thestudyblrr

[thestudyblrr]

So recently two of my besties have gotten stressed out about midterms and since they’re both serial procrastinators, their stress levels have reached heights that as their friend, got me really worried for their mental health. Thus, I wanted to help them out with some advice, and it also might help you, my lovely followers (1000! Wow!) I know I’m not perfect, because no one is, and I don’t follow a very strict, regulated study regimen. I also am writing this from the perspective of someone who’s taken a lot of college level science classes, so I’m sorry if this doesn’t help for high schoolers or any other subjects. But hopefully this might help you!

1. Studying for a test begins by reviewing your notes after class.

The first mistake many students make is taking notes in class, but never actually looking over them until the day before the test. My chemistry professor used to harp on us all the time for never reading our notes and then asking questions about things in the notes, so for me it first evolved as a defense mechanism, and then a studying habit. Always reread your notes, or even rewrite them like I do well before the test. You can make them pretty if you’d like, but that isn’t a requirement. Rewriting and rereading well ahead of time forces you to review the material well before the test, making your brain automatically absorb the material so that it’s familiar to you in the homework, later class periods, and then eventually on the test. Feeling comfortable with the subject is incredibly important, because if you feel overwhelmed right before the test and start cramming, the information will not stay in your head and you won’t do as well as you’d like.

2. Studying for a test begins by consistently doing the homework ahead of time, and doing it multiple times.

In high school homework is usually useless busy work, but in college, it is essential. My chemistry professor had us rework her homework three times: once for understanding, twice for accuracy, and thrice for speed. This is true of most other math and science subjects, because then you are able to build muscle memory and an eye for key terms you would miss if you didn’t do the homework. After doing the homework, you’ve seen everything; professors normally aren’t out to get you, so the test problems tend to be similar, but not exactly like the homework questions. Doing the homework again confirms you are comfortable with the material ahead of time and able to do it an appropriate speed. Try not to repeat doing the homework more than once a day; I like to space it out so that you do it once well before the test, right when the material’s fresh, twice about a week before to review, and thrice about one or two days before the test for speed.

3. Studying for a test should be a gradual process that eventually intensifies as you go.

While doing the homework and going over your notes is a good start, you really have to kick it into gear about a week before a big midterm. The soonest I’d recommend without significant amounts of stress is five days, because anything less will not give you a chance to be comfortable with the material unless you’re convinced it’s an easy subject. If you have multiple tests in one week, I don’t recommend focusing your attention on one and then winging the other one. As someone who has tried that multiple times, that doesn’t work too well. Studying for both, switching between one and the other when you tire of a subject, allows you to turn on a new light in your head. It (this isn’t scientific, but) activates different parts of your memory, and if you’re learning two intertwined topics (psychology and biology, for example) it will help you make lots of connections that will help your overall understanding of the material. The more times you cover material, the less likely you’ll forget it.

I don’t give myself time limits (i.e., study for this for this many hours) because I study until I know the material. This is why I start ahead of time. You want to be able to pull your knowledge out of nowhere and be prepared for everything the professor might throw at you.

The day before the test should be devoted mostly to studying, interrupted by short breaks, and the night before should be devoted to self-care. It isn’t healthy to study the night before and get no sleep, because the material just won’t stay in your brain, and knowledge is actually more solidified when you get more REM sleep. Sleep a decent nine hours. Eat a good dinner and a good breakfast the following day. Pet your cat. Take a hot shower or bath, whatever your preference is. Do what makes you feel relaxed, and rest. You don’t want to be nervous before the test.

4. Studying for a test should be in a controlled environment.

When you’re just getting trivial work done, you can and should study with friends. Friends and study groups may help you review notes and check homework, solidifying material early on. However, friends are a distraction when you have to kick your studying into high gear. When I go to the library, I go by myself, so I won’t be tempted to talk to my friends if they’re sitting near me. Don’t cut your friends out of your life before tests—that’s really unhealthy—but allot a certain time to hang out and get outside (I usually meet up over lunch or dinner). It doesn’t matter where you study, but you need to be able to get work done there. I prefer the library because it’s a relatively controlled environment, but if you work better in a café or your dorm—I have a friend who likes the ambience of fast food restaurants to get his work done—then go for it.

Personally, I don’t eat while I study, because I’ll always end up eating first. I like having healthy finger food, like fruit or vegetables to snack on, if I’m feeling hungry. I usually end up drinking water or tea as well. Coffee isn’t for me, frankly—I like the taste, but it makes my heart jump too much, and you want something that will keep you calm.

Make sure to study in an area with good light, and fresh air is always nice if you can study outside. Studying in a dark area can make you feel unmotivated and gloomy, particularly when it rains. DO NOT STUDY IN BED. YOU WILL FALL ASLEEP.

5. Other random tips

It helps to make lists ahead of time of what you need to study and focus on. Scheduling may help if you’re the sort of person who sticks to them, but making a checklist for ideas you struggle on ahead of time will help with both time management and just feeling less overwhelmed. It’s always good to have a visual confirmation that you’ve finished something. Hunting around on studyblrs will get you lots of printables that may help you; I personally use @emmastudies to do lists and revision packs because I like the format.

Keep all your notes, homework, and old tests if you have access to them, because mistakes you made on a previous test may come back to haunt you on an upcoming one. It’s particularly important to keep everything for the final.

If you’re taking a math or science course, practice on the same calculator you’ll use on the test when you do the homework. It’ll make test day go a lot smoother, especially when you’re not hunting for buttons.

I hope this helps you guys and good luck on your future exams! ❤️

[thestudyblrr]

This started out as a Google Doc for personal use, but I might as well share it with you since the internet is awesome and chances are there are other lit freaks like me out there! + Masterposts are the best

Beginners (old but gold tbh)

Sparknotes

Cliffnotes

ThugNotes

CrashCourse

Novel Guide

Shmoop

Grade Saver (I’ve found some rare XVIII century plays explained here!)

English 101 (English lit)

English 102 (American lit)

Tips to Analyze, Write, Interpret literature (College level):

English 103: Analyzing and Interpreting Lit.

Literary Analysis Guide - Goshen College

Literary Analysis: Using Elements of Literature

HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY

How to Write an Analysis of Theme — Teaching College English

Analyzing and Interpreting Literature | CLEP

How I Plan and Write Literature Papers by notaperfectstudent​

Very Useful (misc.)

CRITICAL THEORY: Introduction to Literature

Literary Theory Links

Voice of the Shuttle (great humanities research page)

Warwick English Page (bunch of links, exams, essays, etc…)

Consciousness, Literature and the Arts Archive: Articles and Essays

Online Lectures

Terry Eagleton: “The Death of Criticism?” - UC Berkeley Events

Modernism Undone: T.S. Eliot’s Literary Revolution

A Reader’s Guide to T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” (Lecture by Thomas Howard, Professor Emeritus, Gordon College)

Arts One Open: on The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot (Lecture by Kevin McNeilly for the “Monster in the Mirror” theme)

Introduction to Literary Theory - Yale

Harold Bloom on Shakespeare - Yale

Harold Bloom on Walt Whitman

Noam Chomsky on Linguistics

Keio Linguistic Colloquium SYNTAX SESSION Professor Noam Chomsky (MIT)

Open Courses

ENGL 291: THE AMERICAN NOVEL SINCE 1945 - Yale

ENGL 220: MILTON - Yale

AMST 246: HEMINGWAY, FITZGERALD, FAULKNER - Yale

Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World - U- of Michigan (took this, it’s great! Course starts October 2015)

MODERN POETRY - Yale

The Fiction of Relationship - Brown (no open sessions rn but I took this and it is also great, so stay tune for when the course re-opens)

Victorian Era

Literary Genre, Mode, and Style during the Victorian Era (so many sources, essays and papers!! <3)

Nostalgia and the Victorian Novel

Getting On C.19th Lit

Landscape

Tess and Wuthering Heights

Female Relationships

Foreign Spaces

Romanticism

The Romanticism Blog (posts concerning scholars and students, here you will find great ideas for essays!)

The Romantics: Nature (bbc doc)

The Romantics: Eternity (bbc doc)

The Romantics: Liberty (bbc doc)

Lord Byron (bbc doc)

Romantic Circles

Romantic Chronology http://www.english.ucsb.edu:591/rchrono/ The Voice of the Shuttle, Romanticism pages  http://vos.ucsb.edu/  –> literature (in English)–> Romantics–>  a wealth of links to many resources

The XVIII Century

Skin as Surface in Swift and Pope

Public Opinion in Swift and Gay

The Female Body in Swift and Pope

Bawdiness in Cleland and Sterne

Voyeurism in Cleland

Narrative and Progress in Tristram Shandy

Shakespeare

Reading Shakespeare’s Play

Introduction to Shakespeare’s life and works

Featured Essays and Book Excerpts on Shakespeare’s Plays

Shakespeare Mag: Education and resources

Introduction to Shakespeare (so many links!):

Humanist Grammar School

Comedy

Problems with Shakespeare’s Texts

Shakespearean Verse and Prose

Dramatic Plot Structure

Figurative Language and Rhetorical Devices

The Histories

Tragedy

Revenge Tragedy

Establishing the Text of Hamlet

The Romances

Blackfriars Theater and Audience Expectations

Hamlet performed by BATHS (for me this is a great representation tbh!)

Synopses of Shakespeare’s Plays

Shakespeare Resource Center

The Shakespeare Authorship Page

Internet Shakespeare Editions

Robert Teeter’s Shakespeare Links

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Virtual Tour

Interactive Globe Theatre

Shakespeare Timeline

The Folger Shakespeare Library

Shakespeare Illustrated (Emory University)

Steven Marx’s “Triangulating Shakespeare”

“But I have that within that passes show”: Hamlet’s Soliloquies as an Expression of Shakespeare’s Loss and Transformation (essay)

Medieval

Medieval English Studies A GUIDE TO MIDDLE ENGLISH

Translatio studii et imperii

Medieval Attitudes toward Vernacular Literature

Courtly Love

Medieval Allegory

The Alliterative Revival

The Three Medieval Estates

Arthurian literature

Arthurian Studies Links & Essays

Arthurian Resources (Thomas Green)

Arthurian Links (Thomas Green)

Labyrinth Arthurian Links

The Camelot Project (Medieval to modern texts and images)

King Arthur links (Medieval History site)

Britannia Arthurian Links

Holy Grail  links (Mary Weidenhaft)

Women of the Arthurian Legend (Camelot Project–modern)

Arthuriana (International Arthurian Society journal)

Arthurnet (Listserve)

A scholarly discussion list for King Arthur

Arthuriana/Camelot Project Bibliographies

Princeton Charrette Project (Manuscript images of Chrétien de Troyes’s Lancelot romance)

Yale MS 229, Prose Lancelot (Illuminated manuscript images)

The Camelot Project Artists Menu (modern)

Poetry

Essay writing tips for poetry

Poetry Foundation: Lectures

Essays on Poetic Theory

British Poetry 1780-1910: a Hypertext Archive of Scholarly Editions

The American Poetry Full-Text Database

English Verse Drama: the Full-Text Database

The English Poetry Full-Text Database

Online Exams

Romantics Exam

Eighteenth Century Literature Final here

Medieval to Renaissance English Literature Examen (Warwick)

SHAKESPEARE: END-OF-SEMESTER EXAM “A MOST LAMENTABLE COMEDY”

[thestudyblrr]

i wrote half an essay in 20mins today when it’s not even due for another 4 weeks, reblog this to have a productivity lightning bolt strike you like it did me today

[thestudyblrr]

“Those poor boys”

“She deserves to be punished too.”

“I’m not saying I support rape, but-”

“Sorry to say - she deserved it.”

“She put herself in harm’s way”

“But if she was fingered, then that’s not rape.”

“She ruined their lives.”

[thestudyblrr]

[thestudyblrr]

April 21, 2019

Finished my most recent read through of Beloved. Spent most of the day hanging out with friends and reading Ghosts by Ibsen. Hard to believe that the year (and second semester) is almost over!!! Hoping to make it through heaps of books this summer.

[thestudyblrr]

Unfuck Your Habitat Fundamentals

20 minutes is not a long time. Marathon cleaning sessions, while satisfying, are exhausting and make you never want to clean ever again. 20 minutes at a time, once or a few times a day, is a sustainable way of keeping your habitat unfucked.

PUT IT AWAY. Probably 75% of our mess is made up of things we didn’t put away. Whether it belongs in a drawer, in the closet, in the trash, or in the cabinet, make sure it finds its way home. This is critically important in two areas, especially: laundry and the dishes. Doing laundry and doing the dishes are not difficult tasks, but most of us give up before the “putting it away” step. Don’t. As soon as it’s done, everything goes back to its home.

Most of the rest of our mess is because we have too much stuff and not enough places to put it. There are two solutions: less stuff, or more storage. Less stuff is, in the long run, almost always the better solution.

GET STARTED. Look, housework is a pain in the ass, and it’s rarely fun. No one is disputing that, but it isn’t hard. What is hard is overcoming your own lack of motivation to just get up and do something. Anything.

When your flat surfaces are clear, you feel like you’re making serious progress. Counters, tables, dressers, nightstands, etc. Try it.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO UNFUCK EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE. In fact, you shouldn’t. That’s how burnout happens. One thing at a time.

TAKE BREAKS. It’s important for your state of mind. You can integrate cleaning into everything else you do. It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing.

You can only change your own habits. If you’re dealing with roommates or spouses or kids or parents who aren’t on board, the best you can do is tell them what you’re doing (trying to keep ahead of the mess), and ask them to help to not make it worse. Getting passive-aggressive or resentful because other people aren’t playing along only hurts you, and it’s not good for your brain.

A little effort now saves you a lot of work in the long run. That’s why I advocate getting your stuff together at night for the next morning. That’s why I like dumping some cleaner in the toilet or tub or sink and letting it start to work while I do something else. That’s why taking the extra five seconds to wash your fork or put it in the dishwasher will always be a good idea, because it’ll stop Dish Mountain before it starts.

STOP MAKING EXCUSES. Yes, yes, you have a million excuses why your mess has taken over. But I refuse to believe that you can’t spare 20 minutes, once a day, toward improving where you live. If you’re still making excuses, you don’t really want to do it. If you realize that 20 minutes is really no big deal, I can pretty much promise that things will get drastically better pretty quickly.

If you are someone dealing with physical limitations, chronic illness, chronic pain, mental illness, or any other situation that makes getting your living environment under control difficult, please know that you are not lazy, and that I know that “getting off your ass” may not be easy or even possible sometimes.

I encourage anyone who has limitations to modify challenges, suggest alternatives, and, above all, put their health first. If you can only do five or three minutes of unfucking, that’s worth celebrating. If you accomplish something that’s been modified so you can do it seated or in shorter stages, we want to hear about it.

Most importantly: do what you can. Some days, this might not be as much as you’d hoped. That’s OK. Even tiny progress is still progress, and small but consistent change is more important than overnight miracles. You can do this. And if you get overwhelmed or discouraged, we’ll do our best to help.

(Also, UfYH has an iPhone/iPad app. And an Android app.)

[thestudyblrr]

these are my ap scores from over my high school career! not the best ever but I did what I could! If anyone would like tips or tricks for any of the exams, please message ya girl 🤗

- super happy that I never failed an ap exam!

[thestudyblrr]

1:06 PM | lord forgive me for I have turned on lofi beats to study and chill to

[thestudyblrr]

They can’t get me for one that doesn’t reveal exam content

[thestudyblrr]

They can’t get me for one that doesn’t reveal exam content

[thestudyblrr]

{8.21.18} only two more weeks until senior year! college apps are killing me lol 🙃🍃🌼

[thestudyblrr]

two of my study spaces!! i’m excited to finally read pride and prejudice, i feel like i’m the last girl on earth to read it @____@

[thestudyblrr]

Some Favorite Essays, Short Stories, Novels

Essays: 1. Helene Cixous - Laugh of Medusa  2. Anne Carson - Evil and Suffering in Modern Poetry  3. Kathy Acker - Myth of Romantic Suffering 4. Virginia Woolf - On Not Knowing Greek  5. Adrienne Rich - Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying        - Adrienne Rich - Three Other Essays  6. Alice Walker - Looking for Zora  7. Anna Klobucka - Helene Cixous & Clarice Lispector 8. Joan Didion - On Self-Respect 9. Margaret Atwood - Am I a Bad Feminist?  10. Jeffrey Meyers - The Savage Experiment: Arthur Rimbaud 11. Jennifer Nash - Practicing Love  12. Paul J. M. van Tongeren - “A Splendid Failure” Nietzche Suffering 13. Albert Henrichs -  Loss of Self, Suffering, Violence: Dionysus 

Short Stories:  1. Clarice Lispector - Love  2. Anne Carson - 1 = 1 3. Margaret Atwood - Stone Mattress 4. Amy Bloom - Silver Water 5. Gunnhild Øyehaug - Same Time, Another Planet  6. Anne Carson - Back the Way you Went  7. Tatyana Tolstaya - Unnecessary Things 8.  Kirstin Valdez Quade - Christina the Astonishing (1150-1224) 9.  Clarice Lispector - One Day Less Novels: 1. Helene Cixous - Stigmata  2. Helene Cixous - Ex-Cities  3. Helene Cixous - Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing (my favorite) 4. Jean Genet - A Thief’s Journal (another link) 5. Judith Butler - Bodies that Matter 6. Clarice Lispector -  AGUA VIVA  (my favorite) Happy Holidays, friends. I hope you enjoy. - Love, E 

[thestudyblrr]

hello darling mother, any 2019 resolutions ? also, i have read your mumming hard posts and they are great but do you have any more advice for lost children who don't know what to do to get their life in order okay luv u thanks

hello darling child, 

i haven’t written them down properly yet but : visit austria, romania, germany, going back to california. get more tattoos. keep going with my vegan sugar free diet. get strong. get back on track with my languages learning (i’m thinking mostly spanish as i’m not bad ai it but i’m probably going to have to learn a bit of dutch because of a certain someone i’m fooling around with). and maybe, probably, move somewhere, i just don’t know where yet. and, good news for my tumblr children, i’m finally working on that god damn youtube channel i’ve been talking about for twelve or thirteen years.

more advice to get your shit together :

learn about stoicism.

i’ve studied it in university and it changed me. stoicism is about controlling what you can and accepting what you can’t, remembering that pain is temporary and suffering optional, not fearing anything but fear itself, that there are no good or bad events but only perception, that tomorrow will worry about itself, that you alone can muddy your reason or mar your character, that imagination hurts us more than reality, that everything we hear is an opinion, that happiness comes from within, that when others suffer we suffer (sympatheia : we are one and that’s why we should try so hard to be good to each other), that we always have a choice. that we’re going to die, can die anytime, that there’s nothing we can do about it and that we should live every day like the last.

try a little bit harder.

when you feel like stopping, push yourself a tiny bit more. if you’re working out, run an extra mile. if you’re cleaning, wipe those light switches. if you’re cooking, add some herbs. if you’re reading, check those notes. help yourself, try to make future you happier, more peaceful, more accomplished. if you’re unsure about a decision, ask yourself : am i going to regret this ? 

chill out. really.

another important question is : does it really matter ? when you’ve been waiting all day long for a parcel and it never came, before you rush to the post office or call them or tweet at them in rage, ask yourself if that event really has an impact of your life. will you remember in a couple hours, in a couple days, in a couple months ? is it worth making someone very uncomfortable, especially if they’re not personally responsible ? will getting pissed change anything about the situation, fix it or cancel it ? the answer is often no.

be nicer than necessary.

make sure you don’t bother people. don’t take too much room, don’t speak too loudly. don’t litter, don’t drive recklessly. don’t make promises if you won’t keep them. don’t be late to appointments. let your neighbours know you’re going to have a party. remember birthdays, anniversaries, praise students for their degrees, coworkers for their skills, kids for their progress. criticise in private, if you really have to. don’t make yourself miserable by focusing on the bad.

be nicer to yourself.

when someone compliments you, avoid finding an excuse or joking about it. when you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, find something you like. before you get pissed at your body for a bit of fat or some pimples, remember it’s your most precious tool, that allows you to speak, think, move, run, work, orgasm, laugh, that you owe so many good memories to it. become your own best friend, as you’re the one person you’ll spend the rest of your days with.

try new things.

you’ll get less and less scared of the unknown, you’ll beat fears you never knew you could beat, you’ll stop thinking you’re always right, you’ll discover new things, you’ll find new passions, you’ll get new skills, you’ll understand other people’s point of view, you’ll grow immensely as a person, you’ll love, you’ll win, you’ll lose, you’ll be so proud of yourself. and when you’re eighty seven, sitting on a bench in a public park, feeding pigeons, you won’t have regrets.

also :

be prepared for the worst

be prepared to always be confused

and you will be okay.

[thestudyblrr]

gaaaaatsby ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 

catch me on instagram

[thestudyblrr]

02.09.16 || some human circulatory system mind map I made a while back! It’s not detailed because it’s just an outline of the basic information needed for application questions and all, but it’s handy nonetheless!