5.19.19

Good idea :)

Common mistakes when studying for exams:

1.       Not starting early enough While many students intend to begin studying for final exams a couple of weeks beforehand, that timeline often slips as exams approach. After several days of convincing yourself, it will be OK to skip this one day and get started tomorrow, suddenly what was supposed to be a week of studying turns into one or two frantic nights of cramming. Studying for exams often takes more time than you might anticipate, so make sure you get started early! 

2.       Studying in chronological rather than priority order One common approach to studying for exams is to sit down and look through all of the notes from class in chronological order. In addition to being a very passive study strategy (more on this below), it also puts you at risk of running out of time to review the material you learned most recently, which is often emphasized more heavily on the final exam. Instead of studying in chronological order, try studying in priority order, spending the majority of your time on the information that will be most important for you to know for the test. 

3.    Practicing in the wrong format (not how you’ll be tested) I often find that students will study the same way for all of their exams, regardless of the format. For example, they might study for history by making flashcards for all the key terms in their notes. This might be a great strategy for a test that is mostly multiple choice and matching questions…but it could get you into trouble if your test is the mostly short answer and essay questions that require you to answer “why” and “how” questions about the bigger-picture concepts from the class. If you want to be prepared for your exams, you need to make sure that the way you are studying for your test is similar to the way you will actually be tested on the material. 

4.    Reviewing information you already know Even when students are testing themselves and using active study strategies, they often spend the majority of their time on topics they already know. Doing problems you are familiar with and know how to solve is more comfortable, and gives you a nice boost in your self-confidence. The problem with this approach is that you often end up running out of time to work through the challenging problems that you don’t know how to solve…and those are the ones that you end up missing on the test. Don’t waste your time studying things you already know! Once you’ve confirmed that you understand and can answer questions about a certain concept, check it off your list and move on to something more challenging.

5.    Memorizing, rather than understanding I frequently see students who have been studying by trying to memorize all of the facts from a class, rather than truly understanding the underlying concepts. Memorizing can work well in some classes, especially in elementary and middle school, but it often backfires in more advanced classes. If you’ve memorized a definition but don’t really understand what it means, then as soon as the information is presented in a slightly different format, or you’re asked to apply it to a new type of problem, you will have no idea how to proceed. Rather than memorizing the information from your classes, use study strategies that encourage you to understand it. Explaining ideas out loud in your own words, or teaching them to someone else, are great examples of study strategies that promote understanding.

6.    Calculating Your Final Grade A lot of students try to figure out what effect different final exam grades will have on their final grade in the course. (For example: “I have to get at least a 90 on the final to get an A in the class.”) Indeed, almost every e-mail I get asking for exam preparation tips seems to be prefaced with some range of scores the student has to hit in order to get some desired final grade.

Don’t do this! No good can possibly come from such a superficial focus on the numbers. It will add stress. This, in turn, will make it harder for you to execute a reasonable, specific, and efficient study plan. Also, it’s just plain crass. You don’t want to be that person…Forget about your G.P.A., and focus, instead, on how you can best prepare for the specific challenge in front of you. If you screw up, you screw up.

Source 

what to do when everything’s a mess

Wash your hair. Don’t worry about all those articles online about the best haircare products of 2019 and whatnot, get in, wash it like you usually do, get out. Leave it to air dry, it’s less work for you.

Brush your teeth. Even if you brushed them this morning and are probably going to brush it tonight, do it anyway. Especially if it’s exam time, all that tea or coffee you’re most likely downing (props to you if you only study with water) probably makes them feel kind of gross.

I know most of these lists tell you to run a bath, but let’s face it, for those of you who even have a bath in the first place, the thought of filling that tub and sitting there in complete silence for a couple hours seems like a trek. And ironically exhausting. So instead, just brush your hair, take a nap (set a nice soothing alarm) and once you’ve gotten out of bed, wash your face or at least splash cold water on your face.

CLEAN clean clean clean CLEAN. Easier said than done, but at least start by clearing one messy component of your area; it could be your floor, your desk or your bed. You don’t need to clean and re-organise your entire room marie condo-style for you to actually have a reason to take the time to clean in the first place. A little goes a long way, and you don’t ALWAYS need to do the hard yards ya know.

I would say read a book, but sometimes your brain is melting or buzzing so it can’t really focus on anything lengthy. So instead, find someone reciting a poem online, and just listen to it. I recommend Jeremy Irons and his voicing of tons of T.S Eliot poetry, or Allen Ginsberg reciting his own poetry (Howl is a classic).

If you’re one of those people who drowns their sorrows by listening to music, don’t listen to music!! Don’t reinforce your pain!! So to that I say, listen to a podcast. If the classic podcast genre of true crime is a little too stressful and you’ve already cried twice today, listen to interviews with actors, screenwriters and directors. It can be really refreshing to listen to people you already enjoy the content of talk about their work. I recommend Awards Chatter and Happy Sad Confused.

Stop staring at screens! Just physically sit outside for a bit, you don’t need to go for a jog or do a general workout, just…sit. People-watch, try and memorise the exact scene in front of you, from the mis-en-scene to all the colours and sounds and the way the sunlight feels on your eyelashes. Write it down if you want to, you could even denote a single notebook to your little outdoor descriptions. Or just write on a napkin. To each their own.

Have you eaten today? And I mean something hearty, something that isn’t primarily made out of air and salt. Something that falls under the umbrella of snack does not count; meal is more like it. If not, eat. Preparing food might feel exhausting, but so’s going a relatively long amount of time without something nutritionally substantial.

If you’re feeling emotionally heavily, get out a notebook or even just a scrap of paper, a pen and cry until your eyes are as blurry as can be. With tears down your cheeks, scribble out how you’re feeling. Don’t bother with how neat or messy it is, whether the sentences even stay on the lines, it’s not about being aesthetic. In fact, it’s about being as messy as possible. Let all of it out, and let is act as a physical manifestation of what’s going on in your head. Don’t fight it or deny it, relieve yourself by both constructing and understanding yourself. 

going to be posting my tips on poetry annotation soon after my poetry oral exam tomorrow, thanks for the lovely feedback on my recent post! 😚

29.09.20 / i finally got to rearranging the photos and artwork on my wall. i’m the type of person who thrives when my surroundings are refreshed and organized so i’m feeling extra productive now that i have a “new” desk situation. i’m editing a first draft at the moment while listening to older albums i haven’t listened to in a while. i hope you’re having a lovely tuesday ♡

60 Tips for IB - from a 45 pointer

A lot of people have been asking me about general tips for surviving IB and how I got 45 points. If I’m honest I think the difference between 40 and 45 points is just pure, dumb luck, but at least here are some tips to getting up to the 40 -points level :D

This is a list of tips my friend and I wrote right after our IB exams. We were feeling quite high at the moment, so I had to edit some of the tips so you could actually take the advice seriously…

1. HAPPINESS FIRST DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO KEEP YOURSELF HAPPY

2. Don’t do “homework” at home!!!

3. Find a study buddy

4. Proceed to ignore everyone but your study buddy

5. Not your dog though

6. Escape from your family / responsibilities (e.g. do your homework abroad, in someone else’s basement, coffee shops, libraries, group rooms at school, sneak into university study halls etcetc. The possibilities are endless)

7. Set yourself a time limit for doing the TOK Essay. (Don’t do it two weekends in a row, you will go crazy)

8. Don’t attempt to finish the EE in one day

9. Remind your science teacher about the IA. It’s for your own good.

10. Whether it’s 5am or 2am, figure out when you work best and stick to it.

11. Don’t think you’ll learn stuff in class. Seriously. Read the books instead, and use classes as revision / sleep time / relaxing time.

12. Mark schemes will be your best teacher. 

13. Write syllabus notes FROM THE VERY START.

14. You won’t understand TOK but at least try to have fun with it.

15. Don’t forget about CAS, but don’t spend too much time on it either.

16. Install “StayFocusd” but don’t go nuclear option for a week

17. Memorize the opening hours of the public study areas in your vicinity 

18. Listen to Christmas music if you’re sad

19. Get a whiteboard for revision

20. Physics students: buy the Tsokos revision guide

21. Chemistry students: YouTube Richard Thornley 

22. Biology students: YouTube Alex Lee

23. Read the language books during the summer

24. Don’t give a fuck about English B…but TAKE ENGLISH B IF YOU CAN

25. Don’t choose science as your EE subject (unless you have a super smart and helpful and amazing supervisor)

26. Love your teachers, see them as your friend. They’re adorable.

27. Love yourself too

28. Making a plan (without necessarily following it) will help calm you down

29. 8tracks have amazing playlists

30. Dictionaries are cool

31. Thesaurus.com is cooler

32. Watch TV shows all year round to get your mind off things, just not season finales right before the exams

33. Cry it out

34. Shout it out

35. Drink it out

36. Just don’t get too drunk or violent that’s bad

37. Your nerdy classmates are your friends and teachers

38. Bring coffee / tea to school, if you make it to school

39. It’s OK to skip school for school

40. Waste money on school shit, you’ll earn it back in the future

41. If you can afford it, go to Lanterna summer course. You might get friends from other countries who’ll be able to help you throughout the year, by exchanging resources etc.

42. Make puns about nerdy stuff (like, about life, the universe and everything)

43. Be proud of being a nerd, everyone knows it already

44. EAT

45. SLEEP (sometimes it’s worth skipping school for)

46. Some teachers are nice about students sleeping in class

47. Concentrate when doing IA experiments though, take notes, or even better: film it

48. By the way, FILMING can reduce a lot of errors in science experiments. Write that as an improvement in your evaluation part!!

49. Question banks can be found, if you know where to look

50. Don’t care about other people’s grades

51. Don’t care too much about your own grades either. You’ll survive either way. Calm down. “Chillax”. 

52. Don’t do TOK presentation alone.

53. WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU STRONGER (uni will be a piece of cake for you. also u can puke out a 4-paged-essay, proof-read and everything, in less than an hour, handwritten. amazing)

54. IB therefore I BS

55. Decorate your wall with IB gems

56. You’ll learn a lot from teaching others / making up games / doing past papers. Don’t just read books and highlight. Don’t just listen to the teachers. You won’t remember shit that way.

57. I repeat, DON’T JUST TRUST THE CLASSES, READ THE EFFING BOOKS

58. You’re allowed to protest sometimes

59. Don’t think too much about TOK / the uncertainty principle / relativity / astrophysics / DNA / nihilist bullshit from the language books. Stick to your reality and be happy. Have fun. Enjoy life. Stop giving so much fucks. Lower your expectations. (I honestly spent IB preparing to fail and start a bakery or something. Life is full of pleasant surprises that way)

60. Your Non-IB friends will laugh at you. Your siblings will laugh at you. Your teachers will laugh at you. You will laugh at you. But it’s okay, 2 years will be over in a flash ^^

You ever see a pretty dress, a well-organised notebook, a peculiar balcony or read one line of poetry and get the overwhelming urge to reinvent yourself

The Full Potential Challenge

Ever wonder what your life would be like if you lived up to your full potential? Would your body be healthier? Your skin clearer? Bank account bigger? I think about these things all the time, and, judging my a previous post, you guys do to. Below is a chart designed to help all of us live up to our full potential. I’ve broken it down into time frames to help keep you from getting overwhelmed. Write the chart down and hang it someplace where you can see it all the time. I will be starting this challenge tomorrow, 9/8. I’ll check in with you guys every Sunday to track my progress. I have specific goals in mind for myself, and you guys should make some too! I really want to know how you guys are doing. Tag your progress posts with #sbfpc so I can track it and take a look. Let’s get to it!

EVERY MORNING

Stretch. First thing. Really give your body enough time to wake up. Touch your toes. Roll out your shoulders. Do not hit snooze!

Do your full skincare routine. I have mine detailed here, but do whatever works for you and your complexion. Be gentle and consistent. 

Brush your teeth and floss. I used to be a big floss-skipper too, but you’d be amazed at how dig of a difference it makes. Rinse with a whitening mouthwash. I use one by Crest, and I notice a major difference in my teeth’s overall whiteness in just a few days.

Give yourself enough time to get ready. Whether you’re a wash-and-go kind of girl, or someone who spends an hour doing a full contouring routine before class (and either one is fine!), make sure you aren’t rushing. If you need to wake up a few minutes earlier than normal, so be it. Rushing sets an awful, stressed-out tone for the rest of the day. Allow yourself to be relaxed before taking on the day.

Eat something. I’m not going to say eat a big breakfast, because some people (myself included) just can’t eat in the morning. But you should eat, or at least bring a little something with you to work or school. If you can’t eat a full breakfast, grab a fruit! You won’t be as hungry come lunch time, making you less likely to gorge yourself.

Shower. You can do this at night, in the morning, whatever. Again, this is something you should allow some time for. I don’t wash my hair every day, but I do condition it every day (from the ears down). Scrub yourself with a delicious-smelling body wash. If you shave, make yourself as smooth as a dolphin, dude. If you don’t, then don’t and don’t ever ever ever let anyone make you feel bad or weird about it. When you get out of the shower, wrap yourself in a fluffy towel and totally slather your sexy self with lotion. Top to bottom. Do it as soon as you can post-shower so it can really sink in. 

Put leave-in condition throughout your damp hair and comb it through.

Put on an outfit that makes you feel good! So important!

Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Drink water!!!!!

Take a look at your daily to-do list. Knock out the most pressing stuff first. Take pride when you cross things off your list.

Make your bed! Oh my god, make your bed. Do it. Do it. Do it. 

EVERY AFTERNOON 

Follow the “touch it once” approach. This is a truly life-changing thing. When a task is in front of you, no matter how big or small, just do it right then and there. How many times have you gotten a work email or homework assignment and thought, “Eh, I’ll do it later”? And then later never comes? Once something pops up, do it once. Squash it and be done. Cross things off your list and feel like a badass.

Try to go for a walk at lunch. Even one little lap around the block or campus will reenergize you like nobody’s business. 

Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Drink water!!!!!

Be present. This is so hard for me too, but you have to make a major effort to be present in whatever you’re doing. Be engaged and plugged-in and just exist in the moment. Give 100 percent.

Be friendly to friends and strangers. A smile goes a long way.

Eat something. Eat what you packed for lunch (see below) and take a break from working while you do it. You need “you time”!

EVERY EVENING

Take your makeup off as soon as you’re in for the night. Wash your face with your full routine and let your skin have a break. 

Workout. You can also do this in the morning. Whatever works for you. Make a great playlist and go hard af. Get your cardio in. Get your strength training in. Earn every freaking sweat bead forming on your forehead. Earn your shower!

Knock out your homework. Life is infinitely better you don’t have anything hanging over your head. Half the time, the energy and emotion you spent dreading/putting off your work is ten times worse than the work itself.

Make a list of what needs to be done tomorrow. It’ll set you up for success the next day, and you won’t forget anything!

Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Drink water!!!!!

Lay out your clothes for tomorrow. This will save you SO MUCH TIME in the morning omg I can’t even tell you how important this is.

Eat something great. And once you’ve decided to be done eating for the night, be done. Brush your teeth so you can’t eat again.

After brushing, do a whitening treatment. Whether it’s classic baking soda, a Crest white strip, or a laser. Do something. And floss! Retainers in too, ladies 0:)

Relax! Take a few hours to do what YOU want to do. Scroll through Tumblr, binge on some Netflix, FaceTime gossip with your friends, anything. Do whatever makes you happiest. 

Shut the electronics off an hour before you want to go to bed. Put your phone on sleep mode. If you stare at the screen, it will keep you awake and alert and you won’t be able to fall asleep. A good night’s sleep is crucial for weightless and general happiness lol

Do a quick sweep of your room and see if there’s anything you can put away real quick. A clean space is a happy space.

Crawl into your bed (aren’t you happy you took the time to make it?!) and read a book by lamplight for a while. When you start to feel sleepy, go to sleep. Don’t push it. You kicked ass today and you deserve rest. 

EVERY WEEKEND

Do something with your friends. It just has to be one thing. Even if you’re just hanging out at the coffee shop, spending time with your squad will make you a better, happier person.

Drink water. Drink water. Drink water. Drink water!!!!!

Do something just for you. Set your laptop up in the bathroom and watch a Netflix marathon while you take a bubble bath. Buy an old school bottle of Mr. Bubbles ($3 at Target!) and really just soak. Relax. Light a candle.

Do something creative. You can read a book, write, blog, draw, code, anything. It just has to be something that speaks to your passion.

Track your progress. Just do this once a week so it doesn’t become all-consuming. And remember that non-scale victories are just as important as shedding pounds.

Take the time to be grateful. Tell your friend how much you admire her taste in music. Mention to your mom how much you love her cooking and how happy you are that she takes care of you. Thank your teaching after an especially interesting lecture. When you do something awesome, take a moment to admire yourself. Be grateful for even the little things.

Anything I missed? Reblog + add yours! Don’t forget to tag your progress!

Taking textbook notes is a chore. It’s tedious and boring and sometimes challenging, but hopefully these tips will help you improve your skill and shorten the time it takes you to do textbook notes!

Give yourself time: Realistically, you can’t knock out 30 pages of notes in 20 minutes. Take your time with textbook notes so they’re a good studying tool in the future. The general rule is to take how many pages you have to do and multiply it by 5: that’s how many minutes it’ll take you to do the notes.

Also, divide you notes up into manageable chunks to increase your productivity. I am personally a huge fan of using pomodoro timers, and I adjust the intervals for however long I need to.

Skim before you start taking notes: If time is an issue, don’t read your 40 page in depth before even picking up a pen, but make sure you know what you’re reading about by skimming a bit ahead of your notes. Read over section titles, and look at charts, maps, or graphs. Writing and highlighting as you read the chapter for the first time isn’t effective because you don’t know if a sentence will be important or not, so make sure you’re reading a paragraph or section in advance before writing.

Use the format they give you in the book to help take your notes: In a lot of textbooks, there will be a mini outline before the chapter itself that shows all the headings and subheadings. Those will be your guidelines! I find this super helpful because long chapters can be daunting to go into without any structure. If you don’t have one of those, use the headings and subheadings provided for you. If you haven’t already been doing this, it will help you so much.

Read actively: It’s so easy to “read” a textbook without digesting any information, but that is the last thing you want to do. Not only does it make taking notes a million times harder, but you’ll be lost in class discussions because you didn’t understand the reading. To keep from passively reading, highlight, underline, star any important information in the book itself.

Have a color coding system for highlighting or underlining and write down a key somewhere (here’s a few that you can adjust for your needs: x,x)

Use sticky notes or tabs to mark any questions or important points to come back to

Summarize important information and paraphrase: When taking the actual notes, don’t copy down full sentences word for word. Not only does writing full sentences waste a lot of time, it’s not an effective way to learn. If you can paraphrase the information, then you understand it. It’s also easier to study notes which are in your own words instead of textbook academia writing.

Be selective: You shouldn’t be writing down every fact that comes up in your textbook. If a fact ties into the bigger topic and provides evidence, then it’s probably something to keep, but you don’t need every piece of supplemental information (but do make sure you always write down the vocab). Learn your teacher’s testing style to help you decide what to write down. Could this be on the quiz/test? If the answer is yes, make sure you write it down.

Learn to abbreviate: Just like writing full sentences, writing out full words will waste time. Implement some shortenings (make sure to use ones that you’ll understand later!) into your notes. Some common ones are: b/c=because, gov=government, w/o=without, and here’s a great list of a ton of examples of abbreviations and shortenings.

Answer margin and review questions: A lot of textbooks have margin questions on every page or so that sum up what’s really important about that information. Make sure not to skip them because they’re really helpful for understanding. Write them down and answer them clearly in your notes. Most textbooks also have review questions after the chapter that check for reading comprehension, so make sure to answer those because they’ll show you if you really understood the chapter.

Don’t skip over visual sources: Maps, diagrams, illustrations, charts, and any other visuals in textbooks are so helpful. If you’re a visual learner, these things will be so essential to you and how you understand what you’re reading. Charts, tables, and diagrams sometimes also summarize information, so if you’re a visual learner it might benefit you to copy those down instead of writing it out.

Add visuals if it’ll help you: As said above, copying down charts, tables, illustrations, or diagrams can be super helpful for visual learners. They’re clear and concise, so pay attention to them.

Write your notes in a way that’s effective and makes sense to you: Mindmaps, Cornell notes, or plain outline notes are all really good forms of notetaking. Find which one works best for you to understand them and which one is most effective for your class, and use it (stuff on mindmaps and cornell notes).

Combine your class and textbook notes: If you rewrite your class notes, add in information you think is relevant from your textbook notes. Mark anything both your book and teacher said were important–you don’t want to forget any of that. If you don’t rewrite class notes, then put stars next to anything repeated.

“It’s never too late.”

Don’t worry. Start now. Get up, take a few deep breaths, stretch, count to ten with your eyes closed. Then take out your books and a notebook and a pen. Get on with it. Start reading, annotating, take down your notes. If you feel your focus faltering, sit back, take a few deep breaths, walk around a bit, get back to your books. It’s never too late.

Do you keep a commonplace book? It’s not entirely a journal or a scrapbook – it’s more a carefully curated notebook compiled of texts copied from anywhere and everywhere. It can contain anything as long as it affects the compiler. I’ve had this one since I was 16, it is reserved for my most favourite lines from poems, books, songs, films, etc.