Msanii's Studyblr

***DEAD ACCOUNT*** Msanii // he/him or they/them // English major + Creative Writing minor // My Posts // Helpful Info // My Main Blog

[guerrillatech]

[hekatontarch]

[queertail]

The site is '12ft Ladder' found here:

12ft – Hop any paywall

Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder.

[sola-whumping]

Reblogging this on ALL my blogs because holy shit is it useful

[sarahtaylorgibson]

To all my freshman babies who are panicking right now about how much your college textbooks cost: Yeah, you’re right, that’s some highway robbery. No, you don’t have to lie down and take it. You have options. Follow my advice and fly on your own debt free wings.

1. Forgoe the bookstore entirely. Sometimes you can get a good deal on something, usually a rental, but it’s usually going to be considerably more expensive to go through official channels. Outsmart them, babies.

2. Does your syllabus call for edition eight? Get edition seven. Old editions are considered worthless in the buyback trades, so they sell for dirt cheap, no matter how new they are. It’s a gamble, sure; there might be something in edition eight you desperately need, but that never happened to me. However, I’ve only ever pulled this stunt for literature/mass comm/religious studies books, so I don’t know it would work in the sciences.

3. Thriftbooks.com, especially for nonfiction and fiction. Books are usually four or five dollars unless they’re really new, and shipping is 99 cents unless you buy over 10$ in books, in which case shipping is free. 

4. Bigwords.com. It will scan every textbook seller on the internet for the lowest price available, and will do the same to find the highest price when you try to sell your books back at the end of term. Timesaver, lifesaver.

5. In all probability, your library offers a service called interlibrary loan which is included in your tuition. This means if your library doesn’t carry a book you can order it for free from any library nationwide in your library’s network and it will be shipped to you in a number of days. Ask a librarian to show you how to search for materials at your library as well as though interlibrary loan; you’ll need to master this skill soon anyway.  If you get lucky you can just have your required reading shipped to you a week before you need to start reading, then renew vigorously until you no longer need to item. I’m saving over 100$ on a History of Islam class this way.

You professors might side-eye you for bringing an old edition or a library copy, but you just smile right back honey, because you can pay your rent and go clubbing this month. You came here to win. So go forth and slay.

[spodiddly]

Can I add to this? 6. Find PDFs of your book to store on your computer. I managed to find an up-to-date edition of my textbook for sociology by doing this, and other books for other classes. It may be risky to have to look high and low for them, but it’s a godsend trust me

[mariesbookblog]

don’t even think about pulling number 1 for math classes. they change problems and examples between editions. get your butt to Amazon the SECOND you know what book you need. the earlier the better. put in the ISBN number and you’ll get the right edition. buy it used. you don’t need that damn CD. buy it used. I used to get two hundred dollar math books for twenty bucks.

[kittensanonymous]

for the record I would recommend a lot of caution with math/science/psych books, the editions generally have a lot of changes to them (also email your professors; I had one explicitly tell us to buy an older edition bc the publisher made a new one every year regardless of if there were any changes. and they understand books cost a lot so they’re generally on board with you saving money; another professor actually had a student who managed to get a free pdf of the textbook share it with the whole class)

[romanticwound]

one time i tried to get a previous edition for a humanities class and there were like 10+ stories that weren’t included that the teacher referenced often so make sure that there’s not a huge discrepancy in content also if your uni uses ~custom textbooks~ like mine does for entry level courses then you my friend are fucked

[im-a-history-major]

I'm all for academic integrity and accurate citing until I change the access date in the footnote to make my professors think I didn't procrastinate

[kadywicker]

the fact that community colleges are seen as less valid and for “stupid” people is a result of classism and in this essay I will-

[kadywicker]

ppl in the tags saying that it’s “genuinely a lesser tier of education because people go there for trades and nursing and thats about it” are just proving that its classism. bc a) no thats absolutely not correct. a good chunk of people that go to community colleges do so to knock out their gen eds at a lower price than they’d be if they went to a four year, then transfer to a four year. and more importantly b) trade professions are not lesser than other professions that take higher degrees. people who go into things that take associates degrees are not “stupid”.

if you think ppl who are too poor to attend a four year university for all four years, or that ppl who are too poor to/don’t want to get their bachelor’s/master’s/doctorate are “stupid” then i have news for you:

thats classism, babe

[a-fucking-velociraptor]

Cool Tip

If you are like me and always need to be working on something to keep your anxiety under control, during this quarentine why not helping scientists by looking at pictures of some neat penguins? or even galaxies?  There’s this site call Zooniverse, where you can help on scientific projects by analyzing pictures and data!  Right now my favorite project has returned, called Penguin Watch (where yeah, you get to watch penguins, it’s amazing)

you basically have to analyse photos looking for penguins, their chicks, eggs or even predators and human interaction But there are lots of interesting projects you can help in areas such as biology, physics, history or even art: 

Oh and the best part, some institutions even accept it as volunteering/service hour requirements for graduation and scholarships!! It’s helping me a lot during this time, so I thought it was worth sharing 

[tayefeth]

Zooniverse is awesome. They have a relatively new project classifying and transcribing recordings of vintage Cuban radio around the revolution.

Another project is about the fan and hate mail sent to Orson Welles after the broadcast of War of the Worlds.

Another project is rescuing data from handwritten records from a Scottish weather station.

[studymydeer]

[casperscareschool]

no offence but there is literally nothing morally wrong with cheating on tests/at school… it’s up there with piracy on the list of Crimes Everyone Is Convinced Are Wrong And Harmful But If You Actually Think About Them For 12 Seconds It’s Fine And You Definitely Should Commit Them At Some Point

[kamorth]

99% of computer repair is googling the problem to see if anyone else has successfully fixed it. I have a certification in computer repair and I was allowed AND EXPECTED to use google in my exam. 99% of bartending is pulling pints and adding coke to a spirit. I managed bars for 10 years and have a diploma in Cafe, Bar, and Restaurant Management. I think I can make like 7 cocktails from memory. I use google to find the recipes for the rest. I was working towards a paleontology degree. On the few digs I was involved in, everything was photographed and shared with experts who weren’t there to get their opinions. The real world doesn’t operate in exam conditions. Whatever career path you follow, you will be able to consult colleagues in some form or another. You’ll be allowed to use Google and Wikihow and industry specific forums and texts and websites. Exam conditions do not exist outside of exams.

[onlyhams]

I think research skills are FAR more valuable that purely rote memorization. Why we require students to succeed academically based off of an arbitrary ability to memorize rather than informed problem solving is beyond me.

[gaphic]

Research and collaboration are poison to the institution of capitalism. There is a very good reason this individualistic mindset is instilled so aggressively and so young.

[deadlinejon]

political comics that are just kids holding books and going “what’s this?????? not a electronic? no computer???not phone?? how can be??” will always crack me up

[deadlinejon]

[hyperchaotix]

I think old people do this just to feel better about themselves because they don’t know how to use a computer and think that it works the other way around for some reason.

[pancakeke]

I fixed it

[gardenforsparrows]

Help for Students Struggling with Online Classes

For all you students who are suddenly finding yourself with online classes, here is list of people who are willing to help out with anyone struggling and our specialties/areas of interests. We’re all colleagues and we’re all in this together! Let’s be a true academic community and support each other as much as possible in the coming months.

This google doc has a list of over 100 people (with more being added) with different academic specialities ranging from chemistry to theatre and we want to help you with studies. In fact, we are very excited about helping you!

If you reblogged the first version of this post, please consider reblogging this one too, so that we can get it in the hands of as many people as possible. Thank you all for your wonderful support!

[draculasdaughter]

This is about Sci-Hub. yeah we get it.. gatekeep knowledge and protect the interests of capital…

[three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat]

Listen, this is serious.

Do not use the website called Sci-Hub!

It lets people access scientific articles for free. This is dangerous. It helps the free flow of knowledge and reduces the competitive edge of all the people who worked really hard to have been born into a wealth.

Like, it’s literally a website where you can type in the DOI of an article and read it, without ever having to pay the publisher who exploited the author.

So, again, do not, under any circumstance, use Sci-Hub. I mean, can you imagine a world where knowledge is free and easily accessible to everyone? Even, y'know, poor people?

[whateverthebeeswant]

Libgen also has many books online, including textbooks, searchable by name, author, and ISBN. Can you imagine textbook companies not getting their hard-earned income from poor college students? Here is the link just so you make sure that you never accidentally stumble across this horrible, unethical website.

[three-blogs-in-a-trenchcoat]

Oh, and while we’re talking about books, if you’ve managed to stay clear from Libgen, definitely don’t go to zlibrary, where you can also find a lot of textbooks, but unfortunately they’re completely free.

[trzpiotka]

nooo don’t use sites that make academic papers accessible to everyone, why would you do such a terrible thing

[kyidyl]

If you really want to avoid knowledge, don’t use researchgate. It allows the dangerous practice of allowing you to ask the writer directly for a paper behind a paywall, if perchance the communist author hasn’t already posted it themselves. Definitely stay away from academia.edu, they are of a similar ilk.

[hee-blee-art]

academics learn to use singular they challenge

[beyondthesunrise]

[Video Description: A short animation of two simple line art characters. The person on the left is holding a pie with whipped cream above and behind their head, staring on at the other person. The person on the right is wearing a graduation cap and a sweater that says “Uni” across the front. Gesturing out towards the other and speaking with their eyes closed, the person on the right says “Each student must take his/her sheet with him/her before he/she can–”. Steadily, while they are talking, the other person raises the pie up, throwing it at the other person’s face where their sentence cuts off, the whipped cream leaking down their front. The tin under the pie reads “Singular They”. End description.]

[healingcaffee]

things that should be completly normal:

not going to uni

taking as much time as needed before going to uni

changing your majors many times before finding what you like

changing your career path

not knowing what you want

attending a community college 

valuing your health over your grades

[thestrawberrydreams]

[alberto-balsalm]

link to the relevant section on Wikipedia

[tyrantisterror]

Man I hope they cancel standardized testing, any education professional can tell you it’s a bunch of useless horseshit that does nothing except make students and teachers miserable while utterly failing to accurately gauge understanding.

[harriyanna-deactivated20221223]

“why yall gotta make everything about race?”

because everything is about race. you just upset cause we’re talking about it. 

[eintsein]

A Guide to Planning Systems

It’s important to have a system of getting things done, whether it’s tackling tasks as the day progresses or having a carefully planned schedule for every single hour of the week. How can you create an effective personal planning system that suits your needs and preferences?

Mentioned in this post:

Attention Management: How to Take Control and Live Intentionally

Energy Management: A Human-Based Organization Method

Flexible Time-Blocking: A More Breathable Way to Get Things Done

The ABCDE Method: Accomplish Tasks More Efficiently

My other posts

N.B. some categories include a few examples but they are no means limited to the ones listed here, e.g. there may be methods of organizing tasks other than the five listed here.

[aztrolab-deactivated20200927]

I feel that in the studyblr community nobody actively talks about the study environment some of us have, so shoutout to those students that:

• live with their parents (not everyone goes to college/uni where they have dorms, and even then, not everyone can afford it)

• have to deal with parents/family members constantly arguing in the background

• work / have to worry heavily about just getting by (paying rent, groceries, medication)

• need loud music to study and drown outside noises

• can not "study prettily" at coffee shops

• take care of other family members, and thus have to be ready to drop whaterever they are doing to assist them at any time

• can not concentrate or get "in the zone" no matter what they do

• do not have a personal computer/tablet

• do not have a room of their own

• are neurodivergent and the advice of most study masterpost/tips is not applicable.

You are valid, you are seen, you are not alone. If nobody has told you already: if you are trying the best you can then the best you can is good enough.

sincerely, a student who needed to hear this.

[take-some-vampire-money-bro]

@ all trans people about to attend online school:

This will visually remove your deadname from any webpage. Obviously switch it off if your parents wanna check up on your work, but yee here's the link fam!!!! BOOST THIS!!! SEND THIS TO ANY TRANS PERSON YOU KNOW WHO WILL NEED THIS

Deadname Remover

An easy to use Google Chrome plugin to automatically remove and replace deadnames

[a-lot-of-ace-archive]

This is really awesome!

[zero-bean-deactivated20241210]

i....hate my school.  they blocked this. like, wtf?

[connorsok]

If your school has blocked this I recommend using ‘InteractiveFics’. Its originally used for changing Y/N to your own name but it has a separate option where you can change any word/name to what you want.

It has a less likely chance of being blocked so I thought I’d mention it.

[catboymettaton]

WordReplacer II works as well, though it’s not specifically designed for deadnames

[dark-sappho]

Hello very informal post reminding y'all that if you are having a hard time meeting deadlines for school and college you CAN reach out to your professors and academic advisors. They want you to succeed and will more than likely help you however they can. There is no harm or shame in asking.