Yikes It's College Life

chem | pre-med | third year

[stressedplatypus-blog]

Here’s my attempt to stay more organized this year. As you can see, I’m a huge chem nerd!

[stressedplatypus-blog]

It’s the day before classes start! What am I doing to prepare?

screams into the void 

fearfully checking out the first chapter of my textbooks

stress eating as I review

we’re off to a great start!

[stressedplatypus-blog]

Calc Professor: Any questions about tomorrow's exam?

Me: *stares at notes, pretending to think about it*

Me: *looks up to make direct eye contact*

Me: *raises hand* yeah, what the h e c k

[stressedplatypus-blog]

How to Get Your Life Together (Part 1)

The academic year is upon us once more, and you all know how sucky school is. There’s always so much to do—classes, quizzes, exams, and projects. A lot of us balance jobs on top of that too. So, how can I get my life together? 

The college student answer that I’m tempted to give is that you can’t. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try!

I’m a second year chemistry major working in a research lab and as a TA. These are some of the things I do in order to balance my life! Yay! (*off-key kazoo*) 

1. Keep a calendar and an assignment book. The calendar is for long term events like exams or things you’ve committed to in the future. The assignment book is for short term homework that is due. I use a desktop calendar, but there are different types! There are some included within your assignment book (I find those too small), on a whiteboard, etc. Pro-tip (to save money): don’t buy an assignment book. Buy a mini-notebook and a desk calendar during the back to school sales. When I was looking for an assignment book, the cheapest one that suited my needs was $13, but I also needed to buy a calendar. The cost was about $18. Buying a mini-notebook and a calendar cost me $6. Pretty good deal, right?

2. Reminders are your friend. Put that reminders app on your phone to use. Set a time for an alert, especially for meetings! Don’t neglect the little things either—you might forget those too. Besides, it feels so good to check things off one by one

3.  Time yourself while doing homework. Allot a certain (reasonable) amount of time to get an assignment done. Try your best to get it done in that time frame. For example, try to get your math homework done in half an hour. I find myself finishing my work faster and more efficiently this way. Just make sure you don’t sacrifice quality for quantity.

4. Make a plan for the day/week. I have a break between my 8AM and my 10AM. I set aside that time to finish my homework instead of sitting, scrolling through my phone, waiting for my next class. I already know that I will spend my Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays in my research lab for about 3-4 hours each day.

5. Read ahead. This is extremely important for subjects that you haven’t taken  before. You’ll understand a lot more in lecture if you went through the material once before. Information needs time to sink into your brain in order for you to understand, remember, and be able to apply. 

Part 2 to come when I also figure my life out. 

[silverhawk]

just feel like one of those club penguin fish rn

[stressedplatypus-blog]

My library recently got a coffee machine, so I decided to go down to get some coffee. There are no more coffee beans. I now have light brown tinted hot water. I’m drinking it anyway because I need caffeine and maybe there’s a bit of caffeine in it

[stressedplatypus-blog]

okay lol so i had a dream that i met Trump and when we talked, he was extremely reasonable and took everything i said into consideration. he told me that everything on tv was an act, but then i woke up to the sad truth

[stressedplatypus-blog]

a quick thank you to all the teachers out there

you inspire the future generation of lifelong learners

-a girl who is constantly in awe of the world and its wonders

[stressedplatypus-blog]

Note to self:

it’s not healthy when you put so much pressure on yourself that you literally cannot breathe 

take a moment to love yourself, including all your flaws, because you are inimitable 

[stressedplatypus-blog]

Writing Tips

Tips for writing, whether it’s creative writing or for essays. Advice given to me from a humorous, yet certified PhD English professor and from life experience in general.

Read as much as you can. Read anything and everything. Make time to read. Reading helps to expand your vocabulary. Not only that, but you get to see how authors—AKA, masters at storytelling and word craft—do it. You don’t even have to pay to learn! (Well, unless you buy the book, but there are libraries everywhere)

Write! To get better at writing, you have to write. Simple as that. 

Participate in a writing community. I know that my writing has benefited greatly from outside eyes constructively critiquing my work! Places like Wattpad are great to start out

These help you to pin down your unique style, which will help in whatever you’re writing!

[neontalk]

[teraboolove]

This was exactly what I expected and more

[stressedplatypus-blog]

Hello everyone! It’s been quite some time since my last post. I’m no longer a first year college student, but in an awkward transition phase to my second year. Here’s a couple things I learned:

Be yourself. No one really cares if you’re wearing long, blue and yellow banana socks, purple, striped leggings, a free t-shirt, glasses, and safety glasses all at once

Time management. Don’t procrastinate. Seriously. It sucks when you’re trying to finish a project last minute and you can’t go into your professor’s office hours to ask questions because you didn’t start until 11 PM the day before it’s due

Study hard, but take a breather. You’re stressed, so relax a little. Set aside time to do something you love every day. That way, you won’t burn out! My form of releasing stress was going to practice violin

Seize your opportunities. Your school offers opportunities in research to students? Take it. Cool classes that you don’t necessarily have to take, but you’re interested in? Take it. You’re paying to learn, so you might as well have fun while doing it.

I met a ton of different people out there. Some of them were people that encouraged cheating and plagiarism. Don’t be like them. Like I said, you’re paying to get an education, so why don’t you go to the professor to get them to explain things? You’ll learn. Besides, your basic classes cover materials you’re going to build up on. If you never learn the foundations, you can’t continue with harder concepts.

Talk to your professors! Whether it’s to get help or just friendly chit chat, your professors are probably really nice people who would love to help. If you go to a small school like me, you might have the same professor again. (I had the same math professor for two—going on three—semesters in a row). And they’ll be able to provide a more personalized letter of recommendation, if you ask them!

Prioritizing. Know what’s important. A party or your grades? Being with your friends or finishing that big paper? That’s not to say you can’t hang out with your friends or go to parties. If you have something planned, make sure you finish all your work first!

Getting enough sleep. This is a big one. You can look up a whole bunch of studies about the effect of sleep deprivation on the brain. Getting enough sleep improves your ability to learn and function. Besides, you probably feel a whole lot better when you get a good night of rest. Also, a kind of off-topic tip, but practice memory retrieval to make sure you have a good grasp on a topic 

And there you have it! Tips for your upcoming year 

[stressedplatypus-blog]

Trying to stay more focused and become more productive with my planner! Semester 2 is off to a great start already :)

[thegrumpymathematician-deactiva]

Reblog if you ARE a woman in STEM, SUPPORT women in STEM, or ARE STILL BITTER about Rosalind Franklin not getting credit for discovering the structure of DNA and the Nobel prize going to Watson and Crick instead.

[stressedplatypus-blog]

The hills are alive with the sound of music! This is what I do during break 😂

[minimaliststudy]

bad study habits to leave in 2017

cramming the night before. do a little every day and get a good night sleep before the test

procrastinating. promise yourself you’ll do 5 minutes of a task you’ve been putting off for a while. you’ll be surprised how quickly that 5 minutes turns into 10 and 10 into an hour and before you know it you’ll be done and able to enjoy guilt-free leisure time

not asking for help. make the most of your teachers and classmates who want you to succeed. don’t suffer in silence

saying yes to everything. it’s important to try new things but it’s also important to have enough spare time to see your friends and get enough sleep

being distracted. turn off the tv. turn off your phone. focus on studying so you can get your assignments done as efficiently as possible so you can enjoy your free time

not having a planner. this doesn’t have to be a beautiful bullet journal. just make sure you have a way of keeping on top of everything you have to do so you don’t get overwhelmed whether that’s in a store-bought diary or in you phone’s calendar

eating (too much) junk. fuel your body and your mind with fruit and veg. if you’re at university try cooking in bulk to keep costs down. you’ll be able to concentrate better if you’re eating well

not taking breaks. your brain needs to take breaks, even if you have a big test coming up. for every hour you spend studying take a 10 minute break and stretch/make a snack/take a shower/call a friend 

not rewarding yourself. take time to be proud of everything you’ve achieved so far. enjoy the success you’ve worked so hard for

[birdkoskincare]

01.12.17 // the first reaction of my chemical synthesis for my internship project involved fun times such as boiling concentrated chloridric acid for 1h :’) those tlcs are not cooperating at all, either.