My Final Year Of A-Levels

Private schooled, middle class, dyspraxic and overly stressed.

[emmastudies]

one of my lecturers printed us a step-by-step guide to writing an essay for an assignment we had. i decided to type it up and share it with you guys. i think for the most part it is really useful and a super simple way to break down your essay. hope this helps :~)

[thefeelingmoveson]

7.22 so here I was, minding my own business working on some organic chem aND A CAR DRIVES THROUGH A WINDOW JESUS CHRIST no one was injured but that was..fun

[ohleaf]

🌼🌻study smarter🌻🌼

(here are some study tips straight from my psych notes)

1. interest: the brain prioritizes by meaning, value, and relevance so u remember things better if ur interested

find a study partner

do extra practice or research

teach it to someone else (this works so well!)

2. intent: be actively paying attention. very little learning actually takes place without attention

use a concentration check sheet (every time u get distracted, put a check on ur sheet. this is supposed to program ur mind to pay attention)

while u read, talk back to the author

ask questions during lectures (this is scary ik!! but do it!)

3. basic background: make connections to what u already know

preview and skim the material before u read it. or google it!

write out a list of vocab words before a lecture and leave some spaces between them to fill in during the lecture

read ahead of lectures

watch crashcourse tbh

4. selectivity: start by studying whats important

look for bolded words, graphics, pictures, chapter review questions in ur readings

listen for verbal clues like emphasis and repetition during lectures

make urself a study guide as u read and write down questions for urself to answer later as review (kinda like cornell notes)

5. meaningful organization: u can learn/rmr better if u group ideas into diff categories

apply vocab words to ur life

make flashcards and sort them (try not to have more than seven items in one category!)

use mnemonics

6. recitation: saying ideas aloud in ur own words strengthens synaptic connections! when u say something aloud u r forcing urself to pay attention

after u read, ask urself questions

talk abt what u learned w/ classmates outside of class

again, teach someone else

7. visualization: ur brain’s quickest and longest-lasting response is to images

convert info into a chart or graph

draw it out

make a mental video of a process

look at picture/video examples

8. association: memory is increased when facts are consciously associated w something u already know. memory = making neural connections

ask urself: is this something i already know?

9. consolidation: give ur brain some time to establish a neural pathway

make a list of what u remember from class

review notes at the end of the day, every day

stop after reading each prg to write a question in ur notes

make ur own practice quiz

10. distributed practice: we all know cramming doesnt work but we do it anyway! but yeah short and frequent study sections work better

make a daily/weekly study schedule

create a time budget/time tracker (track everything ur doing for a week and see how u can be more efficient w/ the time u waste)

divide the reading/vocab by the number of days before an exam and do a little bit each day (u can use sticky notes to divide ur reading)

other tips:

stop stressing! this sounds stupid and it isnt going to be easy, but anxiety causes u to lose focus. try ur best to think positively. sleep a lot. minimize ur caffeine intake. take a walk maybe

when u need to remember something, look upward or close ur eyes (when ur eyes are open ur using visual parts of ur brain that u might not need to be using)

find a rival! (like the person right above u in class rank) secretly compete w/ them (envy can improve mental persistence bc it makes u focus more intensely) but dont overdo it! 

walking and sleeping build memory storage in ur brain

eat flavonoids! (grapes, berries, tea leaves, cocoa beans make neurons in the brain more capable of forming new memories + increase blood flow to the brain)

obstacles force ur brain to try harder, so space learning lessons apart or create a puzzle to solve or change ur physical setting

[decaffs]

Being burnt out means you’re probably feeling exhausted, unmotivated, unfocused and just generally “blegh” - an absolute nightmare when you’re trying to stay on track with school and studying. I’ve suffered from academic burn out a lot but it’s now something I know how to cope with, I’ve compiled my best tips and tricks for dealing with a burn out and how to ease yourself back into your studying!

Keep reading

[erinandalevels]

I am stuck

I don’t know what to do. I have so much work to do and I sit down to do it and just can’t, like my brain no longer knows how to. I think it’s because I’m stressed but not being able to do the work is making me more stressed. Any ideas?

[erinandalevels]

Study Playlist October 2018

Small Bump - Ed Sheeran

Batphone - Arctic Monkeys

Figure It Out - Royal Blood

Gone - Lianne La Havas

For The First Time - The Script

The Partisan - Leonard Cohen

Stolen Dance - Milky Chance

Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood

Trouble Town - Jake Bugg

The Greatest - Cat Power

Let It Be - The Beatles

Spirit in The Sky - Norman Greenbaum

Islands in the Stream - Kenny Rogers

Hotel Room - Richard Hawley

If You Really Love Nothing - Interpol

[breaksoutthehighgnote-deactivat]

Teacher: It’s not about your ability, it’s about the time you choose to put in.

Me, a disabled person who has to work overtime to get half the shit done:

[weareteachers]

[erinandalevels]

I love this book (its a lifesaver for economics students) and I love these highlighters (probably because I find the colours aesthetically pleasing.) The book is from ‘Student Guide’ just type in Student Guide Economics into Amazon alongside which exam board you’re taking it under and they come up. Honestly they have saved me, they go through the different topics thoroughly with well-worked examples and are written in a way which should be copied in order to obtain high marks in economics essays.

[reviseordie]

A lot of people have asked me how I make my mindmaps, the only trouble is I have lots of different styles (especially as I take both English and Maths, which are polar opposite), and I couldn’t explain them all in one post because It’d probably end up looking like a murder scene knowing me, so I’ll start with how I make English (and other essay-based subjects) Mindmaps.

In English it’s important that you link quotes thematically for your exam. The main reasons for this is so that you can A) Recall and remember themes/quotes easily and B) So you actually write about things that are relevant to the paper. It works the same way for History, Geography, Psychology, Sociology etc, but obviously with things such as Events, Case Studies, Time Periods, Key dates, Key terms and so on, instead of just Themes and Quotes. Even in English it’s useful to produce historical mindmaps on literary periods, so hopefully in the future I can post something similar to help out History students a little more.

There are three components to my mindmaps;

The Centre - This is where you outline what the whole thing is going to be about. In my case ‘Prose and Themes’. Other examples may be titles focussing on one;

text

theme

technique

period

case study

quote/piece of evidence

concepts

person(s)

The Offshoots - Here, I have divided up the main themes for my course, i.e. ‘Unrequited Love’ or ‘The Geography of Love’. I like to plan these out before I start my mindmap, so that I know how evenly I am going to space them out, and thus know how much space each section needs be by mentally dividing my page. 

I also nearly always start my mindmap in the spot where ‘The Geography of Love’ is placed, and work clockwise around, fitting my text/pictures into all space as I go. This is the best advice I would give in trying to fit in everything you want, as a lot of people will draw out all the arms before they start, and it ends up looking more sparse than you would like. Doing it in this way doesn’t just benefit you in not wasting space, but also makes you finish them, because they look so naff unfinished.

Other things you can put in instead of key themes could be any of the title focusses listed above, it all depends on what you put in your centre, and what you’re choosing to link it to (for example you could have a text in the middle and be linking it to themes, or a theme in the middle and be linking it to texts)

For each one of my offshoots, I like to do a little drawing to help me remember it in the exam and think ‘Ahh, when did I draw that? Oh it was for such and such!’

The Offshoots of the Offshoots - This is the most variable part of the mindmap, and the part that can get most messy, so it’s very helpful to colour code like I’ve done above with my quotes. It’s difficult to explain exactly what to put here, as it is so specific to what you are studying, but you could include some of these things;

quotes/evidence

diagrams

drawings and doodles

themes/concepts/ideas

case studies

key people

graphs/charts (if applicable)

As you can see, I underline within the offshoots, so that I can refine what I need to know down even further, in this case the most important part of the quote to remember in relation to the theme it is linked to.

Within the offshoots, it’s also useful to link between themes to make further connections. I haven’t done that here because I wanted to categorise very definitely and keep it simple, but if you struggle with making links, a simple line between two items can really help you.

I would usually illustrate my mindmap more, most of the time in this way, but because it was very tightly packed, (and it was just quotes) I stuck with a few little drawings.

I hope this helps you guys out! Best of luck with everything! A post on how I do my maths mindmaps with follow soon (she says with hope).

[studyblrlucy]

more tips for a levels/college in general:

- KEEP HEADPHONES ON U AT ALL TIMES AND SPARE ONES IN UR BAG just trust me okay theyre super useful when youre studying in a silent library also a spare charger if u have one for emergencies 

- take pictures of your worksheets and separate them into folders on your phone, that way if u lose them you can refer back to them on your phone! 

- if u have concentration issues, ask ur teacher if its okay to take a audio recording of the lecture/lesson so you can listen at your own pace and make notes when you get home

- use ur lunch for hanging with ur pals and ur frees for working honestly take advantage of the free time u need that extra studying for a levels

- its better to start an essay and hand it in unfinished than to not do it at all honestly

- ask your teachers to email you all the worksheets you did in class and the homework youre set as well as the resources such as powerpoints. keep these in an organised folder on your laptop/computer/tablet/phone

- switch between your subjects so you dont get sick of just revising one all day

- organisation is key!!!! theres no point in taking super pretty notes if u just lose or bin them afterwards. sort them into folders so u can refer back to them when revising :-)

[erinandalevels]

Why I’m Doing This + an introduction to the author

A few months ago I saw sat down by my mother and was told to stop complaining about my A-Levels and make a blog and write about them. She felt that I had got to the point where I had exhausted her sympathy; to be honest I probably had.

You see, I hadn’t really planned on going to university until about six months ago (it currently being early October 2018) and when I suddenly announced to my parents and my school that I wanted to go to Cambridge... lets just say that they were surprised. I can’t blame them, up until that point I was a C/D grade student, attaining two 7’s and 5 C’s at GCSE level. To be honest I don’t really know why I suddenly changed my mind, and I don’t really know how I got my heart set on Cambridge, but I think there’s still a chance for me. I am studying English Literature, Economics and Music and to be honest I currently regret taking two out of the three but it’s too late now.

This blog isn’t purely going to be on A-Levels, unfortunately for whoever reads this it will detail other things like skincare (is that a yawn I hear?) , gluten free diet (anyone who does this voluntarily should leave now) , dyspraxia and a variety of other thrilling subjects. This may be one of the most narcissistic things I have ever done, or it could be viewed as a commentary on what is most likely to be one of the toughest years of my life and prehaps a chance for me to find others who are struggling in the same way. Also I can see that the banner photo is horrifically cringe-worthy, I hate it, but it was the only one I could find of me looking vaguely sober (hahaha... seriously).

- Erin