This Is How Heart Works

My Study Method

My post 10 types of planners got way more notes than I expected. So today I will show you how I prepare for my exams. The method I’m going to explain is the one I’ve developed over the years and got me to get all A’s in high school. From taking notes, to nailing your exam.

1. HOW TO TAKE NOTES

1.1. Sit in the front of the classroom Don’t give a f**k if you look like a dork. Make sure you can see the blackboard clearly. You should be able to look at your teacher and the other way round. In case my experience is not enough: Studies show that those who “sit in the front and center (middle) of the classroom tend to achieve higher average exam scores”. Plus, your teacher will know who you are and will be aware that you pay attention in class.

1.2. Ask questions Don’t be afraid of asking questions. This took me years. Your teacher won’t think your question is stupid - in fact, it is their job to make sure everybody learns whatever they are supposed to teach. AND even if it looks as if the whole class has already understood the lesson, trust me, they haven’t.

1.3. Don’t write every word the teacher says There’s just no point in doing such thing. Contract words and use symbols and doodles. Once you get home, fair-copy your notes if they are not clear enough (or at least, re-read them). Otherwise, when you try to study with your notes a few weeks/months later, you won’t understand a thing.

1.4. Clarify your notes What did you just write down? Was it something that didn’t appear on the book? Was it an explaination of what the book says? Some info you should expand? Use a color code or symbols to clarify your notes. It doesn’t take time but will save you time in the future.

1.5. Compact notes Write with tiny (but legible) handwriting. It is quicker, tidier, and it saves paper. Also, write in two or three columns.

1.6. How to stay motivated to take good notes Last year I told one of my best friends (who is one grade bellow me) that I would give her all my notes at the end of the year. People normally dream of setting fire to their notes (and at least in Spain, people actually do that). But this other option (giving away my notes) was good for her and for me, since whenever I felt like writing carelessly, I’d think, “she won’t understand these notes, I have to do it better”.

2. PRE-STUDYING

Start pre-studying the very first day of class.

2.1. Active reading

Everytime I see someone whose book is entirely highlighted I’m like “why don’t you just dip it in a bucket of yellow paint?”. Seriously, stop.

Underline only the key words, not the whole sentence.

Use a different color (at least) for each paragraph.

When you read a paragraph, open a key in the margin and summarize what that paragraph is saying. Use between 1 and 10 words. Write as small as you can.

Right after you finish with a page, do an outline of the whole page in order to make sure that you have understood what you’ve just read. How? Scroll down.

2.2. Make it visual

Outlines, mindmaps, graphics… it really depends on the subject. All I know is that I just CAN’T study from a block of text.

Separate coordinated sentences and link them with symbols.

Use bullets or numbers and indent.

Color is not decorative. The same color links together different ideas.

Pink highlighters are cute but they don’t highlight at all.

Small handwriting and columns are your friends.

Highlight just the KEYWORDS. About 4-8 words per page.

Don’t use the same template or style on every page, unit or subject.

Number your pages.

Here you have a messy and a tidy example:

3. STUDYING

3.1. When should you start studying?

When I was in high school, I used to start studying one or two weeks before the exam. A few days before when I was too busy. The day before when I was about to jump out the window.

Divide whatever you have to study in equal parts to make it more approachable.

Try to organize yourself so that the day before the exam you don’t have to study because you already know everything (and you just need to revise a little bit).

3.2. Studying (and by studying, I mean memorizing) Once you have read it and understood it, you have to memorize it. My favourite quote is: “Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.”

These are my methods. I also recommend reading this article for more. Use the method that works best for you or all of them to ensure you’ve got it.

Write your mind-map again and again and again. Don’t change the placement of each concept in your mind-map or you’ll become confused in the end.

Translate words into drawings. Translate your drawings into words. Repeat. Repeat!

Read a little bit, try to explain it out loud as if you were a teacher. Repeat endlessly.

Make a story that helps you fully understand what goes next and WHY.

3.3. Keywords list This is the spine of my whole studying method. So basically, reduce each sub-topic to ONE word. Then reduce each topic to ONE word. Study those words by heart.

In the exam, just write down your list of keywords and you will easily remember each topic and sub-topic.

4. EXTRA TIPS

4.1. When studying a list of words or names It is really important to know how many words there are.

Make a sentence with the first letter of each word.

Make a song. You can use a jingle you already know.

Picture a scene which contains all the words.

4.2. IMPORTANT!

Highlight, bookmark and make a list of those concepts that you usually forget or make mistakes, so it is the first thing you see (and revise) the next time you study.

The night before the exam, write in a little piece of paper that thing (an important formula, something that you always forget, your keywords list…) and that’s the only thing you should revise the following day.

Talk to older students and ask them for their old exams. Your exams will probably be different, but if the teacher is the same, they’ll be similar.

5. HOW TO NAIL AN EXAM

First of all, you should take a look to the Text Anxiety Booklet. It contains a lot of information for the ones who get really anxious.

5.1. Appearance matters My teachers always say that when they are correcting our exams, illegible handwriting really pisses them off. Since they are humans, that attitude towards your exam will be unconsciously reflected on your mark. On the other hand, when they get to a visually appealing exam, they are more compassionate. Conclussion: MAKE YOUR TEACHER’S WORK EASIER.

Use your best handwriting.

Write your name on every page (if you are asked to do so).

Leave margins.

Separate your paragraphs.

Indent when necessary.

Number your pages.

5.2. Don’t ever leave a question in blank Ever. Every little point adds up to you final mark, and a blank question means 0 points. If you write something and it is wrong, you simply made a mistake. But if you don’t answer, your teacher might think that you didn’t do it because you didn’t study. However, remember that your teacher is older and wiser than you, and will notice if you are trying to fool them.

In some tests, mistakes subtract points. In that case, you’d better leave the questions you don’t know in blank unless you like taking risks.

5.3. What if you go blank First of all, wait a minute and take a deep breath. This is not a waste of time because it will actually help you do better. Now, do the rest of the exam and come back later. Then, if you still can’t remember, try retracing not what you studied but what you were doing while you were studying. Maybe you were drinking tea, maybe your father came into your room or maybe you heard something on the street. And remember that you control your breathing, and your breathing controls your feelings.

5.4. An exam is not a race I guess some people believe they’ll receive a prize if they are the first one to hand in their exam. Those people have all of my disapproval. Use all the time your teacher gives you and always, I mean ALWAYS, revise your exam before handing in it. Revise. Your. Exam. Did you follow the instructions correctly? Did you answered all the questions? Are there spelling mistakes?

That’s it. I hope you found it helpful.

Back To School: Stationery

PENCIL CASES:

Pencil cases by Paperchase

Lani Ang three layer pencil case

Large pastel colour pencil case

IPOW canvas pencil case 

IPOW floral canvas pencil case

Emma Bridgewater pencil case

PLANNERS:

WHSmith black A6 diary - Week-to-view

WHSmith black A6 diary - Page-to-view

‘This Week’ planner by Knock Knock

‘5 Days A Week’ desk jotter by Knock Knock

Planners and organisers by Paperchase

NOTEBOOKS:

Oxford Campus notebooks

10 subject notebook by Paperchase

Decomposition notebooks

Pukka Pad notebooks

Muji notebooks (B5)

Muji notebooks (A5)

PENS:

Pilot V5 Hi-tecpoint 0.5 pen (black)

Uni-ball eye fine tip roller-ball pen (black)

Bic medium ballpoint pen (black)

Muji 0.5 gel ink pens

Muji 0.38 gel ink pens

PENCILS:

Muji box of 12 colouring pencils

Staedtler colouring pencils (24 pack)

Staedtler HB pencils (5 pack)

PaperMate mechanical pencil (12 pack)

Paperchase dual ended colouring pencils (12 pack)

Paperchase graphic pencils (10 pack)

FINELINERS AND FELT-TIPS:

Stabilo fineliners (20 pack)

Stabilo felt-tips (20 pack)

Staedtler triplus fineliners (20 pack)

Staedtler triplus felt-tips (20 pack)

Paperchase fineliners (12 pack)

HIGHLIGHTERS:

Stabilo boss highlighters (8 pack)

Stabilo boss highlighters (4 pack)

Staedtler highlighter (8 pack)

Sharpie highlighter (4 pack)

Paperchase cat highlighters (5 pack)

Paperchase panda highlighters (5 pack) 

MISCELLANEOUS:

Paperchase tube map memo block

Paperchase sticky note box

Dot and stripe washi tape

Allydrew washi tape

Tipex correction fluid

Post-it notes 3″x 3″ (5 pack)

Index cards (white) 3″x 5″

It is important to believe in yourself. And never give anyone a chance to make you question your strengths. It can be hard, but not impossible. So I want to be doctor, and I am ready to give my everything, so my dream would come true.

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

A lot of people are turning to using tablets or laptops to take their notes, for reasons that I won’t go into in this post. But, while there are lots of posts about taking handwritten notes, there don’t seem to be very many about taking notes using a laptop/tablet (I’ll refer to as digital notes from now on).

Set up folders for each topic. Create these folders before lectures/class and save your notes into the correct ones. It will keep all of your notes organised and easy to find. You might want to have different folders for lecture and reading notes. Develop a system which is intuitive for you.

Know the program. Choose which program you’re going to use to take your notes. There are lots of options available, including Microsoft Office. If you can’t afford Office, then you can look into (illegal) free downloads of it. If you have Office, you could also use Onenote. Alternatives include free programmes like Evernote which allow you to access your notes from anywhere on any device.

Get a template (M Office only). On Microsoft word, you can download different templates. See if there is a template that you can use for taking your notes. Alternatively, you can create your own template by adjusting the margins, font, size, etc. and saving your preferences. If you don’t want to use a template, you can just use the default settings.

Name the notes. Make sure that you name the notes so that you know what’s inside. On Microsoft word, when saving documents you can add tags. Then you can search these tags for any documents with that specific tag. I’ve found this to be a really useful organisational tool.

Do you need anything to take your notes? If you’re using a tablet, you can buy Bluetooth keyboards which will connect and can be quicker than typing on the screen. You can also buy a stylus which will let you write like you would with a normal pen; some devices also have the option to convert your handwriting to typed notes.

Get to know your keyboard. If you’re using a keyboard, then I suggest looking at this website which will teach you how to touch type.

Become familiar with keyboard shortcuts. Especially for things like bold, italicise, underline, highlight.

Downloads. If the teacher/lecturer puts up any material for the lecture download it. These are typically powerpoint slides. When I take notes next year, I will download these and split screen between word and powerpoint. Then I’ll be able to copy and paste material and diagrams straight from the actual powerpoint, speeding up my process.

Back up. Please, back up your notes on google docs. If your computer crashes you will have a backup of your notes that will be essential to studying! Again, for the people in the back, back up your notes!

Creating your notes. Use the technology to your advantage.

Use bold/highlight/italic. Make your heading and subheadings stand out from the rest of your text.

Use bullet points.

You can even make sub bullet points (like this) using the tab key to follow your line of thought/reason.

Highlight the important things; you could even use different colours for different things. E.g. yellow for important dates, blue for important quotes.

Develop an annotation style. For example, sometimes you might fall behind a bit, and miss a detail. When this happens to me I insert a series of dots into my notes, like this (……..) and I know that means I missed something so I can return to the recordings to find out what I missed. You could use question marks (?) to indicate something that confuses you that you need to do more reading on. There are lots of different symbols so you can develop your own system.

This also works with words. If you have certain words which you’re typing a lot then you can make them shorter and easier to type. For example, the word “participants” comes up a lot in my course, but I use “ps” because it’s shorter and quicker to type.

hi there, can you make a post about making mindmaps please?

There are many types of mindmaps, and they are all different depending on what they’re focused on ~ generally, they have the same structure, but just be careful if you’re doing a science-based one while following a literature-based tutorial. 

Here’s a tutorial based on my most recent one {for English class, based on the novel Brooklyn}, hope it helps!

Keep reading

[02.01.18] Hi everyone! I have received a lot of feedback on my one page note summaries. I had always planned on sharing some of them with you all in PDF format but never had the time to. So here are some of my favorites and most requested! :D

Amino Acids

Cross-Bridge Cycle

Hypothalamic-Pituitary Axis

Mitochondria & Electron Transport Chain

The Digestive System Overview

The Kidney Overview

The Periodic Table & Trends

Viruses

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. 

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

writing adult emails is awful

its like

hi [name of person], 

this formatting is making me uncomfortable but I have to tell you something / ask you something that is vital to my career as a student. 

I re-read and edited that sentence for an hour, but you’ll probably just glance over it for half a second.

thanks! 

- [name]