poufsouffle-studies

[poufsouffle-studies]

my new adviser must be overworking himself + life updates

biggest thing: I have a master’s adviser!!! this is super awkward for me since i have this weird happy crush on him but also i think he’s really cool and awkward AF and a smol bean and a good egg and has cool korean friends and has great work ethic but also he’s working too hard? i mean who goes into school 6 days a week for 12 hrs per day?? my friend and i want to give him an orange. 

meanwhile, said adviser has korean friends - it’s not written on paper yet but like, he knows about me wanting to sandwich program - he said i could go to konkuk!!! i’m so excited :D (also when i mentioned that my family and i were gonna go to korea around october, he was like “oh, i’ll be there too, just email me :)” so like *cries*

also this is the weirdest thing but researchgate said my profile got 1 view from konkuk uni in SK?? idk who and when and how and why but welp 

meanwhile i’m just procrastinating from checking exams and reading the papers i have to do reports on ㅠ_ㅠ

[poufsouffle-studies]

snazzy AF study space for the weekend 👍 #baguio (at Ridgewood Hotel)

[poufsouffle-studies]

My Study Method

My post 10 types of planners got way more notes than I expected. So today I will show you how I prepare for my exams. The method I’m going to explain is the one I’ve developed over the years and got me to get all A’s in high school. From taking notes, to nailing your exam.

1. HOW TO TAKE NOTES

1.1. Sit in the front of the classroom Don’t give a f**k if you look like a dork. Make sure you can see the blackboard clearly. You should be able to look at your teacher and the other way round. In case my experience is not enough: Studies show that those who “sit in the front and center (middle) of the classroom tend to achieve higher average exam scores”. Plus, your teacher will know who you are and will be aware that you pay attention in class.

1.2. Ask questions Don’t be afraid of asking questions. This took me years. Your teacher won’t think your question is stupid - in fact, it is their job to make sure everybody learns whatever they are supposed to teach. AND even if it looks as if the whole class has already understood the lesson, trust me, they haven’t.

1.3. Don’t write every word the teacher says There’s just no point in doing such thing. Contract words and use symbols and doodles. Once you get home, fair-copy your notes if they are not clear enough (or at least, re-read them). Otherwise, when you try to study with your notes a few weeks/months later, you won’t understand a thing.

1.4. Clarify your notes What did you just write down? Was it something that didn’t appear on the book? Was it an explaination of what the book says? Some info you should expand? Use a color code or symbols to clarify your notes. It doesn’t take time but will save you time in the future.

1.5. Compact notes Write with tiny (but legible) handwriting. It is quicker, tidier, and it saves paper. Also, write in two or three columns.

1.6. How to stay motivated to take good notes Last year I told one of my best friends (who is one grade bellow me) that I would give her all my notes at the end of the year. People normally dream of setting fire to their notes (and at least in Spain, people actually do that). But this other option (giving away my notes) was good for her and for me, since whenever I felt like writing carelessly, I’d think, “she won’t understand these notes, I have to do it better”.

2. PRE-STUDYING

Start pre-studying the very first day of class.

2.1. Active reading

Everytime I see someone whose book is entirely highlighted I’m like “why don’t you just dip it in a bucket of yellow paint?”. Seriously, stop.

Underline only the key words, not the whole sentence.

Use a different color (at least) for each paragraph.

When you read a paragraph, open a key in the margin and summarize what that paragraph is saying. Use between 1 and 10 words. Write as small as you can.

Right after you finish with a page, do an outline of the whole page in order to make sure that you have understood what you’ve just read. How? Scroll down.

2.2. Make it visual

Outlines, mindmaps, graphics… it really depends on the subject. All I know is that I just CAN’T study from a block of text.

Separate coordinated sentences and link them with symbols.

Use bullets or numbers and indent.

Color is not decorative. The same color links together different ideas.

Pink highlighters are cute but they don’t highlight at all.

Small handwriting and columns are your friends.

Highlight just the KEYWORDS. About 4-8 words per page.

Don’t use the same template or style on every page, unit or subject.

Number your pages.

Here you have a messy and a tidy example:

3. STUDYING

3.1. When should you start studying?

When I was in high school, I used to start studying one or two weeks before the exam. A few days before when I was too busy. The day before when I was about to jump out the window.

Divide whatever you have to study in equal parts to make it more approachable.

Try to organize yourself so that the day before the exam you don’t have to study because you already know everything (and you just need to revise a little bit).

3.2. Studying (and by studying, I mean memorizing) Once you have read it and understood it, you have to memorize it. My favourite quote is: “Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.”

These are my methods. I also recommend reading this article for more. Use the method that works best for you or all of them to ensure you’ve got it.

Write your mind-map again and again and again. Don’t change the placement of each concept in your mind-map or you’ll become confused in the end.

Translate words into drawings. Translate your drawings into words. Repeat. Repeat!

Read a little bit, try to explain it out loud as if you were a teacher. Repeat endlessly.

Make a story that helps you fully understand what goes next and WHY.

3.3. Keywords list This is the spine of my whole studying method. So basically, reduce each sub-topic to ONE word. Then reduce each topic to ONE word. Study those words by heart.

In the exam, just write down your list of keywords and you will easily remember each topic and sub-topic.

4. EXTRA TIPS

4.1. When studying a list of words or names It is really important to know how many words there are.

Make a sentence with the first letter of each word.

Make a song. You can use a jingle you already know.

Picture a scene which contains all the words.

4.2. IMPORTANT!

Highlight, bookmark and make a list of those concepts that you usually forget or make mistakes, so it is the first thing you see (and revise) the next time you study.

The night before the exam, write in a little piece of paper that thing (an important formula, something that you always forget, your keywords list…) and that’s the only thing you should revise the following day.

Talk to older students and ask them for their old exams. Your exams will probably be different, but if the teacher is the same, they’ll be similar.

5. HOW TO NAIL AN EXAM

First of all, you should take a look to the Text Anxiety Booklet. It contains a lot of information for the ones who get really anxious.

5.1. Appearance matters My teachers always say that when they are correcting our exams, illegible handwriting really pisses them off. Since they are humans, that attitude towards your exam will be unconsciously reflected on your mark. On the other hand, when they get to a visually appealing exam, they are more compassionate. Conclussion: MAKE YOUR TEACHER’S WORK EASIER.

Use your best handwriting.

Write your name on every page (if you are asked to do so).

Leave margins.

Separate your paragraphs.

Indent when necessary.

Number your pages.

5.2. Don’t ever leave a question in blank Ever. Every little point adds up to you final mark, and a blank question means 0 points. If you write something and it is wrong, you simply made a mistake. But if you don’t answer, your teacher might think that you didn’t do it because you didn’t study. However, remember that your teacher is older and wiser than you, and will notice if you are trying to fool them.

In some tests, mistakes subtract points. In that case, you’d better leave the questions you don’t know in blank unless you like taking risks.

5.3. What if you go blank First of all, wait a minute and take a deep breath. This is not a waste of time because it will actually help you do better. Now, do the rest of the exam and come back later. Then, if you still can’t remember, try retracing not what you studied but what you were doing while you were studying. Maybe you were drinking tea, maybe your father came into your room or maybe you heard something on the street. And remember that you control your breathing, and your breathing controls your feelings.

5.4. An exam is not a race I guess some people believe they’ll receive a prize if they are the first one to hand in their exam. Those people have all of my disapproval. Use all the time your teacher gives you and always, I mean ALWAYS, revise your exam before handing in it. Revise. Your. Exam. Did you follow the instructions correctly? Did you answered all the questions? Are there spelling mistakes?

That’s it. I hope you found it helpful.

[poufsouffle-studies]

shoutout to the studyblrs that

- fail

- don’t have neat handwriting

- procrastinate

- are poor

- are self conscious of posting their own work

- aren’t doing ‘hard’ subjects

- don’t take pretty aesthetic photos

- don’t know what they want to do after education

- have mental illnesses

- have personal issues

i love you all

[poufsouffle-studies]

ANALYSIS AND I DON'T GET ALONG.

[poufsouffle-studies]

Updated my setup! I moved the desk to the other side of the window - directly facing the window was too bright D: Surprisingly productive today (compared to last week) and did some rewriting of notes for my real analysis class and a little bit of coding for my numerical analysis class, plus a translation side project with some of my friends. I also stuck a clipboard to the wall with a printout of a reply to my comment from one of my favorite people in the world ever, Simon Clark <3 I was watching some Zoe/NEHRDIST while working =))

[poufsouffle-studies]

self-doubt, and wow I feel like a fucking shitstorm

So this week was... bad. Not terrible (I’ve had worse), just too eventful for me - so many feelings. :(

I get my linear algebra class, and I’m barely catching up with my real analysis class (I’m “staying awake out of fear”, as my friend would say)... and my numerical analysis class is KILLING me. Well, not really, but like - ‘Python is love Python is life’ I don’t like this feeling - the one where I question if I should even be in applied math :(((( 

On top of that, I messily taught three sets of children how to get the domain of compositions of functions. Welp.

I hope I can get my shit together over this weekend :((((( 

[poufsouffle-studies]

retail therapy: stationery

I FOUND REFILL PAPER - I AM SO HAPPY. It’s so rare in the Philippines but like, I FOUND SOME CHEAP ONES <3 I hope they’re good quality enough for the price :D

Aaaaand I ended up buying maybe the most expensive pen I’ve ever bought with my own money: the Uni Jetstream Eco 1.0! It’s EXCELLENT... but it’s almost Php 100 <///3 I also saw the awesome awesome awesome Power Tank version, which cost around Php 40 more; while it was impressive, the clicky thing going so fast made it feel like a weapon =)))) I was actually looking for my favorite pen right now - the Pentel EnerGel in blue - but it wasn’t in the first bookstore I went to... but I found it in the other store! So... I bought that one too =)) It’s also expensive - around Php 60 - but, like, meh. I already went all out =))))  

[poufsouffle-studies]

i’m pretty sure someone cheated on my exam

so i’m fucking pissed

and i can’t check right now

because i’m still pissed

time to review what the university stands for, i think. :/

[poufsouffle-studies]

the junior (senior) faculty and how they’re helping me with grad school

I LOVE OUR SENIOR-ISH JUNIOR FACULTY. 

The TA’s have their own office - a smallish room crammed with four tables and a wonderfully working AC unit - but I much prefer staying in my instructor friends’ cubicles in a much bigger room. Sure, there’s a bit more noise, but I somehow find it more conducive to learning than the noise in our office, and it’s TONS more fun in there. Also, the older junior faculty are there, and they are AWESOME. 

They willingly help me out with my problem sets and they ask us how we’re doing with grad school so far. One of them literally pulled out his old linear algebra stuff - he had the same teacher as me - and gave me the proofs I needed, stuff I really didn’t understand. And he also told me to ask our seniors - that’s them - for school stuff and about stuff we don’t get that they’ve taken in their own grad studies, because they have lots of resources. And I think that’s wonderful :) 

[poufsouffle-studies]

white paper vs. yellow paper

I’ve sorta recently bought a fuckton of Easyrite yellow A4 paper - it was 3 for Php 100! (around 3 pads for 2 ish USD I guess) and it’s really nice paper as far as consistency goes - it’s super smooth and it feels majestic. However, it’s yellow, and I find it to be on the thin side, but it’s still thicker than some other notebook papers. The biggest drawback for me though is the line spacing - it has 28 lines per page and huge margins. I have smallish handwriting, and I find it too wide for me (another reason why I sort of dislike the long yellow/rainbow legal pads). 

I also still have my backup off-white Merit A4 writing pad, which has 33 lines per page (!) and smaller margins - excellent enough spacing for me. And because it’s off-white (compared to standard copy paper), there’s less of a contrast and it’s easier on the eyes. However, it’s thin as shit, and not that smooth, so I can’t use my new favorite pen - university-issued (a.k.a available in our admin office) Pentel EnerGel 0.5mm ball Needle Point in blue (a blue dark enough to be seen but also bright enough to not stand out so much, and it’s also super thick - I highly recommend this pen) - on both sides of the paper. My handwriting changed with this pen, but I love it so much more on the white paper than on the yellow pad (it looks messier). 

So... I’m torn. Smooth yellow pad which I still have a fuckton of, or buy a new off-white pad? I’ll probably do the latter anyway - can’t have too much paper - but I’m still on the hunt for a reasonably-priced, reasonably-ruled A4 writing pad. 

[poufsouffle-studies]

my gaydar works but I ignore it

So my almost-crush-but-not-quite just came out to me and told me that he’s gay :))

I wasn’t surprised at all - I kinda saw it coming - but... oh well =))

I used to think that maybe my gaydar was faulty? I mean my hardcore high school crush now has a gorgeous boyfriend (who I also find very attractive xD) so maybe it doesn’t really work.

Now I’ve discovered that I’m just naturally attracted to gay/effeminate men knowing fully well that they’re quite possibly gay. :)) 

Is there a term for being a straight girl but liking gay men that way? I’ve thought it through and I’m pretty sure I’m not attracted to women that way... it’s just... straight guys + gay guys + bi/pan/etc, guys, probably. =)) 

[poufsouffle-studies]

#blessed

Today was such a nice day! I worked in my almost-crush-but-not-quite’s cubicle all morning, and the senior junior faculty were so incredibly nice to me - they even helped me with my linear algebra problem set :’) <3<3<3 So much love for the people there oh my gosh. 

Also, we have our TA contracts already!!! I feel so legit on scholarship =)) 

Lastly, my numerical analysis professor was so adorable today in particular - he stopped mid-lesson and rubbed his arms and said “I’m cold” and pursed his lips. He was so CUTE gosh darn it. :))

[poufsouffle-studies]

my favorite youtuber replied to my comment??? I THINK I’M IN LOVE

Nah, I’m kidding.

(Lol.. I don’t think I am :P)

I started getting into studying and acad-related channels from back to school hauls (which came from makeup vids... still very weird XD). I distinctly remember starting from ‘Typewritten vs. Handwritten Notes’ by Jake Wright, and going from there, I eventually ended up on SimonOxfPhys, Simon Clark’s channel.

Now, going into it, I thought that Simon was incredibly witty and super adorable - and he’s an amazing nerd. I gradually found out that I saw myself - or at least, wanted to see myself - in him in a very significant way. Some points:

- He mentioned that when he was a kid, he hated maths - not because he was bad, but because he found it difficult.Eventually though, he went on to like it enough to be able to successfully finish a Physics degree. I never particularly liked maths, and went on to hate it in high school, where one of my teachers said, “You know, you’re not bad - you’re just too lazy to practice.” But despite that, I ended up shifting programs to Mathematics and I finished it on time. :)

- He got into Oxford, but almost failed his first year. However, he re-sat his exams and went on to finish his Masters just shy of an upper first - like, literally just off by a few points. Maths wasn’t my first program, but I still finished it in the prescribed 4 years for my program. Also, I was just a few decimal points off from a cum laude. So. :))

- He’s doing work with atmospheric physics, working on a lot of modeling and dynamical equations - this is my fucking DREAM. I’ve loved meteorology since I was a kid, but not enough to pursue it; regardless, working in the field of chaos theory and complex systems is the reason I even decided to go to grad school! I’m definitely going to try to - no, not even try, I fucking WILL - apply to Exeter for PhD. Which brings me to the most important point...

- He’s a MATHS PHD STUDENT. Because Exeter has various research groups related to various dynamical systems - one devoted to atmospheric research, and another department for Systems, Dynamics, and Control. Which somehow put Simon and his research in the Maths department :)) Can you say #GOALS??? On that note, Oxford too has a department for complex systems research, which also puts it on my list. :)

Bonus: We both do church choir :D

I love Simon Clark so much, and he’s a huge inspiration for me right now - and probably will be for a while, too :)

So recently, I fucked up my analysis exam, and I watched Simon’s video on overcoming academic failure. I left a comment - my first significant one on YouTube - because I just wanted to thank him for being a huge source of happiness.

And then this happened:

And I’m STILL freaking out!!! So many blessings today, and this is the icing on the cake <3 If I didn’t love Simon already, I adore him so much more now :))

So... thank you Simon Clark, for being a wonderful bean, and being a source of inspiration for an awkward grad student such as myself. May the Force be with you :D

[poufsouffle-studies]

When grad school gets overwhelming

[poufsouffle-studies]

Mini haul from #MIBF2016!!! I FINALLY have Juice pens and pastel highlighters! ~*feeling studyblr*~ HAHAHAHA Also I love Pilot because I found a surprise free Frixion pen???THANK YOU??? 😍 Also, is was super heartwarming to see SO MANY Harry Potter displays today - it’s been a long time since that’s happened, and I had no idea I would miss it so much (literally nakakahiya ako kanina, they were playing the HP soundtracks tapos *strangled sob from me* XD) ❤️❤️❤️📚

[poufsouffle-studies]

UPDATED DESK SETUP! It’s sad that we don’t have WiFi, so - LAN cable XD Oddly (and sadly) enough, I’m easily distracted at this desk and I can’t fall asleep so... :/ But it’s pretty good for chatting, eating lunch, and going on the Interwebs =)) Also, I love how my almost-but-not-quite office/work/school crush sits across from me on the chair barely visible and talks to my fake plant, Sprout :))