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Monday, April 25, 2016

The Organized Student: Finals Tips

The end of the semester is coming to an end.  It's better to start preparing yourself now rather than cramming the last week.  

Do you find yourself easily distracted by all of your social media, music, online shopping, pinterest, etc. when you are trying to study or write a paper.  Well, I have the solution to your problem!  I stumbled across this last semester, and it has helped me complete a significant amount of assignments much more time efficiently.   It is called the self control app.  This app allows you to block websites for however long you need to study or write a paper fo.  This app prevents you from being distracted.  To download it click here. It is free and definitely worth downloading!

Do:

  • Use Note cards! They are extremely helpful when it comes to studying for exams.  I go through a significant amount of flash cards each semester.  These help with memorizing information.
  • Study in groups.  This is incredibly helpful.  If you are able to teach somebody else what you know this shows that you actually know what you are talking about.  Teaching others can also help you pin point aspects that you need to spend a little more time studying.  Also, your peers might be able to teach you their study tricks to remember difficult concepts.
  • Start studying now for your exams that are a week or two from now! The more time you spend with the material the better off you will be.
  • Attend review sessions and/or complete study guides if your professors offer them.
  • Re write your notes.  This also helps with memorization.  I like to re write my notes to organize them and color code them in a manner that makes sense to me.  Sometimes during lectures, professors bounce around with topics.  Also, this helps you remember parts of lectures that you tuned out.  
  • Use high lighters.  Color coding information  helps you associate related items together, making memorization that much easier. 


Don't:

  • Study for five hours straight.  Take brain breaks.  Study for an hour and take twenty minutes to do something like browse pinterest, workout, or watch an episode in your favorite TV series.
  • Don't multi task by texting, watching TV, listening to music, hanging out with friends, and studying at the same time.  This is not beneficial to you actually retaining the information you are reviewing. When you are studying, focus all of your attention on studying.
  • Don't just read over your notes.  Be sure to quiz yourself, this helps you identify what topics you need to spend more time studying.
  • Don't pull all nighters.  These will make you more tired for your exam.  If you make it through your exam, chances are you will crash later on when you should be preparing for your next exam.


These are some of the things that help me out when studying.  
What works best for you?
XOXO

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Lox + Cream Cheese


Today I'm sharing one of my favorite food combinations- Lox + Cream Cheese. This dynamic duo is amazing and can be paired in so many different ways! You can have it in an omelet for breakfast, on a flat bread, with a bagel, on pizza, as a sandwich, as a dip, and so many other ways.  Needless to say you can have it as a snack, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Recently my favorite way to eat it is on top of a flat bread with a fried egg on top.  I had something similar to it at brunch, in the winter, and ever since then I have been working to recreate it at home. 


Ingredients: 
flat bread or nan bread
block of cream cheese
Lox (salmon)
Capers
Dill

Directions:
One:
Heat the bread up according to the directions on the package. The crispier your bread is the better!
Two:
Spread the cream cheese onto the flat bread. 
Three:
Spread a pinch of the dill on top of the cream cheese
Four:
Add the capers. I don't like a ton of these, so I usually only put a little bit on. 
Five:
Add several pieces of salmon on top
Six:
You can fry an egg and put it on top or just dig right in.


I hope you enjoy this tasty dish as much as I do!

XOXO

Thursday, April 14, 2016

The Final Countdown to the End of Undergrad Classes

Y'all it's mid April! 
This month is exciting for me because I'm quickly approaching the end of my undergraduate career.  This semester is my last undergraduate semester taking classes. In the Fall I will be student teaching and then graduating in December.  I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone, but I am beginning to get more excited about what the future has in store for me.  It's rewarding to know that all of my hard work and long hours studying are about to pay off. While my peers are having all the feels about having to graduate in May, I'm over here enjoying the fact that I don't have to start adult life for another semester.  I have a lot of work to do before I can start worrying about getting a big girl job and all of that fun stuff. 

This month is hands down one of the most stressful months of Spring semester for all college students. It's that time of the semester again where we realize that there's less than a month left but so many assignments and exams to complete.  This is the point where any and all procrastination begins to catch up with you. At some point during this month most students have a mental breakdown over the fact that they have so much to do and so little time. There's also the struggle between wanting to soak up every last moment of the year and having to live in the library in order to get everything done.  If your lucky enough to stay organized and on top of your work all semester, then you will never experience this.  However, I'm willing to bet that the average college student experiences this frenzy at this one semester during their four(ish) years of undergrad. 

Currently, I'm somewhere in between being cool/calm/collected and a little stressed.  I've worked really hard this semester to stay on top of my work, but I have a few assignments that I have definitely put off until the end of the semester. Each semester, especially towards the end, I like to share some tips and tricks to help decrease your stress levels. If you're looking for some advice, then you can check out my Guide To College.


The Final Countdown List
I love lists (shocker!). I mean who doesn't love the satisfaction of crossing something off of that long to do list?  Making an end of the semester to do list that contains all of the assignments that you need to do, papers to complete, and exams you need to study for will help you prioritize the end of the semester tasks. 
I've shared about this list here and here, but I'll provide a brief overview in case you have no idea what I'm talking about.  First you'll want to take out all of your syllabus to figure out what assignments you have left and when they are due and then write these down on a fresh sheet of paper. The next thing you'll want to do is write down any other tasks that you need to complete (i.e: move out, clean apartment, return textbooks you rented, sell textbooks, etc.). Now that you have everything written down, it's time to organize everything into a mega list. There's a few different ways you can make your final countdown list. The first option is to write everything down in the order that you want to complete the tasks (most likely by their due date).  The second option is to split your sheet of paper into different sections so that each class has it's own section and then you can add a miscellaneous column for random things.  The second method is what I decided to go with this semester.  Each time I complete a task, I highlight it so I know it's finished.  

As the semester comes to an end, remember to treat yourself, have a little fun, work hard, and remember that no matter how stressed you feel right now it will end. 

XOXO



Monday, April 11, 2016

Monday Motivation {April Edition}

Good morning! Happy Monday my friends. That's right I said happy Monday.  After spending the weekend relaxing, having fun on a new adventure, or catching up on the work you didn't get done during the week, chances are you're not ready for Monday to come. Most people are against Mondays because it means back to school or work and no more fun. However, Mondays don't have to be so awful.  I think having a pessimistic attitude about them just makes it that much worse. So why not embrace the start of a new week with open arms and a positive attitude?
Believe it or not an optimistic attitude towards Monday will help your week have a smoother start.
My challenge to you is to start this week with a positive attitude. 
I've started doing so this semester and it has made my launch to each week much smoother!
Mondays are a fresh start. A new opportunity to start over, a great time to start eating healthy, a perfect day to start working out, a great day to have a positive attitude, and another day to try something new.


I hope you have a fabulous Monday and an even better week!

XOXO