Riko

5 Tips for Studying, from an expert

statuspostcoffee:

(Qualifications: 3rd year med student with BS in biochem and 9 yrs of working as a private tutor for math and science. Of note, not qualified to write with decent grammar.) I am new to tumblr, and I noticed a lot of people in the studyblr community feeling down when they are having trouble focusing or they are falling behind in a class. This is my pep talk for you. It’s the big picture stuff. I can share my color-coding tips another time. 

0. Baseline: I hope this is obvious, but just in case - You have inherent worth and dignity that has nothing to do with how well you do in school. Your grades do not determine your value, as a student or as a human being. 

1. Forgive yourself, and don’t give up. This means several things. It’s still worth it to study for whatever time you have (not including the full 8 hours of sleep you should get before any exam), even if you wasted time before. It’s still worth it to study if you have done badly on a previous exam. It’s still worth it to ask questions in class if people laughed at the last one you asked. It’s still worth it to turn in an assignment late, even if you won’t get full credit. 
2. Better done than good. This means everything does not have to be perfect. An approximation is better than nothing. On tests, move on past difficult questions, even if you feel compelled to linger in order to figure it out or force it from the back of your mind or punish yourself for not finishing that chapter, just move on and come back if you have time. On emails to professors, this means not avoiding emailing them because it’s embarrassing to ask a question. Be professional, (Dear Ms./ Mr. / Dr. …, ….., Sincerely, full name), but don’t feel the need to analyze every comma or read it in different tones of voice trying to decide how it will sound to them. Not that I have done that. Okay, I have definitely done that. On assignments, just start them, even if it feels like you are doing a bad job. This is a good way to get easy homework points and make sure your term papers get done. Of course, the corollary to this tip is: Best done and good, BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE THE TIME. If you have luxurious time to learn something well, or do something well, and not just to finish it, it is so worth your time to dig in and look up everything you don’t know and follow the wikipedia cascade of related links that interest you. That’s how you find your passion and part of how you develop your deepest knowledge base.
3. Chemistry is easy the third time you take it. This applies to most subjects. One of the classic myths that can turn people, especially women, away from STEM interests, is that you “get it” or you don’t. FALSE. You got it or you will get it. There are many reasons a subject may come easier to one person than another, and these factors are often related to nurture more than nature. For example, boys are often encouraged to play with legos and other toys that help them develop spatial skills, where girls are often encouraged to play with dolls. But in studies (message me if you want, I can dig up the reference), girls who have less developed spatial skills can catch up with just one semester of extra help and practice. And my personal example, from which this rule gets its name: I took intro chem three times. Honors chem in my freshman year of high school, then AP chem my senior year of high school, then Intro chem my freshman year of college. I didn’t really understand anything the first time around. By the second time, it felt like I understood the language, at least. By the third time, I was a peer TA for 40 students at a time after class. Come back to the tough stuff, because that persistence matters as much as your intellect. 
4. Being wrong means you are learning. So does teaching. Young students who are struggling can feel discouraged by getting questions wrong. Young students who are succeeding can feel bored by explaining material to others. Attempting to retrieve knowledge shows our brains that the information is important, not extraneous junk to dump and fill with trivia about Scandal. Not that anything about Olivia Pope is unimportant, but the point is that your brain is a really efficient machine that knows it works better without unnecessary information clogging its hard drive. One of the best ways to demonstrate to your neurons that any information has value is to ask your brain to access it. This is why flashcards and practice questions work. This is also why you remember what happened on Scandal much better after a friend jumping in on the new season asks you to catch them up. It is totally fine if some information is not there yet, you just find out the right answer and try again, until it has a more permanent residence in the precious real estate that is your long-term memory. And once you know it, it is totally worth your time to teach it. Because each time you do, you reinforce the memory and develop another layer of understanding that makes the knowledge meaningful. I only took 3 weeks to study for the MCAT, because I spent so much time tutoring intro sciences, that I did just fine with that. 
5. Sleep. You have more time to lay down long-term memories when you get more sleep. So do it. Leave your phone in the other room and go to sleep. Worst mistake I made in college was staying up all night to study for a vector calculus exam. 

Conclusion: You are a hard worker and you try. You try and you try. You take care of yourself because you know it’s necessary. You ask and you teach. You care and you try. I believe in you! And most importantly, you believe in you. 

P.S. Feel free to follow me or hit up my ask box!

P.P.S. If you are trying, and things are not working out, ask your doctor about it. Trouble with schoolwork can be due to many different things, from sleep apnea to ADHD to depression to hypothyroidism to learning disorders to vision or hearing impairment. It can’t hurt to seek help. 

pathofneedlespathofpins:

angrila:

princess-starr:

pkeradactyl:

editorincreeps:

Princess Bride themed restaurant. Waiters say “as you wish” after taking your order.

Finish the Fezzik in an hour, your meal is free.

Come in a wheelbarrow, your meal is 10% off.

Every so often the hostess will say “bye bye boys, have fun storming the castle!” as people are leaving.

Miracle Max’s Cure for the Mostly Dead is on the menu and its a giant chocolate cakeball.

The servers will sometimes switch your wines after distracting you.

They sell Anybody Want a Peanut Brittle at the door.

“There are a shortage of perfect chicken breasts in the world. Twould be a pity not to order these.”

“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. I’ll be your server.

Prepare to dine.”

Instead of “large,” you get an item of unusual size.

People on their anniversary get to listen to a recitation of the mawidge speech.

The kitchen door says “Brute Squad.”

Pottermore Quiz

bisexualwillscarlet:

As requested by a couple of people, here is the copy of the actual Pottermore quiz that will break down how much of each house you identify with at the end of the quiz. And before you say “omg, that equals to more than a hundred percent!” this quiz works a little differently than most. Instead of questions that are like “"this" answer is the Slytherin one and “this” answer is the clearly Hufflepuff one” I believe that the questions work more like “this option gets you 5 points for Slytherin, this one gets you 4, this one gets you 3 to add up at the end” etc for all the houses, so they’re like “how much is this a _blank house_ thing to do” which is probably a more accurate representation than the former option.

Example: My results were 82% Slytherin and 79% Ravenclaw, so I’d probably be one of the ones that the sorting hat took my preference into account, since I’m almost equally both. ;)

Quiz