personally it works better.

Hope this helps! :D

The one thing that school definitely did -> Mess up my sleep schedule.

25.03.24

Day 8/ Day 8

I know it was a 9 day thing but it was because I had to go to school tomorrow but now I don't need to cause I just dropped by picked up my things and certificates etc etc... so my break starts here!!

The exam was alright, kinda unexpected paper but it's done now!

So what am i gonna do for 2 whole months?

Finish a course that I've been ignoring for way too long

Read as much as I can

Post some study related content here

I'll be posting a weekly reading challenge later on, like cause I wanna actually see how i complete it xD

24.03.24

Day 7/ Day 9

Okay, only 1 more day until suffering kinda ends for like 2 months? Anyway, it was a productive day but I still have a ton of stuff to revise.

Completed:

Part IV of 17 lessons out of like 33 (T-T)

Revised MCQs

Need to revise:

Part IV of 16 more lessons

Gonna be a long night

Total hours of study: 6 hours and still counting (Updated: 8 hours)

23.03.24

Day 6/ Day 9

It was a really productive day to be honest, i completed:

Part I - III in about 29 lessons

Revised notes

Wrote some new notes

(An overall, we have 4 parts in each lesson and totally we have about 33 lessons T-T)

Total hours of study: 8 hours {I shocked myself too, I'm damn tired}

Discussion after an exam:-

Friend 1: You know, for the first four MCQs we got only C! Friend 2: I got D for everything.... Me: uh... I got an A,B,D,C *The three of us staring at each other realising we are in deep trouble* A classmate: I got A,B, A, B *Silence*

22.03.24

Day 5/ Day 9

Not a very productive day but I did:

Glance through the important questions and case studies

Revised MCQs

Total hours of studying: 1 hour 30 mins

21.03.24

Day 4/ Day 9

I completed my exam today and nothing else unless reading an extremely cringey e-book counts xD

So yeah... and my exam was meh... not too good, not too bad. I still have like one exam left and then I'm done with junior year!

20.03.24

Day 3/ Day 9... It's the night before my 2nd last exam, gosh, I want to get it done T-T

Despite my exam being tomorrow, I ended up reading an e-book for the majority of the time but nevertheless i revised quite a lot...

Things i completed today:

Finished almost the whole textbook

Revised MCQs

Watched an hour of lectures covering important topics

Need to complete:

Review the notes one last time today (✓)

Revising MCQs again (will complete early in the morning)

Revising 4 important lessons again (✓)

Review 8 important questions/topics (✓)

Total hours of study (still counting): 4 hours

Updated: Total hours of study- 6 hours

19.03.24

Today was a lazy day, I just slept and studied for only sometime... But Day 2 is done!

Day 2/Day 9

Today i completed:

Two lessons in accounts

Revised MCQs

Reviewed notes

Total hours of study: 2 hours

18.03.24

I'm gonna start a countdown till my last working day of junior year which is 26.03.24 so...

Day 1/Day 9

Over-all, a productive day, i studied for six hours (still counting) and completed:

Revised 7 lessons in Business Studies

Revised some important questions

Did some previous year questions in Accounts

Reviewed notes

Things I have to complete in Accounts:

Review more notes (✓)

Revise 3-4 lessons (✓)

Revise MCQs (do not have the energy T-T)

Updated:

Total hours of study: 7 hours 30 mins

16.03.24

Today was kinda productive to be honest, i finished:

Four lessons in accounts

Completed a previous year question paper

Reviewed notes

Exam Revision

So, I have about two more exams and then I'm done with junior year! So, here's an update on my revision

Goals for today:

Revise 1 lesson in accounts

Review notes

I'm keeping it short cause i literally just had a very lazy day and it's kinda late so, I'll probably just finish up smaller things. Better doing something than nothing, right?