What year are you?
What’s your major/what do you think you want to major in?
If applicable, what is your thesis about?
Do you think you picked the right major?
Ultimate educational goals?
Career goals?
Do you think your goals are realistic?
What classes are you taking right now?
Favorite class out of everything you’ve ever taken and why?
Least favorite class ever and why?
Current favorite class and why?
Current least favorite class and why?
Favorite STEM field?
Favorite humanities subject?
Class that you’ve always wanted to take but never had the chance?
Do you use caffeine and if so how much daily?
What’s your preferred method of taking in caffeine?
Have you ever tried study drugs?
Are you a homework-in-the-morning kind of person?
Do you listen to music while you study?
Crowded area or quiet place?
What’s your preferred writing implement?
Do you need to work out before you can study well?
Describe your perfect study environment.
Are you procrastinating right now?
What was the last thing you procrastinated?
Are you a perfectionist?
Do you like easy classes or do you feel bad if you’re not working hard?
Are you a good test taker?
What are you the proudest of out of all the assignments you’ve ever had?
Do you talk to your teachers/professors a lot?
Describe your favorite teacher/professor and why you like them.
Describe your least favorite teacher/professor and why you dislike them.
Have you ever thought about becoming a teacher/professor?
Most profound thing ever said to you by a teacher/professor?
Best feedback you’ve ever gotten on something academic?
Worst study habit and how are you working on it?
Are you an in-class fidgeter?
How’s your handwriting?
Write “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” and post a photo.
Neat or messy notes?
A lot of notes or the bare minimum?
Post a photo/scan of your notes from your favorite class.
Are you a doodler?
Post a photo of your doodles if you have any.
Do you have pre-test rituals and what are they?
Are you a tangent-question asker?
Do you make jokes in class?
How many hours do you spend on academics per day?
What’s something more important to you than school?
summer of indulgences. takeout for dinner two nights in a row. glass after glass of cold peach juice. scratching mosquito bites for the sensuous pleasure of it. climbing past the point of my fingers giving out. taking the long way home. gently pressing the bruises on my heart just to feel the twinge
Six Moons of Saturn (Titan, Mimas, Tethys, Enceladus, Dione & Rhea)
Image Credit: Rafael Defavari
statistics are my least favourite maths topic but hey 🤷🏻♀️ that’s how it be
i be like *doesn’t understand brand new, advanced topic instantly* and my brain be like *you are a failure and a terrible student. why do you even do this class oh my god you’re so bad at it and everybody is better than you. time to give up* and that’s on imposter syndrome !
(seeing as there are v few scottish studyblrs and highers are bloody difficult!)
(for non-scots, highers are exams we do in between gcse and a-level equivalents)
understand, don’t memorise. this applies to basically every class- if you understand why you do a certain method to solve a problem/ conjugate a verb/ analyse a poem then you can do it in every scenario
prepare to get stuff wrong. there is a significant difference between national 5s and highers, and most people i know took a confidence bump at the start of the year because of the sheer quantity of work. it’s okay!! it’s all learning and all learning is good
work with the right people. i sat with my friends in maths and desperately wish i hadn’t because i worked way better with people who actually challenged me to work hard! find people who are a similar level to you and work together
past papers. there are dozens of past papers online, far more than national 5s. watch out for content that isn’t in courses anymore! dunblane high school’s website has a great collection of past papers that i used loads
have time off. the workload in s5 is crazy so you need to balance your time. use any study periods to finish work and give yourself relax time in the evenings and at the weekends as much as you can
prelims are important but make sure you don’t burn out. as soon as you finish prelims you’ll likely start learning the next part of the course, and i know from experience that it is horrible to do when you’re completely exhausted after prelims. schedule days off into your prelim leave when you can!
i hope that helped somebody because s5 was a really difficult year for me and i wish i had known some of this at the start! if anybody happens to want tips on a particular subject, i got As in maths, physics, chem, french and english and would be more than happy to tell you what was helpful for me!! <3
08.06.20
i made a whiteboard out of a poly pocket and it is, quite frankly, saving my ass with all the derivations i’m learning atm.