theacademicdriver-blog

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frustrated bc i want to be Perfect Me™ and get better grades and clear up my skin and lose more weight but im stuck w Actual Garbage Me™

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i need clear skin by yesterday

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Been crazy busy with school but here are some pages from my first ever bullet journal!! ✨

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19/100 days of productivity

writing an english essay and drinking lots of tea as per usual 

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how the fuck did we get from there to where we are today

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Not all studying is made equal. There are actually two different types of learning, active and passive. This post will discuss the differences between them and explain how you can use active learning to get the most out of your study sessions.

PASSIVE LEARNING

Passive learning is when you’re merely sitting back and absorbing the information, like a sponge absorbing water. This includes:

reading a textbook

rereading/rewriting notes

highlighting

listening to a lecture

watching a documentary or demonstration

All of the above methods essentially involve just exposing yourself to the material and naïvely hoping some of it will stick. This is not effective for long-term retention or critical analysis.

Of course, quickly skimming over your notes might be helpful the morning of an exam, and it is certainly better than not studying at all. But if your tests involve writing essays, analyzing arguments, or building off of concepts to create new ones, passive studying is not recommended. Instead, you should use…

ACTIVE LEARNING

You learn best when you are forced to actively engage with the material. Active learning strategies include:

testing yourself with flashcards

answering practice problems

identifying patterns and cause/effect relationships

creating connections between topics

explaining concepts to others

formulating questions that push your learning further

revising notes (Note that this is different from rewriting, which is a passive learning technique. Turning your lecture notes into different forms, such as mind maps, sketchnotes, and summaries is an effective learning method. Copying your textbook onto lined paper and going over it with gel pens + Mildliners is not.)

discussing, debating, and challenging

These methods require you to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information, strengthening both your memory and comprehension. That sounds a little intimidating, but active learning is easier to implement than it sounds. For example, my favorite way to study for history is to pretend I’m the teacher and explain a topic out loud to my invisible “students”. Flashcards and writing unique sentences is great for foreign languages. For math, I’ll always try to prove every formula or theorem I use instead of merely memorizing it. If you’re not used to using active learning methods, the extra effort may present a challenge at first, but I promise it’ll lead to improved understanding and better grades in the end!

THE LEARNING TRIANGLE

(image credit)

The learning triangle ranks learning techniques based on how much information we retain afterwords. I’m not sure I agree with all the exact percentages, but it’s safe to say that the general order and concept is correct. If you want to improve the effectiveness of your study sessions, try to use learning methods near the bottom of the triangle, as well as all the active learning strategies I mentioned earlier. Personally, I created a list of my favorite active learning strategies to hang up above my desk as a constant reminder to be an active studier.

And there you have it! Active learning will help you improve recall and comprehension in a very short amount of time. It’s one of the best ways to study smarter, not harder. Next time you sit down to study, go give those active learning methods a try!

Thanks for reading! If you have questions, feedback, or post requests, feel free to drop me an ask.

+Click here for the rest of my original reference posts!

—Sophia :)

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101 Study Tips

Take advantage of that lower workload in between exam periods to make good notes, clean your house, get work experience and do the things then rather than when you’re busier

Use Highlighters instead of pens to save time. Or vice versa depending on you

Change the timing in the pomodoro technique to suit you rather than the other way round

Use a planner to organise your day

Work out what time of day you study best. You could get up and study in the morning if you’re that sort of person

Attend your tutor or form sessions. Even if you don’t do much in them, you can

Keep your planner small and carry it everywhere

Even better, put your planner on your phone

 Don’t sulk if you fail, look back at why you failed and try to improve

If you get distracted by wanting to do something when you should be focusing, write it down. It gives you a checklist of things to do later

Do these things on the checklist in your study breaks

Answer questions without your teaching asking you to

Read about your subjects outside of your classes, especially in high school

Sit at the front of the class room

Don’t sit by yourself in class

Get an early nights sleep

Or at least use sleepytime to get a good time frame

On school days when you wake up, get up straight away, it stops you lazing about

Work hard from the start of the year. There isn’t a time to slack off

Try spaced repititon for learning key facts or a revision schedule

Have snacks and a drink during study sessions. Preferably water.

Summarise and make all your notes onto smaller bits of paper for revision, it helps you recognise what the important facts are

To avoid study stress, take breaks and avoid studying for more than two hours a day

It’s also good to have a day where you don’t study at all once a week

Don’t schedule too far in advance, you’ll just get busy in the meantime or change your methods

When you’re feeling too stressed to work properly but not studying stresses you out, do easier tasks like reviewing flashcards or watching videos on your course

Do as much of your work in school as possible

Prioritise your classes. Especially if you have loads

Make any big habit changes you’ve been thinking of at the start of a term or new year

Study a little before bed, you’ve probably seen that study that says you remember more just before bed

Only make flashcards of the things that you don’t get or are important, not everything

Use online sites like Brainscape, Memrise, Anki or Quizlet for flashcards between devices

Print off your powerpoint slides before a lesson

If you can’t do that, read ahead in the textbook

The syllabus is your guide, so use that as a framework for your revision notes

Your stress and nerves are normal, don’t worry

Aim to finish your revision a week before your exams, it makes you start earlier and finish earlier, you also can rest before your exam

When you pick your subjects, choose the subjects you love

Don’t drink alcohol when you’re studying or any type of drug while studying

Don’t listen to how much everyone is studying. A lot of people big it up or say they do none, usually both aren’t being truthful

Take messy notes in class and neaten them up later

Or take your notes online or on a computer

Have a folder to put your loose sheets and handouts in

Keep your to do list and schedule all in one place, whether that’s a book, app or phone

If you fall behind or are ill a lot, your classmates are your friends for a realistic description of what you’ve missed

When at school, know all the places you’d like to study in case one of them is busy

Don’t work in your bed if it makes you tired

Or work in your bed if all your seats are uncomfortable and it’s distracting

Don’t have too much coffee! And energy drinks are just terrible for you so maybe not have those either

You don’t have to be truthful to your actual opinion in essays, just go for what option has the most points

Listen to your teacher

Have your window open, the fresh air helps

Use practice papers and questions, they really help

Try to teach others as well or if you can’t, explain it in your own words to yourself

Combine more than one technique, so that the weaknesses of each method gets covered by another

Seriously just listen to your teachers

Check your emails every day

Set realistic goals and try not to be too harsh and unrealistic about the time you’ll spend achieving these as well

Use loud and annoying alarms to get you to do things

If you have to read, read out loud rather than in your head

Use a hair tie if you have long hair to keep it out of your face

Keep clean and get dressed for studying

Don’t waste your term making your notes pretty, if it helps, make sure the benefits outweigh the time it takes

Study when you can. Don’t study if you’re too exhausted to do so.

Keep your desk as clean as you can

Know your sources of motivation. Possibly find a way to put that in your study space.

Attend as many classes as possible and don’t skip

Keep yourself busy with stuff that isn’t studying

Reward yourself for your hard work

Before you go back to school, start to wake up earlier so you’re ready

Wear comfortable clothes to school

Or wear whatever makes you feel good, feeling bad can be pretty distracting

Always think about the next step early, whether thats getting work experience, choosing subjects, finding a job or picking a thesis

Always eat breakfast

And always eat lunch too! Especially at school

Do whatever is best for you. Don’t follow a studyblr trend, do what’s best for you.

Make your studying a habit. Do it nearly every day for a long time and it’ll begin to feel more like second nature

Get to know your teachers if you can

And don’t be afraid to ask them for help outside of a lesson, either by email or afterwards, it helps a lot 

Look at the types of questions you often get wrong as well as the topics you keep missing out on 

Keep a spare bit of food in your bag, I usually have some sesame snaps in my bag as a small snack so I don’t have to get up to get food

Make productive friends and people with similar goals to you

When revising, revise everything and then focus on your weak points

Don’t spend too long on tumblr, and if you are right now, then this is your reminder to log off!

Don’t panic when you don’t know all the answers in a test, do you really need 100%?

Break your studying into smaller bits and spread it out over time to avoid headaches, burnout and all the problems that come with it

Eat better. Get enough fruit and vegetables

Don’t forget about Protein, from meats, nuts, etc. it helps a lot

If you’re falling asleep in class, I usually drink water, pinch myself, take lots of notes and fidget to keep myself up

Regularly clear out your bag, because a lot of stuff builds up

If you’re a more artistic person, use drawings like visual notes, mindmaps, timelines and literal drawings to help you study

If you study with a friend, quiz each other

Study on public transport if you can, notes and flashcards on phones are good for this

Don’t neglect any of your subjects, make sure they all get some time spent on them

Also focus beyond your first exam, it’s easy to overprepare for the first test and then not be ready for the rest

When taking a test look through it quickly before hand

Remember you don’t have to take the test in order

Review your notes all the time, review helps the memory

If you want to pull an all-nighter see if you can do it in the morning or day instead, and don’t do it the night before anything important

Always look at the details, especially if you get a mark-scheme or guide for your assignments

Constantly be taking on new improvements and trying to improve your methods

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i wrote this HOW TO BE HAPPY HAPPIER guide for Design*Sponge because i had a shitty few weeks earlier this month and i needed some of my own advice to get out of it

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🌸day 5/100🌸 🌸29 until my exams🌸 day 5 2.0 posted late with day 6 about to come feat a shadow 💫:(((( #100daysofproductivity #verytired #studygram #hashtagsexhaustme (at New Zealand)

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Life-Hack

google search any topic followed by ‘filetype:ppt’ and only powerpoints will come up, or a textbook or subject name followed by ‘filetype:pdf’ to find free textbooks in pdf form

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🌸day 4/100🌸 🌸30 until my exams🌸 first class notes i've done in a while. completed on my day 4 💫 #notetaking #schoolmotivation #studygram #studying #highlighters #studyspo #noprocrastination #examsarenye #100daysofproductivity (at New Zealand)

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🌸day 3/100🌸 🌸31 until my exams🌸 love the heck out of the time difference...seems to so many like i am posting on 9th October. that's my post for yesterday technically :3 here's some french and classics notes and cards...2am is bedtime :\ #happy #bujonewbie #feelingfree #100daysofproductivity #smoldescmadetoday #studying #studygram #schoolmotivation #notetaking #colour (at New Zealand)

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🌸💫🌸💫 its 1am and i'm already addicted :3 pls can some cute boy come remind me that study, organisation and good sleep go hand in hand? oh wait...i am doing that for myself :\ i am going to have a fun morning at work in *uh* 5 HOURS #100daysofproductivity #inspired #dontneednoman #ambitiousbaby #doingitforme #iamindeedastar #bulletjournal #dailygrind #studyhard #bulletjournaljunkies #bujoinspire #bujoinspire #bujonewbie #love #happy #feelingfree (at New Zealand)

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🌸day 2/100🌸 🌸32 until my exams🌸 how my poor bed looked when i started my own bullet journal today! so excited :)) my day 3 may be study in the v early morning of day 3 considering i still need to do the scholarship history examination paper that i have ignored ahahahahaha!! it's happening tomorrow but i'm gonna #focusonthepositive :3 so ready for my last term of high school... #100daysofproductivity #soontobeorganised #calendar #studymotivation #studystudyschoolsyourbuddy #lovingit #bulletjournal #myschedulerocks #highlightersofmylife #stationerylover #stationeryonfleek (at New Zealand)

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🌟✌️️🌊

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goooooals