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ohbrilliant-notes · 9 years ago

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How to Study Like a Harvard Student

Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother

Preliminary Steps 1. Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you. 2. Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24. General Principles 3. Study less, but study better. 4. Avoid Autopilot Brain at all costs. 5. Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 6. Write it down. 7. Suck it up, buckle down, get it done. Plan of Attack Phase I: Class 8. Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run. 9. Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on stumbleupon or something. Phase II: Study Time 10. Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair. 11. Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. “This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym” ALWAYS BEATS “Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.” 12. Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done. 13. Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t. Phase III: Assignments 14. Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead. 15. Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady. 16. Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes. 17. Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol). Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on. 18. Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 19. Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything. Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week) 20. Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe. 21. If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet. 22. Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom. 23. People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor. 24. Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad. 25. Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point. Phase V: Exam Day 26. Crush exam. Get A.

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ohbrilliant-notes · 9 years ago

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thesis statement: i just think it’s funny how…

body paragraph: first of all…

conclusion: so next time you…

#A+#this is how you write an essay

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ohbrilliant-notes · 9 years ago

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If you’re in AP Euro and use The Western Hertiage, Since 1300 I found a teacher’s website where he has outlines for all the chapters

link is here

They can’t substitute reading a chapter but if you need to crash-course review it can help you out

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ohbrilliant-notes · 9 years ago

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You will not need motivation as much as you will need discipline.

A good friend of mine, who is an excellent student + has the time do to many hours of piano practice every day. (via seven-colors-of-highlighters)

#spread this like wildfire

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ohbrilliant-notes · 9 years ago

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I love the bond that forms between students in an awful class

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ohbrilliant-notes · 10 years ago

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Alright, school hasn’t started yet, but if you’re like me, it starts very soon (me? less than 48 hours). And if you’re like me, your foreign language practice has gone down on the wayside.

So I’m going to go through as many verb conjugations as I’ve remembered and any tips I have when using them. I’ll throw in some other grammar tips when I think of them. Now, this won’t cover every facet of Spanish grammar. (I’d need a book and a lot more education. This will be a long post regardless) But reviewing the conjugations and when to use them would be a good start, ¿no? Luego, ¡vamos a empezar!

(I’m going to do a read more because this post is too long)

*note: I’ll do conjugations without mentioning the subject, so here they are:

Tú

El/ella/usted

Nosotros

Vosotros

Ellos/ellas/ustedes

THE INDICATIVE MOOD

Alright, there’s 3 moods that I’m going to cover: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. The indicative deals with what is factual. It’s arguably the most common mood in any language and the one you’re most familiar with.

There are several tenses within the indicative mood. I’ll cover them now.

Present/presente

This one’s pretty basic. This one’s the first you probably learned. You take the stem of the verb (so hablar turns into habl-) and you add the ending that matches the subject.

-ar/-er/-ir verbs

-o/-o/-o

-as/-es/-es

-a/-e/-e

-amos/-emos/-imos

-áis/-éis/-ís

-an/-en/-en

Yo camino en el parque. (I walk in the park.)

irregulars: ir, dar, estar, ser, y mas Beware of stem-changing verbs (like dormir) and verbs that are irregular in the “yo” form (saber, conocer, decir).

Preterit/pretérito

This one is for a single action in the past. Don’t confuse it with the imperfect (Which I’ll get to later). Again, take off the stem and add the proper ending.

-ar/-er and -ir verbs

-é/-í

-aste/-iste

-ó/-ió

-amos/-imos

-asteis/-isteis

-aron/-ieron

Yo caminé en el parque ayer. (I walked in the park yesterday.)

Irregulars: There’s tons. Look them up (x). Usually the stem changes and the endings are different than normal, but it’s not hard to learn.

Imperfect/imperfecto

This one gets confused with the preterit. Remember, the imperfect is for past actions that are habitual or ongoing. You can use them by themselves (I walked in the park on the weekends) or use them combined with the preterit (I was walking in the park when I heard the gunshots. In this case, “was walking” would be imperfect [caminaba] and “heard” would be preterit [oí]).

Again take off the stem and add the proper ending.

-ar/-er and -ir verbs

-aba/-ía

-abas/-ías

-aba/-ía

-ábamos/íamos

-abais/-ías

-aban/-ían

Yo comía mi pasta cuando entró my padre. (I was eating my pasta when my father entered.)

Irregulars: ir, ver, ser (that’s it. that’s all of the irregulars. use spanishdict.com to figure out the conjugations)

Present perfect/presente perfecto

This is what you use when an action has just been completed. Use the present tense of “haber” and use a participio pasado (Past participle). The participle is easy; simply drop the ending and add -ado if it’s an -ar verb and -ido if it’s an -er or -ir verb.

haber

has

hemos

habéis

han

He terminado mi proyecto de inglés. (I’ve finished my English project.)

Irregulars; There’s a few irregular participles. Decir is dicho, not decido. Romper is roto, not rompido. There’s more. Studyspanish.com can help you find a list.

Present progressive/presente progresivo

These are your -ing verbs in English. Simply use estar and a gerundio/gerund. Gerunds are easy: drop the ending and add -ando to an -ar and add -iendo to an -er/-ir.

estar

estoy

estás

está

estamos

estáis

están

Estoy caminando en el parque. (I’m walking in the park.)

Future/futuro

There are two ways to form the future tense. One, you can conjugate “ir,” add “a,” and add an infinitive. “Voy a comprar” I’m going to buy. Or, you can use these endings that you add on to the entire verb. (Compraré/I will buy) The endings are the same regardless of the verb type.

-é

-ás

-á

-emos

-éis

-án

Caminaré en el parque. (I will walk in the park/I’m going to walk in the park)

Irregulars: often, the stem will change. Salir turns to saldr-, tener turns to tendr-, and more.

Conditional/condicional

Use this when you say something would occur. (Not the same as subjunctive, when you say something might occur.) In most cases, you’d say something along the lines of “I would buy the shoes, but I don’t have money” or “I’ll push the lever if you pull the switch).

These endings are the same as the imperfect endings for -er/-ir verbs. However, you can tell it’s conditional because the same endings go on the verb regardless if it’s -ar/-er/-ir, and the whole verb is kept instead of using the stem. (Comería el taco [I would eat the taco] vs. comía el taco [I was eating the taco]). The difference is subtle, but important.

-ía

-ías

-ía

-íamos

-íais

-ían

Caminaría en el parque, pero está lloviendo ahora. (I would walk in the park, but it’s raining right now)

Irregulars: the exact same ones as the future tense. Nice.

More tenses with past pariciples

You remember your past participles, with -ado/-ido endings (hablado, comido) and your irregulars (dicho, hecho, visto, escrito, puesto, roto, vuelto, devuelto, muerto, abierto, cubierto, frito). There’s 3 more indicative tenses that use these. They’re not super common, but they do pop up in more complex writing (Which you’ll be doing in AP). 1. El pluscuamperfecto/pluperfect

This is used to indicate an action in the past that was completed prior to another past action. Use these conjugations of haber and a past participle.

había habías había habíamos habíais habían

Yo ya había salido cuando él llegó. (I had already left when he arrived.)

2. El condicional perfecto/conditional perfect

This is used to state what would have taken place had something else not interfered. Again, use haber and a past participle.

habría

habrías

habría

habríamos

habríais

habrían

Yo habría ido pero no pude porque tuve que trabajar. (I would have left but I couldn’t because I had to work.)

3. El futuro perfecto/future perfect

This is rarely used in Spanish, fyi, but it expresses a future action completed prior to another action. Again, use haber and a past participle.

habré

habrás

habrá

habremos

habréis

habrán

Yo habré terminado con la tarea cuando llegarás a las ocho. (I will have finished with the homework when you arrive at eight.)

Indirect and Direct Objects/complementos indirectos y directos

If you’ve taken English, you should know what objects are. The direct objects answer “What?” or “whom? while indirect objects answer “to whom?” “for whom? “For what?”

For example, David gave me the pizza. (David gave the pizza to me). “Me” is the indirect object. It answers “To whom?” “The pizza” is the direct object. It is being given. It answers “What?”

In Spanish, David dio la pizza a mí. That’s a little wordy. We can also say “David me la dio.” David gave it to me.

(Note: Don’t just throw in your direct objects without context. In English, you can’t throw in “it” when “It” has not yet been established, so don’t do it in spanish.)

Indirect objects:

nos

les

Direct objects:

lo/la

nos

los/las

Sonia nos dijo. (Sonia told us.) If “le” comes before a “lo/la/los/las” it switches to “se”.

El mozo le subió el equipaje. (The bellhop took up the luggage to him/her) El mozo se lo subió.

THE IMPERATIVE MOOD

The imperative mood is most common when you’re telling others what to do. “Imperative” means “command.” “Mandatos,” (English: commands) are conjugated differently than indicative verbs because they are in the imperative mood.

Tú positive/tú afirmativo

To form this conjugation, you need to take the third person present indicative conjugation and use that conjugation.

For example, if you’re telling a friend to “Talk!” you use the third person singular of “hablar” in the indicative: “¡Habla!” You can also add objects to the end if you need to. “Dime, por favor” means “Tell me, please.” There’s a few irregulars: (more here)

Decir- di

Hacer- haz

Tener- ten

Ir- ve

Poner- pon

Salir- sal

Learn the irregulars. You’ll use them in conversation a lot.

Tú negative/tú negativo

These are conjugated in the subjunctive. (I’ll explain how to form the subjunctive shortly.)

The important thing to remember is that when you use a negative tú command, you can’t just put “no” in front of the verb. That won’t work.

Dime, por favor. (Tell me, please. This follows the rules for tú positive commands.)

No dime, por favor. (This is wrong!)

No me digas, por favor. (This is correct.)

Ud. + Uds. Commands/Ud. y Uds. mandatos

Thankfully, with your formal commands, they are all formed the same way (except the negative commands have a “no” out front.)

You use the subjuctive of the verb. (Again, I’ll explain later.)

Pongan la mesa, por favor. ([You all] set the table, please.)

Tenga un buen día. (Have a good day.)

No traiga su ensalada, por favor. (Don’t bring your [formal] salad, please.)

Ok now let’s learn subjuctive. It’s freaky.

THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

Alright, the dreaded “subjuntivo.” It’s often the most confusing for Spanish language learners, since the subjunctive no longer really exists in English.

The subjunctive expresses doubt, desire, uncertainty, and wishes.

Here’s the main form to indicate when you need subjunctive:

trigger + que + change in subject -> verb in subjunctive mood.

Yo quiero (querer is a trigger) que (note it) tú (subject change) vayas (subjunctive).

Yo queiro que tú vayas.

I want that you go. (literal translation)

I want you to go. (loosely translated)

Triggers: THERE’S A TON. You’ll learn them by use.

es importante, es posible, es mejor, etc.

ojalá, quizás, tal vez (quizás and tal vez do not require “que”)

querer, esperar, no creer, desear, mandar, temer

preferir, insistir en, alegrarse de, estar contento/triste

sorprender, gustar, sentir

Remember, these only use the subjunctive if there’s a change in subject. In the cases of ojalá, quizás, and tal vez, those phrases automatically introduce doubt. (Oh that, maybe, perhaps) and you don’t need a subject. The phrases, when spoken, will trigger the subjuctive. Ojalá que él venga a la fiesta. (Oh that he comes to the party.) Quizás ella venga también. (Perhaps she’ll come too.)

So how do we form the subjunctive? Present subjuctive/presente del subjuntivo

First, you’re going to take the “yo” conjugation of the present indicative. Then take the stem.

Decir -> digo -> dig

Then you’re going to add these endings, depending on the ending of the original verb.

-ar/-er and -ir

-e/-a

-es/-as

-e/-a

-emos/-amos

-éis/-áis

-en/-an

So the original endings to present indicative verbs have switched.

decir -> digo -> dig -> diga (or whatever the ending calls for)

mirar -> miro -> mir -> mires

Irregulars: Again, quite a few. (Look at conjugations here)

Dar

Estar

Saber

Ser

Prefiero que tú vayas conmigo, no él. (I prefer that you go with me, not him.)

Difficult verbs

Some verbs, when conjugated a certain way, are indicative (almost always future), while when conjugated the oppositve (negative/postive), are subjunctive.

Why does this exist? The meaning of the verb changes from certain to uncertain. I’ll explain.

Yo dudo- I doubt. It’s uncertain, so it will be subjunctive. Yo no dudo- I don’t doubt. It’s certain, so it will be indicative.

subjunctive/indicative (future)

Dudar/no dudar

Es dudoso/no es dudoso

No estar seguro/estar seguro

no creer/creer

no es cierto/es cierto

No dudo que tú irás. (I don’t doubt that you will go.) Dudo que tú vayas. (I doubt that you go.)

Imperfect subjunctive/el imperfecto del subjuntivo

NOTE THIS:

If your trigger verb is in present or future indicative, the subjunctive verb will be in present subjunctive.

If your trigger verb is preterit, imperfect, or conditional indicative, the subjunctive verb will be in imperfect subjunctive.

To form the imperfect subjunctive, you need to take the stem of the 3rd person plural of the indicative and add these endings:

a (se)

as (ses)

a (se)

amos (semos) (put an accent over the last vowel of the stem)

ais (séis)

an (sen)

The se/ses endings are mainly used in literature. I prefer not to use them at all.

Hablar -> hablaron -> hablar ->

hablara

hablaras

hablara

habláramos (the accent preserves original pronunciation)

hablarais

hablaran

Tener -> tuvieron -> tuvier ->

tuviera

tuvieras

tuviera

tuviéramos

tuvierais

tuvieran

Dudaba que él viniera. (I doubted that he would come.) Quería que tú salieras. (I wanted you to leave.)

Conjunctions of time/conjunciones de tiempo

When using the following conjunctions of time:

cuando (when)

en cuanto (as soon as)

tan pronto como (as soon as)

hasta que (until)

después de que (after)

antes de que (before)

Note these 3 rules:

If a verb in the main clause conveys a future time, it’s uncertain. Use subjunctive.

If a verb in the main clause conveys a past time, use the indicative (preterit or imperfect)

Antes de que is always followed with subjunctive. (So use present or imperfect subjunctive, depending on the tense of the main clause)

Ella nos hablará (future ind.) cuando lleguemos (present subj.). Ella nos habló (preterit ind.) cuando llegamos (preterit ind.) Ellos saldrán (future ind.) antes de que nosotros lleguemos (present subj.) Ellos salieron (preterite ind.) antes de que nosotros llegáramos (imp. subj.)

In short, use subjunctive if the event has not yet occurred, and use indicative if the action has already happened.

Si clauses/cláusulas con si

You use “if” in English all the time. In Spanish, there’s definite tenses you should use.

Main clause/si clause

Future indicative/present indicative

Conditional indicative/imperfect subjunctive

Conditional perfect/pluscuamperfecto

Haré (future ind.) el viaje si tengo (pres. ind.) bastante dinero. I will take the trip if I have enough money.

Haría (conditional ind.) el viaje si tuviera (imp. subj.) bastante dinero. I would take the trip if I had enough money.

Yo habría hecho (conditional perfect) el viaje si hubiera tenido (pluscuamperfecto) bastante dinero. I would have taken the trip if I’d had enough money.

Note: these can switch around. Just follow the rules.

Haré el viaje si tengo bastante dinero. (I will take the trip if I have enough money.)

Si tengo bastante dinero, haré el viaje. (If I have enough money, I will take the trip.)

CONGRATULATIONS. You finished reading this. I know it’s a ton of information. There’s still more to Spanish grammar, but this should get you started.

Resources: www.studyspanish.com , www.spanishdict.com

Study spanish can explain these concepts further. Spanish Dict has the most accurate translations (yes, better than Google in my opinion, but as you grow in Spanish, you’ll learn that accurate translators do not exist) and has conjugations. So you can see EVERY CONJUGATION. And the irregulars are highlighted in red!

I hope this helps. Have a great school year!

-Andrew

#spanish #ap spanish #spanish grammar #grammar #conjugations #andrew helps you #conjugation #verbs

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ohbrilliant-notes · 10 years ago

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hello everyone! i know some of you will be going back to school soon, so i decided to make a huge masterpost that will hopefully help some of you out!

NOTETAKING

how to take pretty notes

notetaking from a textbook

how to make mindmaps

different types of notes

mindmapping.com

99 mindmapping resources

tips for taking efficient notes

effective notetaking

ORGANIZATION

staying organized

organization tips

get organized in high school

ten tips for staying organized

colour coding organization

tips for keeping your desk clean

PRINTABLES

form your habits

study and revision planner (2)

student planner

daily and essay planners

poetry terms chart

exam studying pack

loads of printables

2015 calender

chalkboard style to do list

READING

free online library

read free classics

what should i read next?

TESTS AND STUDYING

test taking guide

how to make a study guide (2, 3, 4, 5)

study tips (2, 3, 4)

study techniques

how to get straight a’s

how to study

making study schedules (2, 3, 4)

preparing for an exam (2, 3)

the basics of efficient studying

how to be an efficient test taker

how to review in less time

things NOT to do when studying

on test anxiety (2, 3)

study skills assessment

how to pull an all-nighter effectively

tips for answering multiple choice

how to answer exam questions

WRTING AND ENGLISH

develop your characters

essay-writing (2)

academic writing tips

create a bibliography (2)

MATH

math practice

math resources

free math help

learn basically anything

graphing calculator

learn any math

a bunch of calculators

square root calculator

cube root calculator

PRODUCTIVITY

how to wake up earlier

how to have a productive day

stop procrastinating (2)

how long to nap?

time management tips

tips to help you focus

energy throughout the day

STRESS AND WELLNESS

how to manage your stress

bedtime calculator

power naps

STUDY PLAYLISTS

minimalism

studying

film scores

you’ve got this

essential indie

pencil lead and lined paper

minimalist

celestial

love that aesthetic

space race

sunday morning

BULLET JOURNALLING

bulletjournal.com

bullet journal setup (2, 3, 4, 5)

minimalist bullet journal

bullet journal in a binder

pages to start

health tracker

how to use a chronodex

YOUTUBE VIDEOS

diy school supplies (2, 3, 4)

back to school supplies haul (2, 3, 4, 5)

finals survival guide

top secret study tips

how to take the best notes

study hacks

JOURNALLING, ART JOURNALLING, AND SKETCHBOOKS

journaling 101

what to put in a sketchbook

100 sketchbook ideas

119 journal prompts

50 art journal prompts

lists to make

how to collage in your art journal

collaging for beginners

how to start a sketchbook

art journaling 101

how to start a journal (2)

what to put in a blank notebook

keeping creative diary pages

turn an old book into an art journal

how to journal

what is an art journal?

must have art journal supplies

journal themes

art journal techniques

art journal inspiration

MISC

annotating a book

get back on track after missing school

convert just about anything

#thought this might be helpful

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