#gcse history level economics lets go!!!!

[joys-of-everyday]

So er... how does the cultivation work actually?

Firstly, a meta point on soft vs hard world building. MXTX’s novels lean more towards soft worldbuilding, building on existing tropes and leaving details to the imagination. I love soft worldbuilding. It’s fine if it doesn’t make sense! As long as its internally coherent, you can have wonderfully magical, realistic worlds that make absolutely no sense on inspection. As for SVSSS, the worldbuilding is meant to be shitty. That’s the joke.

Oh and something something, I’m not a history person, nor an economics person, no this is not thoroughly researched (this was an afternoon with too much time on my hands), take my words with a pinch of salt.

So phew, caveats aside, let me jot down some thoughts on how the cultivation world might work.

Two key questions:

Where does the food come from?

Who builds the roads?

1. Where does the food come from?

More generally, where do cultivators get goods from? Like clothes, paper, the rice LBH is making his congee with, the oil they are using for papapa, important things like this. Now either sects produce their own goods, or they procure it from outside.

In the first case, they own land. If they own lots of land, then they employ people to work this land. They have factories and manage communities and things like this. And before you say ‘sects don’t care about secular affairs!’, official sect business and getting revenue for the sect can be two different things. Look at any religious institution anywhere. As a good example, Buddhist monasteries (which is very loosely what cultivation sects are based on right???) have historically owned vast amounts of lands. They received a proportion of harvest in exchange for protection against external threats.

In the second case, there’s a cushion between the peasant and the sect – some power which organises all the goods that the peasants produce and hand them as a lump over to the sect. We have indication from this in text – i.e. the existence of prominent families.

So rich families exist. Why are families rich? Because they own resources. Usually, the form this resource takes is land. On the other hand, we don’t see those families becoming regional powers – local lords and things like this (unless you count Huan Hua Palace???), and in fact they seem to have almost no military power at all. Having resources isn’t all fun and games – this stuff needs protecting. So a reasonable system to have in place is that prominent families and sects have deals – protection in exchange for goods. (This is basically the same system as above, except with the prominent families as buffers so that sects have less boring legwork to do.) An alternative to all of this is some central power which collects taxes and redistributes goods appropriately, but we see no indication of one so lets leave that aside.

Overall, it’s probably a mix of the two and depends heavily on the sect.

Example: maybe Cang Qiong relies on a bunch of deals with local families (e.g. the Ming family and their tea fields), while Huan Hua is more heavily invested in managing their territory. A very small sect on the other hand might have its members working the land as part of sect duty.

2. Who builds the roads?

The whole point (arguably) of central power is its ability to do things on a scale that individuals cannot. This includes building works: roads, canals, flood controls, defensive walls etc. And also things like enforcing law, setting standards for trade, defend against external threats, etc. etc. all that fun jazz.

Now the world of SVSSS is fractured into regional powers, so that makes coordinating all of this quite hard.

For small things – patching up a bit of road or building a bridge or whatever – the people who own the land can probably do it themselves. Off the track sects and villages would struggle a little, but maybe they had the cultivation equivalent of GoFundMe or something. Cities seem to have their own governance (Jinlan had a city governor) so they can deal with day-to-day law. If this seems a bit laissez-faire, remember that governments being so involved in everyday life is a more modern thing.

For big things, that was probably what sect conferences were for. We see all the sects came together to defeat Tianlang-Jun, and probably for SQQ’s trial. These conferences were no doubt absolute chaos, but having four (4) major powers probably subdued it a little. So overall, all locally managed, until the issue is too big for local management, in which case it is thrown into an Endless Meeting (we’ve all been in one of those haha).

To wrap up, we have that the cultivation world is this blob of different regional powers interacting with each other, generally managing their own affairs and occasionally coming together to deal with the Big Problems.

This seems... horrendously unstable and likely to descend into a chaotic war within generations lol

Anyway, all just stray thoughts. If anyone else has other ideas, would be interested in hearing!

[iwach4n]

haikyuu characters as british sixth form students

i low key hate myself for this but i needed to do it. it’s necessary. also i only did subjects they do at my school

KARASUNO

sawamura daichi - takes history, maths and business, but he only really did business because he didn’t know what else to take; his suit is always like perfectly fitted like he actually tried when he was buying it; probably head boy honestly; follows the rules a bit too strictly but you can’t even be annoyed because he’s too nice; will give you the extra 50p you need to get a diet coke before school even if you don’t know him; is friends with the popular roadmen type and is the only one out of the group that you trust

sugawara koushi - takes english, art, classics and maths AS to feel smarter; says he regrets taking art like 20 times a day but still always has amazing pieces; the one kid that’s sort of in a lot of friend groups but has like two genuine close friends; the go-to if you need to copy homework because he’s always done it and will let you even if its as the teacher is collecting it; the only boy who actually tries on non-uniform day and has really nice outfits; makes you nervous if you don’t know him well because he seems too nice

azumane asahi - takes textiles, english and psychology but textiles was the only one he really wanted to do; the guy you’re scared of before you get sat next to him and it turns out he’s a sweetheart; you can’t remember the last time you saw him wearing a blazer; you ask to copy his homework because he seems smart and sort of put together but it turns out he was about to ask you the same thing; all the teachers love him; probably plays rugby honestly

tanaka ryuunosuke - takes PE, drama and french but he only did french because he liked the teacher he had for GCSE and didn’t fail it; if you’re in the same group as him for drama you have to yell at him to actually act properly but once you do he’s actually good; never has a tie; definitely the guy who yells at girls like “ayo miss! miss!!! miss can i chat to you!!!!!” even though he always gets ignored; is a roadman and is friends with roadmen but is actually nice to most people, you still don’t trust him tho; acts friendly with teachers even though they hate him

nishinoya yuu - takes PE, biology and psychology because he was told they work well together but is failing all of them; constantly on report and in detention; you don’t trust him because he’s friends with roadmen and is generally popular but when you talk to him he’s actually alright, none of your friends who haven’t talked to him believe you though; always begging to copy your homework and if you say no he’ll offer you like,,, 20p; always gets picked to do the 100m on sports day and holds the school record for it

hinata shoyo - takes PE, geography and psychology, cried when he found out there was maths in all of them; got low-key bullied in years 7-9 but is now generally well liked; mocked for his height and gets offended even though its in good nature; is that one kid who’s friends with all the popular people but unless you’ve had a class with him you literally haven’t heard of him; forgets its non-uniform day every single time; does shitty bike tricks while cycling down the road to school, there’s a video that everyone has seen of him falling off

kageyama tobio - takes PE, french and business, he was going to take maths because he didn’t know what else but his GCSE grade wasn’t high enough; the one quiet kid in class who’s just intimidating and will not speak to you if you sit next to him; is generally considered popular but when you think about it you have no clue if he has any friends; yells at you for not taking the mandatory non a-level PE sessions seriously; always buys a yazoo or capri sun from he school canteen; literally just completely zones out in study periods

tsukishima kei - takes history, classics, german and english, all of them full course coz he’s a dickhead (i say this but i am also taking four full course); you can’t remember the last time you saw him take actual notes in a lesson but he’s still got amazing grades; if there’s ever a debate in lessons he gets annoyed and swears and gets sent out; in detention for using his phone a lot coz he literally doesn’t care; always has beef with the roadmen, one time he got into a physical fight with one of them and won; won’t snitch on you for breaking any rules UNLESS he actively dislikes you

yamaguchi tadashi - takes art, graphic design and english; literally lives in the art and tech building and is best friends with all the teachers; other than tsukishima all his friends are girls; the one guy everyone thinks is gay but he just isn’t; sometimes brings like a whole box of celebrations into school and as long as he sort of recognises your face he will offer you one; he has really neat notes but he owns like one highlighter and its bright orange which ruins it; will let you take pictures of him for your art project

yachi hitoka - takes art, textiles, business and AS maths; always has the cutest outfits with pretty pastel jumpers and subtle necklaces; actively avoids eye contact whenever a teacher is asking a question even though she always knows the answer; is terrified walking past roadmen and football fields (she’s been hit in the head with the ball too many times); will buy you food from the canteen if you don’t have enough; no one knows where she goes at lunch but they never see her around and never see her leave; became a prefect because her teacher said she should; runs a textiles club for KS3

shimizu kiyoko - takes geography, maths, business and AS further maths; everyone thought she’d be like head girl but she didn’t even run for it; she’s too used to ignoring guys trying to talk to her so if you actually need to speak to her about something important good luck; is invited to every party but never goes; had THE biggest glow up from year 7; stays at school over lunch even though sixth formers can leave, can always be found at one specific bench or in her geography teacher’s classroom

NEKOMA

kuroo tetsurou - takes chemistry, physics, german and AS maths even though he was told not to do german coz it didn’t suit his other subjects; is somehow good at everything - gets good grades, really good at sports, you see videos on his instagram of him playing guitar - its genuinely unfair; is friendly with teachers and they love him; if a teacher suggests a movie lesson he will immediately ask for either bee movie, shrek or some shitty one off youtube (killer bean anyone?); is friends with literally everyone; this is a direct description of the one guy at my school who just is kuroo

yaku morisuke - takes french, geography, economics, and AS maths; plays cricket and helps run the club for year 7s, but only because it was required to be a prefect; is friendly with roadmen but the minute they leave he'll have the most disgusted and pained expression; seems really smart and put together but you've seen him swear like a sailor when he misses the bus and get blackout drunk at a party so you really don't know what to think

kenma kozume - takes computer science, maths and business; always in the computer rooms or the tech block because those are the places you can use your phone; you think he has no friends until you see him talking to the popular boys; everyone knows who he is even if like 2% of people have actually spoken to him; skips PE to sit in the toilet on his phone; always has spare everything but you can't tell coz its all just loose in his bag

yamamoto taketora - takes PE, history and english; has played basketball every single lunchtime since year 7 and he's not about to stop now; uses over-the-top compliments to chat up girls and then calls them clapped when they reject him; is trying his best with school work but is struggling, if you sit next to him please help him; is mates with everyone he's ever sat next to and will fist-bump you when you walk past each other; is obsessed with a specific instagram model and everyone calls him a simp for it

lev haiba - takes drama, PE and psychology coz they're the "easy" subjects (he's barely passing any of them); tries to be friendly with teachers but then he says something bad and it backfires; constantly has a massive bag of doritos with him and gets crumbs everywhere; still wears his shirts from year 11 coz he didn't want to buy new ones; talks to girls in younger years and is constantly called a nonce for it even though he never dates any of them; wannabe roadman that the roadmen don't really like

AOBA JOHSAI

oikawa tooru - takes physics, maths, and business and he's Struggling but he won't let anyone see that; the one guy that everyone likes and you had a crush on for like two weeks and then regretted it for the rest of your life; friends with all the roadmen and dresses like one but doesn't act like them (he's worse); talks to and dates year 10 girls but no one calls him a nonce for some reason; when you first see him you think 'damn he's hot' but a week later you're actively avoiding him in the corridors; puts porn on his snapchat story and captions it 'mood'

iwaizumi hajime - takes PE, biology and business; "friends" with all the roadmen but you get the feeling he wants to be literally anywhere else; always yelling and takes every joke too seriously; shoves his PE kit in the same part of his bag as all his books and has to pull out his sweaty shirt to get to his pencilcase; will be nice to you if you sit next to him but it feels forced; always has a cherry pepsi and a pack of wine gums or dolly mix in his bag and he won't share any with you

mattsukawa issei - takes english, biology and german even though they're ridiculously mismatched; he's not a known druggie but you're like 99% sure he's stoned all the time; will talk to you randomly if he recognises you but its intimidating coz he's popular; you can't tell if he's a virgin or if he gets mad bitches; asks uncomfortable questions in sex ed and has a shit-eating grin on his face the whole time; always late to every lesson and form time; gets blackout drunk in a field at least once a week

hanamaki takahiro - takes latin, history, german and AS english; you think he's dumb until you sit next to him in a lesson and he knows all the answers to everything; he's the nicest ever if he's on his own but if he's with his friends you have to avoid him; he came to cricket club once and now he gets put in the matches if they don't have enough people; tries to keep his stupid silver puffer jacket on in lessons; will wolf-whistle at girls to show off to his mates; you'd trust him with your drink at a party but you're too nervous to approach him

kyoutani kentarou - takes english, biology and maths but it barely matters coz he's never in lessons; school cryptid; you don't know if he's in exclusion or just not in school; if a cover teacher calls out his name in the register everyone jokingly says he's dead; will fight a roadman with 0.5% of an excuse; if you're not a roadman or chav he's acc really cool and will be your friend; has a million friends outside of school and if you want some drugs, whether its weed or like, meth, he knows a guy; probably a skater

kunimi akira - takes maths, computing, economics and AS further maths but is miserable about it coz none of his friends took mathsy subjects; just sits quietly and stares at the teacher, he barely takes notes but still gets good grades; asks to copy your homework right before the lesson and then bullies you for making mistakes in it; you see him pouring monster energy in his waterbottle before school; says he's gonna drop further maths every lesson but never does; sleeps in lunchtime detentions

SHIRATORIZAWA

ushijima wakatoshi - takes history, classics, latin and AS english; definitely plays rugby; you wonder if he even has a social life because he's always at a sports club or doing schoolwork every lunch time and after school; never has a fucking coat even if its below freezing; his parents buy him beer and cider that he drinks while just chilling in his room; probably the one guy you know who lives just,,, in the woods; his instagram has one picture and its of him shirtless, it has hundreds of likes but he was last online 20 weeks ago

tendou satori - takes drama, computing and maths; got really bullied in like,,, years 7-9 but now just sticks to his friend group and is fine; his hobby is annoying his teachers and is a bit of a class clown; turns the wifi setting off on the school computers and plays the google dinosaur game in lessons even though he's literally doing computing alevel; somehow always gets away with not doing his homework; the only weeb in the entire school, is angry about that fact constantly; drinks way too much monster energy, he's 50% of the local corner shop's profit

semi eita - takes music, maths, and business; you think he only took music because people think its an easy subject but he's genuinely good at it and is predicted an A*; every girl in younger years has a crush on him and it worries him; he lives in the music block; had a year 8 emo phase and will murder you if you bring it up; drinks the white monster more than he drinks water; sort of tiktok famous for his bass videos and no one believes he's british; also probably a skater

bokuto koutarou - takes PE, english and drama but is Struggling in english; wears a coat every single day, even if its boiling hot; plays subway surfers on his phone in study periods and somehow never gets caught; has popular friends but prefers his other friends; slaps his mates ass in the PE changing rooms (says no homo tho); has to type his exams because his handwriting is too messy; has a love-hate relationship with his teachers; buys custard donuts from the local supermarket every morning

FUKURODANI

akaashi keiji - takes RS, french, classics and english AS; the one guy you've never spoken to but trust more than anyone you know; every teacher wants him for their subject on open evening; really needs a nap. seriously get the boy some sleep; no one thought he was attractive until like year 9 - 10 and is now just The pretty boy; goes to costa every day before school and somehow can afford that; mentors year 10s in english and french and looks like he hates every second of it

OTHER

astumu miya - does PE, business and computing, is still useless at programming; loudly and carelessly discusses his sex life with no shame whatsoever; looks really good in the suit and just in general but makes you hate yourself for thinking that; he would get a perm. he would; on the rugby team and threatens to rugby tackle everyone constantly; does hard drugs at parties; tries to chat up any alt / goth / grunge girl he sees even thought they all immediately hate him

sakusa kiyoomi - takes PE, biology and sociology; got bullied for being a germaphobe but never gave two shits about it; rude as shit to all the roadmen but is generally chill with anyone else; one of very few people who wore a black suit and it looks damn good; somehow got into the popular-but-not-quite-roadmen group by sixth form; brings his own hot lunch in like a thermos because the school food is nasty but he needs hot lunch; just wears like a t shirt, jeans and a leather jacket on non-uniform days but somehow looks like a god

[uncloseted]

What do you think these characters would study at university and where (if they go to uni of course!) Effy Tony Cool Freddy ( :( ) Sid Cassie Michelle Chris ( :( ) The twins Pandora Mini Frankie

Some of these have in-show answers, so I’ll point out when there’s an actual answer and when I’m speculating.

Effy: We never hear about Effy’s post-college plans in the show, but Kaya has mentioned that Effy studied Maths at university.  I think she probably went to a relatively good university in London since she has three (fake) A grades.  If she wanted to really take advantage of those grades, she would have gone somewhere like Imperial, UCL, or King’s; if not, maybe Queen Mary University.

Tony: In-series, it’s mentioned that Tony goes to Cardiff. In episode 407, Effy says that he “got the highest mark for first year essay in Cardiff history.”  We’re never told what course he takes, but I imagine it’s something academic. Maybe Philosophy and Economics or Politics and Philosophy.

Cook: Cook doesn’t go to university because he’s on the run from the law, but even if he wasn’t, I couldn’t see university being for him.

Freddy: Freddie is dead, which does sort of prevent him from going to uni, but I don’t know if he would have gone anyway.  In 405, he’s told that all of his work is “late or inadequate”, so even if he had lived he may have failed his exams.

Sid: In 209, Sid saids he didn’t apply to university.

Cassie: Also in 209, Cassie says that she did.  Initially, they intended for her to go to Cambridge (like Hannah Murray) and study philosophy.

Michelle: In the show, Michelle says she’s going to York.  In an Unseen Skins, we’re told it’s to study languages.  Her course is probably French and Spanish language, since she’s been shown in the show to speak both (although she does also seem to understand Italian).

Chris: In Chris’ series 2 episode, he becomes “no longer permanently affiliated” (read: expelled) from Roundview on the grounds that “we've no coursework from you and the exams are about to start. You're a shit student. Your inevitably shit results will affect my averages, and then I'll be swimming in a river of shit and I didn't pack a snorkel.”  We’re also told he achieved fail grades on some of his GCSEs.  So no university for Chris.

Katie: We know Katie did take her A-levels and achieved two C´s and a B.  It’s not clear if she intends to go to university with those grades or not, but I think regardless, her goal is to get married and start a family.  Two of her A-levels seem to be English and French, so I could see her taking French at the University of Bristol (which her grades do qualify her for).  It would let her stay close to her family, which I think she would want, while giving her something to do while she finds a husband.

Emily: Emily got two Bs and a C for her A-levels, but in episode 402, she states that she and Naomi decided to take a year to go traveling instead of going to university.  While Naomi initially had interest in going to Goldsmiths, they do go traveling to Goa, India instead.  By the events of Skins Fire, Emily is a photographer (like her actress, Kat Prescott), so maybe she went to University of the Arts London for a BA in Photography to be close to Naomi while she’s at Goldsmiths? That said, Goldsmiths always seemed like a strange choice for Naomi, who got all As on her A-levels, so... basically I think Emily would just be where Naomi is.

Pandora: Pandora did some exams in secret and it turns out she’s really smart (apparently), and so she goes to Harvard to study history. There are a lot of things wrong with that, namely that there’s zero buildup to it. However, given that Pandora has always thought of herself as useless and that in the Unseen Skins “Professor Larbalestier”, we learn her father is a history professor in the US, it’s kind of sweet.

Mini: Mini’s obviously got her hands full with the whole, “she has a baby now” thing, but I think she’d make a great creative director for a fashion brand or magazine, so I like the idea that maybe she would sit her A-levels at a later date and go to university for fashion.

Franky: Honestly, I don’t know what I think Franky would do with her life after the events of series 6, but I don’t think she’d go to university.

Edit: Also, for what it’s worth, Rich gets into “Bradbury College” at Cambridge University to study English and Philosophy. This has a number of problems; Bradbury is not one of the colleges at Cambridge, Rich missed half of his final year of school, and we never get any indication he’s a good student at all.  Not even Naomi goes to Cambridge or Oxford.  Not as bad as “Thomas gets expelled from Roundview, doesn’t sit his A-levels at all, gets into Harvard”, but still pretty bad.

[letsdiscoverkitty]

Hey Kitty, what are some things you can hold onto right now as reasons to fight a little longer/harder? I know there was a time when you were in school and probably had hopes and dreams for the future. What were they?

This is beyond hard to think about//answer but I am going to give it a go, thank you Molly. I am sorry for putting this off.

My hopes and dreams when I was in school? gosh. that is going back a bit. I was a bit of a lost soul whilst in education; I absolutely LOVED studying but never really had a set “thing” that I wanted to do. I was one of those people that was quite good/better than average at a number of things but didn’t have “one thing” I excelled at/found passion for (like Andi and computers!!). I don’t know if you have ever done that personality test online (I will find a link) - I came out as INFJ, which is “the advocate” and it pretty much sums me up - I could do a number of things/go down a number of career paths and do quite well at them but I tend to sway towards wanting to help others/solving things so that people do not need to be “saved”. (https://www.16personalities.com/infj-personality) 

Okay reading back and I literally went on a life story about my school history, sorry about that!!!! I am not really sure where any of this is going/what it has achieved but yeah....

Anyway, back to school....so in middle school I was extremely sporty, LOVED sport so so much, and at one point thought I wanted to be a PE teacher. However there was always that other part of me, the academic side, that was itching/burning away - I found a real love for studying philosophy and ethics during GCSEs - I found it strange that no one else in my class seemed to be so “switched on” by it, suddenly all these questions were buzzing through my head about life and morals and, well, everything. I loved it. I also found myself in science (not biology) and I was also one of those annoying people that loved maths - SO MUCH. Anyway, during middle school I was ear-marked as someone who could possibly go to Oxbridge, and I think this was something that although it opened up loads of amazing opportunities for me and allowed me to do some really cool things (like going on trips to lectures, staying overnight in an Oxford hall, attending sessions at Winchester college, as well as participating in academic programmes and a Model United Nations day) it was also quite unhelpful. The pressure I felt was IMMENSE and it triggered off my perfectionism beyond belief. I suddenly felt very out of my depth and felt like I constantly HAD to be working harder, doing more (even if no one was saying it directly to me) but it never felt like “enough” because I was never as clever/as good at x as another person. I was always in that top band but never the best....(I think it was around this age, 13/14 when my ED first started making an appearance, and when I struggled quite a lot with anxiety and depression - there was also a lot of other things going on at home/in personal life but i wont go into that...). Come A levels and I was so conflicted on what to do...I could have gone down so many paths, initially I thought I would go down the sport route with possibly psychology but I felt like I was letting others down by doing so...I didnt want to narrow my studies so much (we had to cut to 4, and they had to fit into the timetable as well, which was beyond annoying as I stayed at my school in a very small 6th form). Suddenly the pressure really ramped up to another gear in A levels; I was tipped as the top candidate for head girl very early on and the 6th form targeted me and a boy as THE two people who WOULD go to Oxbridge...we were pushed beyond belief and told we were going to make “the school proud” bla bla bla....anyway, this is when anorexia really digged in DEEP. I was studying Maths, Chemistry, Philosophy/Ethics and Physics - back then we did AS exams in the January of our first year of AS (which they no longer do) as well as the summer so there was constant pressure - Anyway, because I was being told I had to apply for Oxbridge, I completely lost touch with what I wanted to do/where I was going/who I was doing it for..and Instead of trying to find a course I wanted to do, I tried to find one that I could “fit” into, Which ended up being Economics and Management (really kitty? REALLY?!). I was studying very hard and trying to keep up all my extra curricular activities at the same time (playing two musical instruments, swimming, netball, copious other sports, Duke of Edinburgh, volunteer swimming coaching etc) and man I just SANK. I also felt a lot of pressure from my parents (which wasnt there) to make them proud/do what they were good at (I craved a relationship with my parents as I felt like we didnt have one) as well as growing up in the shadow of Andi who was beyond BRILLIANT with computers/was flying in that world.

Okay wow, trying to get back on track here. erm as for what makes ME happy? what I want to do? I genuinely don’t know anymore. I have well and truly lost myself in every single way possible. I have lost touch with reality/normality. When I try to think about it it gets quite/very overwhelming....

I think I have a passion for helping others; and I love being around animals, as well as being ACTIVE (I miss sports so much), being in nature as well as travelling....I love to study, like love it, but I find all these courses at Unis can be incredibly narrow and thus I don’t really feel like any of them really fit me? idk. Part of me wonders about a degree apprenticeship but I dont know what in and all the ones I see are in tech/business. I need something which stimulates me; I can’t just sit at a desk. Oh and then throw in that I am quite creative/enjoy doing crafts and reading...my mind gets boggled and now I have no idea which way is up/down when thinking about what “I” want or could see myself doing. 

MAN. I think I have gone off track quite a bit here....Maybe this is a bit too much for now. Maybe it is time for me to revisit some CLOSER and SMALLER goals and reasons to commit to change. Right now the bigger picture is far too overwhelming and hard to think about. I need to come back down to earth (if that makes sense?) as this all feels quite fairytale-esque/like a completely different person’s life that I am retelling. 

Maybe I need to focus on the smaller things. Things like getting my concentration back to be able to read and write and do my crafts again. To have enough energy to get out and spend a day with people. I think I might start with that list first xx

[pianoandstudy]

I began to study hard about two years ago, when I started my final GCSE year and when I started my studyblr. Since then, I’ve discovered how I like to write my notes and the organisational techniques that work for me. However I’ve always struggled with finding a strategy of how to actually learn information for a test in an effective way. Hopefully by the end of this post you’ll have a few more ideas you can implement so you can see how you will learn over this next academic year!

Ask questions

This is the best way to understand a topic - and you need to understand it before you attempt writing notes on it and then studying it. I know that lots of people don’t like to ask questions during class, so stay behind for a few minutes at the end or email your questions to your teacher. Sometimes them just telling you 1:1 what they said in class can make more sense and once a topic clicks in your head and you understand it, you’ll be able to study it so much more effectively!

Write notes that work for you

This is the first step to understanding a concept! Though it may take a few attempts before you find a way of making notes that works for you (check out my post all about writing notes here), it will help tons in the long run as you can then re-read these multiple times and have them as a clear resource where everything you need to learn is is one place.

Mindmaps

Mindmaps are really useful for visual learners; I made mindmaps and read them so much I memorised them so that in exams you can simply pull up your mindmap to the front of your mind and read from it! Even if that’s not possible for you, this is a great way to actively study as you can try to write out your mindmap without looking at your notes, see how far you get relying on your memory and then you’ll know what you struggle with and need to learn!

Brain dump

Similar to mindmaps above, but done on a broader level, testing yourself is the best way to actively learn a subject! This can be done by a brain dump; once I finish making topic notes, I then make a mind map with only a few prompt words around it. Whenever I come to revise, I get a plain piece of paper, and my prompt words to write down everything I can remember. This is my brain dump of the topic. I then go through my brain dump with my proper notes and use a coloured pen to correct what I wrote down wrong and annotate it with anything I missed out. The act of writing everything down you know, everything you don’t know in a different colour and reading through your notes really gets the information in your head. 

Have others test you verbally

A quicker way to test yourself is to give your notes to a family member or a friend and have them test you on the content. This works in the same way as the brain dump but is quicker as you’re talking the answers, not writing them down. A way you can test yourself when you’re alone is to explain a process or topic to something/someone around you; I use my dogs, a cuddly toy or even just a lamp and explain the concept as clearly as I can to them.

Mind palace

Lots of people use a ‘mind palace’ technique to memorise a process or list of things. This is when you choose an object or room that you know extremely well and assign different parts of it to a step of the process or item on the list to. For example, I could memorise the factors affecting short term aggregate supply and assign them to my alarm clock; so labour costs is the face of the clock, price of raw materials is the ‘hour’ button and levels of tax and subsidies is the ‘minute’ button, etc. I haven’t used this technique myself before as I only discovered it recently, but I fully intend to use it over the next year for my a-levels!

Create acronyms

This is the method that I use for memorising lists and it works similarly to the mind palace technique above. I use these in economics mostly for factors affecting different markets, supply and demand, etc. As well as being extremely useful in the exam itself, they’re great beforehand as they don’t have to make sense and you can have fun creating them and testing yourself on them! So for macroeconomic evaluation points, I use CCCREEMTTT - it sounds a bit like ‘cream tea’ and makes me smile whenever I use it! They are a genuine lifesaver for me!

Use actual tests

After making sure that you know the content using the above methods, using practice papers or textbook questions really is the best way to perfect your exam technique. Mark your own work so you can see the mark scheme and get accustomed to the way in which they mark and what they’re looking for in your answers.

Focus on what you don’t know

It’s easy to summarise all the above points in just a few words; focus on actively studying what you don’t know. It’s all too easy to revise the same first chapter of your textbook each week because you know the content and it makes you feel good to get the answers right, however that isn’t helping your future self as you’re neglecting the topics that you don’t know. 

Try and be true to yourself and really question whether you’re studying in the most efficient way possible (’has reading the textbook for half an hour really helped me to understand this?’). Once you get into the habit of actively studying and finding which of the above methods works for you, you’ll find that you know and understand the topic and enjoy testing yourself and finding what you really know.

Thank you for reading and let me know which tip was your favourite or if there are any others that you’d like me to add! Go to my masterposts page here to see individual posts on how to study history, economics, maths and for GCSEs!