How To Actually Sit Down And Study

How to actually sit down and study📚💻🖨☕️📖📓

You've got the textbook and notebook open, the highlighter uncapped, the coffee steaming and laptop switched on.

Now what? Do I just highlight random keywords and write out key concepts whilst repeating important sounding phrases out loud?

While this may have worked in middle school or maybe even highschool, most college and university courses are an entirely different breed. Weekly pop quizzes and an in depth recap each class?

Highly unlikely, at least in my experience.

Uni very much leaves students to fend for themselves, with studying and learning the material taught in class as your own responsibility.

So what's a student to do? As someone who had to get her act together when starting the IB program, and then tackling university, here's my advice on how to actually study productively.

Create a study plan by breaking down the workload

Break down the workload:

Say you have a French vocab set to learn, an English paper due and an econ group project.

Study and write out your vocab, and then meet with your study group for practice.

Plan your paper research: what is the thesis, find relevant literary sources and highlight pontential useful concepts, do an outline of the points you want to cover, and then plan the dates and time that you'll actually sit down and write it out.

Go over the main econ project points, do your bit and then schedule a meeting with your coursemates to do the whole thing.

3. Create and maintain your study space.

If your space is messy and full of distractions, then your study sessions are probably not going to be as productive as they could be. Eliminate any distractions or at least try to minimize them

4. Join or create study groups!

They can be really useful when you actually study instead of hanging out (i'm guilty as charged unfortunately).

Divide concepts and have each member create a cheat-sheet or a short but detailed guide to share, so that you can cover more ground.

5. Use practise and past papers

You need to know how to actually approach the exam questions so that you can make the best use of your exam time, so familiarize yourself with the paper structure and the type of questions e.g. essay-based, scenario questions, numerical.

6. Take breaks!

Studying is important, but so is your well-being.

Schedule 10-15 min breaks for a quick snack and a stroll, but also 1hr-1.5 hr breaks for a proper meal, to catch up wth friends or to watch a show.

Overall, a study plan and a study group can go a long way in helping you get the most out of your study sessions, so do what's best for you!

Love in a Mist

Artist: Sophie Gengembre Anderson (1823-1903)

🍁🍂🌰🥧☕️

"In chaos I find solace."

-Unknown

What I didn't know about learning a new language

Learning a new language has it's ups and downs, but sometimes you just hit a learning wall face-first and don't know how to climb it over.

For me, this came about quite recently during my 3rd year of learning Chinese.

I'm at this frustrating stage where I can read and actually understand the nuances and more subtle points, but I can't for the life of me understand normal spoken Chinese. And I don't mean the classroom kind, where the teacher speaks slowly and clearly and doesn't use idiomatic expresssions or slang. In class 我没有问题

But when I'm talking with my Chinese classmates and friends, and they're excited or passionate about something they switch into rapid-fire Chinese mode and then they look at and I'm just frozen, staring blankly at them and not having the faintest clue as to what just happened this past minute.

I should be better at this, after all I've been studying and practicing like hell, and yet.

Maybe with time I'll get better, and be able to properly participated in a conversation. Language learning is a marathon, and not a sprint as someone once said.

In the mean time, all I can do is continue to practice and to just try get over this wall of frustration. Or alternatively grab a metaphorical hammer and just smash it.

Backpack must-haves: College edition

Pens, laptop, notebooks, water, some cash and a charger with the odd mint or tictac chilling somewhere at the bottom of your bag.

Scrambling around, trying to find your ratty notebook, and then asking your impeccable, super organized neighbor for a pen 6 minutes after class has started only to be shushed by the person in front of you and having 10 heads swivel back and glare at you for interrupting their flow.

Sounds familiar? That was the state of my learning and my bag during my first week of uni, after which my itinerary was promptly overhauled and reorganized.

Question: If your backpack is messy and disorganized, how will that reflect on your studies in the long-run? Not great, so let's go through my back pack must-have's so that you have one less thing to stress about.

1. A pencil case with: 4x pens, 2x pencils, 1x sharpener, 1x eraser, 3x highlighters, 1x scissors, 1x small glue.

The amount and items vary, depending on your major and personal use, but an actual pencil case is a must have. It doesn't need to be flashy, or designer.

Even a plastic ziplock bag will do!

You just need a bag or a container to store your pens so that instead of scrambling at the bottom of your bag and hopelessly trying to find a working pen, you know exactly where everything is.

2. Electronics: 1x phone charger, 1x laptop with charger, headphones

One of the worst things that can happen is low batter, so come prepared! Bring along your phone and laptop charger (if you need your lapop that day) just in case.

3. Your beauty & health case

If you wear makeup regularly, you probably already have a small makeup bag with your products.

Other people, myself included should also have a smaller bag, but not just for makeup or makeup at all.

This case should have tampons, pads, a spare set of underwear and socks (you never know when the rain decides to go apocolyptic, and going back home in wet socks is unpleasant), gum, painkillers, any meds that you may need, deodorant, body spray, hand sanitizer, tissues, some emergency cash, lipbalm etc.

Once again, the actual contents may vary, but the point stands. Get a separate case or bag for your health products, so that instead of trying to juggle several items when going to the bathroom, you can just remove your case and go do your business quickly and easily.

When possible, streamline the process.

4. A full water bottle

Staying hydrated is a must, especially during the start of the school year. All the running around the campus, trying to remember in which buliding your classes are require enough liquids.

Early autumn tends to be quite hot in my region, and only starts to cool off in mid November, so my water bottle requires constant re-filling.

Your studies will thank you, as an over-heated, dehydrated student with a raging headache is rarely a productive student.

(Source: me and a few other uni students who chose coffee over water one time too many, and lived to tell the tale. Oh the regret. Anyway. Live and learn.)

5. Food

Who has time to wake up in the morning, cook a proper lunch, pack it neatly into your lunchbox, shower, get dressed, and make it in time for your morning class bright-eyed and energized?

Not many students, especially uni students commuting to class for 1-2hrs each day.

I should probably make a separate post about meal prep on a money and time budget (lmk if that'll be useful!), but the bottom line is this:

You need to eat, and the on campus cafe's usually charge an arm and a leg, so there are a few options available.

A. Cook overnight and bring leftovers and some snacks to tide you over with you. Snacks may include fruit, sandwiches, some chips etc. Small and light.

B. Live solely on pre-bought snacks. Works for some people, not so much for others. A good option, as long as the snacks have some substance (cheetos don't count! Think more like a fruit cup, or a chicken sandwhich).

C. Depending on your location, some campuses are located in a city, so a quick 10 min bus ride to a grocery store is likely to offer more variety and better lunch options. I

've certainly done that, and guess what? The daily bus ticket and my shawarma cost less than a fancy sandwhich so there's always that!

6. The stationary: Notebooks, textbooks, a planner

Your course may require you to use just one notebook, whereas you may go through 10 notebooks per term in a different class.

Look up the syllabus and email your lecturer in advance to know what material you will need.

Don't forget to include some extra notebooks for your own out-of-class studying. Using the same notebook can have varying results.

Personally, I don't need anyone else seeing my notebook filled with what appears to be incomprehensible scribblings and ramblings, when it's just me annotating my answers to practise questions.

You may like many people use an online planner, but nothing beats having an on paper entry. Besides, it's more convenient to use in those weak or no signal buildings, with wifi so weak that they shouldn't have bothered wiring the building.

7. The wallet

Campus ID, personal ID, card, cash, driver's license, health card, maybe a business card or two.

You never know when you might need any of these things, as things happen, especially on college campuses, so always carry around some cash and an ID of some sort.