Archive for 2016

Thoughts on Exams

06:07 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

Infographic on exam attitude readiness (source)

Tomorrow, I'm taking two of my three exams for the week - back-to-back no less.

Oddly enough, I find myself not too stressed about the upcoming ordeal. That's probably because, between writing posts, I've been going over the materials for my classes. It's been refreshing to break up long periods of staring at a screen with looking at a decidedly non-digital piece of paper. That aside, my exam stress-levels have benefited immensely from the generosity of my professors. Among my remaining lecture-based classes, all of my professors have been so kind as to provide us with study guides for our finals, and from my past experiences in their classes, I know using the study guide will boost my exam readiness by leaps and bounds.

Study guides aside, I remembered that your attitude on exam day can really influence how well you do, too. I came across the attached infographic last week on one of my social media sites and thought I'd share it here. On that note, I'd also like to recommend this college resources blog where the infographic came from, Students Toolbox. This blog gives a lot of tips on how to get through the daily grind of school with colorful infographics and offers pleasant printables to help get you organized. For all my fellow collegiates, let's do our best on these exams! You've got this and so do I! Have some Shia to cheer you on!

Resources: Videos

04:35 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

For a student with papers to write and projects to finish, going on YouTube would seem counter-productive to, well, productivity. However, YouTube is an invaluable wellspring of videos that aim to inform and educate viewers in digestible and visually engaging videos. Here are some educational channels (and one website) that I've watched over the semester that you might find interesting!

What's Gonna Work?

07:40 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

Ruminating on the recent topic of stress, as well as finishing up some projects, has brought to mind a particular. There's an old Nick Jr. preschool program called "The Wonder Pets" that follows a trio of classroom pets who go travel around the world to save the animal in distress. The program always had this one song play in the first half of the show and the chorus goes something like "What's gonna work? Teamwork!" Teamwork certainly works, but not every team works, unfortunately.

Resources: Presentations

06:58 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

In addition to term papers and final exams you might be wrestling with, you might have a presentation or two to give before the semester's end. Instead of recycling that one slide on PowerPoint, try something new with these great online presentation editors!

Resources: Stress

17:55 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

Try as you might to avoid, stress is a inevitable factor of college life. Some of us college students are not only juggling several classes, but we might have a family, a job or two, and maybe even personal issues to juggle all at once. Plus,with the conclusion of this semester coming up and the impending holiday climax of December, everything can just feel like too much. As we take a look at some stress-reducing resources, take a breather and treat yourself to a nice, calming cup of peppermint tea if you can!

S T R E S S

17:47 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

Are you a human being? Do you have needs that require fulfillment or wants that you desire to fulfill? Do you interact with other human beings on a regular basis? Do you have a job, a family, and/or school? If you've answered "yes" to any of these, then you've most definitely encountered stress at some point. Stress is just one of those unavoidable and ever-present factors in our lives. My psychology professor formally defined "stress" as "any circumstance that threatens or seems to threaten our well-being and, therefore, reduces our ability to cope." He offered the example of a bridge designed to only carry, say, 2 tons of weight; if 4 tons of traffic were to be stuck on that bridge, we'd say the bridge is under "stressed." The same applies to people. Often we find ourselves trying to do more than we're capable of, putting us under intense degrees of stress.

Pictured above: Me, yelling

The impending conclusion of this semester has been a roller-coaster ride that never seems to stop going up and it's definitely hasn't been a fun ride up. My internal state over these last several weeks can be easily summarized in the above gif. November - and all of its hubbub with the elections, Thanksgiving, and registration, among other things - flew by in a painfully quick blink of an eye and plopped right us into the immense activity of the December holiday season without any room to breathe. Or at least that's how it feels on my end. With all this craziness in mind, I'll be taking a look at how to cope with stress in an upcoming post!

Resources: Studying

19:06 by Casey 1 Comments A⁺ a^-

Studying for quizzes can seem a little daunting if you can't focus or can't seem to grasp the material, so without further ado, here's some resources that might make studying just a little easier! (Hopefully ;u;)

MyNoise

There are two types of studiers: those who best study without noise and those who study best with it. While music is a standard go-to for background noise, it can be a distraction if you have lyrical music or you're not content with any of the songs playing. To alleviate such problems, I recommend MyNoise, which is more than your everyday noise generator. MyNoise has an expansive collection of sound generators, all of which can be customized to suit your needs. Besides having a lot of sounds, they also have very unique ones available, like "RPG Dark Forest" and "Tibetan Monks." My favorite ones are "Tropical Rain" and "Sailboat" and I like using the sites super generator to put them on one window and layer the sounds together. There's a lot of sounds and options on MyNoise that are definitely worth checking out if you need an alternative to music or just want something to drown out surrounding noise.

Study Guides & Strategies

If you think the way you're currently studying could be improved or you flat-out don't know how to study something, the Study Guides & Strategies site might be of interest to you. This site provides helpful guides for tackling whatever subject you have on your plate. Besides studying, it also provides other educational guides, such as how to compose a persuasive essay or solving for linear equations. ESL studiers needn't despair either as the site also provides their resources in 38 different languages!

Quizlet

For subjects that rely mostly on terms and definitions, I've personally found that flash cards work best when studying for exams and quizzes. I used to write all out all the terms on 3x5 cards, one by one, then flip through them to study, but after the list of terms gets so long, writing them out by hand can get a little taxing. Luckily, I've found Quizlet to be a really great electronic substitute for paper flash cards. Easy to use and just as portable as a stack of cards with their mobile app, Quizlet also provides quizzes and games using your digital cards to help better implement the material. Flash cards can be easily shared, too, using e-mails or links, like this link to a kanji/hiragana set to help me study for a quiz tomorrow.

Motivation & Needs

21:51 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

What gets you out of bed each morning? Why attend classes? What compels you to make certain decisions and pursue particular aspirations? In essence, what motivates you? In today's psych lecture, our professor introduced the concept of motivation from a psychological perspective, defining it as "the needs, interests, and desires that propel behaviour in a particular direction." For this session, we took a look at how needs, both the innate and learned ones, work as motivators.

(Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs)

According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, our needs can be generalized into several distinct categories and visualized as a pyramid with the most important and motivating needs at the bottom. Of course, our motivations may not exactly occur how Maslow theorizes it. Biological needs may not always win over other types of needs, though. This could be illustrated by starving artists who may prioritize buying expensive, but necessary art supplies over buying food, a basic necessity. Another example would be students who prioritize their need to accomplish in an exam over their need for rest. Despite these exceptions, in the end, our basic physiological and biological needs usually win out over the psychological, social, and self-fulfilling ones.

From a personal perspective, our psych unit on motivation could not have been more timelier than this. Having contracted the flu over the weekend, I can see how my basic biological need for rest and recovery was an overpowering motivator over my cognitive need to work on school things. However, it is also worth noting that on top of exploring innate motivators, our psych professed added that "Even though it's 'normal,' it doesn't mean it's right." With that mindset, it's probably not best to tout some needs as an excuse to not do what you're supposed to. After all, excuses are like armpits; everybody has them and they all stink. :P

Stick to the Plan

18:58 by Casey 1 Comments A⁺ a^-

Being consistent in my blog has been… difficult. Well, to be completely honest, being consistent in anything has always been a weak point for me. I figure this is mostly due to inconsistent personal motivation, as well as a reliance on this motivation to kickstart my actual work. Whether it's school or a personal project, my motivation to keep working on a project has a tendency to dwindle and, in its place, honest-to-goodness laziness tends to keep me at a standstill. Thus, perhaps it's time for me to start relying on something more stable than personal motivation.

It's incredibly easy to fall into a certain cycle of routine, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Setting goals, applying it to a schedule, and making that goal-achievement routine could prove incredibly beneficial in the long run. From elementary to secondary school, I got into the habit of working on my school through goal-setting. Each day, I'd have a set number of pages to do for each of my subjects and in retrospect, I accomplished more with that work ethic. When college rolled around... well, that work ethic practically disappeared. :'D With all that being said, I will attempt to stick to a posting schedule for this blog from this point forward. I'm going to try to regularly posting on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and maybe Fridays. Wish me luck! ^^

How to Develop a Phobia

18:50 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

Ever wonder how you developed a particular phobia? Well, it's because you learned it. Whether we're consciously doing it or not, learning is something we do on a regular basis. Majority of the time, we think of learning within the context of the classroom, but obviously learning takes many other forms than a teacher at the blackboard and a textbook on your desk. We may come to learn that the appearance of the babysitter means our parents are heading out, that the sound of a bell signifies the end of a class period, or in the case of Pavlov's dogs, a ringing bell means the arrival of food. These are all examples of classical conditioning, a psychological concept where a passive process conditions mostly involuntary behaviour (as defined by my psych professor). One interesting example of classical conditioning would be "phobias" - reactions of fear or anxiety to specific objects or situations. (Hover over the bold text for definitions!)

Resources: Productivity

00:57 by Casey 0 Comments A⁺ a^-

For a procrastinator, productivity seems like a distant and hardly attainable dream. Plus, with how expansive the internet is, it is far too easy to dip your toe into the surface level of websites like Facebook or Youtube and, four hours later, find yourself deep into a friend's very interesting photo gallery or halfway through a lengthy playlist for movies that you've never watched, much less heard of. Have hope! While the internet is a undoubtedly cesspool of time-consuming distractions, it's also a wellspring of resources that can help keep you focused and increase your productivity, so here's a couple I like using.

W O R K

A nifty little program that times you as you work and judges you when you don't. After downloading and extracting the program, open it up, run whatever you're using for work - whether it's a Word document or a Photoshop file - and it will keep track of how long you're on that program. Click out of your work program and the timer will turn a harsh red and stop. I've just recently started using it to track how long I take working on my digital art and doodles. It's free and can be found here.

Cold Turkey

Sometimes, when you're working on something, you get this sort of itch to pop in on your usual social media outlet and see what's new. For distracting tendencies like that, Cold Turkey comes in handy. Cold Turkey is a site blocker that lets you temporarily block websites and set how long to block these sites for. Visiting blocked sites during the times you've set will only result in the app giving you an inspirational quote, such as below.

In fact, the only ways to access blocked websites before the set time is to either change the time on your computer or uninstall the program, which seem rather counter-productive and extreme in all honesty. When I've got big projects with looming deadlines, I've found that running this app has been extremely beneficial in keeping me focused on my work. I've also found it helping in curbing a binge-watching YouTube habit that was proving harmful to my academics last semester, so it definitely has my recommendation. The program is free, with some additional features added in the pro version, and can be found here.

Focus & Balance

23:28 by Casey 1 Comments A⁺ a^-

If you were to ask any group of people what's the key to a successful academic career, the answers you'd receive would be as diverse as the people answering. Drawing from their personal experiences, you'd probably hear answers like "never give up," "study hard," or "find the right professors." Personally, the answer I find myself coming to are two things: focus and balance.

"Focus on your school" is a phrase that my parents have been repeating to me for as long as I can remember. Television on while I'm trying to do homework? New interest that's rapidly consuming my time? Entertaining daydreams for who knows how long? My parents' lovingly chiding response to any of these situations would be "focus on your school!" And honestly, I'm hard-pressed to find a better response than that. There was a certain period of time where my work took pre-dominance over school and the results were... unsavory to say the least. Looking back at just this past week at UOG, if I had just focused on my school and not let myself get sidetracked so easily, I definitely would not have been as stressed as I was working on projects. Now keeping that in mind and looking ahead, school honestly doesn't have to be as stressful as it was then, so as long as I focus.

While focusing is one concept I consider key to academic success, balance would definitely be another one. You could be the most academically focused individual to ever exist, but if you can't balance that with your other responsibilities, as well as some time to wind down, you'll quickly find yourself burnt out and incapable of doing anything at that point. On the flipside of that example, if all you ever do is relax and let responsibilities pile up, you'll quickly find yourself floundering in a frugal attempt to get things done at the last moment. As an unfortunately chronic procrastinator, I have a very strong tendency to wait until the last minute to work on projects, whether it's school, responsibilities at home, or other things. Balance is something I've always struggled with, but I'm working hard to tip the scales just right and get it all balanced.

Chronic Procrastinator