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[scholair]

I’m literally obsessed with my new desk- I got it secondhand and the builders’ label marks it as having been built in may of 1944, only a 30 minute drive from my house. The former owners said they think it was build for a womens’ college in my city!

Also peep my cat being a flooff

[scholair]

Unlearning How White People Ask Personal Questions

http://www.samefacts.com/2014/05/culture-and-civil-society/unlearning-how-white-people-ask-personal-questions/

[scholair]

ive trying to consciously make studying enjoyable, but also rigorous and productive lately. started by downloading forest and tidying up my desk (a very good mix of art and law obvs). today is day one. hope everyone is staying safe.

[scholair]

Experiencing burnout in an area you love doesn’t mean you are no longer passionate about that thing, or are any less good at it. It’s often an indication that there are other parts of your life that need your care. A garden looks most beautiful when every flower is watered, and you deserve to nourish yourself in the same way. You will flourish again.

[scholair]

I love this weather so much. I’m studying for uni, knitting my sweater and enjoying the view. It’s a lovely day 😋

[scholair]

The @thestudyingapollo‘s guide to summarising dense and long subjects!!

Hello guys! I’m back to normal posting schedule with something that I had been asked before and that is: how can I turn my big ass dense pile of notes into effective little summaries? Well, brace yourselves because this is something that has saved my ass in more than one occasion, and I’m hoping it will help at least one of you too!! 

As you can see in the first picture, I was working on my pathology notes, which is one of the longest and most dense subject at my uni. I had to learn lots of structures, pathologies, test and names, and I was going crazy before I paired with one of my friends and the two of us turned that scary set of notes (seriously, 700 pages for one subject is no joke) into a manageable little pile of summaries, charts and diagrams! Here is the process we followed: 

First of all, we worked wit our original class notes. They were dense, so we tried to highlight, following a colour-coding system, the most relevant bits of information. And you may ask yourself: how do I know what is important and what not? Well, if there is one word or sentence that helps you remember the simplest concept you’re working with and construct all the details around it, that’s what you MUST highlight. Doing it like that, you can look at your notes and remember the core of the concept, and work on remembering the rest from that simple concept. 

This is no magic trick, you need to work in order for this process to work, but I assure you, it makes difficult ass subject with a lot of material much more manageable. So, don’t leave this for a week before your exam, you will die guys! Working on the notes from your class of that same weeks helps you in remembering what your professor stressed in class and you will identify the essential information much more easily! Of course, if you don’t understand something, look it up, ask your classmates and specially your professor, it’s their work help you understand the material!!!

Doing little diagrams and drawings in your original note will help you in remembering stuff and you can skip all the little details while making your summaries, concentrating only in the important stuff. The basic concepts will help you answer lots of questions in the exam and understand the little details and bits of information much better!

Try to make these little summaries after you have studied each chapter. To keep your notes organised, pick a color for each section: for example, I used orange for the digestive system, pink for the cardiovascular system, yellow for the nervous system, green for the lymphatic organs, and so on. Using bold titles written or highlighted in different colours for each section will improve your memory! Also, using BOLD TITLES is essential, and will organise your memory in little boxes and sub-sections. That way, you will remember the information easily, it will be like opening a Matryoshka doll! Of course, number each section of every chapter. Organisation is the key to success! (look at image number 3)

If there is one central branch of information, use diagrams to organise your thoughts! (just like in image 4). If there is something that refers to that information but doesn’t fit in the structure of your diagram, simply use little sticky notes! Again, use little drawings!!!

If something is too complex or there is a section that has lots of information, try to condense it into a table like in image 5! For example, in the table that you see in image 5, I compared the characteristics of the different types of Lymphoma! I put the different points I need to know of each one, and that helped me in realising the points they had in common and their differences; by doing this, you can learn the info that is common for all of them just one time, and then use your energy in memorising the differences, which is what your profs will probably test you in! 

Something important you need to know is that you only need to write IMPORTANT information. Especially in college and university, professor tend to ramble a lot when they’re teaching a class, and that’s why you can’t put absolutely everything in your summaries notes, because this is not a guide on re-writing your notes, this is a guide on how to understand and organise the most important information! The basics of your subject are what are going to give you the most chances to pass, extra details are going to give you extra points, but if you don’t know the basics, extra details are useless! Also, if you have to learn difficult structures, color your drawings (like in image 6), that way you can visualise its different parts when you’re sitting the exam! 

Use red or another bold color for essential info! Also, remember that you can fit a lot of info in a single sheet of paper, so try not to over do it! Too many colours can get overwhelming, and using a super duper small handwriting to fit everything in your notes is a waste of time. I know that the summaries in image 7 look super menacing, but believe me, my class notes were much, much worse. It doesn’t have to be super pretty or colourful, you can do extremely useful summaries with a blue or black byro and a couple of contrasting colours. You may think this is time consuming, but there was no way I could fit 700 pages of info in my head in top of three other subjects that were not much better! It also helped me make revision much more peaceful: when I looked at the massive pile of class notes I got nauseous even, but I could take my little set of summaries anywhere around the house and revise easily. Also, since I had already worked on all the info, revising was much easier, because I had already worked with my chapters and tried to understand them as best I could so my summaries and tables and charts made sense!!! 

So, this is the process I follow for super dense subjects, and it works wonders for me, but it may not work for you! I learn a lot of stuff by writing it down in a much simpler way than it was given to me, and it makes revision for me much easier because I already worked with that. I hope this helps some of you, and if you liked this little guide, I’m open to suggestions on different ones that you may find helpful!!! 

P.S: You can click on the images to see the little notes I made on them better!!

[scholair]

24.05.19 // 7am challenge: day two recap

A huge day today with a good mix of study and socialising and chill time. Highlights include a productive morning, an amazing soy latte, chilling with new friends and having a skin care night! Currently doing a face mask after my peel (Philosophy resurfacing peel) while watching Jess and Gabriel (again) and planning my day tomorrow. I’m going to catch up on some lectures and sleep soon so I’m bright and energetic for tomorrow’s 7am! I’m definitely noticing I’m more productive and I’m snowballing!

IG: @fightostudy

[scholair]

8 things I learnt after 88 days in medical school

So it’s been about 3 months into medical school, and I just thought I’d share some smol thoughts!!

Learning to learn: this is so important. In my school, our curriculum is structured in a way such that we have a test almost every day. In the beginnjng, I stressed over getting good grades for each test, but looking at the big picture, each test is just a small percentage. Discovering your studying style and picking resources that work for you is so important in the long run!!

Take breaks: know yourself, what helps you relax, and set aside some time every or every 2 days to indulge in that. For me, it’s either exercising, watching tv shows, listening to music or just lazing on my bed. Spending time with yourself is key to preventing burnouts, which is all too easy to fall into when you’re in university. You’ll likely be more productive too after taking a break, and less likely to procrastinate!

Be flexible: not everything is going to work out like it should. We have to be flexible and adapt accordingly. Be it studying methods, schedules, plans with friends/family, etc. It took some time for me to deal with this as I’m more of a planner, and hate it when my plans are ruined!! But I’ve learnt to be okay with imperfection!

It’s ok to not know everything. This is so important. In any discipline you’re in, not just in medicinal school, learning is a life long journey. It’s impossible to know every small detail about everything- and IT’S OK!! Being comfortable with this uncertainty takes practice, but it’ll help your wellbeing in the long run.

On that note, it’s OK TO FAIL! So so important too. We all want to be high achievers and pass every subject with flying colours, and when we fail, we hit rock bottom. Being ok with failure + having a growth mindset means bouncing back stronger than before. RESILIENCE!! So important! Endurance shows how long you can last, but resilience shows how quick you can pick yourself up after a fall.

Learn from others. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Next time, we will be forced to work in teams. Picking on others’ faults and shortcomings is not going to help. Instead, I’ve learnt to look at things and people optimistically, adapt to their styles and be open to ideas. You can always learn something from each and every one!

Focus on improving yourself and people around you. There’s no point comparing to students from other schools or programmes. Everywhere you go, there will be flaws in the curriculum, education system etc. That’s something we can’t really change, at least for now. What we can do is to improve ourselves, our skills and our knowledge. Complaining and comparing to others will not make us better than them!

Lastly, it’s tough, but it will be worth it. One fail grade does not make you a bad doctor. What matters is the learning, and having the heart to serve people.

Hopefully this helps those who are reading this post, regardless of university/course, to consolidate thoughts, realign perspectives and remind yourself why you started this journey in the first place!

My inbox is always open to chat :)

[scholair]

January 26 2019

Anyone have any advice on how to ~network~

I’m having lunch with my research group and they want me to meet an former member who is now in a biotech & cancer drug research company and I’m like /nervous

Stressed because midterms lol but I think this quarter is actually flying by (when things are going really well the time never lasts long enough :// )

[scholair]

August 28 2019

The daniel caesar concert I went to last night was insane omg 😭 yesterday overall was a good day because I balanced life with studying, sleeping, eating, aNd relaxing ,,,why can’t everyday be balanced like that

[scholair]

i’m so lucky to love what i’m doing so, so much. despite the exam stress, despite the immense responsibility, i can see how much i’m thriving studying medicine, and it makes me so happy, every day. it does all work out in the end.

[scholair]

Very Fast Study Tip™

If you are a university student, especially a STEM major, ESPECIALLY AN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY STUDENT, you need a whiteboard.

You can revise all the notes in your respective hemisphere but without active repetition it means nothing. Write your mechanism/structure/wedding vows. Erase part of it. Write it again. Erase more of it. Repeat. 

Get a big one so that you can sit on the floor/bed/table without straining your back from looking down. I have no attention span but I can white-board for hours.

[scholair]

[ 16.01.17 ] ☕️ starting the day with coffee, biochem and tarot! i’m quite up to date on my schedule with biochem, which is good, because there’s a lot to memorize and that way i can consolidate my knowledge a bit more until saturday. also, this deck is one i got in 2015 but never really picked it up much since. lately though i’ve been feeling it a lot!

[scholair]

may 30/2018: cell biology and alternative mechanisms of Rubisco besides carbon fixation to RuPB

[scholair]

did you know hippos have pink sweat?

[scholair]

12/5/20

making today into a mini-readathon for myself!! i had loads of books i wanted to finish off, so i completed where the crawdads sing this morning which was BEAUTIFUL and i’ve been making my way through why we sleep and the art of thinking clearly this afternoon.

[scholair]

16-02-2020 | The second storm of this month has begun and it has been raining and blowing all day long. I still went out for a run and was amazed - I'd forgotten how cathartic it can be to run and to just let yourself get soaked! Picked some pretty leaves in lieu of flowers. Now compiling a to-read list of Scandinavian books.