Use your planner to map out your weeks
Remember to study smarter not harder
Check your emails before each class
If class is cancelled then use the time to study/review for that class
Take a 5 min break after each assignment to avoid distractions
Break up projects into smaller parts to avoid doing it all at the last minute
If you feel burned out or unmotivated then do one assignment or use the 5 min rule
Be present in the moment
Actually make the effort and go to class (biggest goal for me)
Turn off your phone while studying
Write notes on the reading before class and add to notes during class
Study in a place with no distractions
Do your own homework
don’t copy other’s homework answers esp. if you don’t understand the topic
Make practice tests for yourself
Always do the extra credit
Go to the tutoring center if you need help
Talk to your classmates and make study groups
Go to your professor’s office hours for help
Sleep at least 6 hours every day (2nd most important goal to me)
Don’t cram for tests in one night (causes too much stress)
Find someone you can talk to about stress
Find what motivates you
Go hang out with friends or family at least once a week
Take some time to stretch, take a walk, workout, or meditate everyday
Read something for fun everyday
set a timer for five minutes and tidy up. (you’ll go past the timer.)
pack your school/work/lunch bag
pick out which clothes you are wearing tomorrow
prepare any food/drink you can (putting water in coffee maker, etc)
make a to-do list for tomorrow
check if anything on that to-do list can be done now
do one final email check
do one final planner update
relax
you’re gonna have a great week! you got this!
Study things in 15 mins by @kantstudies
Study tips from professors by @daisystudies
Studying for History by @universtudy
Revision methods that work by @tangledstudies
Last minute revision tips by @muststudy
Untraditional study tips by @obliviatestudies
Motivation vs Discipline by @tangledstudies
Motivation and discipline by @niqabisinparis
10 things to tell yourself by @sweetpeas-and-appletrees
a whole bunch of prompts by @studbylr
everything you need by @bujowsofie
my inspo tag
what to do if you fail a class by @jwstudying
dealing with stress in academia by @joyce-grad
dealing with burnout by @eintsein
self care during the school year by @studycation
Studying with mental illness by @tangledstudies
how i destress by @shayshestudies
emotion skills to learn by @surviveschool
cooking as a broke student by @couple-a-hundred-of-em
personal statement do’s and don’ts by @motivastudy
how to answer common interview questions by @adulttalk
things i wish i knew as a freshman by @jwstudying
flashcards w/ cute headings and highlighted info by @planwithmae
pretty notes with lots of colour by @intelliqents
big colourful cards w/ lots of info! by @unistudydiary
study sheet inspo by @studyforwhatmatters
pretty arty mindmap by @the-etranger
mindmap inspo! lot sof inspo and colour-coded by @studysthetics
simple inspo by @studymlk
I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.
Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changes taking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influence on human life.
(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)
But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.
There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:
Novice
Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:
Dash - by General Assembly
CodeAcademy
w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)
Intermediate
Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:
Khan Academy
CodeAcademy - Ruby, Python, PHP
Difficult
If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.
Programming problems
Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems
Talentbuddy
TopCoder
Web Applications
If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.
Django Tutorial
I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.
Rails Guide
If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:
Cake PHP Book
Symfony 2 - Get Started
Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide
Conclusion
If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.
If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.
Best of luck!
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius
It’s never too late to start recovery
picture it now. the life you want to have. the smells, the colors, the people. the smiles and the accomplishments. where you’ll live, where you’ll relax, where you’ll study or meet new people or just discover. allow yourself to dream, and aim high. disappointment is a part of life, and whenever someone succeeded, they allowed themselves to dream, to expect, and then to fail. and then try all over again, until it worked out.
Good Study Habits (8 Tips)
Start
Make some time to study. Write it down in your planner, bullet journal, hand, anywhere. just make sure you tell yourself to do it and then do it! Starting is always the hardest thing to do. But once you start you will likely get into it pretty fast.
2. Make time for breaks
Being able to schedule in time for breaks is important. You don’t have to study yourself into the ground. Give your brain a break but, don’t give yourself too long of a break. Give yourself a maximum of an hour of break. If your break lasts more than an hour, most likely you are never going to go back to studying.
3. Remember to eat
Do not starve yourself but also do not eat too much. Being satisfyingly full is good, it will help you focus and help you feel comfortable. If you overstuff yourself, then you might get sleepy or you will feel too uncomfortable to the point of not being able to focus. Eat some snacks in between chapters, eat a balanced lunch, and make time for dinner. Good snacks would be: nuts, banana, yogurt, dried fruits.
4. When Studying a new topic, make time to go back and review older topics
Remembering new topics are great, but over time your brain will only remember the new information and eventually forget the old information. Being able to go back to old information for a review will ensure that you remember everything you need to remember.
5. Don’t overwhelm yourself with colors
Being organized with your notes is good! But having too many different colored pens or highlighters in your notes can get stressful and confusing. Having to focus on changing pens every paragraph or getting out more highlighters during a lecture will distract you from actually learning even though you are taking notes. Being able to take fast organized notes while also listen to what the professor is saying is a good balance. Stick with one other pen and one highlighter.
-One black pen for standard note taking (general information)
-One red or blue pen (definitions)
-One yellow highlighter. (dates and names)
6. Notes Index
If your notes have pages and pages of topics, I would make a separate page for an index. This way, you will be able to find a certain topic faster. Wasting time on finding something in your notes will not be necessary with an index.
7. Flashcards
You should make new flashcards for every new topic. That way you will have flashcards to refer to in class, and you can study on the go. It will be easier to pull out your flashcards on the bus, waiting for class to start, and while you do homework.
8. Organize notes later
Being able to sit there and listen while taking notes is important. It is more important than having pretty notes or to worry about having very organized notes. Write down what you need to write down and rewrite it later on.
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.
Requested by an anon, how to get over the fear and anxiety of public speaking/presenting. I struggled with this throughout middle school but kicked it to the curb in high school. Here’s how.
1. Know your topic like the back of your hand. A lot of presentation anxiety stems from getting up there and suddenly forgetting everything you practiced. If you know your stuff, you’re not going to have to worry about this.
2. Practice, practice, practice. If you have younger siblings or someone in your family who is willing to sit and listen why you rehearse, even better. They may be able to identify holes in your presentation such as clarification or comprehension issues. You want your audience to know your topic
3. Be organized. If your teacher allows, have flashcards or an outline of what you want to talk about. Now this shouldn’t be your whole presentation word for word in front of you because then you’ll never make eye contact with your audience and your teacher will count off. Trust me. The notecards/outline should be just key points you can glance at to jog your memory on what you want to talk about. So if I’m giving a presentation on Aphrodite my outline would look like this.
Aphrodite
Goddess of love, beauty, and sex
Born of white foam of sea
Venus in Roman culture
Daughter of Zeus
Married Hephaestus
Sexual relations with Ares
Had x number of children
You get my point. Short sentences to jog my memory and I would fill in the details in the presentation
4. Before you present, chew some gum. If your mind thinks you’re eating, it assumes you have no reason to fear danger (anxiety) so it helps you to calm down.
5. Take a big, deep breath before you go up. Seems cliche but it always helps me.
6. Focus on your content, not your audience. I promise most of them aren’t paying attention to you either. Be confident in yourself and in your material.
Wise words from @appsademia on twitter