#computer science memory quiz

[clairewritesfanfics]

Villain Creation System Chapter 3

Pairing/s: Invincible x Reader x Invincible Variants

CHAPTER 2: Tutorial Mission START Series Masterlist <<read the synopsis and trigger warnings first>>

For a fake world, the chemistry lecture here was as dull as the real one’s. 

After Mark disappeared to who knows where, you resumed life as a college student and went to class. Biochemistry, a fascinating subject, but the teacher had a voice that could put dragons to sleep. Compared to your philosophy professor, the man detailing the steps to the citric acid cycle spoke without a change in his inflection and was less “discussing” and “more reading from his powerpoint.” 

It was a good thing you–this version of you–took up philosophy. The so-called “hard sciences” are fun, but being human means having limited time, and when buttloads of information is crammed into you without time for processing and then quizzed, the fun tends to diminish. 

The bell rang.

“I will upload the modules for the next session by tonight, and don’t forget to answer the formative quiz for today’s lecture. Have a good day, everyone.” 

You opened your planner. This was the last class for today, and there didn’t seem to be anything else written here, only this semester’s schedule. 

Huh.

[Accurate to the real thing, I’d say.]

“If that is a jab at me then you’re wasting your breath, or whatever energy you use to talk.” You didn’t like social engagements. It would seem this version of you was the same. Good. At least you didn’t have to worry about making small talk with strangers. You had this body’s memories, but they were limited, imperfect. 

“What should we do now?” You asked, walking out of the auditorium. 

[That is up to the Host. ]

[Your will is my will.]

“Is that your way of telling me you’re not gonna help me?”

[ ˶ˆ꒳ˆ˵ ]

You rolled your eyes and opened your phone. The list of contacts you had were straightforward; parents, several family members, some old classmates and friends. Vague figures in the back of this brain’s memory. The system told you not to bother contacting any of them. [It would be pointless] was its reply when you inquired why. 

You checked the apps. Facebook was a thing here but Twitter was replaced by “Z” and Youtube was “WeTV.” A lot of the creators “you” followed were news outlets.

You clicked a WeTV link to a livestream report of a monster attack in Australia, then another in Brazil, and one in the Philippines.

“Geez.” You were never going to complain about being bored again. “Those poor people.”

[Look on the bright side, Host, here the destruction of nations can be blamed on an external threat rather than the political leaders. In your reality, you humans have no one else to blame but yourselves.]

Spoken in a robotic voice with a cheery lilt. It seemed genuine in its attempt to comfort you, so you bit your tongue and continued scrolling.

Monsters, villains, more monsters, more villains. Hundreds of people injured, dozens dead.

Just then, a light bulb went off in your head. “I think I know what I’m supposed to do now.”

The dorm was too far so you went to the campus library. You found a vacant computer near the wall, far from prying eyes. 

[Resorting to cyberstalking, I see.]

“Before I can make him snap, I need to figure out what makes him tick.” 

Judging from his socials, Mark’s popular, not just as Invincible, but as Mark Grayson. He was on the debate team back in high school, played bass at a band called Indigo Muse, and, if the many, many, many posts about him were anything to go by, he was well-loved by the ladies.

When you couldn’t find any family pictures, you decided to study his superhero identity. 

This world’s Invincible wore a black suit with blue accents. Most pictures of him were blurred, which was either on purpose or incredibly fortunate, because he didn’t wear a mask or cowl. 

UNKNOWN SUPER SAVES BUS OF TEENS

NEW SUPERHERO RISES THE RANKS

INVINCIBLE HELPS OLD LADY DOWN THE STREET

Going by the news articles, he’s been a hero for a mere four months. “No wonder the corruption meter is mostly empty.” You’ve seen this play out before, not in Invincible , but in various coming of age stories. This Mark was a fledgling. His morals were still intact, but judging from that 3%, he’s starting to see that the world of superheroes isn’t squeaky clean.

You pushed down the pity in your chest and continued with your research.

From what you can tell, the professional supes were employed by the Global Defense Agency aka the GDA. The veteran heroes were known as the Guardians of the Globe, and there was the Teen Team, composed of younger heroes. Invincible wasn’t part of either. He assisted both groups in the past, usually to evacuate civilians. 

No interviews, no press conferences. 

He was surprisingly mysterious. With how much of a flirt he was, you thought for sure he would be the showboating type, but judging from the poorly recorded videos of him zooming around, he did his job quickly and left before news reporters could hound him. 

There were only so many news articles and blog posts about him before you realized there was nothing else to study. 

You opened your notebook and made a summary of everything you knew so far:

Womanizer

Doesn’t remember me from childhood

English major *shares same philosophy class

Bass player 

Debuted as a hero four months ago

Not part of a team

Popular as civilian and hero 

Home life?

You circled the last item on your list several times. Try as you might, Mark’s parents were mysteries to you. Omni-Man disappeared ten years ago and you had nothing on Debbie Grayson. Her son didn’t have her as a friend on Facebook and he had zero pictures of him and parents.

“Not even a hint?” You asked the system.

System: (づ_ど)

Giving up, you decide to switch topics and begin digitizing your lecture notes.

[You’re actually studying?]

“Not like I have anything better to do. I can’t exactly hack into the Pentagon’s database and my head hurts from all that research, and since someone refuses to be useful, I’m stuck on what to do now.”

[...]

The system fell quiet and let you be.

The minutes flew by as you typed.

“Excuse me.” A feminine voice whispered and your knee jerked against the table.

You gasped in pain, earning a few looks from the neighboring students. 

“Sorry,” the snooper said.

[Ding. The character known as Amber Bennett has made contact.]

No kidding! Couldn’t you have warned me that she was here!?

[Host looked so deeply invested in studying that this system did not wish to disturb you.]

[Fufufu.]

Rubbing your knee, you met Amber’s apologetic eyes. “I didn’t mean to spook you, but uh, your typing’s… a little loud.”

Ah. That would explain the hard glares from some of the people here. “Sorry, I got too excited I guess. I’ll keep it down.”

“Thanks.” She glanced at your desk. “By the way, I can’t help but notice, you're in Professor Gonzales’ class, right?”

When she saw your brows crease in confusion, she added, “Biochemistry?”

“Oh, yeah.” 

“We share the same class then, I’m Amber Bennett.”

“I know.”

She blinked, wide-eyed.

You quickly added, “You’re one of the scholarship students. I saw the university page congratulating you.”

“Yeah, um, about that…” She turned to your monitor. “Your notes are easy to follow. Especially compared to the professor’s powerpoint.”

“I try.”

She grabbed her shoulder. “This is gonna sound weird but are you available for tutoring?”

“Tutoring?”

There was a collective “shhh” from all directions and Amber ducked her head.

“See, I’ve been struggling with chemistry since the first day and I’ve never failed before, but–”

“Okay.”

“Really?”

You nodded.

She beamed. “That’s great! I think we’re already in the same group chat for the freshmen course but just in case–” She pulled out a pen and you pushed a blank page towards her. She scribbled her number.

“I’ll pay you, of course.”

“Sure, we can talk about details some other time.”

“I really appreciate this–”

You gave her your name and her smile brightened. “You’re a lifesaver! I should go now before the rest of the library decides to crucify us both.”

You raised your hand in goodbye and then picked up your notebook.

No, Amber, you’re the lifesaver here.

***

That evening, Amber asked to meet with you at the campus coffee shop. 

The Coffee Mug, more colloquially known as The Mug, was three storeys high and looked far more interesting than any Starbucks you’ve been to. Cubist and art deco paintings lined the bare brick walls, contrasting the wood and iron furniture. Bossa nova jazz played from the ceiling speakers.

“I gotta hand it to the author, or whoever, whatever made this place, they know how to design a good-looking cafe.”

You almost didn’t mind that the person who asked for your help was already eight minutes late. 

You were getting impatient, mostly because it was seven o’clock and you still haven’t had dinner. You had a black coffee to stave off the hunger pangs, but the scent of toasted savory pastries and the sight of cake called out to you like a siren. 

[Just order, Host, don’t tell me you’re waiting for Amber so she could pay.]

“What do you take me for?” You harrumphed. “I’d love to, but it would be rude to start eating without her.”

[!!]

[Really? How so?]

You shrugged.

“But drinking is okay?”

“Yes.”

[You humans sure do like making things harder for yourselves.]

“Tell me about it.”

God, where the Hell is she? 

As you started debating whether manners were truly necessary, your phone pinged. It was Amber. 

Hey, are u at the cafe?

Im so sorry, my group meeting decided to have overtime.

I wired u some money, dinner’s on me. sorry again! 

Well, damn. Guess God does listen. 

Spirits lifted, you got up and practically skipped towards the menu. This place might’ve been called a coffee shop, it had a big menu not unlike a diner’s, and the food selection was listed with colorful chalk on giant blackboards hanging behind the counter. 

You’ve been thinking about what to eat even while you were at the table. But even now you weren’t sure what to get. A sandwich and salad combo? The lasagna? Maybe something from their all-day breakfast? 

[Ding.]

“I recommend their three-cheese omelette.”

You barely had to turn your head to find Mark’s chin hovering over your shoulder. Soft dark bangs tickled your cheek.

“Mark.”

“Gorgeous.” He winked and then approached the counter.

The girl handling the cashier noticed him and her surprise turned to coyness as she pushed back a pink strand of hair behind her ear and smiled. “Hey, Mark.” If this were a cartoon you’d imagine her eyes would be in the shape of hearts right now. 

You couldn’t blame her. Looking around the floor, a mix of subtle and unsubtle staring were aimed at Mark. You understood. Six feet, jet black hair, strong biceps, a pretty waist that led to the most callipygous butt you’ve ever seen. 

That being said, you’d rather not get into the habit of ogling at rear ends without permission, so you walked closer and stood beside him.

Mark leaned onto the counter, flashing a flirtatious smile. “Hey, Kelsey. Can I get my usual, for dine-in, and an om–”

“I’ll get the large grilled chicken salad with honey mustard and one medium choco mint frappe.”

Mark snorted, but didn’t say anything else as he handed her a few dollars.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Don’t be like that, consider this my olive branch.”

“For what?”

“For cutting our date short and not walking you home.”

“First of all, that wasn’t a date, because if it was, then your standards need quality control. Secondly, it wasn’t like I needed to come home. I still had classes.” 

Not wanting to third-wheel, Kelsey put Mark’s change on the small metal plate beside the register and hurried off to prepare the orders.

Without skipping a beat, Mark put the change in the tip box. “Then what is your ideal date?”

You tilted your head.

“You said my standards need to improve, but how do I know yours is any good?”

“I guess you don’t.” You crossed your arms. 

His grin turned mischievous. “Let me guess, you want a fancy dinner? No, you don’t seem like the type who dresses up frequently. I know, is it this cafe? Are coffee shops your thing? Bookish girls like these kinds of places.”

You turned on your heels. “I’m ignoring you now.”

Folding his hands behind him, he trailed after you, remaining two steps behind, pretending like he couldn’t outpace you with those long legs of his.

“Wait, is that why you’re here? You’re waiting for a date?” He watched you take a seat. “That can’t be it though, who orders before their date?”

Refusing to look at him, you opened your phone as you expressed your gratitude, “Thank you for paying, now would you kindly get lost?”

[Host, what are you doing? This is the perfect time to seduce him.]

Yeah, not happening. I need to be five kinds of drunk before I even consider– “What are you doing?” 

He slid into the seat across from yours. “Hey, I’m hungry too.”

“There are other tables, y’know.”

He cocked his eyebrow and you briefly scanned the room. Right. This was a university cafe. Dammit. He did pay for your food, and he wasn’t totally obnoxious to warrant a kick out. 

With a sigh, you opted to just ignore him and kept refreshing your phone.

“So, are you going to study here?”

“...”

“The music’s pretty nice, if a little basic.” 

“...”

“I can’t really stand music when I’m studying, or the sound of people talking. When I’m reading, I’m reading. When I’m listening to music, that’s all I’m going to do. I guess I’m not a multitasker, I like to think of myself as–”

You slammed twenty-five dollars on the table. “Please take this and leave.”

He put his elbows on the table and leaned closer. “Nah.”

Ugh.

“What do you want from me?”

He flexed his arm and leaned his chin on the palm of his hand. “Tell me why else you’re here.”

“To eat dinner.”

“And?”

“To study.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s none of your business.”

“You want me to leave, don’t you?”

“...I have an appointment.”

“Is the appointment romantic in nature?”

“Not even a little bit. It’s purely academic, and I’d like to keep it confidential, so could you–”

Kelsey arrived holding two trays. “One large grilled chicken salad with one medium choco mint frappe, and one freshly toasted cheese and sausage eggdesal[1] with a cup of black coffee.”

“Thanks, Kels, but you didn’t have to bring it here, I would’ve gotten it.” Mark said. 

She giggled, “Nah, it’s the least I could do. It’s not everyday you stay here to eat.”

“Well, I still feel bad since the place is packed.”

“It’s my pleasure. We’re not super busy right now since most of the students here just buy one drink for their whole stay.”

“You’re a doll.”

“Enjoy your meal.” She smiled at both of you and returned to her station.

He took a sip of the coffee. “Sweet girl, that one. You know, she’s a physics major–”

“How do you do that?”

His lashes flickered over the rim of the cup.

“How can you… charm people so effortlessly?”

Foamy coffee squirted through his mouth and nose and onto his sandwich. Luckily for you, you reflexively pulled your plate back just in time.

You pulled out the pack of tissue you kept in your backpack and slid it towards him. 

He patted his chest and coughed into the tissues. 

You folded your hands over the table and waited patiently for him to regain his bearings. Once his coughing calmed down, you asked, “Well?”

“Wow. You…wow.”

“It’s a genuine question, I think I deserve a genuine answer.” If it weren’t for your unique circumstance, you would have folded like a cheap hooker if Mark Grayson approached you the way he did after the philosophy lecture. The rest of your brain would’ve had no chances in overriding your hypothalamus. Or your loins. 

“I don’t know where to begin, I–”

“Mark?” 

Amber was here.

“Wow,” he breathed, attention switching from Amber to you. “You really did have a meeting.”

She looked baffled but there was no trace of anger or anything. “Why’re you here, Mark? You hate eating here.” 

“I was just about to leave.” He picked up his sandwich. “See ya, girls.” And with that, he departed, leaving you alone with Amber, who was–according to past posts–his ex-girlfriend. 

Amber laid her bag on the now empty chair. “Sorry for being late, I didn’t expect us to take two hours deciding on how to divide a simple report on childhood obesity.”

“It’s okay, ‘cause of you I just found my second favorite place.” The first will always be your bedroom. 

Amber twiddled with her fingers as you poured the honey mustard over the salad.

“Mark didn’t, I mean, he–”

“I didn’t tell him about the tutoring,” you reassured her. “I didn’t know if you wanted people to know, I just told him it was for school.”

“Really? Thank you! But that’s not what I was going to say.” She cleared her throat. “How do you know Mark?”

“We attend the same philosophy class.”

She looked everywhere except your gaze. “This probably isn’t any of my business, but you seem like a nice person so you should know that Mark doesn’t do the girlfriend thing.”

You used your fork to toss your salad. “I see.” 

“Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t evil or anything. He’s a sweet guy, it’s just that, he isn’t boyfriend material.”

You nodded. “Thanks for telling me.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Good, good. Listen, if you do want to hook up with him, that’s totally your call, I just thought I should tell you.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be too busy for a boyfriend, anyway. Thanks, I really do appreciate it.”

Mark Grayson? Please. Not even in a hundred lifetimes. 

[ Ding. ]

You dropped your fork.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah… yeah, my hand slipped,” you muttered, trying not to gawk at the system’s holographic screen.

[Affection: 12%. Darkening: 3%.]

Glossary: [1] eggdesal: an egg sandwich that uses pandesal, a sweet and salty bread roll. It can be served plain with just the egg (either with scrambled or over easy), or with other fillings like bacon, sausages, and/or cheese.

@weponxwrites @ratkidcalledallie @qxuanii @lilacoaks

CHAPTER 4: Just Cut Their Red Thread of Fate Series Masterlist

MASTERLIST | request rules | ask box

[itfeature-com]

C Language Quiz Questions 6

The post is about C Language Quiz Questions. Test your intermediate C/C++ programming knowledge with this 20-question MCQ quiz! Covering key topics like data types, operators, variables, and memory management, this quiz is perfect for computer science students preparing for exams. Assess your understanding of relational operators, data type sizes, valid constants, and low-level vs. high-level…

[swissforextrading]

Bright minds unite: 2023 CERN Webfest celebrates two winning projects and successful collaborations

Bright minds unite: 2023 CERN Webfest celebrates two winning projects and successful collaborations Last week’s hackathon gave rise to five amazing projects, on which 19 bright young people from across CERN worked together to develop useful apps that support science, research and education. The ideas covered in the 2023 CERN Webfest included web applications that facilitate the research process, quiz-like educational games and useful upgrades to pre-existing apps. The projects were carefully assessed by a panel of four distinguished judges, and two teams were named the winners. “All projects were fascinating and creative, so it was a hard call – especially the two winning projects, SciFeed and CERNbot, which were both exceptionally impressive and well executed,” says Alberto Di Meglio, the head of the Innovation section in the IT department and a jury member. In only two days, participants had to come up with an idea for a project, assemble a team, describe the project’s purpose, identify its technical requirements and work towards developing a fully functioning app. “Having only 48 hours to finish a project forces you to come up with practical solutions quickly, which puts your problem-solving skills to the test,” says Angelo Petrellese, a member of CERNbot, one of the winning teams. The hackathon not only offers participants the chance to develop their project ideas but also fosters networking and collaboration. More than 10 nationalities were represented in this year’s Webfest, with people from various cultural backgrounds coming together to create something unique, exchange knowledge and learn from each other. The projects were judged based on their originality, level of technical sophistication and potential for positive social impact. The highest score for the technical solution went to CERNbot, which is an interactive mobile application game that allows you to handle CERN robots in augmented reality. The other winning project, SciFeed, in addition to being very strong technically, was also rated highly for the educational value it provides for the wider community. SciFeed is an online platform that curates content to allow students and STEM enthusiasts to engage with the science of CERN. “I am genuinely grateful for the recognition our idea received from the judges. Winning will always be a cherished memory that we will share as a team but, more importantly, it will serve as a driving force, motivating us to delve deeper into our concept and explore its potential for further development,” says Viona Cafo, a SciFeed member. If you are interested in finding out more about the other 2023 CERN Webfest projects, visit the Webfest website. ndinmore Wed, 08/02/2023 - 09:39 Byline Marina Banjac Publication Date Wed, 08/02/2023 - 09:34 https://home.cern/news/news/computing/bright-minds-unite-2023-cern-webfest-celebrates-two-winning-projects-and (Source of the original content)

[binghomepagequizusa]

Bing Quizzes

Bing Quizzes: Exploring the World of Knowledge and Entertainment

The World of Bing Quizzes

Bing Quizzes is an online platform that offers a diverse range of quizzes designed to pique curiosity and test users’ knowledge across multiple categories. Whether you’re interested in history, science, sports, pop culture, or any other subject, Bing Quizzes has something for everyone. The platform presents questions in a captivating format, with multimedia elements such as images, videos, and audio clips, adding an extra layer of excitement to the experience.

Types of Bing Quizzes

Bing Homepage Quizzes boasts a vast collection of quizzes, each tailored to cater to different interests and age groups. Let’s explore some of the most popular types of quizzes available on the platform:

a) Trivia Quizzes: These quizzes cover a wide range of topics and are perfect for trivia lovers who enjoy challenging their knowledge. Whether it’s a quiz on historical events, scientific discoveries, or pop culture references, Bing Quizzes keeps users engaged with intriguing questions and informative explanations.

b) Personality Quizzes: Personality quizzes are designed to offer insights into an individual’s character, preferences, and traits. Bing Quizzes presents a variety of personality quizzes that delve into diverse aspects of human behavior, such as communication styles, leadership qualities, or even which fictional character one closely resembles. These quizzes are not only entertaining but can also provide users with a better understanding of themselves.

c) Picture Quizzes: Picture quizzes on Bing Quizzes combine the thrill of recognition with the challenge of memory recall. Users are shown images that could represent famous landmarks, celebrities, or even everyday objects, and they have to guess the correct answer based on visual cues. These quizzes test both observation skills and general knowledge, making them engaging and visually stimulating.

d) Brain Teasers: Bing Quizzes also offers a selection of brain teasers that put users’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities to the test. From riddles to logic puzzles, these quizzes provide a mental workout while keeping users entertained.

Benefits of Bing Quizzes

Bing Quizzes offer several benefits that contribute to its popularity and widespread usage:

a) Educational Value: One of the key advantages of Bing Quizzes is their educational value. By presenting users with questions across a broad range of topics, the quizzes encourage learning and expand knowledge in an interactive and engaging manner. Users can explore new subjects, discover intriguing facts, and reinforce existing knowledge.

b) Entertainment: Bing Quizzes seamlessly combine education with entertainment. The captivating quizzes, visually appealing elements, and interactive format make the experience enjoyable and addictively fun. Users can challenge their friends, compete for high scores, and share their achievements on social media platforms, fostering healthy competition and social interaction.

c) Flexibility: Bing Quizzes offer flexibility in terms of duration and accessibility. Whether you have a few minutes to spare or want to spend a longer time engaging with quizzes, the platform accommodates various preferences. Additionally, Bing Quizzes can be accessed on multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers, enabling users to participate anytime and anywhere.

[yogenderthakur]

Computer Science GK Quiz

Computer Science GK Quiz

[its-abbyyyyy]

10 Tips for Freshmen Year

1. Be prepared!! (but not too prepared)

I know that you may think you know this already, but on my first day of freshmen year I came to class with a thirty-pound backpack and could barely move by the end of the day. You really only need the bare minimum (notebook, pencil, other stuff on the syllabus), so don't waste your energy carrying around stuff you don't need! Also, take advantage of your locker.

2. Take awesome notes!

If you're in an exciting class, you'll want to absorb as much knowledge as you can. If you're in a boring class, you'll want to have something to do. Either way, notetaking is the way to go. I always bring one notebook to school to save space in my bag, then when I get home, I recopy my notes into different notebooks to make them neater. Another tip- do each chapter or unit with a different colored pen. For example, I did one chapter in orange, another in blue, another in green... This makes it a lot easier to find information you need when you're studying. Even when the teacher doesn't insist on taking notes, they will help.

3. Study. Study. Study.

When I was in middle school, I never really learned how to study effectively. One big tip? Make flashcards on actual paper. Even if you don't use them much, writing and searching for the information will help you remember so much more. Having a parent or family member quiz you is great, but studying with a friend in your class is so much better. They'll know more of the material than a parent, plus you're guaranteed a good time. I've studied for biology a lot this year with a close friend and not only did I get good grades, but I also had some of my best memories of freshman year.

Also: word clues help so much, especially when you're trying to memorize people for history or something. I had a hard time during the evolution unit remembering the names of scientists, so I came up with clues. For example, Thomas Malthus proposed that humans would grow faster than food needed to supply them. Malthus -> Mouth-us -> food.

4. Be yourself and be confident!!

I know, I know. But hear me out. High school is all about finding your people and you aren't going to find them if you spend all your time pretending to be someone else. Not everyone is going to like you, no matter what you do.

I have a really difficult time with the confidence part, but one thing that has helped me is having a morning routine. Before I get out of the car in the morning, I always say to myself, "Carpe diem. Seize the day. Make your life extraordinary." (yes, I'm a movie nerd. how ever did you know?) But whatever works for you!

5. Try new things. You won't regret it.

I tried sooo many different things: I became a part of the band, I joined clubs, I was on the track team... Not all of them worked out for me, but the ones that did, I wouldn't trade them for the world. I'm not the most athletic person, but the track team gave me a whole new community and an extraordinary role model for a coach, and this was all because I stepped out of my comfort zone.

I also tried band this year, and I'll admit that I was skeptical that we would play lame music or everyone would be better than me. I was completely wrong and now the band is like a second family to me. Even if you don't think you'll be good, even if you aren't super excited about it, try it. Maybe you'll hate it, but maybe you'll love it or even just make a few friends along the way.

6. Talk to people!

I know this one's obvious, but I feel like it should be said. Some of my best friends now, I just met them by making small talk in class. Get to know a few people in each of your classes and extracurriculars well, then just tag along with them and you'll eventually be absorbed into their friend group. At the beginning of the year, I was a loner and always read my book during lunch; now I have three different groups to sit with! It's always worth putting yourself out there, trust me.

7. If you like someone, wait a week or two.

Liking someone in high school is a constant struggle between throwing caution to the wind and not embarrassing yourself. My rule of thumb is to wait two weeks. A lot of times, your crush is just based on looks or a first impression, or you're just liking someone for the sake of liking someone. But if you still have feelings after that long, well... you only live once. You might as well have some crazy stories to tell someday.

8. Be polite to your teachers!

No one likes a teacher's pet, but just being polite can go miles. Just wave in the hallways, say "hi" and "bye" at the beginning and end of class, and answer a question every now and then. In my Spanish class this year, a lot of people were standoffish towards our teacher and ended up getting called on more than people raising their hands, so...

It really helps build relationships as well. Getting early to band class on Mondays and talking about music with my teacher allowed me to use the practice room instead of going to a study hall twice a week. I greeted my English teacher at the beginning of every class and asked her about a book I had recently read and I got an amazing final grade in the class. I waved to my computer science teacher in the hallway and ended up being able to watch Netflix when I was done with my work.

That being said, don't take advantage of their generosity!!

9. Always take someone up on the opportunity to do something fun.

I shied away from hanging out with people outside of school at the beginning of the year, but I eventually came out of my shell. Going on long drives, jamming along to music in study hall, or just playing a simple game of football can easily become your favorite part of the year. Don't miss out on it!

10. Make friends with the upperclassmen.

Seriously. This helps you out so much. They can give you so much advice because they were just in your shoes, and they can even help you with homework and help you out with your teachers. If you're doing a sport and you get to know a few juniors and seniors, then you've got a built-in support squad. I was on a team this year and the loudest cheering didn't come from my friends, it came from the upperclassmen. They really aren't scary, more often than not, they take you under your wing and guide you through high school.

Having upperclassmen as friends also comes with a huge advantage. I tried out for the musical this year and didn't get a part, but I got to know a bunch of juniors in the band that happened to be theatre kids. Now, they say that they will spend hours helping me with my audition and even fight to the death to make sure that I get a part. (hopefully they were being dramatic.)

A side note to that- get to know people in your own grade as well. You don't want to have friends that are all juniors and seniors because they will graduate and it'll break your heart.

Bonus tip cause I feel like it- take care of your mental health!!

This is so important. If something about school is affecting your mental health drastically, talk to a parent or a friend or a teacher or the school counselor. I reached out several times this year and it was terrifying but it helped me so much.

Your mental health should come before your schoolwork. Always.

If you need a break, take a break. Drink water. Have a snack. Listen to music. Sleep. Go on a walk. FaceTime a friend. Do whatever you need to do, and if you miss an assignment because of that, chances are that your teacher will understand.

If you ever need someone to talk to, I'd be happy to help out! <3

[courseforfree]

Data Structures and Algorithms from Zero to Hero and Crack Top Companies 100+ Interview questions (Java Coding)

What you’ll learn

Java Data Structures and Algorithms Masterclass

Learn, implement, and use different Data Structures

Learn, implement and use different Algorithms

Become a better developer by mastering computer science fundamentals

Learn everything you need to ace difficult coding interviews

Cracking the Coding Interview with 100+ questions with explanations

Time and Space Complexity of Data Structures and Algorithms

Recursion

Big O

Dynamic Programming

Divide and Conquer Algorithms

Graph Algorithms

Greedy Algorithms

Requirements

Basic Java Programming skills

Description

Welcome to the Java Data Structures and Algorithms Masterclass, the most modern, and the most complete Data Structures and Algorithms in Java course on the internet.

At 44+ hours, this is the most comprehensive course online to help you ace your coding interviews and learn about Data Structures and Algorithms in Java. You will see 100+ Interview Questions done at the top technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft and how-to face Interviews with comprehensive visual explanatory video materials which will bring you closer to landing the tech job of your dreams!

Learning Java is one of the fastest ways to improve your career prospects as it is one of the most in-demand tech skills! This course will help you in better understanding every detail of Data Structures and how algorithms are implemented in high-level programming languages.

We’ll take you step-by-step through engaging video tutorials and teach you everything you need to succeed as a professional programmer.

After finishing this course, you will be able to:

Learn basic algorithmic techniques such as greedy algorithms, binary search, sorting, and dynamic programming to solve programming challenges.

Learn the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of data structures, so you can choose the best data structure for your data and applications

Learn many of the algorithms commonly used to sort data, so your applications will perform efficiently when sorting large datasets

Learn how to apply graph and string algorithms to solve real-world challenges: finding shortest paths on huge maps and assembling genomes from millions of pieces.

Why this course is so special and different from any other resource available online?

This course will take you from the very beginning to very complex and advanced topics in understanding Data Structures and Algorithms!

You will get video lectures explaining concepts clearly with comprehensive visual explanations throughout the course.

You will also see Interview Questions done at the top technology companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

I cover everything you need to know about the technical interview process!

So whether you are interested in learning the top programming language in the world in-depth and interested in learning the fundamental Algorithms, Data Structures, and performance analysis that make up the core foundational skillset of every accomplished programmer/designer or software architect and is excited to ace your next technical interview this is the course for you!

And this is what you get by signing up today:

Lifetime access to 44+ hours of HD quality videos. No monthly subscription. Learn at your own pace, whenever you want

Friendly and fast support in the course Q&A whenever you have questions or get stuck

FULL money-back guarantee for 30 days!

This course is designed to help you to achieve your career goals. Whether you are looking to get more into Data Structures and Algorithms, increase your earning potential, or just want a job with more freedom, this is the right course for you!

The topics that are covered in this course.

Section 1 – Introduction

What are Data Structures?

What is an algorithm?

Why are Data Structures And Algorithms important?

Types of Data Structures

Types of Algorithms

Section 2 – Recursion

What is Recursion?

Why do we need recursion?

How does Recursion work?

Recursive vs Iterative Solutions

When to use/avoid Recursion?

How to write Recursion in 3 steps?

How to find Fibonacci numbers using Recursion?

Section 3 – Cracking Recursion Interview Questions

Question 1 – Sum of Digits

Question 2 – Power

Question 3 – Greatest Common Divisor

Question 4 – Decimal To Binary

Section 4 – Bonus CHALLENGING Recursion Problems (Exercises)

power

factorial

products array

recursiveRange

fib

reverse

palindrome

some recursive

flatten

capitalize first

nestedEvenSum

capitalize words

stringifyNumbers

collects things

Section 5 – Big O Notation

Analogy and Time Complexity

Big O, Big Theta, and Big Omega

Time complexity examples

Space Complexity

Drop the Constants and the nondominant terms

Add vs Multiply

How to measure the codes using Big O?

How to find time complexity for Recursive calls?

How to measure Recursive Algorithms that make multiple calls?

Section 6 – Top 10 Big O Interview Questions (Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft)

Product and Sum

Print Pairs

Print Unordered Pairs

Print Unordered Pairs 2 Arrays

Print Unordered Pairs 2 Arrays 100000 Units

Reverse

O(N)  Equivalents

Factorial Complexity

Fibonacci Complexity

Powers of 2

Section 7 – Arrays

What is an Array?

Types of Array

Arrays in Memory

Create an Array

Insertion Operation

Traversal Operation

Accessing an element of Array

Searching for an element in Array

Deleting an element from Array

Time and Space complexity of One Dimensional Array

One Dimensional Array Practice

Create Two Dimensional Array

Insertion – Two Dimensional Array

Accessing an element of Two Dimensional Array

Traversal – Two Dimensional Array

Searching for an element in Two Dimensional Array

Deletion – Two Dimensional Array

Time and Space complexity of Two Dimensional Array

When to use/avoid array

Section 8 – Cracking Array Interview Questions (Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft)

Question 1 – Missing Number

Question 2 – Pairs

Question 3 – Finding a number in an Array

Question 4 – Max product of two int

Question 5 – Is Unique

Question 6 – Permutation

Question 7 – Rotate Matrix

Section 9 – CHALLENGING Array Problems (Exercises)

Middle Function

2D Lists

Best Score

Missing Number

Duplicate Number

Pairs

Section 10 – Linked List

What is a Linked List?

Linked List vs Arrays

Types of Linked List

Linked List in the Memory

Creation of Singly Linked List

Insertion in Singly Linked List in Memory

Insertion in Singly Linked List Algorithm

Insertion Method in Singly Linked List

Traversal of Singly Linked List

Search for a value in Single Linked List

Deletion of a node from Singly Linked List

Deletion Method in Singly Linked List

Deletion of entire Singly Linked List

Time and Space Complexity of Singly Linked List

Section 11 – Circular Singly Linked List

Creation of Circular Singly Linked List

Insertion in Circular Singly Linked List

Insertion Algorithm in Circular Singly Linked List

Insertion method in Circular Singly Linked List

Traversal of Circular Singly Linked List

Searching a node in Circular Singly Linked List

Deletion of a node from Circular Singly Linked List

Deletion Algorithm in Circular Singly Linked List

A method in Circular Singly Linked List

Deletion of entire Circular Singly Linked List

Time and Space Complexity of Circular Singly Linked List

Section 12 – Doubly Linked List

Creation of Doubly Linked List

Insertion in Doubly Linked List

Insertion Algorithm in Doubly Linked List

Insertion Method in Doubly Linked List

Traversal of Doubly Linked List

Reverse Traversal of Doubly Linked List

Searching for a node in Doubly Linked List

Deletion of a node in Doubly Linked List

Deletion Algorithm in Doubly Linked List

Deletion Method in Doubly Linked List

Deletion of entire Doubly Linked List

Time and Space Complexity of Doubly Linked List

Section 13 – Circular Doubly Linked List

Creation of Circular Doubly Linked List

Insertion in Circular Doubly Linked List

Insertion Algorithm in Circular Doubly Linked List

Insertion Method in Circular Doubly Linked List

Traversal of Circular Doubly Linked List

Reverse Traversal of Circular Doubly Linked List

Search for a node in Circular Doubly Linked List

Delete a node from Circular Doubly Linked List

Deletion Algorithm in Circular Doubly Linked List

Deletion Method in Circular Doubly Linked List

Entire Circular Doubly Linked List

Time and Space Complexity of Circular Doubly Linked List

Time Complexity of Linked List vs Arrays

Section 14 – Cracking Linked List Interview Questions (Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft)

Linked List Class

Question 1 – Remove Dups

Question 2 – Return Kth to Last

Question 3 – Partition

Question 4 – Sum Linked Lists

Question 5 – Intersection

Section 15 – Stack

What is a Stack?

What and Why of Stack?

Stack Operations

Stack using Array vs Linked List

Stack Operations using Array (Create, isEmpty, isFull)

Stack Operations using Array (Push, Pop, Peek, Delete)

Time and Space Complexity of Stack using Array

Stack Operations using Linked List

Stack methods – Push, Pop, Peek, Delete, and isEmpty using Linked List

Time and Space Complexity of Stack using Linked List

When to Use/Avoid Stack

Stack Quiz

Section 16 – Queue

What is a Queue?

Linear Queue Operations using Array

Create, isFull, isEmpty, and enQueue methods using Linear Queue Array

Dequeue, Peek and Delete Methods using Linear Queue Array

Time and Space Complexity of Linear Queue using Array

Why Circular Queue?

Circular Queue Operations using Array

Create, Enqueue, isFull and isEmpty Methods in Circular Queue using Array

Dequeue, Peek and Delete Methods in Circular Queue using Array

Time and Space Complexity of Circular Queue using Array

Queue Operations using Linked List

Create, Enqueue and isEmpty Methods in Queue using Linked List

Dequeue, Peek and Delete Methods in Queue using Linked List

Time and Space Complexity of Queue using Linked List

Array vs Linked List Implementation

When to Use/Avoid Queue?

Section 17 – Cracking Stack and Queue Interview Questions (Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft)

Question 1 – Three in One

Question 2 – Stack Minimum

Question 3 – Stack of Plates

Question 4 – Queue via Stacks

Question 5 – Animal Shelter

Section 18 – Tree / Binary Tree

What is a Tree?

Why Tree?

Tree Terminology

How to create a basic tree in Java?

Binary Tree

Types of Binary Tree

Binary Tree Representation

Create Binary Tree (Linked List)

PreOrder Traversal Binary Tree (Linked List)

InOrder Traversal Binary Tree (Linked List)

PostOrder Traversal Binary Tree (Linked List)

LevelOrder Traversal Binary Tree (Linked List)

Searching for a node in Binary Tree (Linked List)

Inserting a node in Binary Tree (Linked List)

Delete a node from Binary Tree (Linked List)

Delete entire Binary Tree (Linked List)

Create Binary Tree (Array)

Insert a value Binary Tree (Array)

Search for a node in Binary Tree (Array)

PreOrder Traversal Binary Tree (Array)

InOrder Traversal Binary Tree (Array)

PostOrder Traversal Binary Tree (Array)

Level Order Traversal Binary Tree (Array)

Delete a node from Binary Tree (Array)

Entire Binary Tree (Array)

Linked List vs Python List Binary Tree

Section 19 – Binary Search Tree

What is a Binary Search Tree? Why do we need it?

Create a Binary Search Tree

Insert a node to BST

Traverse BST

Search in BST

Delete a node from BST

Delete entire BST

Time and Space complexity of BST

Section 20 – AVL Tree

What is an AVL Tree?

Why AVL Tree?

Common Operations on AVL Trees

Insert a node in AVL (Left Left Condition)

Insert a node in AVL (Left-Right Condition)

Insert a node in AVL (Right Right Condition)

Insert a node in AVL (Right Left Condition)

Insert a node in AVL (all together)

Insert a node in AVL (method)

Delete a node from AVL (LL, LR, RR, RL)

Delete a node from AVL (all together)

Delete a node from AVL (method)

Delete entire AVL

Time and Space complexity of AVL Tree

Section 21 – Binary Heap

What is Binary Heap? Why do we need it?

Common operations (Creation, Peek, sizeofheap) on Binary Heap

Insert a node in Binary Heap

Extract a node from Binary Heap

Delete entire Binary Heap

Time and space complexity of Binary Heap

Section 22 – Trie

What is a Trie? Why do we need it?

Common Operations on Trie (Creation)

Insert a string in Trie

Search for a string in Trie

Delete a string from Trie

Practical use of Trie

Section 23 – Hashing

What is Hashing? Why do we need it?

Hashing Terminology

Hash Functions

Types of Collision Resolution Techniques

Hash Table is Full

Pros and Cons of Resolution Techniques

Practical Use of Hashing

Hashing vs Other Data structures

Section 24 – Sort Algorithms

What is Sorting?

Types of Sorting

Sorting Terminologies

Bubble Sort

Selection Sort

Insertion Sort

Bucket Sort

Merge Sort

Quick Sort

Heap Sort

Comparison of Sorting Algorithms

Section 25 – Searching Algorithms

Introduction to Searching Algorithms

Linear Search

Linear Search in Python

Binary Search

Binary Search in Python

Time Complexity of Binary Search

Section 26 – Graph Algorithms

What is a Graph? Why Graph?

Graph Terminology

Types of Graph

Graph Representation

The graph in Java using Adjacency Matrix

The graph in Java using Adjacency List

Section 27 – Graph Traversal

Breadth-First Search Algorithm (BFS)

Breadth-First Search Algorithm (BFS) in Java – Adjacency Matrix

Breadth-First Search Algorithm (BFS) in Java – Adjacency List

Time Complexity of Breadth-First Search (BFS) Algorithm

Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm

Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm in Java – Adjacency List

Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm in Java – Adjacency Matrix

Time Complexity of Depth First Search (DFS) Algorithm

BFS Traversal vs DFS Traversal

Section 28 – Topological Sort

What is Topological Sort?

Topological Sort Algorithm

Topological Sort using Adjacency List

Topological Sort using Adjacency Matrix

Time and Space Complexity of Topological Sort

Section 29 – Single Source Shortest Path Problem

what is Single Source Shortest Path Problem?

Breadth-First Search (BFS) for Single Source Shortest Path Problem (SSSPP)

BFS for SSSPP in Java using Adjacency List

BFS for SSSPP in Java using Adjacency Matrix

Time and Space Complexity of BFS for SSSPP

Why does BFS not work with Weighted Graph?

Why does DFS not work for SSSP?

Section 30 – Dijkstra’s Algorithm

Dijkstra’s Algorithm for SSSPP

Dijkstra’s Algorithm in Java – 1

Dijkstra’s Algorithm in Java – 2

Dijkstra’s Algorithm with Negative Cycle

Section 31 – Bellman-Ford Algorithm

Bellman-Ford Algorithm

Bellman-Ford Algorithm with negative cycle

Why does Bellman-Ford run V-1 times?

Bellman-Ford in Python

BFS vs Dijkstra vs Bellman Ford

Section 32 – All Pairs Shortest Path Problem

All pairs shortest path problem

Dry run for All pair shortest path

Section 33 – Floyd Warshall

Floyd Warshall Algorithm

Why Floyd Warshall?

Floyd Warshall with negative cycle,

Floyd Warshall in Java,

BFS vs Dijkstra vs Bellman Ford vs Floyd Warshall,

Section 34 – Minimum Spanning Tree

Minimum Spanning Tree,

Disjoint Set,

Disjoint Set in Java,

Section 35 – Kruskal’s and Prim’s Algorithms

Kruskal Algorithm,

Kruskal Algorithm in Python,

Prim’s Algorithm,

Prim’s Algorithm in Python,

Prim’s vs Kruskal

Section 36 – Cracking Graph and Tree Interview Questions (Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft)

Section 37 – Greedy Algorithms

What is a Greedy Algorithm?

Well known Greedy Algorithms

Activity Selection Problem

Activity Selection Problem in Python

Coin Change Problem

Coin Change Problem in Python

Fractional Knapsack Problem

Fractional Knapsack Problem in Python

Section 38 – Divide and Conquer Algorithms

What is a Divide and Conquer Algorithm?

Common Divide and Conquer algorithms

How to solve the Fibonacci series using the Divide and Conquer approach?

Number Factor

Number Factor in Java

House Robber

House Robber Problem in Java

Convert one string to another

Convert One String to another in Java

Zero One Knapsack problem

Zero One Knapsack problem in Java

Longest Common Sequence Problem

Longest Common Subsequence in Java

Longest Palindromic Subsequence Problem

Longest Palindromic Subsequence in Java

Minimum cost to reach the Last cell problem

Minimum Cost to reach the Last Cell in 2D array using Java

Number of Ways to reach the Last Cell with given Cost

Number of Ways to reach the Last Cell with given Cost in Java

Section 39 – Dynamic Programming

What is Dynamic Programming? (Overlapping property)

Where does the name of DC come from?

Top-Down with Memoization

Bottom-Up with Tabulation

Top-Down vs Bottom Up

Is Merge Sort Dynamic Programming?

Number Factor Problem using Dynamic Programming

Number Factor: Top-Down and Bottom-Up

House Robber Problem using Dynamic Programming

House Robber: Top-Down and Bottom-Up

Convert one string to another using Dynamic Programming

Convert String using Bottom Up

Zero One Knapsack using Dynamic Programming

Zero One Knapsack – Top Down

Zero One Knapsack – Bottom Up

Section 40 – CHALLENGING Dynamic Programming Problems

Longest repeated Subsequence Length problem

Longest Common Subsequence Length problem

Longest Common Subsequence  problem

Diff Utility

Shortest Common Subsequence  problem

Length of Longest Palindromic Subsequence

Subset Sum Problem

Egg Dropping Puzzle

Maximum Length Chain of Pairs

Section 41 – A Recipe for Problem Solving

Introduction

Step 1 – Understand the problem

Step 2 – Examples

Step 3 – Break it Down

Step 4 – Solve or Simplify

Step 5 – Look Back and Refactor

Section 41 – Wild West

Download

To download more paid courses for free visit course catalog where  1000+ paid courses available for free. You can get the full course into your device with just a single click. Follow the link above to download this course for free. 

[custardcove]

Here’s a fifteen-questions meme I stole from my splat-blog! 

I’m not tagging fifteen people, but if you’re a mutual of mine that wants to take part, consider yourself tagged. 

1. Are you named after anyone? 

Pansy: A flower, if that counts! It’s a family tradition for the firstborn.

Ivan: Not exactly. I share a name with some video game character Alice liked the sound of.

Queenie: Sadly not. While I appreciate that my name stands out, sharing a name with one of my ancestors would’ve been a mark of pride.  

Taylor: Mmmnope. I like ‘Taylor’ enough because it starts with a T like Tomiichi, but I wasn’t named after anybody—though you know, as a point of interest, it was meant to rhyme with my brother’s name!

Neo: I was named after my grandmother.

-

2. When was the last time you cried? 

Pansy: Aw, man… I try to stay positive around Prim, but I do cry about silly stuff sometimes. Maybe a week ago? Sometimes the past just catches up to you.

Ivan: Longer than I can remember.

Queenie: What an invasive question! I don’t think that’s any of your business. I do not cry frequently.

Taylor: Now why’d you want to know a thing like that? I think I’ll keep it to myself!

Neo: Mind your own business.

-

3. Do you have kids?

Pansy: Have you met Primrose? That’s my daughter. She’s really sweet, but she’s also quite shy, so please keep that in mind.

Ivan: This is a difficult question to answer. I’d say no. I don’t think granting someone’s wish makes me a father.

Queenie: Not yet. I intend to.

Taylor: Woah, no! Do I look responsible enough to be a dad? Ahah…

Neo: No. I would rather not.

-

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? 

Pansy: I try not to, er, I’m not so great at it. And it’s kinda mean.

Ivan: I get reprimanded for being sarcastic. It happens regularly.

Queenie: What do you think?

Taylor: There’s always room for some well-placed sarcasm!

Neo: Any time I make a joke.

-

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people? 

Pansy: I try to get a good read on folks—so, I guess their whole profile? That’s before I start looking at their individual features. If something sticks out to me from there, I’ll focus on that—but not in a mean way! Like, seeing someone’s smile, or if they’re carrying something, or their size, or claws. That’s what I mean.

Ivan: Their aura. It’s not difficult for me to discern a person’s moral alignment, and that’s important for my role.

Queenie: Their posture, how they walk, how they talk. It’s important for a first impression and can often be an indication of status. Or, perhaps more importantly, an indication of their intent…

Taylor: Their mood! I don’t want to step on the toes of anyone that’s angry, and happier people are more likely to give you the time of day, you know? Improving someone’s low mood is great too, but I have to gauge my limits.

Neo: I’m not known for noticing people. How social they are, I suppose.

-

6. What’s your eye colour? 

Pansy: Psychic pink! They do that thing where they get more vivid when I use my powers—just the psychic ones, though. And I don’t use those too much ‘cause I risk a headache… still, I like my eyes.

Ivan: Brown, orange.

Queenie: Smoky Quartz.

Taylor: Brown. You know, like coffee? If I were a coffee, I think I’d be a Caffe Latte. … But, yeah they’re darker than that.

Neo: …I don’t mind my eyes being green as much as my hair.

-

7. Scary movie or happy ending? 

Pansy: Don’t mind either one, but I’d prefer a happy ending, even in a scary movie. That said, there are scary movies I just won’t watch, so I guess happy endings win out.

Ivan: I don’t waste much time watching films unless I’m asked to, but I prefer a happy ending. A good story is the most important, though.

Queenie: Happy endings are far too sappy and saccharine, but I can’t say I receive much thrill from horror either. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy watching them … my favourite part of a movie is criticizing it.

Taylor: Happy endings, please! I can’t understand why anyone would want to scare themselves – unless it’s silly fun, but that’s different. Y’know, not that I scare easy or anything…

Neo: Scary movies tend to be more interesting, but… I don’t have anything against happy endings. Horror isn’t my genre, either, unless it’s psychological.

-

8. Any special talents? 

Pansy: I have a bit of a green thumb!

Ivan: That all depends on your perspective.

Queenie: I’m an excellent piano player.

Taylor: People tell me I’ve got a lot of charisma, and I consider that a talent!

Neo: I suppose converting myself into digital matter could be considered a talent.

-

9. Where were you born? 

Pansy: A town not so different from Erryton, actually! It’s not far.

Ivan: Great question.

Queenie: Enigma Island, not far from Thorn’s Peak.

Taylor: Would you believe me if I told you I couldn’t remember? Aha. I know we moved when I was really young.

Neo: Doesn’t matter.

-

10. What are your hobbies? 

Pansy: Well, like I mentioned, I quite like doing plant stuff. I used to sketch ‘em and make notes about ‘em too, but I stick more to the practical side these days. I also like to bake! Mainly pies, cakes and cookies.

Ivan: I play the flute and cithara. Next question.

Queenie: I have a wide array of hobbies. I enjoy painting, reading, and  playing the piano—as I have already mentioned. While I’m not … particularly adept at sewing, I practice cross-stitch on occasion. I also like to write poetry, and take a bit of interest in botany…

Taylor: Most of my hobbies have some aspect of music tied to them—I like playing the guitar, mixing tracks, and just listening to albums. But I also like playing videogames and taking apart machinery for fun. I can even help people fix things! Er, sometimes.

Neo: I read comics and watch movies, like most people. You wouldn’t be interested.

-

11. Do you have any pets?

Pansy: Not anymore, but I’ve had two cats – Mr Ravioli in my childhood home, and then Kiki later on. I’ve considered getting another, but I think I should wait until Primmy is a little older…

Ivan: No.

Queenie: Estelle! She’s a darling little kitty-cat and I love her so. <3

Taylor: One dog, a shibe—my father bred his, and I got a puppy. Tadashi!

Neo: My brother makes robots, and we have one of those roving floor cleaners. I would consider that a pet. We call him V.I.N.CENT.

-

12. What sports do you/have you played?

Pansy: I’m not really big on sports – I like magic fights? But I don’t do that a lot now.

Ivan: I may have taken part in some sport or another, but if I did, I did not commit it to memory.

Queenie: I like to swim, though I have not played any sports as such. I have also been horse riding—oh, and I’ve played badminton once or twice.

Taylor: Alice likes table tennis, and we play together sometimes. Apart from that, um… I’ve been asked to play football and baseball before?

Neo: I like to run. Parkour is fun too.

-

13. How tall are you? 

Pansy: Five foot seven, and I’m the shortest in my family…

Ivan: Depends.

Queenie: A reasonable five feet and ten inches without heels.

Taylor: Ahaha … let’s just skip this one, shall we? You don’t need to know that.

Neo: Taller than you.

-

14. Dream job? 

Pansy: I’ve pretty much got my dream job, all things considered! I guess I’d like it if I could get paid to do plant study, but I never really had the grades to do that as a job.

Ivan: I’m working on my rank.

Queenie: I have entertained the possibility of having a career before. Hotel management seems like an interesting prospect … or a jeweller, perhaps? Oho, I don’t know if I could be trusted to sell anything. Either way, I’m comfortable enough managing my home and finances.

Taylor: I’ve always wanted to be a big-name tv presenter—hell, even a small-name gameshow host! I’ve not given up on my dream yet, but being a radio show host is close enough. I can use it as a stepping stone. Yeah, a music quiz show would be great…

Neo: I don’t know. Even when it comes to things I like doing, I’m not sure I’d want to make a job out of it. Coding is just convenient.

-

15. Favourite subject in school? 

Pansy: Science! I also liked geography, ‘cause I was pretty decent at it.

Ivan: I have never attended school.

Queenie: I’ve both been to school and had private tutors, but my favourite subjects were history and literature. They rely on eachother, so were easy to write papers on.

Taylor: Apart from the obvious ‘music’, it was mathematics—and yes, I’m serious! I also liked science and IT.

Neo: From what I remember of school, I liked science and computing classes. The rest of what I learned was from online courses.

 That’s… that’s it? It just ends? Alright then.

[addierose444]

UMass Course Experience: Spring 2021

This semester, I took my two courses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (just UMass from here on out). The specific courses were computer systems principles (COMPSCI 230) and introduction to the C programming language (COMPSCI 198C). You can check out my other spring 2021 courses here and read more about Five College course registration here. These courses together replace microprocessors and assembly language (CSC 231) which is the systems core course required for the computer science major. In some ways, this was the perfect semester to take a Five College course as I didn’t need to factor in travel time. However, I also didn’t get the full experience as the courses were remote and asynchronous. My initial motivation for taking a Five College course was to deal with some scheduling conflicts. These conflicts became a nonissue when I decided not to take French this semester. You can read more about my decision to not study abroad here. I took these specific courses because Smith’s equivalent course is only offered in the fall and given my interest in systems taking the core systems courses sooner rather than later made more sense than a random computer science elective.

My use of the past tense in reference to my UMass classes is actually appropriate as I have completed all of the coursework. In fact, I finished COMPSCI 198C before the Smith semester even started. I know that sounds sort of crazy, and it is, but it’s also not as crazy as may you think. Specifically, the UMass semester started two weeks before Smith’s and COMPSCI 198C was a one-credit self-paced course that opened up even earlier. That said, finishing the course in about a week and a half was no walk in the park and amounted to over a full-time job. (This was also on top of my French class and other work I was doing during interterm which you can read about here). While I had the entire semester to complete COMPSCI 198C, I  wanted to finish it early so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it during the semester and so that I could feel fully prepared for the COMPSCI 230 for which it was a pre/corequisite. To be totally honest, for a one-credit course, COMPSCI 198C was a difficult and time-intensive course. I’m glad that I managed to finish the course before the Smith semester because it would have been too easy to put off the work given the lack of hard deadlines. On the other hand, if I hadn’t worked through the class so intensively I don’t think it would have been nearly as time-consuming. Namely, I would have taken more breaks and been able to return to my code rested and with a fresh perspective. Furthermore, I would have been more likely to get help.

COMPSCI 198C was broken down into 12 modules and was pass/fail. (It did take the course seriously though because I actually wanted to learn the material). Each module had a specific topic and contained readings, pre-recorded lectures, a quiz, and a programming challenge. As for course content, we learned about data representation in C, pointers, dynamic memory allocation, structs, and more. Going into the course, I did have some background in C from Harvard’s CS50x. (You can read my full review of that course, here). The most fun component of the class was definitely the programming challenges. (It was also the most challenging and at times frustrating component, but that’s how you learn). The challenges were graded by computer (via an upload to Gradescope) which allowed for immediate feedback. The challenges included detailed documentation and some starter code. 

COMPSCI 230 was also asynchronous but released material on a weekly basis (9:00 on Monday mornings). The one synchronous component was the weekly lab which for most students took place over Zoom. The weekly coursework consisted of readings, lecture videos, and short lesson quizzes. Fortunately, all of the readings for this course were provided free of charge as pdfs or websites. Because COMPSCI 230 is an introductory course, we didn’t go crazy in-depth into each topic. At the same time, we covered a lot of material and there were a ton of details to pay attention to. Part of the reason we were able to cover so much material is that it was mostly conceptual and thus we didn’t spend half of the class going through example problems like you would in a math or engineering class. As for course content, we learned about processes, threads, and basic computer architecture. We also learned about signals, pipes, and network communication.

We also had a one-hour weekly quiz that we could take any time between noon on Friday and the end of the day on Tuesday. While I did the other coursework during the week and usually took the quiz on Friday afternoon, you could technically do almost everything over the weekend. To read more about a typical week of my spring 2021 semester, click here. In addition to lecture material, we had a total of six projects (and associated project quizzes). These projects involved systems-level programming and were a lot of fun to work on. Like the COMPSCI 198C programming challenges, most of the projects had starter code and were graded by an autograder on Gradescope. The first project introduced us to debugging with gdb. Our last project had us write a client program that communicated with a server to solve math problems. Other projects included a bank simulator and a cache simulator.

While five credits worth of classes is far from representative of an entire university’s courses, it’s only fitting to try and compare them to what’s offered at Smith. This is also highly unscientific as my UMass courses were asynchronous and during a pandemic. (It is worth noting that the vast majority of UMass’s other spring courses were synchronous). The first main difference is shear course size. Specifically, COMPSCI 230 had 316 students and an entire course team. At Smith, our equivalent course (CSC 231) is capped at 30 students. (The largest class I have personally taken at Smith was game theory (ECO 125) which had 73 students). The COMPSCI 230 lectures were by the actual professor, but the lab sections and most asynchronous help were from teaching assistants. With this large class size and the asynchronous format, there was little chance to get to know my classmates and professor. (I did join a Discord with a few classmates, but that was fairly focused on course material rather than general socialization). There was also an official discussion board on Piazza to ask questions (to be answered by other students and/or the instructors). Communication with the instructors (the professor and the TAs) also took place on Piazza with private posts. In fact, the only time I ever emailed my professor was before the course to get the syllabus to submit to the registrar’s office. Despite not knowing us as individuals, my professor clearly cared about us as individuals and about our wellbeing. At Smith, it’s the norm for professors to genuinely care about their students and about teaching. From reading posts on Piazza, I got the clear impression that my peers didn’t feel the same level of support from their other professors. The course size also meant that most everything was graded by computer. The autograder for the projects allowed for partial credit, but the quizzes didn’t allow you to explain your answer. There were a few quizzes that had somewhat ambiguous questions that were dropped from the quiz. This got a bit annoying if you had gotten that question right, but had gotten some others wrong. In a smaller class, the question would probably be kept in and if a student raised an issue they may be able to argue points back just for themselves. 

All in all, I had a positive experience taking COMPSCI 198C and COMPSCI 230 at UMass. With that said, I definitely wouldn’t want to have an entire schedule worth of 300 person asynchronous classes. Even though I didn’t have to take these courses this semester, it’s really nice going into my junior year having completed all of my computer science core classes. Furthermore, I should be well prepared for future systems classes including digital circuits (EGR 390dc) next fall which has either EGR 220 or CSC 231 as a prerequisite (and I will have both by the end of this semester). 

[mal-studyblr]

10 questions!

rules: answer 10 questions and tag people to answer new 10 questions

I was tagged by @study-van, thank you!!

1. What is one book you’d recommend to everyone and why?

I’d probably go with The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. I think it was extremely well written, and it sends you down a rollercoaster of emotions that I think everyone should have while reading a book once in their lives

2. If your life was a movie which genre would it be?

Very much probably a dramedy

3. What is your most cherished memory from high school?

My school has mock tests pretty much every weekend so we can prepare for our college entrance exam. The maths & science mock is known to be very brutal, which means most of the students will stay in the exam room for 5h, the total exam time. Afterwards we were all brain fried and hungry so me and a couple friends started the tradition of going to the nearby McDonald’s to eat and discuss questions/grade our mocks and it was always so much fun, I really miss it

4. What is the weirdest experience of your life?

Probably leaving the country without my wallet and having no cash and no cards on me. Oops!

5. What were your plans for your future when you were young?

Oh this is a fun one. When I was 11 I was completely sure I was going to study Creative Writing in the University of Westminster. Look what my career aspirations are now lol

6. If you were to have one mythical creature (dragon/hippogriffe/etc) as your sidekick what would you have and why?

Dragons but hear me out: tiny dragons, like the ones in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that were miniatures of the real sized dragons. I still live in an apartment after all

7. If you could’ve chosen one country/city to live in where would you live?

Probably somewhere in Italy

8. What is the best food you’ve ever tasted?

Tres leches cake on my 14th birthday

9. Is there a book (series or stand alone) that changed your life?

I’m gonna be unoriginal and say Harry Potter here because even if I 100% disagree with JK Rowling and her “opinions” (that are straight up transphobic) I wouldn’t have met my best friend and made so many wonderful memories as a kid

10. If you were a demigod, who would be your godly parent and why?

Athena, according to every single quiz under the sun

my 10 questions!

1. do you play any instruments? if so, what do you play?

2. if you had to choose between telepathy or teletransportation, which one would you pick?

3. a computer has an answer to every question in the universe. what do you ask?

4. if you could bring an extinct species back from the dead, which would you choose and why?

5. if you had the technology, would you clone yourself?

6. if you could be granted expertise in one skill (a language, a musical instrument, cooking...) what would you pick?

7. would you rather live in a perpetual winter or an everlasting summer?

8. if you woke up tomorrow and found out 2020 was actually a fever dream, what would your reaction be?

9. have you ever read a book so bad you wouldn’t recommend it to your worst enemy?

10. do you have a favorite museum?

I’m tagging: @coffeeandpies @hannybstudies @bentostudy @starrystvdy and @chazza-studies-alevels

ofc you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to!

[ellamarsx-blog]

The Tendency of First-Time College Students in an Online Learning setting to Experience Anxiety

Overview Anxiety is defined as a human emotion consisting of fear that emerges when threats are perceived and can hinder cognitive processes (Sarason, 1998). In an online classroom, anxiety is mostly felt due to the student's internet connection, home setting, and the lack of proper tools and equipment used for learning. The differences in which the students learn and face problems on or offline have also contributed to the student's anxiety (Barr & Tag, 1995). This negative feeling can deter the performance and efficiency of the students which most likely lead to missing a requirement or dropping the course (McLaren, 2004).

Framework and Review of Related Literature

According to St Clair (2015), learning virtually may come off as terrifying especially to the first-timers. Saade and colleagues (2017), mentioned that 21-22 year-old students are more likely to feel some sort of anxiety in online learning. Contributing factors may include technology anxiety, internet anxiety, talking in virtual groups, and online test anxiety. Furthermore, there is higher rates of dropouts during eLearning due to the learners’ lack of time, lack of motivation, poorly designed courses, and incompetent instructors (Uzunboylu and Tuncay, 2010). Students taking up online classes react to usability issues with strong sentiments. Students under time or goal pressures or when technological issues arise are said to experience higher levels of anxiety (Scull, 1999). The switch from a traditional setting to an online one interferes with the students’ schema, which then can be responsible for the cause of anxiety. The brain is a “prediction machine” that is programmed to anticipate threatening stimuli and beneficial responses based on our past knowledge. Without the prior knowledge of online learning, the students tend to feel anxious with the uncertainty it brings. Anxiety blocks the conventional thinking method of the brain that lead the students to experience extreme worrying. College students experience high levels of anxiety, and it reduces their mental processes and storage performance of memory and disrupt their potential reasoning (Darke, 1988). Their perception of threats are exaggerated, causing the feelings of  fear and anxiety to emerge. Emotion is a powerful force that can amplify attention and supplement perception under the right circumstances, but can also hinder them in others (Compton, 2003).

Proposed Intervention

The proposed intervention is the Pomeck Intervention. It is a combination of the Pomodoro technique, Flowtime Technique and the Check-in Quiz with a few modifications to counter procrastination, finish tasks in an orderly and timely manner, and reduce stress and anxiety.

Limitation of the Intervention Proposal

The motivation of the students will play an important role for the implementation of this intervention. Pomeck Intervention requires commitment, determination, and motivation. A student who is anxious but is eager to get better grades is different from a student who is anxious and doesn't want to get better grades. This intervention will be most effective on those who is eager to get better grades than those who do not. 

Theories and Practices of Cognitive Psychology

Some of the theories and practices of cognitive psychological concepts integrated in this proposal includes the distributed practice of elaborative rehearsal from memory. Distributed practice refers to a distributed rehearsal in different times, quite similar to pomodoro's distributed workload. This ensures better transfer of information from short term memory to the long term memory, which also results to bettter retrieval of information when needed. The better is the information retrieval, the better they perform academically. Better performance results to higher self-esteem, which then lowers anxiety. This low levels of anxiety inversely impacts mental imagery. Pomeck Intervention helps the students overcome deadline anxieties as it forces the students to finish tasks during the pomodoros days before the deadline. The faster the student finishes requirements, the more time the student gets to check, proof read, and edit the output to ensure better quality. This in result helps the student think more positively of the future, since he/she was ready. This readiness also helps lower anxiety.

The Pomeck intervention can be explained by a problem solving approach which is the information processing approach. This approach begins with determining the problem and ends with the problem being solved. Just like in Pomeck intervention, first thing to be done is to identify potential tasks (initial state) then lay down all possible activities, resources and procedures (problem space) and finally, finishing up with a solution (goal state). With this intervention, this enhances student's time management and increases its productivity which then lessens its anxiety in doing all the tasks that are needed to be done especially with an existing deadlines. The more consistent the student manages its time and tasks, the more space for improvements and refine quality of work which then results to a high productivity and low anxiety.

References

Compton R. The interface between emotion and attention: A review of evidence from psychology and neuroscience. Beh Cog Neuro Reviews. 2003;2(2):115–129.

Barr, R. B., & Tagg, J. (1995). From teaching to learning- a new paradigm for undergraduate education. Change Magazine, 27 (6), 12-25. Darke S. (1988). Anxiety and working memory capacity. Cogn. Emot. 2, 145–154 Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3656338/ McLaren, B. M., Lim, S., Gagnon, F., Yaron, D., & Koedinger, K. R. (2006). Studying the Effects of Personalized Language and Worked Examples in the Context of a Web-Based Intelligent Tutor; Accepted for presentation at the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Jhongli, Taiwan, June 26-30, 2006. Saadé R. G., Kira, D., Mak, T., & Nebebe, F. (2017). Anxiety and Performance in Online Learning. Proceedings of the Informing Science and Information Technology Education Conference, Vietnam, pp. 147-157. Santa Rosa, CA: Informing Science Institute. Retrieved from http://www.informingscience.org/Publications/3736. Sarason, I. G. (1988). Anxiety, self-preoccupation, and attention. Anxiety Research, 1, 3-7. Scull, C. A. (1999). Computer anxiety at a graduate computer center: Computer factors, support, and situational pressures. Computers in Human Behavior, 15(2), 213 -226. St Clair, D. (2015). A Simple Suggestion for Reducing First-time Online Student Anxiety. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 11(1), 129-135. doi:https://jolt.merlot.org/vol11no1/StClair_0315.pdf. Uzunboylu, H., & Tuncay, N. (2010). Anxiety and Resistance in Distance Learning. Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/296687386_Anxiety_and_Resistance_in_Distance_Learning.

Memes References

Giokage. (2020). Image: Harry Roque Lutang Moments Meme. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com.ph/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F1ZlYQVxeIM0%2Fhqdefault.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1ZlYQVxeIM0&docid=wZd684qcYkJSuM&tbnid=__80MqG5Mc1auM&vet=1&w=480&h=360&hl=en-ph&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim Encyclopedia Spongebobia. (2012). Image: Squid Baby. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com.ph/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvignette.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fspongebob%2Fimages%2F3%2F3b%2FSquid_Baby_067.png%2Frevision%2Flatest%3Fcb%3D20190724202754&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fspongebob.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FSquid_Baby&tbnid=cHrlz_y75cGNzM&vet=1&docid=LDUkbViOqY74WM&w=1920&h=1080&hl=en-ph&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim Tvbd. (2012). Image: Spongebob Squarepants - Squid Baby: Retrieved from: https://www.google.com.ph/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fartworks.thetvdb.com%2Fbanners%2Fepisodes%2F75886%2F4443399.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetvdb.com%2Fseries%2Fspongebob-squarepants%2Fepisodes%2F4443399&tbnid=9dgC0j4r0TAZEM&vet=1&docid=3BcWNditzgHdjM&w=400&h=225&itg=1&hl=en-ph&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim

[bandaidsforaids]

Two Ghosts

Note to the reader: This is a travel essay I had passed already. Originally, this was a test blog, but it fit the theme of my blog so much that I decided to keep it. This is not part of the five essays to be graded for this blog. It’s like a free taste of my writing - devour it, enjoy it. 

It had been one week since.

I was in a 13C jeepney, somewhere in between a classmate and someone else. That someone else could have been anyone - a boy wearing a face mask or a girl clutching her Jansport backpack or a child and his mother or his father or hers. Whoever it was, I wouldn’t have known. All I knew was, in that moment, I was staring at the distance as the scenery shifted passed me rapidly. The gasoline station with a couple taxi drivers smoking. The carinderia that housed an annoyed woman swatting flies with her hand. The group of boys coming from their own school, enjoying the walk to wherever. My eyes observed these things, but, if you had snapped your fingers in front of my face, I doubt I would have blinked.

Because my mind was elsewhere.

My mind was sat in an audio visual room, somewhere in between an uninterested college kid and a chatty high school student. Then you over there. You with your ribbed t-shirt and denim skirt. You, getting awarded for having joined a Mathematics quiz bowl. You, smiling for the camera, as I hollered your name from where I was, phone out to film you. You, walking back to me with a playful smile, waving your hand at my camera, telling me to stop.

And we did. We did stop.

“We’re here,” my classmate Anika poked me. As I exited that jeepney with ten of my classmates following suit, and the cloud of black smoke pumping from it vanished, I saw the logo of your school and thought: I’m back. I’m here. In this now-haunted place.

In big, bold letters: University of San Carlos.

Now, mind you, I was there for research. My group wanted to find non-online sources to back our study. It’s just a twist of fate that your school happened to have the biggest library in Cebu (or at least that’s what you told me). Four levels high and digitally advanced - computers flocked the place for identity scanning and resource finding. Nothing like in my school. Your library was so big, they allowed food inside. Your library had dining areas and couches and chat rooms and books of all age and race - first floor: References; second floor: Fiction; third floor: Sciences; fourth floor: Humanities. And that was just one side. The other side was for the Filipiniana section where all the theses and research papers laid to rest, to be brought back to life by the likes of me. Your library was a labyrinth. Did you know that?

Of course you do. Because you were the one who brought me here in the first place.

“After we go to my block, I’ll show you that - our library,” you said as you pointed towards an anomaly of a structure. USC seemed to have no architectural coherence. Every building felt out of place. I didn’t like the look of it at first glance, but you looked so proud pointing it out to me that all prejudgment fell to the hands of pure, undeniable affection.

“Is that it?” Edric asked, pointing to a brown building that sat beside a large patch of grass. It was an understandable mistake. Nothing here made sense. “No,” I told him. “That’s the humanities department. They have book sales there every now and then.” They all stared at it, amazed. I was shocked too - who knew borrowing your words would come so easy to me?

Everyone wowed at the sight of the glassy library as the jeep stopped and ushered us out. I was at the forefront when we approached it. Men ready to embark on a journey - making jokes, pointing at things, laughing. I was laughing too. Nervous laughter. Because when we entered the library it almost felt like a hurricane had befallen.

God, if only it was that easy.

God, if only I had not been thrown into a sea of green uniforms, into a sea of people who chattered and murmured like you. If only I had not been so delusional to assume you would be there, sitting with your friends, with your green polo and skirt, facing me when I arrived, like you had been waiting for me to appear.

Anika had to break me from my trance. “Let’s do this quick. I have to go in a while.”

Oh yes, she was meeting up with her friend Mayol to attend the novena mass in Sto. Nino.

Actually, she was meeting up with your classmate Mayol. Your friend Mayol. I recalled the time you got mad at me for not remembering the names of your friends. Lucky for you, however, I did my homework - I remember Mayol. You’ve done it. Assigned me an insignia. The ability to know names I could never place to faces. Names I can only place to the memory of you.

I thought of all this in the ten minutes it took to scan through three computers for possible resources. In the end, we only came out with two. A thesis and a book - both on the fourth floor. I guided Anika to the stairs, discussing our game plan to find books, when someone broke us off.

“Mayol!” Anika shouted, running towards the girl in question. I was too scared to look back, thinking maybe you were there beside her. Thinking maybe Mayol had told you and you decided you would come along. To talk to me. In the flesh.

But I looked back and it was just her. In a hug with Anika. Her face dug into her shoulders until her eyes met mine. And she knew. She knew who I was.

But did she know what had become of us?

In the jeep, I had given Anika the permission to discuss the sensitive topic. It was their first line of conversation as the three of us made our way up to the fourth floor. I made sure to keep a distance from them, but still I remained attentive to what they were saying. I wanted to know what Mayol would say. I wanted to know if they will be your words coming out of her mouth.

Yet, all I heard was Anika’s confused voice saying, “You didn’t know?”

Then Mayol, glancing carefully at me, whispered, “She never mentioned it.”

It came off her tongue so easily. I journeyed up the stairs faster, passing each level, barely reading the signs. I reached the fourth level, a dead end. As I entered the room to the humanities section, a distinctive jingle from chimes rang in my ear. For a second, I stopped thinking and just let it ring.

You know me, I’m not the type to lose my focus when I need it. But this time it took every single piece of me not to detract from my research. I was reading out every letter, every number on those book shelves precisely, trying not to hear the words from Mayol’s mouth replay.

You. Never. Mentioned. It.

How could you, after two years of being together, not ever have mentioned it? To your “friend”? I sat down, flipping through the book I needed while Anika and Mayol fled to find the thesis paper. They had to go in a while. Good, I thought, I’ll be all alone as usual.

I did my best to focus on the book at hand, but my eyes were getting glassy. I turned on the fan to escape the heat, but the whole room seemed to burn around me. Then, in a hurry, Anika slammed the thesis on my table. I looked up at her and she said anxiously: “We have to leave. I hope you’re okay.”

“Can we hug?” I asked you. It was 4:00. Our day in the sun was coming to a close. We had just finished taking photographs next to the cornelia flowers besde the humanities building. We had finished scouring your arena (which you claim is “huge”). We had finished buying Real Leaf and Coca Cola from your canteen, finished sitting on the first floor of the building nearest the gate. Your car was here. My Angkas was on its way. I don’t even recall when we last hugged.

“We’re in school, Aidan,” you said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate.”

I looked sadly at the floor. I wore my favorite shirt to meet you.

“Plus, I have to leave.” You read my gloomy appearance. “Are you okay with that?”

“I’ll be fine,” I told Anika. I smiled to cement it. I don’t think she trusted my word, but she left anyways. And, yes, I sat there, only then realizing I was indeed alone in the fourth floor, and I began to pace the room. I felt like a ghost. I was walking through the halls of the library, passing the chipped shelves and dusty books, passing the diorama of the history of the Philippines and the Supreme Court, passing the dirt-filled windows that separated me from the gorgeous landscape of Cebu City, and I could not contain myself. I was breathing heavily, trying to match my breath with my heartbeat. I could not keep myself at one place. My feet were moving on their own. My ears ringing. My mind chasing my feet. You didn’t care. By the end of it all, you just stopped caring. Two years and every evening you told me you loved me, but, somewhere along the way, that must have faded. I don’t know when it did. I doubt I’ll ever know. I doubt that if I had not come here to this cursed school I would have ever known you had stopped caring. Because you didn’t bother. And I wish you had told me you didn’t sooner so I didn’t have to bother either.

I looked at the floor beneath me. I thought of the height I was on, like I was on an airplane with the ground so far beneath me. I thought that if I grabbed a hammer and smashed the tiles to pieces, dug a hole that reached the bottom of this school, if I unwired every plug here, uprooted every plant, bulldozed every building, scraped this entire place off - would it stop being so haunted? Would the ghosts of you and I vanish? If I broke every glass window in this very building, ripped the spines off the pages of each book here - would it take away the moments we spent? Would it make you vanish, finally…

Or would it make you stay?

The jingle of the door rang. I crouched behind one of the shelves. For a second there I swore I saw your figure. I swore I saw your signature walk, your casual hair flip, your minute stature. For a second there I swore I saw the girl who I spent two years of my life madly in love with. For a second there I swore I was going to leap from where I was and embrace you and for a second there I swore you would have embraced me too.

But, no. In between the shelves, the figure came to focus and it wasn’t you. Up to this day, I still don’t know who it was. I just remember standing up from where I was, walking quickly towards the door, and letting the jingle of its chimes ring in my ear one last time.

I sat on the second floor, the portion of the library where we were allowed to dine and I watched Nightcrawler. My friends would try to open conversation with me in between their book-finding, but it would be short and pointless. They came and went, each hugging me before they left, until, eventually three of us were left in a dim-lit, closed library.

There were no more jeeps to accommodate Edric, Chantal, and I for our ride going back to the gate. So we walked. The three of us walked the stone-paved roads you and I walked when we were here. We passed by all the landmarks - the humanities building, the canteens (your school had a lot), the arena. Snapshots of the both of us would appear from time to time. Your voice. Your hands. Your laugh. A supercut of the two of us here. When I passed by the same bunch of cornelia flowers we had taken pictures with last time, I dared to pick one out, plant it on the ground, and drag my shoes on it. To destroy the flower from petal to pistil to stem. To let its pollen drown on the floor, break out into the air.

But beautiful things like those didn’t deserve to be disrespected.

As the three of us stood outside the gate waiting for our cars, I told Chantal all about what had happened on the fourth floor. She sympathized with me and her sympathy reminded me of something she used to say before: “In ten years, you’ll forget this. None of this will matter.”

But maybe I won’t. Maybe I won’t not because I can’t, but because I don’t want to. Because what we had was first love. What we had was magic and pain and overflowing emotion.

What we had was beautiful.

And I wasn’t going to disrespect that by forgetting it.

So, here, I write this to immortalize you. To immortalize us. To immortalize my journey back to the place that once contained our love. I write this to immortalize us, so we can no longer be ghosts roaming around the same empty, haunted halls of University of San Carlos.

We would just be humans. Two separate humans. You. And I.

And, for a second there, I decided I could live with that.

I hopped inside my car when it arrived, brought my head to the window, and watched as your school got smaller and smaller, until, finally, finally, I couldn’t see it anymore.

[lazybugsbunny]

Yours Lovingly

“Hundred and fifteen participants from over seventeen colleges across the city, seven rounds of intense competition, ninety minutes into the quiz and it all comes down to two participants. Ladies and Gentlemen, put your hands together for our finalists, Rishi from Xavier’s College of Sciences and Sanjana from our very own Imperial College of Engineering” announced the host energetically. The two finalists took their seats on the stage of the magnificent auditorium which was booming with applause. The competition was neck to neck and the scorecard showed no variation at all. “One question each, and if this ends in a tie as well, we shall move on to the rapid-fire round,” said the host anxiously as he pulled out the card to ask Rishi his final question for that round.  “Times Up!” exclaimed the host. Rishi had failed to answer his question. This meant that if Sanjana answered her question correctly, she would win the quiz. The host read the question out loud “In the Harry Potter series, what is the full name of the Headmaster who was killed by Severus Snape?”. Sanjana’s eyes were lit up because this was a relatively easy question to her when compared to Indian History, Modern world politics, arts and culture, etc. The Potterhead knew that the answer was Albus Dumbledore but she was trying to recollect his full name. The clock was ticking and while she racked her brains she saw a guy in the audience seated in the third row who was eagerly waiting for her to look at him. As the two made eye contact, she noticed that he was mouthing something, “Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore” she understood instantly and said it out loud just as the host was about to yell TimeUp in his bold voice yet again. After a momentary pause, the host slowly chanted “Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is… THE RIGHT ANSWER! We have a winner, put your hands together for the winner of Q-Fiesta-2016, Sanjana from Imperial College of Engineering.”  Most of the audience had left as soon as the prize distribution was completed but the guy from the third row stayed where he was, hoping that he could talk to the winner. Sanjana noticed him and quickly walked up to him and in an exuberant tone said: “Thank you, I would’ve cursed myself if I lost the quiz because of a Harry Potter question.” With a slight smile on his face, he inferred “So you’re a Potterhead too!”. “ALWAYS” she quoted and extended her hand to introduce herself “I’m Sanjana, Computer Science-Fresher”. He gently shook her hand and replied “Nice to meet you. I’m Arjun, first-year Electronics.” That’s how their friendship began. Over the next four years, they shared many more Harry Potter references and quite a few memories. From time and time again, Arjun showed Sanjana that in the veil of a friend, stood an ardent lover too scared to confess his feelings to her. Arjun was sipping his favorite chocolate milkshake while he listened to his friends talk about how quickly four years have just gone by. Dhruv was deeply involved in the conversation. “I have no regrets. I’ve done almost everything I wanted to. Made good friends, played my share of pranks, got decent grades” he said contentedly and added “Also found the girl I love and who loves me too” looking at Kavya who was sitting right next to him blushing at what Dhruv had said. Everyone started recollecting their memorable experiences in college while Arjun was lost in his thoughts. He realized that he might never get to see Sanjana after the college ends and wanted to tell her how much she meant to him. How he planned on doing it remained a mystery. After a lot of thought and reminiscing the past, he halted at his very first meeting with her. “Harry Potter” he cried hysterically. A week later, Arjun called Sanjana and asked her if she could meet him in the canteen during lunch. Sanjana politely agreed. The two of them sat in the canteen and had lunch together. As the crowd slowly started to disperse, Arjun slowly took out a package from his bag. The rectangular package was covered with a fancy crimson red gift wrap. He held the package out and slowly moved it towards her and hissed “It’s for you”. Sanjana was indeed surprised and asked him what the occasion was. “I…It’s something to remember me by after college,” said Arjun with a sigh, disappointed that he had missed his chance yet again. The grin on Sanjana’s face slowly faded away as if she was disappointed with what Arjun had said as well. She opened the gift wrap neatly and found a box of her favorite chocolates, and a book- ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’. She opened the first page of the book and found a note, “Dear Sanjana, I’ve been told by your friend Arjun that you’re a fan of my work. It’s overwhelming for me to know that my work has fans from across the globe, across all ages. Its people like you who encourage me to do what I do. I wish you all the success in life and I hope all your wishes come true. Yours Lovingly, J.K.Rowling” under which was the autograph of the renowned writer. Sanjana was ecstatic and her face was beaming up with joy. “Thank You very much, Arjun. This is the best gift ever!” she gushed at him whose face was red as a tomato. Before Arjun could say anything, he heard the bell. Sanjana quickly put the book and the chocolates in her bag, thanked him again and left. Arjun also went to his class but he could barely think about anything apart from Sanjana’s joyous face after she read the note.  As Arjun walked out of the gate in the evening, he found Sanjana standing along the sidewalk. She was baffled and completely out of breath. He understood that she had missed her bus. He offered her some water and allowed her to calm down. “Do you need a ride home?” he asked cordially. She looked around a bit and nodded her head with an innocent smile. She got on his bike, put her bag in between them and held on to the rear handle of the bike. With a hint of dissatisfaction, Arjun started to drive. The roads were flooded with vehicles. The journey which would otherwise take an hour took almost two hours. “Right here, that’s it” Sanjana signaled him to stop near the supermarket. Arjun stopped to the side and balanced the bike as she got down. “My house is a couple of streets away, I’ll walk from here. Thank you for the ride” she declared and started walking. Arjun parked his bike to a side and quickly galloped to keep up with her. “I’ll walk you home” he insisted. She did not want to risk being watched walking along with a male companion in her conservative neighborhood and explained the same to him. He reluctantly stopped and just stood there as she marched ahead. Almost instantly, her phone buzzed, It was Arjun. “Well, now we’re just two strangers walking on either side of the road” he grinned as he looked at Sanjana who turned back and chuckled at the hopeless romantic. The conversation was rather engaging and before she could realize, they had reached the corner of the street, from where her home was just a couple of houses away. Sanjana bid adieu and hung up hesitantly. As he walked back, he had an uncontrollable smile on his face which didn’t seem to wear off until the next morning.  Both Arjun and Sanjana found the next morning young and mellow. Both of them were eager to meet each other. Both of them were hoping that they would run into each other in college. But both of them were left disappointed. Just as Arjun dialed Sanjana’s number to call her, his phone chimed -I’m staying back late after college to work on my project. Can you drop me home today as well? He knew what he’d say, it was obvious. But what he didn’t know was that Sanjana had completed her project three days ago. By 4:40 pm most of the students had left and the few who stayed were in the sports complex except Arjun and Sanjana who sat alone in their empty classrooms, thinking about each other. At around 6 pm, Sanjana called Arjun to tell him that she has completed her work and was ready to go. As Arjun switched on the engine, she slowly got on the bike. Her hand was on his shoulder and her bag was not in between them. And this time, Arjun had a smile on his face. There was not much traffic but Arjun had no intention of driving faster. It was around 8 pm by the time they reached the supermarket where Arjun parked his bike the previous day. As Arjun parked his bike at the same spot and took out his phone to talk to Sanjana while they walked, she stopped him with an intense look in her eyes and smirked: “It won’t be necessary today!”  The street was completely isolated with nothing to be seen except for the shadows of the branches of the trees, that ran along on either side. Both of them silently walked side by side enjoying the cool breeze that whistled past them. Sanjana gently brushed her hand against Arjun’s. He swiftly receded his hand after which he noticed a livid expression on her face. He then slowly moved closer to her and gently held her hand and looked at her again. This time, she had a smile on her face as she clasped his hand. They continued walking hand in hand relishing the moment. When they reached the corner of the street, they stood there silently exchanging passionate glances. They refused to let go of each other. And in a whiff, Sanjana hugged Arjun tightly and murmured “I love you too!”. Arjun, who was initially taken aback, took a moment to process the moment and embraced her. He delicately held her face and looked into her deep black eyes. He pushed her cascading dense black hair behind her ear and whispered, “I love you!”. In his arms, she found the warmth she desired and with her in his arms, he found the peace he longed for. At that moment, their hearts surely did skip a beat.

[binghomepagequizusa]

Bing Quizzes

Bing Quizzes: Exploring the World of Knowledge and Entertainment

The World of Bing Quizzes

Bing Quizzes is an online platform that offers a diverse range of quizzes designed to pique curiosity and test users’ knowledge across multiple categories. Whether you’re interested in history, science, sports, pop culture, or any other subject, Bing Quizzes has something for everyone. The platform presents questions in a captivating format, with multimedia elements such as images, videos, and audio clips, adding an extra layer of excitement to the experience.

Types of Bing Quizzes

Bing Homepage Quizzes boasts a vast collection of quizzes, each tailored to cater to different interests and age groups. Let’s explore some of the most popular types of quizzes available on the platform:

a) Trivia Quizzes: These quizzes cover a wide range of topics and are perfect for trivia lovers who enjoy challenging their knowledge. Whether it’s a quiz on historical events, scientific discoveries, or pop culture references, Bing Quizzes keeps users engaged with intriguing questions and informative explanations.

b) Personality Quizzes: Personality quizzes are designed to offer insights into an individual’s character, preferences, and traits. Bing Quizzes presents a variety of personality quizzes that delve into diverse aspects of human behavior, such as communication styles, leadership qualities, or even which fictional character one closely resembles. These quizzes are not only entertaining but can also provide users with a better understanding of themselves.

c) Picture Quizzes: Picture quizzes on Bing Quizzes combine the thrill of recognition with the challenge of memory recall. Users are shown images that could represent famous landmarks, celebrities, or even everyday objects, and they have to guess the correct answer based on visual cues. These quizzes test both observation skills and general knowledge, making them engaging and visually stimulating.

d) Brain Teasers: Bing Quizzes also offers a selection of brain teasers that put users’ critical thinking and problem-solving abilities to the test. From riddles to logic puzzles, these quizzes provide a mental workout while keeping users entertained.

Benefits of Bing Quizzes

Bing Quizzes offer several benefits that contribute to its popularity and widespread usage:

a) Educational Value: One of the key advantages of Bing Quizzes is their educational value. By presenting users with questions across a broad range of topics, the quizzes encourage learning and expand knowledge in an interactive and engaging manner. Users can explore new subjects, discover intriguing facts, and reinforce existing knowledge.

b) Entertainment: Bing Quizzes seamlessly combine education with entertainment. The captivating quizzes, visually appealing elements, and interactive format make the experience enjoyable and addictively fun. Users can challenge their friends, compete for high scores, and share their achievements on social media platforms, fostering healthy competition and social interaction.

c) Flexibility: Bing Quizzes offer flexibility in terms of duration and accessibility. Whether you have a few minutes to spare or want to spend a longer time engaging with quizzes, the platform accommodates various preferences. Additionally, Bing Quizzes can be accessed on multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers, enabling users to participate anytime and anywhere.

[study-like-a-lost-girl]

Masterpost

To See Things:

Series/Movies:

Movies I want to see

List of teen dramas

Tugaflix

Netflix

123Movies

Watch Series Online

IMDb

Mr.Piracy

Tugaflix

Top Documentary Films

Letterbox

track TV

Animes:

MyAnimeList

Cartoons:

Cartoon8

KimCartoon

To Read:

Books:

I Want to Read:

Colecção “Estrela do Mar”

Coleção "Via Láctea" 

How To Win Friends

Read to Bubu

Must read (2019)

Magical Read-a-thon

Download Books (1)

Download Books (2)

Download Books (3)

Download Books (4)

Library Genesis

Epdf.pub

Download Books (BR)

Open Library

Book Torrents

1k Torrents

GoodReads

Mangas:

KissManga

Novels:

NovelPlanet

Comics:

ReadComicOnline

To Write:

Write references:

Character Motivations

Adventure  Generator

Cure Writer’s Block

Why your Hero needs a pop Quiz

Types of outline

Writing apps

How to Outline your Novel

Writing contest

50 Plot ideas

City Creator

Storyline Creator

Envio de obras

I Write Like

Random Character Generators

Fairies- Reference

Heathers script - To do Crawl

Nanowrimo:

CampNano

Nanowrimo

NanoWrimo Outline day-by-day

Nano University

Crawls:

Bingo FRIENDS

3 Digit Challenge

Carrot and Stick

Pokemon Crawl

List of Crawls

More Word Crawls

The First Day of NaNoWrimo Crawl

Crawls Masterlist

Jurassic Park Crawl

Motivational Challenge

NaNoWriMon

Free Private Chat Rooms 

Sites to Write:

Escriba

Bibisco

Write screenplay

To Play:

Pokemon:

Pokemon Masterpost

Pokemon ROM hacks

PokeCommunity

NDS Rom Hacks

Emulators:

Games:

Indie Games (Free)

Eroge Games

NicoBlog

Horror Indie Games (BR)

RPG Maker Games (Non-Horror)

FreeGamesDL

IGGgames

BoardGames Online

Amor Doce

Notpron

Foggy Shore

Quiplash

Can I Play This games?

Legacy Challenge ScoreSheets

Sims Challenge Decades

Sims History Challenge

Sims Challenge complete the tree

Sims Challenge

DeviantArt-To do in the Sims

Walkthrough‘s:

Nameless

Dandelion

Pokemon Utra Sun

To Learn:

How to study:

Guide to School Sucess

Guide to School Sucess Hermione 2.0

Study Tips

Study Methods

How to take notes

Study with your period

Study Plan (awsome)

How do I study for ______

Complete Study Guide

Study Masterpost (Br)

Personal Desensolvement:

My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes

Sucesseful job interviews

Important TED talks

You Dont need 2 years

The Art of improvement

Poetry in maximum security

Sarah Kay ted talk (my favorite ted talk ever)

If you decide to love someone

Poetry podcast

Documentary that kinda changed my live

How to deal with Unriquited love 

Birthday existencial crisis

Languages:

Duolingo

Ba Ba Dum

Japan Lessons Easy

Learn Japanese-Guide

Learn Korean

English -B2 Exams

FCE Test

French Masterpost

English Exam Homepage

CAE -Em Portugal

Learning French Masterpost

LGP-Língua Gestual Portugesa

Greetings in 40 diferent languages

10 tips for studying a language

Japanese Resources

Lingq

Studying Dutch

Babbel

Netherlands - Dutch

Dutch Tests

Dutch Worksheets

Estudando Holandês

Dutch Integration Exam

Language Learning with netflix

To Study/ Learn:

Khan Academy

Learn Exel

Scholarpedia

Google Académico

CodeCademy

Study resources Drive

Coursera

Havard Courses free

Alison

Med Web Docs

How to Blog

Learn to code

SkillShare

Learn computer Science fun

Eutanásia -As palavras de uma Enfermeira

Miriadax

Udacity

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

AulaAberta

MoocList-Cursos

SkillJovem

Learn things for free

Wolfram|Alpha

Tabela periódica Dinâmica

Education World

Python Academy

Django docs

Portal de Enf

Brilliant

edx

Cursos de formação online

Unity

Historia Civilis

Flat Earth FAQ (i just wanna know wtf is going on with them)

Biblioteca libertária

What is Neural Network

Capacidade Lógica

Formações pt

Math 1

Math 2

Productivity:

Block sites

60 small ways to improve your live

7 Ways to inspire love in your life

Challenge Tribe

Back to school Masterpost

Apps (1)

Apps (2)

Top 5 Apps for school

Resources

Ninite-Install multiple programs

Get Mac Apps

KeepMeOut

Mediafire

Ambient Music and ASMR

Persona 5

[ASMR] Squeeze Toys

[ASMR]  The Illusionist

Vivaldi Sonata E minor

[ASMR] Cranial Nerve Test

Music Master post

Hogwarts Study Playlists

Coffitivity

[ASMR] Tascam Squishing With Fun Things for Tingles

[ASMR] Massaging The Crap out of Things

[ASMR] Whoulsome ASMR meme

[ASMR] Hearing Test Nurse

[ASMR]My first asmr video

Funny sites:

BuddyMeter

Personality Test

Memories

TasteDive

Midomi

Musicroamer

WhichBook

Liveplasma Discovery

Forgotify

Top 10 Torrent sites

Future Timeline

AlternativeTo

Mailinator

Windows93

Move Now think Later

Drum Kit

Keylight

Birthday Star

Obsessively Detailed Map of Americans Literature

Solar System Visualizer

The world without us

Public Domain 4U

Barcode Yourself

Creative Pitch

What3Words

Masterposts for Basically Everything

Sarah and Phil “An Origin Story”

Political compass

Horoscope thing

Dicionário Charroco

Cool Public discord servers

Playlist servers

Watch2Gether

Rabbit

Music:

Bubu

Nurb

Podcasts:

Pedro Teixeira da Mota

Bullet Journal:

Page ideas:

How to use blank notebooks

What to bring to a Festival

Quotes

To Live an Healthy Livestyle:

Sleep:

sleepyti.me

Eat:

Salad Recipes

Lunch Ideas

Recipes Finder

More Recipes

Snack Ideas

Meal Prep Recipes

Study snacks

Cheap Recipes

MyFridgeFood

Automatic Meal Planner

Exercise:

32 Minuto Home Cardio

Just Dance Workout

1000 Calorie Workout

Butt and Thigh Workout at Home

Skin Care

Peroxiben

Bucket List:

Tranports around the World

My bucket List

Honey Butter chips (Recipe)

Concursos de escrita

Voluntariado em Setúbal 

Quintinha ABC

Portal da Juventude

Formação ao Longo da vida

How to Swing Dance

Retreat Center

Cost of Living in Australia

BucketList inspiration

How to plan a Interrail

How to embrace Life (Ideas)

Freerice

Gish

Programas de Voluntariado

The street Store

Free Rice

Cell Slider

Tab for a Cause

Dutch courses

European Work

Holanda- Ordem dos enfermeiros

Online Stores:

Amazon

AliExpress

Ebay

BookDepository

Wook

Micolet (Second dand store)

Tumblr:

How to track anonymous asks

Post Limit Cheacker

How to safe audio posts

Tumblr Tag Clouds

SCM Music Player

XKit-Extension

Stylish

RPG’s:

Vampire Hunters

World of Hell

Comboio do Tempo

School Valentine

Perdidos na Floresta

Escola de magia yosu no gakko

The Nigth Village

Stars Agency

The Story of a Queen

Instituto Rosen Nigth

Abrigo para Vampiros

Guerra dos mundos

Fairy Tail (Megan)

Do or Die

Summer Mccoy Camp

Escola de Anjos e Demónios

Fiore

School of Roses

10 Príncipes

DND

DmDave

Adventures dnd

DM Guild

Cronicas Omeria

Books dnd

Ablity Scores roll

Donjon

Join Westmarch

Team SuperHydra

Random Generater for DM

30 Road encounters

[di-sss-learning-engineering]

How to Study Smart: 20 Scientific Ways to Learn Faster 168. That’s how many hours there are in a week. If you’re a student, you probably feel like this isn’t enough. I know… You have so many assignments to do, projects to work on, and tests to study for. Plus, you have other activities and commitments. And I’m sure you want to have a social life, too. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could study smarter (not harder), get good grades, and lead a balanced life? Of course it would. That’s why I wrote this article. The main aim of education isn’t to get straight A’s. But learning how to learn is a vital life skill. So I spent hours scouring scientific articles and research journals to find the best ways to learn more effectively. I’m a lifelong straight-A student myself, and I’ve since completed my formal education. Over the course of my academic career, I’ve used almost all the tips outlined in this article, so I can verify that they work. Let’s get started. Here are 20 scientific ways to learn faster. BONUS: Download a free PDF summary of this article. The PDF contains all the tips found here, plus 3 exclusive bonus tips that you’ll only find in the PDF. 1. Learn the same information in a variety of ways. The research (Willis, J. 2008) shows that different media stimulate different parts of the brain. The more areas of the brain that are activated, the more likely it is that you’ll understand and retain the information.[1] So to learn a specific topic, you could do the following: Read the class notes Read the textbook Watch a Khan Academy video Look up other online resources Create a mind map Teach someone what you’ve learned Do practice problems from a variety of sources Of course, you won’t be able to do all of these things in one sitting. But each time you review the topic, use a different resource or method – you’ll learn faster this way. 2. Study multiple subjects each day, rather than focusing on just one or two subjects. It’s more effective to study multiple subjects each day, than to deep-dive into one or two subjects (Rohrer, D. 2012).[2] For example, if you’re preparing for exams in math, history, physics, and chemistry, it’s better to study a bit of each subject every day. This approach will help you to learn faster than by focusing on just math on Monday, history on Tuesday, physics on Wednesday, chemistry on Thursday, and so on. Why? Because you’re likely to confuse similar information if you study a lot of the same subject in one day. So to study smart, spread out your study time for each subject. In so doing, your brain will have more time to consolidate your learning. 3. Review the information periodically, instead of cramming. Periodic review is essential if you want to move information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. This will help you get better exam grades. As the research (Cepeda, N. 2008) shows, periodic review beats cramming hands-down.[3] The optimal review interval varies, depending on how long you want to retain the information. But experience – both my own and through working with students – tells me that the following review intervals work well (I explain the entire periodic review system in this article): 1st review: 1 day after learning the new information 2nd review: 3 days after the 1st review 3rd review: 7 days after the 2nd review 4th review: 21 days after the 3rd review 5th review: 30 days after the 4th review 6th review: 45 days after the 5th review 7th review: 60 days after the 6th review 4. Sit at the front of the class. If you get to choose where you sit during class, grab a seat at the front. Studies show that students who sit at the front tend to get higher exam scores (Rennels & Chaudhari, 1988). The average scores of students, depending on where they sat in class, are as follows (Giles, 1982): Front rows: 80% Middle rows: 71.6% Back rows: 68.1% These findings were obtained under conditions where the seating positions were teacher-assigned.[4] This means it’s not just a case of the more motivated students choosing to sit at the front, and the less motivated students choosing to sit at the back. By sitting at the front, you’ll be able to see the board and hear the teacher more clearly, and your concentration will improve too. Now you know where the best seats in class are! 5. Don’t multitask. The data is conclusive: Multitasking makes you less productive, more distracted, and dumber.[5][6][7] The studies even show that people who claim to be good at multitasking aren’t actually better at it than the average person. Effective students focus on just one thing at a time. So don’t try to study while also intermittently replying to text messages, watching TV, and checking your Twitter feed. Here are some suggestions to improve your concentration: Turn off notifications on your phone Put your phone away, or turn it to airplane mode Log out of all instant messaging programs Turn off the Internet access on your computer Use an app like Freedom Close all of your Internet browser windows that aren’t related to the assignment you’re working on Clear the clutter from your study area 6. Simplify, summarize, and compress the information. Use mnemonic devices like acronyms, as these are proven to increase learning efficiency.[8] Example #1 If you want to memorize the electromagnetic spectrum in order of increasing frequency, you could use this acronym/sentence: Raging Martians Invaded Venus Using X-ray Guns (In order of increasing frequency, the electromagnetic spectrum is: Radio, Microwave, Infrared, Visible, Ultraviolet, X-rays, Gamma rays.) Example #2 Question: Stalactites and stalagmites – which ones grow from the top of the cave and which ones grow from the ground? Answer: Stalactites grow from the top, while stalagmites grow from the ground. Study smart by using mnemonic devices whenever possible. In addition, you could summarize the information into a comparison table, diagram, or mind map.[9] These tools will help you learn the information much faster. 7. Take notes by hand, instead of using your laptop. Scientists recommend this, and not just because you’re more likely to give in to online distractions when using your laptop. Even when laptops are used only for note-taking, learning is less effective (Mueller, P. 2013).[10] Why? Because students who take notes by hand tend to process and reframe the information. In contrast, laptop note-takers tend to write down what the teacher says word-for-word, without first processing the information. As such, students who take notes by hand perform better in tests and exams. 8. Write down your worries. Will I do well on this exam? What if I forget the key concepts and equations? What if the exam is harder than expected? These kinds of thoughts probably run through your head before you take an exam. But if these thoughts run wild, the accompanying anxiety can affect your grades. Here’s the solution … In one experiment,[11] researchers at the University of Chicago discovered that students who wrote about their feelings about an upcoming exam for 10 minutes performed better than students who didn’t. The researchers say that this technique is especially effective for habitual worriers. Psychologist Kitty Klein has also shown that expressive writing, in the form of journaling, improves memory and learning.[12] Klein explains that such writing allows students to express their negative feelings, which helps them to be less distracted by these feelings. To be less anxious, take 10 minutes and write down all the things related to the upcoming exam that you’re worried about. As a result of this simple exercise, you’ll get better grades. 9. Test yourself frequently. Decades of research has shown that self-testing is crucial if you want to improve your academic performance.[13] In one experiment, University of Louisville psychologist Keith Lyle taught the same statistics course to two groups of undergraduates. For the first group, Lyle asked the students to complete a four- to six-question quiz at the end of each lecture. The quiz was based on material he’d just covered. For the second group, Lyle didn’t give the students any quizzes. At the end of the course, Lyle discovered that the first group significantly outperformed the second on all four midterm exams. So don’t just passively read your textbook or your class notes. Study smart by quizzing yourself on the key concepts and equations. And as you prepare for a test, do as many practice questions as you can from different sources. 10. Connect what you’re learning with something you already know. In their book, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, scientists Henry Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel explain that the more strongly you relate new concepts to concepts you already understand, the faster you’ll learn the new information.[14] For example, if you’re learning about electricity, you could relate it to the flow of water. Voltage is akin to water pressure, current is akin to the flow rate of water, a battery is akin to a pump, and so on. Another example: You can think of white blood cells as “soldiers” that defend our body against diseases, which are the “enemies.” It takes time and effort to think about how to connect new information to what you already know, but the investment is worth it. 11. Read key information out loud. Studies have been conducted, which demonstrate that reading information out loud helps students to learn faster than by reading silently (MacLeod CM, 2010 & Ozubko JD, 2010).[15][16] What’s the reason for this? When you read information out loud, you both see and hear it. On the other hand, when you read information silently, you only see it. It isn’t practical to read every single word of every single set of notes out loud. That would take way too much time. So here’s the process I recommend: Step 1: As you read your notes, underline the key concepts/equations. Don’t stop to memorize these key concepts/equations; underline them and move on. Step 2: After you’ve completed Step 1 for the entire set of notes, go back to the underlined parts and read each key concept/equation out loud as many times as you deem necessary. Read each concept/equation slowly. Step 3: After you’ve done this for each of the underlined key concepts/equations, take a three-minute break. Step 4: When your three-minute break is over, go to each underlined concept/equation one at a time, and cover it (either with your hand or a piece of paper). Test yourself to see if you’ve actually memorized it. Step 5: For the concepts/equations that you haven’t successfully memorized, repeat Steps 2, 3, and 4. 12. Take regular study breaks. Taking regular study breaks enhances overall productivity and improves focus (Ariga & Lleras, 2011).[17] That’s why it isn’t a good idea to hole yourself up in your room for six hours straight to study for an exam. You might feel like you get a lot done this way, but the research proves otherwise. So take a 5- to 10-minute break for every 40 minutes of work. I recommend that you use a timer or stopwatch to remind you when to take a break and when to get back to studying. During your break, refrain from using your phone or computer, because these devices prevent your mind from fully relaxing. 13. Reward yourself at the end of each study session. Before starting a study session, set a specific reward for completing the session. By doing this, you’ll promote memory formation and learning (Adcock RA, 2006).[18] The reward could be something as simple as: Going for a short walk Eating a healthy snack Listening to your favorite music Stretching Doing a couple of sets of exercise Playing a musical instrument Taking a shower Reward yourself at the end of every session – you’ll study smarter and learn faster. 14. Focus on the process, not the outcome. Successful students concentrate on learning the information, not on trying to get a certain grade. Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck’s research shows that these students … [19] Focus on effort, not the end result Focus on the process, not on achievement Believe they can improve – even in their weak subjects – as long as they put in the time and hard work Embrace challenges Define success as pushing themselves to learn something new, not as getting straight A’s Not-so-successful students tend to set performance goals, while successful students tend to set learning goals.[20] What’s the difference between these two types of goals? Performance goals (e.g. getting 90% on the next math test, getting into a top-ranked school) are about looking intelligent and proving yourself to others. In contrast, learning goals (e.g. doing three algebra problems every other day, learning five new French words a day) are about mastery and growth. Most schools emphasize the importance of getting a certain exam score or passing a certain number of subjects. Ironically, if you want to meet – and surpass – these standards, you’d be better off ignoring the desired outcome and concentrating on the learning process instead. 15. Drink at least eight glasses of water a day. You probably think you drink enough water, but studies show that up to 75% of people are in a chronic state of dehydration.[21] Dehydration is bad for your brain – and your exam grades too. University of East London researchers have found that your brain’s overall mental processing power decreases when you’re dehydrated (Edmonds, C. 2013).[22] Further research has shown that dehydration even causes the grey matter in your brain to shrink.[23] The simple solution? Drink at least eight glasses of water a day. Bring a water bottle wherever you go, and drink water before you start to feel thirsty. And if you’re taking an exam, bring a water bottle with you. Every 40 minutes or so, drink some water. This will help you stay hydrated and improve your exam performance. Plus, this also acts as a short break to refresh your mind. 16. Exercise at least three times a week. Exercise is good for your body. It’s also very good for your brain. Various studies have shown that exercise … Improves your memory[24] Improves your brain function[25][26] Reduces the occurrence of depression Helps to prevent diseases like diabetes, cancer, and osteoporosis Enhances your sleep quality Reduces stress Improves your mood[27] Exercise is quite the miracle drug! So to study smarter, exercise at least three times a week for 30 to 45 minutes each time. You’ll be healthier and more energetic, and you’ll remember information better too. 17. Sleep at least eight hours a night, and don’t pull all-nighters. I’ve spoken to and worked with 20,000 students so far. Not a single one has told me that he or she consistently gets eight hours of sleep a night. “There’s just so much to do,” I hear students say, again and again. As a student, sleep often seems more like a luxury than a necessity. But what does the research have to say about sleep? The research shows that if you get enough sleep, you’ll be more focused, you’ll learn faster,[28] and your memory will improve.[29] You’ll also deal with stress more effectively.[30] This is a recipe for excellent grades. So sleep at least eight hours a night. This way, your study sessions will be more productive and you won’t need to spend as much time hitting the books. In addition, sleep expert Dan Taylor says that learning the most difficult material immediately before going to bed makes it easier to recall the next day.[31] So whenever possible, arrange your schedule such that you study the hardest topic right before you sleep. Lastly, don’t pull all-nighters. As psychologist Pamela Thacher’s research shows, students who pull all-nighters get lower grades and make more careless mistakes.[32] 18. Eat blueberries. Blueberries are rich in flavanoids, which strengthen connections in the brain and stimulate the regeneration of brain cells. Researchers at the University of Reading have found that eating blueberries improves both short-term and long-term memory (Whyte, A. & Williams, C. 2014).[33][34] Blueberries may also help to prevent degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. 19. Eat chicken and eggs. A team of researchers from Boston University conducted a long-term study on 1,400 adults over 10 years. They found that participants who had diets high in choline performed better on memory tests.[35] Choline is the precursor to acetylcholine, which is essential for the formation of new memories. What foods are high in choline? Chicken and eggs (the egg yolk contains 90% of the total choline in the egg[36]). Just in case you’re worried about the high cholesterol content of egg yolks, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Recent studies show that eggs – including the yolk – are a healthy food for just about everyone.[37] And if you’re a vegetarian, there are alternatives to getting choline in your diet: Lentils Sunflower seeds Pumpkin seeds Almonds Cabbage Cauliflower Broccoli 20. Eat omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are critical for brain function.[38] One experiment (Yehuda, S. 2005) also found that taking a combination of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids reduced test anxiety in students and improved their mental concentration.[39] Omega-3 fatty acids are linked to the prevention of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dementia, Alzheimer’s, asthma, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer.[40] That’s an incredible list! Here are foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids: Salmon Sardines Mackerel Trout Flaxseed Pumpkin seeds Walnuts The bottom line This is a long article that contains a lot of information. But don’t feel overwhelmed, because there’s no need to implement everything at one shot. As the saying goes … How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. In the same way, to implement all 20 tips in this article, do it one tip at a time. Focus on just one tip a week, or even one tip a month. Once you’ve turned that tip into a habit, move on to the next one. Throughout the process, don’t let the goal of getting straight A’s become an unhealthy obsession. After all, education is about much more than getting good grades. It’s about the pursuit of excellence. It’s about cultivating your strengths. And it’s about learning and growing, so you can contribute more effectively. There’s hard work involved, but I know you’re up to the challenge. BONUS: Don’t forget to download a free PDF summary of this article. The PDF contains all the tips found here, plus 3 exclusive bonus tips that you’ll only find in the PDF.