Waddup my name is Charlie, im 21, and i never fucking learned how to study.
241 posts
“MY ARROGANCE KNOWS NO BOUNDS AND I WILL MAKE NO PEACE TODAY, AND YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY TO FIND A WOMAN LIKE ME” | Jenny Holzer, “Projections”
“There are two MLKs. There once was a man named Martin Luther King Jr. who actually lived and breathed. He was a radical who believed in the redistribution of wealth, argued for slave reparations and that wrote that moderate whites who didn’t speak out on racism were just as bad as the Ku Klux Klan. Seventy-five percent of Americans disapproved of that man when he was killed by a white supremacist in 1968. Then, there is the Martin Luther King Jr. that exists in the collective white memory. Through a complex combination of whitewashing, self-guilt and the intentional rewriting of history that absolves them of their hatred, they have painted a sanitized, impressionist portrait of a civil rights icon whose dreams were fulfilled by America’s unwavering commitment to justice and equality. Out of whole cloth, they managed to fabricate a fantastic hologram of King that is ahistorical, but still “based on a true story.” Their Martin was a lover, not a fighter. They remember a socially conservative, respectable reconciler; not an anti-establishment revolutionary. And, for their sake, his doctrine of nonviolent resistance was eventually reduced to simple “nonviolence.” This is the King they will remember this weekend.”
— Martin Luther King Jr. and the White Delusion of a ‘Non-Racist’ America (via blxckberrying)
pictures like these always make me want to cry
DO IT FOR HER
(her being you )
this is a message for everyone who is 22. if you’re 22 please stop worrying. take a deep breath eat a bagel maybe. everything that feels impossible is going to work itself out. have a great day
Fan art by Ronald Kuang
dont care didnt ask plus your pessimistic outlook on life is exhausting
Anyone else, esp. neurodivergent people, ever talk to someone and get elated because you’re like wow :) I am doing a Conversation :) I am doing the Asking Questions and Listening Attentively and Expressing Interest :) I have shared a Joke or brief Amusing Happening and this person liked it :) this person seems to enjoy speaking to me and I enjoy speaking to them :) I’m a person.
my computer broke
it’s okay to have clumsy and awkward sex and it’s actually really common
the ability to laugh while you’re lying tangled and naked together bc you realize just how silly something is is really really intimate and trusting, and it’s the best feeling to be like that with someone and to be relaxed
it happens with long-term partners, it happens on hookups, and it’s rarely as bad as it’s always made out to be, except we usually think it’s bad we're told that’s not how sex is supposed to go. but that’s not true.
it can still be passionate and intimate while being messy and clumsy, absolutely. you don’t need to “perform well.” sex isn’t a show: it’s about feeling good. sometimes it takes experimenting to figure out what feels good, and fumbles and awkward moments and laughter is all just part of it. sometimes that’s a huge part of the fun.
sir these are my emotional support 120 tabs of unread fanfiction
So I found this caterpillar on my way to class
We’re bros
The Muse’s Revenge, Ilya Milstein
worst part of adulthood so far is definitely the fact that people have the ability to contact me and i have to respond in a timely manner
suddenly remembered this poem as i was making breakfast this morning & frantically googled “poem remembered to buy eggs?????????” & somehow managed to find it & it utterly knocked the wind out of me just as much as when i first read it
So I think this might be the question I get asked the MOST often. People are always asking me how do I study for this or that class. So I thought I would just make a master post I could link you all to. :)
All classes
Watch my video on how to study. This applies to almost everything you have to study.
See below for additions to doing everything listed in that video.
Math
Do problems. Do all the problems. Do them again.
Do all the problems in your book.
Get another book and repeat step 2
Trust me 99.9% of all math classes is pattern recognition. If you can learn how to solve the problem you can ace any set of variables they throw at you.
Physics
See math–because physics is JUST applied math. You have to learn how to read the questions and pull out the information you need–the only way to do that is to do dozens of questions!
Micro Bio/ID
Flow charts–break things up by group to understand them. You have to group things to remember what’s gram positive or gram negative
Don’t blow off the actual micro part of micro. If you understand the virulence factors you’re more likely to understand the sx/tx
I had to use a lot of silly sayings to remember all the little pieces of micro. So I would remind myself about the diseases of haemophilus influenzae by saying haEMOPhilus (epiglotitus, meningitis, otitis media, pnuemonia). It was silly but it worked for me.
O Chem
Do all the problems. Do them again.
Get another book and repeat step 1
Flashcard the reactions you don’t understand–put the reactants on one side and the products on the back. Practice these backward and forward.
Draw out every step of reactions you don’t understand
Circle your electrons or mark whatever it is you lose track of
Count–count where everything went at the end to make sure you didn’t screw up.
Categorize. Do all members of this group react this way?? It’s easier to learn the rules and the exceptions than force memorize every individual compound’s reaction.
Gen Chem
See math
Understand real world examples. I related all of the stuff about heat to a cup of coffee. It worked for me
Talk through it! I had to read chemistry out loud or try to repeat it out loud in my own words to have any idea what was going on.
YouTube videos are absolutely perfect for gen chem!! (There’s even a whole CrashCourse series on Gen Chem that’s appropriate especially for high school level chem).
General Biology–Genetics/Immunology/Cell Biologyetc
You really need to watch my video
Cross relate–you have to integrate all your biology together to keep all that information in your head.
Flashcard only the stuff that can’t be understood. (Like cell markers, etc)
Charts! Biology is all about categorization and understanding the similarities between different groups of things. If you can simply remember the characteristics of a group it’s easy to know everything you need to about all the members of that group.
Pathology
Pathoma
Look at the pictures until you feel sick.
Make flashcards of the pictures so you can at least do immediate identification of what you’re looking at even if you don’t know exactly what the pathology is.
Integrate! How does the physiology relate to exactly what is going on with the pathology? How does the pathology predict treatment?
Learn some latin and greek root words. Even if you have no idea what the word means you might be able to figure it out from there. :) I’ve gotten more than one question right by just figuring out what the word meant.
Pharmacology
Understand the mechanism of the drug–it will really predict how it is used or what its toxicities are for
Flashcard the bare minimum or anything bizarre you can’t remember any other way.
Figure out the similarities in the names. If it sounds the same, it probably belongs in the same class.
Don’t learn in isolation. It’s hard to study pharmacology on its own–instead study it integrated with physiology and pathology whenever possible for the best understanding.
Study as case studies!! What diuretics would you give to a patient with CHF? With ESLD?
Biochemistry
Charts–get poster boards or tape together a ton of sheets of paper and try to write out every pathway you can to see how it all is integrated.
Always track the flow of energy!! Where is your NAD/ATP/etc?
Group pathways by the “point”. Are you destroying carbohydrates or building fats? How does this compare to other pathways that do the same thing?
Try to rewrite the pathways from memory then see what you missed.
Anatomy
Spend a bunch of time with the specimens if you have access to them.
DRAW even if you suck at drawing
Learn the clinical correlations–why do you care
Thing about everything in relationship to one another!
Do questions!! Grey’s has a student question book I recommend.
I’ll probably add more to this list as I go and as more of you ask for specific subject advice, but here you go!!
When in doubt, always ask yourself “how would this be asked on a test?”. If you could write a test question about it, you should definitely know it!
And always remember that you should study for understanding and not just for a grade–always be learning and not memorizing. It’s more important you understand the material than you get the A!!
Happy studying!
being tired all the time is such a mystery.... is it anaemia? vitamin d deficiency? chronic fatigue syndrome? depression? insomnia?? is it just the crushing weight of being alive in a capitalist society??? someone cure me
It’s difficult to learn how to accept yourself, sometimes it feels impossible; but trust in yourself that it can be done. We believe in you <3
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there is a small ceramic frog where my brain should be
every 1 is honestly beautiful and tragic like sometimes i can't look people in the eye because im like i know something is making you deeply irreversibly sad and you're just here talking to me about the weather and im going to let you
Granny: No printer, just fax!
These are amazing — and shockingly accurate. Did you know there’s a “Bechdel test” for female scientist biographies?
Follow @the-future-now
I’ve collected study tips from myself and others who struggle with studying. Here’s a masterlist of strategies people use to help :) For those curious, #3 is my personal favourite and is probably the main reason I didn’t flunk all of my classes this year. Feel free to add your own!
Sleep, eat, exercise. The basics. Treating my body right helps me keep a routine and makes me less prone to impulsivity. This makes it a little easier for me to do the things I need to do and fight back my executive dysfunction.
Play idle games while working. Anonymous says “I get bored very, very quickly and need constant stimulation, so every time I have to wait for something, I will immediately divert my attention. Having an idle game running helps me not to lose too much focus, so I get more work done as a result.”
Use a tutor. Since I can’t follow self-imposed deadlines, I create external deadlines by booking tutoring appointments. This forces me to make sure I have at least a basic understand of the material before the session so I know what to go over. Most schools have free peer tutors available, so take advantage (if your school doesn’t, try a study group)! This is a great way to create deadlines you can follow, and it always helps to study with someone who can answer your questions and keep you on task.
Play music. @luminarily says “Sometimes I sit in silence and I get bored of it or I get a song stuck in my head or something. But I have forcibly linked music playlist and actually doing something I need to do so that when I put on music I am automatically forced to do the work I was supposed to do. So it makes the work and the listening more enjoyable both and it’s easier to stay on task… I use unpaid youtube on my phone so I can’t leave the tab or else I can’t listen to music anymore so I can’t go on my phone. And also youtube mobile lets you set watch time timers, so when my music stops I take a break and don’t burn out!”.
Play ambient noise. Similar to #4. I am not stimulated enough when taking notes, reading textbooks, etc., but listening to music can be too much and makes me stressed. I like to play ambient noise (my personal nerdy fave is Slytherin dormitory ambience on Youtube lol). It’s enough to stimulate my brain, but not overpowering to where I get distracted or stressed.
Block out time to do work. @tidal-rose says “I find it easy to do stuff by saying ‘I’ll do it tomorrow.’ But I don’t mean the procrastinate-y ‘I’ll do it tomorrow,’ I mean plan to do it tomorrow. Set aside a block of time when you are going to do nothing but the task. …I just realized this sounds like such a neurotypical answer oh gosh. It really does work to hack my executive disfunction”
Have a plan. If I don’t have a straightforward + actionable plan for right when I wake up, I will just do literally nothing all day. I have to know what I’m going to be doing when I wake up, like “shower, be at the library by 10am, and do practise problems there”. If I only have a vague plan like “study chemistry tomorrow” it’s a lot harder for me to do anything.
Start small. It often feels impossible to do even the bare minimum. When I can’t even get myself to write a single sentence of my paper, I try to do even less than that. Literally just open up a Word document. Even just opening up a blank page is a fantastic start, and starting is the hardest part.
Change locations. The longer I sit in one space putting off an assignment and stewing there in my anxiety about it, the harder it is to start. So I move. Even if I just go from my desk to the floor. Sometimes this can change my headspace enough to make it easier to do what I need to.
desk tour video ! working & studying from home in this space has been a joy, but i do miss being at my university ...... someday soon ill be back there
I love people with obscure knowledge or useless academic insights. I want to hear your analysis of lighting in Ratatouille. Tell me about the history of soda pop or the references to classical mythology in Macbeth. I want to know about the underlying homoerotic context of that 1930s sci-fi paperback. I think all knowledge is worthwhile knowledge. Explain to me the ecosystems that komodo dragons inhabit. Don't be afraid to learn for the sake of learning.
13.4.20
Y’all know I only post original content on here unless I feel like it’s important to share. Take it in ✨