#real studyblr

[iamcatmansblog]

Living a pretty day #6

26 August

It's set in stone you all Botany and catman don't go along the amount of time it took to funish that 2 hour class is unreal, also can we also talk about how pretty Jung haein is???????

[ronastudies]

january 8, 2024 // omnia vincit aequatio challenge day 5

got up, took the 7:whatever train, went to work

took ibuprofen for the cramps i started having

left for after only two hours because the cramps were not getting better and i felt all kinds of ill

spent the rest of the day in bed, mostly sleeping, crawled out only for an hour or so to attend roommate's birthday celebration downstairs

from an academic point of view and in regards to the challenge, today was a failure. however, days like this happen and if it is at all possible, it is important to let one's body rest and heal.

[antistudyblr]

little known fact: the p in PhD actually stands for poverty. reagan had it changed in the 80s

[mudwisard]

my trick for getting through grad school is learning to navigate the quadrants with all their nuances

[instantlightpeanut]

Is there an un-aesthetic version of studyblr? I don't want to look at your notes and feel inferior, or see you set up your study table in a way that suggests you never experienced a lick of stress. I want real study tips, that teach me how to study. With the ugly notes where they explain a good way to process the information and write it down that isn't just copying the whole book. I want organisation tips, and how to prepare for tests and reread materials in a way that doesn't take a week per chapter.

[in---earnest]

The MARINA discography saga continues. Been a bit since I was so fixated on an artist, but her songwriting is a breath of fresh air.

My chemistry midterm is tomorrow, my math midterm (day before yesterday) went. Absolutely terribly. Because our teacher came up with original questions and cancelled stuff. So that's not a fun precedent for the rest of my internals.

I really enjoy chemistry so my concepts are definitely there, now I need to go through fine print.

18th August 2024

[skwpr]

[04.09.2024]

A chaotic start to the term. Busy day at work👩🏻‍🔬⚗️🧪🥼

Reminder: keep your back straight. Remember to take time for yourself.

[ben-learns-smth]

being in your twenties is like [making a nice meal just for yourself] [trying a new hobby] [baking a cake because you want to] [moving in with your best friends] [celebrating small wins] [dreaming up a billion future versions of yourself] [long distance friendship phone calls] [trying new styles] [finding the people you can sit and do nothing with] [having your favourite dishes for dinner] [getting piercings] [trying a new recipe] [finding the people to do kitchen karaoke with] [choosing yourself over and over again] [dinner picnics in the park] [celebrating the big wins] [finding the people to go on day trips with] [learning a new language] [finally getting that one tattoo you've been daydreaming about] [being a regular at a cosy café] [learning how to be your own ally] [dyeing your hair late at night with a friend] [painting your walls] [creating a life you enjoy experiencing]

[cloudy-caspirations]

Wednesday • September 11, 2024

I had to skip my morning physics lecture to study for a circuit analysis quiz that I’m taking later today 😵‍💫😵‍💫 I miss the days when the main reason for skipping class was sleeping in. I can’t tell if the practice problems being easy means that I’m ready for this quiz or that they’re actually too easy and I’m not studying at the proper difficulty for the quiz.

Today’s going to be super busy, I have classes until 7pm and have a quiz tomorrow for differential equations, so I’m probably going to have to stay up late. I’ll update this tomorrow with how both quizzes go!

Here are some pics from my cramming session right now and my late night circuits lab. See y’all in a bit!

[gentlespriting]

🤍 16.04.24 💻

did some lecture notes (i've been letting them pile up and now i need to do 3 weeks' worth of them 😵‍💫 ......)

furikake is a godsend i wish they had donki here

class was esp full today and made a new acquaintance! hoping to see her around more 🫶

[martiestudies]

[090924] way too much going on at the moment 🫠

[iamcatmansblog]

Fell behind by a few days but the reason is so amazing I can't even be mad at myself, you all I finished my A levels with 2 A* and 2As, the grades were so much better than I had even expected Alhamdullillah so the celebrations and the realisation of damn I did it took away some time xd

15th August

Living a pretty day #3

But I am low-key back on track again, studied, walked and read yesterday hoping to get more studying in today and make up for the past 2 days wish me luck <33

[ronastudies]

omnia vincit aequatio challenge // update

jan/feb 2024 // trying to see the beautiful in the mess ☕️🧋🎧🧸

So, um, well, how do you say... "oops"? Kinda casually stopped updating myself in my own personal journal and everyone else on my studyblr about my very own very cool study/productivity challenge.

If I had to draw a conclusion of these last four weeks, I'd have to admit that I still didn't produce the academic work and output I had planned and wanted. However, I managed to deal with an immense workload and tackled some planned and some unforeseen tasks that took up a lot of time and energy so it's all pretty okay. (Campus magazine, student assistant tasks, part-time job, helping several people move, being sick for about two weeks, just to name the biggest few.)

I've grown so afraid to open this app or website because I had failed to update my challenge for a couple of days, so out of fear and avoidance, these days turned into weeks and so on. I don't want to let that go on any longer, though, because the studyblr community is giving me so much. Maybe this at least means that I'm starting to take goals I set myself seriously? Onto execution of said seriously-taken goals then!

[why-the-heck-not]

writing anything always starts with the best intentions of trying to make the greatest damn cup of coffee there ever was, for morale & motivation ofc no not bc of procrastination no no shh

[sunnysideupsciart]

Do you know that a 3000-year-old honey was still edible? Does honey ever spoil?

[the---hermit]

oral exam tips

I have at least one other post on exam tips, but they were mainly focused on giving tips on history exams. To me oral exams in academia have been the norm since high school, but I know that in other countries that might no be the case, so I decided to write down a list of advices coming from someone who is quite used to this kind of tests.

If you aren't used to having oral exams, you might need to change your study method, or at least add a few steps. I recently made a post entirely dedicated to my study method, which might be useful for this, but what I suggest is to add a step in which you review things out loud. What I would do is to just sit down with your notes or your materials and pretend to give a lecture on everything. Even better if you have a friend or family member to listen to you, because by having an active listener you will be forced to not skip stuff and have clear explainations, and they might ask you questions or clarifications. Those are always good because that might happen during the exam as well, but also it will help you memorizing those things. I recommend reviewing out loud multiple times. This way you will get more comfortable with the exposition of the topics you will be tested on, and you'll have a chance to find your own "voice".

by finding your own voice I mean finding a good compromise between using your own words to explain things, while still using the correct specific vocabulary of whatever topic you'll be tested on. This is fundamental. You are not there to recite a poem by heart, you are there to show you have understood the topic, that you sat with it and made it yours. You have to show you know how to clearly explain things but also reflect on it, making links with other things, and so on. At the same time there's some academic and specific vocabulary you want to include, because you are not in fact discussing the topic with a friend. So practicing out loud before the exam is good to find a good compromise between these two things.

I kind of mentioned it already, but it is absolutely fundamental to show that you understood the topic and not just memorized it. Whatever you do do not learn things by heart. It's better to be slightly insicure about a specific date, than to repeat your book word by word. And if you practice enough, and are comfortable enough with the informations in general believe me you can work around those things you can't remember perfectly well as you are being tested. Moreover your mark on the exam will be much higher than if you just learn things by heart.

on the very delicate topic of not remembering something specific you have been asked. Don't panic, you can still kind of save it. Whatever happens do not stay silent. There are several things you can do depending on whatever the question is, and I will later tell you a very specific example of something that happened to me. As I said do not panic, surely you will remember about some context on the topic so start by talking about that. As you are giving the context you might start to remember additionals informations, or you might build up enough informations to be able to logically guess whatever you are not remembering correctly. If you are half sure about something go for it, even if it's the wrong info if you contextualise it well enough you'll show you knew about that and it might just be read as a slip of you confusing two things. Now there might be situations in which the question is so direct that you can't do much, it happened to me once during my Greek history exam. I was asked the specific date of an event, and I could not for the love of the gods remember it. You know what I did? I told the professor, I cann't rememebr the exact date, but giving certain informations (that I then explained) I can tell you it was more or less in this half of this century. What I did was admit a fault, but while doing that I showed her that I knew what we were talking about it, I had enough informations on the matter to logically place it on the chronological line and contextualize it, and showed her that I can in fact work with the informations I studied. And at the end of my exam the professor complimented me on those exact things, saying she appreciated seeing me use my brain instead of midlessly memorizing informations I didn't understand.

So whatever happens do not stay silent. Anything is better than that.

Another potentially bad thing that might happen, and believe me it happened to me multiple times, is panicking so bad that you cannot get the words out, or confuse things. You know what happened everytime I found myself in that situation? The professor clearly saw me panicking, and told me to calm down, wait a couple of minutes, get my ideas in order and try again. And I got good grrades despite that in the end. You are under a lot of pressure, because you are giving an exam, and you have to be quick and ready instead of being able to reflect like with a written exam. Professors know that, and they keep it in mind, and they can tell when you are mixing things up because you are nervous, and not because you don't know things. I once had a professor look at me in the eye after i mixed up numbers on two dates twice in a row, and told me I know you know them take two deep breaths and try again. And I did. I have so many personal stories from my previous degree in which professors saw I was nervous and told me that it was okay I just needed to take a minute and breathe, and honestly that was exactly it. It was okay and I really needed to breathe, and then the exam when well.

The best tip I can give on answering questions is to balance the actual answer of the question with additional informations. You want to give context and add more infos to whatever has been asked to you, but you should also try not to lose focus on what was being asked. My personal way of doing this is to structure the answer in three parts: 1. general context that works as an introduction to the actual direct answer 2. the actual answer 3. further additions like more context, comparaisons and links with other topics or informations you had to study. This way you show off you know things, you make sure to show the professor you are not just rambling because you don't know the answer, and finally show you are comfortable enough with the informations to reflect on them and link them to other things. Ideally the professor will stop you while you are speaking, that in my experience is the best possible sign, because they are satisfied with your exposition and want to move onto other things.

So always build up on the answer to the question you have been asked. Never stop at just the information that serves as an aswer. You studied, it's your time to shine and make yourself proud.

Contextualizing your informations is absolutely fundamental no matter what, again because it shows you have a clear idea about what you are talking about. This can mean making a small introduction on the time and place, if you are an historian like me, or maybe give an introduction on the person you are talking about (whether they are an historical figure or a scholar you are talking about). Adding the little informations you weren't asked about is great. You are briefly mentioning an even and know the date? Add it in. Everything is a good addition.

Again I have definitely already mentioned in previous points but showing you are capable of reflect on the topics you are talking about is always a bonus. Make sure that when you are giving personal options or personal reflections you are stating this is your thought, but that is usually appreciated. After a good exposition of a topic you might even get the professor asking you your opinion on certain things. It happened to me multiple times, often I was asked to give an opinion of books I had to study for the exam, and that always prooved as an oportunity to add more informations and as I said show that I could make reflections of my own.

Last thing, that again kind of came out from other points, is that you want to show you are comfortable enough with the topic to be able to jump from one point to the other while reflecting on things or making comparaisons.

I am pretty sure I have forgotten something, but once again if you have specific questions I am happy to help, my inbox is always open. I know people who aren't used to oral exams are very scared of them, but as long as you try to approach it like a normal conversation on the topics you had to study, and you have practiced, things will be fine. To be quite honest with you after years of experience I'd say I very much prefer oral exams to written ones, because you can in a way shape the conversation and bring it to the topics you liked the most, know best. I hope this post was somewhat helpful to someone out there, and good luck if you are about to take an exam!