#still trying to finish up my long term assignments before exams start in 2 weeks lmaooo

[liimonadas]

ougghhh ive been doodling so many lawyers lately. they are in love your honor

#narumistu #wrightworth #miles edgeworth #phoenix wright #ace attorney #fanart #art #if youre curious the graduation season is hell #still trying to finish up my long term assignments before exams start in 2 weeks lmaooo #barely managing it tbh but whatever #drawing some lawyers is all that keeps me going atm

[whentherewerebicycles]

hi! i wanted to say i love reading your reflections on teaching, and in general i really look up to/am inspired by your thoughts regarding education and academia. if it's not too much to ask (completely understandable if it is, in that case please disregard!) i would love to get your advice on college related things?

i had pretty significant academic struggles throughout grade school, and ended up dropping out of college after a year. i would've graduated this may, so lately i've been considering going back and finishing my bachelor's. but i've been waffling on this decision because of 1) anxiety about having to drop out again, and 2) some confusion about what i actually want to study. i guess i'm wondering, is it worth it to start from scratch? my struggles were mostly about mental health stuff & difficulty keeping up with coursework—i loved being in the classroom, working with professors, learning from other students. i like being challenged intellectually, but if i have issues with followthrough, is there a way to work on that??? i know these are Big Questions, lol--whether they are answerable or not, cheers and thank you and i hope you are doing well these days. <3

hey! happy to give my thoughts, for what they're worth. you know your situation better than i do so the specifics may or may not be relevant, but i can give some advice just based on seeing lots of students pass through four-year programs!

i've worked with a number of students who took time away from college and came back to finish later. i took a year off myself in the middle of college for mental health reasons, though my school allowed you to take a two-semester leave of absence for any reason (so i always had the safety net of knowing i could come back without having to reapply or start over). in my experience, time away is almost always a good thing. sometimes people just really need that break from the stressors of the college environment! but more importantly, i think people benefit from having a few years' experience living and working in the world.

even though it can be intimidating to come back to college as an older student, i think older students or nontraditional students who took time off and came back tend to underestimate how much more confident and assured in themselves they'll be once they're back in the classroom. working out in the world for a while, even if it's not a job that you especially love or feel is relevant to your long-term goals, tends to help you build more trust in your own ability to get stuff done, manage responsibilities, and be an adult person in the world. in your time away, you've probably grown more than you think, and you may find that some of the things you struggled with at 18 just don't feel as daunting anymore. or they might feel daunting, but you also have more experience talking and working with other people, and you may feel more confident in seeking out & using your college's various academic success resources.

have you considered a two-year college as a possible next step? one of my advisees this year was an adult student who went to college for a year, dropped out, served in the military for four years, came back to do an associate's degree, and decided he liked school enough that he wanted to transfer to our university and finish his degree. (now he's going on to do a phd next fall!!!!) he's one of the most passionate advocates for community colleges i've ever met, and he's stayed actively involved in our local CC community & now mentors recent transfer students at our university. he's talked at length about how CCs are this amazing way for students to explore their interests without having to take on the huge price tag of a four-year degree, within a learning community that's much warmer, more responsive to student needs, and more accepting of the diverse paths that lead people to & through higher education. i wonder if you might consider taking a semester or a year of courses at your local CC, to dip your toes back in and see if you're still feeling energized by the experience.

you might find that some of the courses aren't intellectually challenging enough, but this might also be a wonderful opportunity to create the kind of learning experience you want to have. i was a full-time community college student for a year during my year away from yale, and while i'm sure i was just INSUFFERABLE in many ways, i had a prof in my Western Civ course who was really generous with his time/energy and met with me outside of class to help me figure out how to make the papers into something that i found really exciting and challenging to write. so the class kind of became what i made of it, and i got to read some stuff (dostoevsky!!!) that sent me down all kinds of interesting unexpected rabbitholes. the former CC grad i mentioned above was an extraordinarily bright student who would always go to office hours and ask his profs for more recommended readings, and he ended up becoming a TA for one of his courses and helped them redesign basically their entire intro humanities curriculum as a student advisor. so your CC experience can absolutely be what you make of it. and even if your profs can't give you that kind of support, you could practice doing it for yourself, setting little challenges for yourself either focused on the intellectual aspects ('I'm going to read and cite two scholarly sources in this paper, even though it's not required') or on developing strategies for effectively managing the workload ('I'm going to schedule a writing center appointment on Thurs, so I have to finish this paper two days before the deadline—and then I can devote my weekend study time to practicing for my Spanish test').

CC would be a slightly lower stakes environment for you to try out college again— lower-stakes both in the sense that it's cheaper (so if you decide you don't want to continue, you're not out as much money / don't feel compelled to go on to justify the debt you've taken on) and in the sense that the workload might be more manageable for you as you readjust to academic life and build systems & structures that work for you. as you probably have gathered from this blog, i am a HUGE believer in doing lower-stakes things many times over to build your own confidence and your trust in yourself, and then gradually scaling up the difficulty. by the time you reach the hard thing, you've already built up this strong image of yourself as a person who can handle challenges (and you've also had the chance to identify areas where you struggle & experiment with developing workable solutions).

if a two-year college isn't something you're especially interested in, i think it's definitely possible to start a four-year degree again. if that's the path you choose, i would strongly recommend reaching out to students in some of the degree programs you're tentatively interested in. people are almost always happy to share their ~wisdom~ (see: this ask response, lol) and most people love being asked for their thoughts on the pros and cons of something they know well. so you could get an honest sense from students of what the program is like, what the workload is like, and how useful or engaging people find the required courses for the degree. but also know that it's pretty normal to take courses all over in your first year or two (you have the advantage of having done a freshman year before, so you probably know this!), so you might just want to plan to try out a bunch of different things, with the goal of narrowing your focus by the end of your first year, or midway through your second.

i would also HIGHLY recommend spending lots of time familiarizing yourself with the resources your university has to offer. learn everything you can about the kind of mental health counseling and support they offer to students, and see if there are things you can set up in advance for yourself before you even step foot on campus. for instance, our university offers individual counseling, but they also have free groups that meet every week or two around different topics (coping with stress, students in recovery, etc) that are led by a counselor. check out your university's writing center or peer tutoring centers, too, and set up a standing appointment once a month or once a week or whatever, to bring in something you're working on—so that you know that every week, you're going to talk with someone about what's going well and what you're struggling with in your assignments.

you might also want to look into your university's services for students with disabilities office, as they can help you figure out if you are eligible for various kinds of accommodations or additional support (extra time on exams, notetaking services, recorded lectures, etc). i know you mentioned that you've dealt with academic struggles in grade school, too. if you think it's possible that there may be underlying learning differences that are affecting your academic work, it might be worth seeing if they can help you find lower-cost testing, so you can get a diagnosis that qualifies you for additional accommodations and university support.

many schools, esp large public universities, also have resource centers and mentoring programs for students from specific demographics who may benefit from additional structure and support in their early years of college. my university has a variety of resource centers and programs for students from low-income backgrounds, first-gen students, students who transferred from community college, etc. you don't have to take advantage of ALL of these resources, but proactively establishing a support network long before you need it is a really good way to set yourself up for success. and even just doing the research will probably help you feel more confident in your capacity to 'follow through', since you'll know that you're going into this with your eyes wide open AND with a detailed plan for what to do if you run into some of the same obstacles you encountered the first time around.

speaking of detailed plans: i find it helpful sometimes to do IF-THEN exercises with students when they're stressed about something on the horizon or unsure about whether they can handle some new challenge. IF-THEN is just what it sounds like: 'IF this thing I'm nervous about happens, THEN I'm going to do X, Y, or Z.' what i like about this exercise (i use it with myself too aha) is that it acknowledges that sometimes the thing you're dreading DOES happen. sometimes the professor you emailed for an extension says no. sometimes the TA doesn't understand why you're confused about the assignment. sometimes you don't have time to finish the reading before class. sometimes you overschedule yourself and you have to pull an all-nighter to finish two papers on the same night. scary things, confidence-shaking things, happen all the time, but they are rarely fatal! and there can be something really powerful about acknowledging and naming the thing you're concerned about, and then generating a few next steps you could take, should the thing you're dreading come to pass. i could see you doing something like this as you start thinking about the things that tripped you up last time, or made it difficult for you to balance the workload. if X happens, then what could you try next? giving yourself a few options means that you already have backup plans, too, which can make the whole situation less terrifying. if this happens, i might have to try this, or this, or this, and those things might not be the most fun or the easiest to do or the 'best' thing academically, but they'll get me through this difficult moment mostly in one piece, and once i'm through it i can look back on it and learn from it, or adjust the structures i've built for myself moving forward, to reduce the chance that X happens again.

PHEW!!! sorry this got so long but that is just the RISK YOU TAKE when sending me anons 😅 i hope that some of this is helpful to you, or at least sparks some useful thinking for you, even if it's not all directly applicable to your situation. i would say that if you love learning and find being in the classroom exhilarating, then you should absolutely go back to college! but that doesn't mean you have to go back right away, or that you have to go back and do it exactly the same way you did the first time. there are lots of possible paths to higher ed, and there's no particular rush—college will always be there, if it's something you decide you want now or at some future point in your life. i would also just reiterate again one of the core Themes of This Blog, which is that the brain is NEUROPLASTIC, and that humans have a truly astounding amazing capacity to change, grow, and learn new things (including new ways of getting around old obstacles or working through old challenges). just because you struggled the first time doesn't mean you are doomed to repeat that pattern. if you can spend some time thoughtfully reflecting on what you found most difficult to manage the first time through, you are better equipped to make plans, design new structures for yourself, and build the support networks that will help you thrive in college.

#long post #mw #teaching #(kind of)

[riverdalenerdlol]

Story time

For a glimpse into the insanity that currently is my life, look no further than underneath the cut

I think I've told everyone how I got hit by a deer. I was doing night land navigation during Army field training exercises, and I was doing it alone because I was being assessed on it. I find one grid coordinate, then I walk into the pretty dense woods to find another. To be honest, I was more afraid of stepping on or even seeing a snake rather than anything else that could've happened. And I also didn't like being out in the dark, alone.

Just to make things better, my headlamp dies. So now I'm standing in the middle of the woods, without a consistent amount of light. Amazing.

Eventually I find a little bit of a clearing in the trees where there's a good amount of moonlight coming down and it allows me to see my map. Still, the foliage towers at LEAST 6 inches above my head. All I can see is my map and the trail I've made through the tall ass foliage behind me. I essentially have blinders on because of how thick and tall the plants were.

I've been standing there for a good while without making any noise, so nature starts to - as we call it - "reset". Animals start coming back into the area, the bugs are louder, etc. It's like I'm not there (plus I'm wearing camouflage from head to toe with just a reflective belt on my back - it's like I don't exist). I think I was just standing there for 5-10 minutes - I don't remember.

I hear rustling coming toward me, and my first thought is that it's a person, because why wouldn't it be. It gets a little louder, and then I notice it speeds up. As it gets closer to me, I prepare to come face to face with a person, but when the plants part it's a goddamn DEER FACE I'm looking at, running through the area. Next thing I know I'm on the ground, looking up at the sky, and it steps on my leg as it runs right through me.

The entire experience is absurd and hilarious, and you should definitely laugh at me. I deserve it. My band director laughed at me, as he should, because it's the funniest thing that could have happened.

Before I go further, I want to make a few things clear. 1 - I am okay. I suffered a few bad bruises, and this may have caused the hamstring strain that I currently have. I am only slightly traumatized by this experience that NO ONE will let me live down. 2 - It was a doe, not a buck. I would be dead if it were a buck. 3 - No, I was NOT able to tackle it like many of my male friends have suggested I should have done. I first saw it when it was six inches in front of my face.

Flash forward to two nights later - I asked my French professor for an extension on a sonnet I was supposed to write so I could do it after I was done with field training, not before. This IS relevant, I promise. Running out of time until midnight, I say "fuck it" and I proceed to write my French sonnet about getting hit by a deer in the woods.

Make no mistake, the poem doesn't really deviate too much from what actually happened, except for the part at the end where I added some jibberish about how getting hit by a deer can remind you of how small you are in comparison to the universe. I needed some bullshit meaning for this damn sonnet. I finish writing it in about two hours, and it's a lot better than I thought it would be considering I'm bullshitting an assignment but it's good bullshitting. I do this stuff all the time - I am so good at bullshitting assignments. I submit the poem, and I forget about it completely.

Then... two weeks later... my professor GRADES the poems.

This is where the story goes from funny to hysterical.

I've got to be honest, this poem actually slaps. For something that I bullshat so hard, this poem goes off. I may share it eventually, but not yet.

I notice a few emails late Friday night, but I'm on fall break so I don't really check them. Eventually I do check them, and there are comments on the document I submitted. She left comments. I brace myself for the worst, but...

My professor loves it. SHE LOVES IT. What the fuck?

Might I remind everyone that this poem is about GETTING HIT BY A MOTHERFUCKING D E E R. I only added some sort of existential meaning BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU WRITE POETRY. Jesus Christ. She loves it. It's literally titled THE DEER AND THE GIRL. It's about ME getting HIT by a DEER.

Here's a direct quote (translated, ofc): "This is one of the best poems I've read in a long time. You are extremely talented. (...) Magnificent."

WHAT THE HELL

I BULLSHAT THIS POEM SO FUCKING HARD

So I freak out about this, because it shouldn't be so good, because it's not supposed to do so well for something I didn't even TRY doing.

Still, it does slap (I think it's better in French, but that's just me).

Flash forward to today.

I have French class, so I go to it (even though I skipped my Poli Sci class because I was tired AF - took a nap on a makeshift bed instead). I am told by my professor she wants to speak to me after class.

I haven't really performed well on her quizzes and exams, but I do pretty well on regular assigments, so I imagine it's about that or the times I've turned in stuff late, which she hates.

At the end of class, I finally get to talk to her.

This woman is SIMPING OVER THIS POEM. And...

She wants me to enter a poetry competition *facepalm*

I'm *magnificent* and I have *so much talent* and etc, etc.

I'd like it known that I was the only one she pulled aside for this. Others had to rewrite theirs, but NOT ME.

She made me promise her I wouldn't stop writing (she didn't say poetry so I just took it in general terms)... and OH if she knew that I wrote fanfic I think she'd have a heart attack.

Anyways. Yeah. Shit's crazy.

[lulahstudies]

disclaimer: so obviously these are just the methods and ways of doing things that work for me personally, but feel free to change and adapt them to suit you :)

STEP ONE: MAKE A REVISION TIMETABLE

planning is key, and it’s best not to stumble blindly into revision without having any clue what or when you’re revising. my exams are from the 20th of june to the 1st of july, so i decided to start my revision a month before my first exam. i drew out a calendar in my bullet journal, wrote when all my exams were and then began to schedule in my revision. i wrote out all the subjects i’m being examined in (english lit, english language, maths, chemistry, physics, biology, history, drama and spanish) in order of how difficult i find them, allotting revision time accordingly. so, for the subjects i find harder i do 3 hours a week, and the easier subjects only get 1 or 2 hours.

STEP TWO: FIGURE OUT EXACTLY WHAT AND HOW YOU’RE GOING TO REVISE THINGS

so my school was pretty nice and gave us out syllabuses for each subjects, which made the next step a lot easier for me. i’m pretty sure other schools do something similar (?), but if not, ask your teachers if they have anything like that. then i wrote out a list of each subject, the content that’s in them and how to revise them. for example, for maths i do a lot of practise question from my textbook, for english i write out key quotes for each character/theme and for history i write out timelines and add 3 bits of exact knowledge for each event.

STEP THREE: ACTUALLY REVISE

this is the hard bit. when it comes to revision, it’s super hard to be disciplined and actually do the work you’ve assigned yourself without having a teacher there to tell you to do it, or a proper deadline like with homework. i like to use the pomodoro method (if you’ve never heard of it, i’d recommend looking it up, it’s a lifesaver) to do an hours worth of work for each subject, and if i feel my concentration waning too much i’ll go and do something else, like clean my room or read a book. that way, you’re giving yourself a break but still being vaguely productive so you don’t feel as guilty about it.

STEP FOUR: BEFORE THE EXAM

so the night before i always make sure i have everything i need for the next day. i pack my pencil case, making sure to have fully working pens, my calculator and anything else i might need for various subjects. i also pack my water bottle (stay hydrated kids) and a snack (i try to be healthy but like, chocolate). depending on how confident i feel with the subject, i might do some last minute revision before i go to sleep to really get the content into my head, but i also make sure i’m relaxed and get a good nights sleep beforehand. on the morning of the exam i make sure to have a good breakfast, drink some water and try to avoid anything that’s stressing me out too much (anxious friends, angsty books etc). just before i go into the exam i like to take a moment to breathe and try and clear my mind of anything but the content of the exam.

STEP FIVE: DURING AND AFTER THE EXAM

there are few things more terrifying than being in an exam and realising you have no idea how to answer a question. but, unless it’s an essay based exam and you really need to answer everything, spend a couple seconds checking you definitely don’t know how to do it, and then move on. carry on with the rest of the paper, and the odds are, you’ll remember how to answer it at some point. when you get towards the end, and i cannot stress this enough, for gods sake CHECK. i know it sounds like basic common sense, but i’m as guilty as the next person for finishing an exam with just a minute left, thinking it’s gone awful and there’s no point trying to redeem myself and just not checked. even if you only have 10 seconds left in the exam, check as much as you can. even if you only correct one answer, that one mark could be the difference between a B and an A. after the exam’s over, however tempting it is, do not spend 10 minutes shrieking with your friends about the test. i know it seems comforting at the time, but in the long term it’s only going to make you more anxious when you realise you got a question wrong, or you don’t know whether you or your friend got it right. instead, take some time to relax and treat yourself for getting it over and done with.

i hope this helped some of you, and if you have any questions, my ask box is always open :)

#others #me #aesthetic #bujo #back to school #notes #studyblr #studying #study #tips #studyspo #hey reese #hey pat #studyred #studyquill #studyvan #exams #exam #gcses #a levels #mocks #exam season #examseason #pretty notes #how to study #how to revise #aesthetic notes #text post #textpost #acadehmic

[spekulative]

starting anew!

hi! if by the odd chance you knew me from my old blog, i realized that i was restricted from carrying out a lot of functions i might want to in the future if i were to grow my blog (it was a sideblog to an old, 2013 blog i had and when i replied to comments or respond to asks it’d be as my primary). so instead i decided to create a new account so that lycho could be my primary blog! since i did have a few posts that i wanted to keep for history sake, this is just going to be a mega post of my past few posts: 

apr 6, 2020 - the beginning

day 1 of my journey with ux!

frankly, i’ve been on this journey for the past two years (ever since discovering it) but i feel as though i haven’t made any real progress. i’ve always claimed i wanted to grow and learn more about the field, yet those goals never showed in my day-to-day actions.

this blog is a collection of my progress on this journey to keep myself accountable. the goal is facebook in a year, baby!

i know it’s super idealistic and quite tough for a second year like me who’s not even in a design program (business, actually). but i still want to try. i want to do something for myself for once.

that is why i am committing 4 hours everyday to honing my craft. whether that is learning about ux through watching youtube tutorials, skillshare course, or reading medium articles, or actually practicing the craft by making redesigns or wireframes, i will dedicate this time strictly to advancing my expertise within the field. and this blog exists to keep up with my every step of the way :)

apr 8, 2020 - website overhaul

today I worked on cleaning up the modularity of my existing website a bit, making use of consistent classes instead of hard-coding like i used to! oh how i love modularity!

small win: making a navbar that breaks out of the standard bounding box of the site’s content --> next goal is to make it a sticky navbar with js!

other than my website, yesterday I finished a skillshare course on user-centred design, albeit short, it was really valuable and it only motivates me to continue learning. I’m starting to realize how much I actually like doing this stuff and think it is something that really clicks and not just something im doing for the looks.

slowly but surely getting the hang of dedicated 4 hour time chunks to my craft - i failed yesterday and the day before (woke up around 9/10 instead of starting at 8:30) but today i did pretty well! took a short 20 min nap inbetween haha but I’m still proud of myself overall :)

it’s been pretty depressing and lonely lately with the quarantine (when the sun is shining so bright, teasing me grr..) but I want to get back into a routine and be productive although i do have my lazy days. it just overall makes me feel better because who knows how long we’ll have to live like this. might as well get used to it.

apr 9, 2020 - website overhaul

hi! so today i wanted to be very candid and share that i feel like i did fail today in terms of the goals i had set out for myself, though I reached 1/2 goals so that’s good! the first was to finish refining my website and publish it (check!), while the other was to finish the financial statements for my business assignment but alas that did not end up happening haha, but i forgive myself for it and know that tomorrow will be a new day!

I actually woke up early today (around 7:30, earlier than usual) and felt awake, yet mentally I just wanted to go back to sleep so I ended up getting up at 9:30. I then regretted it and beat myself up for it briefly for doing that, but I realized that I should let myself off in these strange times we’re all living in right now.

so, i think i really am going to get serious about my design journey! my only concern is that i feel like im stretching myself too thin - i have a full time design internship offer for this summer for a startup, as well as 2 leadership positions on clubs where I lead/work on the branding and design, but also at the same time I”m always at home so not sure what is reasonable and what is not. Because when I’m not doing that, I want to be self-learning, but I recently a discovered a mentorship program where I could be mentored by a startup founder to help scale her business, but again I feel like I’m stretching myself thin. though it’s a really good opportunity.

anywho, updates on my website like this post was supposed to be about is that i finally published it again after not liking how it looked before, and i think this revamp is a lot cleaner! proud of it. i try not to reveal many of my personal details on here bc i’m not sure who would actually be reading it, but this blog is just a way for me to track, myself, how i’m doing and to keep myself accountable :) i just didn’t want to set it to private cause it’s a hassle for me to always enter the password if i want to look at my blog.

lastly, i want to start consistently workout - and in the long term actually start a real blog where I write about my experiences, in actual coherent sentences! amazing. creative-wise i really want to start learning 3d illustration and blender, even though i’m an aspiring product designer but i just love 3d and motion, so idk might be stretching myself too thin again but i feel like I need to stretch my creative muscles this way and push myself as a creator. also starting the daily ui challenge again tomorrow after giving up a few months ago - haha!

let’s see how this one pans out :)

apr 10, 2020 - learning + starting anew

today i started two new things !!

restarted daily ui challenge after quitting a week in last year

started to learn blender ! !

i still feel like i failed today because i mostly sat around doing nothing OTHER than design, which just affirms to me that im truly passionate about this stuff for only having motivation to do it (or just a strong will against my homework for uni still....either way im taking it)

although i’m not that great at blender yet and felt frustrated during the process, when i got the end result i realized i like how it turned out despite it not being perfect, and it’s inspiration for me to keep learning and expanding on my skills :)

same with daily ui - i found that my approach this time compared when i literally knew NOTHING about ux was very different.

for example, something I already notice I'm doing differently from the last time is focusing less on decoration and more on practicality, actually naming/grouping layers and leveraging design systems, and injecting personality to make the experience delightful. I'm also limiting myself to two hours now (though this one took about an hour) so I have more time to do some research, sketch and wireframe before styling.

looking forward to a better day tomorrow! i might do a little less design (maybe just a daily ui shot) so i can focus on actually tackling the report i’m supposed to finish as well as study for an upcoming exam, so we will see! feeling good :))

[theancientgeekoroman]

Heyy, I’m currently an a-level student in England hoping to take classics at university. Do you have any tips for this course, or any advice on how to structure studying or help yourself at all? I know what the course entails and I absolutely love the sound of it, I’m just not sure how strenuous or difficult it is overall.

Sorry for the delay in answering, Nonny! It’s been a busy week, and I’ve been having some issues with productivity. 

Here are some of the asks from the past that might help you a little bit in navigating this question: 

Advice for Aspiring Classicist Ask: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/179847323830/hi-im-a-high-schooler-who-wants-to-pursue-aSuggested Reading List Ask: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/179972282550/hey-sorry-to-bother-you-but-i-recently-went-to-a

Where to Start: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/183617460805/hello-im-a-high-school-student-interested-in (Includes the two links above in this one)

Advice for Studying Classics at University: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/183612328890/hey-there-im-about-to-start-university-in-the

And this ask is about History/Museum Studies but might be relevant to your interests because these coincide fairly often: https://theancientgeekoroman.tumblr.com/post/183621851835/while-this-might-not-be-your-area-of-expertise

A lot of the above will answer your questions for tips/tricks/advice for studying and being a Classics student. But I’ll address the strenuous/difficult part here for you. Please also remember that this is coming from someone who attended an American university that is well-known, but not anywhere near “Ivy League” or Oxbridge levels of experience. Since you’re in England, your structure will probably be different, but any of my English followers who would like to add on, please do so! I’m going to go by the different courses I had to take for my Classics major and let you know how strenuous/difficult it was for me and I’ll go by least difficult to most difficult. I’m leaving out coursework that was for “general education requirements” because I don’t think English schools have that element and won’t really apply unless you end up at an American school (and the levels of difficulty varies for me depending on how much math was required, lol). 

The Easiest Coursework: For me, the easiest coursework were the courses that had to do with culture (i.e., no language requirements). These courses for me were things like “Biblical and Classical Literature” (we had comparisons of the Bible and The Iliad, and it was a cross-listed as a Jewish Studies and English, so it was a lot of textual analysis, which I’m good at), “Prehistoric Archaeology” (a really cool anthropology course that delved into prehistory all over the world and touched on contemporary Paganism, too), “Women in Antiquity” (a 400-level art history seminar that had fun and creative aspects to it - including reading for Lysistrata for which I had a pool noodle sticking out of my tunic because I was reading as Kinesias), and Literature in Translation courses; I took “Greek Mythology” and “Greek Tragedy,” which were simple because it was more textual analysis. 

The reasons I found all of these courses, the least difficult are 1. I am good at textual analysis, which is a big part of Classics in general, so it was good to be exposed to it continuously because if you’re not good at it now, you will be. 2. These classes mainly dealt with things that really interested me, so even if the material was a little difficult, I was interested in it enough that it didn’t feel that difficult.

Mid-Level Difficulty Coursework:

The classes that I had the most difficulty with that were not the language courses were the history courses. The reason I found these more difficult than the above courses because they were more specific and a lot of material. There’s a lot of people to remember, a lot of dates to remember, people you’re going to confuse because so many people basically have the same name. And in undergrad, you have those “survey” classes where you do an overview of an entire civilization, which is A Lot. When I took my Ancient Rome class, it was really overwhelming because we started with the Period of Kings, the “mythological” beginnings of Rome, all the way to the Fall of Rome, in one semester. It felt so fast and so slow at the same time, and I feel like I didn’t retain much from it. Only two of my History courses had to be ancient-related, so most of my other History coursework was Medieval, so that was also a lot of information. You might get overwhelmed easily from how much information you have to take in and remember for assessments/exams/papers. These courses were probably the most time-consuming study and assignment-wise.

Most Difficult Coursework:

For me, the most difficult coursework was Latin and then Ancient Greek (as in, Ancient Greek was the most challenging overall for me). This may not be the same for everyone, and I was relatively good at languages when I was younger, but when I got to university, things were more complicated. Since I started learning new languages in my 20′s, it was not as easy for me to pick up on them as I was when I was in high school. Ancient Greek was difficult because we learned both Classical Greek and Koine Greek, so I had to make sure I didn’t confuse them (we didn’t do a lot of Koine Greek, but I still had to do some work in it, and I was super worried I’d confuse the pronunciations). That and all the accents you have to remember and learning a new alphabet is a lot, too. 

Latin, luckily, was a little easier. It was still difficult, but I knew a little bit of the grammar rules/alphabet differences before I began, but admittedly only knew a little bit of Latin from Catholic masses, but nothing beyond that. It was easier than Ancient Greek, but the difficulty lay in the fact that I was taking both of them at the same time, having never taken either of them before, whereas I knew quite a few people who had four years of Latin in high school before they went to university. My sequence was 101-102-201-202 for both of the languages, but a lot of universities are going to require more courses than just 2nd level languages, especially if you want to focus on the languages in graduate school or teach it. 

What it all really boils down to is knowing how to properly manage your time. Which I am still really bad at, but you should write out a schedule for classes, homework, outside activities, and remembering to take time to take care of yourself and do necessary things. 

One of the things I learned to do early on was to get through the difficult or more time-consuming assignments first, so then the next assignment would go by a lot faster once I had finished the harder homework. It will also make the next assignment seem much easier. But, remember to prioritize things that are due sooner and to try and break down long-term projects if the professor doesn’t (e.g., make sure you have articles/books picked for final papers if you know what your subject is going to be; some professors will basically outline check-ins by making things due for a grade over the semester, such as a proposal, then annotated bibliography, rough draft, and then the final draft). 

I hope this helps, and please let me know if you’d like me to clarify anything or ask any more specific questions!

All the best,

Tychon, the Ancient Geeko-Roman        

#tagamemnon #Classics #university #college #studying #advice #ask #asks #Anon #Anonymous #personal #long post

[zoeygreensimblr]

Stay Beautiful (episode 15)

"Can I just have a tiny clue about the surprise" I beg Angus, Wednesday night after the gym, sitting in his office of blandness.

"How are your Essay's coming, there will be no surprise if you haven't finished them" He asks me, I swear he's worse than Don and Mr Landgaarb put together

"I've finished my Simlish one" I explain, hoping that will win him over and he will give me a clue

"And History? Zoey, we had a deal remember?"  He reminds me

"I'll start it Sunday, it will be done by this time next week." I promise him

"And you have to leave time to do a practice test or two, I want you to be well prepared when you take your final exams" He harps on

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, practice tests, got it. Clue please?" I think I'd sell my soul at this point just to know what the surprise is.

"I'll give you two clues" He tells me and I get so excited I jump up from my seat and run up to him for a hug, "Wow, I haven't even told you the clues yet and you're all over me."

"Are you complaining?" I ask him joking

"Never" He says, kissing the top of my head, "Ok, clue 1, You will need swim wear because the climate is warm there will be a spa", I smile at him, I wore him down

"Is that one clue or three?" I ask, still confused about where we could be going

"That was one clue but I threw in some detail to tease you" He laughs, "Now clue two, we will be flying there".

"Ive never flown anywhere before" I tell him, getting more excited

"You're too cute baby" He laughs, "What do you want to do tonight anyway?" He asks me and I just stare at him, suggestively, he just laughs and asks "What else do you want to do tonight Zoey? We could go for dinner or see a movie?"

"Don't you have to work early tomorrow?" I ask

"I have Thursdays off" He informs me, how did I not know this? Maybe it's never come up before because I'm  usually at school every Thursday.

"I'd like to go out for dinner" I tell him, "But nowhere fancy, just somewhere casual coz I only packed casual clothes" I add

"So burgers and fries is what she desires tonight?" He asks, laughing, "You're determined to make me fat" He says, shaking his head

"I'd still love you if you're fat Angus" I promise, he grabs my hand and places it under his shirt so I can feel his washboard abs

"Say goodbye Zoey" He knows me too well

"Fine, salad it is" I laugh with him.

Angus held my hand as we walked from his office to the desk at the front. Annabelle had returned to work today but still looked unwell. We stop to farewell her on our way out and I remember I had knitted her a scarf, I pull it out of my bag and drape it around her neck.

"Oh Zoey, it's beautiful, thank you" She says, giving me a hug

"It's nothing Annabelle, I was thinking about you all last week and thought it would keep you warm at work" I explain, "If that's ok with the boss of course? I know it's not uniform but I didn't like the thought of Annabelle getting more sick overtime the door opens and lets those cold, windy gushes in" I probably should have cleared it with Angus first

"It's fine Zoey, It does look beautiful too. I'm more concerned about when you found the time in your schedule to knit a scarf?" He frets and I squeeze his hand

"It really didn't take that long" I assure him, "Knitting is how I destress and writing that essay stressed me out a lot"

"I'm sorry Zoey, I didn't mean to make you feel bad about it, you destress how ever you need to, I remember it being a stressful period" He pulls me in close to him, I know he means well, he just doesn't want me to fail.

"You remember year 12 Angus?" Annabelle laughs at him

"I remember fucking it up and having my arse handed to me by Landgaarb and then again by Imogen" He says seriously, "I don't want that for Zoey"

"Zoey is nothing like you were Gus" Annabelle tries to rationalise with him and I hug him tightly

"I know she's not, I just worry, you both know that" He resolves

It's interesting seeing Angus and Annabelle talk about the past that I was never part of and for me it's so hard to imagine Angus doing anything that would warrant getting expelled in his final year, the Angus I know is always in control and structured.

On the walk home, when it's just us I feel that it's the best time to ask him more about why he was expelled, I know it's a sensitive subject and i'm hoping he trusts me enough to open up.

"How close where you to completing before Mr Landgaarb kicked you out" I ask in a small voice. He stops walking and turns to looks at me, it's dark but I can still see his facial features in the streetlights, like he's tormented by the memories.

"It was about this time, we had just started term 3, I had spent all my holidays working on 3 assignments I had and Steph was so pissed off because I hadn't spent any time with her over Winter break. Steph was always angry at me about something so that was nothing new. I was in the top 2 of my year too but I wasn't a good kid, I'd get into fights and mouth off" He explains and it breaks my heart to hear that he was so close to finishing and it was taken away.

"Was it because you got into a fight?" I ask him, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"I need a haircut, I should probably do that before we go away" He says, changing the subject and I decide to let it go.

"I love you Angus, you're perfect to me" I give him a confidence boost

"Starving is what I am baby, I'm tempted to get street food although I've heard bad things about the Pufferfish, that if it's not cooked right you can die" he grabs my hand and walks us to where the food stalls are, "You wanted casual" he reminds me.

We order hamburgers from one of the stalls and wait for our food, I snuggle into Angus to keep warm.

"I'm not going to tell you why I was kicked out, you have this image of who you think I am and I don't want to destroy that image. I love you Zoey but I want you to understand that this is the one thing I will never tell you. I'm not proud of what happened and if I could change it I would." He has that pained look on his face again.

"I understand, I won't ask again, it's in the past" I reassure him

We eat our burgers in front of the fire, the crackling flames create the perfect romantic aura.

"Did you like the burger?" Angus enquires

"It was so juicy, I loved it, have you had street food from there before?" I ask, knowing if he did it wouldn't be often given his aversion to carbs.

"Never, you're just a bad influence Amelia, making me fall off the wagon" He laughs

"I have a way for you to work it off" I suggest

"Where?" He asks

"Where what?" I reply, confused

"Where do you suggest we work it off, keeping in mind you can't pick any location we've done it in before, those are the new rules" He challenges me, "That rules out here in the lounge room, my bedroom and the laundry, oh and Immie's room coz thats just a world of creepy"

"We didn't really have...sex, in the laundry though" I remind him.

"You came on the washing machine Zoey, I'm counting it" He gives me that cheeky smile. Think Zoey, you can be creative

"The kitchen?" I decide, based on nothing more than that it's close to the lounge room where we are sitting and anywhere downstairs will be too cold.

"I want you to go into the kitchen, take your clothes off and bend over the island bench and wait for me" He orders me and I obey

I don't hear him walk up behind me but I feel him run his hand up my inner thigh and slip his fingers inside me

"Thats my good girl, always so wet" He praises me, moving his fingers to my clit and my breathing starts to quicken, "Are you ready baby"

"Where are you putting it" I ask, suddenly aware we never discussed trying anal and I'm not ready to be that experimental

"Same place I always go" He assures me and i feel him slide in, he settles in and starts penetrating, I instinctively push back so he can go in deeper, he spanks me hard enough to send the electric volts through my body and I can't help but let out a loud "fuck" which just spurs him on, his hand leaves my ass and slowly makes it way to my left breast, he cups it and squeezes my nipple, it's enough to send me over the edge, I collapse on the bench and feel Angus have his own climax seconds after mine.

"Sorry baby, that was over before it started but the bench was great choice" I feel him-up out of me and I still can't move, that was absolutely satisfying  and I'm spent. I slowly peel myself off the bench. I have no idea where Angus has disappeared to until I hear the bath water running, I make my way downstairs, naked and cold and find him in the bathroom, he wraps a fluffy dressing gown around me and I wait for the bath to fill up so I can put the spa on.

"Fuck that was good Zoey" He says, kissing me deeply on the lips.

"I think that was my favourite so far" I inform him and he laughs

"Theres plenty more to come, maybe even tonight" He tells me, "Just for future reference though, I would always tell you before I go up your arse, no surprise attacks I promise."

He climbs in to the bath and holds out his hand for me to follow him in, we find a corner and stretch-out, me between his legs.

"Have you done that before? Anal?" I ask curiously

"Yes and I wouldn't force it on you. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you Zoey" He nuzzles into my neck

"I don't think it's for me" I tell him

"I'm perfectly ok with that Princess, I'm satisfied with what we are doing now" He reassures me, "Can I make one suggestion though?" He asks and my heart start racing, I'm not doing this right, I should be putting in more effort

"What is it?" I ask, expecting the worst

"I want you to go on the pill, we can use it as a back up method if you want to but I would feel a little bit of relief knowing we're not going to have any accidents." He suggests

"I think thats a good idea, Tess is on the pill, she goes to our doctor in Brindleton Bay but I can't ask her to come with me, she will ask too many questions" I tell him

"Zoey I will go with you" He offers, "Otherwise if you go alone you will antibiotics for the flu all because you can't say the word sex" He jokes and I splash him, he knows me all too well.

"Can we go tomorrow?" I ask

"We can go tonight if you want? There's a late night clinic just up the road, it's designed for people who need to see a doctor but not for anything serious outside of business hours and the doctors there are good too." He explains

"Is that where you go?"I ask him

"Yeah, when I need to, I do get sick sometimes." He tells me, "Do you want to go tonight or wait until tomorrow" He asks me

"Go tonight" I reply, "The doctor isn't going to poke me with anything right?" Ive seen way too many episodes of Grey's Anatomy at this point where people go in for simple health issues and the Doctors end up putting a tube down their throat or sticking a giant needle in them. Angus starts laughing at my completely rational fear.

"They're not going to poke you with anything" he says trying to keep a straight face, "I am, but they won't" He gives me that cheeky smile

The clinic is a small space placed between two giant retail stores. Theres 1 other person waiting when we arrive, we check in at the desk and the receptionist hands me a form to fill out, questions about previous medical history. Our wait is short and a female doctor calls my name and ushers me into a smaller office than the one Angus occupies at the gym but unlike his, this room is way more decorated.

"Hi Zoey, my name is Doctor Evans" She introduces herself, "what can I help you with tonight?"

My nerves kick in, I know what I'm here for but I can't say it, she's going to judge me and give me a lecture about how I should never of lost my virginity, Angus can see I'm struggling and takes me hand

"It's alright Zoey, you're in a safe place here, Dr Evans isn't going to make you feel bad" He comforts me, "Zoey is a highly anxious person, she finds it hard to talk about certain subjects, that's why I came in with her tonight" Angus explains to the doctor and I can see Dr Evans starting to understand what's going on

"Is this your boyfriend Zoey?" she asks me and I nod yes, "And are you sexually active?" she continues

"Yes" I say shyly, preparing myself for the lecture

"Zoey there's nothing to feel ashamed of, a lot girls become sexually active around your age and it's natural. My only concern is that your protected and safe."She reassures me, "Have you been tested?" She enquires and I look at Angus, he promised no needles tonight

"Zoey was a virgin before we started having sex, we use condoms every time too" Angus answers for me, Dr Evans turns her attention from me to Angus

"And when were you last tested for STIs?" she questions him

"After my last sexual encounter, I'm clean" He replies and I sit there thinking that these should have been questions I asked him before jumping into anything, I didn't even consider it. Dr Evans turns her attention back to me.

"Zoey would you like me to prescribe the pill for you?" She asks me in her concerned doctor voice.

"Yes please" I reply, my own voice is soft and shy

"I can do that tonight, I'm going to also prescribe a low dose of anti anxiety medication too" She tells me, "The pill must be taken at or around the same time every day for it to be effective and it can take up to 7 days for it to become effective so please keep using your back up form of contraception. Also I must warn you that antibiotics can make the pill ineffective so be aware of that if you are prescribed antibiotics at any stage" She says as she types and prints out two prescriptions, "Also Zoey, don't ever feel ashamed to talk to a medical professional about being sexually active, we are here to help you, never judge you" She smiles warmly at me

"Thank you Dr Evans" I say. We leave the clinic and find a late night chemist near by, I put my prescriptions in with the pharmacist and we sit and wait, Angus takes my hand and gives it a little squeeze.

"Proud of you Princess" He says

"I really didn't do anything, you did all of the talking, my nerves just took over" I'm ashamed that I couldn't speak up

"Zoey it's all good, I know you have anxiety and thats why I went with you tonight and maybe the medication for anxiety will help keep the nerves away." He comforts me

"I should have ask you that question before we did anything" my mind is going into overthinking mode

"I would of told you if you had anything to worry about, I knew I was clean and yeah, maybe we should of had that conversation, that falls on me more than you not asking, I didn't think about it honestly because I knew you were clean" He reassures me, "You're safe with me Zo, always", I feel it too.

We walk back to the apartment, past the food stalls that are packing up for the night.

"Do you want a cupcake Princess?" He asks me

"You ask me like you don't already know the answer will always be yes" I laugh

He orders 2 red velvet cupcakes and we eat them in front of the fire.

"I feel bad for Joanna" I randomly blurt out

"Why, she earns $165 a day here, I think she's not doing too bad" He laughs

"Yeah but what do you think she thinks now that she has to empty your trash bin after we've, you know?" It's only just dawned on me now that, apart from Dr Evans, Joanna would be the only other person to know Angus and I are sleeping together and I've never even met her.

"Zoey I don't give a shit what she thinks, I'm an adult" He tells me, "You worry too much about what other people think" He states the obvious. I see his point though, it's no ones business what we are doing and it's not shameful either

"I'm going to tell Tess next time I see her" I announce

"Only if you're sure? I can be there with you if you want me to be?" He's asks knowing I may need support

"Thank you, I appreciate it but I think it's best I do this alone, Tess has been my whole world for so long and now she shares it with you, I love you both but I don't want to make her feel like it's now you and me and she's been pushed out. I need sister time." I explain and then a panic sets in, I don't want Angus to feel I''m pushing him out either, "Is that OK?" I ask

"Of course thats OK Zo, you never have to feel like you're choosing Tess over me, she's your sister and your best friend" He says, kissing my head

#sims #sims4 #sims 4 #sims 4 story #sims 4 cas #sims 4 gameplay #simblr #sims 4 cats and dogs #sims 4 get to work #sims 4 get famous #sims 4 dine out #sims 4 vampires #taylor swift #sims 4 city living #sims 4 san myshuno #sims 4 brindleton bay #whickedwhims

[jasminewaliaposts-blog]

My Journey as a Maid of Honor

Since summer is approaching us, do you know what that means? Wedding Season. A whole a lot of spending your money on clothes that you will probably never wear again, OH and dealing with bridezillas.

Last year of November, my best friend surprised me and some of her other friends by popping the BIG QUESTION, “Will you be my Maid of Honor.” Obviously, I was going to say yes without realizing the amount of annoyance I was about to be faced with. With joy I accepted her box full of treats she gave as a present to me. In the box were pictures from our childhood, a PJ set, a wine bottle, a hand mirror, and a heart filled personalized card. In the card she wrote why she chose me to me the maid of honor, and the date of the wedding which was only revealed to me. Obviously, it was on the same weekend of my birthday. But oh well, it’s just a birthday, I guess…

Two weeks later, my other best friend announced that she would have her wedding 3 weeks before my other best friend (end of June), and my cousin announced that she would have her wedding the same weekend as well.

Tip: Breath and create a calendar with all the main events

So just in case you feel lost, let me draw this out for you. I am a Maid of Honor for a wedding taking place on July 20thand a bridesmaid for a wedding taking place on June 30thand on the same weekend my cousin is getting married.

Now the problem is not the actual weddings, is it the 10 events which happen leading up to the wedding. As well as the thousands of dollars that are spent on clothing, hair and makeup. Being Indian means, we have a lot of traditions and celebrations, which don’t get me wrong, are tons of fun. It involves a whole a lot of color, beautiful outfits, outrageous décor, a lot of dancing and BOOZE. The image below is an example of how décor typically looks like at an Indian wedding ceremony.

Tip: Always create a budget break-down for yourself in terms of how much you will end up spending for each event. This includes the cost of your outfit, makeup, bachelorette/bachelor party, gift(s) to the brides, etc.

As I am processing this, I just realized that I still have one more semester of school left, and this is where I start PANICKING. How am I going to handle school, whilst helping plan three important weddings? Plus, all these food festivals which I do not want to miss out on. Like how can anyone miss out on poutine festival or taco fest?

Anyways, in December my best friend approached me to ask me if I can plan the bachelorette and bridal shower for her. As a Maid of Honor, I had to say yes. Listen, I love my best friend and I would do anything for her, but this is a busy time for me since I am trying to manage school and work on all these wedding shenanigans.

To make things more complicated, she decided to invite her fiancé and his friends to the bachelorette party. So essentially it would be both a bachelorette and a bachelor party. For anyone who has ever experienced this, they would know how complicated things can get when you add a bunch of guys to the mix.

So, the first thing I did was reach out to my best friend’s sister, Bianca, and created a WhatsApp group with all the bridesmaids, and to inform them that the destination we have chosen is Vegas. Now come the outpouring suggestions and recommendations of where we should stay, and how much our budget should be blah blah.

So, complication #5393458 is that everyone in the group are of different age and have different things going on in their lives. Some were students, some are businesswomen, and some are married and have kids. So, their interests and budgets are entirely different from one another.

Some wanted to spend their money on a luxurious hotel, and some would rather spend their money at pool parties and clubs. Long story short, it took me about 3 months to decide on what hotel we should stay at. Once we finalized the hotel, I decided to get touch with the groom and his best man(s) who were planning the bachelor party and let’s just say they were not happy with the hotel we decided to stay at. At this point I told them I don’t really give a s*** about their opinion and we are going ahead with that hotel.

Tip: Create an excel sheet with a budget breakdown so people can see where their money will be going. For people who are on a tight budget, seeing a number visually will ease the process. Below is an example of how this can look like.

The next headache was coming up with an itinerary. This trip is supposed to be 3 nights and 4 days long (Friday- Monday). For Friday, the bride and groom decided that both the guys and girls should spend it together, GREAT! (rolling my eyes). Now this is where things get really COMPLICATED. I had booked all of the girls for an event where Calvin Harris was performing, and of course the best man(s) had to oppose to it, because the cost of them getting a booth there was “too expensive” (FYI: only $100 difference shared amongst 28 people). So anyways, they decided we should go to a “cheaper” event with a less interesting artist. Ok so they literally ruined our wonderful plan, but we were okay with that.

For that same day we had decided that we will get a private dining room for all the girls and guys as a surprise for both the groom and bride. At this point I had already booked a private chef, and here come along the groom’s men opposing to the idea once again. They wanted to do a $100 USD buffet. Why would anyone spend that much on a buffet? Once again, I agreed to it.

Now that the bachelorette party was somewhat coming together, it was time to plan the bridal shower. Let me tell you, this was not fun at all. The bride told us she wanted us to plan an Aladdin themed bridal shower, and once again she wanted us to surprise her so that meant we had to come up with the guest list, find a venue and a caterer, etc.

As I started planning this, I decided to use a technique I learnt when doing group work in the Master of Marketing program, and that is to DELEGATE! Instead of taking on all the responsibilities and trying to plan every single detail, I decided to come up with a list of duties and assign a task to all the bridesmaids.  I simply created a google doc and listed all the responsibilities and put a bunch of names down and shared it with everyone.

Tip: Create a Google Doc and share it with the people who will be participating in the planning process, like the one below.

The planning led all the way to April, which also meant exam time. Since there was only two weeks left till Vegas, this meant CRUNCH time.

Amidst all this, I had to deal with coordinating bridesmaid’s outfits. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TRYING TO GET 13 BRIDESMAIDS to send their correct measurements?! Anyways, once I got the measurements, I decided to order the outfits.

Tip: Ladies and Gents, whenever you are placing a bulk order for clothes, always make sure you get a sample outfit from the designer

The outfits were being made in India. It is a beautiful white skirt and crop top with gold embroidery. The cost of each outfit is $300 CAD, and each bridesmaid has to pay out of her pocket which made it more nerve wracking in terms of getting these outfits down to perfection.

Three weeks later, we received a box with all these outfits, and what happens? NONE OF THEM FIT. I called the designer and yelled at him for sending me the wrong sizes and since these are custom made, none of them are refundable nor returnable. I told the bridesmaids to re-measure themselves so I can find a seamstress to fix all of them, and turns out, they all measured themselves wrong.

Tip: Always find someone professional to get you measured

So, since it was their fault, I told them that it was their responsibility to get their own outfits fixed. Remember guys, always delegate.

Now its exam time, and I am both stressed and excited for Vegas (not really excited for my exams haha). After I finished my exams, it was crunch time for the trip, so this meant buying the decorations for our hotel and custom making our t-shirts and making any last-minute reservations. This also meant hitting the gym every single day in the hopes I would have a 6-pac for my trip.

Amidst all this chaos, I totally forgot to order outfits for my trip. So, I quickly went onto Fashion Nova, which is a famous online store for both men and women. I quickly placed an order in hopes I would get my order in time and hopefully all the outfits would fit. Fast forward a week later (I now only have 6 days left till my trip) I receive my order from Fashion Nova, AND EVERYTHING IS TOO SMALL on me. When I mean I started crying, I mean it! I called my best friend and started crying because nothing fit me and I had spent so much money on these outfits and none of it was refundable, oh and they also sent me 3 of the wrong outfits.

So, at this point my only option was to go to the mall and try to find 3 outfits for a night out, 2 for a pool party and at least 2 for a fancy dinner and lunch. So, I went to at least 3 malls, and FOUND NOTHING!

Did I mention how unnecessarily expensive stores are? I wasn’t going to spend $100 on just one dress. At this point I made a decision to go onto another online store called Pretty Little Thing. I decided to order 4 dresses, confident that they will all fit since I ordered from them before. Since I needed it expediated, I had to pay $20 USD for express shipping. 2 days later, I get my package, and as I’m furiously opening it, I try on my first out and guess what? The dresses are too big. At this point I was not even mad; I was just laughing at myself for even trying.

Tip: Never order dresses from any online shops until reading reviews on both Instagram and on Google. Try to find the exact outfit on the company’s Instagram page and see the reviews for that exact outfit. See what people say about the sizing and quality.

I come downstairs, and my mom asks me “how are the dresses?” I told her that I am just going to end up wearing my old dresses because this whole online ordering business is not working out for me. She took a look at the dresses and said that she can take me to a seamstress and just get them fixed. How genius is my mother… The same day I decide to visit my seamstress and she quotes me $50 just to get them fixed, without hesitation I gave it to her and told her I will pick them up the next day. Anyways, so that whole situation worked out somehow. I went to Post Canada to return all my Fashion Nova dresses. As we know I was already frustrated with their return policy, and then I was told I would have to pay $30 in return shipping, WHEN IT WAS NOT EVEN MY FAULT. I emailed Fashion Nova, and let’s just say I sent a very threatening message to them on both Facebook and email.

Tip: Always send customer service an email about your complaint/ experience. If you do not like their response via email, try contacting them on social media. These companies care about their reputation and the last thing they want is a bad review on their page.

Finally came the day to leave for VEGAS! Our flight departed at 9 p.m. from Toronto, so we decided to go to the airport to sit at the Air Canada Lounge to eat and drink. We then decided to stop by the duty free to pick up some alcohol since everyone who has been to Vegas knows how expensive food and alcohol can be there.

Tip: Never buy alcohol from Vegas, always get it from the airport when departing.

We all finally arrive and set-up our suite with decorations and gifts for all the bridesmaids. And let’s just say after that, the trip was a blur.

After recovering from the trip, now it was time to finalise everything for the bridal shower. This was a breeze since we hired people to decorate the venue and make all the deserts. Below is a picture of the beautiful Aladdin cake.

Today is May 26th, 2019, and within the next 3 weeks it is both my cousins and my other best friend’s bridal showers and bachelorette parties. (WISH ME LUCK)!

This story will be continued, if I make it out alive after this summer….

[a-nonymousgirl]

School tips

 Everyone reaches some point in the school year when they realize they have over extended themselves, feel overly stressed, and just want to give up on themselves. I know I am guilty of this, especially over extending myself and then trying to cram as much into a day as possible. I get overly excited about all the options I have or under estimate how much time some of my commitments take up. There were times this year in college where I was up till two or three in the morning finishing up assignments after working almost ten hours straight.  It seems almost impossible to balance between being over extended and bored out of our mind. So here are some ways I help myself keep sane and organized during the year.

Before I begin I want to ask something I ask myself every year. What in your schedule can you not live without? These are the crucial tasks that absolutely must be done today. Think of how much time each of these takes up and be realistic, don’t give yourself five hours to sleep when really you need seven or eight(i’m guilty of this but try best to avoid it). Think of how to best organize these requirements so you don’t end up overlapping and find yourself stressed.

1) Use a planner/calendar

Having a easy to see lay out of the month really helps keep me on track. I like my planners to have a monthly and a weekly view. I put all deadlines, tests/quizzes, school events, siblings events, birthdays, work schedule ect here. It helps me to be able to see everything and plan out how early I need to start homework or studying for tests so I can get the best grade(In college there is a 2 week rule my friends and I use to study for tests). In the weekly Ill put a little tid bit of what was covered in class and any specifics about an assignment that gets assigned.  I know a lot of my friends have had success with using a calendar on their phone, another uses sticky notes and writes the essentials, and another uses a wall calendar. Find what works best for you and stick with that.

2) Study early

What I mean by this is start an assignment when you get it, even if its months away so the info is still fresh in your mind. It also means start studying for a test early so that you can start with studying for 30-40 minutes and work your way up to a three or four hour study session a few days before the test.

3) Find time for you

This seems like it wouldn’t have a lot to do with school and your success but stress cause people to shut down. Taking small 10-15 minute breaks after studying for two-three hours helps prevent burning out and getting overly stressed. Find a few things that make you happy and set aside some time for them. They don’t have to 

4) Read the content before its covered in class

This helps with comprehension but also allows you to ask questions about the content while it is being covered

5) Make friends

This helps out a lot when there are class projects or a big test coming up. I have a short list of people I talk to all the time about almost everything we do in class. It helps a lot knowing if you miss a class they can help cover you some and its super helpful having a few people you can depend on to study together with

6) Highlight

don’t be afraid to highlight terms, important information or key concepts in your notes. This helps give a focus to the notes and gives a little reminder of what might be important to focus on when the test comes up

7) talking to your teacher/ use professors office hours

This goes for students of all ages, don’t be afraid to ask questions or seek out help. This can be in class or outside of class, for college students this is during office hours. Usually professors have few students coming in and truly want to help if they can. Meeting with the teacher can help establish a relationship which helps with grading later on and can help with finding the best way you learn.

8) record the lectures if you are allowed

This helps if you miss a section of lecture and can help you study in times where you can’t pull out a notebook or textbook.

9) sit in the front if possible

This helps the teachers remember who you are(helps when you go in to ask for help, they are often more friendly) and gives you the least amount of distractions. My chem teacher took a poll of where people sat in class and their average test scores, even those who did not participate much in class but sat in the front did better than those who sat in the back.

10) Have snacks

I have studied with many people who have skipped meals(guilty) or didn’t bring snacks. This can make studying less productive because there isn’t as much focus on the material. The snack can also be used as a reward for reaching a certain point. I liked to bring some brain foods(help memory and brain development) mixed nuts, granola bars, pumpkin seeds, etc and then a cheat snack like cheez its that I would swap out.

11) Eat brain foods

On important days treat your brain, especially those long studying days. A few great options are eggs, blueberries, tea, dark chocolate, avocado, oatmeal, nuts, etc. These foods can really help with concentration and give a little boost.

12) Don’t pull all nighters all the time

This is hard especially when it comes to college but staying up all night for many nights in a row throws your body off, slows you down and can make it harder to remember content from class. Try to get at least 6 hours of sleep every night to keep from burning out and to ensure you get the most of your day. This is hard to do(trust me I know) but it is beneficial in the long run.

13) Color code

Color coding can help your brain associate terms together and help terms stay longer.

14) Use practice exams

If your professor/teacher post practice tests use them to your advantage. Try going through them in the amount of time you would be given without any study tools. See how well you did after and then focus on the areas you did poorly on. Often at least 4-5 questions from the practices are on the test in some form whether it be the same set up or the same kind of question.

15) Move around

Research has shown moving study spots can help with memory. moving around causes our brain to form new associations with the same information so it becomes a stronger memory.

16) Write it out 

If possible try to write out notes as you are more likely to remember material written than you are if its typed. For college this is harder to do with lecture, often I type out my notes then go back and review them and possibly write them out later that night.

17) learn what works best

This sounds like common sense but figure out what learning style works best for you. Personally I have to read the material and take notes over the content at the same time for me to really soak up the information. One of my best friends is more auditory and likes to watch videos and listen to videos to help her study. In college you can sometimes choose whether you would like an online text book only or a package that has an online book as well as a paper copy. I find it better to have a paper copy, but some people I study with love the online version.

18) Find your weaknesses

Through out covering the material find sections that you are not as confident on or don’t fully understand. Make a list of them as they appear then try to focus on those sections when studying.

#college #college class #high school #middle school #school #school supplies #back to school #Back to school tips #school tips #study tips #Helpful Tips #organization #procrastination #study motivation #student #stress #study #personal blog

[0ompa-loompa]

Assignments, final projects, try-outs, mock weeks, finals, college applications, these are what senior year is made of. Naturally, it’s the period of time when you most feel the urge to jump off a cliff. From the first week of school, I could already see the differences senior year brought to my school mates. People were starting to realize that they had to receive great marks, they had to get accepted into good colleges, they had to do this and that as ways to an accomplished future.

Over the years of being a high school student, every time there was a free period, or just any studying-free moment at school, we would watch movies, gossip, or simply be on our phones for hours. Now in every free periods, my classmates would take out these heavy-ass books that can be used comfortably as pillows and actually study. Or re-write their notes. Or revise a subject for next week’s quiz. Anything to keep them working (just curious, do these symptoms apply to all senior year students around the world?).

Since junior year were pretty traumatizing for me (thanks to student government), I had been planning all holiday to give my 110% for senior year. Long story short, I hit it off since day 1 and came out alive six months later. Although it resulted in me spending 3 days sleeping in after end-of-term exams were over, I’m really happy for having been very productive this entire term. I know there’s still 6 months left and the worst parts are yet to come, so I decided to share a few tips exclusively coming from someone *glares at myself* who did remarkably awful the previous year and somehow found a way to crawl back from death

1.       Know Where You’re Going

Getting to the very last year of high school, this is the MOST important part of surviving. Without having your long-term goal, it would be like taking down hundreds of obstacles without having a destination in mind. You don’t know where you’re going, but more monsters keep showing up on your path. Trust me, you’ll eventually get tired and stop trying midway. Losing motivation when you’re in the most vital part of your study can’t be a good thing.

Do research on the degrees you’re interested in taking, from their passing grades to job prospects. Make sure you actually enjoy the subjects needed for those degrees. For example, if you can’t stand Biology, better if you don’t consider attending medical school, and the same goes to other subjects as well.

2.       Maintain Productivity

The amount of school work you’re getting can be overwhelming, that is why you have to do them as soon as possible to prevent them from piling up. You don’t have to finish them all in one day, it’s impossible and careless. At least try to do them bits by bits until the night before due when you can go over what you’ve done and fix a few imperfections or cross-check your answers. Try doing this to multiple assignments instead of focusing on one or two assignments the entire week.

I usually bring unfinished assignments to school so I can get to work when I have free time, usually before after-school extras, or while waiting for an extra course. This way instead of going on Tumblr for hours, I’ll be figuring out math problems and (hopefully) have the homework done by ½ when the course starts.

3.       Gather Motivation

Take a look at that magnificent building, I will build tens of those once I become an architect. Have you seen the latest VSxBalmain collection? I’ll someday be working alongside Olivier Rousting .

It’s very important to keep being productive and use every free time wisely. While you’re at it, make sure to keep your motivate-o-meter at high level. Motivation and inspiration can come from anyone, anywhere and it doesn’t even have to come from anything relevant to your life goals. I usually get a boost of motivation after watching a couple videos of my favorite Youtubers (which has no correlation whatsoever to being an engineer), and I recently  got a huge inspo from reading Crazy Rich Asians. It seriously motivated me to work my ass off and be rich.

4.       Don’t Stop ‘til You’re Proud

Catch up on things you don’t fully understand. If you had a problem with certain subjects or materials, find the answers right away, don’t wait until the day before quizzes or mock tests when you will desperately need answers. Ask teachers, your friends, or our most trusty friend the internet. You can also download several applications to help you study, like Khan Academy and other similar apps. Once you put one problem out of sight, it will become easier for you to put more aside . This is what happened to me last year, I had problems understanding Chem but I refused to actually figure them out, thinking I would learn the materials later. 10 laters later, I got a 7 for end-of-semester test while my classmates received 9s and 8s.

So you have studied for this particular test and still got a bad mark. Shit happens honey, tough it up. Even while I’m writing this, I fully understand that the theory of ‘picking-yourself-up’ is much easier said than done. Give yourself some time to breathe, and start with “okay, where did I go wrong?”. Figure out the errors to make sure you’re not doing them the second time. Consider it this way: the subject has betrayed you and you’re getting a revenge. I planted this idea the very first day of senior year, the thought has driven me to never quit trying. It’s almost like Elle Woods to Warner, but instead it’s me and Physics.

5.       Get A Rest.

Senior year doesn’t mean you lose all hope of going on shopping sprees, watching the latest movies, or taking care of your Tumblr blog. If anything, I’ve watched more movies with my friends this year than I did previous years, simply because we have little time to relax so we made the most of one when we had the chance to. As long as you keep track on your to-do-list, stay discipline on your schedule, a little catch up on KUWTK won’t hurt.

Don’t push yourself to the point of falling down. Read books, paint, dance, even play games (Mobile Legend is the hype these days it’s getting annoying), anything to keep you sane and motivated. Never let the pressure of GPAs and prestigious colleges take positivity away from you.

6.       Don’t Over-Rest.

Yes, hun, I was just telling you to enjoy your senior year and now I’m telling you to not over-relax your way. Maintain a schedule, make agreements with yourself and stick to it. “At 8pm I will start on Math homework, and the rest is for tomorrow”. “I will work my butts off from 8 to 10 am then I can go on Tumblr”. “I will start on my History papers and take a rest after 2 pages”.

I’m not telling you to work 24/7 because that’s not healthy, I’m ALSO not telling you to spend all your weekend in bed and procrastinate because it would defeat the whole purpose of learning to be productive. Once you let yourself procrastinate, It’ll be easier for you to do it for the second, third, and fourth time.  Sometimes you just need to gather your will, get up and face those text books.

Well, there you go. These are all the things I have been doing to not only survive, but to do well in high school. I have been doing all these tips religiously for the past 6 months, it’s almost impossible not to feel tired or even want to just cut it off. But studying routinely makes me feel in control of what’s happening currently, what’s going to happen next, what I want to be doing in the future. So get up and let’s kick asses together.

#eintstetic #focusign #heysareena #acadmia #studyign #studyblr #blog #eintsein #athenastudying #studyquill #academiix #heyscholarly #creatingnotes #intellectys #lycheestudy #intellctuals

[lightsandlostbells]

Skam Austin episode 1 reaction

I wasn’t planning on writing long-winded reactions to Skam Austin, I thought I might just have fun with the clips as they happened. Because there’s such a different context with this remake as opposed to the French/German/Italian ones, that it’s hard to take in! Julie Andem’s direct involvement, the Facebook factor, that it’s American rather than European. I’m processing this one very differently. I’m not even sure how to gather all my thoughts about it.

But then a few things got my attention so here’s episode 1 a week late. I don’t think I say anything that hasn’t already been said, lmao, unless you want to hear about my high school English unit on The Scarlet Letter.

Clip 1 - Frozen is #relatable

Let’s point out all the signs we see during Poonam’s opening monologue:

“Be a winner, be you”

“Work hard, finish strong”

“Always victorious”

“Shoot for the moon”

a board full of college acceptances

IDK guys, I think there might be a theme about the pressure to succeed here.

Poonam’s monologue and the overall themes about pressure and success may seem generic or #relatable depending on your POV. For me, I found it worked, mostly because it’s funny in how mundane and teenage-y it is and the bit about Elsa from Frozen is so weirdly specific, and I knew a million kids like Poonam in high school. But I do get how Julie could have done something more topical considering the world of shit that is going on in the US politically and culturally, including in our schools. (I don’t know exactly how much of the show was filmed before or after the Parkland shooting and I don’t know if/when/how it will be mentioned, but I certainly hope they address it. That’s the kind of issue that Skam is made to cover: things that are directly relevant to the youth of the culture.)

Poonam is talking super loud and were she not serving up our thesis statement, the teacher would tell her to shut up.

I tried to listen to what more of what the teacher actually says, and it’s hard to make out, but of course she concludes with “draw a connection to something happening in present day” … hmmmm….

I was really confused because the test Megan looks at in class appears to be a state-mandated standardized test, not a regular exam you’d take in class. You can clearly see on her paper that it says 68th percentile, which means she scored as well as or better than 68% of students tested. But Marlon seems to be grabbing a similar-looking paper and he says he got a 99, like … is he in the 99th percentile? And Shay’s in the 100th percentile somehow (which cannot be a thing because you can’t go higher than the 99th, lol)? Is there an actual score out of 100 on these tests? Are they talking about a different test?

I’m not from Texas so I don’t know the format of this specific test, but I took a similar standardized test for my state and this is not how I remember it. Also we didn’t go around sharing our scores on those tests the way we would a regular math test or even the SATs or something. And no one studied for those things. 

Meg swaps the numbers around (68 to 86) and he says, “That’s not bad” in a somewhat patronizing way so you know she feels great about it.

The music for the Kittens’ slow-motion walk is very apropos lyrically.

I like Shay, she’s charming. There’s a lot of American “bro” talk and shit like that in the dialogue and it gets cringeworthy, but I think she and Tyler seem pretty natural and I buy them as friends.

Clip 2 - Survival kit

As people have pointed out, The Scarlet Letter is incredibly thematically relevant to Meg’s past. In fact it’s so on the nose that I’d almost say it’s overkill, however that book is so widely taught in American classrooms that yeah, I buy it, it works for me. At least they’re keeping it fairly subtle so far - we notice it because we know the S1 story, a new viewer wouldn’t necessarily realize the connection. And I have seen so many versions of the classroom scene where the inspirational teacher openly talks about the themes of the novel/impact of the historical event/educational topic that just so happens to coincide with whatever’s going on in the protagonist’s life, that yes, this is actually relatively subtle.

Pointless personal anecdote #1: In high school I had one of those stereotypically artsy English teachers and every year she had her students do a mock trial based on The Scarlet Letter, where the goal was to determine which of the main characters was the least guilty. It was a huuuuge project and worth a ton of our grade, and the year we did it, there was tons of drama and crying and name-calling outside of the classroom due to everyone taking this trial 200% too seriously. I drew the team representing Dimmesdale (the minister who fathers a child with Hester Prynne) and miraculously everyone else on the team was smart but chill; we were the only team that didn’t blow up into drama, and we won the trial. I had a great time doing the project, but as time went by I started to think about the point of the trial and whether it was a good assignment, and how our biases crept into the result. Because I remember when kids drew the Hester team, they groaned, because they knew they wouldn’t win. One of the male characters was going to win. Chillingworth might win even though he’s an evil piece of shit and some readers think he straight-up poisoned a dude, but he wasn’t Hester. Hester was definitely guilty because she had sex outside of marriage and had a baby. And if we want to tie this back to Skam, it gets me thinking about how Eva/Meg is the one who loses everything and Jonas/Marlon’s life seems to be more or less intact. The girls lose their friends and in Meg’s case, her hobby/passion, while the boys are OK. Then the same thing happens later with Eva where P-Chris is just a fuckboy but Eva is a slut. Because the girls are the guilty ones. 

Megan’s homework mentions the “life-changing event happens to Hester when she is in the forest away from her community. What do you think this says about the role of community in the outcome of her life?” hMMMMMM. The next question is also about the story centering around a “strong female character.”

Shay talking to Meg while stretched out on her back sure is quite flirty.

Meg’s parents are arguing and contributing to making her feel like a loser, building up some of that pressure (theeeeeme). She has a survival kit which implies that this is a regular thing and she feels the need to escape a lot. 

I do think Julie is getting in some nice shots of the city and making these teens look all picturesque.

Clip 3 - Sad sad eating alone time

I wish Poonam had a Frozen lunchbox.

I'm wondering what Meg’s and Poonam’s relationship is supposed to be. Are they old friends? Are their parents friends? Are they acquaintances who share a class? Does Poonam just want a sounding board to vent about her busy life? I knew people like that in high school. 

Poonam is self-centered in a rather teenage way, not just in talking about herself and being insensitive, talking about how quitting extra-curriculars makes you a loser, assuming Megan doesn’t care, etc. but also how she ditches Megan to go sit with her choir friends instead of like … inviting Meg to sit with her and the choir kids.

There's the THEME!!! of community again as Poonam encourages Meg to be more social, because people who engage in community have happier, healthier, more successful lives. The clip starts with both Meg and Abby alone, but ends with Meg alone and Abby not, because Abby is part of a community and Meg is not.

Also Meg has to be super checked out not to notice the giant Talent Night posters everywhere, including right next to her. It’s too bad they probably won’t go into this but I feel like she’s depressed on a level that Eva wasn’t, which is likely due to losing not just her friends but also purpose of being on the dance team.

“Talent night is the one night of the year where the entire school comes together to celebrate the foundation of our social hierarchy - sports.” Lol, no it’s not. I guarantee you it’s not, no matter what your school is, but especially not this school where sports appear to be a big deal. Try Homecoming.

Marlon is the worst. The woooorst. It really feels as if he, Shay, and Tyler are a group that Meg is just not in, in a way that I didn’t feel with Eva. Because while Eva was often excluded and was the third wheel to Jonas and Isak, Isak was also in some situations the third wheel to her and Jonas. Megan feels like she’s completely on the outskirts of this group. She’s friendly with Shay but I wouldn’t say that they’re friends, while Eva and Isak had some history and were decently close on their own. Some of the other remakes emphasize this too - in particular Italian Eva and Isak (Martino) feel like great friends in their own right. Plus if Marlon does opt to hang with Megan over his friends, Shay and Tyler still have each other.

But for fuck’s sake, Marlon, why didn’t you ask your girlfriend to get some damn food with you? Unless you didn’t really go for food...

Clip 4 - Conservative

How many times has Meg had to listen to Marlon’s music? Yet when she asks him to go do something with her, he doesn’t want to do it. Dump him.

In terms of Marlon’s comments about sports culture … OK, on the one hand I would say there are bigger issues in sports culture, particularly in high school - for example, how sports gets more funding than any other high school program, just to name one issue. His thing about sports culture being about winners working hard, losers are lazy, is maybe not the most relevant, it’s kind of trite. However, I can see a so-called “woke” teen saying something like that, much like I can see a teenager rhapsodizing about Elsa from Frozen. And I get it, it fits in thematically.

Megan used to be on a sports team (and dance teams often do all kinds of competitions so I’d consider it a sport) and clearly misses it so maybe he should chill. And don’t ask your girlfriend to go with someone else when you know she doesn’t have any friends.

Dump him.

Clip 5 - Talent Night

Besides the dance memorabilia, in her room Meg has a poster for a costume party around Halloween, which is possibly when she hooked up with Jo.

Marlon is the worst!!! Worse than other Jonases!!! At least they canceled ahead of time, Marlon just bails last second to go do something fun he likes. Rude and inconsiderate! He doesn’t even invite her along to the concert (and gives an excuse in the next episode, but dude, if you’re going to CANCEL YOUR ESTABLISHED PLANS AT THE LAST SECOND you should at least ASK).

Plus she really needs an escape from her house at that moment due to her parents’ fighting. Great job, dude. 

The B-roll is nice. Again, good shots of the city.

Discussion was happening on @softnorwegians’ Tumblr about the plausibility of Talent Night in terms of location, setup, importance, etc. and I agree with a lot of the criticisms. I absolutely do not buy an official school-sponsored event taking place at what looks like a bar with no chaperones or adults around. Talent Night would probably be held at the school, in the auditorium or gymnasium. Maybe a community center. Maaaybe at a local coffee shop or restaurant, something like that, but that’s pushing it IMO - there would be so many people there that you need a large venue. This doesn’t seem like a small school. My high school did talent shows and there were always tons of adults present, teachers, parents filming their kids.

Also, Talent Night is typically not to fund sports teams! Talent Night is something put on by student government maybe, or if any school group is going to fundraise from it, it would definitely be the arts programs. Or it would be to raise money for charity. Sports teams already have a bunch of fundraisers, also a lot of them are for the individual teams, like swim team will have one, football will have one, etc. I guess it’s not impossible, but it feels a bit contrived. But there are probably some schools that do Talent Night for the sports teams, IDK. (Also, if it’s for the sports teams ... it seems weird to me that the athletes like Jordan don’t seem involved, either on stage or working at the venue? All fundraising I did for the school clubs/activities I was in, I had to do some actual work for the event - sell tickets, serve food, clean up, etc. Lol, here it seems like the sports teams are just hanging out and reaping the profits while random kids earn some money for them.)

Some of the graffiti in the bathroom: 

Sk8ers gonna Sk8 (I’m blanking on where this came from originally, I think it was on an IG post or text?)

Alt er love

Daniel + Grace

That last one, believe it or not, is what made me interested in reacting to this show. Because Grace is our Noora, there are hints of our William being called Daniel … and yet, what’s the context of that graffiti? It makes no sense when you think about it. New girl Grace surely doesn’t know Daniel. Is that supposed to be a hint to future Noorhelm, or is it a shoutout to something that won’t happen - like is Julie teasing us?

I mean, Grace and Daniel are very very common names, but the choice of graffiti was deliberate as we can tell from the other Skam references.

Lol @ me thinking Julie won’t do Noorhelm again but let me have this for now.

The Facebook/fandom reaction to Grace is an example of one of the worst parts of doing a close remake. If this were a completely new show and no one knew the plot, the reaction would have been, “Oh yay, Megan met someone nice :) Maybe they can be friends :) ”

But because she is supposed to be The Noora, a bunch of people had expectations for how she was supposed to act and (especially) look, and when she didn’t fit their expectations, complained. First of all, Grace was quite pretty to me so I didn’t even understand the backlash on a superficial level. Second, get the actual fuck out if you think any of these girls aren’t attractive enough to be a part of the squad. This show has never been about depicting the hottest, most physically perfect people. In fact that’s a reason people like Skam, that there are a variety of body types, their teeth, skin, and hair aren’t perfect. 

Pointless personal anecdote #2: “Let’s give it up for Natalie on nunchucks” is how I want everyone to greet me when I walk into a room, I’m going to have to start practicing.

Jo is great! So good. “I want to see your dumbass routine.” “Ballet shit?!” That whole bit was awesome. What a true friend.

This was so awkward. Painfully awkward.

General Comments:

The IGs are nice work, I’m sure FB pulled some strings to get the pictures backdated. There are some good clues in them - Meg appearing in the old Kittens pics and the Mannequin challenge, Abby has pictures set in Megan’s bedroom where she has clearly cropped out Megan. Abby and Marlon have pictures of a beach from the same day.

Poonam’s super paranoid text about posting things on IG made me laugh a lot. 

I didn’t talk about the acting. It’s ... not great in a lot of places, and sometimes it takes me out of the scene (especially in the Talent Night clip) but it’s not something I want to focus on a whole lot. The cast appears to be teenagers, many of whom have no acting experience, and I’m not totally comfortable being negative about them (NOT saying that no one can criticize their acting, just that for me personally I feel bad doing it). Besides, the fact of it being a direct remake is the more pressing problem for me. As for positives about the acting, I think Shay and Jo are great and have some natural comedic timing.

I am not rooting for Meg/Marlon at all. At all. No version of Eva/Jonas has induced this much annoyance in me. There’s a lack of chemistry, Marlon is more inconsiderate than the other Jonases, and they don’t seem to have much in common.

Unpopular (?) opinion but I have no problem with naming the Jonas character Marlon, or calling him marlonf9000 on IG. It’s an affectionate homage, sure. I guess my only problem with it is that Marlon the character sucks so far and Marlon the actor deserves better.

Man, I don’t even know what to feel about this show at this point. It feels so surreal. I don’t hate it? I’m not angry at it? I’m disappointed that we have to get yet another S1 more than anything. I actually want this show to succeed, believe it or not - even if I don’t care for it personally, I would rather have a lot of other people love it than not. 

I also feel stupid for making any type of speculation on what could happen! Because we’re going to come up with these elaborate theories about how Julie could adapt the story and take it in a different direction, and it’s likely to be all for nothing and we’ll just watch an awkward redo of a scene we’ve already seen.

I do want to say good job for increasing the cast diversity. That was a main fear, that Skam Austin would be lily-white, and we’ve already got 5 prominent WOC in the cast (including Zoya) which is terrific. 

I don’t take the millions of views on the first clip/first episode super seriously since FB was promoting it pretty hard and I heard something about a three-second rule? I’m more interested in seeing how the viewership on the episodes/clips manifests week by week.

It’s also clear that a lot of viewers were confused by the format and don’t get the concept of real-time clips vs. the compiled weekly episodes, which I can hardly blame them for since it’s not typical. 

#skamus reactions #skam austin reactions

[academiceve]

My Study Tips // How I Improved My Grades and Got Straight A’s

This post will consist of study tips and techniques that I have learned throughout university that allowed me to receive straight A’s both semesters my senior year. Long story short, during my final year at university I wanted to improve my GPA and receive good grades in all of my courses. I aimed for an A in all of them and managed to get straight A’s both semesters, as well as end up on the student honors list for having a high semester GPA. I hope that these tips can help improve your grades, but straight A’s are never guaranteed (please keep this in mind). Also, I will be sharing with you all of my study tips (tested for 4 years at university), as well as tips that I learned in my cognitive psychology course about memory and learning. Keep reading if you’re interested in SLAYING this semester!

1. Set GOALS. I have a post already up on how to set SMART goals at the beginning of a new a semester. Click HERE to read it. I also have a guide sharing tips how I prepare for a new semester, click HERE to read it. 

2. LECTURES. Attend all lectures, workshops, tutorials, classes, labs, etc. If you’re a full time student, you shouldn’t make excuses to skip lectures. Before lectures, I would skim assigned textbook readings or look through uploaded PowerPoint slides to have a general idea about the topic, what will be taught, what I should pay more attention to, etc. You will already be familiar with the material and this will allow you to ask questions, summarize key information, anticipate what will be featured in the exam.

3. Learn from DAY 1. My biggest tip for studying and surviving university, is that you need to start learning from day 1 and then build up your knowledge throughout the years. The first few lectures of any major are usually the core of that major, so you have to know those subjects and topics well. Then, your knowledge will build on a strong foundation, which will make learning easier. So start learning from day 1, keep up with new material and you will see that as exams approach, you will be less stressed about not knowing anything. 

4. HOMEWORK. At my university, we would be frequently assigned a lot of homework, so I always made sure I had everything done. Sure, there were times where I would skim through readings or half-ass assignments, but the key here is to know the importance of each assignment. Sometimes, while doing homework I would get carried away and research the topics to learn more about them, because it would help me understand it better. It really depends on the assignment. Another reason why doing homework is crucial is because often professors throw in homework questions in exams. By practicing trying to solve problems you’re already doing yourself a favor, because practice makes perfect. 

5. REVIEW. After lectures, I would review freshly learned materials at home. I would finish taking notes from slides, research what I didn’t understand, as well as look up answers to my questions (if the professor didn’t answer them). I would also study the material. Repetition of studying information over and over again is great for retention, as YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE MATERIALS AND BE ABLE TO APPLY IT. Don’t memorize it, know it! (this is honestly the biggest key to success!)

6. EXAMS. For exams, I would make study guides from chapter readings that cover the necessary information. I would either fill in a pre-made study guide handed out to us by our professors, or I would create one. I would include terms and definitions, key concepts, key research, theories, examples, etc. A quick tip is to make study guides from slides and then add extra information anywhere necessary from the readings. Keep in mind that your study guide’s should include only important information, don’t get carried away! Then I would only study from those study guides, which usually worked well for multiple choice exams. For essay based exams, I would ask professors for topics that we can expect on the exams and write them out at home. I would then learn from those essays. This methods helps you have coherent thoughts, arrange arguments, etc. 

7. PROJECTS. I would start working on projects (group presentations, individual presentations, etc.) at least a week in advance, just because I’m a perfectionist and a visual learner, which means that I wanted my slides to be PERFECT. Nice slides can help your earn good grades! I would choose a slide design style, 2-3 fonts (max), 2-3 colors (max) and would stick to them. I would also include funny photos (memes are really popular if they suit the topic!) or gifs. As for information, I would keep it short and summarized on the slides, and if I needed to expand on a certain point, I would be able to do that on my own. Don’t put a lot of text on your slides, nobody likes to read them (Unless it’s a very official presentation, your professor asked you to, etc.). If you have a good sense of humour, you can throw in some jokes during your presentation (in my case sarcasm wasn’t for everyone, but at least my friends found it funny!). Take the time to prepare a nice presentation, practice presenting in your room, because it is an easy way to earn good grades. 

8. PAPERS. I would also start working on papers at least a week in advance, this usually depended on the lenght of the paper and the topic. I would research articles that I could include first and make a bibliography list. Then I would read those articles, which could take up 2-3 days if I was busy and had to work on other assignments. Afterwards, I would start writing, one paragraph at a time (this approach worked on harder/longer papers or a boring topic). Sometimes I would word vomit all of my ideas and then read through it and edit the paper. However, if I could, I would always try to choose an interesting topic and I would always discuss them with my professors beforehand, because they could recommend readings or help with generating ideas for arguments, etc. 

9. STUDY GROUPS. Studying with friends or a group of students from your class can be different and fun, as well as beneficial for receiving that A. I would utilize study groups before mid-terms and finals, but always make sure to study on your own first and only then attend a study group. Once you know the material well, you can meet up with your friends/peers and teach each other concepts that you still can’t quite grasp. You know you’ve learned a topic well if you can teach it to other people and them being able to understand what you are teaching. Otherwise, study groups can be distracting and a great excuse to procrastinate. 

10.  PROFESSORS. Your professors are a wonderful resource of knowledge, so use them! Attend their office hours, ask questions, discuss any problems or issues that you’re having in their lecture after class. Don’t be afraid to approach them, because they’re a great ally for your success! They always notice students who go above and beyond to learn and do well at university! Trust me, they talk behind students backs as much as students gossip about professors! They can also offer you amazing opportunities afterwards, when doing research, working on dissertations, etc. I was recently offered a volunteer lab assistant position, to help out one of my professors, even though I already graduated. So network with your professors, they will help you out!

11. LEARNING STYLE. It would be useful for you to know what’s your learning style. Visual, auditory, read & write or kinesthetic. You can read about it more in detail HERE. I’m a visual learner, so I would include graphs, drawings, schemes, etc. in my notes, in order to retain information better. Discovering your learning style could help you improve your studying habits! 

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND LEARNING. Below you will find the tips for studying that I learned during my cognitive psychology course. 

It’s easier to remember information you can interpret in the context of things you already know. You will remember textbook material better if you take the time to scan a chapter first, to get a sense of the major points, before reading the chapter in detail. This is also the reason why professors ask students to read chapters before class, so that the students’ minds are prepared to encode and remember the information presented in the lecture. 

The more deeply you analyze information, the more likely you are to remember it later. This is known as depth of processing. Experiments have shown that people remember words better if they’re formed to think about the meaning of words, rather than simply memorizing them. 

The best way to prepare for a test is by processing the material in a way that is similar to how you expect to be tested on it: making the study and recall format as similar as possible. 

More cues mean better recall. Free recall is when you are simply asked to generate the information from memory. Cued recall is when you are given some kind of a prompt. Recognition is when you pick out the correct answer from a list of possible options. Many students prefer to take exams with questions involving multiple choice (recognition test) rather than essays (free-recall test). Professors know this too, so they design multiple choice questions to include alternative answers that can easily be mistaken for the correct response if the student hasn’t studied the material closely. 

I hope you found the information included in this post helpful. If you would like to read more from me, click HERE to see other blog posts! You can also follow my studygram HERE for some inspiration! 

ALSO, I found this video that I thought would be useful, so check it out for more advice! Click HERE. 

#eveincollege #written #straight a's #grades #studyblr #studyspo

[studyblrarg-blog]

how my first year of IB was not a struggle for me (MASTERPOST).

“ib is impossible” is a phrase that i have constantly heard throughout this year. i finished my first year of IB one month ago, and i honestly can’t agree with that phrase anymore. throughout the year, i looked for any advice on how to survive this program on the internet, and i was happy to find it on tumblr. because of this, i decided that it would be a good idea to be a helping hand for any of you who is thinking about choosing IB, or will be in it next year, is struggling with it, or simply because this may help you get decent/good grades (mainly B’s and A’s). 

introduction

before beginning this masterpost, i want to list the subjects that i chose, my grades overall in each subject, and what i mean by “struggle”. (note: grades we get where i live vary from 1 to 10)

G1 English Literature HL- 9,33 (avg 3 trimesters)

G2: Spanish Language and Literature SL- 9,33

G3: History HL- 8,33

G4: Environmental Systems and Societies SL- 9

G5: Mathematics SL- 8,33

G6: Visual Arts HL- 10

TOK- 9

overall grade (+ other non-IB subjects): 9.1

*IB is not easy. nevertheless, it was not a struggle because i did not find it impossible either. i also think that with effort and dedication anybody can do IB. i may not have gotten the best grades but i am definitely satisfied with my work this year, and enjoyed the program. as i haven’t finished IB i cannot give an overall conclusion on it and therefore i will be focusing on the first year only.*

how i chose each one of my subjects and my experience overall + advice

choosing my subjects at the end of 2016 took a lot of time. it is important to understand that you DO NOT have to choose your subjects based on its difficulty level or because your friends choose them. choose wisely because you will be dealing with them for 2 whole years. choose your subjects out of interest; think about what you are passionate about and what you are interested in learning vs what you are not. if you have career choices in mind, you can definitely choose subjects that IB which are based on them, but it is not compulsory to do so. i advice you to read the syllabus of the subjects you find interesting. 

English Literature HL

you will be reading 90% of the time

write down notes and highlight anything that will be useful for analysis while you are reading. 

please plan your essays before beginning to write, the structure may be confusing at first (history kids: a history essay structure is NOT the same as the english one).

a CLEAR THESIS STATEMENT IN THE INTRODUCTION!!!

learn literary devices before your exam, i definitely regret not having done this. 

take your time to do your Written Assignment, don’t leave it for the last minute. i started my WA one week before and definitely felt less stressed as we approached the deadline. make sure you have enough analysis to write aprox 1200-1500 words. 

consult your teacher for anything, it is important that you know the instructions for what you are doing. 

write as much as you can in your supervised writing. you will need this for your written assignment. don’t stress too much though, this is not graded.

reflective statement: remember, you need to have the question “how was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral?” in mind all the time. 

for your individual oral presentation: be as creative as possible, try to get the audience’s attention because it will raise your score, and breathe because i definitely understand that standing in front of a whole class can make you nervous. you will be speaking for 10 minutes so be sure to have enough content (and not too much) so you can reach this time. i personally used a power-point presentation but you can use anything that will be useful to project your ideas. my nerves definitely were my weakness but i was still able to reach the 6-7 band (IB).

read the markscheme before handing in any ib assignment. you can find them in the IB site. 

 i would choose this subject again if i had to start the program from zero. not only i enjoy reading but the workload is not heavy at all. if english is not your strength, i advise you to choose it in standard level. 

→ LINKS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU WITH ENG LIT

how to write a thesis statement for the hl english exam

how to: Approach Poetry Analysis in an Exam

tips for a1 IOP

practice for poetry analysis

read poetry

written assignment tips

process of WA

literary devices

Spanish Language & Literature SL

spanish is my first language so if you are doing your first language in standard level, it won’t be that much of a problem. 

 it was not hard to get good grades, remember to do everything in time and follow the instructions!

you will need complex vocabulary, especially for paper 1 and know your literary devices. 

highlight and take down notes of any analysis in the works you read, because you will need them for your exams.

be organized when writing essays. remember to plan first. 

for paper 2, re-read your literary works during holidays so you won’t have to read it during the year and waste time, i promise you that your future self will pat you in the back :)

→ LINKS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU WITH SPANISH B (or any other language in standard level)

how i got level 7 in IB SL English Language & Literature (Paper 1 Tips) 

IB Lang/Lit Paper 1 insane tip! 

History HL

history is hard. this subject was probably the toughest one for me, but it is my favorite, and i have definitely progressed throughout the year. it is important that you learn how to deal with failure because it will happen, but pay attention to your teacher’s corrections and you will improve so much. (feel free to ask me for notes on cold war, US civil rights...)

evidence. if you don’t put any evidence in your essays, you will fail.

if is is a paper 2, always have the question in mind, don’t move away from it. also, know the topics you have covered so you know the topic number in the exam and you won’t mess up.

know the structure of the essays: introduction (context, defining key terms in the question, presenting question and arguments for and against), main body (one paragraph for arguments for and one paragraph for arguments against + small conclusion at the end of each), conclusion (side with the argument for or the argument against, don’t try to make a balance).

for paper 1: always use your own knowledge as well!!!!

your history book clearly indicates what the IB wants you to answer in each question, so check that out before any of your exams and make even more use of it.

make notes during the year, don’t leave them for finals. it is a lot of content that you need to cover and you cannot do this one week before.

learn the significance of any events, this is important for argumentation.

never use the word “things”. 

learn conjunctive words/phrases! (ex: on the one hand, nevertheless, moreover, in addition...) they will come in very handy when writing. 

practicing questions and skills is always more important than knowing the content. use the mark-scheme!

an IB examiner does not care about your opinion, don’t put it.

gaining time management is so important.

i haven’t started my IA yet, but as history is difficult, it would be good to aim for the highest IA mark as its 20% IB history score.

highlight and take notes in your history books. do a “mini-summary” per paragraph.

skype calls with your friends are actually helpful. what helped me the most for finals was doing a shared document and taking down notes in a table format. 

→ LINKS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU WITH HISTORY HL

tips on doing well in SL/HL history

how i got a 7 in IB HL history

how to get a top grade in IB history

 IB history examination tips 

IB History Wikidot (note: this site has helped me to get notes and the basic information about any topic. just google for example “ib history wikidot korean war”.

Crash Course- when procrastinating, this is a great tool to give you motivation.

History tips part 1 exams

Environmental Systems and Societies SL

putting the memes to a side, this subject has honestly been fun. as somebody who is not into science, choosing ESS was great and made my IB experience better. moreover, it actually interested me and i feel as if i have gained a lot of knowledge. this subject was definitely not difficult, but it is important to study and understand basic concepts. 

case studies: i did not know this until last minute, but in your essay you must use evidence, which are case studies, to answer the questions. therefore, i advice you to learn as many as you can. 

the essay doesn’t have to be too long: 500 words is okay. (follow the mark-scheme too)

know ESS terminology. have good vocabulary. 

make notes before finals, please!

remember that logic is more important than memory. 

make flash cards when learning vocabulary

understand what you need to answer by the type of question (outline, explain, suggest...). it is important to do this so you don’t lose points.

time management.

there are not many past papers as this subject is new, i advice you to use the exercises at the end of every chapter.

use the knowledge and understanding boxes at the beginning of each chapter, they are so helpful and are useful for summarizing. 

pay attention in class, some concepts may be difficult to understand at first.

please, use all of the lines given to answer each question

follow the mark-scheme when writing your IA, there are several requirements that you may miss.

your book is your best friend. 

→ LINKS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU WITH ESS SL

Cara Marlowe (youtube explanations)

Tips: ESS (you will find more links in it)

Mathematics SL

when choosing this subject, i knew that maths was not my strength nor my weakness and therefore standard level would be the best for me. i was never into maths throughout high school until IB; i was able to be interested in it. many of my friends struggled in standard level but most of them were able to pass the subject. maths sl is not easy and therefore a lot of dedication is needed. 

even though it may seem obvious, you need to pay attention in class because the basic concepts are the hardest to understand. 

do all of the exercises possible in your book. note: the short exercises in each chapter are only for gaining a basic idea of a certain topic. when studying for a test, do the mixed examination practice at the end of each chapter. 

past papers. not only many of the exams you will take will have these exercises but you need to comprehend what the IB is expecting you to know. 

read the summary at the end of each chapter, i honestly think that it is helpful. 

ask your teacher everything. it is not the same thing to ask questions in class than after class when you can understand better. 

do your homework, even if it’s tiring. 

i advice you to study for tests at least with one week of anticipation, ir may seem excessive but pulling an all-nighter or only studying two days before will not help you pass.

for your IA: it may be hard to think about a topic, i will put some links below for you to get ideas. follow the instructions, and be creative. don’t leave it for last minute. 

i have several revision worksheets that my teacher gave me, if you send me a message i’ll try to share them with you. 

learn how to use your calculator properly, there are many tricks and tips that you can learn so you earn time. 

know the formulas, but remember that you can find most of them in your formula booklet. 

→ LINKS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU WITH MATHS SL

Khan Academy (basic concepts, plenty of exercises)

IB Exploration Ideas

Exam Tips

How to do well in maths

Visual Arts HL

you will procrastinate a lot, at least in my first year. remember that you will have to do around 11 works. 

a lot of brainstorm is required

have a theme in mind. all of your works must be connected somehow. 

be realistic, you may have ideas that can be impossible.

try to experiment different art techniques throughout your first year; you may find your strengths and weaknesses and preferences. 

don’t give up in your first try, the IB wants you to make mistakes and for you to improve in them. (your mistakes must go to your process portfolio)

use your time wisely, do not make the mistake of procrastinating as me. 

ask you teacher for any type of help

remember that you can also do your portfolio digitally. at first i opposed to this but in the end it seemed so much easier to do it in computer. 

take pictures of everything you do. you will need them. 

remember to put a reflection/argumentation of your overall work and experience/process at the end. 

for your comparative study, i advice you to start it as early as possible and choose works that haven’t been as analyzed as much. (i will link down below a great example of a comparative study)

→ LINKS THAT MIGHT HELP YOU WITH VISUAL ARTS HL

Mrs Papot’s Comparative Study (example)

Advice from a Successful IB Art Student

The Truth Behind IB Art

An IB student who has a tumblr blog is @tochearte​. Super super inspiring :-) I definitely recommend you to check her out. 

Top Ten Visual Art tips

IB LINKS (studying in general)

60 tips for IB- from a 45 pointer

General Tips

How I got a 43 in the IB

How I got 44 IB points

CAS AND TOK AND EE

i don’t have many tips for these. 

however, for CAS my only recommendation is to do your reflections as soon as possible, and try to answer the guiding questions that you can find in managebac.

CAS tips

How to organise CAS

i honestly don’t like TOK for several reasons, but i do have links that were useful for my presentation. i also don’t think that the tok book is worth buying. 

how to structure a TOK presentation (this helped me pass my presentation, really grateful to have found this link)

TOK notes 

TOK essay guide

EXTENDED ESSAY: my only advice before writing your EE is to have the right supervisor, the right material/bibliography, know MLA format, read the syllabus and the requirements for the subject you have chosen!!!! have enough content, remember that you will be writing 4k words on this.

DEALING WITH SAT AND IB

doing the SAT and the IB at the same time may seem stressing. i recommend you to use Khan Academy for practice because it is not only free, but it is just as good as paid websites for sat practice. i recommend you also to do at least 2 hours of sat per week so you don’t lose your practice. it can definitely be stressing but with good organization you can do anything!

REDDIT AND TUMBLR

i am so thankful of having found so many links and advice from tumblr, i could not list them all because this masterpost is too long. i definitely recommend you to check the REDDIT IB community, which is pretty great too and you can ask questions or share ideas. both sites are definitely useful!

HAVING A STUDYBLR

i don’t see my studyblr as a task, i honestly use it for motivation and to motivate others, which makes me happy. having a studyblr and doing the ib is not stressing at all, so if you are wondering about doing one i definitely recommend you to do it. (obviously, don’t dedicate 24 hours on it)

MEMES

and of course, the memes. i found memes a great way to share relatable moments with my friends and whenever you are stressing out or procrastinating, you can find a bunch of memes in instagram, i personally like @smartibapp. 

QUESTIONS

i hope that this masterpost was useful to you, feel free to ask me any questions in the anonymous or by message. if you are interested in knowing about any other subject i can ask my friends. remember that everyone can do IB! if you want to add any tips or links or comments please let me know :-)

i sincerely hope that this master-post helped you, it is the first one that i’m doing. i am also planning on posting general study tips which are not as “common” or are unusual and highly help me. keep it up with the studying!!!!

#ib #International Baccalaureate #ib art #ib school #ib student #student #ib survival #tips #strategies & tips #study inspiration #study hard #study guide #stress #history #biology #science #zebra mildliners #study languages #studybr #help

[livingbutamireally]

AY2020/2021 Y2S1 Module Reviews

This semester proved to be a pain as expected. Said pain coming mostly from BT2101 and CS2030. Everything was conducted online with the exception of the weekly lab sessions for CS2030 so I only had to go to school for 1 day. F2F CS2030 recitations were optional so I gave up and just watched the recorded zoom session instead of going to school just for a class half way through the semester. I usually miss the live zoom sessions because mine was at 1pm and I am almost always still having lunch at that time and not ready at all. Also i missed about half of my BT2102 tutorials because I simply forgot I had tutorials at that time (2-4pm). They still awarded me nicely for participation much to my surprise (7/10).

BT2101 Decision Making Methods and Tools

BT2102 Data Management and Visualisation

CS2030 Programming Methodology II

GEQ1000 Asking Questions

IS1103 Ethics in Computing

CS2030: Programming Methodology II in Java

Prof: Dr Henry Chia, A.P. Terrence Sim

Weightage:

Weekly labs (5%)

Individual project (15%)

Practical assessment #1 in week 7 (15%)

Practical assessment #2 in week 12 (20%)

Class participation (5%) : includes lab participation, piazza discussions and peer learning activities

Final exam (40%)

CS2030 proved to be intensive not only in the aspect of planning code design but also the actual implementation itself.. (thinking about how to solve the problem and/or get the expected outputs)..  Really struggled my way through the start although that really was only the tip of the iceberg because I had no prior experience in Java and the introductory Winter Workshops were reserved exclusively for freshmen or I missed the deadlines can’t remember.. The first few lectures got us familiar with Java Programming before diving deep into Functional Programming which is a lot harder to grasp vs Object-Oriented Programming which was introduced to us in CS1010S already. The hardest part comes with Streams but honestly after learning streams so many processes can be coded so much more efficiently as compared to OOP, really simplifies some of the tasks when using FP rather than OOP. Interesting to note that this streams part ties in well with BT2102′s coding part where we learnt aggregation pipelines in MongoDB and MySQL i believe the concepts felt similar??

Weekly Labs

Pretty manageable imo , compared to the project ofc (rolls eyes)

This semester they changed things up a bit and shifted all the weekly labs deadlines to finals so we had more control in terms of time management and our progress in the labs. Naturally we are expected to do them every week but say we are busy in a certain week for other modules we can always come back on another. I was always behind by like a month compared to my friends who were more on task.

Individual Project

Project part 1 was still okay for the Discrete Event Simulator (DES) basically designing a system for customers to queue and be served and recording the relevant work done at the appropriate times using OOP.

The hardest part was project part 2 where you had to rewrite the whole chunk in part 1 FP style and also they added a lot of more complex simulations and cases which I really just gave up entirely after completing level 2.

It was so hard it was traumatic. Level 3 had something to do with importing a random number generator and the test cases only get more confusing and long i just really had no brain cells left for the work worth only 7% before deducting late submissions penalty (bc brain slow LOL) and the code design criteria and checkstyles. I was so mad that it takes up so much time and effort just to be worth a petty 7% that I gave up entirely didnt even finish reading the questions (which was also pretty darn long). Sorry i am dumb. Please be proud of me I am trying my best.

I have zero idea who in the department decided to rig the difficulty of this project by so much up compared to previous semesters. They really expected too much out of us i am so sorry to disappoint.

Practical Assessments 

Basically similar to weekly lab exercises but you have to do it within the time frame during a lab session. You get to take home and re-edit the code to get the full marks and are moderated according to the changes you made compared to the one submitted during the PA itself. That also means if you do not submit the correct full marks version of the code in a week, you do not get moderated and will be awarded with the marks scored in lab which is obviously 0 for me I had over 70 compilation errors and you might be thinking how. But trust me i am too, confused how. Most people will score around 0-2m in lab but taking it home and refining the whole code with minimal changes and will be graded according to the amount of changes made to get the final code. Tests you how close you can get to the correct outputs within the time frame whether you already had it in your head.

Final Exam

Comes in MCQs, a few case questions consisting of subparts if i remembered correctly some of which required you to write out a possible code (2-3 lines) converting oop to streams, synchronous to asynchronous etc. There are plenty resources (pyps) floating around in the gc so you can use them well for revision.

Theoretical content was tested i dont really know how to put in words but you may be able to code well even though you may have some of the concepts wrong

We only did pure coding work in labs, projects and practical assessments so this really reinforces your understanding of the material

Considering I didnt finish project part 2 this is quite a decent grade already really thankful i dont have to go through this ordeal again. See you never.

BT2101: Decision Making Methods and Tools

Professor: Rudy Sentiono, A.P. Huang Zhiyong

Weightage:

Group project (20%)

Written assignments - 3x 5% (15%)

Tutorial participation (5%)

Midterm - open book (20%)

Finals - open book (40%)

This is the second module that I have been struggling with since the start of the semester. Tutor changed after the first session, the former tutor was much better and clearer in her explanations. This is quite a math-intensive course and requires some knowledge of linear algrebra and thus the pre-requisities. Maths has never been my strong suit (well except in primary school) so I struggled hard with this module. Nearing the end we learnt about deep learning neural networks which was pretty interesting and really broadened my perspectives on the future of machine learning. The pace was okay, but the lecturer seems to just repeat the words on the lecture slides in his lectures. The lectures were seemingly simplified from the reference texts he used but is nevertheless still daunting to look at to revise. Project was a 4-5 people groupwork where we had to conduct all the stages of data analytics from data exploration, cleaning of data to data mining, conclusions etc. There were an additional 3 assignments that we had to do together with our groupmates by the stipulated deadlines. This module requires a lot of work and preparation. Am glad to be able to pass.

BT2102: Data Management and Visualisation

Weightage:

Assignment 1 (Group):  25 marks

Assignment 2 (Individual): 35 marks

Assignment 3 (Group):  30 marks

Class Participation: 10 marks (Participation in Tutorials and Group Assignment Discussions)

IS1103: Ethics in Computing

Weightage:

FPAQ (50%)

Missions (50%)

Expected Grade: B+

Final Grade: A-

For this module, all 13 missions are to be done by the last date of submission for finals which was a 300 question quiz held on LumiNUS. Missions are assigned weekly where we go to the WordPress website the professor has built, a server that he regularly does maintenance on and in it he uses a tracker to track our progress through clicking links and submitting short answer questions sometimes. Most of them were done by clicking of links and we were told to disable our Adblockers if any to prevent interruptions or his system not capturing our data. We were encouraged to do it weekly although the deadline was the end of the semester. One of the missions included us doing some Linux practice penetration questions on Kali, it was a bit tough but other than that the other missions were pretty simple and straightforward. After every mission done we were to do a practice PAQ which is not graded and upon submission would give us the model answers to study in preparation for FPAQ the final week submission. PAQ consists of 5 themes * 7 questions = 35 questions, whereas FPAQ has 300 over questions to be done over the span of a week, the reading week. Carpal tunnel.

GEQ1000: Asking Questions

Weightage: 

Tutorial attendance/participation (36%)

Forum participation - forum 1 and 2 (14%)

MCQ quiz (36%)

Final paper (14%)

This is a general education module everyone in NUS is required to take. I dont think I learned much so I am really only there to go through the motion. There are a few pillars that the department touches on mainly Physics, Engineering, Design, etc to show how the different disciplinary courses are interconnected and how/why is questioning important. Really low maintenance course, we do a 6 or 10 MCQ quiz every week prior to the lecture for that pillar. Tutorial was online via zoom and really low workload in general. Final week was on design and we had to make a wallet for our partner and explain why or how we chose the designs, and also submitting a word essay on our reflections of things we learned.

Update. I only pray to hover above or maintain at this current CAP lemao PLEASE YOU NEED TO

[mental-health-advice]

How is college going for you? I’m a freshman in the middle of my first semester and I’m having a really rough time and feeling very overwhelmed. I️ have 2 10 page papers and another 6 tests before the semester ends. I️ cry almost every day because I’m scared I’m not cut out for college. I’m not sure if it’s actual depression or just my course load ://. Do you have any advice

Hi there,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re struggling so much withschool! I’m currently in the first semester of graduate school, so I completelyunderstand the stress of it all. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by everything,especially at the beginning of a semester and you see all of the work that youhave to get done by the end of the semester. You’re definitely not alone withhow you’re feeling!

When it comes to the actual school work, my biggest piece ofadvice is to take it one week at a time and, if that doesn’t work, take it dayby day. It’s good to be aware of how much you have to do throughout the wholesemester, but taking it all on at once is way too much. What I do at thebeginning of every week is write down all of the assignments that you have dueby the end of the week. I have an app on my phone called Color Note that I useto make a list every week that has my readings and assignments listed. I reallylike it because it keeps me on track for what I need to be doing, I feel superaccomplished once I’m able to cross something off the list once I’ve finishedit, and it helps with time management. If you can see everything you duethroughout the week, you can decide what you’re going to work on every day andfor how long until it’s all finished. After the week is over, do it again.

For the long-term, consider getting a planner or calendar whereyou can write down the bigger assignments that you have to get done over thesemester. For example, write the due dates for your papers and exams on theplanner or calendar so you still focus on your work week-by-week but you alsodon’t forget about those papers or exams. As they get closer, you can startincorporating the work for them into your weekly assignments. Using myself asan example, I have a 10-15 page paper due for my research methods/statisticsclass due the last week of the semester. I obviously don’t want to wait untilthat last week to start the paper, so I’ve started putting smaller tasks in myweekly list so I can still work on that big paper. So, for this week, my goalis to locate two more articles for the paper. Next week, I’ll start reading thearticles and gathering information. The week after that, I’m going to startwriting a rough draft. I can then spend the last few weeks of the semesterediting, finding more articles, etc. as needed. You can do the same sort ofthing for exams – study chapter 1 today, chapter 2 tomorrow, etc. Breakingthese things up make it more manageable while still staying on top of yourweekly assignments and readings.

Another option that helps is to work on all of this withclassmates. Although you all have to turn in your own assignments, gettingtogether with them while you work on the assignments can make it less daunting.Maybe get together with a few classmates at a coffee shop and just work on plowingthrough papers and other assignments. This is nice because you can ask them questionsor for advice if you need it while you’re working. Studying with classmates ishelpful for the same reason. Plus, with studying, there might be a concept you’restruggling to understand that a classmate can help you with and vice versa ifthey are struggling with something you understand quite well. Even if you can’tget together with classmates, try getting phone numbers from a couple of themso you can reach out to each other as necessary.

It’s also important to take care of your mental health whileyou’re in school. If you think you might be suffering from depression,definitely consider getting help before it has the chance to get any worse. Yourschool likely has counseling services and there’s a good chance that they are freeor at least cheaper than other places, so consider making an appointment withthem. Even if you don’t feel depressed, you can still seek help – you don’thave to be mentally ill to go to therapy. They would be able to help you findways to manage your stress, as well as help with your mental health if you’restruggling. College can be a huge adjustment, so it makes sense that you mightneed some help dealing with it. If you’d like some information on how to reachout, take a look at our getting help page. There’s nothing wrong with needinghelp!

Something else to remember is that you have to take care ofyourself. You can’t do well in school if you’re neglecting yourself, so makesure you aren’t putting school before yourself. It’s important to make sure you’regetting enough sleep, eating enough, and making time for the things you enjoy. Despiteall of the deadlines school gives you, self-care is still 100% necessary.

This isn’t something many people talk about, but it’s alsoalright if college isn’t for you. Even though there’s such an emphasis oncollege and getting your degree(s), some people just don’t like college or it’stoo difficult and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are so many optionsout there besides college, so just make sure that you’re doing whatever youfeel is best for yourself.

I hope this helps in some way, but let us know if there’sanything we can do to help. As hard as all of this may be, you’re so muchstronger than you think. You can get through this!

-Samantha

#mhasamantha #advice #advice blog #mental health advice #school #college #university #studying #studying advice #depression #getting help #Anonymous

[unwrittenambition]

A Survivor’s Guide to Year 12 (It’s not that bad)

It’s getting to that time of year where we’re all heading back to school, and if you’re anything like me, you might be a bit panicked and uncertain about your future in sixth form. Since I’m going into Year 13  this September, I’ve learnt a lot about how to tackle it and thought I’d give you Year 12′s some advice. I’ve got a few regrets, and wish somebody had told me these things when I was starting Sixth Form, don't forget to message me any questions/thoughts about the new academic year and I’d love to chat!

1. Don’t commit to a subject you don’t like.

Trust me, I say this from experience. I took on 4 A-levels at the start of Year 12 whilst everybody else did 3 – I thought the extra subject would help me when it came to university applications later, but two weeks into A-level History I decided to drop it. If you, like me, are considering taking a subject just because it’d look good, or for any reason other than your genuine love and interest in it, seriously consider changing it before it’s too late. Most sixth-formers now have to commit to their subjects for 2 years (not just 1), and if it’s going to be a struggle to you, or cause you to neglect your other studies, I would recommend seriously rethinking that decision. I’m happier and more successful now studying 3 A-levels than I could’ve been if I’d committed to a subject I can’t stand.

2. Use Folders!

My biggest regret was not using folders from the very beginning, and not keeping on top of them once I’d switched from notebooks to folders. You need to have them well-organised and easy to navigate – don’t leave all your loose papers in a stack ‘for later’ when you get home. I did this throughout Year 12 and rarely found what I wanted when I needed it, now that it’s summer I’ve spent literal hours sorting through a mountain of paperwork, trying to decide which topic or exam each page belongs to, and I’m still not even half-finished. (If you want to see a guide on how to organise your folders, let me know and I can make a post on it!).

3. Read!

If you know certain books/materials which you’ll be covering in sixth form, read them in the summer to get familiar with it, develop a basic understanding, and find a way to get enthusiastic about your classes even before starting. If you’ve not been told what books to get, I would really recommend e-mailing your teachers and asking. This is how I’ve built my collection of further reading for my subjects which few other students will have knowledge of; an easy way to form developed, educated responses in exams. Admittedly, some books are tough, I’ve got a few which I’ve not finished, but I’ve adapted a method to overcome this, which I might share soon.

4. Expect lower grades than you’re used to.

You’re used to working at a certain standard at GCSE level, you know what grades are normal for you, but don’t be downhearted when you don’t do as well as you’re used to. A-levels are assessed in a completely different way to GCSE’s and the content and style is usually all new. Expect to get a couple of grades below your standard in your first assessment, but don’t let it discourage you. It’s completely normal and I found it to be a great motivator once I got to grips with it. If you really work hard, listen and put in the extra effort, your grades should start rising within the first couple of months, and then beyond that you can get A’s at the end of the year if you work hard. Trust me. It might seem impossible, but it really isn’t, you don’t have to be a genius either, you just need to have a committed work ethic and that’s all.

5. Use your free periods!

Teachers will tell you all the time to use your study periods well, to make the most of them. If other sixth forms are anything like mine, most people will ignore this and waste every free period socialising and relaxing. I understand that this works better for some people, who prefer to work at home, but I believe the most productive students work in some way or another during at least 90% of their free periods. I always get my work done at school, and then do extras at home, leaving most of my time away from school properly free to relax in. You don’t genuinely relax well if you’ve got a to-do list hanging in the back of your mind, so get it out the way and make the most of your down time later by freeing yourself from stress.

6. Know how, when and where you work best.

I’ve done a lot of quizzes. They’re not worth it. Reflect on what you found genuinely useful in GCSE, and carry it along to sixth form. Decide how when and where you work best now, so you can get started without wasting time. For reference, here’s my list of how, when and where I work best:

HOW: Flash cards for summaries of theories, attaching quotes to themes. Essay plans and practice questions! These are my go to – they take a lot of work but seem to be the most valuable, especially once I feel I’ve got the information down. Listening to instrumental music to help me focus/be creative. I cannot work in my pyjamas. I know it’s weird and seemingly irrelevant but I supposed it is part of how I study, I like to feel clean and fresh and ready for anything.

WHEN: During typical working hours (8:00-15:00), or in the evening (20:00-23:00). I feel I better tackle academic and focused work during the day, like essays, notes and revision, but creative or leisurely work like reading, analysing and coursework can be done in the evenings. When I’m feeling disappointed in myself or afraid about my academic future, I work like mad, and this is honestly the best time to get started on exam rewrites, because you can lose motivation quickly.

WHERE: At school, or in a public library, it doesn’t matter whether it’s loud or quiet, busy or peaceful, but I usually work around friends who are just having casual conversations. If it’s late and I’m doing creative work, I like to work in my bedroom or my living room (wherever my family aren’t).

7. Revise as you learn.

I made flash cards for the topics we covered at the end of every term, and in the holidays I go over them and fill in any gaps using the textbook or my personal notes. When it comes to exam season, you won’t have much time to be making revision materials, you need to be using them and refining the finer points like your exam technique. You can’t hope to start revising a month or two before your exams. It won’t work as well, and you’d be missing out on the chance to achieve the real top tier grades by not having the information already memorised (for the most part). One month before the exam, the ideal position to be in for revision is revising quotes/extra context, and revising exam technique. Practice questions will become your life, and don’t be afraid to give you teachers extra work to mark. They might not like it, but you need to make the most of the resources around you.

8. It’s actually quite fun.

Now hear me out – you’re probably getting a lot of people telling you how difficult and stressful it’s going to be, but nobody bothered to tell me that Sixth Form/College actually has a lot of benefits. I would not go back to my GCSE’s now if I had the chance, despite how easy they seem to me in retrospect.

For the most part, you’re treated like an adult. You’re friends with your teachers. You’re given a lot more freedom, a fair amount of food and fun experiences. For the first time in my life I actually looked forward to assemblies. I’ve had long conversations with teachers about our favourite films. I’ve had more inside jokes than I can count. I’ve had random assignments which have me running around the school with friends, balancing on the tip of a chair to pin up boards, untangling Christmas lights like a gameshow team challenge. It’s really great. You have a lot of fun. So it’s important to prepare for the sheer amount of work and the difficulties of sixth form, sure, but don’t stop yourself from having fun, and appreciate the things you’ll have now that you’ve been denied for all of your education so far. It makes all the hard work worth it.

I am a bit of a nerd and I’m not afraid to admit that I love Sixth Form. I hope you enjoy your Year 12 as much as I did mine. Let me know how you’re feeling if you’re in year 12, or if you’re older let me know if there’s anything you think I missed!

#studyblr #studyspo #community #mine #text #long #long text #chat #talk #message me #message #help #advice #tip #tips #sixth form #6th form #a level #a levels #year 12 #year 13 #school #college #uni #academia #stress #panic #fear #change #growing up