Mind Over Matter

"Be so good they can't ignore you."

[kubzie123]

"There’s a map in my room, on the wall of ky room, and I’ve got big, BIG plans."- Maps by The Front Bottoms

[thegrumpystudent]

Hi! Your blog is a huge motivator for me so I'd really like to say thanks! Also your post on studying for english really inspired me. I'm doing Shakespeare's merchant of venice and I was wondering if you've read it so maybe I could ask you a few questions? Thanks!

Thank you so much! Glad my blog is inspiring you. I know how hard it can be to feel motivated and excited to learn so I'm glad I can do that for you. Unfortunately, I haven't read Merchant of Venice so I don't think I'll be much of a help. I suggest looking online though, if your question is about themes or characters because there is so much information out there to help you with that!

[made-with-spoken-ly-blog]

Work until you no longer have to introduce yourself. | Create your own beautiful Tumblr quote images. Made with Spoken.ly

[studyingtosurvive]

Whoever said nerds weren’t hot obviously hasn’t met any of you.

[thegrumpystudent]

hello, I love you because your study schedule post and don't break the chain post are the bomb diggity and now I'm actually excited to start getting work done! thanks so much x

Ahhhh, that is so good to here! Looking at other studyblrs has always motivated and inspired me and I love that my blog is doing the same! Best of luck with all your work!

[worshipgifs]

[thegrumpystudent]

Could you do a post on time management and how to get all of your work done? My schedule is really unbalanced this year and I'm having trouble finding time to get it all done.

I will get right on that! 

[simonlouaza-deactivated20120901]

[150607-deactivated20160420]

my mildliners finally came in so i celebrated by doing some nutrition notes (also now everybody can see my handwriting!)

[thegrumpystudent]

The Study Schedule: A Tip I Thought Wouldn't Work, but Actually Did

I'm going to be completely honest here when I say that For the longest time, I thought Study Schedules were useless. I thought they were only creating an illusion of getting stuff done and being productive, when in reality, the minute they were created, they were put somewhere and forgotten about. I also thought that it was kinda dumb to box up your life with rigid times when you can't actually plan out your life, and things can get in the way, mess up your study schedule, and end up leaving you unmotivated.  

But I also noticed recently that I don't really study my subjects evenly, and the subjects that I think are really important are the ones I put all my energy in and the not-so-important ones just get neglected. So I decided to try out a study schedule for a week, to see if it might help and I can't believe I haven't tried this early. It's easy, keeps me on track and I can make sure I get everything done. So here are my tips for a study schedule!

Note: Before I begin, I just want to say that I made the study schedule above, but the pictures aren't mine (including the border). 

Let's Begin~~~!

1.  Flexibility

If you look in the picture, you can see that I didn't block up specific times that I would do my work. If you decide that from 10am-12:00pm, you were going to study, but you end up having to pick up a friend or buy something last minute, you'll miss that time and you can feel unmotivated. That's why, instead of specifying a time, block out hours. On Monday, you might set aside 2 hours for Math, and so you have all of Monday to get it done instead of a specific time period. You can even break it up further, meaning you could do an hour after breakfast and an hour after lunch. The key thing here, is flexibility. 

2. Be free to Prioritise

I'm sure that when many of you know you have a test coming up, you focus on the subject you have the test on, so you know all your stuff in time. That's hard to do when you have one single timetable that you use all year round. If you have a test the next day for Biology, but your timetable says you should be doing Physics for two hours, you won't be keeping to your timetable. Some of you might not think its a big deal, but motivation is hard to find and sticking to a study timetable can actually help a lot of people stay on track. Instead, write out weekly schedules. I wrote mine out today, and it took me about 15 minutes over morning coffee. You can see that the subjects I'm studying that have a lot of hours means I have a test coming up, and the subjects I spend less time in don't have anything important due. 

3. Factor in 'You!'

Your other commitments have to be counted when making a successful study timetable. If you have work some nights and don't get home till late, don't give yourself so much work on those days. I like piling on the work during the weekend, because even if I have a party or I'm going out with friends, there's more time to focus on all my work as opposed to Wednesday's when I have work till late. If you've got a full day with friends planned for Saturday's, give yourself the bare minimum to do on that day and make it up another day. 

4. Timing

Block up your time periods whatever way suits you. I personally like to study big blocks of work at a time and since I know that's what works for me, that's what I do. If you're more of a 20 minute studier, block your time into 20 minute increments. Don't follow generic advice about setting aside an hour for each subject if that's not how you work. 

5. Breaks

I personally, don't like pencilling in breaks. If I'm tired, then I'm tired and I need to step back and I again, I don't like being restricted to when I rest for a bit or not. I've blocked out my breaks before, and I remember stopping fifteen minutes before my study time was over because " my break was in 15 minutes anyway." If it helps you feel motivated and gives you something to work too, that's fine, but I really recommend that you don't set aside specific breaks because you'll only end up finishing early and forcing yourself to study, as opposed to actually wanting to. If you're forcing yourself to study, none of the information is going to really stick. 

6. Break it up

Mentioned this before, but breaking it up is really important. I know that my 9 hour Saturday study session seems ridiculous, but a 4 hour study session is about normal for me, so I break the 9hrs into two sessions. I do 4 hours before lunch, 4 hours after lunch, take a good few hours of break and then do the last hour just before bed. You'll actually get everything done, but you won't feel chained to your desk all the time. 

So these are my tips for keeping a study schedule. I hope I helped!

[karenkavett]

You guys keep asking for it, so here it is - the Don’t Break the Chain Calendar 2014! This was originally inspired by the Charlie McDonnell video Don’t Break the Chain back in 2012, and it’s a pretty simple idea. Basically, for each calendar that you print out, choose one activity that you want to do every day (or every other day or once a week or whatever you want) and mark off on the calendar every day that you manage to complete it. Eventually, you’ll have such a long chain that you won’t want to skip a day and thus, break the chain. Download the printable PDFs (this year in color!) in my new blog post. Happy New Year!

[fitnessisfun]

[thegrumpystudent]

Any tips for narrative writing essays I can never think of a good idea?

Narrative essays can be tough because I feel like so many people fall into the trap of thinking “my life is too boring” and can’t come up with any ideas. If you get a prompt from school that your narrative has to fall under (fear, a great obstacle you’ve overcome), try using that as your starting point. Look at old pictures (I feel like things that happen in your childhood are perfect for narrative essays) and talk to your parents and friends, because there’s a chance they’ll know all the random details about you that you might have forgotten. 

If you can’t think of anything on your own, use “milestone” moments. A bit cliche, but they can’t mark you down for those kinds of narrative essays. Think of things that most kids go through, like riding a bike for the first time, being a new kid, learning to swim, breaking an arm or a leg. For whatever scenario you pick, ask some basic questions. “How did I feel when it happened?”, “How did I feel leading up to that?” “What happened after?”, “What did it look like?”. These are all questions to get some details together to write a narrative essay. 

Just remember, your ideas don’t have to be big dramatic ones about you saved a kid from being eaten by a shark. Really good narrative essays, are all about making the most simplest things interesting to read about. 

[aglionby]

[madsirisheyes]

Always reblog.

[thegrumpystudent]

Shakesphere? No Problem: The Student's guide to studying for English

I'm going to start this off by saying that for the longest time, I had no idea how to study for English. I'd always read the book way before anyone else in my class, listen to a brief discussion of themes, write out my essay, and boom, A/A+. But late last year, I started wondering why I never do any work for English, but put tons of effort in studying for all my other subjects. My immediate response is that you can't study for English, but looking back, I definitely know you can. So this set of tips are for those of you who are doing well in English but want to boost up your scores, or for those of you who have this "you either get it or you don't" mentality about English. 

1. Annotate your book

Some people get really antsy about writing in the novel they're analysing, but its way easier than writing everything out on another piece of paper. As you read your novel, get out your highlighters and a pen and highlight important quotes for your essays  and write specific themes or notes about the characters as you come across them. I found that with a lot of my classmates, they'd technically read the book from cover to cover, but had no idea what the themes were and since that's important in essays, a lot of them found it really hard. If you're active about writing stuff down and highlighting, the story will even be easier to remember. 

2. Don't be obsessed with reading Sparknotes/Cliffnotes

These two websites are so helpful in understanding parts of the novel, finding themes and understanding characters but if you just read the analysis and basically write down what it says, you don't really get the book, you're just copying what someone else says about it. In essays, you can really tell the difference between someone that knows the book and someone who just read spark notes and think they do. My suggestion is that before you look at any online sources, brainstorm a list of themes yourself. That way, you know you understand what's going on, and you can get more from websites later. 

3. Possible Essay Questions

I only ever got one essay question from my teacher, so I recommend going online and finding different essay questions. Try to pick essay questions that cover different themes so you've covered all your bases for exams or tests, or if you already know what theme the exam will be focusing on, look for specific questions that relate to it. Write your practice essays and find people to give you feedback, weather its online, or your teacher or your friends. Specifically ask what they think you could improve on (especially from your teacher) because this is how to boost your grades. 

4. Make a study guide

Whatever your novel is, look online for discussions on themes, characters, questions, whatever you can find. Copy paste these into whatever word processor you use and either print them out, or just have it saved. Now, annotate it. If you're reading a paragraph on theme for example, write down appropriate quotes that relate to it, characters that might tie into it, simplify things, etc. Learning and remembering this stuff is all about the act of taking notes, not re-reading them, so make sure they're detailed. 

5. Dictionaries

I had no idea how useful a dictionary actually is, and I feel like its so underrated in schools. Even if you're good with almost all words and consider yourself to have a high vocabulary, there are going to be words that stump you, and these words might actually be the key to a whole new level of understanding. Seriously, keep some kind of dictionary with you and look up words. 

So those are my tips for acing English! As a side note, I'm studying Fahrenheit 451 at school right now, so if anyone needs any help with themes or just don't understand, don't be afraid to send me an ask!

[under-a-pile-of-papers-deactiva]

The materials I use for studyin’ :3

[2906-200]

I have three exams coming up next week. Wish me luckkk 👊