malerex

[malerex]

i am too young to burn for another

[malerex]

I have not eaten in three days and that's that, however, I did hotbox 3Gs the other night with my buddies and feel very epic.

[malerex]

Prolly could’ve done better on that title 🤷‍♀️

AP Euro is sucking the life out of me...

[malerex]

motivation comes from within (ง︡’-‘︠)ง

ig: @studyingg

[malerex]

Back to School/Uni Tips!

I’m headed into my 3rd year of uni, so I thought I’d make a post sharing my tips on how to do well in school, not burn out, and keep your mental health relatively stable.

1. Snacks - seriously, don’t leave home without at least 2 substantial snacks in your bag. If you’re go-go-going all day and suddenly your sitting in a lecture about to crash cause you haven’t eaten anything all day, you’re gonna want snacks. Some suggestions: Cashews (they’re not super loud/crunchy, so they’re perfect for lecture snackin’), a granola bar, an apple, cherry tomatoes, trail mix.

2. Don’t buy the textbook before you go to your first class - I’ve worked at a university bookstore for 2 years, and every year, people end up buying 700$ worth of first year text books, and then they don’t even use them. Wait. and then wait some more. If there are required readings, then get the textbook, if your prof says there will be questions from the textbook on the exam, then get the textbook, but trust me, for 90% of first year classes (and a lot of other ones) you don’t need the textbook. SAVE YOUR WALLETS

3. Take notes efficiently - honestly the best way to take notes, is type up the lecture notes that are provided, BEFOREHAND, and then during lecture, fill in the blanks/add information/take down any important things your prof is saying as you go through the lecture on your laptop in a different color. This way you’re much less likely to miss any important information, you won’t be confused about what to take down, and you won’t fall into the trap of taking down notes that are already being provided to you. After class, or while making study notes, copy these notes out by hand to remember what you learned.

4. Keep it simple - pretty notes are GREAT if you have the time, but once you get to upper level uni, and you have 100 slides of notes to turn into study notes, you will not have the time to make your notes look aesthetically pleasing. Just get the info down so you can focus on learning it.

5. Have a designated study space - i did all of my highschool homework and studying in my bed, and 90% of the time, I ended up falling asleep. My bed wasn’t going to cut it for uni, so I got a cheap ikea desk, and it’s made me so much more organized and productive.

6. Take as much ‘you time’ as possible - take a bath. light candles. binge watch a tv show. veg out with a book for 4 hours if you have the time. do your makeup super special one day. get yourself that venti pumpkin spice latte with extra whip whenever you feel like it. Uni is a shitty time I’m not gonna lie. It’s stressful as f*ck, and whenever you can spare a couple hours or a couple dollars to TREAT YO SELF, do it.

7.  If you have anxiety, CUT THE COFFEE. caffeine is a huge trigger for anxiety. Caffeine takes away from your sleep, messes with your adrenalin systems, and can make you super paranoid and anxious all the time. 

8. If you think your in the wrong major, change it - I started in geology, and I HATED IT. Now I’m in psych and I love it. It is never too late for a change of program. If you think you’re doing something you don’t wanna do, or your not enjoying it, don’t do it.

9. For mornings you have to be ready and out the door, or if you’re a person who always runs late, have a getting-ready routine and get it down pat. Have a mental list of things you need to do, and things you need to remember, and find out how much time it takes you. Get up at 8am, shower, wash face/brush teeth, get dressed, do makeup, pack bag, remember keys, wallet, laptop, notebook, pen and train pass, have breakfast, put on shoes, leave by 9am.

10. Utilize your time in transit. - finish a reading, go over flashcards, read study notes, listen to an album you’ve been meaning to listen to, read a book, read some fanfic, idk but don’t just sit there unless just sitting there is what you need.

11. Find a hobby or passion that is separate from your school/uni life. Whether its playing sports, or running, reading, collecting plants, making scrapbooks, curating a refined taste in tea, having baths, writing in a journal, find something that if you’re bored with watching shows or studying, you can go do it, and enjoy it, and get your mind off all the other shit that’s going on in your life for awhile.

[malerex]

Habits of successful students

Discipline: “discipline is doing what needs to be done, even when you don’t want to”, which means that you have to force yourself to start doing things. 

Concentration: when you make a real effort in your work (study, homeworks etc…) you will be more likely to actually focus, understand and learn. 

Organization: always set tasks and goals and organize a study-schedule. Maybe you don’t really want to plan all the week, but if you just wake up and open your agenda/bullet journal/iphone calendar and write down all the things you have to do, setting due dates and deadlines, you’ll feel more conscious and encouraged to stay on track. 

Tasks-splitting: sometimes, you write down your tasks. Some of these tasks may be very hard and complicated, and it will take a long long time to complete them. So, you can split them in smaller tasks, so you will feel satisfied after a shorter period of time, instead of studying for hours and still seeing that chapter undone on your study-schedule. 

Watch the sunrise: when I wake up late, I feel like I don’t have enought time to do my work and lose my motivation. I literally panic and then I think “whatever, I could not complete all the things anyway”. So, if you wake up earlier you will feel more positive and  controlled. 

Smart reading: try not to read your textbook just like a newspaper. For every paragraph you read, try to underline and write down key words and then your question about that subject. Literally, turn your textbook into questions. If you write down question - particularly why…? - and think about the answer, you will be more likely to remember that stuff later. 

Healthy lifestile: if you don’t drink enough water in the morning, you will be more likely to have a decrease of concentration in the afternoon/evening, so: stay hydrated. Try also to have some snaks every one-two hours: feed your brain. 

[malerex]

How to figure out what’s important during a lecture

And not waste too much time reading pages of the textbooks

1. Check the syllabus. I cannot stress this enough. In the syllabus you will find the objectives of the course you are taking. These are very important because more often than not, the exam questions are based off these objectives. So, if you know what the objectives are, you will be able to clearly identify these when the professor is examining these in the lecture.

2. Read the summary. Textbooks nowadays have a summary at the end of each chapter. I totally recommend to check this summary as it gives the most important points and it gives you an overview of the chapter. Having this overview, is essential because you will have an idea how everything connects to one another without reading the chapter. In the lecture, professors actually give you a summary of the chapter. So, when you know in advance what points the professor is likely to teach at the lecture, the easier it will be on which of the summary points the professor is focusing more.

3. Ask your professor to give you a nutshell of the lecture. Believe me, it works. Professors are willing to help you and it works well as a quick recap too. This has saved me many times and it’s more time effective, as I don’t try to learn the entire book but instead the most important points and then I fill in the gaps.

4. Write the main points down. For this, I like using the Cornell Method. I write it after the lecture is finished so the points are still fresh in my mind. And if I forget something, I still get the chance to ask the professor. This is important because we are retrieving the information from our brain, which is exactly what you do in an exam. The more concrete the points are, the better. I’ve always been an advocate of taking as little notes as possible in the class because in order to truly understand the material, it is better to actively engage with it and you’ll remember better (at least for me).

Recap: Before going to class, you want to check your syllabus and read the summary in order to get an overview and identify the main points of the subject. When the lecture is done, ask your professor for a quick recap, so you can see what the professor thinks are truly the most important parts. And last but not least, write the points down so you don’t forget.

[malerex]

here it is, my first playlist masterpost!

these are the playlists i’m loving right now (oct 2018)

- coffee house: curl up with a book in your favourite coffee house

- lo-fi: mellow and good for your concentration

- synths & co: synth goodness

- muted: a place for songs with no words

- first coffee: just getting you through the morning

- green tea: restore your mind and body

- introduction: it’s the world’s best song intros

- oatmeal: it’s warm and cosy, a bowl (or playlist) of comfort

- boss lady: you’re a boss lady, here’s some songs to make you feel like it

- happiest: songs from all the films that make disney the happiest place on earth

- 01:59: when it’s 01:59 and you’re feeling lonely, this is company

- espresso: bitter and disappointed

- gibson: it’s what alex turner plays, right?

- peachy: upbeat and fresh, some peachy tunes

- lavender: your ideal bath playlist

- sunny d: 90s bops

enjoy!

[malerex]

I’ve been receiving tonnes of questions on Note - Taking recently, so I’d thought I make a post. Plus, I had fun making these graphics.

There are three different methods that I prefer when it comes to note taking:

Notes written During the Lecture

I highly recommend taking notes during the lecture.

I also use abbreviations for quicker and more efficient note taking. Some examples of abbreviation that I use are:

w/ - With

w/o - Without

e.g. - For example

Notes written After the Lecture

As for notes written after the lecture, I tend to seek the help of Google Spreadsheets or Microsoft Excel. This way I am able to organise information learnt. I do this by dividing the information provided into two columns, one for keywords or questions and the other for definitions and answers. 

*Note: This method was adapted from the note taking method I’ve used during college. 

Rewritten Notes

I also rewrite my notes. My rewritten notes are arranged based on the order they appear in the syllabus unless there are pieces of information that are related to more than one topic.

I use a black pen or pencil for my written notes, as well as coloured pens and highlighters to highlight the key words and terminologies for emphasise.

Before writing them down, I tend to visualise the layout - alternating between words and pictures/diagram. This definitely helps me with remembering for exams. All I have to do is imagine that I’m looking at that page and I can remember where everything is.

______________________________________________________________________

Please click on the images for a much clearer view. 

Well, that’s all from me! I hope that you found this information helpful. And, don’t hesitate to ask me questions if you’re confused about this method of note-taking, or any other problems you might have. For more information of how to survive university, follow this page. And, for more medical school chronicles, follow me on IG. Follow my studygram/medgram for more content. 

[malerex]

Hey guys, so just as a heads up, I don’t think that highlighting your already made notes is that effective unless it’s for aesthetic. However for many subjects like English classes or humanities, you are often given a bulk amount of readings and I believe that highlighting not only helps you digest the content but it also makes note taking easier afterwards. Though some people find it hard to figure out what they need to be highlighting so I’ve come up with a few ideas.

Terms often come into play when digesting a lot of textbook readings where ideas are being explained to you and often you will want this definition to be readily available when revising too so its good to highlight these when you come across them.

Key concepts can be really good to highlight when trying to understand scientific concepts within research articles or when reading persuasive texts as you can relate the material back to your core unit of work. Alternatively you can use concept to highlight the main idea of paragraphs or chapters to give you a quick reference of summary when studying.

I find examples to come particularly handy in studies which are applied to everyday situations, for example a law textbook may discuss a concept and give an applicable example which I would then highlight. Or in math you may highlight an example problem to help you if you get stuck later.

This highlighter was a godsend in my last exams, especially for history because I’d be reading so many historians and articles and when it came to writing essays it would only take me seconds to find a good reinforcing quote as I’d been highlighting them all along. Or even in English you can highlight quotes from reviews or scholars to be used to back up your argument.

This one is mainly for English and literature studies because when analysing devices and giving examples of these it helps when they are already highlighted. It’s all about studying smarter not harder and getting things done efficiently so this step really has helped me out.

Again another more humanities point as you often have to create a mental catalogue of people involved and the context of situations to understand the severity of moments in history. Though in science and other subjects it’s always good to know what pages are talking about what professors or scholars or historical figures.

Finally, in many subjects you are expected to produce a mental timeline of events especially in history and it becomes confusing to pinpoint events and dates together so this step helps to take the labour out of that situation.

I hope this helps you guys out. I also like to just make a key for my highlighting that I use for a bookmark, that way I can constantly refer to it. Message me if you have any ideas or things you want me to post about.

[malerex]

how i use good drive for university - pt 2: grade tracker by kkaitstudies

am i the only one that always needs to know where i stand in a course? no? good, bc do i have the grade tracker for you. i made my first version of this grade tracker back in my 2nd yr of uni, and have since updated it to its current version. here is what i track and what you need to do to fill it in.

download a free copy of the grade tracker template here

step one: subject info fill in: course code & name, prof’s name, class times & locations, and office hours

step two: assignment due dates, type, task, and weight fill in: due date (ongoing on top and descend by date), whether it’s a group vs. individual assignment, name of the task, and the overall weight the assignment counts for

step three: mark and weight towards final  as the semester rolls on and you receive marks, input the mark (in %) you received in the Mark column, and how much it counts towards your final mark in the Weight Towards Final column.

extras: average and ongoing total calculator the sheet is already programmed to calculate your progress. your course average (mean) will automatically change as you input marks, as will the ongoing total towards your final mark. 

extras: tabs!  there are tabs for different sheets at the bottom of the page for Semester 1, Semester 2, School GPA Scale, and Instructions

tip: create grade expectations with an add’l column you know when you’re halfway thru the semester and you’re like “man… i’m just trying to pass with a __%” add a column to the right of the Weight Towards Final column and play with numbers to see what you need on each assignment to get whatever you need to finish with your ideal mark even if it is just a 50 bc sometimes it just be like that. 

that’s how i tracked my grades throughout university! it gave me a lot of peace of mind bc i always knew where i stood in the course so long as my profs kept on top of grading. if you have any questions or use this template, feel free to message me! i’d love to get some feedback. enjoy your semester!

[ part 1: notes on google docs | part 3: gmail and gcal ]

[malerex]

Guess who’s back from recovery, a whopping 20lbs heavier

[malerex]

Ash Stymest for Eloq FW (2014)

[malerex]

Favorite thinspos 👀

[malerex]

Soft boy malespo for anon~

send a request!

[malerex]

So hyperthyroidism would be pretty cool.....

[malerex]

might fuck around and drink some milk idk 😳