What I go to school for

20/UK First year Maths Student. Icon by Sydney Padua

[the-unabridged-journals]

something about those “be productive during the summer” studyblr posts really bugs me. kids shouldn’t be wired to spend their only, carefree time being productive. As a grown-up studyblr I am 100% giving you permission to sleep late, be lazy, hang out with your friends, go out and eat ice cream and have fun. play video games and watch too many youtube videos. It’s fine to do nothing!

Be a kid. Enjoy it while it lasts. Make the most of this time because you’re never going to have anything like it again!

Seriously when you’re an adult you have to take time off from work if you want to do anything remotely fun (aside from the weekends) so please laze around all summer if that is what you want to do. It’s better for your social life and for your mental health. You do not have to have a productive summer

[partial-to-fractions]

I’ve found that it for me it’s best to have a mix of productive and non-productive stuff for my summer. For example my summer to-dos looks like this:

-Sort out student finance

-Buy new pens

- Start going through Principles and Practice Using C++

-Check for any exam re-dos

-Donate books

-Watch A Very English Scandal

-Watch R Kelly Documentary

-Watch Fahrenheit 9/11

-Sew a summer dress

-Clean Car

-Learn about fabric

-Watch Strike

-Read the Making of Modern Britain

As you can see there are some boring stuff that I’ve been putting off as I’ve been focusing on exams. There are some fun stuff that I’ve felt a bit too guilty to do because of exams, and by setting them as summer to-dos I’m less likely to feel ‘guilty’ over doing them rather than focusing on my more productive to-dos. There’s also some productive to-dos, mainly learning C++, that will help me out in my future. I find that having goals, and just having something to do with my hands, or having an excuse to leave the house is what keeps my mental health in check, so I’m glad to have found a balance that wont feel stressful.

[the-mad-duchess]

Don’t just accept the new Terms of Service

Tumblr’s at it again, thanks to the new European Privacy Laws. There’s probably nobody who will read this, but it pissed me off so much that I decided to make a post about it. (Ignore the weird language mish-mash, depending on your country the language might differ.)

OK, so many of us get this screen when we try to access our dash:

Realise how the ‘OK’ button is a nice, attention-grabbing blue? If you’re like me, you’re not exactly into reading a 100 pages document and tend to just click it.

My tip? DONT. Instead click on ‘Manage Options’ right next to it:

Now you’ll see this page:

Still pretty harmless, right? That ‘Accept’ button is looking really attractive right now. Instead, click on Verwalten (Probably something like ‘Manage Options’ or something in english) and you’ll get to this page:

Now that’s not too bad, right? I just switched all the buttons to ‘off’, because I’m jealously guarding my personal information and don’t want Tumblr to go off and do who knows what with it. Looks like we’re done! But wait: There’s a SHOW option.

When we click on that one, what we will get is this:

A HUGE list with OVER 300 ENTRIES of companies that can use your data by default if you’d just clicked ‘OK’ on that very first page. Coincidence that this list is hidden that much? Me thinks not. They’re all switched on by default, but I am still a petty bitch that doesn’t want to give out her data, so I switched them all off. All 300+ of them. There is no option to switch them all off at once, and even if you disable all the options above, the companies are still switched on.

(If you wonder how i got that number, I copied the list into excel and looked at the cell number. No way am I actually counting all those entries)

[expatgirl]

I too, am a petty bitch who unticked every single one.

[trolljima]

On mobile you can switch every one of these off apart from the last one, which is covered up by the ‘done’ button. Funny how it’s the company that owns Tumblr.

Oh, and if you go back to check they all switch back on at the moment.

[drifts-thighs]

Okay, so two things. If you already agreed to sharing data with these companies, YOU CAN STILL DISABLE IT.

Simply go to the settings, Privacy tab and check the ‘Cookie Consent’ option. (You can un-check ‘Improved search while you’re at it because fuck tumblr).

Clicking this will automatically redirect you to the page shown in the posts above.

DIRTY HACK TIME

If you’re on your desktop, you can disable sharing data with all of these companies using a little script (because who has the patience to click over 300 checkboxes, not me lol)

To do this click the manage options button, then this button to display all the companies, and then click both ‘show’ buttons so all switches are displayed.

Right-click somewhere ON THE PAGE (preferably a blank space) and pick ‘Inspect/Inspect element` from the context menu. Now, a sidebar should appear somewhere. It should have a tab called ‘console’.

Copy this text:

var inputs = document.getElementsByTagName(“input”); for(var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++) {    if(inputs[i].type == “checkbox”) {        inputs[i].checked = false;    }   }

And paste it in the console input, and click enter. ALL switches should be disabled. Double-check before confirming.

How it should look in Mozilla Firefox

How it should look in Google Chrome

[going-history]

> Oh, and if you go back to check they all switch back on at the moment.

So does this mean that if I disabled all of them, and then clicked OK when returned to the first page (otherwise it does not let me go back to dash), it should be fine but if I return to the list to check it automatically switches them back? Oo;;

[rinoa-lionheart]

Signal boosting, gonna get on my pc and make sure it’s all fixed later today

[partial-to-fractions]

Where I’ve been and why I’m back

A few weeks after my last post here, I had a bit of a mental breakdown. It started off with me sitting in my room crying because I had no distractions from the thoughts in my head, and ended with me sitting in my GP’s office being diagnosed with depression. Suffice to say my studies suffered and, whilst I didn’t fail my first year, I am redoing it with a slightly different goal in mind.

I don’t know what to say, but I do want to be open on here about my depression. After talking it through with my counsellor I’ve realised that I don’t want to be at University. I hated my first year, and I found it difficult to make friends and this contributed greatly to my depression. I was very lonely, and I still am. Unfortunately, I cannot financially leave University. I’m stuck there, but I don’t want to be lonely anymore. That’s why I have come back here.

This is just a quick post and even so it took me a long time to write out. Hopefully in the future I’ll write a more in-depth post about it. I’d like to do that as I’m really proud of the journey I’ve made so far and I would like for it to be documented.

  Thanks 😊

[partial-to-fractions]

I've got 6 hours to write up a report of which I've only got one line written so far. And I'm doing it on LaTeX

[optomstudies]

#optomstudies here with a post about university studying! I’ve been reading many study tips masterposts in the community, but some of these won’t work that well for university. So here are 3 tips for adapting to uni study!

Loose leaf? Notebook? Neither! (but if you must choose between the two, I recommend hole-punched loose leaf - easy to file :D) There is just no time, especially once you get to your higher years, that you will be able to write paper notes especially considering the level of detail that you are required to learn things to get good marks. 

When I was studying therapeutics, lectures were more like an essay crammed into 60-80 ppt slides! Using 10pt Calibri, 1.15 spacing, custom 1cm margins - I still had 12 pages for a 2 hour lecture (see below)

Two lectures / week, for 12 weeks! Although this was the most-content heavy subject, my other courses were still way too time consuming to write notes for. Sadly, you can’t summarise much, because MCQs pick at details.  

As for laptops, cheap netbooks are only ~$300, but I’d recommend these really great student laptops. 

And yet, you have to wonder why #studyblr doesn’t have more digital notes? Isn’t every studyblr the owner of a computer as a tumblr user? I’m trying to encourage everyone to feel more confident about posting their digital notes as part of the “#studyblrs get real” tag (see here), so if you have some great typed study notes, please tag me with #optomstudies and I’ll be happy to reblog you!

Read through your lecture slides so that you have a basic grasp of the topic before classes. If you have any readings assigned, do them too. This means that you’ll

go in knowing what concepts you need clarified

revise one more time (remember the forgetting curve?)

be much better placed to answer questions and participate in class discussions (get those participation marks!! ;))

find it easier to follow along with much more complicated topics than you’ve experienced in high school!

remember a lot more of the topic when you come back to revise later on!

Yes, I know, studyblr blasphemy right? But this is what you do when strapped for time. Particularly with biological/chemical sciences, lecturers will have basically summarised what you need to know on the slides. 

Before your lectures, read through the slides (should take about 30 minutes for a 2 hour lecture) and mark/circle anything you don’t understand - then when you get to the lecture, jot down a clarification in your own words based on the professor’s explanation. Eventually, you’ll find that you have studied the topic well enough to not need your own footnotes. 

It takes a little experience to know which professors have slides you can study off (tip: it’s usually the ones where you don’t have to write down much) but it’s totally worth the time you save!

Hope this has been an informative post about the differences between university and high school studying! Please follow me for weekly study tips, study pics and now kpop vocab lists!

MY WEEKLY STUDY TIPS

WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN BEFORE UNIVERSITY STUDY TIPS SERIES

0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 Saving Money 1 10 Saving Money 2 11 Adapting to Uni Study 16.02.17 new!!

12 How to Study From Textbooks in Uni coming 27.02.17!

SEE ALSO My Tips This Past Month - It’s too long to list everything, see all original posts here and my study tips directory (web)

Time Management and Organisation

Overcoming the Planning Fallacy coming 19.02.17!

Study Spaces Masterpost

Great Laptop Options for Students  new!!

Printables: Weekly Planner with Extra Space for Sat/Sun 

Self-Care/Health/Other: Dealing with Bad Teachers , Bujo Maintenance , Can’t Concentrate?

Subject Specific Tips: HSC English, Biology

My langblr vocab lists new!!: 봄날 - BTS + more!

 + my cute stationery + my spreads!

[partial-to-fractions]

I’ve had a very disruptive couple of weeks and as a result I haven’t done my usual planning which means that I forgot to hand in a Blackboard quiz yesterday. I need to sort my shit out, and sort my head out. 

[partial-to-fractions]

Hey guys!

For those of you who work out of a morning and then go straight to Uni, what gym bag do you use? Do you carry your school stuff separately?

[hurricane-euler]

I hate it when people use “good at math” as a descriptor in the same way they would use “brunette.”

I am not just good at math. What I am is willing to work my ass off, dedicating hours to understanding these concepts, and not stopping until I do.

Being a “math person” is a status attained through force of will, not, for the most part, from inherent ability.

[partial-to-fractions]

me:Oh god, there's so much to do and I barely have enough time to do it!!

me:(naps)

me four hours later: OH GOD!!!!

me:(naps)

[partial-to-fractions]

Scrolling through a website and knowing you can’t afford anything on it feels really shit when that website is Sports Direct. 

[irlstudying]

#studyblrs get real

If you weren’t up at 3AM last night like some of us (which is good because you shouldn’t be!!!) please look at this post that @universi-tea made since that is where this blog idea and the actual hashtag came from!

Every Studyblr photo has a back story. There is something in the photo that you don’t know about. Whether the person re-wrote those notes four times, ripped out multiple pages of their bullet journal because the header wasn’t perfect, or took over one hundred photos to get a clear & sharp one, the photo was not “perfect” automatically. Lots of time, effort, and photo editing comes into posting almost every single Studyblr photo. Is this why we continue to dread on ourselves when our studying isn’t the same as the photos we see?

Similarly, motivation and preference differ for everyone. Some people enjoy using a bullet journal, some people love mildliners, and some people are in love with Muji stationery. However, some people don’t, and as a community we must respect each others’ motivations and preferences. As it is alright to love the classic Studyblr stationery, it is also alright to not.  You can enjoy reblogging Studyblr aesthetic photos, and you can also choose not to. And, you can also enjoy editing your photos, but you can also prefer not to.

We’ve all used the Studyblr hashtags. #studyblr, #studyspo, #studyspiration. But some end up in disappointment when no one clicks like, reblogs their photo, or when someone even sends hate on anonymous. Is there a hashtag we can use to avoid anonymous hate, to see people actually reblog our photos, and to see an increase in likes as well as meet people who are similar to us?

@universi-tea and @piratestudy have created the hashtag “#studyblrs get real” where “you guys (can) post the real side of studying. post the stories about how you overslept and were late for class. post the pictures of your notes before you redo them. post the no-makeup, two am selfies. post your real life, because it’s happening and it may not be perfect but it’s valid and beautiful and the world needs to see it”(this post).

The hashtag is supposed to bring a positive change “(in) the culture from one where people have to ask if they can still be a studyblr if they don’t have certain supples, to one where people can scroll through their dash and say ‘wow! i do that too,’” because “sometimes it’s messy notes and skipping class to do work for another, or turning in an assignment late so that you can spend time with you friends. it can be sitting in the back of class scrolling through instagram because you just can’t handle school today. it’s a lot of all nighters and coffee and junk food and less than beautiful study spaces. it’s not always (or maybe even ever) beautiful notes and being totally prepared and having you’re life together all the time. it’s not all avocado toast and calligraphy. and that’s okay”(this post).

The point of irlstudying is to reblog all of the posts in the hashtag, as well as reblog similar posts that may have not used the hashtag, to the blog so everyone can come to the blog and see how many people are like them. It is a collection of posts that you may not otherwise see in your dashboard or regular Studyblr tags.

There aren’t any special rules to use the hashtag. Just tag your posts, and they’ll be reblogged!

You don’t have to tag this blog, but you can if you want.

You don’t have to follow this blog, but all followers are welcomed and are appreciated!

The admin of irlstudying is @studyvet. The original hashtag idea was created by @universi-tea and @piratestudy though, so please give credit to them! They also deserve your follow if you ever plan on using the hashtag. :) If you have any questions about the blog, you can send an ask here. But you should send any questions about the hashtag to them!

[universi-tea]

This is awesome!

[studyplants]

I love this idea!! 

[dotgrids]

im going to do this!!

[partial-to-fractions]

Week 4 of the semester and I'm already massively behind...

[math-memes]

[sci-universe]

I like simplicity and so does Marlon, who illustrates simple mathematical concepts. These are my favourites and you should definitely see more at his Tumblr Minimal Math Concepts +! 

[razorshapes]

[asdfasdfasdfjkl]

Found Functions

“Nevertheless, the fact is that there is nothing as dreamy and poetic, nothing as radical, subversive, and psychedelic, as mathematics. It is every bit as mind blowing as cosmology or physics… and allows more freedom of expression than poetry, art, or music… Mathematics is the purest of the arts, as well as the most misunderstood.” - Paul Lockhart

[partial-to-fractions]

Does anyone have Habitica? Do you want to start a part with me? (Or let me join yours)?

[maaarine]