#how can i sit and read about all this and regurgitate it in an exam

[im-getting-help]

i can't find the motivation to keep going guys!! i think i lost it a while ago but i didn't notice lol i think it probably slipped that time i lost my wallet? idk

[harry-potter-fics-stuff]

Anonymous asked:

Could you write about the first crushes of all the Weasleys?

Bill Weasley thinks he’s in love one day when he walks into his Transfiguration classroom and sees a gorgeous blonde girl sitting beside the chair he normally occupies. There’s a blue-and-bronze tie around her neck, tied in a perfect Windsor knot, and jewels drip from her ears and neck. She moves her stuff to her side of the desk when he sits down, and is careful not to touch him at all. He’d wonder about it, but she’s very quiet in class in general, though is always quick to finish her work. He smiles at her sometimes, but she doesn’t smile back. (He does not realize she is a Malfoy until two terms in, when he hears her friends whispering to her about blood traitors and how their taint can be associated upon upstanding citizens so easily. He doesn’t speak to her, although his heart still quickens a few beats around her in class, and she never gets the nerve to start any conversation with him either.)

-

Charlie Weasley doesn’t think he’s had a proper crush on anybody, but the new Professor (for DADA, of course) is probably the most attractive member of faculty Hogwarts has ever had and he can certainly appreciate this. He’s always more passionate about Care of Magical Creatures and Quidditch, yet he pays a lot more attention that year for DADA and ignores his friends’ playful teasing. (It’s his NEWT year anyway - he should be paying attention.) He stays behind in class to ask questions, sometimes over concepts he actually already knows. But there is no quickening of the heartbeat, no fantasies of kissing or holding hands or dancing in the rain. When the year passes, he graduates and the professor quits (because of course this one couldn’t stay), but the first dragon baby he finds is named after the professor that smiled at him in class.

-

Percy Weasley walks into the library one day for a book he desperately needs, and gets told the final copy has been taken by this girl named Penelope Clearwater. He sees her reading it and slides into the seat beside her, asking quietly if she would mind sharing this book with him, and realizes she is in his classes. He doesn’t think much of this encounter, but then she starts chatting to him in class and during their Prefect patrols the next year. That’s when he starts to crush on this pretty Ravenclaw girl who always seems to have interesting thoughts on anything and everything. He asks her out for a drink at Hogsmeade after they hide from Peeves together in an abandoned classroom, book in his hand, and she says yes.

-

Fred Weasley was not a fan of Gobstones (the putrid liquid that got sprayed whenever he lost a point being the main reason) but when he gets challenged by a Slytherin student he’s never met before, he takes up their offer instantly. They have a quick series of games, in which he both wins and loses in alternate turns, and by the end of the final game he’s laughing along to a joke about the staircases. (He’s never laughed with people from other houses before, it takes him too long to realize this.) He stares at the green-and-silver tie around their neck a little too often from then on, and stops playing pranks on Slytherin just for a few days, but never plays with them after that day. (He does, however, use his first bit of money from his shop to purchase his own Gobstones - and when they walk into the shop, he always makes sure to help them out.)

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George Weasley has always, always appreciated Angelina Johnson. At first for her beauty and talent in Quidditch, and then for her ability to joke around and rough-house just as well as any of his siblings could. They fly around the pitch, and when they’re so high up he can appreciate the glow of her skin in the sunlight and the way her braids whip around in the wind. Once, he offered her a ribbon to tie her hair up, carefully not telling her that he’d spent four days learning how to conjure one just for this purpose, and she’d kissed his cheek before asking if he knew how to braid hair. (Of course he did, he had a sister and a mother who both regularly called upon the men in the family to help with hairstyles.) He dances with her at the Yule Ball, explaining that Fred had asked on his behalf as he was too afraid to, and she throws her head back and laughs that he’d never been scared of her as a Chaser when she actually had to throw Quaffles around. They kiss that night for the first time. He never kisses any other girl.

-

Ron Weasley doesn’t think the bushy-haired, buck-toothed girl on the Hogwarts Express is all that pretty, at first. She’s a motormouth with a weird name that regurgitates entirely too many syllables in a few seconds. She does kind of impress him with her knowledge about magic and his new friend (the Boy-Who-Lived, he reminds himself), but she really needs to learn how to hold actual conversations. And yet she has the prettiest brown eyes on anyone he’s ever met, he can admit, and she’d probably be nice to be friends with. He watches her leave, not knowing that he has a little smile on his face. (Friends. Ha. When he sweeps her off her feet seven years later, he still thinks she has the prettiest eyes he’s ever seen.)

-

Ginny Weasley curls up in bed, each breath seemingly ripped from her in long, shuddering gasps as tears stream down her face. Her memory is finally returned to her and she has never felt worse. She’s been told that nobody blames her for being possessed (by Voldemort, for Merlin’s sake), but she’s been the reason students were petrified and exams were cancelled. She was also the reason behind her brother rushing into the Chamber with Harry Potter...oh, Harry. The boy she’d dreamed of and written into that diary for so many days. (Please don’t let him be put into danger because of me. I didn’t know who I was talking to. I didn’t realize the diary was evil. Please let him be spared from my mistakes.) She wonders idly how he’d ever think of her as anything but a weak-minded child now. She’d scrubbed her hands raw trying to erase the blood and ink on her skin, and nothing’s worked. They wouldn’t be fit to hold his, not when she’d let the hands of his parents’ murderer slip beneath her skin and permeate her bones. But it would have been sweet, she thinks bitterly, if it could have been me. If it could have been her that had stood by him. Her that had been his friend. Her that hadn’t been tainted by Voldemort. If it could have been, really.

[jimlingss]

Hey Kina!! any advice about the LSAT exam you could provide? I’m about to graduate as well, and I haven’t taken the LSAT yet QQ, I’m starting to study now and planning to take it August. I’m in Canada I’m hoping to get a response by December after I finish my application in Oct.

LG and reading comp. literally traumatize me with the time limit and I feel so burnt out whenever I look at the books and plan my time for how many hours i need to study a week. I’m only really only a week in and my head pounds.

I would really appreciate the advice! I’m an absolute fan of all of your stories, i don’t know how you manage to juggle writing with school and upcoming graduation, what a god 🤯

you give me too much credit but hell yes I have advice regarding the LSAT. That exam is really something and it feels like I’ve went to hell and back so I’m happy to help others however I can with it.

I’ll break this answer down with my experience and then my recommendation.

Experience: I started studying for the LSAT six months before I took it. I went in completely blind and started with practice test LSAT 40 and scored about 143. ofc I timed it. When you take the practice exams, you have to simulate actual testing conditions as best as you can, so that means printing it out and doing it with the timing restrictions. The first 3 LSAT tests I did I scored in the 140s. 

I gradually improved and hit the 150s range. At first I did the entire test in one sitting (with breaks ofc) but it’s so time consuming that I started just doing one section a day. But on Saturdays, I did one entire practice test and on Sundays I would mark that + go through it. So on average, I did 2 practice tests a week. 

But then disaster struck when I was stuck in the 150s. 

From practice LSAT 43-70 no matter how much I went through it, how much I studied, I could not break into the 160s that I needed. At best I could maybe get 159, but typically I was scoring 155. Which clearly isn’t enough. I started to panic. I knew I needed to do something different. 

So I picked up The Loophole by Ellen Cassidy. During that time, I didn’t do any practice tests whatsoever. I stopped doing LSAT and went through the book a chapter a day. And while it’s focused in LR, a few chapters really helped me out with reading comp. I think there’s 14 chapters (if I remember correctly) so it took me around 2 weeks to go through it. Maybe I should’ve slowed down but I was running out of time. But the book helped me break into the 160s. I loved it.

I was pretty happy and relieved and from LSAT 70ish-89, I was scoring from 160-169 with an average of 164. 

COVID was a thing by then so the LSAT was online. I had saved the two practice tests they have online and practiced with those and when the day came, I did it in a quiet space without any interruption. I ended up with a 160.

A bit of a bummer considering I was scoring 164 consistently before that but it’s good enough, I can’t really complain. I decided not to re-take it.

Recommendation: Honestly if I had to recommend to someone how to approach the LSAT, I’d tell them to take the first 3 LSAT practice tests blind w/o any knowledge of what it is and without any prior textbook reading. Learn by doing it and get the gist of what it’s about. 

After the first 3 LSAT practice tests, pick up The LSAT Trainer by Mike Kim. I don’t have experience with it personally but I’ve heard great things about it from others. ((For me - I thought I didn’t need textbooks and I could study completely on my own but that was very dumb. I honestly wish I had more time, I would’ve picked this book up + the Loophole sooner)).

After completing The LSAT trainer (try to do it in a month? to not waste time? if possible). Then do a few more LSAT practice tests. I’d say 5 of them? 

After that, pick up The Loophole. Do that within a month. Then just keep rolling with the LSAT practice tests.

The most recent practice test released is your holy grail. That will be the test most similar to the actual test you will receive so make sure you save that one but make it one of your last tests. For me that was LSAT 89 (or 90?) but there might’ve been newer ones by now. There’s no point in studying LSAT 1-39 because they’re so old that it won’t be that similar to what you’ll take. 

ALTERNATIVELY - Sign up for 7sage. I know loooots of people do that. Don’t really know how it works since I haven’t used it but it’s advantageous if your LSAT will be online since 7sage is also online. 

I’d still pick up those two books I mentioned above tho. 

Other Recommendations - LSAT is sooo time consuming that your whole day is basically consumed by it. Not to mention you have to mark it and learn your mistakes afterwards. Look into doing a timed section a day? That’s only 35 mins so it becomes wayyy more manageable.

Also take marking very seriously. You learn just as much from what you did right and wrong as actually doing the timed section.

Another note, make a whole schedule to manage yourself. I made a google document on what I was going to do every single day. What section. What practice exam. What chapter of what textbook. Plan it all and then by the end when you have the plan, you’ll feel a lot more comforted. Like wow it’s not thatttt much + as long as I follow through with this and do a little a day, I’ll make it.

One more thing - take the exam when you start consistently scoring what you want to score. If you want to score in the 160s and you’ve been hitting that mark for the past 5-10 exams, you are probably ready. If you study too much, that’s a bad thing too. You want that sweet spot timing before you’re burnt out.

Also take breaks. Schedule them in. One day breaks. It’s easy to be burnt out.

((I got most of my practice tests for free btw on b-ok.cc)).

Now I’ll be a bit more specific in my advice....

LR - The Loophole helped me a lot with LR. Also I did a lot of LR practice questions and I naturally started to pick up on patterns. But this section fluctuated a lot for me. Sometimes I did well, sometimes I did poorly.

underline the ones you’re unsure about and move on. it’s better to just go back if you have time in the end then wasting time dwelling on it when you could be getting others right.

Reading Comp - At the beginning I fluctuated a lot with this section. But the first chapter of the Loophole really helped me improve and break down readings. The sentences in reading comps are very long winded and purposely written poorly, so keep that in mind. Just read slowly and soak in as much as you can the first time. I was never a fan of the advice of reading it over twice. It felt like a waste of time. Instead, the first time, as you read, try to guess what might be important or a question and underline it. That helped me. 

Games - My favourite section and the section that you can most easily improve on. Just do a lot of practice games and then watch the videos on how others do it. Once you master a game style, you’ll know how to replicate it in the future.

for some reason timing started to become an issue for me later on in the games section in spite of having improved on it, but I realized it was because I was dwelling and double checking when I didn’t need to.

In general: LSAT is a super interesting test as it’s unlike any other test. It’s not dependent on information that you’re supposed to know. It’s not studying info and being asked questions on it. It’s not regurgitation. It’s not memorization. And in that way, ANYONE can improve. It’s a test you can learn. So don’t lose hope!!

And good luck!

((edit - some things I forgot to mention. I tried to pick up Powerscore but their system was so complicated, I zoned out. some folks like the book tho. I’d still recommend the Loophole. also I hope this doesn’t make me seem like a know it all and that this is wayyyy too difficult - I literally started crying once while taking a timed exam. the test is stressful so its ok its understandable to have a breakdown. i sure did lol. so give yourself a break if you start getting stressed.)) 

[luminous-studiess]

Seeing as you mentioned in one of your last posts that you’ve learnt how to study in the pas semester, I was wondering if you could share with us your tips & tricks, please? I love your blog ❤️

hi!!!!! first of all, thank you so much for the kind words. it always helps when i hear that people like my content, and it’s nice to know when people on studyblr reach out and motivate each other. i hope you’re doing well as well!i guess i have to preface this with the fact that studying in undergrad is very different from studying in law school. also, studying in different undergraduate courses constitutes very different studying styles as well. for me, i took literature, so it was a lot of writing papers and not much memory work. in law school, there was a LOT of memory work. i did really badly for several months because i wasn’t used to studying for those kinds of exams. i may make posts if anyone’s interested on how to study specifically for literature or law classes, but for now, these are general tips on how to study.this is a long-ass post, so my apologies!

HOW TO STUDY!!!!!!! A HUGE GENERAL GUIDE FROM SAM FROM LUMINOUS STUDIES, AFTER ~7 YEARS OF HOMESCHOOLING, 4 YEARS OF UNDERGRAD (AND A MAGNA CUM LAUDE) AND ONE TERRIFYING SEMESTER OF LAW SCHOOL. 

FIRST THINGS FIRST: general tips, some life advice, preparation

- actual intelligence matters very little in school. some people learn faster, some take a little more time. being smart in itself does not matter when you don’t work. actual hard work can compensate for a less retentive memory (as i’ve found out over the semester). discipline and a lot of hard work always pay off, even if it seems rocky at first. make the resolve to dedicate a set amount of time to study everyday, even if it’s just an hour or so. a little is better than nothing. - my constitutional law professor (aka my favorite professor) advised one of my classmates to log her work hours. while it seems tempting to set a specific timeslot to get things done, sometimes life gets in the way, and you don’t actually get to work at 3 pm. maybe most of the time you sit at 3 pm is spent fiddling on your phone. to actually track productivity and consistency, time the hours you actively spend studying. put away all your distractions. personally, i like the forest app because it forces me to stay away from social media and lets me use the pomodoro method. on good study days, i get to log my work time in batches of 25 minutes. again, it can be the amount of hours you put in, but what matters is the quality of work you put in. stay consistent. i promise you. it helps- on the study environment: sometimes studyblr convinces you that you need a coffeeshop, an aesthetic library, a beautiful italian garden to get things done. that would be ideal, but most of us don’t have access to that. i suggest you evaluate if you work better in public spaces with a little sound ambience, to hold yourself accountable (coffeeshops, the school library, with friends), or in private, quiet spaces. once you know where you work best, know what keeps you focused. is it tea? a glass of iced coffee? a lofi playlist? a podcast? i find that process a little fun because it keeps the study process a little less dull and uncomfortable, as it often can be. don’t forget to keep it pleasant/rewarding, but note that overindulgence can distract you. trust me, i know this from experience.- study materials: are what you want and what you need. you don’t need anything fancy. personally, i need many colored pens and highlighters because i have a color-coding system for cases and provisions, but for undergrad, my best weapons were just a black ballpen and a nice mildliner. it’s preferential, and just see what works for you. - on study anxiety: i have mental health issues. i’ve been seeing a psychiatrist (and lately a therapist) for depression and anxiety, and it used to be really, really bad, to the point i couldn’t start. i think the best place to start is to find that kind of help if you really have bad mental health. but if it’s the kind of anxiety that stems from being worried that things won’t turn out well, or that there’s too much to do, it’s always best to start, and to remember that even a little, or something imperfect, is still progress. try it for 5 minutes. if you still can’t do it, rest. but sometimes we just need a little push. other things that really calm my anxiety are a good baroque playlist (check out baroque lute/jordi savali’s the celtic viol/bach’s goldberg variations on spotify!!!), jazz, or lofi, and lavender room spray. i also like to use gifs which help you with breathing techniques. you can find them all over tumblr and twitter. it’s also really helpful to ask others for help when you feel stuck. i’ve asked professors for a little consideration and classmates for advice and clarifications when i’m confused. reaching out to other people is often a great way to start the learning process. 

- scheduling: i find it hard to keep on top of things, so i’m really thankful to the classmate who added me to a google calendar with all the class assignments. i think it’s a great system for knowing what the assignments are, so google calendar is your friend. for daily tasks, bullet journals help keep me accountable. i have a really simple one. quick and dirty. ACTUALLY STUDYING: methods, tricks, tips- consider the subject. different classes require different methods. some classes like math and chemistry – which, disclaimer, i have very little experience with – require practice problems. for literature classes, this requires much free analysis, annotations, research, and your own interpretations. other classes like history and geology require the memorization of topics. consider what information you need to learn, and how you want to approach it.- TAKE NOTES DURING THE LECTURE. i can’t stress this enough. if the teacher or professor mentions it, it’s probably important. nowadays, for major classes, i mark the topic on the syllabus with a special-colored highlighter that i won’t use for anything else so i know it’s crucial and will probably turn up on an exam. note: if they place special emphasis on a bit of information because it probably WILL turn up during the exam. one of my professors mentioned that a case would probably turn up during the philippine bar exam and guess what. it did. listen to the professor, don’t goof around on twitter (me to my undergraduate self, tbh), take good notes. make the notes into a reviewer during exam season. pass the class.- pre-studying helps. this is mandatory in law school, because mostly, you go to class to regurgitate what you’ve studied (or didn’t study) on your own from the syllabus. for undergrad, however, it helps to give yourself a background on the material so you can engage in the class, and take notes more efficiently. also, as much as possible, do the required reading. you’ll probably do it in one night anyway before the exam, so at least spread your work out and do a reasonable amount weekly.- on that note: if you’re going to rush through the syllabus and do “a semester’s worth of info” in one night (yes we’ve all seen Those Memes) anyway, it will be less of a pain in the ass to actually do the work slowly and consistently every week. trust me. this comes from a procrastinator who’s getting bitten in the ass, so please learn this as early as you can. it saves you a lot of pain later on.- THE CLASS SYLLABUS IS YOUR BIBLE. it’s all there. before classes, go through it. keep it with you during class and annotate it if you have to. some of my friends like to space the syllabus out on a document file so they use the headings for note-making. the syllabus will be your friend during review season.- always learn actively. if you don’t know a word or term, it will always help to google. make notes in the margins. make flashcards so you state information and retrieve it instead of just recognizing it. form study groups. rewrite your notes. engage with what you’re learning and it becomes so much more interesting, and so much easier. - set a time to unwind religiously. breaks are so important to avoid burnout. i like friday nights for unwinding, family dinners, reading, watching series. please rest. REVIEW SEASON: HOW TO COPE. HOW TO PASS. HOW TO CRY AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. - exams are scary. i used to enjoy them, until law school, where i’ve been beaten up thoroughly by every exam. but strangely enough, this is where i only learned how to actually study for an exam with huge blocks of information. i realized that this method really helps for undergrad, and probably will get you honors if you stick to a similarly solid method. - study as early as you can. once you know when the exam is, make a study plan. two weeks is a good minimum. sometimes, there are professors and teachers who announce only a week before, which is unavoidable, so honestly. just make a plan. i tend to assign a set number of syllabus pages to cover/study for on each day so i have time to do a second reading/quizzing. - HOW TO REVIEW: remember the class notes? remember the syllabus? those will help you cover everything you need once you schedule. the syllabus is your map for what you need to cover. assume that everything in the syllabus is something you need to go over at least once, so assign a set number of pages/topics per day. the class notes are your guide on what to focus on. note the special topics which have been emphasized by the lecturer. it also helps if you know what parts you’re very unsure about, so you know what to work on again when you have extra time. i tend to make reviewers out of my class notes, which also helps to retain info, because i go over it again. make time to re-read and quiz yourself. - blanking out on exam day? i can honestly assure you that it’s probably because you didn’t sleep enough. you’ve studied the information, but sleep deprivation either makes you fall asleep during the exam (which has happened) or forget what you learned (which has also happened). if you’ve made the time to repeat what you’ve needed to learn, the studying isn’t the problem. i make a rule to try and avoid all-nighters when necessary because sleep is integral in helping you retain information. when i need extra time to study, i go to bed early, and wake up around 3 or 4 am to study some more. it really helps.DEALING WITH FAILURE: - my professor (a huge businessman, constitutionalist, overall a very successful person) told me that he would not get where he is now if he hadn’t failed. failure is growth because you know you’re doing something. the only true “failure” is when you stop trying. some days are hard, some days don’t yield the results even when you work hard. it’s okay. be gentle on yourself. you are still growing.- sometimes i think about the fact that “gifted child syndrome” aka burnout and perfectionism stem from how many smart kids are often praised for their intelligence and not their work ethic. so when they do badly later in life, they think it’s because they weren’t “smart enough” and give up easily. i think much of doing anything entails a lot of embarrassment, a lot of hard work, and lots of failure. it’s so hard to put up with, and it can often be depressing and unhealthy and put you in a bad place. sometimes we need to talk to someone professional, if it gets to that point. but sometimes, it also helps to realize that a little hard work will help us to get where we want to be. - ask for help. i talk to my friends, my parents, and my professors when i’m stuck. it really helps.ok, whew. i know there’s so much more about studying. but i hope this helps for now. please let me know if you guys want more specific study guides. good luck, loves! you got this.– sam 

[a-knightinsourarmor]

Here's an article of why the fuck my education system is one of the most fucked up

Please read

Why are Greece’s Panhellenic university exams flawed? Simply because they aren’t about the joys of learning. Indeed, I challenge you to find a country with a more nerve-wracking and pointless university entrance system than this! 

Thirteen years on the Greek education treadmill come to an end for Greek students who sat for the Panhellenic exams in four subjects from a total of seventeen or so compulsory units of study offered in senior high school. Scenes of frenzy accompany the announcement of results on school boards as students rush to get a first glimpse into their future once marks are posted at the start of summer, but it is only towards the end of August that they know for certain if they managed to get into their desired university course of choice.

The stakes are high. Pressure to succeed in the Panhellenic exams soars to nerve-wracking levels as the entire academic life of students is determined solely by their performance in these grueling exams. Competition is so tough that most students are forced to start extra tuition upon entering their senior freshman year and begin a rigorous course of study throughout the school vacation period. Extra tuition is necessary because school lessons aren’t enough to cut it.

It is a long drawn out ordeal, but the waiting game comes to an end on Wednesday as university bases are announced letting candidates find out if they managed to get into their schools of choice – ideally somewhere near their city of residence.

Here are 10 facts about Greece’s arduous Panhellenic exam system that is fraught with difficulties and contradictions:

1. Parents, teachers and students know that the Panhellenic System is flawed and sheer torture for students but it is regurgitated nonetheless as streamlining courses would result in lost tuition fees for teachers and more unemployment. There are 37,000 tutors registered with private tutoring companies. In some cases, students are taught at institutes by the same teacher they have at school creating “perverse incentives”.

2. Greece’s seemingly free education system is based on the principle of equality according to Article 16 of the Constitution. However, the overstuffed curriculum and low quality of some public schools in Greece has led to a parallel education system being set up. A student who does not attend frontistirio (private tuition) is a “dead man” for the exams. Unfortunately, this extra tuition averages 500 euros per month.

3. The economic crisis has resulted in rising unemployment and dropping salaries that has caused poorer families to struggle to pay for extra tuition. For this reason, the World Economic Forum ranked Greece last of 30 advanced economies when it came to the close relationship between students family income and their performance.

4. Students are separated into two thematic strands and sit for exams in specific subjects but are still required to attend lessons for subjects they won’t be sitting for. This means that half the class is always disinterested and disengaged in the lessons that don’t pertain to them which further increases the need for tuition.

5. The stakes are so high that all that matters in the final two years are scoring marks good enough to get first choice for schools. It is not unusual for classes at school to be empty after Easter  so that students can prepare for the strand of subjects they are interested in and they usually take the maximum number of absences they are allowed.

6. The four Panhellenic subjects for university entrance are tested on a written basis on a national scale. They all play an equal role in the establishment of the general average. However, as regards to the leaving certificate (apolytirio), all subjects are tested on a school level. This means that students still have to sit for school exams in the same subjects they were tested for in the Panhellenic exam as well as other areas of studies that aren’t calculated as part of their university entrance requirements. Hence, it is possible  for a student to do well in the Panhellenic exams but still repeat the class.

7. The success of each candidate is determined from the combination of the marks on the test and whether these are good enough to ensure that they are admitted to a school high on their declaration of preferences. Whether they manage to do this depends on the number of places available in each department and determined by supply and demand during any particular year.

8. Students whose parents can afford it bypass state schools and go to universities in other countries such as the United Kingdom or the United States.

9. With so much money invested in their students education, Greek parents tend to be overbearing. Having paid a small fortune, they tend to view their child’s success as their own, detracting from their offspring’s sense of personal achievement. Failure is not just the child’s personal failure but comes at a financial cost adding more financial strain to the family increasing the young person’s anxiety levels.

10. Students are groomed by parents and teachers from the start of high school for this one exam. Each year, schools close early so that final-year students can sit for these exams without distractions and from early on students are trained to learn how to study in a way that would help them succeed in this one exam. Rather than prepare them for success, students are merely misguided into thinking that Panhellenic Exams are the point of education and – of course – this could not be further from the truth.

[lieuwrites]

In It To Win It | Xu Minghao | Oneshot

Title: In It To Win It

Pairing: Xu Minghao x Reader

Synopsis: Minghao’s rivalry with his fellow classmate gets serious.

Genre/Warnings: Fluff, High School!AU, Rivals to Lovers, female reader, Svt side characters (95 line and 97 line), non-idol!AU

Words: 7.9k

POV: Third Person

Minghao walked the halls of the school, pushing past the loitering students. There was two minutes before the bell rang, signalling the start of the school day, and he had never been late to a class. In fact, Minghao was almost always the first student in homeroom. Other times it was (y/n).

“Get out of the way before I run you over!” A voice yelled from behind him. He turned and met eyes with (y/n), who was bolting towards him, before increasing his walking speed and eventually breaking into a sprint to his destination. The students around them did as usual and moved out of the way. It wasn’t an unexpected occurrence for the two to be racing towards their classroom. The two were eventually neck and neck with each other, the goal of the race clear in their vision. Minghao reached his hand out to grab the doorknob but instead was met with a smaller hand.

“You’re a second too late,” The girl boasted. She pushed his hand off of hers by turning the knob and walking into class first. He scoffed at her as he followed closely behind and then took the seat right next to her. The rivalry between the two was of a different sort. Although they bickered constantly and teased each other whenever they could, there was rarely a moment when the two were apart. They sat together in class, hung out during their break and walked home together. These occurrences were of course littered with excuses such as “It’s easier to see the board from these seats”, “We don’t hang out together, we just happen to have the same group of friends” and “Our houses just happen to be in the same direction.”

It was hard for anyone except themselves to understand but the competition between Minghao and (y/n) created a sort of friendship which, in it’s own way, was simply complicated.

As the bell rang for class to begin, their fellow classmates started to file into the room, followed by the teacher Mr Kim. His eyes trailed to the pair that sat directly in front of his desk and the usual sigh escaped his lips. The start of class also meant the start of their childish antics. Classwork was never their main priority as they were too busy with their little competitions. Today’s challenge was ‘who can stack their pens the highest’ and the winner was obvious.

“You know, you’re only gonna win this because you have more pens than me,” The boy spoke.

“It’s not my fault you don’t care enough to bring spare equipment to class. Look at your pile, half of those pens are mine that I’ve lent you when you forgot your stuff at home,” (y/n) convicted.

Minghao huffed and softly shook her side of the shared desk causing the girl’s tower of pens to topple over while his stood tall.

“Hey! That’s cheating!”

“You know, if you two spent your time competing against each other on something more important like— oh I don’t know— your studies, I wouldn’t be such a stressed out teacher and you guys would probably be top of the class.” Mr Kim walked over to his desk after writing down the task on the board and continued to mark the previous night’s homework.

The two looked at each other and scoffed.

“Hah, can you believe him? Us compete in studies? That’s not even a competition,” (y/n) laughed, one hand holding her stomach whilst the other landed on Minghao’s shoulder.

“I know right? I would definitely smash you.”

Her laughter stopped suddenly and she turned glared at her seatmate. “I’m pretty sure I’d be kicking your ass in class.” Both glared quietly at the other for a second before abruptly turning their heads towards their teacher and yelling at the same time.

“What did Minghao get in the last test?”

“What did (y/n) get in the last test?”

All Mr Kim could do was let out a sigh. “When will you kids give me a break? Look it doesn’t matter what either of you got, you were both below average. I suggest stepping your game up and actually spending your time studying instead of doing whatever you guys are doing now. This year’s final exams start on the 13th of october and that’s your chance to turn this all around.”

It was like a truck had hit them. Neither of the two noticed how much this rivalry had affected their studies until now. With a new goal in mind, (y/n) held her hand out to Minghao and he grabbed it, indicating that he too had the same idea. “Whoever has the better grades for finals, wins.”

And that was where the newest competition began.

Tuesday, September 13 (30 days until finals)

The next morning (y/n) ran to class as she normally would however this time the halls were empty. She had spent the previous night studying and learning whatever she hadn’t picked up in class and there was still so much more to learn. Because of her late night studies, the girl had slept past her alarm and ended up late for class.

(Y/n) barged into the room to be met with the sight of Mr Kim and the rest of the students already working on the day’s lesson. “Oh, (y/n)! Looks like I beat you today.” Minghao smirked as the girl huffed in annoyance. She dragged her feet as she walked to sit down and ended up walking past her usual spot, much to the surprise of Minghao, and instead sat next to their class’s resident smart boy, Lee Seokmin.

“Well, that’s a change.” Mr Kim walked over and placed a detention slip for being late onto the desk in front of the girl and (y/n) groaned.

“C’mon sir, just let me off this one time. I’m only late cause I listened to what you said yesterday and ended up staying up late studying. A detention will disrupt my learning experience!”

She was answered with a chuckle and a shake of the teacher’s head as he walked back to his seat. “Consider this an additional learning experience then. Get to class on time.”

Minghao stood outside the school gates waiting for (y/n) to walk out so they could go home together as usual. She only lived a block away from him and it was routine for them to walk home together. He knew he had to wait an additional 30 minutes for her to get out of detention --Minghao couldn’t help the smirk that slipped onto his face whenever he thought about it-- but it had been almost an hour and she hadn’t shown up yet.

After what felt like decades, the familiar figure of the girl exited the building’s door. She walked directly towards Minghao and he turned around to lead the way. It was a few minutes into their walk when he noticed she was lagging behind. The boy looked back over his shoulder and saw the stack of textbooks in her arms. It was a wonder he didn’t notice them before as the stack was so big that it was definitely too much for the girl to carry all the way back by herself.

He turned around and held his arms out for her to place some books into his grasp and she complied, grateful for his offer. The two continued to walk in silence until Minghao spoke up.

“I’m not doing this for free, okay? I’m taking one of these books to study off of for tonight.”

“No way! I didn’t spend half an hour in detention, 15 minutes looking for all these books and then another 15 minutes arguing with the librarian—”

“—Why were you arguing with the librarian?”

“I had some overdue books from 1st grade that I never returned— But that’s not the point! The point is, I didn’t spend that much time in school for you to take one of my textbooks. I need to catch up on so much study!” (Y/n) exclaimed, as if her life depended on the multiple textbooks she checked out.

“You act like you’re the only one who wasted an hour at school. I had to wait for you when I could’ve been catching up on study that I’ve missed.”

“Firstly, it wasn’t a waste of my hour if I was able to borrow some books and secondly, you didn’t have to wait. I would’ve been totally fine walking home by myself.”

The two reached the front of (y/n)’s house which prompted Minghao to turn to the girl and drop the bundle of books he was holding into the girl’s arms, causing a few of them to tumble out of her grasp. He chuckled at her and bent down to pick up the fallen items. When he stood, the girl dumped the rest of the books into his arms and fished for her house keys in her bag.

“Yep, you definitely would’ve been totally fine walking home by yourself.” He watched the girl step into her house and gave her back her pile of textbooks before saluting and jogging away from her house.

(Y/n) stood at her door and waited for Minghao to leave her line of sight. He turned back one more time to call out to her –“Don’t be late to class tomorrow! Oh and thanks for the book!”– and ran to the next block where his house was stationed, waving a stolen textbook in the air tauntingly at her.

A few hours after he got home, Minghao sat at his desk, the wall clock above reading 11:48 at night, flicking through the textbook he had taken from his rival. Honestly, he took the first book he could and it ended up being biology, a subject he was already well versed in. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to nab her history textbook which is the subject he really needed to work on.

Minghao was a smart boy, no doubt about it. He was the type who crammed the night before a test as he could easily pick up content, however, history was the one exception to his natural blessing. He didn’t know how (y/n)’s intelligence compared to his but he was sure her ambition to win their bet was on par with his which meant he wasn’t going to leave his studying till last minute, as he usually did.

Just as the thought of her passed his mind, Minghao’s phone lit up with a message from the girl herself.

Sent Tuesday, 11:51 pm (Y/n) to Minghao: You may have taken my bio textbook but I was still able to regurgitate notes for the subject :-p [IMAGE ATTACHED]

As he unlocked the phone to view the image and a wave of confidence washed over him, he was definitely going to win this bet. Reading over the many --jesus, this girl had a lot of time-- notes in her picture, he could tell that (y/n) had written what she could remember from the top of her head. Although there was a lot of information written down, she had matched different concepts with the incorrect theories, her vocabulary list was lacking many important words, her discovery timeline was jumbled and many of the facts were either missing some content or just completely wrong.

Minghao laughed at her attempt and opened up the text book he borrowed, snapping pictures of the correct concepts, facts and timelines before typing a response and attaching the pictures.

Sent Tuesday, 11:55 pm Minghao to (y/n): You might wanna double check those notes of yours. [5 IMAGES ATTACHED]

The ’seen, 11:55 pm’ message popped up and the boy waited a bit for a response before concluding that (y/n) had gone to correct her mistakes. He looked at the same image she sent him, admiring her neat handwriting. The notes were perfectly colour coded and a clear highlighting system was visible. As his eyes continued to scan the notes, the sound of his message tone went off once again, alerting him of another message.

It was simply another picture of (y/n)’s notes, the new and corrected information was messily scribbled onto the paper, squeezed into the little spaces between each line and over any useless, unneeded details. The message was then pushed up by a few more pictures of her notes. They were just as neat as the first picture she sent however they contained different information.

Sent Wednesday, 12:05 am (Y/n) to Minghao: Here’s a thank you for helping me with my bio notes.

Minghao scanned through the new pictures and realised they were her history notes. He could tell that what she had written down would’ve taken him a while to read over in the textbook but her notes perfectly condensed the information he needed into a quick read over.

Sent Wednesday, 12:07 am Minghao to (y/n): How’d you know I was struggling with history?

Sent Wednesday, 12:08 am (Y/n) to Minghao: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I guess I’m just psychic.

(Y/n) was in fact, not psychic but she was in contact with Lee Seokmin. Seokmin was a friend of Minghao’s and although they hung in the same group, (y/n) had never had a one on one conversation with the boy. After she had decided to sit next to him to avoid being distracted by Minghao, she was able to get to know him more. He was even nice enough to offer some tutoring sessions to her at the end of class before he packed up his stuff and left for the day.

(”Oh come on, the whole class knows about your new bet with Minghao. You guys made such a big deal about it yesterday, it’d be a wonder if someone in this class didn’t know about it.” Seokmin followed his fellow classmates as he closed his book and started to pack his stationery away.

The girl stayed put in her spot, sighing at the thought of having to stay back for detention. “Okay but why are you offering to tutor me? You’re closer to Minghao than you are to me. If anything, you’ve teamed up with him to teach me the wrong topics for the upcoming tests. You guys could be in kahootz!”

“Believe me, I would never. You think you two are the only people in the school who like to make bets? I have one going on with Mingyu. He thinks Minghao will win because that boy has a photographic memory. He can cram the night before an exam and still pass. I’m still in shock that Mr Kim said he was below average. I, however, believe you can win this bet.”

“Because I’m smart?” She asked hopefully.

“Because you’re lucky and are currently on a winning streak.”

“So to be clear, you think I’m going to win because I’m lucky and not because I’m smart?”

“And because I’m going to tutor you!” Seokmin insisted.

“And again, to be clear, you are going to tutor me because I’m lucky but not smart?”

“I take back what I said- I think you’ll win, not because you’re lucky but because you’re smart, happy?”

“Say that last part again?” The girl teased with a grin spread across her face.

“I think I know why you and Minghao bicker all the time.”)

As soon as (y/n) got home, she ate and went straight to writing her notes. It was around 11 at night that she finished writing the last of her notes --biology was a struggle without her textbook-- and sent the end product to both Minghao and Seokmin. What seemed like almost instantly, Seokmin replied with a long text correcting her biology notes to which she replied with a quick thank you and started to scribble over her notes messily.

Another minute later Minghao sent a set of pictures of the textbook he had taken which was almost as good as Seokmin’s text. There was just too much information for her to look through but Seokmin’s texts were straight to the point. (Y/n) was still thankful for Minghao’s help.

Sent Tuesday, 11:56 pm (Y/n) to Seokmin: What subject does Minghao struggle with the most?

Sent Tuesday, 11:56 pm Seokmin to (y/n): History. Why? Planning on sending him fake notes to increase your chances of winning?

Sent Tuesday, 11:57 pm (Y/n) to Seokmin: As tempting as that sounds, my conscience isn’t strong enough for such an evil plan. I thought you said I was smart! I don’t need to play dirty to win >:-(

Sent Tuesday, 11:58 pm Seokmin to (y/n): You are smart!! I believe in you completely!! But there’s nothing wrong with a little help ;-)

The girl rolled her eyes at the text, snapping pictures of her notes and sending them over to Minghao. After a few more minutes of talk, (y/n) bid both boys goodnight and got up to get ready for bed.

Sent Wednesday, 12:17 am Minghao to (y/n): Goodnight ya weirdo. Don’t be late for class today!

Wednesday, September 14 (29 days until finals)

As if the universe was against him, Minghao had found himself in the very same predicament as (y/n) was in the day before. He was up late reading over (y/n)’s notes and ended up hitting the snooze button on his alarm in his sleep deprived state. When he had finally woken up, his eyes adjusted to the bright light from his phone and his heart hammered in his chest when he realised just how late he was for class.

The boy sped to school and bolted through the hallways until he was able to burst through the classroom door. His hair was a mess and the buttons on his uniform shirt were misaligned. ’Oh, (y/n) is going to have a field day making fun of me.’ As he moved towards his desk, Minghao noticed the empty seat beside his and smirked. Despite how late he was, he had won once again.

A detention slip was then placed on his desk by the teacher and Minghao groaned in annoyance, laying his head down on top of the detention slip. “I thought you would’ve learned from (y/n)’s experience yesterday, she sure did.”

The boy’s head whipped up and turned around to look at the rest of the class. Most students had their heads down and pens busy, working on their first class task but Minghao’s eyes landed on (y/n), who was seated next to Seokmin, the same seat as yesterday.

She smirked at the boy and tauntingly wiggled her fingers as a wave. She then went back to working on the paper in front of her, looking for answers in the textbook propped up like a wall in front of her on her desk.

Minghao’s phone vibrated in his pocket and he held it under the desk as an attempt to hide it from Mr Kim while he read the message he received.

He had a few missed calls and some texts from Mingyu asking where he was but his most recent message was from (y/n).

Sent Wednesday, 8:53 am (Y/n) to Minghao: “Don’t be late to class today” says the boy who is now 50 minutes late to class.

Before he could attempt to respond, Mr Kim called out to him to confiscate the phone.

“Phones aren’t supposed to be used in class Minghao. You know the rules, you’ll get it back at the end of the day.”

After the seemingly excruciatingly long day, Minghao left the building of the almost empty school. The half hour of detention wasn’t much of a punishment as the aura of the classroom motivated him to do some study and left him with a sense of accomplishment. He walked to the gate and stopped to look around for (y/n) but she was nowhere in sight.

“I can’t believe she went home without me.” Minghao sighed and went on his way home.

He arrived home and sat down at his desk, ready to do some catch up studying. “If (y/n) is so determined to rush home and study, then I guess I’m going to have to step up my game,” the boy muttered to himself.

Minghao gathered some snacks and all his study essentials, prepared to go the rest of the day at his desk.

“I honestly don’t understand how you got all of that from how the author described the weather.” The girl threw her arms up in the air in exasperation before dropping them back down onto the library desk, causing a loud bang to resonate around the library. The other students around her, who were also studying, shushed her and went back to their books.

“It’s not the author’s thoughts on the weather, it’s the character’s thoughts on the weather. He called sun unbearably hot and then compared the heat to satan’s asshole, he’s obviously annoyed.” Seokmin made sure to put emphasis on the words that helped him deduce the answer to the practise quiz’ question.

“Well if it were summer and we were in the middle of a heatwave I doubt he’d compare it to god’s embrace,” The girl scoffed out, adding quotation marks around ‘god’s embrace’.

Seokmin put his pen down and turned towards the girl next to him, placing his hands firmly on (y/n)’s shoulders. The usual smile on his face was pressed into a firm line and his eyebrows were knitted together in a look of panic. He then shook her back and forth while he whispered --it felt more like a yell to (y/n)-- at the girl, in attempt at being quiet to not annoy the students around them.

“Do you know what’s at stake for me here? You and Minghao have your fun and games, someone wins a bet between you two and they get bragging rights! Mingyu and I? One of us wins this bet and they get cash! You need to work with me, girl!”

Seokmin then released her and brushed off her shoulders, straightening the sleeves of her shirt which crumpled under his grasp.

“Did you let it all out?” She asked calmly.

“For today? Yes. For the next few weeks of me tutoring you? That is T.B.D, to be determined.”

“Okay well since we have weeks to study, how about we take a break and leave early today? What do you think?”

“I think you’re trying to bail on your first day of me tutoring you,” Seokmin countered.

“You are completely correct my good sir!” Before Seokmin could protest, (y/n) looked up at him with pleading eyes and a pout. He gave her a hard stare but eventually gave in.

“Okay fine, but just this once. After today, I’m gonna make you study so hard, you’ll have bragging rights for the rest of your high school life.”

“I love when you talk dirty,” She joked in a sultry tone.

“Don’t be gross, (y/n).”

The two packed up their stuff and left the school library, parting ways at the entrance.

(Y/n) waved goodbye to Seokmin and went over to the school gate, expecting to see Minghao waiting for her as usual but he wasn’t at the gate. She checked her watch, which read 3:45 pm, and the girl sat down on the concrete to wait.

’Minghao should’ve gotten out of detention at 3:30. Maybe he’s taking his time to get here,’ She thought. After a few more minutes of waiting, she concluded that Minghao had already went home without her.

By the time she got home and changed out of her uniform, her message tone rang out. (Y/n) picked it up expecting it to be Minghao but was instead greeted with Seokmin’s name.

Sent Wednesday, 4:18 pm Seokmin to (y/n): Don’t forget to go over the content we learned today! I also slipped a practise test into your bag while we were packing up. I expect it to be done by tomorrow.

Sent Wednesday, 4:19 pm (Y/n) to Seokmin: Alright MOM, I’ll get them done! Now don’t text me, I need to get in the zone.

She exited the conversation and her thumb hovered over the most recent contact under Seokmin. She chewed her lip while contemplating on whether or not to send a message before clicking the conversation.

Sent Wednesday, 4:22 pm (Y/n) to Minghao: I walked home alone today.

Her eyes fell to the ‘seen, 4:23 pm’ and then moved towards the typing bubble.

Sent Wednesday, 4:24 pm Minghao to (y/n): You sure did.

Three simple words held enough power to make her heart drop. It was hard to convey your mood over text but she was so sure Minghao was annoyed at her. Was it because she got his phone confiscated? Or maybe he was just having a bad day after detention.

She quickly typed a message in –’Sorry for getting your phone confiscated’– but quickly deleted it and turned her phone off.

“It’s not my fault that he couldn’t hide his phone from the teacher properly,” she mumbled to herself and then pulled out the practise tests from her bag.

Tuesday, September 20 (23 days until finals)

The group of friends sat at the lunch table with their food in front of them, and ate whilst making conversation. The exceptions in this group were Minghao and (y/n), who instead of lunch had books and notes in front of them.

“Kids, studying is good and all but you won’t be able to focus unless you have some food in your system,” Jeonghan chided, bringing a spoon of rice to Minghao’s lips. Minghao opened his mouth, gladly accepted the food from his senior and kept studying.

“It’s nice having these two quietly studying though. It beats their constant bickering,” Seungcheol added, following in Jeonghan’s actions and feeding the girl next to him.

“I guess so, but don’t you miss it? These kids butting heads was my source of entertainment.” Jeonghan ruffled Minghao’s hair and paused for a thought. “Come to think of it, they haven’t spoken to each other at all these past few days.”

It was true, the pair hadn’t spoken since wednesday. Their bickering had turned into complete silence, save for the very few times they would throw venom laced words at the other.

“That’s not true,” Mingyu chimed in, “(y/n) called him ‘a nuisance to the world’ today in class.”

“Can you stop talking about us like we’re not here?” The girl demanded. “And Minghao is a nuisance to the world.”

Said boy glared at her from across the table. “I wasn’t the one who wasn’t watching where I was going,” he accused.

“I don’t need to watch where I’m going! Who in their right mind stops walking in a doorway?” (Y/n)’s voice started to raise. From that point onwards, the two started arguing in a swift back and forth manner.

“I was going to tie my shoelace!”

“And you couldn’t have waited till you were inside the classroom to do that?”

“I’m going to drop this argument.”

“Why, because I’m right?” She accused.

“Because you’re stupid and this argument is stupid.” Minghao slammed his palm onto the table, causing Jisoo’s drink to spill onto the girl’s notes. The table went silent for a second, staring at the ruined paper, the ink bleeding and unintelligible, before (y/n) spoke up.

“Like I said,”—she stood and collected the few notes that were unruined—”a nuisance, to the world.” Her words were heavy with spite and the girl stormed out of the cafeteria, leaving the boys quiet.

Jeonghan was the first to break the silence, “You guys felt that right? It’s not the same light hearted bickering that I enjoy.” Minghao stood up as well, packing his things, and exiting in the other direction.

Tuesday, September 27 (16 days until finals)

Although the school day had finished and Minghao had gone home already, he found himself on his way back to school. When he got home that day, the biology textbook he had taken from (y/n) was still on his desk.

He picked it up and shook his head, “Two weeks. She’ll end up getting into another fight with the librarian over her overdue books if I don’t return this.”

Which led to where he was now, at the school’s library. After dropping the book into the return pile, Minghao walked over to the history section to find a textbook for himself.

His eyes scanned the shelves until something caught his attention. From between the books he could see (y/n), studying. She looked up at his direction and Minghao froze, thinking he had been caught, until a figure walked towards her with a book in hand. The girl’s eyes followed the figure and when it sat down next to her, Minghao could see it was Seokmin.

It was strange seeing the two together out of class. He thought their relationship had only gone as far as deskmates, seeing as that was the new norm for her. (Y/n) had been sitting in the seat next to Seokmin since the bet started. There were no more stupid competitions on who could build the tallest pen tower or who could make the loudest sound without getting in trouble with Mr Kim, hell– their races to class even stopped. The only time any of the two would interact was during lunch and that was only to insult each other.

Minghao chose a book from the shelf and checked it out before leaving to go back home.

Wednesday, September 28 (15 days until finals)

Minghao was early to class as usual. There were a few other students inside as well but the teacher was still out seeing as there were still 10 minutes left before school officially started.

(Y/n) walked in and sat in her spot --Seokmin had yet to arrive-- and started to unpack. Minghao took the chance and stood up, walking towards his rival and seating himself down in Seokmin’s spot. They could feel the attention of the students who were in the classroom with them turn towards them.

“Can I help you, Minghao?” She sighed out, as if she were already fed up with their conversation.

“Good morning to you too, (y/n),” He responded in a chipper tone. The girl gave him a look in response that told him to get to the point.

“I saw you studying in the library with Seokmin the other day.”

“Yeah? He’s the smartest kid in our class, of course I’m going to get him to help me study. I’m in it to win it, baby,” She replied in a ‘matter of fact’ tone, crossing her arms.

“That’s got to be cheating or something.”

“I’m just using my resources. I suggest you do the same if you want to beat me.” Just then, Seokmin walked into class and towards his desk, which was Minghao’s cue to move.

“Oh? Good morning Minghao, (y/n),” Seokmin greeted, slightly confused with the sight of the two rivals together once again.

“Good morning Seokmin. I’ll see you two later.” And with that, Minghao was back to his seat at the front of the class.

Just as the day before, Minghao found (y/n) sitting at the same table in the library, concentrating on the textbook in front of her. He pulled the seat out across from her, sat down, and started to unpack.

“Hey Seokmin can you help me with this question?” She looked up and a wave of surprise washed over her features before quickly morphing into a look of suspicion.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” She accused.

“I’m taking your advice and using my resources like you said. I’m in it to win it, baby,” He mocked.

“Hey guys!”—Seokmin arrived—”Let’s get our study on!” He was then shushed by the surrounding students who were trying to focus on their own work.

Seokmin pulled out his pre-prepared practise quizzes that he usually brought for (y/n) and distributed them. “I brought spares so Minghao could work on the same ones as us.”

As the rest of their study session went on, the girl continuously asked questions about the practise quiz. Seokmin was patient and explained everything he needed to until she understood the question. Minghao, however, stayed quiet and continued to do his work.

“You know, if you’re not here to study then you might as well be at home,” The girl threw out to Minghao.

“What makes you think I’m not studying?”

“You’re too quiet. You’re not asking Seokmin for help on the questions you don’t understand. I bet you’re just here to throw me off cause you know your presence irks me.”

Minghao finished the question he was working on, which happened to be the last question on the quiz, and handed it over to Seokmin. (Y/n) looked over at the paper while Seokmin marked it and it was littered with green ticks, signalling his correct marks.

“Wow good job dude! You lost a few marks for some questions but this is definitely a pass. It’s a top mark in my books!” Seokmin praised.

Minghao grinned at them and (y/n) cursed under her breath.

“Wipe that smug look off your face, it’s irritating.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to look at my ‘irritating’ face anymore. I will be taking my leave.” And with those words, Minghao stood up, grabbed his bag and left.

Monday, October 3 (10 days until finals)

Minghao sat across from (y/n) in the library, both studying one of the tests Seokmin gave them the day before. Unfortunately, Seokmin couldn’t make it to school cause he was sick which meant he wasn’t able to monitor their study session. During the time the two were studying together, the girl had somehow been able to keep turning the conversation onto the topic of Seokmin.

“I just hope he’s okay you know? I know he texted and said it was just a cold and then when I called him he sounded fine, except for his blocked nose, but I can’t help but worry about him.”

“Will you please shut up? You’ve been going on about him for the past hour,” Minghao groaned.

“I can’t help it, I’m just so used to having him here and helping me and now I can’t do this—”

“—Which question are you stuck on?”

The girl sighed and reluctantly slipped her paper across the table to Minghao. “Oh that one? All you have to do is balance the chemical equations and then apply it to the experiment.” The boy then got up to move into the seat next to (y/n) and started to solve the problems. He explained it just as well as Seokmin would and the girl finally understood.

“You, Xu Minghao, are a genius,” She praised.

The day went on exactly like that, Minghao explaining the solutions to the questions she was stuck on and vice versa. The bitter aura around the two rivals slowly dissipated during the study session until it was eventually forgotten. When the clock hit 4:50pm, the librarian announced that the library would be closing in 10 minutes which translated to ‘pack up and go home.’

It had been a while since the pair walked home together. The sun was starting to set and littered the streets with rays of warm orange. The breeze was cool against their skin and the sounds of crickets starting to chirp set the aura for a peaceful stroll.

“The weather’s nice right now,” Minghao spoke up.

“It is. We’ve never gone for a walk this late.”

The conversation stopped there but it was evident that the two still had more they wanted to say. As they finally reached (y/n)’s house, the girl bid Minghao goodbye and turned to open her front door. As she stepped into the doorway, Minghao caught her wrist, causing her to turn around. Their eyes connected and the two stared at each other for a bit before the boy spoke up.

“Same time tomorrow?” He asked hopefully.

(Y/n)’s eyes softened and she responded, “Definitely, same time tomorrow.”

Tuesday, October 4 (9 days until finals)

When (y/n) walked into the class, everyone was surprised to see her take the seat next to Minghao. Mr Kim strode into class, not a second later, and sighed at the sight of the same troublemakers sitting together once again.

“I want to remind you all”—He paused to look pointedly at Minghao and (y/n)—”that the final exams are coming up in almost a week. This means that these last few classes are important and you shouldn’t get off track from your studies.”

The girl grinned at her teacher, before speaking, “Come on Mr Kim, we know you’re talking about us. Relax a bit, will you?”

“You won’t even notice the change.” Minghao added.

“Dear god, I hope so.”

Tuesday, October 18 (A day after finals)

Their final exams went for a painstakingly long four days, starting on the 13th and ending on the 17th. By the end of it, Minghao and (y/n) looked like zombies, which the guys kept joking about, teasing their haggard appearances.

The group of students sat at their usual table in the cafeteria, the three seniors, Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Jisoo, and the four juniors, Seokmin, Mingyu, Minghao and (y/n).

“Guys, halloween isn’t for two weeks! You need to take off those costumes, they’re starting to look terribly realistic.” Jeonghan held his hand up for a high five which Jisoo stared at and then completely ignored.

(Y/n) replied with a sarcastic laugh which stopped abruptly and finished with her middle finger directed straight at Jeonghan. “Bite me, Jeonghan.”

“Isn’t that your job, (y/n)?” Jeonghan fired back quickly, holding his hand up once again to Jisoo, who rejected him another time.

“Don’t worry, (y/n),” Seokmin interjected, “I think you pull off the ‘dead inside’ look excellently. Minghao, however, needs a little work.”

She rolled her eyes at the boy before speaking, “I don’t know if I should be offended or not by that.”

Minghao rested his hand on the girl’s shoulder and shook his head whilst looking at her empathetically “Be offended, I know I am.”

“Where will the lies end, bro? I know you don’t feel offended, zombies don’t have feelings.” Mingyu teased, earning him a high five from Seokmin.

Jeonghan looked at the duo longingly before turning to Jisoo and feigning sorrow. “That could be us but you think you’re too cool for high fives.”

“What can I say? I’m just not one to give high fives easily,” Jisoo replied with a shrug.

“Seungcheol wouldn’t do me that dirty.” Jeonghan turned hopefully towards Seungcheol, who held his hand up for Jeonghan. As Jeonghan’s hand was about to connect with Seungcheol’s, Jisoo intercepted their contact and instead, high fived Seungcheol.

Jeonghan looked at Jisoo and exclaimed, “Thief! You stole my high five!”

“I’m glad our exams are done. We can relax and just enjoy these idiots being, well… idiots.” The girl spoke, directing her comment to her fellow juniors who laughed at the scene in front of them.

“Relax? You can’t relax just yet. Don’t you four have a bet going on?” Seungcheol joined.

Jisoo looked at him confusedly before asking, “I thought only Minghao and (y/n) had a bet going on? What do the other kids have to do with that?”

“Seokmin and Mingyu placed bets on who would have the higher test scores between the two rivals. Mingyu thinks Minghao is gonna win while Seokmin thinks (y/n) is gonna win.” Jeonghan drawled, followed by a simultaneous ‘what?’ from Minghao and Jisoo.

Minghao looked at Mingyu in mock anger “I can’t believe you were betting on me.”

Jisoo nodded along with Minghao in agreement. “Yeah, I can believe you were placing bets on these two. Especially without including the rest of us!”

The seniors chorused along with Jisoo until Mingyu and Seokmin agreed to let them join. “Each person on the winning team gets $20 from each person on the losing team.”

“Um- Excuse me, we’re sitting right here,” The girl reminded the group.

“Yeah! you two can’t just whore us out for money to these guys!” Minghao added.

Much to the dismay of the two rivals, the 5 other boys shook hands --quite chaotically, each of them forgetting who they’ve already shook hands with and who they had yet to shake hands with-- and ended with a cheer.

“I’m sorry, the deal has been done.”

Thursday, October 24 (A week after finals - Result day)

The halls of the school were empty, with the only sounds being made by Minghao’s footsteps. He had received a text from (y/n) the night before, asking him to come early before the influx of students. Usually, only the teachers were at school that early but Minghao didn’t mind, he was more curious about what was so important for him to be at school so early for.

As he reached the classroom, he opened the door and was met with the sight of (y/n), sitting at their usual table with a cake that read ‘Happy Birthday!’ The girl looked up and smiled at him before blowing into a hello kitty party horn, emitting an obnoxious sound throughout the room.

“Congratulations, dude!”

Minghao walked towards her, slightly confused, and sat in his seat. “Thanks but… it’s not my birthday.” Upon closer inspection, he could see a line of icing crossing out the writing on the cake.

“I know that! This is the only cake I could get on such late notice. This is to celebrate us completing exams! I wanted to do this before we got our results,” the girl gushed, proud of her set up.

She bent over and reached into her bag before pulling out two party hats, one saying ‘genius’ and the other saying ‘dunce’. “Excited for the results?” She grinned mischievously.

“Of course I am. You seem a bit too eager to lose,” Minghao grabbed the ‘genius’ hat from her hand and wore it.

“Okay, enjoy wearing that for now, I’ll be the one flaunting it around school later.” And with those words, the girl brought out some plates and utensils. She cut the cake and set out four plates stating, “Mingyu and Seokmin have yet to arrive.”

Not a moment after, the sounds of the two other boys talking was heard from outside. They then entered the room and greeted Minghao and (y/n).

“Wait, whose birthday is it?”

“No one’s! I bought this cake so we could celebrate the end of exams,” (y/n) clarified once again. She then passed a plate to each of them, Mingyu not noticing her offer due to the fact that he was inspecting the cardboard cone he had found on the table.

“A dunce cone?” He scoffed, “Really? Isn’t this going a little too far?”

Minghao shrugged and pointed his fork accusingly at the girl next to him. “I had no idea about this stuff. She just showed up with it in her bag,” He explained, mouth full of cake.

She shrugged and spooned a piece of cake into her own mouth. “It’s not like we’re getting anything else out of this bet. This just adds to our bragging rights.”

After the conversation died down, the sound of chewing replaced their voices. Minghao cleared his throat in attempt at gaining everyone’s attention. They turned to him and he smirked, however, his look of confidence didn’t reach his eyes. It seemed to be masking another underlying feeling. Nervousness? Anxiety? “I think we should propose different stakes. Wearing these party hats do seem a bit over the top.”

“Scared, Hao?” (Y/n) provoked.

“Not one bit,” He denied, “But there is something else I’d rather have.”

“And what may that be?” The girl enquired curiously.

“If I end up with the higher test scores, I get to take you out on a date.”

The two other boys looked at him with the same surprised expressions on their faces while the girl kept his gaze.

“Okay, I’ll agree to that, but if I win, you have to buy me a meal.” Minghao nodded and held his hand out to seal the deal.

Eventually, the four had to cut their party short as class was about to start but the deal remained in the back of their minds. The teacher mentioned that the results would be given at the end of the day which ended up building up their anticipation and the day went about just as a normal school day would.

The entire squad joined Minghao and (y/n) on their walk home that day. Minghao invited everyone over to his place for dinner and most importantly, for the results reveal. As they arrived, the gang went about setting everything up. Setting up the dishes, ordering pizza, making space in the lounge and in Jeonghan’s case, taking a nap on Minghao’s couch. When the food finally arrived and Jisoo was finally able to wake Jeonghan up, the group gathered around in a circle, while Seungcheol held the two envelopes in his hands. Everyone had agreed on Seungcheol being the middleman who opened the results and compared each test score.

Everyone began to drum their hands on their laps, following Seungcheol’s flamboyant ‘drumroll, please!’ The eldest ripped open each packet and eyed the results, not allowing anyone else to see them. He then walked over to the two rivals and sat between them, holding a hand in each of his.

“And… The winner is,”—Seungcheol shot his hand up, bringing Minghao’s along with it—”Xu Minghao!”

The boy cheered along with Mingyu, Seungcheol and Jisoo whilst Seokmin and Jeonghan sulked. Minghao turned to (y/n), expecting her to look disheartened but was instead met with a smiling face.

“I just kicked your ass, why do you look so happy to lose?” Minghao joked.

“Remember the stakes we set? If I won, you would’ve had to buy me a meal but now that you’ve won, I have to go on a date with you and I’m assuming that on that date, you will eventually be buying me a meal. So I don’t think I’m the loser here. Either way, I would’ve won,” She explained, proud of her reasoning.

Minghao laughed and walked over, hugging the girl, surprising the seniors who were unaware of that part of the bet.

“I guess that meant that whatever the outcome, I would’ve still won too,”— Minghao replied, the girl still wrapped in his arms,—”Because either way, I’d have you.”

The guys around them booed his cheesy line and made fake retching noises.

“Anyways, that was cute and all but I still want my money,” Mingyu interrupted, holding his hand out towards Seokmin and Jeonghan expectantly.

“Did you not hear the girl? She said she won!” Jeonghan reasoned. Seokmin shrugged like he didn’t care and handed a crisp $20 bill to Mingyu who grinned, thanking him for his good sportsmanship. Before he could pocket the money, Seokmin snatched the bill right back.

“Hey! I won our bet!” Mingyu protested.

“I think you’ve forgotten our other bet we made during this year’s first semester. If these two love birds got together before the end of the school year, you owe me $20. So you see, Mingyu, whatever the outcome, I would’ve still won,” Seokmin spoke, mocking the previous conversation.

Okay I have two orders of business I gotta get to before I start to ramble:

I use (y/n) a lot in my writing- I know. obviously you’re supposed read it as your own name but when I read fics like this, I literally read it as “Your name” in my head idk. So I suggest you download this chrome extension (if you’re not on google chrome then wtf are you doing yo?) which replaces ‘(y/n)’ for you automatically. It works on any fic you read (as long as it contains y/n) so ya big recommends from me :-)

I haven’t edited this and probably won’t do it soon so if you happen to find any mistakes, hmu and I’ll get to is asap !!

OLRITEY WHEW I DID IT !! I spent so fuckin long typing this up and this is the longest fic I have ever written (writers who write more than this- hOW ??). This oneshot is my child because I spent the most time on it and it’s my second favourite genre –Rivals to Lovers (my first being Enemies to Lovers, there is a clear difference between the two okay)–

I wanna mention that the dates used in this fic were for 2016 if you guys were curious. Also, I know this story ended awkwardly and there wasn’t much interaction between Minghao and the reader but I couldn’t help myself from adding the interaction between the side characters.

Request here, follow here and read my other works here !!

AO3: Junshuji

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

The American School System (Through the Eyes of Someone Who Had the Fortune of Avoiding It)

I was a homeschooled child.  My mom took a lot of flack when she, at my father’s suggestion, made this decision, but she arguably got the last laugh when I was accepted into college at fifteen.  

That’s not the only reason I’m grateful I was homeschooled, though.  I have a high IQ (not that that’s a good quantifier of intelligence), good creativity, and an all-around decent brain, but I think plenty of kids have my potential, if not significantly more, given the opportunity to explore it on their own volition.

Which brings me to the primary reason I am grateful to be homeschooled:  from the perspective of someone who had the fortune of never having to experience it, the American school system seems like some kind of prison program that miraculously almost no one takes issue with.  The more I learn about it, the more I am utterly horrified by it and how many children have to experience it. 

Even the most simple things are disturbing:  no one seems to question the grading system (which I, being in college, now have some experience with) but there’s something deeply troubling about the fact that children are being indoctrinated by the millions to believe that their intelligence can adequately ranked, evaluated, and relegated to a number on a page. 

Surprise surprise, studies show that they do more harm than good to a child’s psyche.

Similarly, I was up till now oblivious to this horrible card system, which gives adults yet another means of imposing rigid judgement on children without actually helping them or their quality of life or learning.

From what I understand, creativity is actively discouraged, even if it’s absolutely harmless (as one example demonstrates here -- the snail deserved better.)  I remember reading Captain Underpants as a child and being horrified by the author’s story of how his childhood teacher would rip up the comics he made.  Already a pint-sized art ho, I couldn’t understand how an adult would be allowed to do that and get away with it, only to learn later that many creative people share similar stories from their school years.  (On a side note, his saltiness towards the school system remains obvious and scathingly accurate in his comics.)

But instead of the Arts, children must at least be being taught rudimentary, applicable life skills, yes?  Wrong.  Instead of being taught about how to, say, balance a checkbook, understand taxes, or allowing them to try out trades and skills that will actually get them a job, most schools in America seem to be regurgitating the same inaccurate, revisionist versions of history, rigid interpretations of dry classical literature, and facts force-fed without any actual understanding that will be forgotten almost as soon as they’ve been scribbled down on exam sheets.

All the while, tiny humans literally biologically engineered to be on the go are forced to sit still for eight hours per day and penalized (or pumped full of meds to make them docile) for failing to do so.  These are the same kids force fed some of the most disgusting and unhealthy cafeteria food in the Western world, all the while adults wonder what the deal is with high diabetes rates in the youth.

The school system also appears to allow for some overwhelming homophobia, racism, sexism, and ableism.  It also doesn’t do much to successfully inhibit bullying (which is often rooted in -- you guessed it -- homophobia, racism, sexism, and ableism), which remains shrugged off as a part of growing up despite the permanent damage it can do to a child’s psyche.

Last, but certainly not least, the public school system kills the joy of learning.  I can’t count how many of my friends no longer read for pleasure, or who no longer find excitement in things they used to love (mythology, astronomy, marine biology, etc.), and site school as being responsible.

This is particularly sad for me, as someone who reads for pleasure almost every day, and spent much of my childhood perched in a tree with a book in one hand.  Learning was a joy for me, because it was something I could partake in on my own free will.  I almost never shied away from it. 

I live with an eleven-year-old who writes fiction as a hobby almost every evening, and one of my favorite pastimes is drawing collaborative pictures of superheroes and xenomorphs with my eight-year-old brother while he rattles off facts about comic books and wildlife.  I shudder at the thought of what the school system would do to either of them.

I myself wrote and illustrated my first novel at eleven, and now have one that I’m working towards publishing.  When my newest sister is born this month, I know she’ll be infused with the same love of learning me and my siblings have enjoyed without all-knowing adults to inhibit it. 

I am so incredibly grateful to have not had to partake in what a lot of people very dear to me have had to go through, and I’m glad of the individuality I retain because of it.  I will always maintain that a system in which knowledge is shoved down the throats of children instead of offered to them, in which they’re told when to sit down, stand up, and go to the bathroom, and are arguably not treated as children at all, but as criminals, is not a system based in learning.  It’s an indoctrination, designed to breed conformity and submission to authority. 

In other words, fuck the system. 

[agirlnamedally]

Allyyyy I start hsc on Monday and I'm supppppeeer nervous. I have been studying a lot but ofc enjoying my time with everyone at the library and talking etc. I'm stressing about my atar bc I really want to get in to social work bc I really wanna help people :((((( I wanna do psych but it's 99!!!!!

My tips for anyone starting Year 12/HSC/Senior Year:

Know that it’s perfectly normal to be nervous! I’m pretty sure I was scared to start VCE from Year 7 onwards, it always seemed like this giant, scary, looming monster that would destroy my happiness and suck out my soul like a dementor. Mostly, I just assumed I would have no free time, wouldn’t be able to keep up with the workload, and would fail absolutely everything.

Then, something funny happened. Year 11 came around and I realised… nothing had changed. The work might have been harder, but I had done the required training (aka Years 7-10) and was fully equipped with the skills to handle it. The transition from Year 10 to Year 11, and then again from 11 to 12, is really not that significant or scary! Your workload might increase a tiny bit, because (and in hindsight now I can look back and 100% support this) practice really does make perfect. Teachers don’t make you write 100 essays because they hate you and want you to be miserable or have no social life, it’s because they want you to be a good writer, but more than that, they know that the more essays you write, the easier it will be for you to write one come exam time. It will be less stressful, less terrifying and so much simpler to just regurgitate a piece of writing you’ve practically memorised because you’ve ingrained it into your memory throughout the year. That’s just an example for say English or Literature, but I think the same thing applies for all subjects, no matter how you’re tested. Practice makes perfect. Or at least, practice makes progress, haha.

Now, ATARs. Those finicky little bastards. I’m not going to tell you to forget about it, because I know that when I was in the midst of VCE it was always on my mind. I even had older kids, who had already graduated, constantly telling me how insignificant it was and that it wouldn’t matter one year from now, but I didn’t believe any of that. Now, looking back, I know that they were right. In terms of measuring your intelligence or potential for future career success, ATARs mean nothing. No matter what score you get, I promise you, you can go on and be anything you want to be in life. There will always be obstacles and challenges between you and your dreams, but if you want something and you’re willing to work hard and be nice to others, nothing can stop you. The only difference an ATAR can make is the journey and how you go about it. The only thing an ATAR determines is which course you might do. You might have your heart set on a dream course with a super high ATAR. If you want to shoot for that, go for it! Just know that if your number is lower, there are still ways to pursue it. You can take a gap year, travel, discover the world and find out who you are, uncover your passions, gain some experience. Do a TAFE course, start somewhere else, transfer. Defer it, reject it, volunteer somewhere, change your entire perspective on life, completely change directions. You still have the choice. Unis will often accept someone who didn’t get a first or second round offer initially as a mid-year enrolment, or you could do a semester or two somewhere else and then jump across and hopefully they’ll let you keep those credits under your belt. You may not even want to go to uni! There are many many options and paths you can take, don’t let a number limit or define your future.

Personally, I knew I wanted to further my education but wasn’t entirely set on any particular existing occupation. I knew my two favourite subjects were Psychology and Health and Human Development, but that I also enjoyed writing for English, so I could envision myself happily doing something that encompassed those things. For me, an Arts degree was the perfect choice because it allows you to dip your toes into many different areas of study, test the waters of various fields before arriving at a favourite – your major. The course I most had my heart set on had a pretty high entry score, one which I actually thought I had no possible chance of achieving, but I set it as my goal anyway because as I was so undecided, I didn’t want to ‘limit myself’ (typical Year 12 brain thinking). It worked out wonderfully for me, somehow I found the drive and ended up doing a lot better than I’d expected, really surprising myself (and probably everyone else) and guaranteeing a spot in the course. However, I wholeheartedly believe that had I not achieved the score I did, had I gone to a different university or course, or even taken some time off from studying, I would be just as happy. I would have found another way to continue learning, whether it be by sitting in a lecture theatre or travelling to see it myself. I could have enrolled in a different course, disappointed in myself and thinking it was only temporary, and ended up LOVING it. Maybe even more than this course! Who knows? These are the kinds of ‘what if’s and ‘maybe’s that make my brain want to explode. Being a human can be exhausting.

Whether you have a goal course you’re hoping to get entry for, a dream uni, hopes of studying abroad, a plan to defer for a year or no desire to study at all – but they’re all okay and all achievable! No matter what it is you want in life, there are ways to get there. Not just one, but limitless varying courses of action you can follow. One might be more direct, but it might also be more boring, or less challenging. It might grow you less as a person, or prevent you from meeting some really interesting people that another path will introduce you to.

Year 12 is an awesome time. It can be stressful, overwhelming, demanding, sleepless. It can invoke self-doubt, nostalgia, fear of plummeting into the depths of the unknown (your future) and leaving behind the safety and security of routine (your past). However, it can also be rewarding, exciting, bonding, enriching, growing and deliriously fun. I say delirious because there will definitely be times when you and your friends are so overcome with work and anxiety that you just have to laugh. Misery loves company and Year 12 is proof of that. Study dates are perfect for simultaneously motivating each other and collectively crying into the bowl of chocolate you just devoured. I’m probably not painting the best picture here, but seriously, it can be a terrific time.

If I could give you one piece of advice for entering VCE, it’s to maintain a balance. Balance in life is the key here, because otherwise you will either burn out from too much studying, fall behind from not enough, get sick from not taking care of yourself, or something else just as un-fun. When you’re studying, dedicate proportionate amounts of time or energy to subjects depending on their current level of significance. If possible, do assignments as soon as you get them, but prioritise the ones that are due first or worth the most. More importantly, ensure you have balance throughout your whole life, holistically. It’s just as important to take care of your mental, social and physical well-being as it is to reach your education goals. Make the time to keep active, even if it seems like there is none. I can’t even tell you how beneficial it is to get outside, clear your head and get your heart rate up. Endorphins are your best friend and a powerful stress-buster, so keep a pair of runners at the ready. If you’re not a fan of solo workouts, can’t stay motivated or simply don’t enjoy it, I highly recommend joining a team sport! In fact, I recommend this for everyone, because it’s beneficial to your mental, social and physical health. All at once. Plus there’s the accountability factor – you can’t just skip the workout or hit snooze when you don’t feel like it  - you made a commitment and your teammates are counting on you! Honestly being a part of a group like that will make you feel so needed or wanted, and it’s great to make new friends or connect with like-minded people. SPORT RULES. Taking care of your physical health also means nourishing your body with the right foods, getting enough sleep and drinking plenty of water – all the basics. Back to balance – it’s also essential to dedicate time to doing things just for you. Bubble baths are a great choice, there’s also reading, meditation, getting a massage or mani-pedi, having a movie night, seeing a friend, anything that makes you feel relaxed, happy and at peace. These are the things that keep you going! Imagine a pie chat, split into 3 sections. One section is school and schoolwork, one is health and fitness, and the last is dedicated to me-time or fun activities. The three sections represent mental, physical and social wellbeing = all equally important and necessary for not only success, but holistic health in general. If you’re feeling stressed out, look at which of the three sections might be out of balance. Are you not getting enough sleep? Have too much on your plate? Need some alone time? Not fuelling your brain and body with enough or the right nutrition? Try to keep these things in check and remind yourself that they’re all significant and deserving of your attention.

Most of all, know that VCE is completely unique to your own experience. Like karma, you will get out only what you put in. You can make it an easy time, just for socialising and blowing off class, you can dedicate 110% of yourself to studying every waking hour, never lose a mark and never see anyone else, OR you can have the best of both worlds and strike that beautiful, sweet balance.

Decide what your own goals are. Make your own rules. Ask yourself what motivates you, and then go after it. Use this time to challenge yourself, grow as a person and exceed any expectations, limitations or barriers that have been set by anyone – including and especially yourself. It’s an exciting time that you should definitely make the most of, because it will be over before you know it. I know it’s hard, but try to forget about ATARs, or at least diminish the all-mighty power and holy-grail presence that it can take. It’s just a number. If you try your best, that’s all you need to do. I have complete faith in you anon, 

YOU CAN DO IT :D

[foxyladii]

IS IT JUST ME...OR ARE UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS DRIVING ME TO DRINK?

Being a teacher holds a very high regard in our society. So what the hell are these professors getting paid for?

To all parents who wonder if University is right for their child...read this!!

My daughter has embarked on the wonderful and expected road to scholarly learning...I WANT TO BANG MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL AND GOUGE MY EYES OUT!

Please understand that I never went to university, I am NOT Einstein...sometimes I wonder if I even have more than one brain cell...the rest have been terminated by life and over indulgence in chocolate...mmm chocolate! I do however feel that I am more qualified to teach than some of her professors. Granted all professors are not being hauled into my burning ring of anger, but so far she has not mentioned one that can adequately explain what the hell they are even being paid to teach! It is sad when your brilliant child who received oodles of scholarships has to go to YOUTUBE to learn the course that we are paying the professors to teach our children...oh yes and they were just on strike to get higher wages...maybe you should earn those wages by learning how to teach! Repeating what is written on your slides (newsflash-these kids can read!) redundant waste of time! Perhaps explaining your reasoning for the slide, or don’t show slides that have NO RELATION to the course you are instructing!!! Love hearing about the professors who are fixated on items that they have grants for to research-sometimes I wonder if they are stalled on this crap because they are frozen in snooze city! A human can only see so many slides of moths before needing to gouge their eyes out! How about reviewing what is pertinent to your course. TALK TO YOUR STUDENTS! Oh don’t get me started on how agonizing it is trying to get a slot to speak to these esteemed professors! You are not smarter than me, you do the same things I do in my bathroom (unless it is to admire yourself in the mirror and tell yourself how you are changing young people’s lives!) Sometimes regular hard working blue collar people are smarter and more balanced in real LIFE!!! Some people should not teach...there should be evaluations that actually are useful, ones that say-HELL YES quit your day job! I do totally agree that there are fantastic teachers...but why is it so hard to find them? Let it go...move on...admit that you cannot explain in basic terms anymore how to do calculus...do you even remember how to do it? Big words and repeating the same thing over and over again does not get the FREAKING POINT OUT!!! When your students are staring at you with a blank look perhaps shut up and re-evaluate what you just said! I am paying huge money for nothing! Is University a ploy to make money for an actual business? I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone, or that I am being punked! Let’s make first year impossible so the students fail and have to pay again to retake courses where you are guaranteed to fail? CAN WE ALL SAY MONEY GRAB!! If you actually tell your students there is only a 30% pass rate perhaps it is not the students...perhaps it is the teachers??? Some of these kids are so close to the brilliance of Einstein...but the words coming out of these professors mouths is a new alien language that only the professors understand...Moth dialects?

I also need to rant about the exams with questions that have no correct answer or have multiple answers that can be correct. Exams that ask questions that were not even covered in the classes that our poor children need to sit thru and leave saying “what the hell was that about? Oh right-Moths!” There is more to science than Moths! If you show these slides, make sure the quality is decent and not fuzzy...yep could be a slide of my son’s hairy armpit! 

Don’t get me started on professors who tell the students wrong information on how to submit papers (you know who you are-the professor that says she prefers single spacing and then acts so superior and marks papers wrong because the paper was not double spaced) can we say PSYCHO? Let’s just say they woke up and decided to f**k everyone over! Yep...that pay cheque was well deserved today! I also love hearing about the inconsistent marking on exams, papers, and labs! At this rate I would make an AWESOME Professor! Hell...we all could do it!! Scatter brained professors are not just in the movies, or arrogant professors who believe they are so superior to everyone else!!! Let me say...

WE ALL DIE THE SAME WAY!!! You thinking that you are smarter than the rest of the population will not change how our bodies shut down as our lives end. 

UNIVERSITY GUIDE FOR FIRST YEAR VIRGIN PARENTS AND STUDENT:

University’s LIE

Your child will cry and yell ALOT

Professors say they are available-but NEVER are

Extremely intelligent people cannot DUMB it down for the rest of normal society

Professors will tell you one thing then do another

First year is the hardest...only the strong and rich survive

First year is for thinning the herd

You will be expected to take courses that are not required for your degree...and if you are in the over 30% you will need to retake the course over and over again...Universities need money for football and new Engineering buildings

Professors are easily accessible-just not for the students

As a parent you will cry A  LOT! Life is not fair...plus you would like to make as much money as the professors

There is so many more things that the virgin parent does not know...or perhaps a lower IQ than the professors will get us thru the injustice and hilarity of University-I still believe that it is a conspiracy by corporations to demand a degree to get a job...a job that still involves training because at University it is simply generalized studies.  

You will go to school each day (sometimes on city busses that are late or super early or just don’t follow the schedule) only to sit thru classes where students need to sit in the aisles because there is too many students and then the professor regurgitates useless information unrelated to the course, or use the class as a platform for their personal beliefs or research studies-or show endless slides of MOTHS! As they sit there wondering if they need to know about MOTHS for the exam

Exams that are held late on a Saturday night-and the bus stops running to their area of the city so they will have to go downtown and wait for 30 minutes with all the scary transients 

I would get fired for not doing my job to the best of my ability-professors get tenured

Go on strike-tell everyone how underpaid you are then have your students take your class-but surprise it is a video lecture-joke is on you

I am only a mother wanting to vent about the hilarity of First year University-I do not profess to being super intelligent, nor do I have a University degree...I went to Red River College where for a fraction of the cost-I graduated and got a job that I actually could do right away-and I totally understood what I was being taught and it did not take 4 years at over $30,000 and then a Masters degree because you find out that you really can’t get a job with a general degree!

My children told me to end with a disclaimer so I don’t sound like a bitch!

Professors are like Moths-no two are exactly alike. Thank GOD! 

[heroheart]

im stressing and i look up to you a lot so i was just wondering: do you have any final exam tips? mine start on monday im dying

hey pal! first of all, good luck!!!! they’ll soon be over!!!! you’re at the last hurdle!!! just think about how free and relieved you’ll feel when you’ve finished!!! i have the worst revision habits but things i’ve found that have worked in the past… and it’s long but i really DO hope it’s helpful! if you need any help whatsoever, feel free to message again or IM me!

    the number 1 rule: 

                                        STAY. OFF. TUMBLR.

on the night before your actual exams, i find it’s always really important to have a decent night’s sleep. and truuuuust me i know the toss-up between ‘i don’t know enough so i can’t go to sleep right now’ and 'i need to rest so i can actually understand what i’m doing in the morning’. BUT i’ve always found (especially recently) if i don’t get a good 7 hours sleep before an exam, even reading the questions becomes harder (my last exam was a horror show to begin with because i didn’t understand the questions when i first read them. i was like what the fuck does that even mean… and that was after 4 hours sleep. i actually had to think about what it was even asking me, let alone whether i knew what i was talking about.). you may have studied for longer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll remember it, because learning is about consolidation as well, and giving your brain enough rest and SLEEP is really important for that. so! get seven hours at least please my lil cherub you need it. also remember to set alarms and discipline yourself enough to actually get up for them because!!!! remember you get so much time off afterwards so!!!

a hard™ part for me is always 'okay, i could study… or i could watch tv… or do this… or do something else…’ and you just need to remember that exams aren’t forever!!! you're so close to being done and afterwards, you can do all those things you said you wanted to do. SO sideline learning a new language or learning how to draw or catching up on that one tv show you really like, because afterwards, you have all the time in the world.

if you live by yourself, when you’re cooking, cook enough for 2+ meals. this means the next day, you don’t have to cook a meal from scratch and you can just micro it and it’s quick and easy and means mealtimes don’t have to take up like an entire hour’s chunk of time. (either that, or live off something easy for a while. i lived off omelettes, toast, cereal and fruit in my last week before my exams recently. you can make all of these eaaaasily and quickly. brain food is also important so!! don’t live off junk… hard, but try and get some nutrition.) i also did this for drinks and stuff. i drink a lot of tea (brit af 🇬🇧) and to stop me from making so many cups every like hour i’d just use a thermos and make like 3 at once fskjfsdh. also keeps it warm. HOWEVER, don’t study on an empty stomach because all you’ll think about is food lmao!!!!

if your exams are coming up soon, i wouldn’t recommend changing your revision/studying style. i also don’t recommend writing down schedules and making rotas even though the thought is great! really helpful! having an idea of what you want to get accomplished in the day makes it so much easier to complete because then you feel good at the end of it all, so that i do recommend. but writing it down and making a schedule takes up so much time (for me, anyway.) so if you do want a physical reminder of what you want to get done that day, i’d suggest making a to-do list. for example, mine was like '2x virology lectures, 1x drug transport’, not explicitly write ‘i’d spend an hour on this, then do that,’ etc.

you can’t study every hour of the day! you need to relax and chill for a bit! if all you’re doing is studying, i’d suggest getting up early, regimenting breaks into your schedule, and then you can finish a little earlier too. for example, i stick to working hours as much as possible. eat cereal, start at 9, break at 11 for 15 mins, lunch at 1, then work 2-5. then, depending on how close to exams i get, i take a break then, and then go back to it. then dinner, then back to it. ideally, i try not working beyond 9/10pm because by then i’m exhausted and saturated with information which needs to be consolidated (sleep!). however, to do this, avoid caffeine!!!!! wherever possible, anyway!! i try not drinking caffeine after around 4pm usually so i can literally sleep whenever lmao. this is the ideal! 

i’ve been taught that if you find yourself getting tired and it’s a reasonable time to go to sleep, go to sleep and set your alarm to wake up an hour earlier in the morning, because you’ll be WAY more productive in the morning after a sleep. i’ve been taught that you get twice the amount done if you do that instead of trying to power through it late at night. ALSO DON’T NAP!!! i know!! studying is soooo fucking dull and painfully tiring and that temptation’s always there but pls don’t you won’t sleep and it’ll put you off kilter!!

i tend to wake up early on the morning of exams. recently, i was waking up at 6 for 11 or 12o'clock exams. this let me do the last minute bits, maybe an hour of actual writing and drawing and attempting to learn, and the rest of that time was spent re-reading old notes that i’d made before it. don’t freak out! i know the 'i know nothing’ feeling before an exam, and i know how it feels to go into that exam hall thinking you don’t know anything, but buddy… your brain’s an amazing thing. seriously, it’s cool as shit. you’ll find that even if you think you don’t know something, it’ll come back to you. you know more than you think you know!!!!! even if you didn’t study it, if you were listening when it was first taught, i find certain words act as cues and if you remember where you were for when you were taught it, it comes back for me sometimes!!!this being said, don’t fret if you don’t know things. no one’s asking you to get 100% on your exams!! a lot of the time, they make it so you can’t… because they’re arrogant and too proud to admit that someone knows the entire syllabus. (that’s what they did for us. my first lecture was one of my lecturers standing in front of the entire year and saying 'no one’s ever scored 100% on our exams before so don’t expect it’.) it’s okay not to know everything!! schools, unis, whatever you’re studying for – they know what they’re doing. they pile an insane amount of stuff onto you and it’s stressful! exams are stressful! it’s true!!! no one’s asking you to score perfectly.what i’m also saying with this point is don’t over-saturate your brain the morning of the exam. think about it. your exam’s in two hours. all the REAL time you’ve had to get to grips with the information has gone. this is why i read over notes before the exam – because if i go back and start trying to learn something i don’t already know, i panic. at least reading notes feels productive and it’ll stay in your short-term memory. repetition is really good for moving chunks of information into different memory stores, and re-reading notes is that kind of thing.

don’t just try and learn things verbatim. you have to understand what you’re talking about, instead of just regurgitating facts. i can’t tell you how many times i was googling stuff like ‘define osteomalacia’ and simple science terms that i forgot and needed to know in order to understand what’s going on. it’s all about building blocks. remembering the basis means you can remember the more elevated stuff! this also gives it more meaning and we remember more things if they mean more to us. this is also why just making lists and writing things out doesn’t work.be creative! get colourful! studying is one of the only excuses i have to whip out my colouring pens so you bet your ass i colour that red blood cell in or whatever. go nuts, kids.

as unfortunate as this one sounds, it’s… important. do not attempt to listen to music at the same time. it doesn’t work. especially if you’re looking at complex stuff that you don’t quite understand yet. don’t try it. it subverts your concentration and makes everything SO much harder. (if you do need to listen to music because it’s too loud around you, i’d suggest instrumental music on a very low volume just to tune out other noises. music itself is a controlled noise so it can be helpful, but only at low volumes. i find that when i listen to music, i have it on like 1 or 2 on my phone’s volume and after the first couple of songs, i zone out and forget about it anyway.) silence is ideal! try and put yourself in a situation where you can get it!

another point to make is that we use contextual cues in order to remember things. unfortunately, this means staying out of bed. get up, sit at your desk, or a table, and work from there. it works so much better and you’re in a more work-related environment. your memory relies on contextual cues so if you study at a table, and you sit the exam at a table, there’s the possibility that you’ll remember more.

YOUR PHONE IS YOUR ENEMY. and so is tumblr, facebook, insta, twitter, or whatever else you use. STAY AWAY FROM THEM. they are the DEVIL and the biggest killers of productivity. turn your phone off, or hide it away from your desk, or at the very least, turn it upside down and put don’t disturb on. discipline yourself with your laptop so you won’t go on these sites. it’s really important, because you’ll lose your focus and forget where you were and then you won’t be able to get back into it as easily. if you’re on a roll, stay on a roll!!

                     most importantly, don’t panic!!!!!! easier said than done, i know. and i know how it feels to stress and i know how it affects everything, but it’s really important. just take a minute. breathe. then get back to it. good luck, friend!!!

edit: one last point to make is that self-care is really important. take time to shower. you'll feel better. get into comfy clothes. you'll feel better. you are allowed to take time for yourself.

[thestudentguidetomedicine]

a few helpful hints for maths revision

its nearing that time of year again, you can feel it. The cramming, the anticipation. It’s nearly exam time again.

In light of this, I feel as if it might be useful to go over some subject specific revision tips, why? because y’all screwed for medicine if you manage to fluff these exams up.

So today, maths revision. Next week? who knows 

1. Remember the Key formula and facts

This is about the time where someone screams “FLASHCARDS!”, now, I won’t lie, I have never used flashcards in my life. I have some, they sit on my desk, they just kinda sit, it’s quite sad really.

But maths is all about pushing your boundaries, and, if you can’t remember what the discriminant is, the quadratic formula, or any other such key item. You are pretty much screwed for this exam. So make sure you do know those things. Might I suggest making a poster of these key formulae and putting this poster on your wall?

2. Think about how you can use what you know

I believe this is key, maths is built on using what you know, as a pose to just regurgitating facts (i’m looking at you geography). So it is really, really, super, important that you can look at what you know in a new light. 

One good example of this is the discriminant b^2-4ac, now we know that this can be used to show the number of roots and equation has, but did you know that if you know one root of a quadratic curve, you can divide the curve’s equation by that root (x-5) for example, and obtain a quadratic, which you can then use the discriminant formula to overall see how many roots a cubic graph has! Mental, I know

3. Do The F*cking Past papers

I would hope by now, you have sat every single past paper on your exam board, but if you haven’t, do that now. 

I’m not the biggest fan of maths, however I would say that I love the fact that you can only really revise using past papers, it makes revising maths waaaaaaay less tedious.

Also, I would also add, make sure You attempt last years paper (It will be harder than normal, promise), its a really good way to prepare

4. Solomon Papers

So, you’ve done all the past papers, what should you do now? Easy, solomon papers.

These are papers designed to be tough, tougher than the actual exam in many respects. But do you ever look back at GCSE’s and go “Damn boi, that shit was easy compared to this”? Yeah well solomon papers are like that, if you just do solomon papers in the week leading up to your exam, you’ll get into the exam and be like damn boi, this shit is easy.

Just remember, don’t get cocky, because thats when people fuck up.

so, that’s it. Time to stop reading tumblr and revise,  you will get the grade the want if you work hard. 

good luck! :)

[rockofcalifa]

Grace Is a Weapon - Ch0&1

30 day novel writing challenge - DAY 30 “post the first chapter of your work!”

CHAPTER 0

"After you have verified the identifying information is correct, please select the placement test you will be taking today," M. Petra read, word-for-word, from their computer; "Be sure that you choose the correct test, as this selection is not reversible. When you are finished, please look up."

I snuck furtive glances around the room, wiping a sweaty palm on my pant leg, wondering how my classmates were so relaxed. I scrolled through the alphabetical options, mindful of my guidance counselor's words of advice. Still undecided, I had paid them an emergency visit last month. "It's understandable that you don't yet know what you want to do with your career," they had told me. "But I think - this is a subjective recommendation - you should test for the priesthood... besides, priests have such varied positions; surely you'll find one that suits you."

I reached the "P" section and selected "Priesthood" before I could think about it too much. Looking up as instructed, I glanced to the front corner of the room, where Pascal was sitting - they gave me a sidelong smile and a reassuring thumbs-up.

"After I begin the timer and start your tests, you will have two hours to complete as much as you can. Remember, marks are given for correct answers, and an incomplete or blank question will not detract from your score." A pause. "You may begin."

Questions appeared on my screen; I scrolled through the first few, feeling more at ease now that I was committed. I noted the various types of questions. Some basic info-regurgitation in multiple choice form:

“Which of the following encyclicals was written first?”

“Pr. Crafa’s most recent legislative measure, HP122, was enacted because of which issue?”

The ever-present short answer:

"In four sentences or less, explain the nature of God's person";

“Briefly define the term ‘Worthy.’”

Some analyses-from-the-text:

"Using the below documents, reconcile Council Legislation G56 with Vatic's Encyclical on Gender"

"Using the below text from Pr. Najaf's 2249 From Strife to Devotion, demonstrate the residual effects of the civil war on their early government."

Yes, this would be easier than I'd studied for. I began to type, in response to the latter: "Looking back on their life from the year 2249, Pr. Najaf had the privilege of viewing events through a lens over 50 years removed from the civil war..."

The allotted two hours flew past as I dumped facts, figures, and, in some places, falsehoods onto the screen before me in their various requested forms. After the form closed, my screen turning black, relief was quickly replaced by worry over how I’d performed and the alarming possibility that the questions had been trickier than I’d thought.

Pascal was waiting for me in the hall. “Easy?” they whispered, and I shrugged noncommittally.

“How was bio?” I asked.

“Pshh.” Clearly their biology exam had been a breeze. “Hey, you still on for helping me with my speech thing?”

“Of course.” Although I was certain they could write a perfectly suitable oration on their own. As class valedictorian, Pascal was tasked with delivering some sort of address at our graduation next week.

They nodded. “Let’s find an empty room.”

Farther away from the rooms of testing students, we could speak above a whisper, and I began proposing ideas. “I was thinking, it’s always safe to start out by thanking everybody, you know, everyone likes to be thanked -”

“So, so maybe a, ‘I’d like to thank everyone who helped us on the way here -”

“But maybe a lighter tone at the beginning? You know, and then go into that bit.”

We’d arrived at Pascal’s favorite biology classroom, an airy space lined with large tables instead of the usual single-person desks; I turned on the projector, which was old and took a moment to start up, and picked up a marker. “One,” they dictated as I wrote, “start with something light. Two, the thank-yous, then…”

“Then some sappy reflections -”

“Not too sappy.” I noted this under point three. “What else is there to say?”

“Hopeful predictions for the future? Along the lines of, whatever direction our future careers will take us…”

CHAPTER 1

“...I know that as we move forward and reach new heights, we'll remember those who helped us get where we are, and to whom we dedicate our efforts. And whatever the direction of our future careers, I look forward to the many productive, favorable, Worthy years to come. Thank you.”

I applauded, but Pascal didn’t smile. “You sure about that last bit? Doesn’t it seem a little too… religious? Theologically charged?” they asked.

“We could take it out if you want,” I conceded, “but there’s not much time, and you know teachers and priests just love that stuff.”

“True, true.” They rubbed their eyes. “No, it’s good. I’m just hyperventilating in a corner, mentally.”

“You’ll do great,” I assured them. “It’s almost time; should we join everybody in the lobby?” They nodded, and we left the classroom after I turned off the board and lights. For the moment, I wasn’t feeling stressed or anxious. After I’d learned yesterday that I’d passed my career placement exam, my greatest concerns had been ironing my uniform, relishing the second-to-last day I would be living in my family’s apartment, and showing up at graduation early enough to run through Pascal’s speech one last time.

The small lobby was packed with identically uniformed students, walking sets of dark blue jackets and trousers occasionally moving aside to let family members through into the gym - these had been my classmates for the past four years, some of them even twelve, and only a few of them would be joining the priesthood with me. Pascal, for instance, would be moving directly into a research apprenticeship at the National Center for Genetic Research-- though they were a special case, having already completed several professional-level research projects in the realm of genetic audiology. I felt slightly proud whenever this was brought up, believing that they had been inspired down this path by the glitchy calculation, made by an under-qualified geneticist, which had resulted in my being born deaf, left with an antiquated and sometimes faulty hearing implant.

Dackon Thais came over to talk to Pascal as soon as they noticed us. I wasn't quite sure how Dackon, who had a quiet reputation for illegally exploring and painting the abandoned buildings on the city outskirts, had ended up as Pascal’s romantic interest, had found themselves in such a crowd as the two of us. Pascal and I didn't cause trouble. We did our homework on time; we kept ourselves out of restricted areas; we refrained from expressing illicit religious beliefs.

“I totally thought I failed that exam,” Dackon told Pascal, sounding almost disappointed.

“What? You didn’t?” Pascal joked. “I’m very disappointed in you, M. Thais. I expected more from you, and yet…”

I tuned them out, looking around the low-ceilinged space, waving hello to a few scattered acquaintances. Nikola Kimura made eye contact, smiled at me, and I smiled back. Friendliness was a pretense we kept up quite well. We had been friends once, yes, before they or their parent started caring about the socioprofessional implications of their connections. But that had been years ago. They now stood surrounded by a group of confidants, and although they were short they still stood out: they were good-looking, with their straight black hair cut energetically short, and they were naturally bestowed with an air of total self-confidence.

Pr. Nystroom entered the room, standing out in their purple uniform, and we quieted. This tired old fellow was the chief priest for secondary education and had been doing their rounds officiating graduations at all the schools in the area and didn’t appear to have taken it well.

“All right, let’s go in, single file, alphabetical order, all follow after me,” they commanded, and I left Pascal and Dackon behind for the front section of the line.

In the gym, family members filled rows of grey plastic folding chairs - in a usual assembly we'd be responsible for setting these up and taking them down, but today was our day, and we were exempt. A tan mat had been unrolled underfoot to cover the lines on the floor used for various sports, I suppose to provide an official air to the ordeal. It was quiet as we processed in; after we sat down in the raised area at the head of the gym, we feigned interest as the choir sang two hymns undercut by the quiet rumbling of murmurs.

Pr. Nystroom ascended to the plexiglass podium at the side of the stage to make his opening remarks, suddenly appearing comfortable, in their element. “Thank you, friends and family of our students, and welcome to our renowned assembly space!” That solicited a laugh. “We’re here today to recognize our students’ many accomplishments and send them forward into the next, exciting chapters of their lives…”

As I half-listened to Pr. Nystroom’s homilizing, I searched the crowd for my family. I found them near the front - of course Tian would have arrived early. I was to be their first to leave the colloquial nest and they had been acting clingy lately. Beside Tian, Tian Jr., nicknamed Teeny, sat in Pazi’s lap. Unlike Teeny, who was only three years old, Pazi was younger than me by only a year, and we were often mistaken for twins when we were younger. We shared the same broad nose, medium brown skin, and curly, brown-orange hair that they wore long and I wore short. Nowadays, however, we weren’t likely to be seen together. The Venn diagram of our social circles was sparsely populated in the middle, and they stubbornly expressed little interest in my affairs. It didn’t surprise me that Tian had been able to drag them here, though, Tian’s will being slightly stubborner. Beside Pazi sat Julian, Tian’s good friend, themselves a priest and enthusiastic about my career choices; on Tian’s other side, Nanna, my one grandparent. All were gazing intently at the speaker, except for Pazi, who had turned her attention to someone sitting in the rows behind me, and Teeny, who had found something interesting on the ceiling.

After the school principal made much the same remarks Pr. Nystroom had given, the priest retook the podium. “I now have the pleasure of introducing our student speaker for this afternoon,” they said, and paused to clear their throat. I suppressed a grin. “Please welcome M. Nikola Kimura.”

I gasped audibly and received quizzical looks from those sitting around me. They wouldn’t know this was wrong. Surely the mistake would be sorted out. Maybe there would be two student speakers? Poor Pascal must be panicking right about now. They didn’t handle surprises well.

“Thank you, Pr. Nystroom, and thank you all for your attendance and support,” Nikola began.

The first words had seemed familiar, and as they continued I realized why. They were reading Pascal’s talk, the talk the two of us had written. No, they weren’t reading it. There was nothing there for them to read from, that I could see. They had memorized it. I was stunned. Yes, Pascal had turned in her planned remarks for approval, but how had Nikola obtained them? What was going on?

I could anticipate each turn of phrase before they recited it, but the memorization was imperfect - either they had been rushed or they had taken editorial license. A large section in the middle, which contained some of Pascal’s personal experiences and would obviously not have been Nikola’s own work, had been cleverly excised. But they hadn’t bothered to replace it with anything. And I would have noted how this significantly decreased the overall emotional appeal if I hadn’t been occupied with freaking out.

Nikola’s expression not visible to me, I looked for the other Kimuras in the audience. Pr. Luis Kimura, highest ranking Justice representative on the General Council, had brought two junior Justice Priests with him; they sat in the front row. Three smug smiles emerged above tall purple collars; the two junior priests whispered to each other. Luis had made me somewhat uncomfortable from a young age, when I had tried to avoid going to play at Nikola’s house whenever possible, tried to avoid their parent’s dour, forbidding presence. Kimura’s second child, Phuong, was absent.

“I know that as we move forward and reach new heights, we'll remember those who helped us get where we are, and to whom we dedicate our efforts. And whatever the direction of our future careers, I look forward to the many productive, favorable, Worthy years to come. Thank you.” Polite applause. Nikola rushed back to their seat, eyes downcast, lips pursed. That was not the look of a willing participant.

Pr. Nystroom resumed the podium, still clapping. “Ok, ok, yes, thank you.” They paused as the crowd subdued itself. “We will now recognize diplomas and awards.”

There were no physical diplomas to be given out, paper memorabilia being “a vanity and a waste.” As opposed to this dated ceremony, which was a holdover from a previous time but, we were assured, neither vain nor wasteful.

We had practiced this part of the ordeal a week previously. I knew my name would be called third, but when I heard “Maram Alaui,” I was still caught off guard, and jumped to my feet. Smiled as Nystroom noted that I had received the Crafa Award for Theological Writing. The award was, in my mind, a joke, “theological writing” being particularly God-centered school assignments, which apparently I had a particular knack for fabricating. But I grinned in my family’s direction anyway, to let them see my excitement.

The names and recognitions would continue for a while. I wanted to figure out what had just happened. Who had orchestrated this? Luis might have, betrayed by that smug look on their face, but that also might have been their way of expressing parently pride. If their motive had been to make Nikola look more impressive, I wasn’t sure they had succeeded, but they probably had the power to pull off such a move. I tried to recall if Nystroom had made any indication they knew something was amiss. Surely they had been aware, but had they been complicit, or just an unwilling participant?

I knew my family would be waiting for me, but I sought out Pascal as soon as the event concluded. Dackon had gotten there first, and stood with a hand on their shoulder. “It’s fine,” Pascal said to me as I approached. “I don’t know, it’ll get sorted out.” They looked tired.

“Do you think -” I tried. They held up their hand.

“Don’t bother. Please. It’s no use, it’s over now. I think I know what’s going on, but...”

I waited, but no end to the sentence was forthcoming. It seemed like they didn’t want me around just now. “Well, I have to go pack up the rest of my stuff. If you need anything…”

They nodded, and I left.

[daemonvols]

Yeah. About that.

           All right, so I’ve taken a few months off. So it goes. I’m dealing with it; you should, too. Let’s move forward.

 Anyway, it occurred to me that I had few ideas about what to write. I thought I could rhapsodize on summer vacations, which would not be a particularly original idea for this time of year. Remind me to consider the rhapsody of hot, sunny days and blooming gardens again in a few months, should we EVER again have a winter worthy of the name.  So nix that idea.

Then I remembered that summer is also the time most of us have to deal with dentists and doctors and all the appointments we put off because of inclement weather and any other excuses we could come up with during the autumn, winter and spring.  Especially doctors. And that reminds me of Notta Louden.

Notta volunteers in my classes as often as she can. To say I depend on her is understating the matter, particularly when all of my students have had miracle coffee and or energy drinks, and I have a dozen almost eager faces, each at different reading and math levels, awaiting today’s adventure in GED prep.

Notta may not be someone who stands out in the proverbial crowd. She admits to being over sixty and doesn’t mind her somewhat pear-shaped body. “Whatever rolls and wrinkles I got, I earned ‘em,” she says. She dresses simply, usually in light-colored tunics and comfortable, elastic waistband pants. There’s more pepper than salt in her hair. She keeps that hair cut short to please herself.  Her eyes glint warm chocolate when she’s happy and chocolate diamond hard when she is not. Her smile is wide with teeth unashamedly off-white; and they always will be, because Notta sees no point in having her teeth bleached or painted white for some trumped-up notion of beauty that won’t matter at all once she’s dead.

And her glasses. Notta keeps them on an old-lady chain with rainbow beads so she never loses them. She pushes at them every other sentence as the copper frames treat her broad nose like a playground slide. At times, when she is elbows on the table we use for class, her ample rear limiting the passing space between the side cabinets and the table’s edge, deep into explaining the mysteries of common denominators for fraction addition, the glasses slide right of and bounce of her sharp chin. At that point, Notta straightens up, resets the contrary spectacles and laughs.

My students enjoy her laughter. They respect her motherly common sense, too. The most frequent question we get from students, particularly those aged eighteen to twenty, is why they have to know mathematical operations with fractions or the area of an isosceles triangle, what an author’s purpose in nattering on and on about locusts, or the causes of the American Civil War.  My response has distilled over the years to telling them this is the type the GED test asks. You want to pass and get the piece of paper, you have to know this.

Notta, however, takes the Big Picture approach. Her mother’s pet lecturing answer can take up to five minutes, including the Future few if any of my students can envision.  Sometimes, all right, most times, their eyes glaze over before she finishes. Notta ends with an off-white smile. She wags her index finger and tells them, “Think about it. You’ll know I’m right.”

But we were talking about doctors.

Notta arrived one morning last week a few minutes behind her usual time. She huffed her way into one of my office chairs. “Damned doctors,” she said. I asked the question. “You remember I told you I was digging holes for dahlia bulbs, and my foot slipped off the shovel and I cut the side on the blade and they put in a couple stitches?” I remembered. “Well, today I went in to get ‘em taken out. First thing the nurse says to me – al stone-faced, this one, like it’s against her religion to smile or maybe she just had Botox – ‘Let’s hop up on the scale here.’  I told her at my age I don’t hop and I’m only here to get stitches taken out.

“‘Then step up here and let’s get you weighed.’

“‘Am I going to weigh any less once you take the stitches out?’

“Not so much as a smile. ‘I hardly think so.’

“���Then I hardly think it’s worth your time or mine to get me weighed.’

“’The doctor wants to get your vitals.’  You could freeze ice cubes in her mouth by now, but her face? Nothing. And I know I won’t be seeing the doctor anyway. Stitches out is the PA’s job. So I tell her:

“’ Well, you can remind the doctor for me of that old Rolling Stones song that goes, “You can’t always get what you want.” Now which room do I go into to get these stitches out?’”

I said something to the effect that the nurses will have to learn not to mess with her from now on. Notta chuckled. “Oh, they knew I was trouble from the first day I started there.”

There are several minutes more before the students arrive, so I ask her to continue. Notta settles into the chair and pushes up her glasses. “First appointment, I spend twenty minutes filling out forms about my family medical history, my own history, my medicines, my aches, my pains.  Then I let them weigh me. Why not? We all have to start somewhere. Then there’s the blood pressure, better than it was when I was working in that engineer’s office, but I suppose it could be lower. Then the strip-off and put on the gown and sit on the butcher paper on the exam table. The nurse goes to her laptop and asks me the same questions I spent 20 minutes answering so she can tappity-tap the answers into the laptop’s memory. She takes the clipboard with the forms I filled out. And I sit. For fifteen minutes, I sit sticking to the paper.”

Some patients take longer than expected, I point out. Doctors’ schedules are usually jam packed.

“I know, I know. But then why the rush to get me on the scale and my blood pressure and a regurgitation of the form questions?” She waves again, then pushes up her glasses. “Finally, the doctor comes in.  Do you know Dr. T - ?” I do not. “Just as well. Some days I wish I didn’t. He was my husband’s choice and it’s my husband’s insurance, so when Rome dictates, you learn to speak Latin. Or something like that.

“Anyway, this man comes in and gives me a cold, damp handshake. Like holding hands with a fresh-caught mackerel. I won’t say he’s strange-looking, but I had this thought of a normal-proportioned man, maybe a little on the short side, who’d been put into a taffy-puller. Even his mustache hangs down and his hair got pulled al the way of the back of his crown. So he sits down with his tablet or whatever the step up from the laptop is and starts asking me the same questions that the nurse asked and the form asked.

‘Hey, I just spent 20 minutes answering those on a form and then telling it all to the nurse,’ I said.

He doesn’t look up at me. I think he might have blinked. ‘I need the information for my records,’ he says.

‘Okay,’ I say. I hop of the table – so, yes, I can hop – and go out into the hallway where the nurse is at some desk. ‘I need the clipboard,’ I tell her. ‘I may have missed something.’ She gives me that Botox look of no understanding, but gives it to me. I take it and go back to the room and give it to the doctor. ‘Here, you can take the information from there.’ He looks at me then, like I’ve got four eyes or two heads or something.

“Takes him a few more minutes to tappity-tap his keyboard full of my information and the first thing he says is, ‘Well, you need to lose weight.’

“’Tell me something new,’ I thought I was joking. His vanilla-taffy face turned a little strawberry.

“’Look, you need to lose about 50 pounds to be healthy at your age and height.’

“I started feeling a little strawberry myself. ‘According to who?’

“’Well, the AMA and state and federal health organizations –‘

“’And the insurance companies that only make money if we live and keep paying premiums and the nutrition and diet people who change their minds every other month.’

“ Well, here strawberry was turning cherry. ‘Look, Mrs. Louden, if you don’t lose the weight, we’ll be talking about heart disease. We’ll be talking about organ stress. We’ll be talking about joint damage and probably replacement surgery.’

“’And if I do lose the weight, what will we talk about then?’”

I glanced at the clock at this point, noting that students would arrive soon, so I pointed out that doctors have it pretty hard these days with the demands of insurance, high costs, ageing population with more and more ailments, and so much grief from a federal government whose answer to every problem is to cut services and give tax breaks.  I noted that, even in my own experience, it did rather seem like a factory-run science lab with all the tests and measuring, “But,” I ended, “Al they really want to know what they’re dealing with.”

“I know,” Notta agreed. “It’s hard for us all when you get people with heads up their rear ends telling the rest of us how to be healthy. Oh, there’s BJ with his iPod earphones up to loud. That boy will go deaf before he’s 20.”

She stands, pats my shoulder. “I know what you’re saying and they do need to know what they’re dealing with. I only wish they would remember who they’re dealing with, too.” She smiled and wagged her finger. “Think about it. You know I’m right.”

[majesticmia]

In My Time of Dying

hi so, as you guys know, this para is long af bc whenever i write selfies, i get carried away. also, this contains lots of triggers like drug abuse, lots of alcohol is involved and there’s mentions of kidnapping & mild assault. its just the day after the ferry boat crash and mia basically ends up back at the scene of the accident. okay bye. i hope you like it.

It was a bright sunny day in Seattle; the birds were chirping, kids were playing... If you didn’t live here, you probably wouldn’t even suspect that there was a tragedy only yesterday. Mia wished she were one of those people who weren’t in the city, instead she had to be one of the people on the boat. What she lived through yesterday was the most horrible thing she’s ever experienced. It was something that no one could just get over in a day.

That’s why she didn’t sleep that night. And when she was released from the hospital this morning, she made her way to her local pharmacy, picking up a bottle of Modafinil--her usual. She swore to herself that she wouldn’t use them again. She even made that promise to her big sister but during times like these, she needed them. There was no way she was going to succumb to her exhaustion. She couldn’t handle it. Although she hated to admit it, she wasn’t as strong as she thought. In fact, she was weak.

The first place she went after the pharmacy was her empty apartment. It was too quiet in the place. Ellexandra only moved out a few weeks ago so the young surgeon wasn’t too used to living alone just yet. Usually she’d have her girlfriend over but she hasn’t seen or heard from Juliette since after she first got to the hospital. She didn’t mind the alone time but she wouldn’t turn down a nice snuggle. Instead, Mia turned on her Bluetooth and turned up the speakers. She wasn’t planning on sitting in the house reliving the events of the ferry boat crash over and over… she was going to stop thinking about it the best way she knew how: alcohol.

After a quick shower, she got dressed, attempted to do her make up and something to her hair before heading out of her apartment for the nearest bar. Mia thought walking might be best for the intentions she had tonight. She was planning on getting so fucked up that she doesn’t remember today or yesterday.

“How much alcohol do you think I need to do that?” she asked the bartender later that night after having a few drinks already. Mia may have told the bartender about the past day in review but honestly, she couldn’t remember if she actually did. She’s never had this much to drink before… Okay, let’s not count that one night at the party, she thought to herself.

On her fifth shot of the night, Mia smiled, thanking the bartender as the DJ turned on one of her favorite songs. She was about to get up and dance when a news update about the survivors and victims of the ferry boat crash came on. The young surgeon almost lost her shit. She got up from her seat at the bar and stumbled drunkingly towards the exit before rushing out of the building. When she got outside the building, she felt so worked up that she stumbled over to the side of the building where she regurgitated in the alley.

“You doing alright, pretty girl?” she heard a voice from in front of her. She could see a man walking up to her in her peripheral. Mia sat up quickly wiping her mouth with the back of her hand before yelling, “I’m perfectly fine. You can stay where you are.”

“I’m just trying to help you. Such a young, fragile girl like you shouldn’t be out in a dark alley by yourself,” he said walking closer to her…

Mia tried to run past him but he grabbed her by the arm. Her scream was cut off by his hand and he started to drag her, holding her by her neck and her  face. She fought hard and resisted but it only made her male attacker squeeze tighter around her neck. Before she knew it, she was being tossed into the back of a van…

…Mia pulled out her pepper spray and yelled, “Get any closer and it’s going to hurt.”

“Geesh,” he said, backing off as she ran past him out of the alley.

At least with the adrenaline rush, she didn’t feel sick anymore. She looked at the time on her phone and saw that it was only eleven o’clock. The night was still young so she couldn’t go home… she wasn’t allowed to go to work for another two weeks so she went to the one place she could: the liquor store.

There was one in walking distance. Normally she’d call a ride this late but after her ‘win’ in the alley, she was feeling more confident than ever. She strolled along the sidewalk with her headphones in, blasting the music through the tiny speakers until she walked into the beautifully lit liquor store. She walked down the aisles searching for the strongest bottle of anything in the store. Finally deciding on a bottle, she grabbed it making her way to the register. She pulled out a wad of cash and just shrugged, giving it all to her before yelling, “Keep the change and let me get some cigarettes too; whatever the best ones are.”

Mia barely got out the door before she was taking a swig from the bottle. She found herself walking with no destination in mind when she literally stumbled upon the docks. It was taped off with the yellow police tape, and it was freakishly quiet out. Pieces of the boat still lay out on the dock and the wreckage from the burning boat was still sitting in the water strapped down to the anchor. Apparently they didn’t spend the day after the accident cleaning up the crash site. The place looks so different than it did only a day before…

It was beautiful out... Seeing all the tiny little islands floating on top of the sea made the girl feel on top of the world in a way. The triumph from knowing that she aced her exams didn’t help. Mia felt glorious and when she returned to land, she was going to make love to her girlfriend. They were just about to clear the dock when she turned around and saw the inevitable.

When she came to, half the ship was on fire and people were screaming… burning. The smell of their flesh made the young surgeon want to puke but with the adrenaline rushing through her veins, she ran straight into the flames. She pretended that these people--the ones who were stuck under pieces of the boat, those knocked out from the harsh impact and those literally rolling on the floor trying to put themselves out--weren’t people at all. None of this was real; it was just another part of her exam. It was the only way she could stomach this.

Climbing into a hole to pull out a little boy was the highlight of Mia’s day. She could feel herself kneeling over and figured that by now, they had plenty of help and she could finally get herself checked on. If she knew she was going to get knocked into the water, she wouldn’t have answered the distant call for help. She would’ve let someone else do it. Instead, upon trying to help, she was pushed overboard… and sadly, she thought falling would be the worst part. However, hitting the water felt like being dropped flat on cement from fifty feet in the air. It left welts on her skin and her body felt like it was on fire. She was so grateful that she floated to the top. Although when she reached the surface, she realized that she could’ve just stayed at the bottom of the ocean. There was no way out… she couldn’t swim and she was in so much pain that she didn’t even try to. It didn’t help that the water was so cold that her body already started to freeze over limb by limb. It was getting harder to stay above the water with every second.

In that moment, Mia gave up. She thought for sure that it was the end and when she started to sink, she didn’t fight it. She was calm; it was peaceful even... and it scared the shit out of her. Now, she found herself sitting on the docks, drowning herself in liquor with a cigarette burning in her other hand. She didn’t smoke but she read somewhere that it helped with the alcohol, and she needed the alcohol if she was going to get through this night. Mia’s one goal was to forget about all of yesterday, yet here she was sitting at the crash site reliving her own personal nightmare.

[patriciaanderson357-blog]

How to revise for exams effectively

How to revise for exams effectively

Revision, that’s where you sit at a desk in your bedroom, or the dining room table, and you read. If you’re not reading you write out your notes, make pretty coloured cards with thousands of words of information, the TV is on in the background, or there is music playing, and the bustle of daily life goes on around you. Right? That’s the revision most of us recognise. What if I told you most of that was slightly less help than doing nothing? That taking the dogs for a walk, or telling your goldfish about trigonometry would be far more use? No, I’m not being sarcastic, they actually would. So, if writing everything down again, or reading your textbook cover to cover doesn’t work, what does?

Plan

It does not have to be in calligraphic script with colour coding for each topic. It’s about content not how pretty it is. Put aside times of the day when you are going to revise. 20-30 minute slots work best and leave some longer slots to do full past papers. List the subjects you are taking exams in, and the topics for each subject. Even if you just have the list and the time slots that can be enough. Tick off each topic as you do it. Are you confident? Add two ticks, if you still have major worries, don’t tick it. Focus on the topics that have the fewest ticks. Treat those times as being as important as lessons. You wouldn’t miss a lesson to watch rubbish TV, so don’t ignore revision time either.

Past Papers

Whilst you are being tested in your knowledge of a subject, what you are actually leading up to is an exam, and luckily there are plenty of practise papers and past papers available. Talk to your teachers to see if they have any printed off, or can point you in the direction of the ones you need. For my students I suggest they sit down in as close to exam conditions as possible, complete the exam paper even if every question seems impossible, read through the question and see if there are any key words or phrases that they can use to even attempt the questions. Do this first run through in black ink. Once that’s done put it to one side and take a break. Next look up the topics they struggled with, grab the exam paper and write down the answers in a different coloured ink, say green or purple, anything so it’s clear which were the first and second set of answers. Third, mark the exam paper using the official mark scheme. This does two major things. First it shows them were they went wrong, and where they got things right. Secondly it shows them what the exam boards are looking for. What seemed like the important facts may only take up one or two marks, whilst areas that they’d forgotten or seemed less important may have made up the bulk of the marks. An equally valid way is to do this in pairs or small groups. Swap papers to mark and discuss what was right and what was wrong.

Studies agree that if you can only do one form of revision past papers are it.

Peer Learning.

Get together in a group. Each member of the group pick a topic that they are struggling with and they have 20 minutes to learn enough to teach it to the rest of the group. Groups are a vital part of the revision process; our revision sessions are designed to help focus student’s attention on what they need to know and remove the distractions. In small groups students can learn the topics they are struggling with, reinforce the topics they are confident in, and reduce the stress that they are under.    

Learn what they don’t know.

Revision is great to reinforce topics that they already understand, and to memorise facts that they might have to regurgitate in the exam, but what if they don’t understand the topic at hand. Exams are testing learning and knowledge. A way for colleges, universities, and future employers to see that people are able to learn a topic and to use that information in a meaningful way. This is great, if they understand the topics. Now is the time to find out that there are gaps in their knowledge, or that they’ve missed entire topics. Not the day before the exam. Either raise this with their teacher, or contact us now to arrange one to one tuition rel=“nofollow. Even short-term help can close huge gaps in knowledge. Most exam papers are around 80 marks. A single missed topic can account for a huge number of those marks, this can be the difference between resitting and getting the grades they want. Between getting their first choice in University, or spending another year in college. For younger students this can be the difference between getting a grip on a topic now in the earlier years, or struggling on until exam day, already far behind.

Don’t read do

Can they discuss the topic, or watch a YouTube video showing the theory in action? Can they argue the point with friends, or visit the zoo or a museum? Are any local universities giving free talks? All of these things present the information in a different way, allowing the brain to absorb it and form new patterns of memory, all ready to be remembered when it counts. Have them make notes as they do. Note taking helps embed the information in their memory. Oh and if they are reading, making notes, or doing past papers, turn off the TV and the music, and try and keep the noise down for the 20-30 minutes they are studying. Exams are in silence, sadly that means revision is best done that way as well  

Originally Published Here: How to revise for exams effectively

[laurajanecostello]

If you’re in the UK, chances are you’ve seen the news posts about the dad who essentially went to the High Court (the highest court in alllll the land) to challenge a fine for taking his daughter out of school for a holiday. Pretty much all of the (child-having) UK were awaiting the result of this case and – like me – were surprised and upset that he lost. The judge ruled that him taking his daughter out of school for a holiday was unlawful.

(Serious rambling ahead…)

A statement featured here says:

“Unauthorised absences have a disruptive effect, not only on the education on the individual child, but also on the work of other pupils, and their teachers.”

I’m not going to lie, this gave me quite a lot of rage. Why, as parents, do we not get to raise our children any more? Let me tell you about me and education.

I grew up on an army base in Germany – my dad was in the army. We had frequent holidays back home to the UK to see family. Some of these were in school time. It was perfectly normal for kids to take time out of school to visit with relatives or to have a holiday. It was just how it was. When we moved to England when I was ten, we were also taken out of school probably once a year for a holiday.

So, my case is a classic example of what not to do, according to the legislators of today. Except for not really. I have eleven GCSE’s, 5 A-Levels and a buttload of professional qualifications to boot. I could have gone to university – I had the grades for it – but I decided not to. My parents knew their children well enough to know that taking them out of school for X or Y period would not disrupt our learning that much.

Some of these holidays were awesome. I remember being taken out when I was probably

Sisters. Spain. Should have been at school…

about seven and we came to stay with my grandparents in Yorkshire. I had homework to do from school which involved making some kind of travel brochure or something about St Lucia of all places. In order to do this, my aunt took me to the travel agent where we selected some brochures and spoke to staff about St Lucia. We then took them back to my grandparents’ house and read through it, selecting what we wanted and then we put together a brochure of our own. We went to Spain (again, during school time) for two weeks when I was probably eleven or twelve and had a great time. I learned to recognise Spanish money, to understand little bits of Spanish and we went to a Spanish theme park. The reason this  ruling makes me so angry is because we may not have had these experiences had we had to go during school holidays, because supply and demand means that prices are almost tripled in school holidays!

Children are like sponges, and I think the out of school activities are just as important as the ones carried out in school. Learning how to swim in the sea, what the colours of the flags on the beach mean, how to recognise different money from different countries and how to order an ice cream in Italian are all part of life experience. Not to mention the importance of family time. When everyone is working and schooling, sometimes time as a family falls by the wayside, and I always enjoyed spending that uninterrupted family time. Even though Eden is only a year old I still look forward to that, because it is very rare that Amy, Eden and I are in the same place at the same time for longer than a couple of solid days.

In my humble opinion, a lot of what schools teach is just how to pass exams. How to get the numbers and how to get a grade on a piece of paper that will get you “ahead” in life. Whilst I agree that education is important, I also don’t think it is everything. Plus, you learn a lot of crap to pass those exams. I can tell you a fair bit about Russian history thanks to my A Level in History, but I haven’t used that information since passing the exam – except for maybe in a pub quiz or two. I had to prove for GCSE maths that I could correctly use Pythagoras’ Theorem, and work out complicated formulas. have I used those skills since? Nope. I had to learn about atoms, periodic tables and such to pass GCSE Chemistry, but again this is something that I have not needed to know since. Don’t even get me started on learning how to make a fricking vegan pizza in “food technology” or learning what makes up soil in Geography. A lot of schooling is just being able to regurgitate information on demand.

Even though Eden is only one, I can see what she takes on from the world around her. She learns from everything. We went to the zoo the other day and she had the BEST time! Although she cannot yet tell us what she is learning, you can see it. You can see her taking things in and recognising things next time we see them. We went to Disneyland when she was six months old and even that was an introduction to a different language, cultural differences and spending time with different people. At the zoo the other day, she went into the petting zoo and we met goats and sheep – animals that she has never met before. She was by far the best behaved child in there and was super gentle, and I know the reason for that was that we had taught her how to behave around animals. That’s thanks to having two dogs at home as well. We are going to Florida in December and I know she will learn things there. Not traditionally “educational” things, but she will be learning about the world and that stuff is important.

I’ve worked as a London Tour Guide, a barista, a bar person, customer service at the London Eye, taken 999 emergency medical calls and now work admin for a busy NHS department. For most of these roles I have used things that I learnt in LIFE, not things that I learned in school. I’ve picked up a bunch of professional qualifications along the way and do count myself as an intelligent, well educated person. Nowadays, though, ,my parents would be penalised for taking me out of school because they were “affecting my learning”.

Some schools now will send you home for wearing the wrong colour socks. They’ll send you home because you’re being bullied so terribly that they’re not sure what to do with you. They will send a letter home because your parent gave you a chocolate bar with your lunch and they don’t allow that. It almost seems like once a child reaches school age, they are harshly policed and a lot of things aren’t up to their parents any more. I agree that good attendance is important, but I don’t agree with taking away choice.

It genuinely, honestly, makes me think about home schooling. I hate that education nowadays has become harsh. Has become about FIVE YEAR OLDS passing exams. Honestly, five year olds shouldn’t be sitting exams. Seven year olds shouldn’t be developing anxiety because of the pressure put on the school and therefore on them to get “good grades”. Don’t even get me started on sixteen year olds having breakdowns because of GCSEs. It’s too much pressure, it’s too much pushing and too much expectation. Most importantly, I feel like kids aren’t allowed to be kids any more. And parents aren’t allowed to make decisions for their kids.

The way I see it is, this is a case of the majority being punished for the actions of the minority. There are a minority of parents whose kids don’t attend school regularly. There are a minority of parents who pack mcdonalds for lunch every day. But I don’t understand why a school cannot take that up with those concerned, rather than blanket punishing everyone. If my child is doing good at school and is on target or ahead, the decision to take her out of school should be mine and Amy’s alone.

Holidays are important. Holidays are a mental health break, family time and time away. They’re time to regroup, get to know each other again and just have fun. For kids, it’s a time to just BE KIDS.

I’ll be interested to see how this pans out over the coming years. But, the stricter schools get, the more I float the idea of home schooling. I never want my daughter to consider her worth based on a number or a letter on a piece of paper. Life is so much more than grades.