#undergrad studyblr

[jstor]

A trophy from us to you for making it to the end of the semester, whether you're a student, faculty member, or librarian:

Peter Bateman (British, 1740–1825) (artist), and Anne Bateman (British, 1748–1813) (artist). Trophy Cup. 1792–93. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

[lottiestudying]

21.03.2024—slow day today

[studyblr-perhaps]

26/04/24 || Friday

I've not done 4 pictures in one post in a while haha. The 3rd picture is right after a storm so horrendous it tore off our hostel's false ceiling. Nature can be so horrifyingly beautiful.

The exam week is upon us, and I am trying to stay afloat. After this it's only one year before I graduate, and man I really want it to be over...

[zzzzzestforlife]

psychologists developing personality tests really said "here, take my uquiz and i'll tell you how fucked up you are"

[markscherz]

I like being nerdy and reading academic articles, but I find it hard to find things that interest me unless I spend a bunch of time filing through Google scholar and things like that. How do I find interesting science news, academic discussions, etc. as an undergrad/beginner?

You can follow specific streams on e.g. Phys.org or Eurekalerts, but that might be a bit tedious. I would recommend letting the articles come to you: set up Google Scholar alerts for scientists who publish on topics that interest you. You can also set up a ResearchGate account to do the same. When I was *first* starting to be aware of scientific papers in high school, I was getting most of my science information from reading the Economist. It's not the best venue, but it is more approachable than, say, Nature or Science, to a young student who is curious about the general goings on in the world of academia. NewScientist or something may be better. It was just what I had access to at the time.

But also bear in mind that the world has changed dramatically in the 14 years since I started undergrad (sorry, just gonna go vomit while that number sinks in). Yes, tools for finding literature are more widely available than ever, but publication rate has skyrocketed, and average quality has generally decreased because there is so much pressure to publish fast and editorial quality is lower than ever. So I don't actually know how to go about starting anymore.

All I can say is that when I was starting out, I felt like you describe. Totally overwhelmed, and unsure where to start. What I did was pursue my passion—reptiles and amphibians of Madagascar—and keep meticulous notes of those first papers I was reading.

Nowadays, I typically go on deep dives a bit like Wikipedia rabbit holes; starting from a recent interesting article, I will flag sources they cite that I should read, and then rinse and repeat until I have 300 tabs open and cannot possibly read even the abstracts of all the work.

One important thing is to try to stay abreast of current research, while also continuing to get a better footing on the background. That will be very, very useful later in your career. Read the 'greats' on the subject of interest, but also the 'up-and-comings'/'movers and shakers'. But this is probably advice for later, when you have established the real direction you are interested in. For now, explore the waters!

[spacejax]

you know it’s been a long week of midterms when you’re hallucinating skyrim cave ambience

[oldshrewsburyian]

This is a subset of "Step 1: read the assignment" advice, but I have recently had to grade a bunch of papers where students clearly spent time hunting down external references of variable quality (not required) instead of developing an original argument based on a single assigned text (required.) Pro tip: do not do this.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

friendly reminder

you need to take breaks!! we are not designed for working non-stop and if you do not schedule a time to take a break, your body is going to do it for you and that will not be fun.

[thatstudyblrontea]

January 18, 2023

Library afternoons again. Finally. Looking forward to more productive days, studying Germanic Philology and Russian Literature, getting my student life up and running for the new year.

[peanutblowandjobsandwich]

mom said it's my turn to stop wasting time and procrastinating

[bbizzy]

quick study tips now that I've almost finished my masters: follow study with me videos on youtube. download cold turkey website blocker on your laptop and liberate website blocker on your phone. chew gum while studying. play an instrument, knit/crochet, or move while on study breaks instead of going on your phone. always keep your study space clean. wear noise cancelling headphones with no music playing (that's my cue to focus). eat plenty always and bring snacks. know when to stop. learn when you focus best, and only plan to be able to work during those times- schedule errands / meetings / hobbies / rest during times when you know you won't be focused. schedule at least one full day per week where you have no responsibilities. if you're too tired to work, take a nap instead of sitting there numb and exhausted with dry eyes. you can skip class sometimes (trust me). know when "good enough" is enough (and when it's not).

[lottiestudying]

03.05.2024—officially graduating with first class honours!! finally got my grade back on Tuesday and been on cloud 9 ever since. all my hard work paid off

[studyblr-perhaps]

24/03/24 || Sunday

I got a summer internship! And at such a wonderful time, too. Recently I had been feeling so overwhelmingly stupid, cause my grades don't seem to want to go up, and I had lost all motivation to do work. But with the conference and this internship, my passion for research is back up again, and I am so glad!

[wecandoit]

~80-81/100~

30.10-31.10.2022 // finished my first exam! it wasn't my best work but life goes on. only one more to go!

🎧: pirate king by ateez | ☕️

[phantom-of-the-memes]

Trinity College Dublin are union busters who support Israel

Just to recap from my last post because MORE shite has gone down.

It’s exam week and while everyone was busy studying the other day, the Provost of the University sent an email to the ENTIRE student body, basically trying to turn us against the student union. Here are some highlights:

This was in response to lobbying by the student union not to increase student fees, namely masters fees. And to instead increase the cost of tickets to the book of Kells only by a few euro. This would solve the university’s “money problems”. Which let’s face it, they don’t have. I mean where is the money from tourism going that they’d need more?

The union had put out the ultimatum in the email, saying that if their demands weren’t considered, they would increase their protests. Throughout this year the union has organised protests that block entrance to the book of Kells, once of the main things tourists come to see. These were to protest the student housing crisis, the masters fee increases, and the university’s ties to Israeli institutions and refusal to make a statement condemning or even acknowledging the genocide. Here’s a link to the student unions post on the most recent protest.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Trinity College Dublin Students' Union 🌈🇵🇸 (@tcdsu)

The student union then replied to the email (and therefore the whole student body) restating their demands and the fact that they were going to proceed with the protest. They also included a video of the provost saying she wouldn’t increase fees.

Then, the next day this story breaks on our universities news (sorry link wouldn’t work but it’s from Instagram @ trinitynews):

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?? They are also calling in prominent members of the union who participated in the protests for disciplinary meetings. I mean this is how you completely alienate your student body. Outrage obviously ensued. They defended their decision by saying they had to “protect the book of Kells”, as if the union wasn’t just silently protesting outside. People made some funny comments about that:

Due to pressure the Provost then made a bullshit ass statement on Palestine:

So in conclusion, trinity is a fucking shit show. We are so tired of tourists being prioritised over us. They have brand new incredible facilities, meanwhile the student sections of campus are run down, broken, and completely inaccessible. It’s just a normal thing for lecture equipment to not work on the daily. And yet the tourists are getting new stuff built for them!

The biggest joke of all is that tcd is supposedly the top university in Ireland, and yet anyone I speak to from other universities have better facilities than us. Which is kind of funny since they don’t get tourism, just government funding. So how are we lacking when we have money from government and tourism?

I’m not telling anyone what to do here. I just want people to be aware what they are funding by either attending or giving tourism to the university. If it makes you change your mind about this, tell them! Specifically state why!

[spacejax]

Resources that have helped me in my classes!

(will add to this list as I find/remember more)

Classes I've used these in so far:

Honors Mechanics

Honors Thermodynamics & Optics

Relativity & Quantum Mechanics

Calculus I, II, III

Differential Equations

Introduction to Astronomy

Fundamentals of Astronomy

- - - - Youtube Channels - - - -

Physics

Michel van Biezen - oh my god I love him. I think he uses Sears and Zemansky's University Physics for example problems. His channel has 10k videos (!!!) and is very well-organized. He also lectures on math (from 5th grade to linear algebra), chem & organic chemistry, and astronomy.

Calculus

The Organic Chemistry Tutor - I mostly watch his videos on Calculus I-III and Differential Equations, but he also covers physics and chemistry.

Nancypi - Precalculus, Calculus I, and some of Calculus II. I barely showed up to calc lectures my first semester so she was a great help. also i have a crush on her

Michel van Biezen - I usually don't watch his math videos because his notation and techniques are different from what my prof makes us use

Astronomy

Urknall, Weltall, und das Leben - my literal dream channel. perfect levels of dryness, and videos are usually at least 45 minutes long. It's entirely in German though lmao

Michel van Biezen - covers important topics in introductory astronomy, and also does example problems (although I think they're all algebra-based)

- - - - Textbooks - - - -

Introduction to Cosmology - Barbara Ryden

Foundations of Astrophysics - Ryden & Peterson

University Physics - Sears and Zemansky

Calculus - James Stewart

Modern Physics - Kenneth Krane