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upward-spiral-98 · 4 months ago

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upward-spiral-98 · 4 months ago

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Study techniques that I use

So this one's a wee bit different from the other stuff I've posted thus far (well, it's bound to be, this is a third attempt at having a study blog for my madness that hopefully won't get overtaken by people who mistake aesthetic for a theme and start asking me specific fandom related questions).

Last evening, my friend asked me how I do studying (he has an exam coming up and isn't very studious person) since he knows that I am very serious about learning. Keyword learning, not studying.

So I ended up making the following list.

I. Optimise

Make sure that your study environment is comfortable and that you're wearing clothes that you feel comfortable in.

The more comfortable you feel, the less stressing the study situation will become to you. Wear soft clothes, sit in a weird position, lay on the floor, have snacks with you. Keep the room clean and ventilated for fresh air. Put on music.

Learning and magic have a lot of things in common, like the repetition making the master, but the thing that most matters in them are the circumstances. No trick will work and no lessons are learned unless certain criteria are met. And if you cannot find the right setting for it, you create it.

II. Breaks

Every 45 minutes, take a 5-10 minute pause, get up and walk around, every 2 hours take a longer break to get more snacks, food and something to drink.

The important thing is to move your body and stretch, get your blood to circulate and to get away from the studies for a moment to rest your mind.

While it is good to study, too much studying can slow you down as after a certain time limit, our brains stop taking in new information for the sake of processing the previous knowledge. As powerful as a human brain is, it isn't limitless and just like your computer and phone, it can very easily be overwhelmed by too many tasks and often there isn't enough memory left for processing.

III. Snacking

Light snacks, biscuits, cookies (preferably with chocolate), tea, coffee, juice, energy bars, berries, fruits, vegetable sticks, crisps. Your mind cannot concentrate on the important things when your stomach is fully empty and you can't stay sharp if it's too full.

You've seen the anime girls/boys/beings snack while they study at home and there's often something with chocolate, salt, and tea (mostly green tea) along with some fruits. And they're not there just to fuel your brain either, some of these foods actually help you to concentrate better like dark chocolate, coffee/tea, while the rest are there to give you vitamins (fruits, juice) or help bind water into your system and to cleanse your palate (crisps/chips) while also providing you with some energy (crisps/chips, salted roasted peanuts).

Snacks like these also help you to keep your blood sugar and pressure at a good level, which also optimises your chance to learn and memorise things.

If you're about to take an exam and have a low blood pressure, taking a chocolate bar and an energy drink might help you. It's basically using the wrong method to somehow come to the right solution.

IV. Air

Taking a longer break every once in a while to get some fresh air is always good. If you just stay indoors, you'll eventually start feeling sleepy, dizzy and tired. Fresh air and going outside for a bit can help you fix that. It's also good to detox for a bit and just chill in the park, relax and listen to birds and other nature sounds.

Don't forget your mask during the times when you're feeling sick or if there's an outbreak for a sickness. I'd recommend one that's made out of fabric, it's easier on your skin and there's a lot of cool patterns for them. They're also a lot easier to match to your outfit, either making you look cooler or cuter, giving you some space for yourself (because people won't recognise you that easily) and helping with potential dysphoria.

V. Notes

So notes right? You have to take them in the class, they're ugly, they make no sense, they're annoying. Let's change that shall we? Get your cutest notebooks, stickers, pens and just... Redo your notes with thought? When you're at home, you will have no pressure to write it down fast, you already have the things the teacher said, you can now take your time with them.

There's a word that you can't understand? Look up the dictionary for what it means and make a note of it write it next to the word (like this). Spend time with these notes and make them for yourself, you don't need to return that to the teacher and the teacher sure as hell doesn't deserve to see the masterful penmanship and the little doodles and illustrations for just talking at the front and making you take notes at the speed of light without really explaining anything.

You can also expand on what the teacher has already told you by going through that 50USD book that you were told to buy only for the bastard of a teacher to not even use it, you bought that thing, you might as well use it to the fullest before you sell it forward to the next student.

Here's the kicker.

You can redo your notes as many times as you want. And at the end of it you'll have that cool and beautiful looking handwriting you always envied that one studyblr for. You can make it even better?

And once you're done with the studies, don't throw the notebook away, the final version, you might want to go through it later. And seeing how well you made it, will fill you with pride and joy.

With each version of the notes, you will end up remembering more of the topic, that's why teachers at first tell you that your notes are important. But it's not the first draft of the notes that's important, no that's just there to showcase that you were there to listen to the teacher ramble, it's the final notebook that matters. Your notebook.

VI. Learning methods

So what type of learner are you, really? Visual? Audio? Kinetic? Which way are you more likely to remember what happened? Use this to your advantage. Record yourself reading the textbook, add music to the back ground and listen to it. Draw examples to help you visualise what it means. Do something with your hands while you read or listen. There is no right way to learn. Try things out, it will help. And if the method you tried wasn't for you, at least you can say that you learned about yourself.

VII. Profit

Your notes are finished and can be read through over and over again. You remember things and while the exam may not have gone like you anticipated, please don't be discouraged or disappointed with yourself.

After all, school doesn't really test about your actual knowledge but rather how much you can memorise within a certain time limit along with your ability to self study and independent work skills. And sometimes teachers are just assholes.

After you finish school, you'll end up noticing that there are no tests and that everything comes down to your ability to be independent and search for things and knowledge on your own. And learning how to study and search for information to obtain new skills is what school is really supposed to be teaching you.