Pipettes-and-Precipitation

Study Motivation Blog. A biology major doing research. Slytherin and Vegan.

[infinity-warfare]

harry potter moodboards | slytherin + aesthetic

Or perhaps in Slytherin You’ll make your real friends, Those cunning folks use any means To achieve their ends.

[the-more-u-know]

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

littleanimalgifs.tumblr.com

Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

reddit.com

Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!

[vintageanchorbooks]

Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone.

Joan Didion (via alittlebitsouthern)

[bachaes]

→ moodboard: slytherin

those cunning folks use any means to achieve their ends

[bridgetothephd]

What are great questions to ask to a potential graduate advisor about their research practices, how they run their lab, etc to see how they’re a good fit?

What are some things you wish you knew about your advisor before you selected your program?

[cancerbiophd]

Where do your students end up? (ie. post-doc, academia, industry, etc)

On average how long does a (Masters/PhD) student in your lab take to graduate?

Do you, the PI, do lab work still?

Did any of your students receive fellowships/scholarships/grants that they applied for?

What’s the structure of your lab meetings?

What’s the structure of your individual meetings with students?

Do you travel a lot for conferences?

Do you work from home a lot? (My PI does this a lot and I kinda wish I had known this beforehand, just as a head’s up)

Do you have other responsibilities that remove you from the lab? (ie. if they run a company, do clinical work, teach, etc)

What percentage of your time/resources do you aliquot per project? (Some PIs may spend more time on one project than others)

What are your expectations of students in terms of how long they’re in the lab each day? Do you expect students to work evenings, weekends, and/or holidays?

What are your holiday and sick days policies?

Do you allow students to read papers/do their writing while in lab? (I know one PI in my program who doesn’t allow their students to read papers while in the lab, because lab time is for lab time)

Who will my immediate mentor be in terms of research questions (ie. another graduate student, a post-doc, or the PI themselves)?

Are you familiar with the requirements of my graduate program (ie. committee meeting structures, qualifying exam structure if applicable, how the thesis should be formatted, etc)

This one you may want to ask the current personnel in the lab: Are there any labs/PIs that this current PI isn’t on good terms with? (This is something you may need to know when setting up your committee, for example, or collaborators). 

How do you determine the authorship on papers? (ie. How much work should I do for a project for my name to be on it?)

How many papers do you publish per year? 

How many papers do you expect your graduate students to publish during their time here?

How often do your students go to conferences/present at meetings?

Do you allow your students to have other engagements (like TAing, internships, etc)?

And in general, if you have a huge life event coming up, ask them what the process on that would be. For example, if you’re getting married, or planning on having a child, or have a family member who’s gravely ill, ask them how much time you can take off, etc. If the PI seems really hesitant or put-off by that, that’s something to consider. 

That’s all I can think of.. I’m sure there’s more if anyone else has anything to add. 

Good luck!

[invert-palaeo-blog]

This isn’t a question, but for face-to-face interviews/early meetings, I would look out for how often they cut you off. It shows that they don’t really care what you have to say (even if they think they do). It might not be apparent early on, especially if you go in with a set of succinct questions, but once things turn to a broader discussion about your future or their work, pay attention to how often they let you contribute. 

I initially ignored being cut off because I was new and assumed that as I progressed I would be cut off less and listened to more, but that was not the case. So it is good to pick up on that early. 

[ravenclaw-cat]

[successobsessed]

[elleandhermione]

There’s nothing I love more than a female character who is all about her education. Hope these brilliant minds help get you off of Tumblr and start studying!

[eggystudy]

{16.2.17} some stationery loots i got recently!!! (⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎) most of them were on sale so i’m rly rly happy about my purchases aahh!!! (and i finally got more brush pens HEHE)

[telep0rt]

HOW DO I STUDY FOR _____________

So I think this might be the question I get asked the MOST often. People are always asking me how do I study for this or that class. So I thought I would just make a master post I could link you all to. :)

All classes

Watch my video on how to study. This applies to almost everything you have to study. 

See below for additions to doing everything listed in that video. 

Math

Do problems. Do all the problems. Do them again. 

Do all the problems in your book.

Get another book and repeat step 2 

Trust me 99.9% of all math classes is pattern recognition. If you can learn how to solve the problem you can ace any set of variables they throw at you. 

Physics

See math–because physics is JUST applied math. You have to learn how to read the questions and pull out the information you need–the only way to do that is to do dozens of questions!

Micro Bio/ID

Flow charts–break things up by group to understand them. You have to group things to remember what’s gram positive or gram negative 

Don’t blow off the actual micro part of micro. If you understand the virulence factors you’re more likely to understand the sx/tx

I had to use a lot of silly sayings to remember all the little pieces of micro. So I would remind myself about the diseases of haemophilus influenzae by saying haEMOPhilus (epiglotitus, meningitis, otitis media, pnuemonia). It was silly but it worked for me. 

O Chem

Do all the problems. Do them again. 

Get another book and repeat step 1 

Flashcard the reactions you don’t understand–put the reactants on one side and the products on the back. Practice these backward and forward. 

Draw out every step of reactions you don’t understand

Circle your electrons or mark whatever it is you lose track of

Count–count where everything went at the end to make sure you didn’t screw up. 

Categorize. Do all members of this group react this way?? It’s easier to learn the rules and the exceptions than force memorize every individual compound’s reaction.

Gen Chem

See math

Understand real world examples. I related all of the stuff about heat to a cup of coffee. It worked for me 

Talk through it! I had to read chemistry out loud or try to repeat it out loud in my own words to have any idea what was going on. 

YouTube videos are absolutely perfect for gen chem!! (There’s even a whole CrashCourse series on Gen Chem that’s appropriate especially for high school level chem). 

General Biology–Genetics/Immunology/Cell Biologyetc

You really need to watch my video 

Cross relate–you have to integrate all your biology together to keep all that information in your head. 

Flashcard only the stuff that can’t be understood. (Like cell markers, etc) 

Charts! Biology is all about categorization and understanding the similarities between different groups of things. If you can simply remember the characteristics of a group it’s easy to know everything you need to about all the members of that group. 

Pathology

Pathoma

Look at the pictures until you feel sick. 

Make flashcards of the pictures so you can at least do immediate identification of what you’re looking at even if you don’t know exactly what the pathology is. 

Integrate! How does the physiology relate to exactly what is going on with the pathology? How does the pathology predict treatment? 

Learn some latin and greek root words. Even if you have no idea what the word means you might be able to figure it out from there. :) I’ve gotten more than one question right by just figuring out what the word meant. 

Pharmacology

Understand the mechanism of the drug–it will really predict how it is used or what its toxicities are for

Flashcard the bare minimum or anything bizarre you can’t remember any other way. 

Figure out the similarities in the names. If it sounds the same, it probably belongs in the same class. 

Don’t learn in isolation. It’s hard to study pharmacology on its own–instead study it integrated with physiology and pathology whenever possible for the best understanding. 

Study as case studies!! What diuretics would you give to a patient with CHF? With ESLD? 

Biochemistry

Charts–get poster boards or tape together a ton of sheets of paper and try to write out every pathway you can to see how it all is integrated. 

Always track the flow of energy!! Where is your NAD/ATP/etc?

Group pathways by the “point”. Are you destroying carbohydrates or building fats? How does this compare to other pathways that do the same thing?

Try to rewrite the pathways from memory then see what you missed. 

Anatomy

Spend a bunch of time with the specimens if you have access to them. 

DRAW even if you suck at drawing

Learn the clinical correlations–why do you care

Thing about everything in relationship to one another! 

Do questions!! Grey’s has a student question book I recommend.

I’ll probably add more to this list as I go and as more of you ask for specific subject advice, but here you go!! 

When in doubt, always ask yourself “how would this be asked on a test?”. If you could write a test question about it, you should definitely know it! 

And always remember that you should study for understanding and not just for a grade–always be learning and not memorizing. It’s more important you understand the material than you get the A!!

Happy studying!  

[lapt0pp]

guides to life

[glassvoices]

how to write a resume

how to protect your home against break-ins

effortlessly earn cash from polls online

reasons to take a foreign language

harsh truths

questions to ask in an interview

getting an apartment

list of jobs based on social interaction levels

long distance relationships: how to stay in contact

how to find a college

marriage

how to ask for a recommendation letter

how to choose a college major

what to do if your wallet is stolen/lost

budgeting

how to write a cover letter

how to handle a phone interview

how to get a copy of your birth certificate

first-time flying tips

how to ask a good question

[workhardlikegranger]

[menpale]

[emmastudies]

If you’re a stationery lover there is no doubt that you’re always looking for new places to shop because you can never have enough notebooks or pens! Buying stationery gives us all an illusion of productivity and who isn’t willing to pay for that? I’ve complied a list of stores I’ve come across and think deserve sharing! Just to note some of these do have physical stores or only ship to certain places. I’ve tried to find out their shipping policy but be sure to double check. Anyways, here is a list of all the stores (I’ve * my faves). 

Stationery stores 

Appointed (worldwide shipping)

Amazon (international websites)

Bando (worldwide shipping)

Bloom Daily Planners (US only)

Blue Sky Planner (US only)

Bricksxcastle (worldwide shipping) [get 10% off at the check using emstudies10]

Cobbery (worldwide shipping)

Daiso (US only)

Day Designer* (US and Canada only)

Ella Iconic (worldwide shipping)

Emily Ley (worldwide shipping)

Erin Condren (worldwide shipping)

Fox and Star (worldwide shipping)

Frank Stationery (worldwide shipping)

Glam and Paper (worldwide shipping)

The Happiness Planner (worldwide shipping)

Inky Co (Australian and New Zealand only)

Jet Pens (worldwide shipping)

Jo & Jody (ships to most countries)

Jot It Down* (worldwide shipping)

Kate Spade (ships to some countries)

Kawaii Pen Shop (worldwide shipping)

Kikki K* (worldwide shipping)

Knock Knock (worldwide shipping)

Leuchtturm 1917 (ships to most countries)

Little Paper Lane (Australia only)

Makadai (worldwide shipping)

Meggies (UK only)

Mi Goals (worldwide shipping)

Mochi Things (worldwide shipping)

Moleskine (international websites)

Mossery* (worldwide shipping)  [get 15% off at the check using emma15]

Muji* (international websites)

Notemaker (ships to most countries)

Officeworks* (Australia only)

Orenda (Australia only)

Paperchase (ships to some countries + US website)

Papier D’amour (Australia + New Zealand only)

Paperdorable (worldwide shipping)

Passion Planner (worldwide shipping)

Pepperpot (worldwide shipping)

Personal Planner (worldwide shipping)

Poketo (worldwide shipping)

Public Supply (worldwide shipping)

Quill London (worldwide shipping)

Raven Press Co (worldwide shipping ex. Puerto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, or Carribbean states)

Rifle Paper Co (worldwide shipping)

Ryman (UK only)

Scratch & Jotter (Australia only)

Sessa Vee (worldwide shipping)

Staples (international websites)

Studio Stationery (worldwide shipping)

Smiggle (worldwide shipping)

Sugar Paper (worldwide shipping)

Tabiyo Shop (international shipping)

Target (international websites)

The Paper Stone (worldwide shipping)

Tokyo Pen Shop (ships to some countries)

Typo (worldwide shipping)

Up & Atem (worldwide shipping)

Urban Outfitters (ships to most countries)

WHSmith (UK only)

Etsy stores

Fox and Fallow (worldwide shipping)

Karma Paper Co (ships to US and Canada - international on request)

Letter Love Designs (worldwide shipping)

Little Papeterie (worldwide shipping)

Made to Plan (worldwide shipping)

Moon Lume (worldwide shipping)

Plan Bright Planners (worldwide shipping)

SHP Planners (worldwide shipping)

She Plans (worldwide shipping)

Simply Notebooks (worldwide shipping)

Sugar and Type (worldwide shipping)

Posy Paper (worldwide shipping)

Purple Trail (ships to some countries)

If you’ve got a store you’d like to recommend, don’t hesitate to message me! Hope you like this post and find some cool new stores to shop at x

[nerdygirl-0-deactivated20201229]

😻😻❤

[skylightdreams]

where has this been all my life??

[findinghealthyhappiness]

this is how you get tea to not be bitter. I didn’t like green tea until I learned not to brew it with boiling water.

[dan-panda]

my brother is obsessed with tea and gets really mad and lectures you if you dont brew it right … yikes

[deeplylearning]

Another hack for green tea if you don’t have a thermometer… Let the tea bag sit in cold water while you’re heating up the water.

I don’t remember where I learned this but I always do this when I’m making my pitchers of green tea. And it seems to help.

[passing-bird-deactivated2013040]

[deeplylearning]

Lovely! I need to print this out.

[busymarina]

15 things I tell myself when I don't want to work/study

1. You are very lucky and privileged to have access to almost unlimited knowledge and you should appreciate that. 

2. Be one of those rare people who step over their insecurities and succeed. 

3. Only 5 minutes. Only today. (Repeat it 5 minutes later and every day). 

4. You will know what to do as soon as you start. Ideas never appear from inactivity. 

5. Make yourself proud. 

6. One hour every day doesn’t feel much but it’s 365 hours a year. You can’t not succeed after so much work. 

7. It’s not supposed to be easy. Nothing good is easy. 

8. If you had a child to look after, you’d make them study because you want them to accomplish something. Don’t you love yourself? 

9. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear” George Adair 

10. Every mistake increases our chance to make progress. 

11. If you give up now, you’ll have to return to this later anyway but from the very beginning. 

12. Let the process be your result. 

13. Every moment you thought your fears would suppress you has become the time you made it. 

14. Maybe you think you can never find something to use your skills and mindset for. But if you continue investing in what matters to you, it will find its way out there. 

15. I allow you to think globally. You have a right to the boldest dream.