A Quick Visual Guide To Some Key Parts Of Mindmapping.

Back To School: Stationery

PENCIL CASES:

Pencil cases by Paperchase

Lani Ang three layer pencil case

Large pastel colour pencil case

IPOW canvas pencil case 

IPOW floral canvas pencil case

Emma Bridgewater pencil case

PLANNERS:

WHSmith black A6 diary - Week-to-view

WHSmith black A6 diary - Page-to-view

‘This Week’ planner by Knock Knock

‘5 Days A Week’ desk jotter by Knock Knock

Planners and organisers by Paperchase

NOTEBOOKS:

Oxford Campus notebooks

10 subject notebook by Paperchase

Decomposition notebooks

Pukka Pad notebooks

Muji notebooks (B5)

Muji notebooks (A5)

PENS:

Pilot V5 Hi-tecpoint 0.5 pen (black)

Uni-ball eye fine tip roller-ball pen (black)

Bic medium ballpoint pen (black)

Muji 0.5 gel ink pens

Muji 0.38 gel ink pens

PENCILS:

Muji box of 12 colouring pencils

Staedtler colouring pencils (24 pack)

Staedtler HB pencils (5 pack)

PaperMate mechanical pencil (12 pack)

Paperchase dual ended colouring pencils (12 pack)

Paperchase graphic pencils (10 pack)

FINELINERS AND FELT-TIPS:

Stabilo fineliners (20 pack)

Stabilo felt-tips (20 pack)

Staedtler triplus fineliners (20 pack)

Staedtler triplus felt-tips (20 pack)

Paperchase fineliners (12 pack)

HIGHLIGHTERS:

Stabilo boss highlighters (8 pack)

Stabilo boss highlighters (4 pack)

Staedtler highlighter (8 pack)

Sharpie highlighter (4 pack)

Paperchase cat highlighters (5 pack)

Paperchase panda highlighters (5 pack) 

MISCELLANEOUS:

Paperchase tube map memo block

Paperchase sticky note box

Dot and stripe washi tape

Allydrew washi tape

Tipex correction fluid

Post-it notes 3″x 3″ (5 pack)

Index cards (white) 3″x 5″

Ladies and gentlemen, new guest post on the blog

5 Proved Tips for Witing a Fresh Book Review

“Do you know how to write a fresh book review? You may have already faced with this unordinary task but we have some tips for you to do it at your best. Some basic things you should know is that a book review is intended to describe, analyze and evaluate. It also should…” Read More>>   

The author of the post is http://youreasystudy.tumblr.com/!

German vocabulary list: Colors

rot (red)

rosa/pink (pink)

blau (blue)

hellblau (light blue)

dunkelblau (dark blue)

grün (green)

gelb (yellow)

orange (orange)

braun (brown)

beige (beige)

violett (violet)

lila (purple)

weiß  (white)

grau (grey)

schwarz (black)

To be prepared is half the victory

// I’m back with some tips on taking notes from readings! This is a sequel/prequel (whatever floats your boat) to how to take lecture notes. One big tip I have is that you shouldn’t really be using the same study methods for every single class in your undergraduate career. Different subjects/professors/assessments/levels require different methods. The more attuned to that you are, the more likely you’ll get that A

Maybe it’s just me, but I think a significant part of career planning and goal setting in medicine is developing the ability to acknowledge that you can have an interest in many things (which is a good thing, it keeps you keen and motivated) but you become conscious of the fact that that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to/can/should aim for a career in that area, if you know what I mean? And that realisation that you now have an idea of where you want your career to go is what ends up motivating you once you get past that initial ‘everything in medicine is exciting’ phase. At the beginning of med school/clinics, you think to yourself “woah, I’m interested in so many things - neuro, cardio, infectious diseases, general surgery, anaesthetics - I wish there was a path that would combine everything!” and yeah there are generalists and all that but (at least personally) sometimes you think about it all and you realise that there are aspects of medicine that you are happy to keep as just a ‘personal interest’, and others which you just can’t let go of. For example, I am fairly committed to paeds (I mean, I haven’t graduated yet but I’m 99% certain I want to work in paeds) but I also have special interests in psychiatry and anaesthetics/intensive care medicine - but over the years I’ve come to realise that just because I’m particularly interested in it does not mean I’m now ‘destined’ to be a psychiatrist or an anaesthetist, nor do I think an academic interest in neurological research would make me a good neurologist. When it comes down to it, even the basic divisions like medicine/surgery/GP can feel confusing when you’re 95% set on medical but have a lingering interest in ENT or neurosurgery - and I’ve talked to a couple different people who have interpreted this lingering interest as a sign that they need to somehow combine all their interests into one impossible career. When you’re younger and in school it feels like you have so many routes and can keep up with every single little thing you’re interested in, and everything seems so pressured, when in reality I think the path is a little clearer than some people would have us believe? As intelligent, curious people, it’s only natural to feel keen on learning about so many different things, but I think we all have to recognise that not everything is a 'sign’ - sometimes you are just interested in interesting things.

Achieving your full academic potential: Things to Avoid Doing

Things you may want to avoid doing in the future. 

 Doing, wait, not doing these things always works for me. 

Staying up late. 

 Sleep is yes.  And as my speech coach puts it “there are only so many all nighters a person can pull before they just can’t”.  Not only will staying up uber-late make the next day a battle between you an a surprisingly pillow-like desktop, if you’re tired, your work probably won’t be the your best.

Over-scheduling. 

 It’s easier to look at a schedule with 3-4 assignments than it is to look at one with 9-10.  When scheduling, if you have a plethora of assignments, prioritize.  Write down the most important assignments, and leave any others off the page or in the margins.  You only have so many hours in the day and it’s better to complete the most important tasks than none at all.

Pro-tip: The Pareto Principle.  The Pareto principle revolves around the 80%-20% ratio.  Allow me to explain, if you have 10 pieces of work, there are probably only two of them that will take up 80% of the work.  And 8 of them that will take up 20% of the work.  The key to prioritizing is finding those two assignments (or however many = 20% in your workload) and doing them first

Working in bed or laying down.

 NONONONONONONONONONO.  This is how “cat-naps” happen.  You swear that you’re going to get straight to work and then your phone on the bedside table lights up.  It’s too hard to organize a book, a notebook, and a laptop on a bed without moving the laptop off of your lap.  So why not check it?  

Working in bed helps the boogeyman grow under it.

Over-working.  

If you take on more than you can handle, you will not get the results you want.  It’s perfectly alright to challenge yourself.  In fact, it’s great.  But, there is a difference between being ambitious and stressing yourself out.  If it’s too much, go back to the Pareto principle and prioritize. 

Drinking excessive amounts of coffee and energy drinks. (Especially in the afternoon.)  

One (maybe two, if you ordered a tall) cups of coffee in the morning is fine.  But in the afternoon or the evening, stick to exercise, healthy snacks, and naps.  Sugary energy drinks as well as coffee that contain caffeine can speed up your heart rate, cause stress, and irregular breathing patterns.  If you become addicted to caffeine these things will accelerate and can end up hurting you detrimentally.

Over-using productivity apps.  

Productive apps are awesome, if used correctly, don’t abuse them.  It was difficult for me to use productivity apps on my phone at first because the other things on my phone would distract me.  If you plan to use productivity apps on you phone and computer make sure that you have the self-control needed o use them properly.

Tumblr. - I’m only half kidding

Those are the general ones, these are a bit more subject specific

Math/science

Falling behind. 

 In other classes falling behind is not recommended, but is usually fixable by reading a few chapters or asking a friend for notes.  Because of arithmetic’s complex nature that relies not only on facts, but applying them it is very difficult to master one a concept while you’re supposed to be mastering another.  Often, learning one key concept can help you with many other assignments, not learning key concepts can make those other assignments 10x harder.

Receiving low homework scores.  

In all of the math classes I’ve been in, the homework scores were more of your grade than your test homework.  Always turn in your homework, even if it feels impossible, try your best, and never leave your paper blank.  Even if you got all of the answers wrong, many teachers will give you serious credit for trying and failing rather than just failing.

Learn everything from the teacher. 

 There are a plethora of online math resources that are awesome, and math teachers usually only teach one method of solving a problem.  Try Khan Academy , For Dummies, or IXL.  Or look around a bit, there are a lot of other great sites, those are just my favorites.

Learn everything. (This is usually for science.) 

 In science (especially in biology and Earth sciences.) you are introduced to a myriad of concepts and vocabulary words that might seem like too much to memorize.  Don’t.  Look at what your teacher puts emphasis on and memorize that. Also, if you are using a textbook, there is a good chance that the textbook is filled with notes on the ‘key concepts’ or learning requirements for each chapter.  These are also things that you should attempt to memorize.

English/writing/history/ other humanities

Not develop an opinion. (Especially in history) 

 If there’s anything a english/ writing/ history teacher loves, it’s an opinionated student.  Textbooks give you facts and figures, and you can interpret them however you want.  So, do just that.  This will show your teacher not only that you are interested in his or her subject, but that you are engaged in the material that they gave you.

Ignore teacher comments. (No matter how small.) 

 It isn’t fun to read nit-picky comments about your work.  Especially on your writing.  But look at them.  Even if you receive a good grade on a paper, applying corrections on your next one will ensure that you get a better grade the next time.  

Staying quiet in class.  

I understand that for some people this one is hard, for some people this one is practically impossible.  But teachers love it.  If you can, voice your opinion and answer questions in class as frequently as possible.  I’ve even received extra credit for being verbally engaged in class more than other students.

Not trying to learn everything.  

This one is a lot like the ‘not ignoring teacher comments’.  A lot of information slips through the cracks (especially in english)  that pops back up on exams.  Because most of what is learned in an english class is not drilled into you like it would be in a math or science class, to do well, you have to drill yourself.  I’ve been told the difference between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ plenty of times, but I didn’t truly learn it until this year when I had to study it for an exam.

Pro-tip: Don’t challenge your teachers.  They determine your grades.  Momentary satisfaction is not worth a bad grade.

Hope this was useful!

Superb Study Guides and Mini Moleskines

(A more concise version of this will be published in my college’s newspaper on Thursday. I will likely add or link diagrams and examples to this post, so you can check the original here.)

As a tutor, many students ask me for tips on making study guides. Generally, my response is that, “it depends”.

But hold on. Before we continue we should discuss what the purpose of a study guide really is.

Study guides fall into two main categories: study guides that prompt you to find/think about information and study guides that directly organize the information you need to know. Some professors provide you with study guides of the former kind (i.e., you’re not given the answers), and it’s essentially your job to create your own study guide of the latter type. Both categories serve the purpose of organizing information you already have in order to synthesize a study tool that best facilitates your comprehension and memorization of the information at hand, just at a different stage in the process.

Before you even start, it is helpful to be aware of the level at which you are required to know the information for your test. The most basic of these is recalling definitions, which can accomplished by use of flashcards. Other information you’ll have to know will require you to compare ideas or apply them. Think of your learning process as literal → interpretive → applicative, meaning you will need study guides that help you visualize, draw relationships, and understand material so you may memorize less in a way that helps you answer more, and better than straight memorization ever could.

–

Concept Map:

These can be anything from a basic branching diagram to a complex mind map. This type of study guide allows you to compare information in a more spatial manner than strictly linear. Let’s be honest; sometimes linear learning is unrealistic, because our world is not truly linear. This format allows you to start from the basic, bare bones of the topic you’re studying and expand into very specific details and examples. This way you can get a really solid overview of the information and delve deeper as necessary. At least for mind maps in specific, Mindly is a beautiful and highly functional mind mapping app for iOS. It’s worth the small price, I can tell you that.

Comparison Chart:

Another visually-oriented type of study guide, comparison charts are the easiest way to map out similarities and differences for various topics. The biggest advantage of this method is that you can easily find the important similarities and differences of the subjects in question without having to reread a chapter or search through your piles of notes. It won’t help you visually connect topics like a mind map would, but this very simple tool is important and useful in its own rite.

Index Cards:

Before you skip over this because you think you know what I’m talking about, this is not the same as a flashcard. Flashcards have the very basic purpose of helping you memorize information, and little else. Index cards, however, are like flashcards on steroids because they contain much more information and are used primarily to summarize key information in a portable way that allows you to easily locate more details if necessary. Allow me to break down how you might want to use this method.

Front:

Middle: Main idea [e.g. alveoli]

Upper Right: Organizational term [e.g. respiratory system]

Bottom Middle: Source of information [e.g. Chapter 17, pg. 479 or Notes from 11/26/2013]

Back:

In your own words, what’s most important to know about the concept.

Include examples, summaries, diagrams, definitions, etc.

Be detailed! Remember, this is not about strictly memorizing.

Make sure the content corresponds to level of understanding your professor excepts

Diagram:

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but is extremely dependent on the topic at hand. This could be anything from a chemical reaction scheme, a cycle, Venn diagram, etc. You may even consider making a timeline, which is great for chronological organization of ideas. This is not limited to history, though! You can also organize information from classes such as anthropology, psychology, biology, anatomy, physiology, ecology, etc. If it has a specific, linear order, it can be made into a timeline.

Question Prompts:

This method I find works very well if you use the Cornell note-taking method. If you’re using Cornell notes, you would write your prompts in the left hand column next to where the answers are located, then just cover up the answers when studying. For example, for something as simple as a definition you could write, “What is _____?” For something more complicated such as a comparison chart, you could write, “What are the key differences between _____ and _____?” If you want, you can even ask questions that aren’t directly answered in the adjacent text such as, “Why is [idea] important to [concept]?”

–

Now that you know what formats you might use for your study guides (remember you don’t have to stick with just one), you may wonder where you can put this information. The basic answer to that question: anywhere. Many people like to draw these things on computer paper. You may want to type some of these things. If you’re using Mindly then you would be inputting the information into an app. I would like to offer up the suggestion of little mini notebooks for each class. I personally make these study guide materials on paper or a computer first, then when I’m satisfied with the result, I copy it down into my pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks. I personally prefer the squared, dotted, or blank notebooks, but whatever suits your fancy. The benefit to these little notebooks is that you have all of the information you need to study for in a small, convenient little book that you can easily keep in your backpack all the time because of its size. (Ladies, it will even fit in a clutch!) Study on the bus, waiting for class to start, when eating at the cafeteria, while waiting for your laundry to finish, etc. Not to mention, this will help you avoid losing papers because they’re all in one place.

Just try not to lose the notebook.

7 things to do when you can’t focus (instead of using your phone)

We’ve all been there : you’re studying for your exam but all you’ve been doing for the last 20 minutes was re-reading the same page over and over without understanding a single sentence from it. 

So you try and try again, but nothing seems to change, it just feels like your brain decided to take a nap instead. 

But the problem is that time is running out because your exam is in few days and you want to do your best before it’s too late !

And the truth is, you need a break. A short break. As a matter of fact, your brain isn’t able to focus more than 45-50 consecutive minutes and thus it needs short breaks in between.

So here’s my list of -less than 10 minutes- things I actually do when I’m not able to focus anymore :

Stretch : it takes 5 minutes. Down-dog pose or anything similar will help you to get more blood to your brain, and as you already know : more blood = more oxygen = more neurons happy = more focus. 

Meditate : sometimes your lack of concentration is the consequence of your anxious/tormented mind. Set a timer and try to focus on your breath for 5-10 minutes. If meditating alone is difficult for you, I suggest you to download HeadSpace app, which has some free 5-10 minutes guided meditations! 

Do another productive task that isn’t related to studying : this could be making your bed, cleaning your desk, or re-organizing your notes! Just do something that makes you move and stimulates your blood flow. Plus, you’ll feel like you’ve accomplished something more ! 

Search for the topic you’re studying on Youtube  :  you’ll be able to find almost anything. I’ve done it so many times and it really helped me to get a better understanding and a more global vision of the subject i’m into !  

Play with your pet(s) if you have any! It’ll be beneficial for both you : they’ll get your attention and love, and you’ll be more relaxed after ! 

Go for a walk : around your neighborhood. Or around the library. Or just walk your dog if you have one. Breathe the fresh air and move your legs : your body will thank you, especially if you stay seated all day.

Workout : yes, you can do an effective workout for 10 minutes. And Pinterest is here to prove it to you. Just tap « ten minutes HIIT workout » and you’ll find TONS of them. You can also look for some on Youtube (I suggest Pamela Rf 10 minutes no equipment ab workout, I promise you’ll feel it the next day). 

Bonus tip : STOP STUDYING. If you tried any of these tips and your brain still doesn’t want to collaborate, maybe it’s just time for you to take a real break and do something else instead, especially if you’ve been studying for several hours. It happens to everyone and I think it’s really important to know when to stop. Moreover, it will actually help you memorize what you’ve already learned : your brain unconsciously processes it whilst you’re doing other stuff than studying!  

And that’s it, just know that all these tips have been tested and approved by me :) Let me know if you tried some of these or tell me what YOU do to instead! 

Also if you want to see more posts like this, feel free to give me a follow ! I’ll be more than happy to see your tumblr too :)  

PS : sorry in advance if you notice my imperfect grammar (english isn’t my first language) 

Blog : https://anatomyandcappuccini.tumblr.com

Hi I’m really indecisive and I’m trying to create an effective note making system for this year. Do you have any tips on how you take notes or use colours, post it notes or anything else? I'm hoping to do maths, science or language subjects if that makes a difference. Thank you! x

Hello!

Personally during high school I kept two notebooks per subject. In general, I used one of them (notebook A) to take notes during lessons, and the other (notebook B) to rewrite them at home adding information from textbooks and making sure I understood everything. 

For maths I followed the lessons on my book and did most of the notes at home. I kept a notebook to write the theorems and explanations I had to study, and an other one to do all the exercises and problems.

For science I had lessons very full of information, so on one notebook (A) I would write really fast everything I could, and on the other (B) I would rewrite everything checking the textbook. When I saw the teacher was following my textbook pretty closely, I just underlined the parts she explained during the lesson and added the extra information she gave in the margins. Then I would write the notes assembling the underlined parts and the margin notes in a notebook (B). If there were any graphs I had to write, I would do that in a different color.

For language subject I’m n to sure what you mean… But if it’s literature, I took notes during lessons on sheets of paper and combined them at home with the information on the textbook in a notebook. If it’s a foreign language, I personally studied latin, and I had a notebook for grammar and one for exercise.

I used highlighters in my textbooks, and even though I didn’t exactly color-code, I did use different colors to underline concepts of different importance. For example, I would use a more visible color such as a green/blue/pink for the most important concepts, and a more subtle one, like yellow, for less important (but still important) things. If there were textbooks that I did not want to ruin, I underlined with a pencil and a ruler, using a double line or a zigzag line for more important things.

In my notes I use colors to write important words or concepts. It doesn’t really matter to me which color I use, but to keep my notes very clean I tend to use black and blue. I use a lot of colors when I condense a lot of information in a small amount of place, like on one sheet of paper. In that case I use different colors for different topics. For example if I want to condense information about macromolecules, I would use a color for carbohydrates, a color for proteins, a color for fats etc.

I only use post-its in my textbooks to find easily where certain topics are, but I don’t really use them in note taking.

I hope I was helpful!