🌠Guide To Study Guides

🌠Guide to Study Guides

Hi, so I make study guides when I revise as referenced to in this post/ask here. So in this post I’m gonna try and show you guys how I go about making a study guide like I did for sociology or philosophy, both of which are shown in that link there. This is my method so it probably is really complicated and stuff, I know for sure that my guides are overly “fancy” and whatnot, but it makes me happy and I guess the extra effort does pay off, at least aesthetically.

Okay, yes, let’s begin…

1. Visit colourlovers.com to choose a colour scheme for your guide!

I’ve provided the link to the most loved palette page which is where I choose my colour scheme. In Word, you change your colour scheme by choosing Page Layout > Colour > Create New Theme Colours and you go from there!! I basically started making my own colour schemes after I went through all the ones already provided by Word, but to be honest you can start with those since they’re really nice too. I recommend: Apex, Composite, Foundry, Metro, Module, Slipstream and Solstice.

If you do want to make your own colour scheme, you should get ready to do some fiddling around because I still don’t get this really. Making a colour scheme on Word requires at least 10 colours, that’s okay because on colourlovers, palettes are usually made up of 5 so just choose 2 that you think suit each other :) After this you need to input the hex codes manually into the popup window of “Create New Theme Colours” starting from Text/Background - Dark 2 to Accent 6. The hex codes are provided by individually clicking on the colours.

So that’s what one of my self-made colour schemes look like, you should be aware that Word usually randomises these? I don’t really know how it works but basically sometimes the colours won’t necessarily be in that order when you go to select it to specifically colour a word, if that’s the case you’ll just have to fiddle and change it around to choose your preferred colour in the scheme. Also not all the colours will go into the textbox options so be aware of that too!

2. Font shopping

Next if I haven’t updated the font collection for a while I’ll go to dafont.com because I just…really like jazzy fonts. From here I’ll either check out “All The New Fonts” (option is at the bottom of the front page) or go to the menu titled Script, and check out Handwritten, Fancy or Various. Here are some links to asks about fonts that I’ve used in my shown study guides or just fonts I like in general!! 1 and 2.

Okay so as you can see in the Disney Princess Document/Sociology Study Guide I used at least five fonts, I usually average around 4? Once downloaded choosing fonts that you like for your guide is basically a trial and error process, I choose any fonts that I like or haven’t recently used or just recently downloaded that I want to try out and I match them with what I think would look nice! Here I’ll show you why I use around four or more fonts:

In order to make the process of typing up your guide with these fonts easier, highlight one, so for example the Big Title, right click > Styles > Save Selection as New Quick Style…and it’ll be available to you in the Quick Styles menu underneath a heading like Style1. After this to easily change a font to that particular font, just highlight, go to Quick Styles, choose that particular font and bam! I try to make my fonts match, so if one is bold, I aim for at least a thick-ish font in the rest of my choices. Now to go through what they’re for.

So obviously the Big Title is for your BIG TITLE that could be your subject or your main topic, so if it was sociology (like in the first pic) I would use it for Key Concepts and Methods, I might later reuse the font for another BIG TOPIC, but really…it’s your choice.

The Subtitle is what I would use for well…your subtitle, so following my first pic it would be the subtitle of Positivism versus Interpretivism…Three Key Concepts, etc. The heading is therefore for the headings under the subtitle (this is only if you’re making a guide for something that is like intensely sectioned, like sociology), so I’d use that font for where it says Reliability etc.

It just brings something extra on top of all the later colour you’ll probably use, although I only use it for like a set theme, so dates, names etc. and only either a word or a phrase, if it gets too long it’ll just mess up the format of your sentence.

3. Okay, so you’re happily typing away but now you wanna add the speech bubbles, you wanna add the textboxes and the Disney princesses! Don’t worry my friend, I got you.

Basically I add textboxes or speech bubbles for 2 reasons, either to highlight a particular point or differentiate a piece of information from the rest OR to fill up space because of some particular study guide pet peeves.

Pet peeve, when a particular sentence ends like this:

I know it might seem like a bit much, but to be honest, it throws the whole format of a block of text if a bit of it ends with like this huge expanse of space. So in this instance I either will insert a photo or I’ll try and delete a word or add a word until I’m satisfied. THIS IS JUST ME, IF YOU DON’T CARE OBVIOUSLY IT DOESN’T MATTER 👌

You can insert speech bubbles by going to Insert > Shapes > Callouts (you’ll find it there) and textboxes by going to Insert > Textbox > Draw Textbox (I draw mine since I don’t tend to use the ones provided by Word. With the speech bubbles they actually act as textboxes, but I’ve found that using it in that way takes up a lot of space as in your words won’t necessarily take up the whole of the speech bubble so it simply expands and it’s all messy. Therefore, I put a textbox on the top of it, make the background and outline transparent and type there to save space.

Here are some examples of when I’ve used photos or speech bubbles to fill up space or solve the annoying sentence problem.

I generally tend to have themes around what photos I use, so for example my sociology guide was largely based on Disney/Cartoon Network depending on how I felt and I’d use particular photos to emphasise a point and make it more entertaining I guess… As you can see the speech bubbles with LSP are for filler purposes but also to differentiate information, it just adds something extra really. Also because I continuously indent my guides (since I type with bullet points) as they get further and further in they’ll leave gaps that can be filled with photos, seen here with what I’ve done with LSP. Also with the photos that I choose, I search for the ones with a grey, checkered background which means that they’ll be transparent, allowing me to put them in front of a textbox or just makes overall design easier, it means that I can have the Gangreen Gang in front of that textbox like that :)

4. Final step, going over your guide when it’s done.

I then go through the guide again and highlight, underline, italicise, bold, colour etc. particular points of a sentence/paragraph that I want to remember! I do this in order of the colour scheme that appears in the menu when you click to change the colour of a font, so I’ll highlight particular words for a portion of a paragraph before changing, achieving a sort of a rainbow effect, like so:

These are from my history study guide, where I made front covers (which I don’t usually do…I feel like all my guides really depend on how I feel and my subject). This is what they looked like if you wanted an idea for something you could do too!!

Um..so that’s pretty much it! I’ve tried to make this as extensive and as in-depth as I can, I’m sorry it ended up SO LONG, I’ve never made a post this long before so I’m really sorry. I would put it under a read more but I feel like the font on my blog is too tiny for when it’s redirected and I’d much rather not have everyone straining their eyes. If you guys have any more questions, please feel free to ask. If you want any more examples or screen shots of my guides, just hit up my ask box!! Sorry for this taking so long and being so long once again and I really hope it helps you all in at least some way!

***As an addition, those washi tapes you see are digital washi tapes which you can get just by googling! I use the free ones which only require a lil’ searching for. Also please tag me in whatever study guides you make and upload, I’d love to see them!!

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study guides

MASTERPOST

Hi! This is going to be pretty long and I have tried my best to cover as much as I could. If there are any specific requests, please message me on my personal blog! (Linked in the description.)

Study stuff

How to make a study schedule

Daily printable planner (with to-do list)

By the hour detailed planner (printable)

2015 printable calendar

Improve vocabulary in 5 minutes

Cornell note-taking method

More note-taking

10 general study tips

Crash Course

Best damn tutoring

Math tutor

Khan Academy (obvs)

University of reddit

Coursera

edX

Ways to boost your note-taking

Awesome study flowchart

Websites to increase productivity

Get shit done even when you don’t feel like it

How to not freak out during finals

Subject-specific tips:

Square root calculator

Cube root calculator

Oil painting

Reading a painting

Free language tutorials (20 LANGUAGES)

Shakespeare deaths infographic

A HUGE ASS WRITING TIPS MASTERPOST

Synonyms for commonly used words

Put your feelings into words (I know, I know, it’s complicated. Maybe this will help?)

Common grammar mistakes

More common mistakes (after all, to err is human)

Masterpost with music to influence your writing

Words. You’re welcome.

Try this math game

Wolfram Alpha

Text books are fucking expensive. Go here, okay?

How to not say the word ‘very’

‘Everyday compounds’ infographic

Online courses masterpost (apart from the sites I’ve mentioned)

Nervous system chart

Endocrine system chart

Common pre/post fixes chart for med students

Types of stitches (???)

Learn programming

COLLEGE!

How to grow the fuck up (masterpost)

How to become an adult (masterpost)

Dorm essentials checklist

THIS DORM CHECKLIST!

What to do with your major

Read this before you join a Sorority/Fraternity

Deal with a hangover

Food to buy

Fix your leaky faucet

Remove a carpet stain

Organise your closet

More food to buy

WINTER SURVIVAL

FOOD BC WHY NOT

100 Ramen recipes

Triple Chocolate and Salted Caramel Cookies

Really nice recipes. Every hour.

Healthy, but tasty snacks

Apple pie inside a fucking apple

Disney inspired recipes

Deep dish mug cookie

Food hacks

Recreate food porn

More food porn recipes

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food masterlist college

3K notes View Post

marathon-notasprint

9 years ago

Here Are A Couple Of Examples Of My Biology Notes That Some Of You Have Been Asking To See 🍃🔬

Here are a couple of examples of my biology notes that some of you have been asking to see 🍃🔬

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biology notes

1K notes View Post

marathon-notasprint

9 years ago

Tips for Studying History!

I don’t see a lot of posts about how to effectively study for history classes, so I’m going to give it a shot! Warning: long post coming up!

Practice identifying the significance of something. The entire point of history is to learn the significance of different events and people. I guarantee that at some point you will be asked to state the significance, which is where this comes in handy. Also, knowing how to do this will vastly improve your essays.

Use timelines. Even if your teacher doesn’t make it mandatory to know dates, you should understand the order that major events happen. I will either write out a timeline or order my cue cards in the order they belong in after studying. Also, if your teacher does mark dates, you can at least be sure you know the decade it happened in even if you don’t know the full year.

Write extremely thorough notes. In some classes, like math, if you get something really well, you can kind of relax on the depth of your notes. I do not recommend this in history! Write down everything that seems important: names, dates, symbols, fun facts. The more you know, the easier it is to get full marks on a test without bullshitting.

Don’t rely on crash courses or internet research while studying. Your teacher taught you what they want you to know. While watching a crash course video might be a good way to start preparing for a course while on summer vacation, it is not an effective way to study for a test. The information in the video is not what you were taught in class, so it won’t be that helpful. Internet research is the same – you can easily find dates and locations, but the specific information taught in class can only be found in your personal notes.

Talk to people in the class. Some things in history are open to interpretation. A good way to get lots of opinions and viewpoints on a certain subject is to hold a study group and discuss the material. You guys can also help each other remember small details from the notes. Certain things will just stick in your brain while others won’t, so reviewing the notes with other students is a really good way to make sure you aren’t missing anything.

Write essay outlines. In a history class, you will probably be writing a lot of essays. So many of my friends have massive problems with history essays because they don’t organize them prior to writing. If you just start talking about an event and don’t know where to go next, you’re going to have a total trainwreck. Organize your thoughts!! Plan what you are going to write!! It doesn’t take that long and it will save your life every time you write an essay.

Read “Politics and the English Langauge” by George Orwell.

Learn how to write footnotes manually. Writing footnotes and formatting your paper yourself isn’t that hard to do. It will help you out a lot when Word isn’t working or something goes wrong with the formatting feature.

Be an expert during presentations. If you are doing a presentation, be an absolute expert in the topic. Try not to read from any notes and be sure that you can answer any questions the class or teacher might have. Presentations are a good way to boost your mark, so try and be super knowledgeable and impress your teacher.

Learn how to write a thesis. If you’re writing an essay, your thesis should be clear. In high school, you can usually figure out what your thesis should be by figuring out what the main question you’re trying to answer is, then answering it. Make sure that your answer is focusing on just one viewpoint, not somewhere in the middle. And, ask a teacher or friend to look at your thesis before you start writing!

This is all I can think of for the time being, but I might add more later. Or message me if you have other ideas you think I should add to my list!

Tags

history

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marathon-notasprint

5 years ago

This is how heart works <3 <3 <3

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marathon-notasprint

4 years ago

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

201K notes View Post

marathon-notasprint

9 years ago

04:10 PM // Hello! I Made These Mind Maps A Few Days Ago. I’m Really Proud Of Them Considering I Never

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.

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so pretty….. notes mind mapping

7K notes View Post

marathon-notasprint

9 years ago

Achieving your full academic potential: Things to Avoid Doing

Things you may want to avoid doing in the future.

Doing, wait, not doing these things always works for me.

Staying up late.

Sleep is yes. And as my speech coach puts it “there are only so many all nighters a person can pull before they just can’t”. Not only will staying up uber-late make the next day a battle between you an a surprisingly pillow-like desktop, if you’re tired, your work probably won’t be the your best.

Over-scheduling.

It’s easier to look at a schedule with 3-4 assignments than it is to look at one with 9-10. When scheduling, if you have a plethora of assignments, prioritize. Write down the most important assignments, and leave any others off the page or in the margins. You only have so many hours in the day and it’s better to complete the most important tasks than none at all.

Pro-tip: The Pareto Principle. The Pareto principle revolves around the 80%-20% ratio. Allow me to explain, if you have 10 pieces of work, there are probably only two of them that will take up 80% of the work. And 8 of them that will take up 20% of the work. The key to prioritizing is finding those two assignments (or however many = 20% in your workload) and doing them first

Working in bed or laying down.

NONONONONONONONONONO. This is how “cat-naps” happen. You swear that you’re going to get straight to work and then your phone on the bedside table lights up. It’s too hard to organize a book, a notebook, and a laptop on a bed without moving the laptop off of your lap. So why not check it?

Working in bed helps the boogeyman grow under it.

Over-working.

If you take on more than you can handle, you will not get the results you want. It’s perfectly alright to challenge yourself. In fact, it’s great. But, there is a difference between being ambitious and stressing yourself out. If it’s too much, go back to the Pareto principle and prioritize.

Drinking excessive amounts of coffee and energy drinks. (Especially in the afternoon.)

One (maybe two, if you ordered a tall) cups of coffee in the morning is fine. But in the afternoon or the evening, stick to exercise, healthy snacks, and naps. Sugary energy drinks as well as coffee that contain caffeine can speed up your heart rate, cause stress, and irregular breathing patterns. If you become addicted to caffeine these things will accelerate and can end up hurting you detrimentally.

Over-using productivity apps.

Productive apps are awesome, if used correctly, don’t abuse them. It was difficult for me to use productivity apps on my phone at first because the other things on my phone would distract me. If you plan to use productivity apps on you phone and computer make sure that you have the self-control needed o use them properly.

Tumblr. - I’m only half kidding

Those are the general ones, these are a bit more subject specific

Math/science

Falling behind.

In other classes falling behind is not recommended, but is usually fixable by reading a few chapters or asking a friend for notes. Because of arithmetic’s complex nature that relies not only on facts, but applying them it is very difficult to master one a concept while you’re supposed to be mastering another. Often, learning one key concept can help you with many other assignments, not learning key concepts can make those other assignments 10x harder.

Receiving low homework scores.

In all of the math classes I’ve been in, the homework scores were more of your grade than your test homework. Always turn in your homework, even if it feels impossible, try your best, and never leave your paper blank. Even if you got all of the answers wrong, many teachers will give you serious credit for trying and failing rather than just failing.

Learn everything from the teacher.

There are a plethora of online math resources that are awesome, and math teachers usually only teach one method of solving a problem. Try Khan Academy , For Dummies, or IXL. Or look around a bit, there are a lot of other great sites, those are just my favorites.

Learn everything. (This is usually for science.)

In science (especially in biology and Earth sciences.) you are introduced to a myriad of concepts and vocabulary words that might seem like too much to memorize. Don’t. Look at what your teacher puts emphasis on and memorize that. Also, if you are using a textbook, there is a good chance that the textbook is filled with notes on the ‘key concepts’ or learning requirements for each chapter. These are also things that you should attempt to memorize.

English/writing/history/ other humanities

Not develop an opinion. (Especially in history)

If there’s anything a english/ writing/ history teacher loves, it’s an opinionated student. Textbooks give you facts and figures, and you can interpret them however you want. So, do just that. This will show your teacher not only that you are interested in his or her subject, but that you are engaged in the material that they gave you.

Ignore teacher comments. (No matter how small.)

It isn’t fun to read nit-picky comments about your work. Especially on your writing. But look at them. Even if you receive a good grade on a paper, applying corrections on your next one will ensure that you get a better grade the next time.

Staying quiet in class.

I understand that for some people this one is hard, for some people this one is practically impossible. But teachers love it. If you can, voice your opinion and answer questions in class as frequently as possible. I’ve even received extra credit for being verbally engaged in class more than other students.

Not trying to learn everything.

This one is a lot like the ‘not ignoring teacher comments’. A lot of information slips through the cracks (especially in english) that pops back up on exams. Because most of what is learned in an english class is not drilled into you like it would be in a math or science class, to do well, you have to drill yourself. I’ve been told the difference between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ plenty of times, but I didn’t truly learn it until this year when I had to study it for an exam.

Pro-tip: Don’t challenge your teachers. They determine your grades. Momentary satisfaction is not worth a bad grade.

Hope this was useful!

Tags

school studying

12K notes View Post

marathon-notasprint

9 years ago