Today Is The Day

We'll get our report cards again today! Please wish me luck~ 😄

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We received our report cards for the first semester today. Most of my grades remained the same from the midterms all through out finals. One subject decreased drastically, but there were few marks that increased. I’m happy with the results, but I know that I can do better than that. Second sem will definitely be better, I will make it better. Let’s do our best! :–))

The vehicle was moving steadily when the whispering music playing from my phone stopped. Suddenly, I became aware of the raindrops pelting against my window, creating a lulling harmony. The afternoon downpour colored everything gloomily, from the blinking stoplight to the people passing by with their umbrellas overhead. A sweet, new melody began as I felt the cold leather seat sink beside me.

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windows 10 is garbage so every time i boot up the computer i have to run command prompt and enter

net.exe stop “Windows Search”

so that the shitty goddamned search/cortana feature that i never fucking use stops running in the background taking up all my fucking disk space

is there anyone here who listens to podcasts? literature or any other genre would do !! litreading guys doesn’t soothe me, he makes me feel like i’m in a tv show halp

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HOW TO WIN AT FRESHMAN YEAR IN COLLEGE Pt 1. (Academics)

Aight here we gooo

Don’t think about when it’s due, think about when you can get it done by. Always try to get work done as soon as you get it, because the information/motivation is a lot more likely to make you productive immediately after. Don’t backward plan and leave things to the last minute.

Research your course. Find out about the electives you have to take, the ideal course load and the progression requirements. Don’t graduate a semester late because you forgot to take one 1000 level English course.

 Make a nice schedule! You’re going to be stuck with this for a year, so definitely invest a couple hours into making a good one. (Separate post on drafting a schedule coming up.)

Try to live on campus, preferably in a traditional dorm set up. Not only does it improve the ‘college experience’ but also really helps with networking. 

Do not invest in a loooot of expensive stationery. I know, I know, ironic to say as a studyblr. But coming out of high school where we all took notes on paper, a huge stationery haul might be obvious. But definitely wait a couple weeks into school to see if you want to stick to paper notes or if you’re more comfortable with the laptop. 

Sit. At. The. Front. Beginning in the first week. Freshman year, it’s super tempting to abuse your freedom and just not show up to class. It is imperative that you put yourself in the field of vision with the teacher, not only to make a good impression but also to hold yourself accountable to actually show up to class, because the professor will probably notice your absence and might discount you a little bit. It also helps with the ‘halo effect’, where you stand out right in the beginning, and that’ll tide you over. 

Don’t just show up to office hours, take your notes/solve a mock paper, and get feedback. Doing this a couple times before the exam will help you put together the perfect rubric for answering just about any style of question. If it’s an essay course, the teacher will often make corrections and even send you helpful resources to improve. 

Create/join a Facebook group for your subject, and exchange notes with people over there. It’s reassuring to know you have a backup if you skip class.

Try to inform your professor before hand if you’re skipping class. This policy might be different for different schools, but telling your professor ahead of time that you won’t be attending, or even just shooting them an email at the time of class might help with making up for lost time, extra credit, and being able to skip with more ease in the future, since the prof thinks you’re serious about this class.

Spend the summer before college chilling, yes (I’ve written a post about it here). But also check this out to make it a little more productive, and learn a few handy day to day skills. 

Pt. 2 about college scheduling will be up tomorrow!

Study Techniques:

SQ3R Reading

The Pomodoro technique

Online Pomodoro timer

Feynman Technique

100 Things to do in your study break

Develop active learning strategies

Cramming (last minute option)

Study Methods, Tips, and Resources:

How to make flashcards (electronic and paper)

What to write on flashcards

Uses for flashcards

Creating and using mindmaps

Studying using textbooks

The benefits of textbooks

How to annotate

Tools for referencing

Tips for visual learners

How to read journal articles critically (by marielstudies​)

Top 5 Study Tips to Achieve your Study Goals

How to pull an all nighter

How to pull an all nighter (2)

Studying vocabulary

Study guides

How to create a study guide (by studyspoinspo)

Using whiteboards

Assignment Calculator

Learning how to learn (by strive-for-da-best)

Get good grades (Youtube)

Memory:

Learn how to memorise and find the memory techniques that work best for you.

Here’s an interesting article about long term memory.

6 research tested ways to improve your memory.

Here’s an ask about how to memorise material.

An ask about forgetting material within a few hours.

Some memory tips (by astackoftextbooks)

Learn instead of memorising

Thinking and memorising

Time Management:

How to prioritise tasks

Apps for scheduling

Creating a revision timetable

A post about making a timetable (by grxeek).

How to keep your revision focused

An online study planner.

Motivation/Procrastination:

Reasons to study

Blocking apps/extensions for phones and computers.

Reasons to study now

10 tips for getting started on an academic task

How to deal with family distracting you from study

How to stop procrastinating (Youtube)

10 Tips for managing procrastination

Questions to ask yourself for motivation

How to improve your concentration

Quick concentration tips

Get Motivated (Wikihow)

Choosing the appropriate study environment

Short and sharp motivation

Stress Relief:

Stress relief techniques and ideas

The 10 Best Yoga Poses for Stress Relief

Relaxing Yoga Poses for Beginners

20 Easy Steps to Stress Relief

Relaxation Techniques

23 Science Backed Ways to Reduce Stress

25 Destressing Techniques

Deep Breathing Exercises

Three Guided Relaxation Videos

Vent Anonymously Online

A sleep calculator here which will calculate when you should go to sleep/wake up (depending on what you’re working out) based on sleep cycles. This will make sure that you wake up refreshed and ready to work.

Problems with sleep

Failure anxiety

Do nothing for 2 minutes

Calm (meditation site)

Health:

There’s also some information here about studying with mental illness from MIND.

There’s a really great post here about depression in university (by landofstories)

There’s a similar post here about studying with depression (by bloggerforstudentprogress)

Studying with ADHD

Studying maths with dyscalculia

Managing test anxiety

Self help: test anxiety

Emergency Compliment (for when you’re feeling down)

Studying with dyslexia

Revision and exams for people with dyslexia

Study skills for dyslexic students

How I coped with OCD at university

Study skills and OCD

Study skills and OCD PDF

Music:

Nature sounds in calmsound

Sounds of rain

Beethoven

Coffee shop sounds

More coffee shop sounds

Mix sounds (soundrown)

Sounds of the ocean

Whitenoise

Study mixes on 8tracks

Music to boost concentration

For the exam:

Exam preparation

Exam life hacks (by studyblob)

The best ways to prepare for exams

Exam tips

The day before an exam

Tips on Taking Multiple-Choice Tests

How to write a great essay (by englishlit-chic)

Psychology Essay Exams (gives an example and how to answer)

Looking after yourself after exams

Oral tests and exams

Writing and presenting a good speech

Links, Games, etc.:

Live panda camera (for destressing; you wouldn’t believe the amount of time I spend watching this camera).

Live animals

Try to find the ten gnomes

Origami

Create your own nebula

Easy magic tricks

DIY Home Spa (BY @recoverykitty)

Brownie in a cup

Cookie in a cup

April Harry Potter Phone Wallpapers

Here are some Harry Potter inspired monthly phone wallpapers with matching desktop wallpapers. I created versions starting on Monday and Sunday so you can pick the one you use more often!

To download:

mobile: for the best quality, click on the link to the version you would like below, wait for it to load and then simply hold down on the image you would like, press ‘save image’, head to your settings, change wallpaper and select it from your photos.

version one monday / version one sunday

version two monday / version two sunday

version three monday / version three sunday

version four monday / version four sunday

laptop: right click, save image, add image to a phone folder that syncs from your laptop to phone or use airdrop on iPhone.

I hope you enjoy using these and if so, I’d love to see them in action!  Feel free to tag me #emmastudies in any photos you upload on Tumblr, Instagram or Twitter. If there are any problems or errors, please let me know via my inbox.

Disclaimer: These backgrounds are for personal use only.

Other downloads | Printables | Instagram | Youtube | Pinterest | Twitter | Etsy Printables Shop

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

JUST LET ME BE.

how. how does one organize their life when you’re like. the only one in charge of it.

I’m not even being dramatic I think the biggest hurdle I’m facing post-grad right now is like. being COMPLETELY in charge of how I schedule my days and how I do work and I’m a PUSHOVER and also have no idea how to do this by myself because I was already terrible at it in college. I bought a planner and wall calendar today in some desperate plea with myself to give myself more structure throughout the day.

Other neurodivergent people (especially neurodivergent artists) like…. How… How do you do this? Does anyone have any tips or resources? This is absolutely killing me.