Study Day - Blog Posts

Hi all,

Honestly, I think this is the most regularly I've posted. The end of the exams are nearly in sight!

The above photos are of my frantic preparation for my Ancient History exam after realising I know less than half the syllabus—although I blame that on bad, very bad teaching this year. Also inconsistent teaching—my ancient history class has been fast becoming the real life equivalent of the Defence against the Dark Arts position at my school, with our teachers leaving after only a term or two.

What I've done in the past two days:

about 6 or 7 short answer questions

research for my ancient history exam

reading way too many academic articles for my brain to handle

If any other ATAR students are reading this, hopefully we can all end this exam season with a bang! Nearly there!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you're productive this week!

Hi all,

It's November, and, like an ant standing before an inescapable tidal wave, I have been hit by a deluge of exams. Alas.

The above pictures show a practice response to an past Indonesian exam, which is what I have been focusing on today.

What I've gotten done the past two days:

Two practice literature essay introductions

Analysis of past literature essays

A literature past paper

An Indonesian past paper

Hopefully I can complete a few more literature and Indonesian paragraphs tonight, however, the exhaustion is setting in and I'm not inclined to push it.

Instead, I'm trying to focus on the little things. When the door to the exam room closes, and the answer booklets are all sent off in a flurry of paper and half-finished answers, the world outside will still tick on. The rain will still fall. The trees will still cast patterned shadows on the grass outside. Exams may be much, but they are not everything, and the world outside them is far greater, and wider, than will ever be able to be expressed by a leaky pen in a mere three hours.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you're productive this week!

Hi all,

it's term 3, and the assessments are piling up higher than Mount Everest. Exams start in slightly more than a month, I have some heavy-weighted tasks coming up, and as the days start to dry up so too does my optimism. Hence this post.

The above pictures are of some notes I've been taking on disease, our new biology topic.

What I got done this weekend:

A practice literature essay

Literature research on Hamlet

Biology notes

Ancient history exam notes

I'm hoping to complete some maths revision later tonight, as well as a timed practice essay for literature. Also, if anybody who reads this blog has any tips or tricks for writing literature essays under timed conditions and would be able to comment that (and something more constructive than "time management") I"d really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you're productive this week!

Hey all,

I haven't posted in a long time, and I know that's not just a trick of the memory. It's been a long term, it's been a long year, honestly, and I'm not entirely sure when I'll post again. Hopefully soon? I know I said that last time, oops. In the meantime, here's some old pictures of a few Ancient History notes I never ended uploading.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you're productive this week!

Hi, I'm back again!

School has been intense recently, but I've (mostly) caught up with everything, so it should be smooth sailing for a few weeks now!

Speaking of sailing, and boats, and books, of course, I've started annotating my copy of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness for school. Hopefully rereading it won't be so confusing as the initial reading was.

The other photo above are of my notes on William Blake's poem The Little Black Boy, or rather notes on the essay Liberatory Christianity and the Perception of Race in "TLBB".

What I got done today:

Literature notes.

Literature annotating.

Biology revision.

Also, I apologise for my rather bad quality photos. Whenever I write these posts (or think about writing them) I always wish my camera was a little more sharp, or my skills a little more intuitive. It always quietly amazes me how study bloggers can manage to capture such beautiful shots.

But I suppose my own stumbling efforts do have their own unique flair; a sense of personal authenticity to them, that reflects the imperfect and the mundane, mirroring back the glamourless way life (and studying) so often plays out.

Well.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you're productive this week!

Study day no. 1.

I suppose I'm going to turn this blog from a shoddy poetry blog to a study one. Main reason is because I'm hoping this will motivate at least some people to study for the things they care about, even if the only person motivated is me.

In terms of schoolwork done, my weekend wasn't overly productive, but I'm not too bothered since I didn't have a lot of work anyway and had a great time with my friends instead.

I also went to a bookstore and local cafe. I haven't started reading the book yet but I hope it's good (it was a bit of an impulse buy).

What I got done:

Ancient History notes.

The meat of a Chemistry assessment.

Some reading for Literature.

Biology notes.

As this is my first studyblr post, I don't yet know how often I'll post, but hopefully it will be soon!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you're productive this week!

"The sun will rise and set regardless. What we do with the light in between is up to us."

- Unknown

30/04/2025

Biology - Complete Excretory System with anatomy of kidneys ☑️

Reflection: where light finds its twin.🕯️🔥

"The most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later." - Randy Komisar

19.03.25

Biology - Proteins & linear electron flow from photosynthesis Essay Writting ☑️

Biology - Kingdom of Fungi Diagrams ☑️

Chemistry - Inorganic P Block Group 13 Reactions ☑️

Milk Coffee + Poetry of Slow Life ☕🤎

"Your potential is a seed; nurture it with action, and watch it blossom into a forest of achievement." - Unknown

06/03/25

Physics Optics lesson,

Lateral Displacement & Prisms ☑️

Witness the sky turn to gold 🪙✨️

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."

- Steve Jobs

16/02/25

Biology Practical

Milk Rice + Ceylon Tea with Jaggery 🍚☕💫

tonight’s setup 😊 hopefully I go to bed at a reasonable time. I still have TWO lab reports to finish though.

I thought my math homework was going to be chill because it was just two problems but tell me why I open it and it’s part a-p 😭

#2. Red light, Green light

More study tips! Separate your to-do list into three buckets: red light tasks, yellow light, and green light.

Red light tasks are the hardest things you have to do. Typically, there is some planning involved, different components, and it will take you multiple days to work on it. Think essay, presentation, big project.

This might come as a surprise but studying for hard tests I put in the yellow light category. (If you’re cramming put this in the red category, but pls don’t.) You are going to want to split up hefty homework assignments and big tests into smaller actionable pieces. The idea is to study a bit every day. The idea is that there is more flexibility and resources while you study, and each problem generally has a clear solution.

Green light is something like emails, routine Khan Academy practice, reading a chapter of a book, or small homework assignments. The point of my system is to be flexible and put things into categories based on how I’m feeling and how much time there is as well.

What this does is it reduces your to do list into three sections, makes a plan, and helps you quantify how urgent tasks are.

Here is my typical schedule for these tasks:

After school:

Break for 1hr

Green as a warmup

Yellow for one hour for 1-1.5hrs

Red after dinner for 2~hrs

Green until tired .5hrs

Weekends:

Finish ALL Green in the morning Sat

Red for 5~ hrs (or however much you need) Sat

Breaks interwoven between

Dinner and relaxing Sat evening

Yellow for 2-3~ hr Sun

Red for 1-1.5hr Sun evening

Day off where I wasted the entire morning:

Red for 2hrs

Yellow for 2hrs

After dinner do Green until tired

#1. NO MORE GUILT

Ever find yourself crashing out after a long day at school, sitting on your bed watching Netflix, and getting nothing done? It sounds horrible when I put it that way. Bed rotting, doom scrolling, whatever it is, it’s never a fun thing.

Here’s the thing though— it doesn’t have to feel that way.

There are two states that we can consider you to be in. Focus and Relaxation. The situation I described above is caught in between these two states. You want to be in a focus state, but you’re overwhelmed and stuck in your relaxation state. The opposite is also true. You try to get work done but catch yourself distracted, on your phone, instead. You are in a focus state, but you want to be in a relaxation state.

The number one change you can do to help your mental health is to choose a side.

When you are in your focus state, commit. You put your best effort in and keep your mind engaged in what you are working on. No distractions. This is going to help you get so much more work done in a shorter period of time. As you practice this, you are going to realize that when you are in your focus state, distractions are less enticing and you will be able to maintain it for longer.

Disclaimer: if you have to tell yourself to “lock in” you aren’t doing it right. Forcing yourself into a focus state is never going to work, it's just going to lead to that same, tiring, useless feeling.

To actually decompress and feel happier, you can’t have second thoughts in your relaxation. Set a timer if you have to, but you need to let yourself enjoy whatever you are doing. Imagine this: after a long hard day, you treat yourself by getting some popcorn, bundle yourself up in blankets, dim the lights, and get to watch the movie that’s been on your bucket list for the past week. So much better than what we started with, right? The cycle of guilt relaxation starts with wanting to decompress but feeling guilty the whole time. You don’t rest and aren’t happy because all you’ve been thinking about is “I have to get work done.” Instead, you get more tired, and you need to continue laying around or scrolling on your phone.

You don’t have to change your entire routine— just be more mindful about which state you are in and how you can take advantage of that.

Why I hate the pomodoro method.

You’ve probably seen someone suggest the Pomodoro method before— you do short sprints (typically 25 mins) followed up by a quick break (typically 5 mins).

I don’t like it, and I will never go back to using it. Don’t get me wrong, it can work really well! My sibling only gets anything done if they use this method, so there is something good about it. However, I’m going to talk about the downsides and what else to do instead of this method.

1. It focuses on time spent rather than results.

Many tasks are quite flexible in how long we take to complete them. Take walking home for example. When I am in a rush to school, it takes about 20 mins uphill, but my legs cramp really bad. When I’m just listening to my music and vibing, it takes about 30 mins downhill.

It's a similar idea for studying. Apply pressure on your learning and assignments, and they get completed faster. Too much pressure, you get exhausted or can’t think straight. (HINT: Procrastination). Too little pressure, and it takes forever to get anything done.

Different results require different amounts of time and pressure.

Trying to strive for a specific time frame undermines what your true goal is: to get some something done. The repetitive cycle assumes a “one size fits all” but that is rarely ever the case. Saying “I studied for two hours today” means nothing compared to “I wrote my essay, read a research paper, and annotated my notes from yesterday.”

2. It discourages focus and flow.

When I was trying out the method, I kept trying to find the ideal time for work and for breaks. The problem is it's never the same. Some days, you are more mentally exhausted and need longer and more breaks, otherwise you are just going to be miserable.

As it is, the five-minute break isn’t long enough to go on a short walk, take a dedicated snack, or fully disconnect. It’s a waste of time that taunts you with distractions that aren’t conducive to a good work environment.

The opposite is also true. Good days can be rare, so when you get into the zone, there’s no reason to come out of it for anything other than a natural transition. A ticking timer to your productivity doesn’t help, and breaking up that “flow state” isn’t maximizing your time or your efforts.

I also haven’t heard many people mention stamina. If you are in school and taking tests, you realize they are typically around the same length (90 - 120 mins where I am). The pomodoro method contradicts this. For a lot of people, focusing and doing your best on a test for such a long period of time can be difficult.

Oh, but that’s just life.

Maybe a part of it is, but you can take steps to improve your stamina during test taking. Spending upwards of two hours studying or taking practice tests, especially leading up to huge exams, can make the test fly by. Simulating test conditions is also a great way to study or increase pressure, which is what long term study periods achieve. Taking longer study periods also relates back to breaks. With the same amount of break time, you consolidate it into a greater block. You can grab a snack, watch an episode of your favorite show, take a walk outside, or do your hair. All fun stuff you can’t do with pomodoro.

3. It brings technology back into the equation.

If you’re using pomodoro method, most likely, its on your computer or your phone. Which means you have to have a device in reach and visible (for work on paper) or be constantly switching tabs (for work online).

Distractions are a huge part of this modern age, which means that you could inadvertently be teasing your mind with a computer game or social media or whatever you enjoy. Even if you don’t give in, you *are* losing focus.

Forget the clocks, forget the devices, forget the notifications. It’s so much easier to be productive if you have nothing else to do and no distractions to take you away from something that, at the heart of it, you enjoy. Because if you hate studying, why are you still reading this??????

This is really long so I’ll make another post about different study methods next week.

finally finished my online class!

and now i go back to regular school tomorrow…

target haul!! i went to go grab two notebooks (one for physics and one for math) i normally just use one for the entire year, but this time i’ve already run out of pages in one semester 😳

my computer science teacher says f the trees (his words not mine) and that you should use the paper to do your work and not try to compress it super small. a little extreme, but the point is, don’t be shy to take up space with your notes.

i went for a walk later this evening to decompress and it was so pretty— prepare for more sky pics because i will be going outside more often after today.

- final review physics 2

- ap frq practice

i failed one of the frqs which was pretty disappointing. focusing on the positive, i now know what i need to practice before my final tomorrow!

study tip: eat chocolate 🍫 (unless you’re allergic please don’t die)

i couldn’t sleep last night and ended up falling asleep at 5 am. waking up this morning was really difficult and all my muscles were feeling achy.

i didn’t think I would get anything done, but then i had half a chocolate bar…

- rc circuits problem set

- rc circuits quiz

- electric circuits unit test

now i’m spending the evening working on python and then scrolling on pinterest 👀

typically, sweeter snacks are frowned upon because of the high sugar content which can cause you to crash and make it difficult to maintain focus.

however, chocolate also contains cacao. cacao improves focus and memory, and also relieves stress.

before school, i’ve started adding cacao nibs to yogurt, oatmeal, and smoothies. it’s a great way to boost your mind in an easy and delicious way :)

happy new year! 🎉🎉🎉

I wanted to lock in before the new year, so I finally got through the final part of my circuits lecture!!! I think this one was the longest yet (it took me like the whole day).

I did stop for a walk outside though (that’s the picture I took on the left) so that helped me clear my mind a little bit. Definitely a goal of mine will be to focus more when it’s time to work and then relax guilt free in order to prevent days like this.

Overall, I’m not disappointed since it’s difficult material. I really like the problem solving aspect of it since it’s like working a puzzle— especially the multi-loop ones.

funny story… the timer on my quiz was at ~40 mins and i only had an hour for the quiz so I was super stressed— only 20 mins left with a third of the problems left.

turns out the timer was counting down 😭 so i rushed for literally no reason. i got 100% anyways! so no harm.

today is a study day (fortunately or regrettably depending on your perspective). this problem set is really cool and i actually like learning about circuits, which i didn’t expect.

- circuits problem set (88 mins)

- circuits quiz (39 mins)

- advanced circuits lecture

i’m REALLY behind in my course and i need to catch up by the time school starts again so i probably have another 4 hrs of work minimum. it’s finally feeling like crunch time lol

today is a study day (fortunately or regrettably depending on your perspective). this problem set is really cool and i actually like learning about circuits, which i didn’t expect.

- circuits problem set (88 mins)

- circuits quiz (39 mins)

- advanced circuits lecture

i’m REALLY behind in my course and i need to catch up by the time school starts again so i probably have another 4 hrs of work minimum. it’s finally feeling like crunch time lol

I just made a playlist of songs that I listen to while I study 📚 Unfortunately, I have to lock in over the holidays, and I know some people are in the same boat so hopefully this will help motivate!

I didn’t do this on purpose, but it turned out EXACTLY 2 hours long, so it’s a sign from the universe that you should listen to it 😁

long study day at the library! there was a lot of snacks since it’s finals week but getting a spot was so impossible 😦 my friend and I saw three people leaving from behind some bookshelves and it was like the hunger games trying to grab our stuff and get seats before anybody else could take them

the library closed kind of early so now I’m back home and I have a long night ahead of me

- analysis study sheets (5/5)

- extra credit poem

- email people back 😭

- comp sci practice tests

- chem study sheets???

studying outside ✨ but then getting nothing done bc the weathers nice…. still have to finish up my notes for astrophysics and then go through the lectures for e&m

i actually got out of bed and did some work 😳 total 90 mins so far. next on my to-do list is emails and suddenly i want to crawl back into the darkness

early morning study session! i’ve been at it for two hours and i’ve only gotten through 7 physics problems but that’s the fun part 😁

pretty sure i got one wrong bc one of my solutions is 1.3 x 10^65 hydrogen atoms….