Sorry guys, I know I've been gone for a while! It's semester finals week, which for most people, equates to shitloads of studying and stress. Especially if you're me, and your grade in pretty much every class depends on finals. Did I mention I took a study hall, which means I'm only in five classes and thus have no cushion for my GPA? No pressure...
Here are some of the useful tips I apply to my own studying, and hopefully they help you stay sane before an exam too.
Top 5 Study Tips
1.) Take a break every 30-50 minutes and walk around, or do some sort of physical activity. I like to take my heaviest textbook and do 15 chest presses coupled with 25 jumping jacks, or pop out 10 burpees. Since I usually don't have time to work out during finals week, this helps me burn off some of that stress.
2.) Stock up on "brain fuel," like greek yogurt and high fructose corn syrup-free granola bars. I always keep lots of frozen Chobani yogurts and Kashi granola bars on hand for late-night study sessions, because for me, studying always works up an appetite.
3.) Don't eat high-carb or sugar foods before studying. You'll crash an hour into it, and it'll just exasperate the pain and lethargy.
4.) If you're cramming the night before, like I usually do, make sure to take plenty of practice quizzes. They give you a general idea of what you should know, and can be more effective than memorization because they require you to apply the knowledge, and thus force the linking of concepts.
5.) Read the captions/headings of each section and paragraph in the textbook. For AP Semester Exams where you have to cover over 20 some chapters of material, you need to grasp the broad concept of each chapter and not just memorize the terms. I have found that although most people ignore the captions/headings, they give you a good generalization of what is going on.
With that said...
Wish me luck on finals today and tomorrow. If you have exams this week as well, all the best to you too!
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Sticking to New Year's Resolutions
We are officially 3 days into the new year. That spurt of enthusiasm you had on New Year's Eve to change yourself for the better is by now probably waning.
"Most people are not going to keep their resolutions all year long. They’ll start out with the best of intentions but the worst of strategies, expecting that they’ll somehow find the willpower to resist temptation after temptation. By the end of January, a third will have broken their resolutions, and by July more than half will have lapsed.
They’ll fail because they’ll eventually run out of willpower, which social scientists no longer regard as simply a metaphor. They’ve recently reported that willpower is a real form of mental energy, powered by glucose in the bloodstream, which is used up as you exert self-control.
The result is “ego depletion,” as this state of mental fatigue was named by Roy F. Baumeister, a social psychologist at Florida State University (and my co-author of a book on willpower). He and many of his colleagues have concluded that the way to keep a New Year’s resolution is to anticipate the limits of your willpower."
So far, I've found it helpful to write down short daily updates on an online journal. This keeps me on track and inspires me to stick to my plans.
How about you? What are some ways you all try to stick to your resolutions? (If you made any at all.)
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