emiipurin

[emiipurin]

— thursday 4th april

48 days until a levels

busy day today. got my first a in a biology past paper - thank god!!

almost finished my presidency notes too, chipping a way bit by bit

8hrs 3 on forest today 🌲

completed today:

2x biology past papers

wife of bath essay reading

wife of bath quotes poster started

british response in ireland 1800-1900

more presidency notes

#studyblr #a levels #study motivation #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level english #a level politics

[emiipurin]

— friday 29th march

54 days until a levels

was out last night for my friend’s birthday and stayed at my boyfriends house so im surprised i got so much done today considering i was slightly hungover and didnt get home until the afternoon

but one of my favourite ways of revising history is reading books on the topics and noting down good phrases and extra information to help mu essays. its genuinely so much fun

7hrs 22 on forest 🌲

completed today:

3x politics 10 markers

home rule revision

photosynthesis flashcards + questions

wife of bath critical essay reading

#studyblr #a levels #study motivation #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level english #a level politics

[emiipurin]

— monday 25th march

57 days until alevels

one history essay and an essay plan really dominated most of my time today

you can see how i really gave up on biology after like a quarter of a past paper 😓

5hrs 2 on forest 🌲

completed today:

home rule 15 marker

started othello act 5 annotations

wife of bath fabliau notes

chi squared questions

gym!!

#studyblr #a levels #study motivation #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level english

[emiipurin]

— thursday 21 march

62 days until alevels

first day back in school today after being off sick… i have so much to catch up on

my class started the statistics topic in biology today, and as a humanities girlie i literally did not have a clue what was going on in that class… i have genuinely never felt dread like that

but i got my politics essay back and i got 34/35! i also got my english coursework result from my teacher and i am slightly disappointed, so im trying to tweak it slightly because i want an A* in english so badly!!

3hrs 48 on forest 🌲

completed today:

reworking of english coursework

catching up on biology practical booklet

us vs uk cabinet essay

history timed paper after school (definitely flopped)

#studyblr #a levels #study motivation #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level politics #a level english

[emiipurin]

— tuesday 19th march

64 days until alevels

spent a lot of today trying to get english annotations cleared up !!

3hrs 49 on forest 🌲

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level history #a level politics #a level english

[emiipurin]

— monday 18th march

65 days until a levels

so sick today but still managed to power through since i was off school

6 hours 3 on forest 🌲

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level politics #a level english

[emiipurin]

of course i get sick the one time we have a four day weekend 😭 i am literally struggling to get anything done i am fighting the flu demons rn

#studyblr

[emiipurin]

— wednesday 13 march

70 days until alevels

was my dads birthday today so didnt do as much as i normally do on a wednesday but still managed to get a good amount done

was meant to have a history mock today but luckily my teacher is off the rest of the week 😮‍💨

i have a job interview for tesco on friday! honestly if i dont get the job i wont be too upset because im not sure how i could juggle 4 alevels and two jobs but oh well, whatever happens happens!

4hrs 38 mins on forest 🌲

completed today:

bio homework

wife of bath annotations

congressional oversight notes finished

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level politics #a level english

[emiipurin]

— monday 11th march

72 days until a levels

another history mock on wednesday and im hoping to improve on my mark from last time so thats what we’re focusing on for now!!

however my bio mock next month is still weighing on my mind 😭😭

5 hours 4 on forest

completed today:

othello act 3 scene 4 quotes

othello act 3 scene 3 practice paragraph

dna as the genetic code revision

history essay plan + revision

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level english

[emiipurin]

— sunday 10th march

73 days until a levels

mothers’ day in hospitality leaving me wreckeddd

spending all day on one topic is peak a level biology

3hrs 34 on forest 🌲

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #light academia

[emiipurin]

— saturday 9th march

74 days until a levels

homework taking up so much of my time and leaving me no time to revise 😭😭 like all the time i spent doing history and english today was literally for homeworksss

feeling like ive been neglecting english as this is literally the first time ive touched it this week outside of class and like we haven’t even come close to finishing our course so im getting sufficiently stressed!!

4hrs 2 on forest 🌲

completed today:

unionism 1800-1900 summary sheet

wife of bath quotes on female solidarity

transcription revision

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history #a level english

[emiipurin]

Tips on how to study history by an history student

I've had this idea at the back of my mind for a while now. The thing is that as an history student I very often have people ask me for tips on how to approach the subject when they have to study for an exam. Even before university, since I was the history nerd in all my friends groups I had people either ask me for tips, or for help studying the subject, and memorizing stuff. I fully understand that it can be a tough subject, expecially if you don't have a professor that teaches with passion, and that maybe expects you to memorize a bunch of dates without much explaining. If you are used to study other subject, and you only have a couple of history classes, you might find it difficult to approach it, because the study method you normally use doesn't work. So here are a few of my tips on how to approach history, some of them are honestly quite silly, but believe me they truly work.

Aim to understand the processes and not simply memorize everything by heart

This is one of the funamental things about history. I know some teachers don't care and will just tell you to memozire a bunch of dates but that is useless. The true aim of history is to understand the processes that took place in the past, how they are linked to each other, the consequences of actions, etc. Not only you will get more out of what you are studying, but it makes the job much easier. Everything that happened in history was the consequence of a previous action, and has caused something. If you truly understand the passages it will be much easier to remember the course of events.

Understand that events in history are just like the events in the plot of a tv show or a book

I bet that everyone here could write an essay on the full plot and characters of their favourite tv show or book, without looking for any references. Even if the characters are a lot, and have terrible names, you probably remember them all, can tell them apart, and know perfectly everything that happens in the story. History is the exact same thing. The only difference is that usually you don't get a chance to get invested in the characters, and don't really differenciated them. What I have always suggested it to try to see whatever period of history you have to study as a book, or a tv show. The events are the plot of the story, and historical figures are the characters. This point is fully linked to the next two tips, that are all about characterizing historical figures to better remember about them.

Put a face to the name

Look for paintings or pictures of historical figures. being able to imagine them with an actual face is very helpful. You'll find that a lot of historical figures have characteristics that make them recognizable. I truly believe that being able to actually imagine whatever historical figure, helps a lot with remembering whta happened. I fully try to imagine the whole movie in my head when I am studying, and this passage is fundamental.

Look for further silly informations on historical figures

This sounds very stupid but bare with me for a second. This is an additional step to characterize the historical figure you have to learn about. I find that associating them not only to their face, but also to very random informations, can help so much with remembering about them. I strongly believe that the stupidest the information the better, because it will probably be easier to remember, and it's less probable something they have in common with other people. I know for a fact that it's the silly things I will remember (which is something that will come up again in another tip). Here are some examples. Giacomo Leopardi, one of the most famous poets of Italian litterature, known mainly for litteraly inventig cosmic pessimism, hated soup so much as a child, he fully wrote a poem against it. Roman Emperor Claudius is said to have tried to hyde from the praetorian guards that were looking for him to put him in charge of the empire. He thought they were looking for him to murder him, and instead he became emperor. These are just examples, but they are very simple recognizable facts that stay with you and help you to have a full image of the historical figure you are studying.

Picture the events like a movie in your head

You now have fully characterized subjects, and have to learn what they did, and what happened, when reading and then reviewing try to imagine the events as if they were a movie. Fully picture things in your head (again paintings and photographs can help a lot in this step). This association, and the fact that you are linking one event to the next in a sequence will help you memorizing facts.

The sillier the retelling is the better you will remember it

Depending on the subject you are studying this could potentially be controverse. Historical facts are very serious, and they should be percieved as such, not only because it's actual stuff that happened in the past, but also because oftentimes we still have consequences today. But part of me also believes that we should make fun of historical figures sometimes, often it helps with making them smaller, less scary if you will. I won't dwell too much on this subject since is huge, but what I mean with the purpuse of studying history is quite simple. When studying history, expecially if you have a chance to review it with someone, try to retell it in a funny or silly way to each other. I know for a fact that what I remember better about past classes, are the informations on which someone made some kind of joke or stupid comment. I have no idea what's the science about it, but whenever I have helped someone studying (whatever was the subject really) the stupidest ways I explained things the better people seemed to remember them. This is surely quite a silly tip, but believe me when I tell you it works. (Honestly I also personally find that when I get really mad about something that happened, I remember it quite well. So probably the theory is that if there's strong emotions involved you have a better chance to remember facts. And there's a lot in history to get angry at, so keep this in mind too).

On memorizing dates

This is the most dreadful part of studying history for everyone, even for us who actually chose to study the subject. As I said I refuse to see history as a long list of dates to learn by heart, but surely there's important dates to remember, and the periodization is fundamental to understand events. I have different methods. The first is one is to have a specific highlighter that I use only for dates in my notes. I usually use yellow, because it's the strongest colour I own, and it can't be mistaken for whatever other colour I use to highlight other informations. Secondly When there's a big list of dates I like to have a second set of notes, only regadring those dates. I write everything down in chronological order, so that I can see what happened during the same period of time, and write a word/ sentence to describe each fact. Since I usally study long periods of history all togheter I like to divide the list in sections depending on the century. This is very hepful to create smaller groups of dates. After having this list, since there's no other way to remember all of that, I try to repeat it until I memorize it. What I normally do is repeate it at least once a day, much better if I manage twice. Usually I do it as the first thing before reviewing the full set of notes, and then once at the end of my daily studying session. I begin by only reading it outloud (I think reading outloud helps much more so I highly reccomend doing that). When I am starting to memorize things I start switching the order of dates so I read them from the last of the list to the first one. This helps because if you read the same list again and again, you'll start to remember informations mostly because you associate them to the previous and next points. By breaking up the usual order of the list you force yourself to only link date and fact. The last thing is to randomly go through the list and picking, for this same reason. I also would reccomend copying the list multiple times, and trying to rewrite it without looking at the original.

Review with someone who has no clue what you are talking about

This is actually a general study tip that works for any subject. I know it's not possible for everyone, but I highly reccomend finding someone willing to listen to you talking for a couple of hours on what you are studying. The less they know the better, because they will ask you questions. The thing is very simple, if you explain what you are studying to someone who has very little knowledge on the subject, you will be forced to : 1. Be clear in your exposition, 2. Explain clue points, 3. Have a very clear idea of what you are talking about. It's a great exercise to test if you have truly understood the passages, and sometimes it foces you to understand things you are insicure about. It is one of the most useful tips of this list in my personal opinion. This study tecnique has helped me so much in the past, and I still use it to this day. I usually annoy my father with this, who is quite interested in history, so he always challenges me with great questions. I also found that helping someone who is struggling with the class was helpful, because not only I had to understan the passages, but I had to force myself to help someone else understand those same informations for the test. Reviewing out loud on your own is always very importan, but this addition when possible truly changes the game.

This is my very standard set of tips on how to study history. I might think of others in the future, and in that case I will make sure to add them on here, for anyone who needs them.

Untill then I hope that this can be useful for someone out there. If I was unclear on any points, feel free to tell me and ask me for clarifications. Same goes if you have other doubts or a specific problem with studying history. My inbox is always open and I am very happy to be helpful if I can. Studying is fun and all, but it's much easier if we help each other in the process.

I'm sorry it was a super long post, thank you for reading, and good luck with your tests whatever they may be on.

[emiipurin]

— thursday 7 march

76 days until a levels

didnt get a whole lot of work done today because i spent the evening watching my friends’ drama performance for their a level exam which was really fun!

but we got a date set for anotherr biology mock in april so time to try focus on that because its by far my worst subject 😭

2hrs 58 on forest 🌲

completed today:

more presidency notes (commander in chief and legislative/appointing roles)

genetic inheritance flashcards made

started learning dna as genetic code flashcards

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level politics

[emiipurin]

Sylvia Plath

[emiipurin]

— wednesday 6th march

77 days until a levels

feel like wednesday is always my most productive day

got my politics mock back and i got 97%! really hoping for an a* at the end of the year so ive been putting a lot of time into it lately

6 hrs 6 on forest 🌲

completed today:

gene inheritance homework

feminism essay

started presidency notes

ireland 1800-1900 timeline

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level politics #a level biology #a level history

[emiipurin]

— monday 4th march

79 days until a levels

very history focused day (clearly!) today considering it got somewhat neglected last week

need to get back on my biology grind as i have basically all my flashcards made but next to none of them learnt..

2hr 43 on forest 🌲

completed today:

anglo-irish treaty essay plan

caught up on biology notes i missed

gym !!

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level history

[emiipurin]

— sunday 3rd march

80 days until a levels

planned on getting some more school stuff done today after coming home from work but i ended up on the phone with my friends for most of the night 😭 but self care is important i guess !!

anyway still glad i woke up early enough to do a little bit

2hrs 50 on forest 🌲

completed today:

history flashcards

immunity revision

#a levels #study motivation #studyblr #studyspo #study aesthetic #study blog #a level biology #a level history