George: [to Percy] Pardon My French, But You're Being A Douchebaguette.

Unpopular truths you should keep in mind!

While most of the studyblr community is really empowering, uplifting and inspiring, there are also ideals and misconceptions that are really harmful, so please always keep in mind:

You don´t need straight A´s. In some subjects, or basically in life, passing is sometimes enough. Don´t expect yourself to get only straight A´s and destroy yourself for these grades.

Your health, physical and mental, is more important than your grades.

Not everyone enjoys studying. Some studyblrs may be there because they try to motivate themselves, not because they love studying.

You don´t need expensive stationery. Cheap ones are more than enough.

You don´t need to wish for stationary for christmas or your birthday. Wish for something your really want and what brings you joy.

Staying up all night and having only 4 hours of sleep is not healthy!

Drinking multiple coffees per day every day is very bad for your stomach and heart!

Being productive can mean lots of things. It means something different for everyone, and while for some of us it means studying 8 hours a day, for others it may mean 2 hours, or maybe just organizing and sorting out stuff.

Not every day is the same. While today may be wonderful and productive, tomorrow may be not so productive. You are a human being, not a machine.

Honestly, being 100 days in a row productive is more harmful than helpful. Take that day off if you need too!

Your bullet journal must not be perfect or artsy. As long as it helps you organize your stuff and as long as you are happy with it, everything is fine!

You don´t need to do calligraphy to be a studyblr or a good student.

You don´t need to rewrite all your notes. As long as you know how to learn from them, that is enough.

Your handwriting doesn´t need to beautiful. You (and your teachers) should be able to read it without problems, that´s all.

Studying too much can make you depressed. But that is normal and will pass.

Just because others may find a class easy does not mean you have to. Everyone has weaknesses and strengths.

Ambience and piano music is not for everyone. It is totally okay if you listen to heavy metal while studying, as long as you can concentrate.

Getting up early is not always good for being productive. If you are not a morning person, you might not be able to concentrate.

Your background does not have to be white.

You do not have to study on your bed or wrapped in blankets. There are enough people who get tired by doing so.

Your desk will be messy more often than not, and that is totally okay.

Everyone is procrastinating sometimes.

Planning your whole day or week, including every single minute, does not make sense. You will have moments where you will just sit there and stare, you may want to eat an unplanned snack or whatever. Don´t try to plan every second. Give yourself some freedom.

Enjoy your breaks. Don´t minimize them down to just 5 minutes. Take breaks as long as you need them to be in order to feel well and to focus again.

Don´t revise in your head as soon as you´re not studying. Give yourself times where you don´t think about it at all.

You don´t have to revise on your way to school. There are many other productive things you can do, even if it is only waking up and mentally prepairing yourself for the day.

you can fall in love at 30. you can discover your true passion at 40. you can go back to school at 50. you can learn to draw, or paint, or sing at 60. relax. just because you didn’t do most, or any, of the things considered “young adult milestones” doesn’t mean you never will. there’s no time limit on happiness.

That feeling of driving down an empty highway, screaming the lyrics Bohemian Rhapsody at 11:48 pm is something I want to be able to experience, always.

Reblog if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, transgender or a supporter.

This should be reblogged by everyone. Even if you’re straight, you should be a supporter.

little things that exist:

warm blankets and snowy mornings

stars that glow from millions of lightyears away

fruits, bread and tea

cities for you to explore

poetry, art, books and cozy libraries

places with breathtaking sceneries

knowledge, languages and art museums

people who understand what you’re going through

a lovely future waiting for you

flowers that grow in cracks in the sidewalk

people who love and appreciate you

back to school

i know, i know, i’m a little bit early. it’s all good, i have anxiety, i plan ahead constantly. i figured i’d share some of my plans to prepare myself for heading back to school.

1. fix your sleep schedule

for school i wake up at 6:30, in the summer i wake up at 12. and recently i decided to fuck that up even more by pulling an all-nighter and just, in general, screwing up my sleep schedule. i’ll need about a month to fix all this damage, but in general, you should start reacquainting yourself with your school schedule about two weeks before you have to head back.

2. figure out your note keeping system

i’m switching things up this year, and i won’t be using the binder system i’ve had all throughout high school. it’s simply to heavy for my walk to and from school. instead, i’ll be using a filing folder, and keeping loose leaf paper, as well as the week’s lessons in there, and once the week is over, i’ll transfer my notes to the binder system at home, which should limit the weight i carry. also, this’ll force me to have better organization, and hopefully make weekly review easier. just as a rule of thumb, refreshing your note keeping system is something you should do annually, at the start of a new year or even before a new semester; you know what’s been working and what hasn’t been.

3. gather breakfast ideas

i have about ten minutes scheduled in my morning routine during the school year for breakfast. and about five of those minutes are spent figuring out what to eat. i want to gather simple breakfast ideas that i can test out now, so i don’t waste time deciding what to eat. this just, in general, makes mornings less of a hassle and can help make sure you’re getting a good start to the day.

4. take stock of your supplies

i need a lunchbag and highlighters, my previous ones are no longer able to function, so i need to replace them. i don’t, however, need new pencils, i have plenty. doing an inventory check can really help prevent buying duplicates of something you thought you didn’t have.

5. create achievable goals

this year is my final year of high school, and then i’m off to university, most of my goals centre around applications and just graduating. but there are other things i know i need to do. embracing study habits for one. i’m hoping to do so by staying in the library after school instead of walking home right away because i know i can’t get work done as effectively at home. i’ll also be doing a review for exams all throughout the year, instead of the day before, by creating flashcards and mindmaps for each days lesson. set a general goal, then add the steps you’ll need to take to achieve it.

6. check your courses

i’m dropping out of physics because i don’t need to be taking it and it will give me a spare instead of a full course load. i need to talk to my guidance counsellor before school starts because of it. as well, i like to make sure i’m in the correct classes and that my schedule is as balanced as possible. some schools may not allow this for regular students, mine does. make sure you’re taking what you need to take and what will allow you to succeed.

7. put dates in your planner

my school offers a tentative list of events going on through the year, with set exam and break times. i like to keep track of these, and setting them in my planner makes it easier to see how my year will play out. if your school doesn’t offer this, check out past years scheduling so that you have a general feel for how your year will go.

these are just some of the things i’m doing to ensure this year goes smoothly for me. let me know what y’all are doing too!

Skipping Lectures: How to ditch class and get good grades

Studitonious loves 8am lectures. Every day he cartwheels to class, radiant with the joy of acquiring new knowledge. Morning coffee? Ha! That’s for uncultured plebeians. He has no need for caffeine when he has his daily shot of morning eDUCATION!!! 

Here’s the thing - Studitonious doesn’t exist. Or if he does, he needs to get some serious help. Yet, there seems to be a common misconception that a “perfect student” must emulate this model. 

Getting up at the crack of dawn? Well, you don’t need to get up if you never go to sleep… #lifehacks. Oh, there’s a blizzard outside? No biggie, the cold never bothered me anyway. Everything is worth it because getting good grades is all. so. wonderful. Right?

Well, here’s a thought. What if you don’t have to attend all your lectures to get good grades? What if instead of forcing study habits that work against us, we develop flexible routines that work for us? What if we began studying smarter, not harder?

Let’s get one thing straight - not all lectures are created equal. There’s a big difference between ditching class to binge your latest Netflix obsession vs. ditching class because it’s counterproductive to your learning. Here are a few factors to consider:

Is attendance compulsory?

Does participation contribute to your grade? Do you have any in-lecture assessments? 

If the answer is “yes”, then go to your lecture. The mark may only be worth 5%, but would you rather have 5% added or deducted from your grade?

Are your lectures recorded?

At my university, all lectures are automatically recorded due to Access & Inclusion policies but this isn’t the case across the board.

If there’s any lecture-exclusive content (i.e. content discussed in lectures but not in the slides, group activities etc.) and your lectures are not recorded it’s a good idea to attend.

Is the content actually helpful?

Does the lecture aid your learning in a way that other mediums (reading lecture slides/the textbook, attending tutorials/labs etc.) do not? For instance, if your lecturer just reads off the slides, you can save time by looking at them yourself.

Is your subject more “hands-on”? For courses that are more heavily based on solving problems, I often find doing the problems myself way more helpful than watching my lecturer solve them.

How dense is the content of each lecture? Sometimes, there is simply too much to absorb in the given time slot. E.g. I once had a flipped class that had a brief 1-hour intro lecture to a week’s worth of content. Since it just briefly skimmed over everything, it was more worthwhile to study the concepts in detail myself.

Do you actually pay attention to the lecture?

Are you actually awake? I once had a friend tell me he attended all his 8am lectures despite always falling asleep because he “just felt like he should”. Bro, sleep.

How engaging is the lecturer? Obviously, you shouldn’t skip a class just because the lecturer is “boring” but there is a certain point where the line is crossed. In first year, one of my professors took long pauses between every second word and spoke very s l o w l y. Needless to say, he was much easier to listen to at 2x speed.

Note: there is a significant difference between a bad lecturer and just being distracted. If it’s your meme addiction, not the quality of your lecturer that’s making you lose focus, turn off your phone.

Other factors to consider:

Do you have any other commitments (e.g. other courses, work etc.) at the same time? While it would be nice to try and re-arrange your schedule sometimes things just don’t work out.

Are you sick? If you’re feeling rough mentally or physically, you should consider taking a day off.

Ok, so you’ve decided that you’re better off not attending your lecture but what should you actually do instead? How do you deal with this newfound flexibility and freedom?

Develop a study routine (and stick with it)

The key to skipping class successfully is just doing consistent work. If your lecture is 2 hours long, pencil in a 2-hour study session.

It’s important to maintain a sense of regularity and routine. Treat your study sessions like a compulsory class - do them at the same time each week. It may even help to study at the intended lecture time.

The most common pitfall is to go “Oh it’s easy, I’ll just skip my lecture and do xyz instead”… but never do xyz.

Identify the lecture’s problems and provide solutions

Why exactly did you decide to skip your lecture? How are you going to make your independent study more effective? If you don’t do something more useful with this “free time”, you’re just wasting it. Be specific.

Here are a few examples:

 Problem: Lecturer speaks too slowly. Solution: Watch the lecture recordings at a faster speed.

 Problem: Lecturer just reads off the slides, providing no new content. Solution: Read the slides yourself, making your own notes and saving yourself time.

Problem: The lecture is too theoretical in comparison to the assessment scheme. Solution: Do more practice problems instead of just going over abstract concepts.

Find a study group

Having friends who take the same course can honestly make the experience so much better.

It can also help increase accountability. For instance, you would probably feel more guilty ditching a group vs. solo study session.

However, this can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes my “study sessions” with friends will just dissolve into us looking at memes for hours. Make sure you’re actually going to study!

Banter is great, but remember when to have fun, and when you need to focus and get shit done.

U kno what???? Honestly?? All jokes side about the Duolingo owl, Duolingo is one of the only language education services I know of that doesn’t charge for the full course and I really think we don’t appreciate that enough in a world where knowledge is severely (and increasing) restricted based on income. I just went through the app store and downloaded every language app I can find, and the only two that didn’t charge hefty subscription fees to access all the lessons were duolingo and memrise. Support free education.