not so much study tips, more thoughts on university/studying in general

although these posts are abundant, i like to have my own collection of study tips/uni thoughts

- i've been viewing my studies as an office job, mostly because of the 9 to 5 mentality. i am not one for night studying, i have tried and tried and felt guilty when i heard others talk about their late night study sessions, but it is just not for me. which is fine, because with this 9 to 5 idea i have created working days for myself and i can use my evenings for extracurriculars, books, friends, netflix 

- the train has (weirdly) become one of my favourite study spots. of course this really depends on the public transport you use. i am on a train for two hours a day, no transfer, and i either go to a silent area (have not yet seen this elsewhere, but dutch trains have carriages in which there is complete silence) or i put in my earpods. i love this because when i come home, i have already done so much work, e.g. organized my lecture notes of that day, inserted my professor's comments into my paper etcetera

- although i've also learned to recognize when i am just done. sometimes i have had enough and it is way better to accept that and then i either listen to some music and stare at the passing landscape, or i watch an episode of the crown. when feeling exhausted, there's no point in pushing and forcing yourself

- this goes for many many aspects: comparison will kill you. it is often still my tendency to compare myself to others on all levels - grades, kindness, clothing, weight, work ethic - but i make the effort to not 'indulge' in it. what my therapist told me has really helped: just notice that the urge to compare is there but then leave it be. like it's a tiny spider crawling on your leg; you don't have to do something with it

- on the topic of work ethic: don't listen to your fellow students. don't listen to what some wonderful academic says (online). don't even listen to what your professors say regarding study hours. it has often made me feel very uncertain, but i think it is way better to figure it out yourself. to build up a feeling of trust towards yourself, so you can really start to notice, to feel, when you have done enough. that is something only you should be able to judge and not some external source

- sometimes i get overwhelmed with this sensation that i have not done enough, that i am lazy and have accomplished nothing. however, every (every!) time i have noticed this to be untrue. so perhaps i have not studied every chapter, but i have studied other chapters. i found the cliché of looking at what you have done to really be true. it helps me put things into perspective, i think we can really underestimate ourselves in how much work we have done. what you consider to be 20% may actually be 60%

- motivating internal monologues are completely normal and actually very good! give yourself that motivating speech, it's like a snow track that becomes deeper and clearer everytime you repeat it 

it helps me to look back on these at times, has been in my concepts for a while now (like some kind of motivating internal monologue) but i want this to have a place on my actual blog, because i believe tips like these (less focused on studying and more on coping with the whole world of studying/academia) are important as well 

25/09/19 — i want to get back to journaling this fall & here are my poor attempts :-)

july 08, 2019. 

Here’s a look at the planner that I tried to use for the whole school year, but truly ever did start using consistently at the end with the flooding of AP tests, finals, and projects! On another note, my mother is leaving today for the cooking class and I’m considering just staying in my room for the whole duration and watching Game of Thrones or the third season of Stranger Things bcs I despise being forced to associate with other people (especially if I’ve never even talked to them before) + I find children annoying most of the time. I’m also coming down with an eye infection and it’s so painful everytime I blink or keep my eyes open for a long time. I hope y’all are having a better Monday and are being kind to yourselves! ✨

🎧: i don’t care - ed sheeran & justin bieber

sunday night readings on karl marx

28.11.19 | Half way through course 2! Two more weeks to go and the exam on Thursday of the last week! I need to seriously start studying if I want to reach my goal, but first: family lunch on Saturday and my boyfriend meeting them for the first time!!🙈

i haven’t slept all night but managed to get a fair bet of work down ✨✨ taking notes for some essays im working on 💗

tuesday the 30th of july 2019

hi! here’s a pic from when i was studying for my french exam in a coffee shop with my friends!

have a lovely day ✨

24 09 2019 

The last of my exams is on Friday and I can’t even wait for the holidays ~

This Empty Northern Hemisphere - Gregory Alan Isakov 

huge throwback to my days as a baby science student ... though I’m happy that I ended up majoring in English, I do miss the intricacies of diagraming the human body 🦠

[07/07/19] ~ (Gyn/Obs) Notes on human Placenta

These review questions were so hecking l e n g t h y.......Omg.

🎧 Speechless - Naomi Scott

I was working on annotating Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” when my aunt came in from her garden and gave me this darling yellow rose.

well deserved library spot (it was a serious quest) and going through old old books for my internship

15/08/19 — i brought this cake just for the aesthetics but it was really good actually

july 26, 2019. 

Anyone else feeling like their days are just a blur like you’re doing things but they’re not really the things that you should be doing? Anyways, I haven’t really done any school-related things for the past week bcs I’ve been having existential crises and questioning my life decisions due to being discouraged by the way my counselor (who’s supposed to support me and provide guidance to the college process) has treated all of my plans and has expressed his doubts about my abilities like, a couple of days ago, I literally knew exactly what I wanted and, if they didn’t work out, I created back-up plans yet I told him about it and he dismissed a majority of it and wants me to have a meeting with him so we can talk more about it (there’s literally no time to talk about it anymore) and, honestly y’all, I’m just so frustrated. He’s literally making me rethink every single thing. I’ve also started watching Love Island USA bcs, apparently, I cannot dedicate myself to finishing at least one series before suddenly starting a new one. Here’s another evidence of the effort I put in for APUSH last year, but ultimately didn’t go through with it! I hope y’all are having better days! ✨

🎧: eastside - benny blanco, halsey, & khalid

16 nov 2019 // Roman Empire notes

wokay geog took me a lil longer than expected i guess i 'overthought' and went searching for a few more articles to read up on? but still it was interesting to make connections between what i was studying and the natural disasters that are happening in the world right now. i find that relevance to real life makes studying easier and it was heartwarming to see all the instances when the international community rallied together to help disaster victims :")

moving on i hope to finish a math paper and chinese paper in the afternoon;-; it's gonna be a lil tough but i have faith in my writing speed HAHAHA