Ladies And Gentlemen, New Guest Post On The Blog

bi·ol·o·gy \bī-ˈä-lə-jē\ noun - the branch of knowledge that deals with living organisms and vital processes

I’ve noticed that there are quite a few younger studyblrs and since biology is usually the first high school science students take, I thought I’d make a post on how to study for it as it is my favorite subject. 

1. Use Diagrams

Biology textbooks are full of diagrams and they’re there for a reason. Always look over the diagrams and copy ones on important topics (e.g. photosynthesis, taxonomy) into your notes.

2. Memorizing & Understanding

I have heard many people say biology is just memorization, but it’s really not that simple. There is a lot of memorization involved for vocabulary and basic information, but biology is also full of processes (e.g. cellular respiration, evolution). You cannot just memorize the steps, you must fully understand what purpose each step serves. Many tests have short answer or essay portions and there’s no way you can answer them by just memorizing the steps of a process without understanding them. I recommend drawing out diagrams and mind maps for understanding processes and cycles as that really helped me. Once you can teach someone else how that process/cycle works, then you really know it.

3. Color code

Color coding is useful for many subjects including biology. Color code your diagrams (it always comes back to the diagrams) and graphs as it makes looking back over your notes much easier and it keeps things organized and easy to study which is important since there are many complicated processes and cycles (e.g. DNA replication, transcription, & translation) that can get confusing if drawn all in one color.

4. Pay attention to labs

You’ll probably do quite a few labs during your time taking biology. Labs serve to let you see concepts in action for yourself which can really aid understanding. Always record data down in your lab notebook and do the conclusion questions. The conclusion questions gauge how well you understand the labs. Most importantly never ever record results you didn’t get. A lot of times (especially in basic high school biology), you will go into a lab with a pretty good idea of what will happen, but if your results don’t match your hypothesis, it’s okay. I remember once I did a lab involving different sugars and enzymes and I was sure of my hypothesis, but my results didn’t match my prediction. After a class discussion, we found out that quite a few other people didn’t get their expected results either and it turns out the enzymes we were using were expired. So if you don’t get the expected results, maybe you did the lab wrong or maybe not, either way don’t fake data, talk to your teacher instead.

5. Learn your word roots

A lot of biology terms (particularly anatomy and biomed) are from Greek and Latin roots. Now you don’t need to go take a Latin class or anything, but look up etymologies and focus on recurring prefixes and suffixes (e.g. hemo-, hypo-, -cyte, -derm) and soon you’ll begin to be able to predict what a term means before looking it up. 

6. Review

A lot of concepts in biology are interconnected and you need to know one topic to understand another. For this reason, always review anything you’re rusty on especially if you plan on taking other biology classes in the future. 

Some Good Study Playlists

Here are some study playlists I think are really motivating and keep you working. I personally love listening to study playlists while studying this keeps me really motivating and i don´t even see the time pass by. Hope i could help you (:

-Eat.Sleep.Study.Repeat

-Studdy Buddy

-Survival kit to finals

-Study Mix I

-Concentration 

-Concentration part 2

-Concentration part 3

-Study with Accompaniment    II.    III.

-Instrumental Mega Mix

and 

-Rainy Mood

🌠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!!

my masterlist of 'how to life’ tips

Cleaning & Tidying

Make your bed in the morning. It takes seconds, and it’s worth it.

Reset to zero each morning. 

Use the UFYH 20/10 system for clearing your shit. 

Get a reed diffuser and stick it on your windowsill. 

Have a ‘drop-zone’ box where you dump anything and everything. At the beginning/end of the day, clear it out and put that shit away.

Roll your clothes, don’t fold them - or fold them vertically.

Automate your chores. Have a cleaning schedule and assign 15mins daily to do whatever cleaning tasks are set for that day. Set a timer and do it - once the timer is up, finish the task you’re on and leave it for the day. 

Fold your clothes straight out of the tumble dryer (if you use one), whilst they’re still warm. This minimises creases and eliminates the need for ironing. 

Clean your footwear regularly and you’ll feel like a champ. 

Organisation & Productivity

Learn from Eisenhower’s Importance/Urgency matrix. 

Try out the two-minute rule and the Pomodoro technique.

Use. A. Planner. (Or Google Calendar, if that’s more your thing.)

Try bullet journalling.

Keep a notebook/journal/commonplace book to dump your brain contents in on the regular. 

Set morning alarms at two-minute intervals rather than five, and stick your alarm on the other side of the room. It’s brutal, but it works. 

Set three main goals each day, with one of them being your #1 priority. Don’t overload your to-do list or you’ll hit overload paralysis and procrastinate. 

If you’re in a slump, however, don’t be afraid to put things like “shower” on your to do list - that may be a big enough goal in itself, and that’s okay. 

Have a physical inbox - a tray, a folder, whatever. If you get a piece of paper, stick it in there and sort through it at the end of the week.

Consider utilising the GTD System, or a variation of it.

Try timeboxing. 

Have a morning routine, and guard that quiet time ferociously. 

Save interesting-looking shit to instapaper. Have a set time where you read through the stuff you saved to instapaper and save the shit that you like from instapaper to evernote (or bookmark it properly). 

During your working hours, put on your footwear, even if you’re sat on your bed. (Why?)

Have a folder for all your important documents and letters, organised by topic (e.g. medical, bank, university, work, identification). At the front of this folder, have a sheet of paper with all the key information written on it, such as your GP’s details, your passport details, driving licence details, bank account number, insurance number(s), and so on. 

Try using StayFocusd and RescueTime (or similar apps/extensions). (I promise, you’ll find that you’re not as busy as you think you are.)

Schedule working time and down time alike, in the balance that works for you. 

Money

Have. A. God. Damn. Budget. 

Use a money tracker like toshl, mint, or splitwise. Enter all expenses asap! (You will forget, otherwise.)

Have a ‘money date’ each week, where you sort through your finances from the past seven days and then add it to a spreadsheet. This will help you identify your spending patterns and whether your budget is actually working or not. 

Pack your own frickin’ lunch like a grown-up and stop buying so many takeaway coffees. Keep snacks in your bag. 

Go to your bank and take out £100 in £1 coins (or w/e your currency is). That shit will come in useful for all kinds of things and you’ll never be short on change for the bus or the laundry. 

Food & Cooking

Know how to cook the basics: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a sauce.

Simple, one-pot meals (“a grain, a green, and a bean”) are a godsend. 

Dried porcini mushrooms make a fantastic stock to cook with. 

Batch cook and freeze. Make your own ‘microwave meals’. 

Buy dried goods to save money - rice and beans are a pittance. (Remember to soak dried beans first, though!) 

Consider Meatless Mondays; it’s healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

Learn which fruits and vegetables are cheapest at your store, and build a standard weekly menu around those. (Also remember that frozen vegetables are cheap and healthy.) 

Learn seasoning combinations. Different seasoning, even with the exact same ingredients, can make a dish seem completely new. 

Don’t buy shit for a one-off recipe, especially if you won’t use it all. If you really want to try out a recipe, see if a friend would be interested in making it with you, then pool for the expenses. 

Make your own goddamned pasta sauce. Jamie Oliver has a decent recipe here, but the beauty of tomato sauce is that you can totally wing it and adapt the fuck out of it. 

Misc

Have a stock email-writing format. 

Want to start running, but find it boring? Try Zombies, Run!. 

Keep a goddamn first aid kit and learn how to use it. 

Know your OTC pain relief. 

Update your CV regularly. 

Keep a selection of stamps and standard envelopes for unexpected posting needs. (It happens more regularly than you would think!) 

Some final words of advice:

Organisation is not a goal in itself, it is a tool. Don’t get caught up in the illusion of productivity and get distracted from the actual task at hand. 

Routines and habits will help you. Trust in them.

You have the potential to be an organised and productive person, just as much as anybody else. It just takes practice. 

Requested // more close ups and extra pictures of chemistry revision cards for AQA C2. And yes I did colour in my banners since before I didn’t 💁🏽✨

{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?

PLEASE MAKE A REAL COLLEGE TIPS POST BC I WAS TRUSTING THE ONE FROM THE FIRST YEAR UNTIL NOW

minimize gaps in your schedule if you’re commuting unless you work better on campus, in which case schedule large gaps and stay on campus all day

use academic advising services as early as possible to formulate your post-grad plan. don’t leave it until third or fourth year and risk missing prereqs, work/volunteer experience or references

networking sucks ass but guess what? you have to do it. figure out what your classmates are doing, who they’re speaking to, etc

make sure your profs know you. sit near the front, see them during office hours (make up questions if you have to), attend events, pick their brains. you might get an academic reference out of it or even a grad student position 

you most likely have an online portal. visit it hourly. leave it for even a day and you will miss something

find out what textbooks you need before the semester starts and download the e-book, buy it used, whatever. just don’t fuck yourself over within the first couple weeks waiting for your book to arrive

read your syllabus very carefully. set all dates in your phone with an alarm days prior

get credit audits every year to make sure you’re on track to graduating when you anticipate

don’t take evening classes. you’ll never get anything done prior to class like you planned. ever. 

A quick visual guide to some key parts of mindmapping.

Medical School Resources! (and other human biology,physiology,biochemistry-related resources)

Hi Everyone! 

Update: I am now officially done with my second year! I know i’ve been MIA on here for a while now - but that’s only because I was drowning in textbooks and assignments! I will be writing a whole other post on what my second year in medical school was like - so watch out for that :)

I, for one, can not just rely on one method of learning. Meaning, I’ll jump from videos, to textbooks, to flashcards. In this post I’m going to list some of my holy grail youtube channels that have helped saved me. 

1) Handwritten Tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/user/harpinmartin

Every video in this channel is short, but not so much that you feel like you’re missing out on information. Definitely one to save as a favourite!

2) Armando Hasudungan

https://www.youtube.com/user/armandohasudungan

The best thing about this channel is the fact that there are over 300 videos, covering a wide range of core topics in endocrinology, neurology, physiology and pharmacology. Another pro is the presentation of topics (otherwise considered snooze-worthy) in an artistic manner!

3) Speed Pharmacology

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-i2EBYXH6-GAglvuDIaufQ

Raise your hand if you’ve ever fallen asleep trying to read about the mechanism of action of opioids, their side effects and contraindications. I know I have. Fret not, for this youtube channel will introduce you to a world where pharmacology is actually interesting.

4) Wendy Riggs 

https://www.youtube.com/user/wendogg1

Wendy Riggs is a very down-to-earth professor in Northern California, and she covers a wide range of  topics in Anatomy, Physiology and General Biology. 

5) Anatomy Zone

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAnatomyZone

A better way to learn anatomy is to supplement your textbook information with videos from this channel. The explanations and visuals provided are absolute gold.

I hope you all find these channels as helpful as I did!