Nice Notes Are Soothing And Motivating.

04:10 PM // Hello! I made these mind maps a few days ago. I’m really proud of them considering I never made one before.

firstly, some general tips from me:

don’t use spark notes/schmoop/other reference sites until AFTER you have read your book and formed your own opinions, because it makes your essays a lot more interesting, which your teacher will appreciate, if everyone is doing the same essay on something! (However, don’t do this if you don’t have time, rely on those sites when you are racing a deadline or juggling tons of stuff ofc)

do the in-class reading beforehand! this sounds so silly, but doing the reading beforehand can help so much if there is an in-class discussion on it after

highlighters (or other writing utensils in various colors) are your best friend when there is an in-class essay! while obviously in general they are great, if you have a few different colors you can quickly mark up the text to find recurring elements and structure essays around that!

look up the social-cultural-historical context of a book! this is super great for reading nonfiction, but also great for most fiction because it allows you to understand the lens the author was writing through and their motive for doing so, which gives you great fodder for discussion if you need to discuss purpose

other useful tips + guides:

mla official formatting

general essay help (basically recipe for a good essay)

SOAPSTone method

words that connote tone

standard themes in literature

i know this isn’t a comprehensive list, but i hope it helps with untangling the mess that is understanding some lit classes!

STUDY METHODS (part 1)

i’ll be posting soon part 2 (Study methods part 2 here)

*Please excuse my english if necessary*

Puedes encontrar esta misma imagen en español aquí

hey guys, this is a masterpost requested by loveathenaa about notes and studying basically!!!

notes

taking notes from a textbook

an alternative to flashcards

pretty notes!!!!

AMAZING mind maps!!

how 2 make banners

creating better flashcards

my fav online flashcard website [there’s also an app for ur phone]

note taking methods

illustrated study methods!!!!

some more

more note taking stuff bc i just can’t get enough B-)

printables!!!!

how 2 take lecture notes

annotating!!!

studying

get motivated!!!

relax whilst studying

study playlists by me!!!!

reasons to study

my fav focusing app

how 2 study

memorisation and things

101 study tips!!!

studying biology

when ur having a bad day

productive study breaks

self-study resources

khan academy + on youtube

physics

japanese

other languages <3

more and more languages yaaas

crash course videos!!!

math help

masterpost!!!

mythology!!!!

check out 3 minute philosophy

the school of life which is my fav ever!!!!

sparknotes which is another fave

gradesaver

bbc bitesize

hope this helps u guys out a bit also if u need anything or want to request a masterpost, please message me!!! -helena xx

Got an Essay to Write?

Here’s how to use up space when you are just absolutely done with life

-make all periods a font size or two up from the one you’ve been directed to use

-put two spaces after every period

-WATCH YO COMMAS you’re prob missing fifty of them

-2.15 space it

-MLA format the header

-use “such as” instead of “like”

-use “therefore” or “as a result of” instead of “so”

-add a space after every indent

-make the margins on your paper a TINY bit bigger

-get rid of all contractions

-see that word that’s so close to being on the next line? put it on the next line

*keep in mind that one or two of these may conflict with the essay’s instructions

*don’t forget to take a break and breathe some non-recycled air and close your eyes and love yoself <3

this has gotten me through several papers so i hope this helps. reblog this please, save a grade and some sanity

Organising a Notebook:

I was looking at methods of keeping notebooks organised and I came across a really interesting blog post (source) that I want to share with you all. All of the pictures in this post come directly from the original blog post.

Make your entry into your notebook. In the example photographs, they have recorded a Chinese recipe.

Go to the back of the notebook and add a tag or title, e.g. “Chinese” on the left edge of the page.

Go back to the first page where the entry was, and on the same line number as you wrote “Chinese” make a black mark on the edge. You make this mark so that even when the notebook is closed, the mark is visible. After repeating this for various recipes, you now have various tags visible on the notebooks edge.

If you ever wanted to find a Chinese recipe, you simply look at the index, locate the label, and look along the visible edge which has been tagged as Chinese. Then just flick to each marked page.

You’re not limited to one tag per page. You could tag a page 2 or 3 times. So if you jot down a chicken stir fry you could tag it as “Chicken” and “Chinese”.

film scores playlist for studying to

wants to work through your essay with the instrumental sounds of your favourite movies in the background, perfect to calm and focus your mind? then this is the playlist for you

view the full thing here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/75T4VhthKFdSnvZ2Llhpwx

‘Married Life’ by Michael Giacchino from Up (2009)

‘Time’ by Hans ZImmer from Inception (2010)

‘The Shire’ by Howard Shore from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

‘Romantic Fight’ by John Powell from How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

‘Mr. Fox in the Fields’ by Alexandre Desplat from Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

‘Lady Bird’ by Jon Brion from Lady Bird (2017)

‘Dance on the Porch’ by Alexandre Desplat from Little Women (2019)

‘The Imitation Game’ by Alexandre Desplat, London Symphony Orchestra from The Imitation Game (2014)

{28/03/15} - It’s embarrassing how much making these excites me… trying to make a subject I find boring a little more amusing and I think it’s working?

This fake brain actually has the same consistency as the real deal. So now you know how concussions happen! 

Superb Study Guides and Mini Moleskines

(A more concise version of this will be published in my college’s newspaper on Thursday. I will likely add or link diagrams and examples to this post, so you can check the original here.)

As a tutor, many students ask me for tips on making study guides. Generally, my response is that, “it depends”.

But hold on. Before we continue we should discuss what the purpose of a study guide really is.

Study guides fall into two main categories: study guides that prompt you to find/think about information and study guides that directly organize the information you need to know. Some professors provide you with study guides of the former kind (i.e., you’re not given the answers), and it’s essentially your job to create your own study guide of the latter type. Both categories serve the purpose of organizing information you already have in order to synthesize a study tool that best facilitates your comprehension and memorization of the information at hand, just at a different stage in the process.

Before you even start, it is helpful to be aware of the level at which you are required to know the information for your test. The most basic of these is recalling definitions, which can accomplished by use of flashcards. Other information you’ll have to know will require you to compare ideas or apply them. Think of your learning process as literal → interpretive → applicative, meaning you will need study guides that help you visualize, draw relationships, and understand material so you may memorize less in a way that helps you answer more, and better than straight memorization ever could.

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Concept Map:

These can be anything from a basic branching diagram to a complex mind map. This type of study guide allows you to compare information in a more spatial manner than strictly linear. Let’s be honest; sometimes linear learning is unrealistic, because our world is not truly linear. This format allows you to start from the basic, bare bones of the topic you’re studying and expand into very specific details and examples. This way you can get a really solid overview of the information and delve deeper as necessary. At least for mind maps in specific, Mindly is a beautiful and highly functional mind mapping app for iOS. It’s worth the small price, I can tell you that.

Comparison Chart:

Another visually-oriented type of study guide, comparison charts are the easiest way to map out similarities and differences for various topics. The biggest advantage of this method is that you can easily find the important similarities and differences of the subjects in question without having to reread a chapter or search through your piles of notes. It won’t help you visually connect topics like a mind map would, but this very simple tool is important and useful in its own rite.

Index Cards:

Before you skip over this because you think you know what I’m talking about, this is not the same as a flashcard. Flashcards have the very basic purpose of helping you memorize information, and little else. Index cards, however, are like flashcards on steroids because they contain much more information and are used primarily to summarize key information in a portable way that allows you to easily locate more details if necessary. Allow me to break down how you might want to use this method.

Front:

Middle: Main idea [e.g. alveoli]

Upper Right: Organizational term [e.g. respiratory system]

Bottom Middle: Source of information [e.g. Chapter 17, pg. 479 or Notes from 11/26/2013]

Back:

In your own words, what’s most important to know about the concept.

Include examples, summaries, diagrams, definitions, etc.

Be detailed! Remember, this is not about strictly memorizing.

Make sure the content corresponds to level of understanding your professor excepts

Diagram:

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but is extremely dependent on the topic at hand. This could be anything from a chemical reaction scheme, a cycle, Venn diagram, etc. You may even consider making a timeline, which is great for chronological organization of ideas. This is not limited to history, though! You can also organize information from classes such as anthropology, psychology, biology, anatomy, physiology, ecology, etc. If it has a specific, linear order, it can be made into a timeline.

Question Prompts:

This method I find works very well if you use the Cornell note-taking method. If you’re using Cornell notes, you would write your prompts in the left hand column next to where the answers are located, then just cover up the answers when studying. For example, for something as simple as a definition you could write, “What is _____?” For something more complicated such as a comparison chart, you could write, “What are the key differences between _____ and _____?” If you want, you can even ask questions that aren’t directly answered in the adjacent text such as, “Why is [idea] important to [concept]?”

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Now that you know what formats you might use for your study guides (remember you don’t have to stick with just one), you may wonder where you can put this information. The basic answer to that question: anywhere. Many people like to draw these things on computer paper. You may want to type some of these things. If you’re using Mindly then you would be inputting the information into an app. I would like to offer up the suggestion of little mini notebooks for each class. I personally make these study guide materials on paper or a computer first, then when I’m satisfied with the result, I copy it down into my pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks. I personally prefer the squared, dotted, or blank notebooks, but whatever suits your fancy. The benefit to these little notebooks is that you have all of the information you need to study for in a small, convenient little book that you can easily keep in your backpack all the time because of its size. (Ladies, it will even fit in a clutch!) Study on the bus, waiting for class to start, when eating at the cafeteria, while waiting for your laundry to finish, etc. Not to mention, this will help you avoid losing papers because they’re all in one place.

Just try not to lose the notebook.