How to Study Like a Harvard Student

yhbgk:

Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother

Preliminary Steps

1. Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you.
2. Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24.

General Principles

3. Study less, but study better.
4. Avoid Autopilot Brain at all costs.
5. Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time.
6. Write it down.
7. Suck it up, buckle down, get it done.

Plan of Attack Phase I: Class

8. Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run.
9. Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on stumbleupon or something.

Phase II: Study Time

10. Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair.
11. Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. “This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym” ALWAYS BEATS “Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.”
12. Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done.
13. Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t.

Phase III: Assignments

14. Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead.
15. Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady.
16. Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes.
17. Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol). Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on.
18. Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time.
19. Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything.

Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week)

20. Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe.
21. If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet.
22. Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom.
23. People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor.
24. Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad.
25. Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point.

Phase V: Exam Day
26. Crush exam. Get A.

(Source: yhbgk-blog)

The ‘No Excuses’ Study System to Get That A

studyspiration-coffee:

I  School Days 

1. Show up to class a little early. It’ll give you time to set up, read over some old notes, put your water bottle/thermos on your desk, fill out your planner if you couldn’t in the previous period(s), check your planner to see if you have something on that day etc.

2. Sit in the front or second row. I’m serious, you will definitely benefit. Write detailed class notes. Pick whatever system works for you. I usually write my titles in red pen, notes in black pen, underline points that are repeated/emphasised, highlight keywords at home

3. If you have time at school, do as much homework as you can. If you know you have commitments that day, please for the love of your education do your homework at lunch. I know you might feel awkward, but your friends will understand. 

4. When you get home, first list down all the homework received that day on a q card (cross off as you go). Then write the same tasks in your bullet journal, but as a daily spread. Use stayfocusd or self control for mac + leave phone in a different room. FINISH ALL OF YOUR HOMEWORK. If for some reason you couldn’t complete a homework task, write it on a sticky note and place it on your wall. After homework is done, write your revision notes (flashcard the info as well). Place the notes in your accordion folder/binder. If you have some loose sheets at any point, place them in a ‘To Be Filed’ box. Sort that out when you’re packing your bag for the next day.

5. Go through the flashcards made that day and the flashcards made on the previous days. 
List out all assignments/assessments on another q card with their due dates. This will come in handy later.

6. Pack your bag the night before. Remember your accordion folder + make sure your ‘To Be Filed’ box is empty. Put water bottle in the fridge and make meals for the next day.

7. The next day, wake up early, complete any unfinished homework, go through flashcards again, read through revision notes, make lunch for the day, put laptop in bag, put food + water in bag, exercise (esp if you have commitments after school), shower, change, blah blah blah. Only do this if your schedule is packed, and in my case, this is a must.

II  Weekends

1. On Friday nights, first off, do homework. You will thank yourself for it. Whip out that list of assessments/assignments and allocate half days to knock off at least two of these little assholes. Work ahead, you will feel much better.

2. Do your readings. For English, knock off some wider reading novels, for HSIE, knock off some textbook unit readings (two units ahead), for science, knock off some more textbook readings. Write summaries of each page. Type these summaries. Print these summaries. Place in accordion folder/binder. Flashcard the info. Spend like half a day doing this lmao.

3. Spend 1-2 hours going through the flashcards you made that week for each subject. This counts as studying my friend. 

III Weekends When You Actually Have Assessments 

1. Due to your working ahead, homework completion and readings, you shouldn’t be panicking too much. Get those revision notes and slot in the textbook readings notes. Highlight, annotate, read aloud, go through flashcards and get someone to test you on the content. Make sure you know all terms, formulae, key concepts, vocabulary etc etc

2. As for assignments, again due to your working ahead just print them out and heavily edit those little asshats. Then type the edits into the doc. Repeat this process four times. Then get someone to read it. Make sure all your assignments are on your USB + email them to yourself because you never fucking know tbh. 

3. You’ll probs have to sacrifice your reading time but that’s chill because the teacher/prof will probably be focusing on prepping you for the actual assessment + you gotta do what you gotta do.

SUMMARY

Seriously, just do your homework the day you receive it, write revision notes, do your readings, write notes on those readings, make flashcards, knock out assignments as soon as you know they actually exist, read every wider reading novel (analyse these novels), read your required readings (analyse this too), go over flashcards every morning/afternoon, make use of spare time in class, do homework at lunch if needed, stick to your schedule, buy coffee/hot chocolate in the mornings and put it in a thermos, keep a necessities pouch in your bag, keep your P.E shoes in your locker, use a planner, track your spending, wash your hair, brush your hair, go to commitments, attend school events, attend events you’re invited to, go shopping, watch movies, be kind to yourself, take bubble baths, light candles, listen to music, SLEEP, get that A and most importantly be proud of yourself. 

Reblog this if you are literally suprised when people find you attractive.

GUIDE TO:

pathofthestrong:

1. FIX YOUR SLEEPING SCHEDULE (1-2 months)
1. Try to wake up earlier every day. Like 5 - 10 min earlier than the day before. Until you wake up any time before 8am or so…
2. If you struggle with waking up & snooze button is your bff:
   
1. Put your alarm clock as far away from the bed as possible.
2. Drink a glass of water right after you wake up.
3. Pour another glass of water on yourself right after you wake up.
4. Prepare some coffee the night before (try the cold brew method), leave it by your bedside, drink it after you wake up. Alternatively, buy some caffeine pills and take one right after waking up with a big glass of water.
5. Have your blinds/curtains open the night before, so that it’s bright after you wake up.
3. Try to go to bed 5-10 min earlier than the night before.
4. Track how many hours of sleep you’re getting. Aim to get at least 7h per day or 49h per week. 
5. Increase your sleeping hours incrementally. Aim to get at least 1h of sleep more than the previous week. For example, if this week you slept for 41hrs, aim to get an extra hour of sleep next week, so it’s 42h. Once you get enough hours of sleep and wake up early-ish:
6. Try to keep your sleeping schedule consistent. It is really important to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. Even if it’s weekend. Or even if that means getting less than 7hrs of sleep that day. I’d say waking up at the same time everyday is the most important step, which will help you the most with fixing your sleeping schedule.
   
   
2. START EATING HEALTHY (1-2 months)
   
1. This step really depends from person to person, but firstly I suggest you take some blood tests to see if you have any deficiencies, etc. Especially, if you struggle with cravings.  
2. Try intermittent fasting, if you struggle with binge eating or overeating. As it will help you to learn to listen to your body better: when it’s hungry, when it’s full, etc. It’s really simple, there are many methods of Intermittent fasting, but I’d suggest 16/8 for the beginners. (Google it for more info)
3. DRINK ALL THE WATER. Again, if you’re not drinking enough water, try to level up your water game incrementally. Download some water tracking app on your phone to help you. Drinking water will make you more energetic, increase your metabolism, and decrease you appetite (among many more benefits). If you really struggle with meeting your water intake:
1. Reward yourself when you meet your daily/weekly goals.
2. Drink through the straw - idk why, but you are going to drink much more if you use a straw. Trust me.
3. Get a nice water bottle. 
4. Flavour your water with fruits etc.
5. Check this video for more tips
4. Track what you eating. I would really suggest tracking your meals for around a month. Because, most of the time people have no idea that what they’re eating is unhealthy. Again, download an app to your phone for that.
5. Make your own meals once in a while. Not only this will save you money, but it’ll help you to see what’s really going into your body.
6. Eat less meat and more veggies/fruits. Go to your local market and buy some veggies/fruits, you have never tried before. I’m sure you’ll find your new favs. Eat/buy less meat. Not only it’s good for the environment, but it is good for you, too. Get a veggie burger instead of the beef one, etc.
7. Cut dairy. Find your new favourite milk substitute. Advice: Oat milk is really good with the tea and oatmeal/porridge; hazelnut milk is amazing on it’s own; cashew milk goes well with cereals.
8. Learn more about nutrition in general. It will help you to make better food choices and it will make eating healthy much easier in general, because once you understand all the chemistry behind the food and what it does to your body, you kinda don’t want to make yourself feel worse. Here are some free resources:
   - Human nutrition course from Alison.com
   - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2
   - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition
   - What I’ve Learnt YouTube Playlist
   - Human nutrition course from Alison.com
   - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2
   - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition
   
   
3. GET PHYSICALLY FIT (2-6 months)
   
1. Define your goals. Do you want to lose weight, do you want to get stronger, gain weight, be able to climb stairs without losing breath, run 5k?
2. Remember - you’re half-way through. Being physically fit has a lot to do with what you put into your body. So, if you fulfilled the previous step of eating healthy - you are halfway through!
3. Make a plan. A Reasonable plan. Be honest with yourself. Alternatively, there are many already-made plans if you’re feeling lazy. Like, Couch to 5k for running,  Beginners 30-day exercise guide, 30 days of yoga, etc.
4. Start small. Like, 5 min exercise in the morning. Or doing 10 sit ups per day. Don’t do anything overwhelming, like running 5k everyday if you haven’t run for the past 5 years.
5. Make sure that you kinda like what you’re doing. If you absolutely hate running - don’t do it. Hate doing sit ups in the morning? Try some yoga instead.
6. Explore until you find what you like. You don’t have to go to gym to get fit, especially if you hate it. Find a type of exercise, which you actually like. Maybe it’s dancing or hiking, taking your dog for a walk. Sign up for several trial lessons of various sport clubs. Ditch ‘em if you have them until you find something that you love. Stick with that.
7. Do the small changes in your everyday life. Stairs>Escalator, Walk>Drive, Do some squats while brushing your teeth, switch from regular desk to standing desk, etc…  Find ways to incorporate being active into your everyday life
8. Track your effort instead of your progress. You cannot really control your progress that much (especially if your goal was to lose weight). However, you can always control your effort. So track it instead. This will leave you more motivated. As you will be able to see that you can do more and more everyday. Whereas, if you tracked your progress, you may not always get the result you hoped for, which might demotivate you and make you upset, wanting to quit.
   
   
4. BEAT DEPRESSION
1. Do the previous 3 steps and you’re halfway through as mental health depends a lot on physical health.
2. See a therapist/doctor. Depression is an illness requiring medical treatment. So, get it. Remember: 
   there is absolutely no fucking shame in having a mental illness.
3. Get some extra support. Talk to your friends or family. Or maybe someone on the internet.
4. Write it out. If you don’t want to talk - write down your thoughts. It can be just as helpful. It’ll help you to understand yourself better, see problems in your thinking, etc. Buy a cheap notebook (or expensive one, up to you) and start a journal. Try being consistent by writing every morning or evening or both, but DO NOT BLAME YOURSELF if you miss some entries. Read through your past entries. Analyse them. Extract the lessons.
5. Distract yourself from yourself. Get someone/something to take care of, so that you can, for a moment, stop thinking about yourself. E.g, get a plant, or a dog, or a fish and focus on keeping them alive and well.
6. Self-care day. Dedicate at least one day per week for self-care. Take yourself out to a museum or some fancy cafe, do some stuff you like, whatever your hobbies are, do some physical self care: bath, face mask, manicure, etc., listen to some nice music, watch a film…..
   
   
5. STOP PROCRASTINATION
1. Celebrate your victories instead of mourning over your loses. So the only thing you’ve done today was write one sentence for your 20 page essay? Amazing! Buy yourself a candy for that!! I mean, you could’ve done nothing, but you didn’t - you wrote that one sentence and that’s worth celebrating. 
   Redefine the success - doing something is a hundred million times better than doing nothing.
2. Do it for only 2 minutes. If there’s an important thing you’ve been putting off for a while, tell yourself that you will only spend 2 minutes on doing it. If after 2 minutes you don’t want to do it anymore, great, stop it. However, after 2min. you actually might want to do more. No pressure either way.
3. Track your productivity. Track how much time you’ve been productive that day. Try to increase that time by a little bit every day.
4. Always forgive yourself. So, it’s been a week and you’ve done nothing? Don’t sweat it. Let it go. Blaming yourself will bring you absolutely nothing. Nothing good will come out of your negativity on yourself. So stop it. Forgive yourself and start again. And again, if you need to. Never stop trying. Always pick yourself after you fall. Beating procrastination and increasing your discipline is a skill. And all skills can be build on. There is nothing in you stopping you from changing. Remember that.
   
   
6. LEARN HOW TO DO TAXES (1h - 1 day)
   
1. Go to google.com.
2. Type in: “How to do taxes *the name of the country you’re living in*”
3. Read the results.
4. Alternatively, if you like socialising, ask some adults, you know, about it. Trust me, older people love teaching us youngsters. Learn all the lessons you can from them/
   
   
7. GET MENTALLY STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE PHONE CALLS
1. Remember that just as with beating procrastination, making phone calls is a skill. And, again, skills can be learnt.
2. Get a new SIM card.
3. Top it up.
4. Dial some random numbers and pretend to be a salesman, selling whatever you like.. E.g., trying to sell broadband, cable tv, trying to get people to donate for some charity… Or whatever really… Me and some friends used to pretend we’re selling kittens or wood logs. Alternatively, you can pretend that you dialed a wrong person and talk about whatever, e.g. “Hey, Jess!! You wont believe what I saw today!! *start telling a made-up story*…”
5. If you get uncomfortable - just drop the call. No consequences whatsoever.
6. Repeat until you build up your game and your phone-call anxiety starts to diminish.
   
   
8. SLAY THOSE BITCHES
   Congratulations, now you’re ready to take over the world! Got get ‘em!!
   

(Source: getthelifetogether)

List of Studyblrs: PHYSICS

studying-in-the-clouds:

exceli:

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PHD

• @astro-feminist​
• 27, Physics Education, 5th year, USA
• @roundlittledog​
• Dennis, 26, High Energy Phenomenology (Particle Physics), 4th year, USA
• @planetary-science​
• Shrey, 21, Planetary Science/Astrophysics, 1st year, USA
• @the-astro-girl​
• 25,  Non-linear dynamics relevant to Astrophysics, 1st year, India

MASTERS

• @astronomyinspires​
• Emjay, 27, Physics BSc with emphasis in Astrophysics, Science Education MSc, Graduated, USA 
• Likes reading astronomy & physics books, teaching physics and space science

UNDERGRADUATE (aka Bachelor’s  degree)

• @fromquantumfluctuations​ (instagram)
• Munira, 21,  Physics and Astrophysics BSc, Graduated, South Africa
• Taking a gap year before starting Masters, involved in astrophysics research
• @fluidicspacegirl (instagram)
• Iza, 27, Physics BSc (interested in Astrophysics route), 4th year, USA
  
• Former dropout
• @fran-does-physics​  (instagram)
• Fran, 20, Physics (4 year joint BSc and MSc degree), 3rd year, UK
• @thephysicistgirl​
• Kathi, 20,  Physics BSc (Astrophysics route), 3rd year, Germany, Technical University of Munich 
• @briefblazeunknown​
• Lau, 20, Physics BSc, 3rd year, UK
• @nerdymisanthrope​
• Deb, 24, Condensed Matter Physics, 2nd year, USA 
• Already has Bachelor’s degree in Music, doing Physics as a second degree
• @universtudying​
• Geo, 20, Theoretical Physics, 2nd year, UK
• @curious-desk​
• Grace, 20, Physics BSc, 2nd year, USA
• @paradeisa-studies​  (instagram)
• Paradeisa, 19, Physics BSc, 2nd year, UK
• @studying-in-the-clouds​
• Ilva, 19, Physics (interested in Astrophysics route), 2nd year, UK (London)
• @astro-fabulous​
• Beth, 19, Astrophysics (4 year joint BSc and MSc degree) , 2nd year, UK, University of Liverpool
• @mathsphysics​
• Miri, 19,  Physics BSc (interested in Solid-state physics or Particle Physics route), 2nd year, Germany
• @picturesquephysics​​
• Yvette, Physics with Theoretical physics, 2nd year, UK
• @physicsandlemonade​
• Lexi, 19, Physics BSc (interested in either Particle Physics or Astrophysics route), 2nd year, USA
• @studyingshinee​
• Henry, 19, Physics BSc (interested in Astronomy, Astrophysics, or Space Physics routes), 2nd year, USA
• @barycentric​
• Muza, 18, Physics and Astronomy (interested in Astrophysics route), 2nd year, Scotland
• @studyin-space​
• CeeCee, 19, Physics BSc (interested in Astronomy route), 2nd year, USA
• @astrokaybay​  (instagram)
• Kaybay, 26, Astrophysics, 1st year, USA, (already has an Electrical Engineering BSc)
• @physicist-to-be​
• Jovana, 18, Theoretical and Experimental physics, 1st year, Serbia, University of Belgrade
• @physicsblr​
• Coleen, 19, Physics BSc, 1st year, UK (Wales)
• @planningwithlana​  (instagram)
• Lana, 20, Physics BSc, 1st year, UK (Scotland)

HIGH SCHOOL

• @integreation​
• Laur, 19, Interested in Quantum Mechanics and Relativity, A-levels, 13th year, Malaysia
• @svtnstudy​
• Tabby, 17, Interested in Astrophysics,  A-levels, 13th year, UK
• @physicssupportdesk​
• Soph, 17, Interested in studying Physics BSc, A-levels, 13th year, UK
• @celestial-forms  (instagram)
• C, 17, Interested in Applied Physics, Quantum Mechanics, and Biophysics, 12th year, USA

OTHER

• @exceli​ (aka me)
• Ellie, 21, Self-studying physics (high school to undergraduate level), UK (London)
• Interested in Theoretical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Quantum Biology, Biophysics, and Mathematical Physics
• Currently reading through Feynman’s lectures - message me, if you’d like to join ‘the Feynman’s reading club’ 

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Woo! I’m on here! Have a look at these other physics studyblrs if I’m boring you ;)

p.s. I’m back at Uni next week so I promise to post more! I thought I’d have content this week from preparations for the new school year, but I severely sprained my foot so I all I want to do is eat cake and chocolate all day!