Things To Do In General (until End Of March) For University:

Currently battling to get a simple translation from ChatGPT while it wants to tell me things about terrorism. Which I didn't ask about...

Also use you institutions library for research.

And for saving references something like Zotero (free) where you can save your references and link it in your paper and add a bibliography in your institutions preferred citation style at the end.

hi. im a first year student, and for one of my classes i have to write a research paper as my first assignment. do you have any ideas about how to do this? currently im having a really hard time finding the right books/research papers for my citations. thank you 🌻

hi!

how to research

on organising your research

as for finding the right sources, all you really need is one right source which will then lead you to more sources, more themes, more ideas. i would really recommend connectedpapers or researchrabbit where you can search for a paper/source and it'll draw up a graph for you of everything thematically connected to it.

Study Strategies

For everyone asking "What does 'playing' with the material even mean when it comes to studying??"

Well, basically when you think about the material in a way that applies to your real life or interests, or that entertains you.

Writing a tumblr post about it (my blog started out as a study tool when I was in nursing school, because I re-wrote what I was learning in fandom/fic terms)

Talking about it or explaining it to a friend that is NOT in your field of study

Trapping your blorbos in a weird situation they can only get out of by learning the material (I once went through a whole scenario in my head about my blorbo getting injected with insulin and his friend having to figure out how long they had to give him sugar before they died to learn insulin onset-peak-duration)

Flash card "war" where 2 or more of your friends bring their flashcards and every time you or a friend puts down a card, the one that gets the answer the closest first wins the cards (google allowed)

Make a comedy routine about the material using only jokes that would be funny if someone understood it

Order a list of facts from least to most interesting- bonus points if you do it with a friend and you both have to agree, bringing your own arguments to the table as to why a particular fact deserves a certain rank

Finding an old textbook on the material at your school's library and figuring out what still holds up to today's knowledge

Find a group of people on the internet that are really interested in what you're studying and get the latest in DiscourseTM

Make the most misleading fact sheet you can make on the subject, with everything you say being technically true

Make a fact sheet that holds up to the reading comprehension of tumblr dot com

Basically anything that reframes studying from "I hate this and it takes up so much time" to "something I was probably going to do anyway for fun, but this time with more [subject]".

Some university libraries offer free (or for a small fee) membership for everyone. You just need to get a card. Some databases are then only accessible while in the library but you can still use them.

wjen i graduate and they strip me of my free database access im literally going to walk into the ocean

Academic tips that work for me

Hello girlies! This is a post that I have been delaying for like 2 weeks, but now it's time or me to post it. In this blog I will give you all the things I do to keep myself getting high grades and maintain the "intelligent" persona I have worked for since I started studying my college career and fortunately others see me this way now.

I do not study hevy or know a lot about studying methods, I am more into "smart work > hard work" kind of thing

My personal tips

This are my tips being an auditory person focused on being effortless

Understand your learning style: Are you visual? Auditory? Or kinesthetic? By knowing this you can apply studying methods that are efficient for you.

Pay attention to your classes!: I think the main reason I slay effortlessly my exams it's because of this so I only need a quick stufy before my exams. When you pay attention to class you are saving your future time for when you need to study and it will be lighter for you when you do it since you will remember lots of the things.

Participate / Ask questions: It's easy, you will get points with your teachers as a great student, plus you will get your questions solved.

Put your on a place you can't see it so it doesn't distract you, for classes or when you need to study / get work done.

Study in a place when you feel comfortable, it can be at an cafe or at the library, even in you bedroom at a desk, what what matters is that you feel comfortable and that you ge the feel of "this is a place where I can study / do my assignments" and not feel lazy or uncomfortable by "x or y" reason. As a plus, keep your space clean and only with the necessary at sight.

Use music that doesn't distract you and you vibe with: Listen to music that doesn't have lyrics, but that's a basic by now. What I reccomend you is to listen to music that you just vibe with to give you your desired mood and motivation. In my case, I listen to videogame soundtracks since it makes me feel relaxed or to classical music because I fee like "that business girly", either way music helps me concentrate.

Romanticize your studies: This can mean different things to all of you reading this post, I am talking about making your academic journey fun and pleasing rather than streesing! Some ideas are having cute stationery, take cute notes, act like one of your fav academic characters, have study playlists, drinking coffee, go to the library or to cafes, dress cute for school, read, light candles, watch "study with me" videos and study vlogs, create a pinterest board, stablish academic goals, etc.

Do your homework when you have free time at school / college or do it as a first thing after your schedule, this will help you saving time. Think about it, if you do it while having free time at school / college you don't need to do it at home. And if you need to do it at home if done as the first things, either way you will get so much free time and can focus on other tasks or activities without worrying about this.

Be organized: Have a bullet journal or use an app to keeo track of your subjects and assignments. By this you will remember and keep in sight upcoming deadlines and events.

Take care of your academic relationships: I make sure that the people inside my circle of friends are girls (mainly, but boys too) who I feel comfortable, have fun but also now are similar to me in the sense that they take seriously her studies and are good teammates. Outside of them I also focus on other potential classmates that are intelligent and have similar values. There is no need to bother on the ones who don't attend classes, are irresponsable and don't even know what are they doing in the course.

Take care of yourself: Ask yourself? Will it be worth it while not sleeping enough, having a poor diet and exercise? By not letting yourself rest or have fun from time to time? By not practicing self-care? Please take care of yourself, girl, this is the lowest part of the pyramid. The reason to care is not only your wellbeing, but also because having a poor lifestyle can have bad effects for you that also affect your performance, and we won't like that.

Now go and slay your academic year / course! 𑄽𑄺ྀ

Classes are starting to get intense. Tests and quizzes are being given. Presentations and projects are being assigned. I know this can all feel like so much and be so overwhelming. It's ok to cry. It's ok to hate it. But just know that no matter what your brain says, you are amazing, wonderful, and you can do this! It's going to be hard. But you can do it regardless. School is meant to be hard. It's hard for everyone. Don't let your brain lie to you and tell you that you're the only one struggling to keep up and balance it all, because you aren't.

You got this!!!!!

Also, you deserve a little treat for doing so well!

Get away, run away, fly away

Lead me astray to dreamer's hideaway

I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more

I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world

Forgive me

I have but two faces

One for the world

And one for God

Save me

Nightwish - The Poet and the pendulum

Finished reading Red White and Royal Blue and Henry and Alex are still in my mind. Heard the song and had to think about them. But they have a face for the world and one for themselves.

How to do Visual Supports/Aids for an Oral Presentation

A Power Point, a poster, a Canva presentation. It is so easy to get them wrong to the point they end up being more an annoyance than a helpful tool. There are a few things to keep in mind to avoid these:

1. They are VISUAL, not blocks of texts

When you are doing the presentation, your visual supports helps your audience connect the ideas you are explaining (with arrows, diagrams, etc) and help you remember what you should say next. If you forget what you have to say, the information needs to be easy to find in your visual support. This means:

NO blocks of text

NO small text

NO hard to read font

NO extra information

NO compressing of information

NO images as background

What you should do instead to make it easier to find and read:

Use a big and undertandable font

Use arrows, diagrams, concepts maps, etc. Anything that isnt a block of text

Separate ideas with font size. Title: gigantic. Primary ideas: Major big. Secondary ideas: big

Only write the nessesary information, dont overwrite (we'll revise this later)

Look at these. If you were in front of your professor and needed to quickly check for a number, a word or a concept you forgot, which one would you rather find when you turn your head to your visual aid?

It looks hard to make your aids look like that, but there are a lot of pre-made presentations you can use. I personally like Canva for that but if you know how to use (really use, the whole tricky trick thing) Power Point/Prezzi/LibreOffice are literally heaven.

2. Dont put unnesasary images

They dont help you. You ignore. Your audience ignores it. At most, it makes you waste seconds when you try to look up the info. Why is it there? Because there is an empty space and you want to fill it. Because the presentation is a block of text and you want to make it look more presentation-like. If you wont use it, dont put it. Save the space for graphs or symbols that help identify what you are saying (ex: you are talking statistics, put ten symbols of people and paint them in different colors according to your numbers). Negative space is better than a distracting image that turns away your focus of the important stuff

3. Only write important information

This is probably the hardest thing to do. In your presentation, time and space is limited; you cannot explain everything, you have to pick. And in your visual aid, specially so. My way of picking what to write is the next:

Divide your presentation in the big topics. Like, the titles of all you are covering.

For each title, think what are all the important concepts (or ideas) you have to explain in your presentation. Shortly, a few words each

Define those concepts. Not more than a line or two

Is there ant other information you cannot miss at all?

Now you have all the parts. Write only these and not even that. Sometimes, you dont need to write Point 3. When you are speaking, you can should expand the concepts, add examples, etc but in your visual aid, a few words/sentece is all you need

4. Keep it topic-appropiate

When you are preparing you aid/support, of course you are going to use different colors and add some shapes to keep it dynamic. But! if you are presenting consequences of child abuse for your psych class, adding the rainbow of colors and flowers may be a little bit insensible. Keep in mind what you are presenting, use appropiate colors/colors that fit (scale of greys for sensible topics, greens for nature, blue for corporate/bussiness and like that).

5. Have a secuence

Both your presentation and your visual aid have to be organized. There needs to be a logical order and no repetition. For your presentation you should have a draft/guide and that order should be the same for you aid. If you are presenting a problematic, you start talking about the causes and your first slide has to be the causes. Next what it involves so your slide has to have the topic and like that. The order in which you speak and the order in your aid have to be the same and they have to be organized

Now that we covered the basics, go luck with your presentation!

Planning for this semester and especially october is really stressful and complex. More than the last semesters. There are so many things I need to get together but november will be less stressful thank you very much (I think but then I have uni work to do so we will see)

If your semester just ended or is starting remember to clean your electronic devices (phone, laptop, tablet, keyboard, pencils)!

After all you are using them every day and want them to shine like they are new.