My July Spread! 7 Days In, But Still Good :) 

Science Chapter 2 sunshine themed notes 🌻;

Was pretty productive today so i decided to start doing the #100daysofproductivity challenge hehe. Here goes day 1 ~ ^ 3 ^

Academic writing advice inspired by Umberto Eco’s ‘How to Write a Thesis’:

Planning

Determine primary sources/bibliography.

Determine secondary sources/bibliography. 

Find title.

Brainstorm a table of contents with as much detail as possible (with chapters, sections and even paragraphs and sub-paragraphs - see How to Write a Thesis’ own table of contents as an example at the end of this document) (if the first drafted table of contents is good enough, it will not be necessary to start the writing from the beginning).

Do a first draft of the introduction.

Note-taking and research

Use Google Scholar to make sure you do not miss important sources.

Keep the table of contents in mind when researching and take notes of which sources could go where.

While note-taking, differentiate which parts could be used as quotations from the ones that are simply important for the argument.

Eco underlines the importance of what he calls reading sheets, which can be understood as your notes on your readings. According to him, these should contain:

information about the author if he is not a well-known figure;

a brief (or long) summary;

they should mostly consist of quotations (accompanied by all the corresponding page numbers)

any commentaries you might want to add;

an indication of which part (or parts) of your table of contents the information mentioned belongs to.

Keep reading sheets on primary sources (which should be the longest) separate from those on secondary sources (which should only be 1-2 pages long).

In the end, re-read the notes and color-code all the different parts according to where they would fit in your table of contents.

Writing and editing

A good place to start would be by redrafting the introduction.

Define every key/technical term used/mentioned unless indisputably obvious.

General writing tips:

keep sentences short;

do not be afraid to repeat the subject twice (ex: Roberta went to the shop (…) Roberta bought carrots and tomatoes);

avoid excessive details;

avoid subordinate clauses (orações subordinadas);

avoid vague language;

avoid unnecessary adjectives;

avoid the passive voice.

While drafting, write everything that comes to mind. Leave the editing for the end.

Use your tutor as a Guinea pig. Make them read your first chapters (and, progressively, all the rest) well before delivery is due. 

Ask for as much feedback as possible. Ask colleagues, friends and/or family to read your work. They will provide you with more diversified feedback, as well as allowing you to know if your writing is clear to anyone.

Stop playing ‘solitary genius’.

Don’t insist on starting with the first chapter. Start with what you know best and feel more comfortable writing about, then fill in the gaps.

Leave time for editing and try to take at least a one or two days long break in between writing and editing. 

Do not forget to fill in the gaps. When you revisit your writing, go through it with all these writing tips in mind as well as a conscience of what your most common mistakes are.

Use Hemingway in the final editing phase.

Quotations and footnotes

Since there are two kinds of sources (primary and secondary), there are also two kinds of quotations: either we quote a text which we will interpret, or we quote a text which supports your interpretation.

Some quotation rules to know:

“Quote the object of your interpretive analysis with reasonable abundance.”

 “Quote the critical literature only when its authority corroborates or confirms your statements. (…)  when quoting or citing critical [aka secondary] literature, be sure that it says something new, or that it confirms authoritatively what you have said.”

“If you don’t want readers to presume that you share the opinion of the quoted author, you must include your own critical remarks before or after the passage.”

“Make sure that the author and the source of your quote are clearly identifiable.”

“When a quote does not exceed two or three lines, you can insert it into the body of the text enclosed in quotation marks. (…) When the quote is longer, it is better to set it off as a block quotation. In this case the quotation marks are not necessary, because it is clear that all set-off passages are quotes, and we must commit to a different system for our observations. (Any secondary developments [like the quote’s reference] should appear in a note.) (…) This method is quite convenient because it immediately reveals the quoted texts; it allows the reader to skip them if he is skimming, to linger if he is more interested in the quoted texts than in our commentary, and finally, to find them immediately when need be.”

Some footnote rules to know:

“Use notes to add additional supporting bibliographical references on a topic you discuss in the text. For example, ‘on this topic see also so-and-so.’”

“Use notes to introduce a supporting quote that would have interrupted the text. If you make a statement in the text and then continue directly to the next statement for fluidity, a superscript note reference after the first statement can refer the reader to a note in which a well-known authority backs up your assertion.”

“Use notes to expand on statements you have made in the text. Use notes to free your text from observations that, however important, are peripheral to your argument or do nothing more than repeat from a different point of view what you have essentially already said.”

“Use notes to correct statements in the text. You may be sure of your statements, but you should also be conscious that someone may disagree, or you may believe that, from a certain point of view, it would be possible to object to your statement. Inserting a partially restrictive note will then prove not only your academic honesty but also your critical spirit.”

“Use notes to provide a translation of a quote, or to provide the quote in the original language.”

151129 ; german grammar is killing me ( 11/100 )

Best Online Lectures for College Courses

Please reblog and add to the list! Let’s make sure all the studyblrs have these resources available to them so we can all be successful! I will do my best to keep the original post updated here.

I thought I would start a list of YouTube channels (or other venues) that have the best lecture videos out there. Not only are online lectures a great supplement to help you understand the content your professors teach you in class, they’re also a useful tool for prestudying before class! I try to watch lectures of the topic that will be lectured on next before each class so that I already have notes coming into the lecture, meaning I can focus on learning the material by only adding on what’s necessary to my notes as opposed to frantically copying everything on the board or powerpoint slide.

BIOLOGY

General Biology

Bozeman Biology

CHEMISTRY

Organic Chemistry

Leah4Sci

Biochemistry

Kevin Ahern

Moof Univeristy

PHYSICS

Covers Many Physics Courses/Topics

Leonard Susskind

Feynman Lectures

DrPhysicsA

MATHEMATICS

Calculus

Integral Calc Academy

PatrickJMT

ProfRobBob

MIT OpenCourseware (x) (x) (x)

Discrete Mathematics

(x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Linear Algebra

(x) (x) (x)

COMPUTER SCIENCE

Data Structures

(x) (x) (x) (x)

Object Oriented Programming

(x)

Software Engineering

(x)

Database

(x)

Operating Systems

(x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

(x)

Computer Architecture

(x)

Programming

(x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Artificial Intelligence

(x) (x)

Algorithms

(x)

COVERS MANY SUBJECT AREAS

Khan Academy

Crash Course

MIT Open Courseware

Read JY Yang’s “Waiting on a Bright Moon”, a story of rebellion among far-flung colonies united by song magic.

Xin is an ansible, using her song magic to connect the originworld of the Imperial Authority and its far-flung colonies— a role that is forced upon magically-gifted women “of a certain closeness”. When a dead body comes through her portal at a time of growing rebellion, Xin is drawn deep into a station-wide conspiracy along with Ouyang Suqing, one of the station’s mysterious, high-ranking starmages.

Music revives me after stu(dying) 12+ hours a day ;-; If y'all have any music recs please hmu ♡

I’m taking the AB Calc AP this year (yikes), so here are some of the resources I’ve found so far! I’ll add more as I find them.

Free Practice Tests & Questions

1969-1988 Multiple Choice Questions

2006 Practice Exams (AB & BC, with answers)

Varsity Tutors

College Board Released FRQs 

Peterson’s Practice Test

GetAFive Practice Questions

4Tests Practice

Booooooks

The Princeton Review (3 practice exams)

REA Crash Course (online practice exams)

Barrons (AB & BC, 5 practice exams each)

Kaplan (6 practice exams & 2 diagnostics)

5 Steps to a 5 (3 practice exams)

COW Math (online calculus books)

Peterson’s (online, AB & BC)

Multiple Choice Workbook

Videos

HippoCampus

Khan Academy (so many worked answers)

WOWmath (free response questions)

Other Resources

PDF Reference Sheets (from EE, but here in a handy folder)

Interactive Mathematics Lessons

Visual Calculus (tutorials & drills)

College Board FRQ Index

MIT OpenCourseware Exam Prep

Brightstorm

Mr. Calculus

GetAFive

Paul’s Online Math Notes

Study Guides

Elaine Cheong’s Study Guide

University of Houston Study Guide

Final Review Sheet

Calculus Cheat Sheet

I hope this helps you out! There are more useful posts from my study series here.

Headaches are still largely a medical mystery. We have no pain receptors on our brain, yet we so often experience pain which seems to come from it. This infographic outlines the 3 main types of headaches, and their probable causes.

dropbox containing linguistics textbooks

contains 34 textbooks including etymology, language acquisition, morphology, phonetics/phonology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, & translation studies

dropbox containing language textbooks

contains 86 language textbooks including ASL, Arabic, (Mandarin) Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew (Modern & Ancient), Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh

dropbox containing books about language learning

includes fluent forever by gabriel wyner, how to learn any language by barry farber, polyglot by kató lomb

if there’s a problem with any of the textbooks or if you want to request materials for a specific language feel free to message me!

50 Things to ask on Residency Interviews

HARK. Interview season is upon us!

And my old littles gave me the great idea to come up with a big ol’ list of questions the interviewing 4th year can use to find the answers they need about certain program OR give ideas that a 4th year may not have thought of at all.

I hope this helps anyone who has been dreading the “any questions for us?” moment. It’s not everything you can ask, it may not even highlight your program priorities, but hopefully you can get something out of it!

Is there any standard curriculum which the residents follow?

When do residents have to take step 3 by?

Is there any expectation to take step 3 before residency starts?

How are morning reports/grand rounds/resident lectures held?

Does the program support simulators and simulated learning?

Does the program have a sim center?

Is the in-training exam used by the program in any way?

When do the residents take the in-training exam at this program?

What is the percentage of specialty board pass rates?

What is the fellowship match rate/job placement rate?

What are you expected responsibilities on the floor?

What kind of call do you do as an intern vs as a senior?

What are you looking for a in a resident?

What do you value in a team?

How often are you working with seniors vs other interns vs attendings?

What fellowship programs does this program offer?

What are the responsibilities of the fellows toward residents, if any?

How are mentors approached?

How does continuity clinic run through the program?

How many electives are offered per year?

What specialties does the hospital not have?

Which specialties are done at an outside hospital/system if any?

What are some hallmarks that make this program different from others?

How does this program participate in resident wellness?

Are their any resources if a resident feels they need help?

Is there support when there is a loss during patient care?

Does the hospital have any associated medical schools?

What are the 3rd and 4th year med student expectations?

What are the resident expectations to the medical students?

How many fourth years are around during audition season?

How is the schedule organized (how many floor, clinic, etc months)?

Are schedules flexible in any way?

If someone needs to miss a day or call, how is that rectified?

How are vacation requested, decided and divided?

Is there a holiday schedule?

How does the program approach QI projects?

What are some standout QI projects from the residents?

What are the research expectations for each year?

What resources does the program provide for research?

Are the residents provided food and drink (stipend/resident lounge supply)?

Are the residents provided scrubs?

Do you get white coat replacements or fleeces/jackets?

What is the expected attire on the floor, clinic, etc?

What is the parking situation?  

Are there any stipends for moving, study material, exams or conferences?

What is the average cost of living in that area?

Where do most of the residents live?

Do you need to be in close proximity to the hospital?

How do you think a program of this size facilitates the learning environment?

Do the residents hang out together?

I didn’t describe why someone would ask these so if you’re interested, don’t know what something means, or want elaboration feel free to send an ask.

Go forth! Be strong and confident!

Good luck!