Hey, Would you mind if I asked you about language studying tips as well as chemistry? I need to improve my English Vocab and I'm thinking of learning Spanish. For Chemistry, I'm starting over for my post grad studies and I almost forgot what I've learned since high school and college 🙈 Thanks!!☺️
hey you! i totally forgot about your message and i’m so sorry. i don’t know if this is still a topical issue but nevertheless i will try my best!
for languages i would suggest to practice writing, speaking, listening and reading regulary. all four of them are equally important and as long as you’re not that bad at one of them in comparison to the others it isn’t necesarry to focus on a particular skill. here are some suggestions:
writing:
write your diary in your target language (even works when you’re level A1 in a language, did this with French, it works)
write with someone on social media in your target language (whatsapp, your tumblr blog, etc.)
speaking:
talk with a friend! @honig-prinzessin and I used to send voicemails in spanish to eachother and it really helps to start talking fluently (highly recommend!), plus you can stay up to date with the life of your friend
use every opportunity in class to speak. although i hate it, i know it’s the best way to get a feedback and learn from mistakes
talk to yourself! explain yourself things in your target language, be that mad person ^^
just talk, really
listening:
watch youtube, netflix, movies whatever. try it without subtitles when you feel confident enough. maybe look up vocabulary (this is very good for every day vocab you don’t learn in class!). but mostly: enjoy it. immerse yourself in the language and after some time you don’t realise you’re watching this show in spanish.
search for music, podcast, the news. do everything you normally do but in your target language.
reading:
change the settings on your phone to your target language.
read the news.
books, articles, everything you can find.
write down important vocabulary, practice with flashcards, whatever helps you the most (maybe mindmaps?).
practice vocabulary regulary! i would suggest spaced repetition. and try to use new words as soon as possible: in texts, while speaking, search up frases, context is very important!
read out loud to practice pronounciation.
for chemistry: look at this post i made or this.
but in general: collect all the notes you might still have and get an overview over the topics. i quite like notion for learning chemistry (it’s a free app for students). there you can make pages for every topic and write down questions. reviewing and answering those is always the best method as you are learning actively and not passively. when you have no clue whats going on use a textbook (i don’t want to recommend any here because i only know german ones) or search for videos on youtube. for each topic you will at least find one video if not twenty. for organic chemistry practice nomenclature regulary and write flashcards for formulars. search for practice problems in your textbook or via internet. do those. practicing is the best way to get better. do these problems again after some time. explain yourself the material out loud, so you can identify problems you might have (doing this in your head makes it easy to brush off any uncertainties). make a study group (atm online is the way to go) and talk about the topics you didn’t understand. ask people to help you.
sorry, if this is badly organised and full of grammar mistakes... but i hope this helps. good luck with your post grad studies! what are you going to do?
