University Tips:

University Tips:

Keep a calendar and stay on top of your schedule!

Make a timetable of your classes/seminars

Check emails often

Don’t skip lectures!

Sit in the front row. This will make you focus and help your lecturers remember you - which is actually more important than people think

Build a good relationship with your lecturers AND peers

Visit your professors’ office hours regularly and have catch ups

Go to the library to study! You’ll be more distracted trying to study at home/in your room. If you have to study in your room- turn your phone off

It’s okay to not want to party like everyone else :)

Write down your notes in lectures and type them up after

Join a society/club! This will make sure you have a great work-social life balance, and give you the opportunity to learn something new at least once a week

Colour code notes

It’s just as important not to overwork yourself as it is not to procrastinate (too much)

Keep your desk clean and organised! 

Try to get a good night’s sleep the night before lectures and have a good breakfast in the morning. You will be more focused for it

Keep a journal of your experiences and ambitions

Go to counseling services. UK Universities will have counselling services that can tackle anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Your well-being is as important as your grades

Your degree doesn’t define you. You still have time to explore your options. You don’t have to know what you want to be right now. University is about developing yourself as it is finding a career.

Don’t burn bridges with your friends/loved ones at home. They will be there for you should you need to go home

Live on or near campus. This will save money and give you a sense of belonging

Eat well!

study less study smart

I decided to share my notes taken from this amazing 1 hour Youtube lecture by Marty Lobdell. i really liked him and his tips, i think they are super effective and cover a lot of situations! i highly recommend it!!!!! wow

but here are the tips and examples Marty mentions, so if you don’t have the time to go through the full hour, you can just scroll down. hope this helps somebody!

Break your study time in chunks with breaks

most students lose focus at 25 minutes

it’s a mistake to keep going once you do, since you won’t actually learn anything and you’ll hate every minute of it

so when you start losing focus take a 5 minute break

do something nice like talking to someone or listening to music

it’s something you practice so with time you’ll be able to work for more time without losing focus

in the end of the study session have a big reward you look forward to

Create a study area

environment highly affects the way you act. Bedrooms are for sleeping, kitchens for eating: you’ll feel sleepy in your bedroom and hungry in the kitchen. So if you have a study area, it’ll be easier to start studying and staying focused.

study in a specific room like an office or school library if you can

if you have to study in your bedroom use a specific object you only use for studying: a lamp/desk. Make it a no-distraction, away from your bed, blank walls area.

 The more active the learning, the better

80% active learning 20% passive

ask yourself: is it a concept or a fact?

learning a concept: understand/grasp/know it

put it into your own words

really think about the meaning of it

relate it with something you already know

teach somebody else. Recapitulate what you’ve learned. Talk out loud even if you don’t have anyone to teach - talk alone. Or at anyone that listens.

learning a fact: memorize it

use mnemonics

Acronyms (e.g. colours of the rainbow RoyGBiv – red orange yellow green blue indigo violet)

 Coined sayings - anything popular or sayings you’ve heard since you were a child.

Interacting images – work even better if they’re weird. Creative associations make you never forget specific details. (e.g. 1 gram of fat has 9 calories: picture a fat cat – each cat has 9 lives)

any time 2 things are highly similar but not the same you will get maximal interference!! USE mnemonics!! (e.g. afferent vs efferent neurons: SAME - Sensory Afferent Motor Efferent)

Be a part of  study groups

others can help you in ways you never thought before

Recognizing VS remembering

never confuse the two

while reviewing a chapter you may recognize concepts but not actually know them

and when you get to the test you won’t be able to remember any of it

so quiz yourself without looking at it

or stop in a page of your notes/textbook and ask yourself what is the concept immediately after and before it

Get your REM Sleep 

get ~8 hours so you don’t undo your studying

this is how your brain stores permanent memories

without it you’re ability to remember seriously decreases

most people don’t even begin to take the advice but it’s simple: sleep better. Do better.

There’s 162 hours in a week. There is time.

reflect on what you are doing with your time and what activities you have to prioritize to succed as a student

Taking notes is vital.

right after the class take 5 minutes to expand everything you’ve jotted down, give it depth.

NOT hours later. You won’t remember half the things you wrote down.

Ask your questions to class mates and teachers.

teachers want you to succeed and it’s more than ok to ask your question in the teacher’s office or in the next class

How to use a textbook: SQ3R technique

Survey Question Read Recite Review

Survey: skim through the entire chapter in a couple of minutes.

Raise questions: e.g. what is osmosis? What is this graphic about? What is a prototype?

it causes you to look for answers and you’ll find the information better once you actually study it after. If you intend to find something you learn it better.

Start studying for tests early.

don’t undo yourself. You should only be reviewing the days before the test. don’t leave it till the last minute!

(don’t just scroll through this!!!! really think about these methods and how you can actually implement them so you can benefit from them!!! these actually work but only if you put them into practice boo good luck!)

How to Get Your (School) Life Back in Order

1. Assess. How far behind are you? Email, or even better, talk to all your professors about any missed assignments, tests, quizzes, etc. that you can make up. I’m not sure how it works on all college campuses but I believe you may be able to get extensions on missed stuff if you go through your disability resource/mental health center. Of course, they’ll have to let your professors know what’s been going on so I would take that into consideration.

2. Organize. Lay out your make-up work by class, with the things most overdue on at the back of the stack and the things newest/least overdue at the front.

3.. Prioritize. You can either choose to tackle the class that’s easiest/hardest for you first or the class that has the most/least for you to do or the class where your grade has been affected the most. It’s up to you.

4. List. For the next week or two, depending on how much make-up work you have, you may want to live on a strict day-to-day schedule. Waking up at a certain time, getting started on assignments at a certain time, finishing at a certain time, scheduling meals and breaks for a certain time. If you don’t think that’s something you want to deal with or maybe just aren’t ready for yet, maybe do it just by day. So if you’re going strict you would do something like “Wake up at 7, breakfast by 7:15, start math by 7:30, finish by 10 with breaks at 8:15 and 9:15″ or if you’re doing the day-to-day, “finish math and science by Tuesday, finish english and history by Thursday.” No matter how you choose to go about it, you need to be not like hard on yourself but motivated and get it done.

5. Reward. You totally need to reward yourself for all the hard-work and effort you’re putting into not only your schoolwork but your mental health. It can be rewards at the end of work session, each day, or each week, however often you need it.

my masterpost | my studygram | ask me anything

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Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Active Revision Techniques

self care tips for your absolute worst days

so i’m sure we’ve all seen a hundred self care tips masterpost but so many of them just don’t help on my absolute worst days so i thought i’d make my own one to help me and you feel better on those days where it’s all just too much

for when you have 30 seconds:

click for a kitten and for a puppy (refresh the page for a new one!)

clean your face with a wipe or a damp towel. just literally rub it on your face for like 20 seconds and you’ll feel cleaner, trust me

spray dry shampoo into your hair and rub it in to feel cleaner!

stretch once. reach your hands up in the air as far as they can go, and then let them flop back down at your sides. curl up into a tight ball and then relax out straight again. kneel down and then curl your head forward to rest it on your knees.

click to watch a tree grow (refresh the page for a new one!)

drink a glass of water

hug a teddy in bed with you

send me a ask that you are feeling bad and i will reply with love and support! copy paste this text if you don’t have the energy to write anything: “hi i am having a bad day and really need some support right now”

for when you have 5 minutes:

stand under the shower for 5 minutes. you don’t even have to use soap or anything. you could even sit down. just get undressed and put on your favourite song and dry yourself afterwards. put on new clothes if you can, but it’s also 100% good to just put the same clothes back on.

change one item of clothing you are wearing. new socks. new underwear. new tshirt. put on a jumper.

eat a bowl of cereal. don’t have milk? dry cereal is tasty too. don’t have cereal? eat a piece of toast, or a snack bar, or a piece of fruit. just something small to give your body a little energy.

make a cup of tea/hot chocolate and hold it in your hands (once it’s cooled down a bit!). holding a warm mug releases the same chemicals in your brain as a hug does, so think of it as a small warm hug :)

if you have a pet, chat to them. if they are huggable, give them a hug. if you don’t have a pet, here is a cute video of a cat meeting a hedgehog.

wash up one plate. or one bowl. or one mug. 

moisturise!! u will feel softer and also smell good

get some coloured pens/pencils/crayons/ and a colouring book and go wild. you can find things on the internet to print out if you don’t have a book!

reduce the urges:

hold an ice cube

snap an elastic band against your wrist/ankle

paint your nails

dance/sing to your favourite music 

if you have the energy to leave the house, go for a 5 minute walk. or just open a window and breathe next to it.

i like listening to welcome to night vale which is weird and wonderful and the narrator’s voice is so gentle and soothing: here is a link to episode 1 on youtube 

phone a friend!

remember that you are important and loved and deserve so much happiness and so much care and that my ask box is always open on anon for whenever you need a few sentences of love from someone who knows how it feels 💕