Study Less Study Smart

The most valuable academic writing exercise I’ve ever done was first year of college, the professor who made all of us write out plain language deductive syllogisms for all our essays.

if you’ve never heard of a syllogism, it’s a kind of logical proof. In its most basic form looks something like this: “Socrates is a man. All men are mortal. Therefore, Socrates is mortal” (or A & B ∴ C, if you’re into that.) 

But for the professor, we had to work backward from there. Because “Socrates is a man” is its own conclusion, so you need a syllogism to prove that! (A man is a human who identifies as male. Socrates is a human who identifies as male. Therefore Socrates is a man.) So is “All men are mortal.” (Morality entails being subject to death. All men are subject to death. Therefore, all men are mortal.)

We had to do this for every single essay. It was so frustrating, a friend and I pulled many many all-nighters honing our syllogisms. I hated the professor with a passion for requiring that, and I did not do well in that class at all. 

But nothing I’ve done before or since has really taught me be brutally break down an essay into component parts like that. And…..editing so much of others’ writing, it’s honestly an incredibly valuable exercise.

college note taking 101: how i take notes and use them to study for exams

in lecture:

i like to take quick/shorthand notes because i think learning to discriminate between what is and isn’t important material is a good skill to have so i’m not drowning in useless information when it’s time to study for a midterm or final.

i like to bring my ipad and use the notability app. it’s easier for me to just carry an ipad mini and stylus than it is for me to lug around a heavy notebook/binder and several pens/pencils.

if the professor makes lecture slides available to students online (via a class website), i like to download them onto notability and annotate them as the professor goes along. that way, i can focus more on what the professor is saying and less on merely writing everything down.

if lecture slides aren’t available, i type out my notes as i find it faster than handwriting them.

at home:

once i’m home, i take out my ipad and copy down my lecture notes into a specified notebook for that class, explain everything more thoroughly, make them neater, and organize them in a way that makes more sense to me (as opposed to copying them down exactly as how they were presented in lecture).

i like to use lots of colors, highlighters, and etc. and make them as pretty as possible so i actually want to use them to study from in the future.

integrating reading notes:

normally, what professors will do is assign reading from a textbook and base their lectures around the reading (or have the reading be based on the lectures). usually exams/tests will rely mostly on what was said in lecture instead of in the reading and this is partly because they overlap so much. what the professor says in lecture, you should consider the “important points” in your reading. sometimes, though, there are things in the reading that seem important and weren’t mentioned in lecture.

what i’ll do if this is the case is take post-its, write the piece of information down, and stick the post-it in my notebook in the corresponding section (i.e. where it fits best with my notes)

i like this method as opposed to taking notes directly in my textbook or having a separate notebook for only reading notes because 1) i’ve consistently found that reading material is not as heavily focused on in tests as lecture material and 2) i like to have all of my information in one place

using my notes to study:

when an exam is coming up, what i like to do is take all of the information in my notebook and condense it into a study guide that i can use to study from.

the format of my study guide varies depending on the class and which type of study guide and method of studying i think will help me best. my study guides range from flash cards to mind maps to sheets of paper with a bunch of condensed information.

if i come across a concept on my study guide that i can’t completely explain to myself/don’t fully understand, that’s when i’ll look back in my notebook for a better and fuller explanation of it.

i also like to give myself some time before an exam to completely read through my notebook and look at all the notes i’ve taken (not just what i have on my study guide) because i think it’s a good refresher of all of the lecture and reading material and all of the information will be brought forward in my mind.

[* a few of you have asked me for a advice on note taking: how i take notes, methods i use, how i study from them, and etc. i hope this post was helpful to you! feel free to message me if you have any other questions. happy studying! ^_^]

20.3.16// I made a poster on all the organic chemistry reactions we’ve covered so far in the year. It’s a great summary sheet which should be useful come exam time!

Very long but interesting chapter : depressive and bipolar disorders

(Don’t you love when your notes end right at the bottom of the page? I do!)

[ 02.05.16 • 4/100 DAYS OF PRODUCTIVITY ] 4 days till my exams yikes D: my first exam isn’t even geography but the subject is so content heavy so I’m studying first even though I have 8 days to the exam ahhhh didn’t really bother putting a super nice set-up for the picture because meh good luck to those having their mid-years or their finals!!

behavioural and emotional patterns of living in abuse:

you spend most of your time shut in your room

you’re scared of footsteps approaching your door

you prefer not to come out unless there’s nobody home

when they come back you run to your room/safe place

you’re nervous and anxious if you have to spend time in presence of others

you try to get away from your home, you wish you could live somewhere else

your self-confidence is very low

you worry about making too much noise (have a feeling you’ll get yellet at or abused for it)

you try to move around as silently as possible and try to not be noticed by anyone

you feel uncomfortable and uneasy sitting at the same table as rest of family/housemates

you don’t feel like you belong here

you feel like a burden to your housemates

you don’t feel like you’re worth having around or supporting in any way

you don’t feel like anyone will ever love you or believe in you

you don’t feel like anything you do is good enough

you can’t stand someone watching you do things like cleaning or anything else you need to get done

you try really hard to still find good points about your life and cling to them

you strongly worry that you are somehow worse than anyone else

you feel like you’re behind on everyone and that you’re failing to live your life properly

you don’t feel like anything would have changed if you died, or even that it would be better if you did

if you’re experiencing most of this, you’re going through abuse. Your value isn’t in any way less than other humans, and you are absolutely not any kind of burden. You are human who is forced to live in a way humans aren’t meant to live. You are in living conditions that disable you from feeling happy, fulfilled, or even seeing yourself as a human being.  You are suffering. What is being done to you is not okay. You deserve better than this.

Scholarships!

College in the United States is absurdly expensive, but luckily, free money is being thrown at students left and right. Applying for scholarships can be tedious, but working for decades to pay off student loans is far more difficult. Take the time to apply for every scholarship you are eligible for and your future self will thank you!

Scholarship Databases - Databases can be a fantastic resource for finding scholarships. You put in your information and the websites will automatically show you all of the scholarships you are eligible for. Most of these sites also automatically register you for their own scholarships when you sign up (see: no-essay scholarships.)

Unigo

scholarships.com

Niche

Cappex

SALT

Fastweb

Chegg

Peterson’s

School Soup

BigFuture

Big Scholarships - These scholarships tend to involve a longer application process, and you can bet that lots of students will be trying their luck for the high prizes. If you are lucky enough to win even one of these prizes, all of that hard work will instantly pay off.

Gates Millenium (amount varies)

Coca-Cola Scholarship ($20,000)

AXA Scholarship ($10,000)

Dell Scholars Application ($20,000)

Ron Brown Scholarship Program ($40,000)

Burger King Scholars ($50,000)

Questbridge ($200,000)

Voice of Democracy Scholarship ($30,000)

Hertz Foundation Graduate Scholarship ($38,000)

David Letterman Scholarship ($10,000)

Horatio Alger Association Scholarships ($10,000 - $1,000)

Unigo $10K Scholarship ($10,000)

No-essay Scholarships - For most of these scholarships, the only requirement is that you sign up for their website. If you are already hunting for scholarships and would be using these sites anyway, then these scholarships are a no-brainer.

Chegg Monthly Scholarship ($1,000)

Niche $2,000 “No Essay” College Scholarship ($2,000)

Cappex Easy College Money Scholarship ($1,000)

College Week Live ($1,000)

U.S. Bank Scholarship ($1,000)

Scholarship Zone ($10,000)

Odd Scholarships - Calling all tall people and duck callers! These scholarships may seem a little bit out there, but you can win money for school by honing in on some of your more eccentric talents and interests.

Wholesale Halloween Costume Scholarship ($500)

Zolp Scholarship (You must be Catholic, your last name must be Zolp) (amount varies)

Custom Jewelry Scholarship ($1,000)

Tall People Scholarship ($1,000)

Chick and Sophie Major Memorial Duck Calling Contest ($2,000)

Stuck at Prom Duck Tape Scholarship Contest ($3,000)

Scholarship for Vegetarians ($10,000)

This barely even scratches the surface of the scholarships that are out there for students, so be sure to take some time and apply for every scholarship that you qualify for. Good luck, and happy hunting!

Handwritten with the iPad Pro and my trusty apple pencil 📚✨

yesterday I realised that I barely know anything in maths so I’m having to sort myself out - trying to go over 2+ topics a day, making what I like to call “emergency notes”, so far so good but #prayforzoë