#thewanderlustudent

[labcoatsandcalculators]

Sorry for the sudden lack of posts lately. Luckily, posts should be coming out more now. Anyways, I found a few Calculus Notes I took earlier this school year and thought they looked nice!

- Kyle [March 26, 2020]

[coloredstudy]

annotations + swing sets. 

[honeststudying]

Part 6 of my Studyblr University Orientation Week. 

I see a lot of people on studyblr talking about dealing with stress and anxiety over grades and perfectionism, but not a lot of discussion of being mentally ill and in university/college. So if you’re looking for stress reduction stuff, this post is not for you. This is for my mentally ill peeps. 

I just want to preface this with a little disclaimer. This is based on my own experience. I have depression, anxiety, ADD and OCD. I don’t know everything. I still have a lot of trouble coping, particularly with the last two as they were only recently diagnosed. This is just meant to be a few useful tips that might help a little bit. 

Go see a therapist. Even if you think you’re doing okay, it’s still good to have that support system there if you need it. Your therapist can also give you coping mechanisms that are tailored to your specific needs. They may also suggest you go on medication or refer you to a doctor who can prescribe it. 

If you are taking medication, set a reminder on your phone so that you take it at the same time every day. 

Set about sixteen alarms in the morning, starting half an hour before you want to wake up and spread about five to ten minutes apart. If you’re anything like me and have a lot of trouble getting to sleep, you probably have a lot of trouble getting up in the morning. This technique is a lifesaver. Also change up the alarm ~once a month. I find that my body gets used to it after a while and I just sleep right through it. 

Register with your school’s disability services. Yes, your mental illness is a disability. They’ll be able to help with accommodations (this could be anything from extra time on exams to extensions on your assignments). 

If you think that you might be handing in a paper late because depression is kicking your ass, message your professor at least a week in advance. If you tell them two days before, they’re not going to care. And if you end up not needing the extension, that’s okay. It’s better for it to be there if you need it. 

Headphones. Everywhere. People are stupid and loud and it’s overwhelming as fuck. Wear them right up until the prof starts lecturing. Do NOT wear them during the lecture though, your prof will hate you - though you may be able to discuss it with your prof the first week. idk, maybe you have cool profs who get it. 

Make a friend in your class that you can get notes from in case you can’t get out of bed. I mean this is good for anyone in case of illness in general, but yeah. Depression. Woohoo. 

It’s okay if you need to take a lighter course load because of your mental health. Loads of people do it. 

Related: It’s okay if you take 5+ years to complete your degree. You’ll get there. 

AD(H)D friends who stim: That’s super great and you totally should. But please do not leg bounce when you’re at a desk that has all the chairs connected to it. You will shake everybody’s seat and distract them. I get the urge to leg bounce (fuck, I’m leg bouncing rn) but please try a different stim if you could. Or bounce gently. Just no earthquakes (no joke, I literally thought it was an earthquake once and was super confused why no one else was panicking. i learned nothing that day, I was so distracted). 

Fidget toys are the best things ever and you can use them in lecture (provided they don’t make too much noise because your prof might yell at you for that). 

Bathrooms are your new best friend for panic attacks. Hide in a stall and take a few deep breaths to calm down. There’s a lot less noise there and you’re less likely to be disturbed than if you go to a stairwell. 

Breathe in for 5, hold for 5, out for 7. 

5-4-3-2-1: Find five things in the room that are blue. Four things that are yellow. Three that are pink. Two that are purple. One that is green. You can substitute this with any colours you like. You can also do ones like “think of five things that start with f (and so on)” or “five tv shows that you like, four books, etc.” if you’re somewhere without a lot of colours (or in your handy bathroom stall). Repeat with new criteria or new answers until calm. 

If you’ve been crying and don’t want people to know: grab some paper towels, run some cold water on them. Wipe your eyes with them. Pat your cheeks with them. It makes less of a mess than splashing your face will and I find that it helps me a lot more. 

Schedule the shit out of your life. You won’t forget important meetings or things like eating dinner (whoops). 

Make sure that you give yourself plenty of breaks during the day. Gotta conserve that energy, yo. 

Find out when the library’s quietest and grab your books then. Same deal with the bookstore at the beginning of the year and buying your books. Please, the bookstore is scary when it’s busy. Save yourself. 

Frozen dinners are cheap, easy to make, and require next to no energy. Same with cereal, ramen, and most pasta. And egg sandwiches (two eggs, hot sauce, and mayonnaise. Best thing ever.). 

Great questions to ask the people who sit next to you in class: What’s your name (preface this with “Hi, I’m *blank*”)? What are you studying? Where are you from? How are you liking the class? 

If you’re having trouble getting started, try for ten minutes. You may find that it’s easy to keep going after that. Or maybe you’ll need to stop but at least you’ll have gotten ten minutes of work in. 

You’re doing great. This is a really hard thing that you’re doing right now, but you’ve got it. 

[thewanderlustudent]

Science Chapter 2 sunshine themed notes 🌻; Was pretty productive today so i decided to start doing the #100daysofproductivity challenge hehe. Here goes day 1 ~ ^ 3 ^

[labcoatsandcalculators]

Here are more Calculus notes from this year! I’ve been trying to work hard these days and I hope everyone is doing alright.

-Kyle [March 30, 2020]

[labcoatsandcalculators]

My spring semester starts in 3 days and you know that means AP Exams are slowly coming up. I purchased Princeton Review’s AP Physics 1 workbook to help me organize the different topics we reviewed in my class so far. Here is a picture of my notes on work, energy, and power! 

Reblog this to let me know if you want an advice post on how I’m studying for the AP Physics exam! I have a lot of good resources and notes that I would love to share with you all. 

-Kyle [January 3, 2020]

[labcoatsandcalculators]

ACT Guide Part 2:

A while back, I made a post on the ACT English section. Now that many schools are going test-optional for this college application season, taking the ACT is a good way to boost your academics (if your local test centers don’t cancel them). Today, I'll be debriefing the science section.

Before we start, I want to clear up one thing: you don't need much prior science knowledge. Of course, it's helpful to know Biology, Chemistry, and Physics beforehand, but its definitely not necessary. You only need to know a few basic things. I'll list some common topics you should know below:

1. Freezing, Melting, and Boiling Point

2. Erosion

3. Prokaryotes vs Eukaryotes

4. Calculating Percent Error

5. Protons, Electrons, Neutrons

6. General Biology (mainly stuff on DNA, Genetics, and Ecology)

Now, I'll be going over some tips that I used when I took the test:

1. Do not read the passages: go straight to the questions and look what they're asking for. If the question talks about Table 1, then go to Table 1. However, you HAVE TO read the passage if you are doing the Conflicting Viewpoints passage (where multiple students/scientists talk about their hypotheses and theories). But you can ignore the text for all the other passages. TIMING IS KEY for the science section, so don't waste it by reading large chunks of text.

2. If you don't know, then you don't know: if you're stuck on a question, please don't stay on it for more than a minute. Just move on and come back to it after you finish the remaining questions. You have to solve 40 questions in 35 minutes, so you have less than a minute for each question. Remember, TIMING IS KEY.

3. Don't be intimidated by foreign topics: I remember being very nervous whenever I saw a passage about physics because I did not learn it in school yet. Don't have that mentality because all the information you need to answer the questions is provided. Have the mentality of treating each passage the same and don't let your nerves get to you.

4. Understand that questions get harder at the end of each passage: for each science passage, the last 1-2 questions usually end up being the most difficult. When you are practicing, make sure to get used to the questions at the end of each passage because most students make errors there.

5. Read each question carefully: I can't even count how many dumb mistakes I've made on practice tests because I didn't read the question carefully. I know that it is difficult to pay attention when you literally have no time to think, but every point is important on this section. The curves on science tests usually aren't too generous, so minimize your small mistakes.

Resources: I heard "For the love of ACT science" is decent, but I personally didn't use any books for the science section. I simply took multiple practice tests to improve my score. There are a lot of REAL practice tests on crackact (the best resource ever).

I'll most likely continue posting more content about the ACT. I still have to address the Reading, Math, and Essay Portion, so look out for those next!

-Kyle (July 28, 2020)

[labcoatsandcalculators]

ACT Guide Part 4:

Hello! I’m back with my second to last ACT section post: the reading section. For some people, this section is extremely easy because it naturally comes to them. However, if you are just like me, this section is the hardest one. Here are the tips I suggest if you are having trouble with improving your score:

1. Understand the format: you must understand how this section works. In the reading section, there are four passages and each passage has 10 questions. You have 35 minutes to complete all four passages, which doesn’t leave much breathing room - “if you notice yourself breathing, you’re not going fast enough.”

2. Practice the passage type you struggle with most: in the reading section, the four types of passages are literary/prose fiction narrative, social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences, in that exact order. You have to take a few tests to figure out which ones you struggle with most. For me, literary/prose fiction narrative was the most difficult so I really honed in on it.

3. You can practice by reading anything: the great thing about this section is that you can practice with any material. Whether you read the New Yorker or a fictional story, you’re still practicing for this section by doing so. If you want to improve your score, get into the habit of reading more often, even if it’s only for 20 minutes a day.

4. Know what strategies work for you: some people read the entire passage, while others just go straight to the questions and look for evidence. For me, reading the entire passage was much more effective than skimming through it. At the same time, you can only figure out what works for you by taking tests.

5. The questions are very straightforward: for the most part, the answers to the reading questions are directly supported by evidence in the passage (almost word for word). This section is all about finding that evidence, almost like you’re playing “Where’s Waldo?” In other words, you don’t need a deep understanding of each passage. You just need an idea of the general message behind it and specific details provided in the passage.

Resources: Erica Meltzer has an ACT book for the reading section as well, but I’ve never used it in the past. Once again, I fully recommend just taking practice tests on crackact.

Thank you for reading my post and stay tuned for a possible post on the essay section!

-Kyle [September 19, 2020]