How To Study Like A Harvard Student

hello again dear friends!!! a lot of you have asked me how to stay productive during holidays + this is just a tiny masterpost to help you make the most out of your holidays :]

wake up early!!! this helps you get stuff done

also don’t sleep too late at night [unless it’s christmas eve or new year’s eve then i understand why you’re still up]

take time for yourself!!! practice your hobbies, take baths, go on vacation, sleep a little bit more…take a day to do whatever you may feel like doing, holidays shouldn’t be stressful [here are some ideas]

finish that book you wanted to finish or start a new one!! remember life is not just studying all the time

prioritise what you need to do + get your homework done asap!!! do the trickiest tasks first so you just have simpler ones left to do [if any]

revise!! this will help you just in case you have any important exams coming up after the holidays or just to keep your mind refreshed on the material you did in class

make a list of goals you want to accomplish next year!!

find time to go shop for gifts [if you do that sort of thing]

keep in contact with your family and friends!!! the holidays are the best time you get to talk to your family and friends, hang out with your friends and visit your relatives

organise your desk/room etc!! this helps you to free your mind and helps you stay productive [plus it’ll be prepared for the next scholastic term]

try to fit in time to exercise or go for a nice walk

avoid procrastination!! don’t waste your time no matter how good it may feel, you’ll thank yourself later [check out some apps here to accomplish this]

if you have any school projects, try to get most of them done during the holidays!! lord knows you’ll have a lot to do during the school year so any little extra work will help

try making your decorations instead of buying them [here are some ideas]

create shopping lists in advance!! these will help you make sure to get what you need and avoid buying what you don’t need [be it food, gifts, decorations etc.]

do some online shopping!! as you might be well aware of, january is the perfect time to treat yourself, take advantage of those sales

+ my masterposts

notes, studying, and self-study resources

self-study resources

supplies

igcse resources

improving your handwriting

how to studyblr

literature masterpost

organisation

aesthetically pleasing notes

annotating

studying a foreign language

really great apps

math

college + uni

motivation

biology

space!!!!

chemistry

physics

summary writing

the discursive/argumentative essay

the narrative essay + the descriptive essay

the ultimate english masterpost!!

stress relief

what i’ve learnt throughout my years of being a student

+ more

this is just about everything i wanted to say so i hope this helped a lot of you out!! happy holidays + remember to make the most of them while you have them <3

-helena xx

Academic Earth and Open Culture offer dozens of courses, text books, ebooks, and ways to educate yourself right at your fingertips!

[Edited: Make sure to read the full terms and agreements, and like most online course sites, do not expect this to act as a replacement for a real-life class unless any specific course you sign up for states it offers transferrable credits. Make sure you know most online-courses will not be recognized as a replacement for any part of any curriculum by credited educational institutions.]

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Test Preparation

Academic Earth offers a variety of Universities, which you can click through below to see which University offers for specific online courses. 

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University of Chicago

University of Houston

University of London

University of New South Wales

University of North Carolina

University of Western Sydney

Wesleyan University

Yale

Open Culture offers dozens of FREE  [500] online courses, [450] audio books, [500] movies, [40] language lessons, [325] ebooks, and [150] text books for your personal mind expansion!

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Mathematics

Physics

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Public Health

Business

Enjoy the over-abundance of free educational resources, and never stop exploring and expanding! And if anyone knows of any other great self-education resources, let me know!

Daily Pastel Planner Printables

Comes in the 5 colours pictured above (peach, pink, lilac, blue, mint). There are two versions. One with times put out, perfect for a schedule and to-do combo. The other one is without time and works well for long to-do lists.

All of them comes with dues, goals, to-do, important tasks, notes and a food section!

Download from Google drive for free (PDF files):

Day with times (12h clock)

Day with times (24h clock)

Day without times

I have weekly pastel printables too which you can find here.

If you use them, tag me in the picture so I can see.

These tips are not my own: I was perusing the web a few days ago and found these rather helpful tips for note taking, nothing groundbreaking but they’re from Cambridge University sooo. I hope they provides some insight. 

Note-taking

Notes taken during lectures, seminars and research will form the basis of your work, helping you to prepare essays and dissertations and revise for exams. Effective note-taking is a very useful skill which can help you to:

focus and concentrate

organise and record key details

gain a fuller understanding of the information and improve your recall

save time and energy by working more efficiently.

Tips for effective note-taking

be critical about the material - assess its importance to the subject matter, and its credibility

don’t copy large amounts of text verbatim

always keep detailed notes of any resources used so that you can reference properly later

review and summarise your notes afterwards

organise and store your notes so that they are easy to retrieve            

The following are examples of note-taking techniques:

mind maps (e.g. spider diagram) - help you to visualise key points and the connections and overlaps between them

tabular notes - help with making comparisons between points

flow charts - help to visualise steps in a process

index cards

highlighting and annotating.

To get the most out of your lectures, you may find it useful to:

find out the subject of the lecture beforehand and read up, so that you’ll be prepared for the key themes and ideas

don’t try to write down everything - keep to main points

create a wide margin on each page so that there’s room to expand on your notes later.

When note-taking from written material it is helpful to:

take reference details down before you start reading

reading the introduction and conclusion is useful for ascertaining the main arguments and context

read critically.

Hi, so I make study guides when I revise as referenced to in this post/ask here. So in this post I’m gonna try and show you guys how I go about making a study guide like I did for sociology or philosophy, both of which are shown in that link there. This is my method so it…

hey guys!!!

so this entire past month has been extremely, extremely stressful for me because i had so many exams and i only realised how hideously unprepared i was for them on the day before the exam, which was really really awful. so in the middle of september i created a studyblr to keep myself motivated + get some helpful tips from the studyblr community on how to go abt studying for tests. the results proved to be super helpful and ive resolved to keep running this blog for as long as i can, because it really helps me stay motivated and i’ve already learned so many things from the community, despite the fact that i’ve only been here for around a month.

but anyways, i decided to create this masterpost in order to help others stay motivated + keep studying not only well but also properly i.e. not necessarily studying for exams but life in general, if that makes sense.

~ staying motivated + focused

coffitivity

download the forest app

chrome site blocker

self control app

try the pomodoro technique

pomodoro printable

getting back on track

guide to staying motivated

an excellent post full of great advice

lots of great advice from an a levels student

masterpost full of motivational quotes

how to avoid procrastinating

100 reasons to study

how to study like a harvard student

motivational movies/shows

types of learners [what method of learning works for u]

motivation for harvard students [and basically all other students]

~ staying organized

5 habits of organized students

set up a bullet journal [1][2][3]

keeping school notes organized

use dropbox to store important files

masterpost on organizing schoolwork

a super awesome n helpful video tutorial

how to organize ur desk

how to study space

study space guide

study space tips and guidance

guide to study guides

atracker - track ur time and stop procrastinating [mobile app]

minimalist organization

masterpost on time management

time management tips

how to be productive

how to use a planner

effective planning system

~ note-taking

notability [ios app - best note-taking app imo]

note taking overview

cornell method

summary foldables

fastest way to take notes

simple, creative note-taking

how to make ur notes look pretty [infographic]

how to make ur notes look pretty [video]

taking notes from textbooks

taking notes during lectures

for: maths [1]

for: history

how to make mind maps

great supplies and stationery u could use to keep notes pretty and organized

what is visual note-taking?

how to: visual note-taking

what are sketchnotes?

how to: sketchnotes

masterpost on note taking methods

~ research techniques

how to google effectively

use google scholar as an alternative to google

one of the best websites for research [esp. while doing science projects at the last minute…i would know]

alternative to wikipedia

find books in nearby libraries

openlibrary [ebook library]

online journal search engine [find scientific publications]

~ essay writing

guide to writing a great essay

HUGE general writing masterpost [including essays]

a huuuge essay writing masterpost

how to write a university-level essay

how to connect ur points and ideas: transition words

editing checklist

advice: college application essays

improve ur vocabulary 

check the readibility of ur essay

website which grades ur papers and essays

~ free online resources & courses

openculture 

mit opencourseware 

the open university 

coursera 

khanacademy

codecademy [how to code]

memrise

study geography

online calculator

maths masterpost

amazing maths + general knowledge site [u must check this out!!!]

maths cheat sheets

mathway [solves any maths equation]

website that balances chemical reactions for u

study guides for many subjects

windows apps [not all study-related, but useful anyways]

more phone apps for productivity

list of great apps every student must have

crash course: psychology

crash course: world history + world history 2

crash course: anatomy and physiology

crash course: astronomy

crash course: big history

crash course: chemistry

crash course: biology

crash course: literature

crash course: us history

crash course: economics

crash course: us government and politics

crash course: intellectual property

crash course: ecology

free ebooks [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

masterpost of free ebooks

~ languages

memrise

duolingo [20+ languages - very fun and interactive]

lang-8

thesaurus

reverse dictionary [1]

learning vocabulary

how to learn any language

HUUUUUGE language masterpost [so many languages and resources]

literature masterpost [for english - reading something other than textbooks is important yo]

english literature for college students [masterpost]

english literature: sparknotes

english literature: cliffnotes

english literature: shmoop

english literature: crash course

english literature: novel guide

no fear shakespeare

self-studying languages

spanish: advice

spanish: getting started

spanish: vocab

spanish: grammar and spelling checker

french: advice

french: getting started

french: vocab

french: grammar and spelling checker

french: masterpost of amazing resources

japanese: getting started

korean: masterpost of amazing resources

~ survival tips + advice

how to study for ANY subject

10 mistakes when studying

101 study tips

studying for a test

general study tips

how to study

how to survive high school

how to survive college

college survival masterpost

things to avoid doing

college: applying for scholarships

giving presentations

improve ur handwriting

resume cheat sheet

productive + relaxing afterschool routine

productive study breaks

emergency life hack: send last minute assignments after the last minute without getting into too much trouble

~ mental/physical health

the thoughts room

the dawn room

the quiet place

it will be okay

international suicide hotlines

iphone feature [to use in case of emergency]

emergency chat [mobile app]

sleeping tips [1]

dealing w insomnia

bedtime calculator [1]

stress management

how to reduce stress

staying calm during exams

grief masterpost

list of happy things

motivation for when ur not feeling so good

~ stress reliefs

clear ur mind

healthy study snacks

mug cake masterpost

smoothie masterpost

salads masterpost

more study snacks to boost brain activity

creepy sites

taylor swift tumblr replies

draw cool neon things

musical sea creature

watch a cool dream

watch any tv show/movie

just shower thoughts

poptropica [so underrated, my favourite game site, it’s for kids but it’s so entertaining and so much fun]

plant personality quiz

cookie clicker

make cool colourful silk

make virtual sand art

fake tweet generator

fake text generator

listen to calming sounds

huge masterpost full of fun stuff

~ music

ghibli music

coffee shop blues

classical music masterpost

masterpost of studying music

classical vocal music masterpost

cute nostalgic piano music playlist

my favourite instrumental playlist of all time

my studying/instrumental playlist collection on 8tracks

i think that includes most of the best resources i could find!!! feel free to message me in case 1) any of the links are broken, 2) u want me to add on to something, 3) u have a suggestion for a masterpost [i would love that so go ahead and ask if u do] or if u just wanna talk! also, feel free to reblog and add ur own comments/resources. hope this helped!! 

- mli

List of powerful verbs for essays/papers !

Hello! I just wanted to thank everyone for welcoming me so kindly into the studyblr community :) To give back, I decided to share this list of powerful verbs for essays and papers with you all. Hope it helps!

- shows

- verifies

- explains

- suggests

- reveals

- exposes

- represents

- divulges

- discloses

- renders

- provides

- presents

- offers

- demonstrates

- illustrates

- exemplifies

- proves

- attests

- hints

- intimates

- indicates

- signifies

- specifies

- displays

- communicates

- signals

- depicts

- portrays

- describes

- illuminates

- elucidates

- exhibits

- creates

- evokes

- expresses

- transmits

- confirms

- verifies

- states

- articulates

- illustrates

- pictures

- proves

- mirrors

- reflects

- depicts

- portrays

- establishes

- confirms

- verifies

- elucidates

- expounds

- enlightens

________________

much love and happy studying! - Em 

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

“The Diary of Anne Frank” by Anne Frank

“1984” by George Orwell

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" by J.K. Rowling

“The Lord of the Rings” (1-3) by J.R.R. Tolkien

“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White

“The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien

“Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott

“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury

“Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte

“Animal Farm” by George Orwell

“Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell

“The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger

“The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins

“The Help” by Kathryn Stockett

“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wadrobe” by C.S. Lewis

“The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck

“The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding

“The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini

“Night” by Elie Wiesel

“Hamlet” by William Shakespeare

“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L'Engle

“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck

“A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens

“Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare

“The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams

“The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett

“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

“The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” by J.K. Rowling

“The Giver” by Lois Lowry

“The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood

“Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein

“Wuthering Heights” Emily Bronte

“The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green

“Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery

“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain

“Macbeth” by William Shakespeare

“The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larrson  

“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley

“The Holy Bible: King James Version”

“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker

“The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith

“East of Eden” by John Steinbeck

“Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll

“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote

“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller

“The Stand” by Stephen King

“Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon

“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” by J.K. Rowling

“Enders Game” by Orson Scott Card

“Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy

“Watership Down” by Richard Adams

“Memoirs of a Geisha” by Arthur Golden

“Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier

“A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin

“Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens

“The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway

“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (#3) by Arthur Conan Doyle

“Les Misérables” by Victor Hugo

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling

“Life of Pi” by Yann Martel

“The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Celebrating Silence: Excerpts from Five Years of Weekly Knowledge” by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

“The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis

“The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett

“Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl

“Dracula” by Bram Stoker

“The Princess Bride” by William Goldman

“Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen

“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

“The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd

“The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel” by Barbara Kingsolver

“One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger

“The Odyssey” by Homer

“The Good Earth (House of Earth #1)” by Pearl S. Buck

“Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3)” by Suzanne Collins

“And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie

“The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough

“A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving

“The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot

“Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy

“The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien

“Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse

“Beloved” by Toni Morrison

“Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut

“Cutting For Stone” by Abraham Verghese

“The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster

“The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller

10 Websites To Visit That Will Help You Stop Procrastinating For Good