Today is really busy! Had a lot of housework, and a lot of preparation for my birthday tomorrow. I’m turning 21! I will celebrate it home alone with my chestnut animals and chinese takeaway, haha! I took this picture this weekend, the autumn colours are breathtaking!
Lately I have not been feeling really good mentally, but I try my best to work through it. I had an amazing weekend with my family!Yesterday I had an online class, they really never even reach the quality of normal classes, it’s so demotivating! I hope they continue to have physical classes.
Question of the day: What are you the proudest of out of all the assignments you’ve ever had? Let me tell you something funny, earlier this year I was clearing my apartment to move, so I was going through old school assignments and I came across some from elementary school. I picked up one and read something along the likes of “this paper is extraordinary, the details and research is far above someone your level. I especially think that the details on the menstrual cyclus were fantastic, etc.”. This teacher used to dislike everyone and she praised my menstrual cyclus so much, it was hilarious! I’m indeed very proud of my menstrual cyclus. Thanks for the top grade （ ´∀｀）/
I have seen so many people this week, so busy! I finally did some homework - big mistake waiting so long（ ´∀｀）and look, I bought dry flowers for my decorating!
Question of the day: Are you a part of any clubs? I’m a part of a think tank on China that also plans the weekly China Cafés at my school. Sadly, there hasn’t been any this semester, due to obvious reasons. I do hope we can continue them next year, it’s really great practicing Chinese with natives, while hanging out with coffee/tea ☕️
I haven’t posted in a while! It’s autumn vacation, so I’m playing a lot of League of Legends, and forgetting to study ah! Today I worked on my presentation for monday, it’s about Chinese food. What is your favourite Chinese dish? Mine’s either any kinds of noodle dish or 鱼香肉丝, both bring me so many happy memories!
Question of the day: Career goals? While I’m not for certain what I specifically want to work with, I do want to work with cultural exchange and communication, preferably between my own country and China. However, I do see myself taking business related classes, as that’s just the most convenient way to get jobs related to the country with one of the strongest economies, unfortunately.
Today I realized I made the wrong homework for this week, so I had to do much more work than normal. Luckily I like to do homework, so it’s not a big problem.
Question of the day: Do you have pre-test rituals and what are they? A good meal and coffee, hehe
Today I read some articles about some history/culture related topics because I’ll be taking a class like that next semester. These are week 40’s notes, I’m particularly proud of my very bad doodle of a 四合院 （ ´∀｀）
Question of the day: Are you a doodler? I used to not be one, but I would describe myself as a doodler now! It makes my notebook more fun to open and look at, so why not? Even though my doodles are not very nice, haha;;
中秋节快乐！Today we reunite with our family, eat moon cake, look upon the moon and wish for a long life.
Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节 I hope everyone who celebrates are able to celebrate with their families
At 中秋节 Chinese people eat moon cakes 月饼, which traditionally are round 圆 like the moon, a symbol of reunion 团圆 and never seperating 分开. It resembles always being together with your family
It is almost 中秋节, Mid-Autumn Festival This year it is celebrated on the 1st of October 2020, which is also, 十一 , the PRC National Day of China. During this festival, Chinese get together with their families and eat moon cakes and look upon the moon.
I promised you that I would share some poems with you. This is a poem about missing the family reunion of the festival. It describes how beautiful it is, in a quiet yet sad way. The sadness and longing is very prominent. I cannot celebrate the festival with my family this year either, so I feel deeply connected to this poem. I hope everyone who celebrates can be with their 家人 family (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡
we’ve all been in this situation for different reasons, anxiety, procrastination, work, way too many assignments in a week. but fear not my friends, hopefully, this masterpost will help you get A’s and organize your study schedule.
also please only do this every time you need to study for a test, cramming is not good for learning and pulling all-nighters frequently isn’t healthy.
these are small things you can add to your day to be 10% more productive with the estimated time it’ll take! these are things i do (or try to do) most days. they’re small enough to feel manageable, and i for sure don’t use all of them but i find that when i use at least 2-3 in a day i feel a lot better about the material.
retype notes in google docs (10-15 min/1 hour lecture)
Utilize pomodoro technique for at least one subject (25 min work/5 min break. total 30 min)
Look over notes before class (5 min)
Look over notes after class (5 min)
Make notecard summary after class (i find this one especially useful for calculus!) (10 min/notecard)
Explain short concept to a friend (10 min max)
write down to-do list of tasks (5 min)
Go over concepts in your head on your walk to class (absolute FAVORITE because of my daily calculus quizzes within the first 10 minutes of class) (as long as your walk is!)
i hope these are helpful, i need to learn more small tips myself too
Research suggests that being an early bird or a night owl is actually down to genetics (an interesting article to learn more about that here). Whilst many are getting their beauty sleep, you, brave night owl, are burning the midnight oil by choice! (One study has even shown that night owls are more intelligent than early risers.)
There are benefits of studying in the evening/at night: you are less likely to be distracted by phone calls/texts/emails/active social media, you are more likely to feel calm and relaxed because the bulk of the day is behind you, and most people experience a spike in creativity at night- meaning out of the box solutions or deciphering problems by approaching them in a different way. These tips are for you, my nocturnal friends, to get the most out of your time!
Improve your lighting
It’s natural to want to work in dimmer lighting come night-time, but working from the glow of your computer screen might not be the best for you (plus this can cause unnecessary eye strain), so switch some bright main lights on and see if that changes your energy
Alternatively, you might continue to work with bright lighting but may find that you work better with softer lighting. Play around with a desk lamp/fairy lights/dimmable lights if you have them, to create the ambience that makes you the most productive
Commit to your study environment
Just because it’s night-time doesn’t mean it’s bed time - create and use the workspace you’ve set up (at a desk or table) and avoid crawling into bed with a textbook
Hit the library
If your institution has a twenty four hour library, this is the perfect time to get the best seat in the house to study in. With the exception of the weeks leading up to the exam period, libraries will usually be very quiet!
Switch your phone off
Unless you need it to set break timers, switching off your phone is BLISS because not many exciting things will be happening when it’s late. Allow yourself the freedom to study without wondering who could be texting you/who just posted another beige facebook update
Keep to a sleep schedule
Just because you stay up later than some doesn’t mean you still can’t have a schedule and wake up early - in fact, it’s been suggested that night owls are actually better at waking up than the early birds! It’s a good idea to have a cut-off point for studying. There may be times when a creative streak or an academic rush propels you through the early hours of the morning and you find yourself still working when the birdsong breaks, and that’s okay. Allow all nighters to happen sometimes, because that’s when the best work can happen! But ensure you do still get enough sleep and keep a loose routine
Music: destructive or productive?
During the day, I am most productive when listening to music (I make study playlists that you can find under my playlists tag!) After about 10pm, I find that music becomes a nuisance and instead prefer working in silence. Rules can change at night. Find out whether this is the same (or the opposite) for you
Stay hydrated
Don’t forget to have a big glass or bottle of water with you (if you’re bad at remembering to drink enough water, there are lots of cute apps to remind you such as Daily Water for iPhone/iPad or Drink! for Chrome)
Allow yourself time off
Don’talways feel the need to study if you don’t want to- use the still of the night to work on that novel you’ve been writing, read a book for pleasure, paint, etc.
Here I am after more than a month of vacation. I have thought a lot about the past academic year during this summer. It was a tough one, and it challenged me a lot.
In the university that I attend, exams are very close and, to do all of them in time, you must study for two or three exams simultaneously. It requires the ability to prioritize, to dedicate the right amount of time to every subject.
Prioritizing was not immediate to me, and I had to train myself. Here are a few tips that I use when planning the study of multiple subjects at the same time:
1. Split the day:
This technique is good if you are preparing exams of different importance and complexity. Identify the moment of the day in which you are more productive, and dedicate that time to the most complex subject. Then, give time to the second most productive moment for a less complicated exam. If you have a third subject, split the day into three parts, and so on.
For instance, I am more productive in the morning, a bit more distracted in the afternoon, and way less active in the evening, so I base my plans on this scale.
To know the time of the day in which you are more productive, I advise the chronotype test. We all are classifiable as four animals, with different features and routine inclination. For example, I am a dolphin, so I am more productive late in the morning, after some workout and a cold shower. To find your chronotype, do the test here: https://www.doctoroz.com/quizzes/whats-your-chronotype. After having done the quiz, you will periodically receive emails deepening your chronotype.
Also, splitting the day makes studying less boring. I tend to fall asleep if I spend long hours on the same topic while switching from a subject to another waken me up. I would not be able to study for eight hours for the same exam, while I can study four hours for one exam, three for another and one for a third one. By the way, this point is very individual: if you do not fit into this type of planning, look at point 2.
2. Make weekly plans:
This is good whether you are studying for exams of the same importance, or if you prefer to dedicate all day to the same subject.
Dedicate every day of the week to a different exam. You can choose to assign more days for one exam rather than another, based on their complexity.
I use this technique a lot during classes when I do not have all day to study. When I still have to get familiar with the subject, I prefer to give it all day, without any time limit.
3. Match topics:
Generally speaking, the semester’s exams have criteria. You are likely to have similar subjects, or at least with some points in common. Identify the repetitions and the joint topics, and study them together. It will make you save time and have a complete view of that specific argument.
This is all! Let me know if you have some more suggestions that you would like to share. Good luck to all of you with your exams
Here I am talking about my study method for the last exam of my second year of med school.
Pharmacology was the most demanding exam I have faced so far, but I found it interesting as well.
I needed all the study techniques I had learned so far in med school to cope with this subject, and I am satisfied with the result.
There is a lot to learn, many formulas to understand and many names to memorise, but it is one step closer to getting into the thick of medicine.
Here is how I dealt with this exam. We can summarise my study method into three parts:
1-Organisation (during lessons):
during the first part, I went to classes and took notes. I later quitted the lectures to focus on individual studying, but I needed to go to lessons at least for the first month. Indeed, I felt the need to see what the professor focused, and what was irrelevant instead.
Also, lectures were helpful to learn the basic concepts of pharmacology. I understood what pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics or pharmacoeconomic are about and their fundamentals.
After having gone to classes, I reorganised the material. I did not use the book that much. Indeed, pharmacology is a subject that continuously changes, so every text is old. I consulted the book only for the pharmacokinetics part when I could not understand some formula or definition.
In this phase, it was fundamental to make a scheme. I got a copybook, and I enumerated the pages.
Helping myself with the syllabus, I identified the macrotopics. I used the first sheets for creating an index.
For every argument, I made an accurate scheme using different colours. I utilised all the tools that I knew to make it the more effective possible: I used charts,lists,tables, etc.
I also left some space for the mnemonics (I will deal with this point later in this post).
2-Comprehension
I had to abandon pharmacology for a while to focus on the other exams. When I went back to pharmacology, I restarted to read all my notes.
With a pen, I underlined the most important sentences, and I circledkeywords.
I dedicated this phase of my study to put all the pieces together. I comprehended how drugs act, what the reason for their side effects is, etc.
3-Memorisation
In the last part of my study, I used all the mnemonics I know to learn the names of drugs.
Usually, this is not the most demanding phase of my study. Quite the opposite, it required me much time to memorise all the information.
I created shortstoriesandacronyms to help my memorisation. I wrote these with a pencil in the spaces I had left during the schematization.
Recalling the arguments was vital. I did it alone and with the usual study buddy.
One of the more critical matters, in my opinion, is to select the relevant data. The programme is immense, and it is impossible to know everything, so a choice is needed. Making this selection with a friend makes it more manageable.
As usual, I did not study the day before the exam. If it is correct in general, this time, it was even more vital.
As I said, the syllabus is enormous, so you can not revise everything the day before. You may select the topics you struggle the most with, but having a look at them will only increase your insecurities, which might affect your performance during the exam.
After a long period of studying, relax and mentally prepare for the exam.
And this is all! I hope someone will find this helpful or at least interesting. Good luck to all of you with your exams
Here I am with another post about one of the more demanding but fascinating exams in med school.
I am a physiology lover over anatomy, and it was a pleasure to study this subject, even though I admit it was tough.
When I first had a look at the syllabus, it seemed to me it was immense. In my University, it is a single exam, with the possibility of splitting it into two partial interims during the same exam session.
Since the coursework was enormous, I decided to break it into pieces, worrying about one part at a time. Every section was a macro topic, such as neurophysiology, physiology of the cardiovascular system, etc.
Here is what I did for every piece:
1.Attend classes: I think this is an unskippable point for the physiology exam. It is a subject that you must understand more than memorizing. Go to class, ask questions, take precise notes, and you will have done nearly half of the work.
2. Deepen: I used the book to add extra information to my notes, to have a complete view of the topic. Physiology is an enormous subject, so the professor does not have time to deal with all the material. Having a general idea of the omitted parts will be helpful to understand the subject better.
3. Schematize: at the end of every section, I made a minimal scheme. It was a sort of index of the topics, with titles and subtitles, to have a precise outline in my mind. I used different colours for every section to visually remember it.
After having gone through all the material, I picked up the pieces. With a general idea of the subject in mind, I read all my notes again. While reading, I hooped the keywords with a pen.
For every part, I wrote on a copybook the essential information, using colour coding. For example, for the cell physiology, which was purple, I wrote all the necessary formulas. For the neurophysiology, which was pink, I schematized the principal sensory pathways. For the endocrine system, I draw a chart of the main hormones and their characteristics.
Then I started recalling everything to understand whether I could build a speech on all the topics. I did this alone, speaking out loud but also with my usual study buddy.
Also, since it was a written test, I practised using the past rounds’ exams.
And that’s it! Hope this can be useful to someone, and good luck if you are preparing for this exam
I find what Simon Biles did at the Olympics really inspiring. How often do we forget to take care of our mental health and do we keep pushing ourselves?
I am so glad to announce that I just finished the second year of med school! I am sorry for having not being active on Tumblr during the last months, but now I am here to share my study methods for the exams of this session, beginning with neuroanatomy.
Neuroanatomy was, for me, the better part of the anatomy exam. It may seem chaotic when you start studying it, but I find so fascinating the way we are precisely organised and the abilities our brain allow us to have.
Since neuroanatomy might be hard to understand at first-lecture, I advise a layeredstrategy to approach this exam.
Also, I strongly suggest using an atlas to memorise the structure of the nervous system. I found Netter’s Atlas of Neuroscience very complete and understandable, and it is cheap too (I paid less than 20 euros).
Here are the steps of my preparation for this exam:
1) Reading all the material
When I first faced this subject, it seemed to me that I could not understand anything. Everything was so confused, with unclear terminology and references to structures that I did not know.
That is why I preferred to have a general look at all the material, without focusing on understanding in depth what I was reading, but trying to catch as much information as I could to have a basic knowledge of neurosciences.
During this phase, I attended classes, read my notes and read the book. After that, I drew a minimal mind map with main topics to start building a scheme in my mind.
2) Active comprehension and schematisation
After having gone through all the material, I quitted the classes and favoured studying on my own. I guess this is a personal decision: generally speaking, I find it vital to go to classes, but in this case, I felt I was losing my time. I realised I needed much more time than a two-hour lesson to comprehend a topic, so I could not focus, ending up distracting and wasting my time.
I started reading all the material again, trying to grasp the point.
I also began to schematise the topics. I selected the most helpful images of the atlas, and I copied them on my notebook, adding a description.
It may seem time-consuming, but it was easier to memorise anatomical structures after having drawn them.
I also compared my notes with the professor’s slides to have a more schematic view.
3) Memorisation and recalling with a friend
I based the last part of my studying on trying to remember all the information.
I used mnemotechnics for the most mnemonic parts, such as the peripheric nervous system. By the way, I think neuroanatomy is not one of the more mnemonic exams in med school.
The technique that helped me the most to fix the information was recalling them with a friend. I am not a fan of studying with someone when I still have to comprehend the topic, but I find it vital some weeks before the exam. Having a study buddy allows you to see the subject from a different point of view and to understand whether you missed relevant information.
Also, I recalled all the topics out loud on my own. It helped me test myself and perceiving if I was able to build a speech on that point.
And that’s how I prepared for one of my favourite exams in med school so far. Let me know whether you agree with this method or you would have changed something.
