#gcse-studyblr

[huh-j]

“I can’t, I have to study~”

~Rory Gilmore

- Probably my most used excuse this year..

[alilystudies]

Late night essay crunch before the midday deadline! aaah!

[studying-space-of-annie]

I have mocks next week! Ahh wish me luck yall I'm so nervous

[stingraystudiess]

StudyLapse

⬆️ English Language anthology work for my exam tomorrow

Today was my very first day of mocks!!!! Chemistry was shocking but I will pass. Maths was surprisingly smooth sailing, yet I feel panicked looking back at it. Was it all a lie?!?

Today I have ashamedly chanted more mantras more than in the whole of the year thus far, I went to the mandir too 🥹

Tomorrow I just have English language so I will go home after that and revise ( I am NOT wasting my day on PE)

Now I am off to do more in transactional writing 🖋️ (waffling is a specialty of mine)

Ok tysm for reading

Signing off~

StingrayStudies

[learningsanctum]

when I finally start learning something I had been postponing and I suddenly rediscover my will to study and apply myself until I’m the best again

[blue2dawn]

sex and drugs are great and all but have you ever balanced an equation correctly in chemistry? fucking euphoric.

[gay-classics-student]

Good luck to everyone getting their gcse results tomorrow !

Remember that no matter what you get , you have a tumblr account so at least your cool

[cocoatonedcurls]

become an academic weapon 📚🔫✨

hi all !!

with my GCSEs this year, and only a few weeks before back to school, I decided to really lock in yesterday 🫣

so I thought I'd take all the info I've come across while scrolling through studytok and put it into a little post for everyone looking to improve in their studies (& for my benefit as well 🙈)

motivation

this is probably the biggest factor when it comes to locking into your studies, motivation can quite literally make or break your academic achievements (😦)

so, its very important you motivate yourself, and moreover, stay motivated 😭

i've made it sound daunting but motivating yourself is lowkey easier than you think, here's a few ways to do it:

picturing yourself in 10 years, where all your studying and hard work has paid off - you can't be that person without doing the work that they did 😬

you can also do the opposite of the above - imagine how disappointed you'll be if you didn't work as hard as you could have and failed

"revenge studying" - the most toxic yet probably the most widely effective technique - working hard so you can beat than the people who are better than you

make studying aesthetic - create pinterest boards, look at quotes and tiktoks, make success your greatest desire

make it an addiction - if you're bored? study. had a bad day? nothing like setting yourself up for the best future. having a great day? go make it better by making yourself smarter.

get a motivational study app - i LOVE 'Study Bunny' I've been using it for two days now and it genuinely motivates me to be more productive to keep my bunny happy 🙃

resources

obviously, you need some help where you can get it despite all the controversies surrounding studying and the use of the internet, there are some amazing online resources you can use that will actively help you 📚

Quizlet/Anki - both of these flashcard platforms are incredibly useful - Quizlet is a fun platform and you can search for flashcards made by other people - Anki, in my opinion, is better than Quizlet for memorising, and you can import flashcards from Quizlet.

Mindnote - A mindmap making software online, a user-friendly interface + is quick and easy to make them - Great for visual learners

YouTube - the teachers on YouTube are incredibly helpful and can explain any topics you're confused about very quickly and very thoroughly

Spark Notes - great for English literature, with in-depth analysis of your texts and modern translations

Physics & Maths Tutor - free past papers and topic questions for core subjects and a few others, great for active recall

Study Bunny/Flora - helps keep track of your progress and keeps you motivated, I recommend Study Bunny because I can see how much work I've done of each subject and tick off things on my checklist

these are just a few out of many other resources so go do some of your own research, especially if there are websites that help with a specific subject

techniques

different study techniques work best for different people, no technique is a one-size-fits-all, some people are visual learners, others perform best by memorising & etc.

active recall - the only one-size-fits-all method - is a cognitive function that you carry out to remember things in tests, so practising this is a must -> the best way to do this is by completing topic questions and past papers using minimal amounts of notes. basically just testing yourself before the actual test

Spaced-out revision - one of the best ways to make sure things stick in your mind, revise a topic/subject and revisit it every few days, eg. 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, 30; and by the 30-day mark it should be stuck in your mind because your brain believes its something that you need to know in the long run and stores it in your long term memory

Flashcards - great to memorise content for the test, especially subjects that are tested with orals

Scribble method - scribbling on a piece of paper while revising the content in any form, reading, listening, etc. helps your brain store the information you're consuming more effectively

Feynman method - basically just explaining the topic you're revising to someone, this helps you develop your understanding and catches out any areas you're unsure about to revise later

making mindmaps - this is great for visual learners, especially if you use different colours for each section of the map so that you can associate each concept with each colour and recall them easily

again, those are just a few that come to mind. do your own research and find out what works best for you 😇

while studying

knowing how to study effectively is also a crucial aspect of success (obviously) 🤭

here are a few tips:

don't listen to music with lyrics, instead you can listen to lofi tracks, cafe/library asmr, brown noise, jazz music (my favourite)

set yourself a study slot, like 2 hours every day at a specific time & set a focus filter on your phone for the duration of your study time

make an aesthetic/cute study space so you can enjoy your time in that space and it doesn't feel like a chore

get a whiteboard to make learning more interactive & fun

light a specific candle whenever you're studying so your brain knows to associate the scent with working

have regular breaks eg. every half hour for 5-10 mins

reward yourself afterwards, so you associate studying with a good experience

consistency is key, the more you study the easier & more fun it becomes 🙃 the more you study the more you are likely to succeed and fulfil your dreams ✨

remember though, academics is not everyone's thing:

"you cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree"

everyone is good at something, and it doesn't make anyone lesser or greater 🫶

if you try your best, that is all that matters 🫠

- li 🌘

[candy8448]

I need mutuals that are actually doing gcses rn lol

[clownblogz]

Oh my days. The questions was Lady Macbeth… I AM GOING TO KISS WHOEVER MADE THAT PAPER!!!

[matiixoxo]

How to study - a guide for ♡ good grades ♡

intro

for most of my school years, I never studied. I have naturally good memory and was quick to understand things... up until maybe year 8. Then things got a bit harder, my grades started falling. I only started to truly study during year 10, and that's how I developed my various ways of studying.

i will be listing the methods i use below. these have helped me a lot and hopefully they can help you too! That said, here are my methods:

method 1 - two notebooks

this is my preferred method for sciences, aka, biology, chemistry, etc.

what i do is have two separate notebooks for each subject.

one is to use during class. its messy, disorganised, an info dump of everything the teacher says.

the second one stays at home. there, everyday after school, i rewrite my notes, this time more aesthetic, more complex, prettier. i also research online and check the powerpoints used by the teacher to make sure I'm not missing anything. I take my time with this notebook, because rewriting my notes helps consolidate them in my mind, and is a great tool for revising for tests. it also means that during class, i can pay more attention to what the teacher is saying instead of trying to do pretty titles and such.

method 2 - flashcards

i also mostly use this for sciences, it helps a lot.

flashcards are the best. You can use ones ready made on your computer, or handwrite your own. I prefer to handwrite because, even though it takes time, as I said before rewriting helps consolidate the material in your brain. After every class, I write down questions and answers on white rectangles I bought from the nearby stationary store, punch a hole in them, and add them to the ring where I have all the other flashcards.

when I'm close to a test, I keep my flashcards close to me at all times. when I am bored, or have nothing to do, I take them out and flip through them until I feel I know everything. I try to go through them at least twice a day.

this method has saved me in so many ways.

method 3 - close by

this is the method I use for history, languages, and english.

I rewrite all my notes on my computer (but you can do handwritten, i just prefer computer so i can print many copies) and then print them out. a week before a test, I start leaving the notes in places i pass by often, eg, my desk, my bathroom mirror, taped to the inside of my wardrobe. every time I see my notes, I force myself to read them all. because I pass by the places so many times, I'll be constantly rereading the same thing, helping consolidate it in my brain.

ofc, this might not be enough, so I also suggest reading your notes like this - read the first sentence. then read the first again, and then the second, and read the first again, followed by the second and then read the third, and then reread the first, second, and third sentences. then read the fourth. and reread the first, second, third, and fourth, and then the fifth, etc. this method is amazing and helps memorize stuff so easily. sorry if its confusing ♡

method 4 - exercises

this method, in my opinion, is better for subjects like maths, physics, etc.

it's pretty obvious what it is. just do and redo exercises, correct them, grade yourself, Google past papers and test yourself again. do this until you are confident that you understand everything. and even then, keep doing exercises.

method 5 - essays

this one is for English, and you might hate it. I mean, who doesn't hate essays?

what i do is, I go to chatgpt, and ask it to suggest possible essay questions on possible things that might be on my test (eg., shakespeare).

then, I write an essay (using the PEAEAL structure) and ask chatgpt to evaluate it and rate it out of ten, tell me where I should improve without giving me the exact answer to what I should improve. then I rewrite the parts that were wrong, and send it to chatgpt again. I do this until I get a 10/10. I keep doing this with multiple questions until I'm confident I know the topic well

important:

how i truly, truly, managed to get good grades was making studying enjoyable. I started romanticizing it - lighting candles, installing an aesthetic clock on my computer, spending hours on pretty diagrams, going to cafes with my notes and studying there.

get a friend to study with you too sometimes. Trust me when I say, romanticizing studying is the best study method.

[huh-j]

Me studying nonstop because I won’t settle for anything less than the highest possible grade…

[alilystudies]

Currently battling deadlines for my essays 😅

[bambibllog]

[lucyswillow]

Resources to ace your GCSEs

Maths

- Gcsemathstutor

- mathsgenie

- Khan academy

- quick maths tips

- Corbett maths

Science

- Freesciencelessons

- Khan academy

- science shorts

- primrose

- cgp workbooks

English

- Mr everything english

- first rate tutors

- Mr salles teaches english

- mr bruff

History

- Mr cloke history

- revision bird

Multiple subjects ✨

- Physics and maths tutor

- cognito

- revision world (past papers)

- gcsepod

- seneca learning

- blooket/kahoot

additional study advice

- Do exam questions as revision

- do methods that use active recall

- Blurting and mindmaps to figure out where there’s gaps in your knowledge

- try to go to school everyday before exams and give it your all in lessons

- Don’t spend hours studying on end because it won’t help you remember anything

- pomodoro technique

- Use the three minute rule when you’re procrastinating

[stingraystudiess]

Hey Tumblr …

introducing myself

hey, my names sting! I am a student in high school doing GCSE’s. My hobbies include; reading, writing (I don’t nearly do both enough) , art (digital and physical mediums), exploring, crafts (I’m a sucker for knitting) and learning! I am a big believer in knowledge is power and in this world you can never have enough, so I have made this account to possible make some friends who I can share my interests with, and who can relate to the study grind ;D (that was sarcastic).

Why I made this page

I do love having an education, yet I have always struggled with consistency (a lifelong struggle). This inconsistency is due to various life circumstances, yet in true existentialist fashion, I believe i am in total power of how I conduct my choices, meaning that my past shall not determine my future. I hope by making this page I can document my studying in a community of similar individuals. Sharing knowledge with likely people in this community will not only motivate me yet will give studying more of a purpose!

if you think that we’d get along, let’s be mutuals! signing off ~

StingrayStudies