#Flashcards. Powerpoint slides. Highlighting. Notes while reading & notes whole studying...

[vvventrue]

I feel so bad I've been so exhausted + having to move & I was meaning to study everyday and prep for the upcoming semester but...alas...I'd do it tonight but idk I kinda wanna actually be on my phone until I inevitably fall asleep n drop said phone on my face

[sweetbunnykook]

Bunny, do you have study tips? It's so hard for me to concentrate or stay motivated to keep going

Of course bby!! I’ve been procrastinating my whole life and usually don’t do things except for when it’s reaaallyyy close to the due date. It’s a stressful life to live. I’ve gotten slightly better so here are some very realistic tips on concentration/motivation. 

Think about how relieved you would be when you finish your assignment and focus on that EXACT feeling. Think about all the free time you’ll have, not clouded by an assignment crawling around in your head. That’s your biggest motivator. No “well, it’ll be the same thing if I just wait until last minute” because you never know when emergencies can pop up.

This tip depends on your style of working but I’m the type of person that cannot take breaks between certain amount of time or else I’ll lose interest in finishing my assignment. What I do is take big breaks (around 30 minutes) BETWEEN ASSIGNMENTS that take me about an hour or two to finish. That way, I don’t lose my concentration. However, if your mind tends to wander after a few minutes, take a short 1 to 2 minute break, refocus, and continue. Try to pomodoro method too (if you’re time-oriented)!! 

Play a relaxing classical music in the background at a slightly lower than average volume. You’ll have a pleasant amount of white noise to feel settled in your work. I used to listen to music with lyrics when doing assignments and I found it took me much longer to get things done (between changing songs in between, turning volume up and down, following along with the lyrics too much). Classical music not only relaxes you, it actually helps you focus and improves your mood when doing straight-up gritty homeworks. 

Have a plate of snacks that’ll surely last you through the whole assignment. I usually enjoy a small bowl of grapes or a combination of almonds and raisins (cheap if you buy in bulk at costco!). Something healthy that you can eat in large amounts is perfect. Cheese and crackers are also great snacks as well as hummus and veggies. It’ll keep you energized. If you don’t want to snack, chew gum. 

This might sound a little unhealthy so ignore this if you want to but think of the consequences of procrastination/missing assignments. My fear is losing my high GPA, which means losing my scholarships, which means I’ll end up in debt after graduation. Which means it’ll take longer for me to move out of my parent’s home. The thought of that makes me nauseous and helps me get whatever I need done at hand. Think of consequences and try not to be so fearful that you’re paralyzed and overwhelmed and you say “FUCK IT”, just have ENOUGH fear to push through like you’re in the last stretch of a marathon. 

Keep your phone physically away from you so you’re not tempted to check social media or play games during “break” because that “break” will last for hours, if not, days. Trust me on this. 

Hot tea is your best friend. Peppermint tea, chamomile tea, green tea, jasmine tea, any tea that instantly makes you feel refreshed will help you stay concentrated. I drink about two or three cups when doing my assignment because getting up to re-fill is a short ACTIVE break that keeps me going. 

MOMENTUM. It’s ALWAYS difficult starting off on an assignment and you feel like giving up before you know what’s going on. Trust me, assignments are always intimidating when you have no idea what’s going on. That’s why there’s instructions and guidance the teacher gives you and once you have that figured out, you’ll have it done in a snap. And then you can move onto other work with ease. Momentum is absolute key and probably the most important part of concentration. 

Work smarter, not harder. You might be different than me for this so feel free to ignore if it doesn’t apply, but the whole “owning a lot of cute stationery makes you do work!” sounds like a scam to me. Some people may like having cute stationery as motivation and that’s okay too!! In my experience, I only gather the things I need to get whatever I need to get done, done. If it’s an online assignment, I’ll only have my laptop out in front of me, no papers and pens in sight. If I have a written assignment, I’ll have one pencil, an eraser, and my assignment out only while everything is in my backpack. I found that when I have other cute or extra things out in my vision, I fidget and get distracted from my work. To minimize this, I eliminate what I don’t need first. 

Note-taking. This advice also depends on your style of learning, so also feel free to ignore this if you have a different style. I rarely take notes. All of my professors use powerpoint slides (that they upload online) or lecture videos and I find that physically taking notes take too much 1. time 2. energy and 3. resources (pens, papers, highlighters, white-out, pencils, erasers, etc etc). If you have classes where there are no powerpoints, then of course feel free to take notes. But if you have slides uploaded online, don’t bother. Use the slides as flashcards when you’re studying them (or transfer info to quizlet through copy and paste), and you’ll save a lot of time. Thus, you won’t have to think about school for longer than you like. If you learn by writing down what you hear or what you read, then this advice isn’t for you, no worries bby. For exams, my professors have study guides so I almost never worry about note-taking; I just fill out the study guide a day before and cram. It doesn’t get me As, but it helps me pass. 

Hope you found this unorthodox list of advice helpful!! :D

- 🐰

[collegeculture]

Stationary Shopping

CALL ME THE CARRIE BRADSHAW OF STATIONNARY SHOPPING

 Personally, stationary shopping is one of my most favourite activities to do before school or college starts. Ever since I was a child, I would really look forward to stationary shopping and anticipate what notebooks and cool pens I’d be using during the school year, it’s like the scholar version of Christmas, and what a joy it is! So, here’s the thing, each person’s learning process is unique and so are their stationary preferences. It is important to note that the stationary should be picked accordingly to your learning process. It could also depend on each student’s major. But remember, always have fun picking your stationary, they’ll be the ones going through it with you during the whole year, your own ride or die!

Some of us know exactly what stationary to pick, some don’t. For those who aren’t really sure of what kind of stationary college requires and are asking themselves questions like: “What kind of stationary do I need in order to be efficient at taking notes and leaning them competently?” don’t worry, I got you.

I actually categorized types of stationary shopping into three different ways, accordingly to your learning methods. Certain students’ learning method is quite classic, some others are more modern, and finally particular and unique students enjoy a creative way of learning.

 First of all, a lot of students are pretty much basic when it comes to picking their stationary. Often, these students tend to write down their notes using pen and paper in order for their brain to feel good and organized. If you happen to be one of these students, I think that it’d be preferable for you to pick some great notebooks, comfortable pens, highlighters (an essential!), flashcards, sticky notes and an agenda.

Choose your notebooks carefully, they must be solid.  Papers shouldn’t rip and  taken off easily. If you’re wondering why, let me tell you: first, so you don’t lose content without realizing it and second, so you don’t give it to one of your classmates and end up with nothing if they don’t return it, that way you’ll prefer photocopying your notes and giving it to them instead of giving them your own original notes.

A comfortable pen is also a must, in fact, it’s the most important tool when it comes to writing some organized notes. At college, you’re going to have to write the information down so fast that your pen will feel like Usain Bolt at the Olympics (I’m being over dramatic, but professors speak really fast). You can actually buy multiple pens for colour coding purposes. Blue ink is actually recommended by science, apparently it boots memorization (if you’re using a certain pen, it’s preferable to use it throughout the whole course). Standard colours such as red, black and green are also great if you’d like to emphasise important information or if you follow a certain colour coding process.

Highlighters are so important to help you quickly spot the most primordial information (any colour is good, but don’t opt for dark colours). In terms of flashcards, whether you use them or not, they’re actually very useful for mind mapping and writing down some of the information that you want to learn.

Sticky notes are a necessity when it comes to writing down the questions that you have while reading your notes, it’ll be there and it’ll remind you to ask the questions you have to the professor.

Agendas/Planners are great to write down the tasks that should be done on time.

The pros, the cons, the tips:

-       Pros: if you like to write down your notes using a pen and paper, you tend to write and memorize simultaneously.

-       Cons: You might have messy notes if you’re not used to writing quickly.

-       Tips:Try to maximise your organisation when it comes to writing your notes down.

Second of all, nowadays a whole lot of student are used to using their laptops when it comes to everything, including school and college work. It’s generally a modern way of taking notes and is just easy breezy. In case you fall in that category of students, you’re going to need a laptop,highlighters,flashcards and sticky notes this school year.

When it comes to bringing your laptop to college, try to always remember your charger. It would really be problematic if you forget your charger and can’t take notes like you’re used to.

You can highlight your information simultaneously on your laptop, or if you like to print your notes afterwards, you can do that manually. But remember, highlighting is super super crucial, especially at college, where the most important information should stand out in order for you to memorize it faster.

Flashcards, sticky notes and agendas are great for the same reasons mentioned above.

The pros, the cons, the tips:

Pros:laptops are fast when it comes to writing down the information and you can leave spaces in case the professor said something you didn’t catch.

Cons:They’re not really helpful when it comes to memorizing, unless you’re really used to it.

Tips : Save your notes in the cloud in case your laptops has a sort of breakdown

Third of all, there are some non-traditional creative minds that like to study in their own special way. They sometimes choose to record the class, some like watch it, and other prefer to draw it. And even if you’re creative, you’ll need to write some things down!

You’ll need a notebook for when you want to write down the notes while listening to the recorder or you’ll need to make some PowerPoint slides in order for you to have some sort of vision of the most important information. If you only rely on your listening intelligence, then good for you, you master a superpower that a few of us have!

If you like to draw your notes in order to memorize, then I suggest you buy some markers, colouring pencils, a sharpener and an eraser, and obviously, a notebook so you can actually write down the information before drawing it.

The pros, the cons, the tips:

The pros:  students generally feels more comfortable when using their own method that reflects their own personality.

The cons: if you want to write down information while listening to it at home at the same time, it would be a big waste of time and won’t be efficient because you have four to six other subjects to focus on.

Tips: Drawing is great as long as your notes are greater. You can also watch some videos on YouTube or any other platform, they will always bring you some bonus information.

Anyways, the best thing to do is to develop your learning process and always remember that comfort should be your priority, because when you’re comfortable you learn faster. Don’t forget that the items listed above are the mere basics, you’ll need additional items depending on your majors such as a calculator if you’re in engineering, canvas if you’re an art student and lots of highlighter if you’re a law student.  

[smallblanketfort]

do you have tips on taking notes?

yes!! i have many, so i tried to make it easier for you to navigate :)

L O N G post ahead of you, covering lecture notes and readings notes, from a college senior :)

lecture notes:

i suggest using a notebook and pen, physically writing down. it’s easier to study, and since it’s using your body, you have a much higher retention rate on your side than if you use a laptop.

i have used my laptop for taking notes before. it’s easier to take more notes, word for word, but that’s not always helpful. maybe that’s your style, especially if you enjoy rewriting your notes all pretty and more successfully when you get home. i am not that girl. 

more notes does not always equal better! it’s good for you to listen actively, selecting what is important and what is not. i take very thorough notes. i take a lot of notes. if you need notes for a missed class, i. am. your. girl. that doesn’t mean i write out everything word for word. selecting details, clauses, and images really helps me to not only keep up, but also to memorize later. plus, when you’re typing, it’s easier to type all the words out without really processing the whole meaning. remember that dense notes are harder to study

finally, when you write by hand, you can get more creative with your style. occasionally, i’ll web notes out from one, rather than a traditional outline, bc it makes more sense for the topic

it also helps my anxiety! so much! if i force myself to take great in depth notes, then my mind has to dedicate more brain space to the task at hand than to my anxieties.

stick to one of these though. it really sucks to get into a test and realize you didn’t study half of your notes bc you forgot half were on your laptop. it’s awful lol.

if you use a laptop, get used to how it works first. do u know how much i resent trying to switch from a bullet that is under other bullets (like this one, not filled in) to a main point bullet (the ones filled in). it can be so confusing. also make sure you use a program you like. you can take directly into documents, but i find that i really love evernote, as i can make notebooks for classes, stacks of notebooks for my college, and that i can tag notes with specific classes and topics.

if you’re on paper, for fuck’s sake, divide your notebook into sections for classes. keep it all together. those notebooks with handy dandy dividers are so helpful, and they keep you from carrying around 5 notebooks at once.

i wouldn’t worry too much about highlighters and such in class. there’s just so much going on then. save highlighting and color coding for later, and count it as studying.

don’t worry about traditional outlining styles, with roman numerals or whatever. i take notes very simply. bullets/dashes, subnotes under a broad note. 

do it how it makes sense to you! maybe that includes different bullet styles, different places for different types of information (on a simple level, i start writing chapter numbers and titles as far to the left as i can go, over the margins, in bold and capital letters. i also usually go over these later in a certain color marker)

in some classes it is helpful for me to write the topic along the top of the page in a highlighter (color coding is lovely) the main idea/topic for each page. the classes this was most obviously helpful in were astronomy (COMETS or BLACKHOLES etc) and shakespeare (MUCH ADO ACT 2 or ROMEO etc)

it’s easiest to just note page numbers of referenced complex diagrams, as they are usually in your reading or accessible online

your style might look different in each class. whatever works.

note everything (everything) your professor writes on the board. if it’s important enough for your professor to write it, it’s probably important enough for you to write it.

note examples only if it’s helpful for your memory. however, make light note of things like famous people and their science/psych experiments. but in math and such, note! the! examples! and! reasons! will help you so much.

examples that have emotion, imagery, or sound are going to be more helpful. applicable examples are most helpful. good professors will lecture you accordingly. lazy ones will not.

star anything that the professor stresses or hints will be tested. anything that they say is a major theme or whatever.

note main ideas/points/themes, definitions, conclusions, 

use your tests to help you figure out what you need to know. ask questions about the tests too. in every class i’ve taken, i’m totally shocked at how willingly people ask about exam format and how willingly the professor will tell us how it will work. they want you to succeed.

people learn differently! i suggest taking notes in class and later adding touches that help you. count it as study time too. a warm up, if you will. 

if you’re visual, this might include highlighting, color coding, drawing diagrams, etc.

 if you’re an auditory learner, reading the notes out loud and organizing them accordingly, as well as making up rhymes, rhythms and such, might help you. some auditory learners actually like to record lectures and listen to them later. 

if you learn best through movement, rewriting or making flashcards will be great for you.

sometimes professors go really. fuckin. fast. why. idk? but

dont be afraid to ask them to go back a slide bc i guarantee, you will be the class hero for asking

develop a little bit of shorthand. sometimes i end up using initials, arrows, abbreviations… this is where i got “bc” and “thru” and “u” and such. lol. also, list things vertically, rather than using commas and “and/&/+) it’ll be more clear later

some professors you literally cannot take notes on. it sucks. you’re going to need to do the readings and pick their brains on how the test will be to figure out how to prepare. take home tests are your best friend. thank god for them. seriously. get your butt to church and do some worshipping.

if your professor puts powerpoints online, save the powerpoints, ya never know.

look at inspiration if you want, but remember that notes on studyblr are usually copied from class notes. if you’re too focused on how pretty your notes are, good luck to you

finally, the day before an exam, i review my notes that i have (hopefully) been studying. i like to make a one page cheat sheet / study guide on everything i didn’t remember, leaving out everything i understand, memorized, or want to disregard. 

reading notes:

ima be real and tell you i hardly ever do reading unless i will be tested on it in class in multiple choice. and im an english student. ye i suck, i know. i dont condone shirking the system but u know what, reading shakespeare or 18th century lit literally makes me want to kill myself. so, im a senior in college, and have barely ever done the reading for a class. the thing is, if you do it right, anything is better than just reading the words on the page and not getting the meaning. dont be a reading zombie. read actively, even if it’s not the actual reading. doing this, i have a 3.9 gpa. so. there’s hope for us yet.

first of all, yall need to do your damn reading. idc how. but due to the fact that a test will be multiple choice, essay answer, a presentation, or a paper, you’re going to not love pulling nothing out of your ass. can be done tho. just be fake deep.

that being said, i’m writing a lot below, but the reality is that if it’s lit, your notes dont have to be longer than a sentence. if it’s a textbook, more.

the same formatting question comes into play here, except it’s should you take notes in your book or in a notebook?

listen i’m always going to be pro notebook, pro physically writing it out as it helps me really get the information into my head, rather than more passively highlighting

i tend to do both, if im willing to mark up a book. i underline and highlight things that stick out to me, and i write them down as well. sometimes when reading literature/essays, if i know the contextual/meaning notes will be interesting to me later, i will copy notes both into my notebook and also less in depth onto post it notes (which also make sweet little flashcards btw), which i will stick into the passage. this is so helpful when a) im reading it again later and b) when we are discussing a passage in class

buy used books. it’s cheaper. until it happens to u, u do NOT UNDERSTAND how EXCITING it is to get a book that has highlights and underlines in it ALREADY. DUDE. my work is basically DONE for me. now take that lightly, bc often different ppl will highlight different pieces of information. however, it is helpful.

look up summaries. do not simply rely on cliffsnotes and sparknotes, esp since professors are very aware of these. google “title of book, summary, chapter notes, whatever youre looking for” and use the blog posts, the book reviews, the papers that come up. does this method probably take a bit longer? maybe? but it’s easier on my tired brain.

if you don’t have time to read your textbook one day and really want to, read the introduction and the conclusion to the chapter, or the first and last sentences to the paragraphs. it’s not great, but it’s something.

like your lectures, note definitions, conclusions, and helpful examples, as well as people and dates. if i’m reading literature and i’m deciding to be a smart student i will keep several logs as well. these logs will make it so. easy. to study for your exam:

updated character lists, including name, relationships, and anything defining and important

scene/chapter summaries, just a sentence summarizing what happened where

any quotes or themes that stand out

i highly highly highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of the well educated mind for note taking on a range of genres. this is what i had to use through high school and while it’s involved, it’s incredibly helpful.

if you’re going to have to cite your notes, note the page number in the margin every time you flip the page

the biggest issue i have with reading is when and where to do it. before or after class? always ask your professor if they do not tell you. where in your notebooks? i always do it on the next blank page bc leaving space stresses me the fuck out. make notes on the top of your pages of corresponding lectures/readings. 

for both lectures and readings i really really really suggest either having something to drink or something to snack on (think fruit, loose nuts, m&ms. small loose things rather than things u bite? idk they just last longer?)

okay i hope this was somewhat helpful even tho it’s an incredibly longwinded post. it seems like a lot, but the reality is that while i take a lot of notes, i don’t make them complicated, i don’t have rules, i just do what feels right in the moment. they’re not at all stressful. just take it easy and do whatever works for you :) 

if anyone has other tips, feel free to reply :)