✎ 11.22.2021 // today I got my license application notarized and ready to mail off! next, I’ll wait for approval so I can set my exam date—woohoo!! I also spent some time studying at my favorite coffee shop while enjoying a blackberry spritzer. it’s been a great monday!
✎ 11.20.2021 // today i took several practice tests for my licensure exam to see what areas i’m lacking in—i really need to buckle down and start seriously studying for this bad boy. i’m nervous to fail but i know that more review will only make me feel more confident in myself!
It has almost been an entire month of lockdown - and we’ve just learnt that lockdown has been extended by another month. I have been working from home, freelancing, reading lots, eating lots, walking lots, playing Zelda lots, and spending way too much time on my phone. The days are beginning to blur together into one big indefinite amount of house-bound time.
I have received some really exciting work news during lockdown, so I’ve spent the last week getting organised! I cleared out the family office to make space for my very own workstation (which I am so excited about - I cannot wait to put together a proper desk setup). I’ve also fallen into the Notion / online planner bandwagon. I’ve created way too many calendars and to-do lists and project trackers. I am obsessed.
Somehow, on this blog, I’ve gotten it into my head to write reviews and suggestions on witchcraft books, but I don’t think I’ve ever explained my method or criteria when I read a book. I am hesitant to label this as a “how to”, as everyone reader will be looking at their own criteria, but consider this an example on what to look for when analyzing a book for use in your own practice.
There are good witchcraft books, abysmal witchcraft books, and everything in between. Whether or not a witchcraft book may actually help you is not the same as deciding if a book is a book is “good” or “bad”; it depends on why you’re reading, and what you’re reading it for.
something is better than nothing. 5 minutes of work are better than zero. Just because you missed something on your schedule doesn’t mean you can’t still work on it, even for 5 minutes. Grow and build on this.
second drafts / reviews can be done after.
Don’t think you are going to do your very best work on the first try. Take the weight of perfectionism off your shoulders.
don’t think about doing it. justdo it as fast as you can.
build on your productivity, not your failures.
If you come from a past of procrastinating and now feel motivated to change and discipline yourself, do NOT try to do everything at once.
if you have a set of different goals to accomplish, begin with the most important one. Wait until the rotine of working for that one settles in (you feel productive and comfortable-ish), and then begin with the next. Repeat.
this way you’ll be building your way up and not juggling everything at the same time, hoping everything works out.
be patient with yourself, you’ll get there!
set smaller deadlines for your goals
have monthly and weekly-ish deadlines
e.g. if you are doing a project, due 22nd Feb, set personal deadlines, like have Introduction written by 2nd Feb, have Methods written by 10th Feb, have project complete by 18th Feb.
take them as seriously as you possibly can, don’t miss out on yourself.
write realistic daily tasks and don’t stop until you finish them. after them you can do whatever you want
on writing realistic daily tasks, the secret is knowing you can only do so much in one day, but trusting you can accomplish everything in the course of any period of time (a week, or 2 weeks or a month, etc.) because you will combine the work from all these different days.
it’s very tempting to write down all the tasks you need to accomplish in one day to just get over with it, but the real deal is you won’t accomplish half of them. You’ll feel very unproductive then, wich leads to demotivation.
spread daily tasks in the time necessary.
have a consistent sleep schedule.
if your mind isn’t ready everything will fall apart.
have one rest day per week where you plan nothing, do whatever you want except studying. this can be harder than you expect!
(don’t forget these are effective only if you actually put them into practice! good luck babes!!)
Hello everyone! Today I’m moving a little bit away from languages to discuss studying in general. Particularly, note taking! When reading hefty textbooks or research papers, it can be hard to determine which information you really need and which information you can just read and move on from. Today I want to share some tips from my university and grad school days that make slogging through hundreds of pages of material a less daunting task.
Start from the end
One of the nice things about research papers and textbooks and the like is that they typically sum up all of the important parts of the paper/chapter at the end. If you read that summary first, you will have a good road map of what to look for when you read the whole chapter. If the conclusion contains any words that look like they might be key words, or if there are any terms that you are not yet familiar with, take note of those and make sure you seek them out in your read-through.
Again, the chapter conclusion is your guide to the main concepts. After you finish every main heading of the chapter, quickly reference the conclusion to see if you found any of those key points!
Read the section headings!
Section headings are so easy to gloss over, but they’re actually great because they tell you very generally what you should understand by the end of reading that section. For example, if I’m reading a subheading titled “The fuzzy boundaries of named languages”, then I expect to come out of that section with an understanding of why those boundaries are fuzzy and what exactly that means. Furthermore, considering that it’s a subheading in a chapter titled “What is a Language?”, I should be able to not only understand what “fuzzy boundaries” means but also what it means in the context of understanding what a language is.
Sometimes it might help to think of every heading and subheading as a question! For the “fuzzy boundaries” example above, I could ask myself “What are the fuzzy boundaries of named languages?” or “Why are the boundaries of named languages fuzzy?”. If you find that you’ve read a section and it doesn’t seem to answer any kind of question, you’ve probably missed the point and need to read a bit more carefully.
Find the answers to heading questions
Having read the heading or subheading of the section you’re about to tackle, you know what you can expect to have learned by the end of that section. Keep that goal and any heading questions you made in mind. Your job is now to find the answers to those questions. How detailed you get when note taking here is up to you, but the idea is that everything you highlight, underline, or write down in your notebook should directly contribute to answering the heading question(s).
Taking note of things like specific examples is, in my opinion, not really necessary if you understand the overarching concept and do not need to cite specific examples. Of course, if you are synthesizing material for your own research paper, taking note of some of the specific examples can be great evidence for your argument. Just make sure that those examples contribute to your understanding of the section, AND make sure that you are not misrepresenting the example when you use it in your own paper.
That said…
Take notes!
Taking notes (actually writing out notes instead of highlighting only) as you read is really important. It makes you have to stop and actually think about what is important. Also, it gives you a chance to synthesize information on the spot. If you are reading a section and suddenly make a connection between that material and another section, write it down! You will be able to remember things better later, plus if you have some notes written, you can skim those for review instead of rereading the whole chapter again at a later time.
Finally, if you have time…
Do any practice problems/thinking activities in the book
It’s so, SO easy to look at textbook activities, especially ones that want you to think about the new concepts, and say, “Yeah, yeah, I got it.” But if you have time, you really should give those exercises a fair try. They will let you know which concepts you really do understand and which ones you need to go back and read about again.
5/03/2021 I took a break from social media after such a busy month I had to reduce my phone usage, hence the disappearance! I’m currently making maps for my Urban Design: Place Making module and its kind of lonely work, so I’ve made some new spotify playlists to get through it. Hope everyone had a nice February - the lockdown was getting quite hard for me! x Emily
09/02/2021 The snow is so peaceful so I’ve moved all of my desk bits to face the window. I had a crazy busy day yesterday but hopefully that makes today easier. I’m missing my boyfriend a lot today, we had the best snow days when we weren’t long distance. X Emily
7/02/2021 I’ve been working on my notion databases to keep track of my grades all morning while it snows! I only have a few marks back at the moment and I’m currently averaging about 77(?) so that’s good but I feel so much pressure to keep it up. I’ve been getting to grips with notion and I’m really liking it for some things; you can see all of my databases to the left. Let me know if you’ve used notion and what you thought, I’ve not used javascript before! xx Emily
How do people feel about purchasing study materials online such as study notes? A company has reached out to me asking if I would take part in a short video about what being a studyblr is like. It seems fun, but I’m not sure about the company.
Please put your comments in a reblog so I can see them all together!
Tagging some mutuals of mine and some studyblrs who have spoken with me before in case they have thoughts (hi guys) but please anyone let me know if you have an opinion x
26.5.19 I did my first exam! I didn’t say straight away because I was feeling a bit funny about it, but now I’m revising for my second and last ever exam of uni! Also who knows groovy chick?? My mum got me these amazing groovy chick socks. X Emily
It’s so important to keep study notes that might be useful in the future! Reblogging this because the notes I was making here, are the same notes I’m using for my current postgraduate essay.
Don’t forget to label your stuff when packing with a specific color code. You can use different tapes for packing different materials like you can use red tape for packing clothes; prefer green tape for packing shoes, and take black tape for packing stationary and books. This will help you stay organized while unpacking and minimize your cleaning effort.
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