ravenclawstudents

[ravenclawstudents]

Feb 03 start

🗒️Plans for today:

1. 3 hours of Italian

2. 3 hours of mathematical analysis

3. Draw for an hour.

💭 Thoughts:

I started to draw when I was four years old, and haven't stopped for more than 20 years. Where is my progress? :)

[ravenclawstudents]

Feb 02 finish

Devoted all the time to learning languages. 

Started to use Duolingo for Italian, everyone remembers that horrific bird)

It even gives some grammar, and the process of learning is similar to how we have learned our first, mother language, being a kid. Nobody told us about rules, but somehow we distinguished right constructions from wrong ones.

Also I practiced in IELTS speaking. I can speak quite fluently with my friends, but when they ask me anything from IELTS question pool, I keep silent for thirty seconds then start to mumble something. Awful :3

[ravenclawstudents]

Feb 02 start

🗒️To do list:

1. Study Italian for 3 hours

2. Write IELTS writing part (1 hour)

3.  IELTS Master course (3 hours)

4. Cook perfect lasagna :)

💭 Thoughts:

Today morning I am not in the best mood. It's okay, and the only thing I know is that my productivity will stay on the same level. 

Also, studying usually makes me happier. So does small housework, like dishwashing or cleaning my clothes. Relaxing 😌

[ravenclawstudents]

Feb 01 finish

Studied a lot, especially focused on Italian vocabulary. Also had double speaking practice time, so done less in optics, than planned.

It was good to see my old friend, so I am going to sleep now and feel a lot of gratitude for the day ☀️

[ravenclawstudents]

Feb 01 start

📑To do list:

1. 3 hours for 1/7 days of “Italian in a week” challenge, I need to learn 150 words and grammar

https://1000mostcommonwords.com/1000-most-common-italian-words/

https://www.rocketlanguages.com/italian/grammar/italian-pronouns/

2. 3 hours for Optics for Neutron and Synchrotron radiation

3. Go to the grocery for weekends

4. Travel to Leipzig for the evening to visit my friend

5. 1 hour for IELTS speaking practice

💭Thoughts:

I hope that every day I will wake up with this inspiration and willingness to do everything. Every day is a new day, tomorrow will be another day, and there is so much to learn, to step closer to your dreams that seemed impossible before.

[ravenclawstudents]

Precisely!

as i am going into my second year of university, i thought it would be a good idea to reflect on my first year and what i learnt from it. most of this could probably also fall under “what i wish i knew before starting uni”. disclaimer, this is all my from my own personal experience so your first year may not be the similar at all!

1. having realistic goals

before starting uni, i had told myself that i was going to attend all my lectures and tutorials and begin on assessments days before the due date. sure, many uni students probably do follow this, however, i’ve always been a huge procrastinator so it was unrealistic of me to assume that as soon as i started uni i would somehow do a 360. i ended up skipping a lot of lectures and sometimes i didn’t even bother to watch them online, i also (i kid you not) started all my assessments the day before or on the due date. i wish instead of setting myself up with unrealistic goals of completely changing how i study, i implemented small, achievable goals.

2. not everyone you talk to in class will become a friend

one of the most surprising things about uni to me was how difficult it is to break the barrier between being classmates and friends. in my experience, people i would meet and talk to in tutorials or lectures were just that. what i mean is that usually once the term ends and you stop seeing them in class, you’ll stop talking to them. of course it’s not impossible to make friends that you talk to outside of class, however, many of these friendships are born out of convenience. it takes a lot of effort to maintain contact with someone who you do not share a class with anymore. i’ve found the best ways to go from being classmates to becoming friends is asking them out for lunch after class, getting their social media and messaging them and later on planning to hang out outside of uni. if you don’t make the effort to break the classmate barrier then they won’t either.

3. university is the best place to experiment with your identity

in high school, many people are either afraid of expressing who they are (i.e. interests, looks, fashion etc.) due to fear of being judged or they are restricted from doing so due to school rules. in university, this all goes out the window. people (and i mean this in the nicest way possible) don’t care about you. they don’t care what you wear, how you style your hair or choose to do your makeup. everyone is much more accepting in uni and generally if you’re not doing anything that hurts anyone else then it’s acceptable. take advantage of this and use it as an opportunity to find out how you like to express yourself! also people will not care if you wear the same outfit two times in a row (something i’m guilty of lol). who knows, maybe you’ll find some likeminded people!

4. university is not as hard as you think

i think something that all new uni students go through is a fear that uni will be much harder than high school. whilst it is true that uni is generally more demanding and there is a higher workload, it is manageable despite what you may hear. before i started uni i was told by older students that uni was super hard, that it was like taking high school finals every term and that it was impossible to get a Distinction mark or higher in your first year. what do you know, all of that turned out to be false! of course your experience will vary depending on the degree you are studying, however, if you stay on top of things and put in enough effort you will survive. sometimes uni will test you but you will make it in the end. there is also much more support in uni, there are free counselling services, programs to help you with study, your lecturers and tutors, etc. you should never feel that you are in it alone!

other masterposts: ultimate tips masterpost a guide to 2019 (also relevant now)

[ravenclawstudents]

Italian in seven days challenge

At the end of December 2019, I made a traditional list of goals for a year. I will post the list here later, but what I wanted to say now is that one of the goals is the A2 level in Italian and participating “Italian in a week” challenge.

It sounds impossible, but I know a least two people who had great success, devoting 3-4 hours per day learning an absolutely new language.

Here they are:

Nathaniel Drew part 1 and part 2

Shea Jordan learned Italian in a month

So what is the plan?

Vocabulary

You don’t need to learn phrases and exact topics to succeed, actually, it will be better to find the most frequent words. It works for any language, if you know 1000 right words you will be able to understand more than 70% of any text. 

6000 will give you almost perfect comprehension, and if you learn further it will just slightly improve your reading skills.

The list of most common Italian words can be found here and here (with audio).

My plan is to make cards for them and learn 150 per day.

Grammar

It is not enough to learn one thousand words if you haven’t learned how to use them. 

I have found a nice website that offers the basics of Italian grammar with examples and audio. Also, I will use youtube lessons to study seven main parts of grammar (adjectives, articles, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, verbs and regular verb conjugation). 

Listening and speaking

Now I have at least half of a dozen Italians around me, however, this is the hardest part of studying, because we are using English for conversations. I’ll try to understand their speech and use Italian words as much as possible.

Also, I am considering watching Peppa Pig :)

[ravenclawstudents]

Hello world

About me

I am now living in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. I am going to get my Master’s degree in physics in June, and then proceed with my studies in Ph.D. 

Even the very process of learning new is what I truly love, and especially I adore natural sciences. I have started a long time ago (in a galaxy far far away) as a geologist, and had my major in crystallography, investigating laws of the inner structure both for natural and artificial compounds. 

Since geology is not a real science © Sheldon Cooper, I have a lot to learn, and this year is devoted to self-education. If you are going to get a decent Ph.D. position, you should be a worthy member of the research team. Nowadays it means you have both professional knowledge (for me it is solid-state physics and structural analysis) and hard skills as programming (usually Python and C++), knowing useful software and equipment, Linux, LaTex and Monte-Carlo simulations techniques. Also, your language skills should be perfect, and that is not the end of the list.

I am still doing my first steps on the way of having a competitive CV, but I already have some advantages like problem-solving and analytical abilities, interdisciplinary background knowledge and willingness to learn.

Aims and dreams

1. The first and main one is to get my dream job. The plan is to start with a 3-years Ph.D. contract in Europe, and then get a full-professor position after several times of being a postdoc. I also consider working in the industry. I will not wait for discoveries or dream of Nobel prize, I just want to be professional in my area or research and help other people to do their work.

2. I want to be happy, to find my balance between giving and taking, learn how to live with a low impact on the environment, surround myself with people I love and things that make me feel good and safe. And I want to feel that every day is not wasted, but made me stronger, smarter or kinder.

3. I would like to become as organized as possible. No free time, no lost time. Optimize everything from my code to tying shoes. Learn how to learn, learn how to work.

Curriculum

⌛  in progress

✅ finished

Physics:

Neutron and Synchrotron optics (uni) ⌛

Basics of theoretical physics (MOOC on stepik)

//uni lectures

Crystal chemistry and crystal physics

Neutron and X-ray diffraction

Electron microscopy

X-ray spectroscopy

Single crystal structure analysis (SHELX)

Powder structure analysis (Rietveld method)

Texture and stress analysis

Numerical simulations of neutron instruments and experiments

Math

mathematical analysis 1 (stepik) ⌛

mathematical analysis 2 (stepik)

Integral calculus (KhanAcademy)

Linear algebra (MOOC on Coursera) ⌛

Differential equations (KhanAcademy)

Statistics (KhanAkademy)

Introduction to statistics (Stepik)

IT skills

Basics of Linux (Stepik)

Introduction to Linux (edX)

Introduction to LaTeX (Coursera)

Git Basics (Stepik)

Python

Python basics (MOOC on Stepik) ⌛

Snakify (MOOC on Snakify) ⌛

Python: basics and usage (MOOC on Stepik)

Python crash course (book)

Python. Functional programming (MOOC on Stepik)

English

IELTS marathon ⌛

IELTS Master course ⌛

IELTS academic express course ⌛

Working on pronunciation

Scientific writing

Timetable

I am still a student, so my self-education timetable must correspond to my university courses. However, I am going to set goals for each month and less global goals for each week of the month. 

Every week I will cover all of the aspects of my study plan (physics, math, computer skills, programming, and English). 

I am deeply inspired by the video on youtube which unfortunately I could not find now. It was expected to tell about one guy’s free time and his daily schedule. He marked all his activities (sleep, gym, eating, work, free time, the time he spends with family and kids, and also the time devoted to his youtube channel). Finally, he came up with a weekly plan with no space for free time, and even two hours for making videos were taken from sleep time. He said, that having this “free time” is actually wasting it. I agree.

You can track my current progress on Trello.

Achievements

I will earn every MOOC certificate which can help me to make a competitive CV. And if MOOC does not provide certificates, new skills and knowledge are the best awards.

Also, I am planning to have 1-2 days rest after completing big steps like course, book or taking IELTS exam, and to spend this time for visiting new places, cities or countries, and meeting new people, because networking is the part of life I have always been struggling with. It will be even better if I could work on entering a Ph.D., or do some research during those trips, or participate in IT or scientific events.