20 Top Study Tips

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1. It’ll get tough. Really fucking tough. You already knew that. But that’s life, accept it. Put away the books for an hour, drink some tea, cuddle your pets, stare at the ceiling, watch some Youtube videos, and then finish your homework. 2. There will be a lot of days where you wanna quit or can’t get out of bed. Don’t call in sick and don’t drop out. You can do this, you can survive this year like all the others. 3. Enjoy learning new things. Knowledge is power, knowledge is sexy. 4. Don’t pay attention to others, you are here for you, nobody really pays attention to others anyway. 5. Be nice to teachers and help fellow students. Kindness makes life so much easier. 6. ASK THINGS. Ask the most stupid questions and ask the hardest. Just ask anything you want to know. Teachers think you’re dumb? Fuck them. Students laugh at you? Fuck them. YOU need to pass that class and YOU need that degree. 7. Make your lunch the evening before if you have trouble getting out of bed in the morning. Breakfast helps you start up your day. If you don’t have time to eat at home, make some for in class. 8. Go to bed early. A good night’s rest is everything. It’ll make getting out of bed a lot easier. 9. Always carry a water bottle with you. ALWAYS. 10. Take a deep fucking breath. It’s all going to be okay. Take a few steps back and look at your situation with a clear view. Realize how far you’ve come already. Be proud of yourself. Celebrate small victories. You are doing okay.

10 steps on how to survive another year of school. (via everything-studyblr)

hey guys!! so i saw this post floating around about harry potter music and stuff, and i was really inspired and made a playlist for myself of music from the soundtracks on my spotify. honestly, i listen to that music all of the time now when i study and it really does help me focus, so here’s a quick little list of resources to get you guys started if you’re interested :)

ambient mixer faves

for those of you who don’t know, ambient mixer is a website that lets people use sounds to create atmospheres (it’s really cool trust me)

gryffindor, hufflepuff, ravenclaw, & slytherin common rooms 

hogwarts library (the clock on this one stresses me out, so i just turn that off and it’s perfect)

storm on the hogwarts express

the great hall

under the black lake

weasley’s wizarding wheezes

youtube faves

complete soundtrack

the best of hp (1 hour 30 min)

sorcerer’s stone, chamber of secrets, prisoner of azkaban, goblet of , fire, order of the phoenix, half blood prince, deathly hallows pt 1, + deathly hallows pt 2 soundtracks 

best hp musical moments

top ten best musical moments

8tracks faves

for the gryffindor

for the hufflepuff

for the slytherin

for the ravenclaw

the yule ball

spotify faves

my spotify is @evamarie31 & i have my study playlists + usual jams on there if you want to check that, but as for playlist & album recs:

harry potter 1-7 film scores 

sorcerer’s stone + chamber of secrets + prisoner of azkaban sountracks under john williams

goblet of fire soundtrack under patrick doyle

order of the phoenix + half blood prince soundtracks under nicholas hooper

both deathly hallows soundtracks under alexandre desplat

other study music:

my study sounds masterpost

study sounds masterpost by @studyign

another study sounds masterpost by @areistotle

my other posts

studying when ill

french resources

spanish resources

essay writing

stress relief

These tips are not my own: I was perusing the web a few days ago and found these rather helpful tips for note taking, nothing groundbreaking but they’re from Cambridge University sooo. I hope they provides some insight. 

Note-taking

Notes taken during lectures, seminars and research will form the basis of your work, helping you to prepare essays and dissertations and revise for exams. Effective note-taking is a very useful skill which can help you to:

focus and concentrate

organise and record key details

gain a fuller understanding of the information and improve your recall

save time and energy by working more efficiently.

Tips for effective note-taking

be critical about the material - assess its importance to the subject matter, and its credibility

don’t copy large amounts of text verbatim

always keep detailed notes of any resources used so that you can reference properly later

review and summarise your notes afterwards

organise and store your notes so that they are easy to retrieve            

The following are examples of note-taking techniques:

mind maps (e.g. spider diagram) - help you to visualise key points and the connections and overlaps between them

tabular notes - help with making comparisons between points

flow charts - help to visualise steps in a process

index cards

highlighting and annotating.

To get the most out of your lectures, you may find it useful to:

find out the subject of the lecture beforehand and read up, so that you’ll be prepared for the key themes and ideas

don’t try to write down everything - keep to main points

create a wide margin on each page so that there’s room to expand on your notes later.

When note-taking from written material it is helpful to:

take reference details down before you start reading

reading the introduction and conclusion is useful for ascertaining the main arguments and context

read critically.

5 Tips when it comes to Mind Mapping

1) Decide on your paper size Before you start writing anything it’s really important to work out what size paper you want to do your mindmap on. Be it A3, A4, A5 or any other size you can think of, deciding this early on will make things much easier in the long run and leave you with a much more organised mind map

2) Work out the basics Before you actually start writing anything it’s a really good idea to work out the basics of your mind map. What type of bubble do you want the title to be in? Spiky or a cloud or just a plain circle? What kind of lines to you want leading off from it? Arrows or just plain lines? Straight or curved? Taking 30 seconds to work these out before you start will make everything much easier in the long run and leave you with a much neater and better organised mind map

3) Choose what to write with This part is all down to personal preference. Do you prefer writing in a plain colour and then highlighting later? Do you want each section in a different colour? Felt tips or biros? Fineliners or pencils? This is the time when you can think about what you’re most comfortable writing with and what’s going to make it easiest for you to retain the information 

4) Add pictures and diagrams Adding little drawings to aid your explanations is a really great way to help you remember what you write. You don’t have to be good at art to make this work, just add a few little diagrams here and there and you’ll be surprised how much more easily you retain the information

5) Have fun with it You may be looking at a picture of a mind map online and saying to yourself ‘that’s exactly what I want mine to look like’ but in reality that’ll never happen. You’ll never manage to get a mind map that looks exactly the same as someone else’s and in all honesty that would be a bit boring. Instead just get stuck in and create your own unique masterpiece

So I just finished my CALC 2 class with the highest marks in the class and I wanted to put together a “guide” on how to study for calculus. It doesn’t matter if you are taking AP Calculus or Calculus in college, this guide should be a general overview but I will mention some specifics to AP Calc. 

General Tips

Buy the AP CALC review books. Regardless of whether you are in college calculus or actually in AP Calculus, the review books are great in condensing materials and having good examples. 

Create your own cheat sheet. Every time you learn a new formula or theorem, write it down in a cheat sheet. This forces you to recall the information constantly.

Know your common derivatives and common integrals like the back of your hand.

Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Part I & II? Yeah, it’s fundamental. Need to know that. 

Common limits? Yep, that too. 

Know your pre-calc and algebra by heart. The hardest thing about calculus is not the formulas and theorems, but recalling past materials to solve a problem. If you could easily recognize trigonometric identities, you would be well set for the class.

Know what trig graphs look like and what they approach, etc. 

Learn how to do the math without a calculator. Some professors don’t let you use calculators on the tests and when you are become too dependent on the calculator, you tend to forget how to do simple addition/subtraction and multiplication/division. Also, there is a non-calculator portion to the AP Calculus Exam, so don’t make your calculator your crutch.

Practice every day + do your homework. A little practice everyday goes a long way and doing your homework (even if it doesn’t count as a grade) can be a drastic way of improving your grades because chances are, your teacher knows you probably aren’t going to do the homework and will have test questions very similar to the homework questions. 

Show all your work. Write all the steps out. If you make a mistake mentally, your whole answer will be wrong. To decrease the chances of loosing points for careless errors, label everything, even if it tedious.Also, work shown can count towards partial credit on tests. 

Practice the problems from your textbook + problems outside your textbook.

Understand and review old tests. When you get your tests back, redo the whole test on another sheet of paper. Try to understand where you went wrong. Was it a simple math calculation error? Did you do the derivative wrong? Was the theorem wrong? Did you forget a step like checking for conditions to apply L’hopitals Rule or Alternating Series Test for Convergence? Whatever it is, go through the entire test (yes, even the ones you got right) and re-do it. 

Ask for help when you don’t understand something. Solving touch calculus problems are easier when working with a group on a white board because you get a fresh set of eyes and a new mindset/approach to a problem. If you cannot tackle a problem, regardless of how many ways you have tried, it’s best to ask someone who already knows how to do it. 

Resources for AP CALC

Buy review books. Honestly, this is self-explanatory. I usually would go with a Barron review book, but hey, what ever works with you. 

Do the previously released AP Calc exams. If you are a BC student, do the release exams for both AB and BC for more practice. 

Previously released AB Exams

Previously released BC Exams

Step-by-step explanations for free response questions release

AB Study Guide

Cheat Sheets + Other Resources

I advise you to print out the cheat sheets and place it in the front of your calculus binder/notebook or where it can be easily accessed. 

Cheat Sheets

AP Calculus Stuff You Must Know Cold 

This 2-page cheat sheet is honestly god gifted and I advise you to print it out and laminate or something and put it in the front of your calc binder/notes. Will definitely save your life. 

Algebra Cheat Sheet 

Trigonometric Cheat Sheet

Calculus Cheat Sheet

Derivatives and Limits

Integrals

Online Tutorials + Videos

Khan Academy

Differential Calculus

Integral Calculus

Paul’s Online Math Notes

HippoCampus

Online Calculators

Symbolab’s Calculus Calculator

The most beautiful thing to ever exist when you are checking your answers or looking for the steps on how to do a problem.

Don’t rely on it too much. Actually learn how to do it. 

Wolfram Alpha

Implicit Differentiation Calculator

Desmos Online Graphing Calculator

Bet you don’t know how to graph an x-function on that TI-84 without solving it out for y. But it’s cool, neither do I. That’s why I rely on Desmos’ Online Graphing Calculator.

09.15// Math isn’t my strong suit so colorful fun notes are a necessity for this class ☀️

Tips for studying during term break

Wake up early. Not as early as during school term - term break is not a time to be waking up at 6am daily - but not at noon either. Aim for around 8-10am, so you’re not sleepy af when you start work, and you haven’t slept half the day away.

Slacken a little. Don’t overwork yourself!! I find a good method is to restrain your studying time to within your normal school hours (8am-6pm for me - which gives plenty of time to relax and watch tv shows in the evening), and study for about 2/3 of that time. This way you’ll still have covered at least several hours of work, but won’t feel exhausted :) (oh yes, if possible review your notes before sleeping to make them stick)

Scheduling. Have a masterlist of tasks to complete/goals to achieve during the break. Work out a rough estimate on how many days are needed to do complete all you have to do, and spread your tasks out evenly, preferably by weeks. Remember to work around your dates with friends (or significant others)/vacations! Keep to your goals so you have more free days :)) 

Study groups. During breaks it’s much much easier to arrange study sessions with friends. It’ll feel a lot less like you’re wasting your break, and you can catch meals with them before/after/during your session, so you’ll enjoy your study days more.

Go out/invite in/chill. It’s term break!!! Go out with your friends/get them to come over!! Or if you prefer having some alone time, have the day to yourself. At least 1 every 4 days, more if possible! If you’re part of a group activity that trains frequently, this can be skipped, but shouldn’t be.