hey everyone! if you’re just stumbling upon this post and are new here, i’m going into my 3rd year of undergrad in bio for health sci a.k.a pre-med sorta deal! i did this post last year and u guys loved it, i also think its a great ways for us #studyblrs to share more . this is just an update into what courses i’ll be taking this year, life updates, tips i learnt from last year + more!
PICKING COURSES
my courses:
I’m a health sci bio major with a double minor in chem + business! so here is what my full-time year of studies looks like (5 courses per semester)
physiology of neurons & muscles
human development
structural biochem
metabolism & bioenergetics
neurosci
statistics
lab in cell & molecular bio
molecular bio
fundamentals of marketing
managing projects & business plans
for freshman, your courses are pretty set and you likely won’t have much choice around what you actually want to take, so unless you’re an upper-year, you likely won’t see more interesting course titles like what i have above. not much for an update in this section, i planned most of my courses last year, but the most frustrating thing that happened was 9/10 courses i wanted to take were in my fall semester originally, so i have to do A LOT of rearranging, anywho…..
scheduling:
i’ll link last years post here as i went into pretty deep detail of how i schedule my courses and how you can too!
other tips + updates:
it’s always okay to change your programs!! (ie. major, minor, specialist) don’t let the standard of “a 4-year degree” fool you into thinking you can’t take longer. its always a good idea to look ahead and try to plan, but this age of our lives is when we’re changing the most and really finding who we are and what we want to do with the rest of our lives. it’s definitely not something to rush.
if you have to do summer courses, or retake courses, or take an extra semester, don’t beat yourself up. it happens to 99% of people!
take me for example!! i went into school thinking 100% i wanted to go down the med path, now here i am starting my 3rd year and I’m not so sure. I’m more so looking at doing my masters in physical therapy. you change, life changes, and you find what works BEST for you and the path you want for your life.
ALSO your path doesn’t have to be linear, or the typical; if you want to go to med/law/other post grad school, but your grades or extra curricular didn’t necessarily cut it, that’s okay! maybe you’ll work somewhere for a year or two and go back to school and get in. basically what I’m trying to say is if there is a career path that you love, don’t give up, and don’t think you have to get there the same way as someone else did.
currently, my fall courses are all completely online (minus 1 in-person tutorial) i hope most of you will be in-person, unlike me. but i’ll continue to post both online and in-person study tips as the year progresses.!
LIFE BESIDES SCHOOL
this summer i was lucky enough to work as an online PT, and this will probably continue part time into the school year. besides my other social accounts kinda blowing up, working on Syrse Dawn, I’ve been crazy busy with everything. I’m a little worried about balancing everything come the school szn, but as usual, i always prioritize my school work
we love academic validation haha….no but seriously, i love learning and school, and doing well has always been important to me, so while my work is important, mental health and school come first.
right now some passion projects and summer bucket list things I’ve been working on are finishing a current novel I’m writing (haven’t finished writing one since 2015), reading 1 more book, filling a sketchbook, going for a sunrise swim and honestly just spending as much time with my friends as fam as possible!
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like last year, i’d love to create a chain of studyblrs doing an update like this, sharing their courses for the year, how they organize them, updates + more! so if you get tagged, add to this chain + tag 5 more studyblr accounts!!
the apps that helped me go through all sorts of shit in college
GOOGLE CALENDAR
God bless all the people on the Google Calendar team. User interface is friendly, easy, notifications arrive just when I need them. Without Google Calendar, I would be lost. You can read more about how I use Google Calendar for my studies and overall life here.
EVERNOTE
Evernote’s web clipper has saved my ass many times. I love how advanced the web clipper of Evernote is. I get to save all the links in their respective notebooks. Or if I’m in a hurry, I just use tags. If I didn’t do any of that, Evernote’s search engine is so crazy good, I just have to type some keywords in the search bar and J am guaranteed to find the webpage I save. The web clipper is a just, especially when researching. I just login to Evernote to find my sources and all I have to do is put them in the literature.
SCRIBBR
Talking about literature, Scribbr is also another website that has saved my life. Citing your sources is just so incredibly easy on Scribbr. All I have to do is copy-paste the link and Scribbr will automatically cite your source in APA or MBA. And it is also available in several languages. Saved me from all those last minute details so fast. Honestly, Scribbr should be more hyped among college students. It has seriously added so much value to my academic life.
GOOGLE DRIVE
Le Holy Grail of productivity: cloud storage. I love Google Drive because you get 15GB storage free, which let’s be honest that’s more than enough for most people. Everything goes into Google Drive. Literally everything. From the syllabus, to slides, handouts, class notes, essays. Everything. All categorized by year-semester-subject. I can easily search for whatever I’m looking for in a matter of seconds. And I can scan documents right from the app, allowing me to go paperless. Google Drive has helped me be so organized, I have become the reference point for both students and professor alike when something is needed.
Even though usually I am a very disciplined student, I fucked up big this semester with my learning. And while I usually preach to stop studying the day before, I didn’t have the luxury this time to do so because I HADN’T EVEN OPEN MY BOOK. But somehow I managed to get more than 76% on all of the exams. So here is how I did it.
1. Ask someone for help. In one of my previous posts, I said you have to be generous with your classmates and be willing to help. And this is why. One day, you’ll also need help and if you’re in good terms with everyone, you’ll increase your chances of getting that help. Ask them for tips the teacher might have given if you didn’t go to class, or if they can share their notes with you. Anything that can help you really. This is the fastest way to inform yourself about what might come in an exam. However, DO NOT MAKE THIS A HABIT. Everyone dislikes that one person who leeches off other’s hard work. But once every rare time is okay.
2. Make a summary. Making a summary gives you the highlights of the material in a nutshell, which is exactly what you need in such a moment. You don’t need to read the entire book, cuz you’ll never finish that way. Most books nowadays already have a summary after each chapter. So you can use that as a guideline. However, I would recommend adding examples to these book summaries because they often lack one and having an example can totally make a difference in whether you understand and will remember. Also, if you have exam tips at hand and your teacher is to trust (because there’s always that one teacher who gives you false tips and fucks the entire class over) make a summary out of those tips, not only is this faster, it is likely to also be more precise.
3. Learn what’s likely going to give you the most points first. Most of my exams are a combination of multiple choice questions and cases. Most of the times, the case is about 50-70% of the total points. So if your professor gives you tips for cases, learn those first! Understand every aspect of it and nail it! After all, multiple choice questions are more about understanding what you read and are easier to answer than the open-ended questions in which you have to give an argumentation. So starting off by the subjects who will give you the most points increases the chances of saving your ass.
4. Test it out. THIS will truly give you an accurate view of whether or not you’re actually understanding and remembering what you’re learning. When I finish learning a chapter, I rest for some minutes, then look for a test online and take it. This gives me an overview of the aspects I do remember and which ones not and see if I can give a clear explanation. Always take this test written. Don’t say it out loud, because often when I do it, I have the tendency to half-ass my answers. And when I write it, I also have a documentation of my answer and can always go back and see if I can make some tweaks to it.
5. For the love of god, take a nap. I don’t care if you’re planning to pull an all-nighter and survive on caffeine and Red Bull. Take a proper nap. Of course, you’re likely not to have the luxury of sleeping 8 hours, but a nap is the closest you can get and can totally help your brain strengthen those connections and feel more relaxed and at ease to take the test.
So that is what I did to survive this last fucking stressful but that’s my own fault semester. I really hope it helps you too and I want to know what you guys do when you have to learn for an exam the same day. Let’s all help each other!
