This blog is dedicated to organizing study tips specific to subjects (e.g., "history") and classes (e.g., "organic chemistry"). If you've ever thought to yourself, "I wish someone warned me about this class before I took it!" then this blog is for you!
hey y’all! today, for my first masterpost ever, i am going to discuss sat subject tests. i’ll also provide some of the resources i used that may help you as well. i personally took math 2, us history, and bio, so a majority of my expertise is in these areas.
so first, what are subject tests?
subject tests are standardized tests in specific subjects areas that some colleges want you take. while some straight up require them others say they are recommended or only for certain programs (mainly engineering). i personally took subject tests in case any of the schools i am applying to changed their requirements and also just to complement my application
so which subject tests should i take, and when should i take them?
i took my subject tests the june after my junior year. some people take them sophomore year if they took any aps. others take it in may before the ap tests. i personally reccommend you take them after the school year is over in june. if you take them before hand, you may not know all the content. and if you take them in september or october, you will forget.
i would take the subject tests that are required for the program you are applying to or the ones you have taken the ap course on. i took ap bio and us history, so i knew i was going to take those. i also took math 2 as a back-up test if one of my scores was not good.
cool, so how do i study for them?
honestly, the subject tests are just like trivia, and hard to self study for. i would recommend using some of the resources i link below and maybe buying a study aid book for practice tests.
reviewing your notes is also a great idea. i am rolling out more master posts on subjects i have studied in the next few weeks!
resources to use
quizlets: these are the best way to study. give yourself at least a month to go through the sets
*i didn’t include language or math, as you just have to know the language/subject*
yes! you should know a couple of key pieces of information about the exam
there is a guessing penalty so only answer the questions you are confident in
don’t stress about these tests— they are only a complement and are not required by a majority of schools. think of them as an “odd flex”— if they are good submit them, if not, no big deal
best of luck to everyone considering taking subject tests. if you have any questions, feel free to ask. go get that subject test bread!
p.s. want to see a specific master post? comment or DM me!!
Uttal.se is a website where you can practice your Swedish pronunciation. It has videos on vowels, consonants, stress, melody, and some pronunciation exercises.
i absolutely adored biochemistry last semester, but it requires a lot of time and effort to do well in. study hard but study smart. ready? let’s do this
if your professor tells you to memorize something, get out your flashcards right away. you do not want to be memorizing nucleotide structures last minute. know your shit.
along those lines, knowing the structure, symbols, and properties of each amino acid is incredibly useful.
draw everything out. you cannot learn the mechanism of chymotrypsin or the citric acid cycle by reading about it. draw arrows. color code. look at the bigger picture.
Ever since announcing on here I had decided on a law school that has given me a near-full ride, my inbox has swelled with questions, primarily those asking How did you do it? Being 20, and not a pre-law major/minor, I didn’t really have anyone to guide me through the application process and it was a little overwhelming studying for the LSAT at 19, paying for the application process, and so on. So, I decided to put together this (very long) post of how I did it, and how you can too!
It’s that dreaded time of the year again! I probably should’ve done this way earlier but here’s a masterpost to help you guys study for all the AP exams there are. The subjects are listed in order of the schedule and I combined the similar ones together. If any of the links is not working please kindly inform me. Good luck to everyone taking the AP exams!!
Tips
⭐︎ Try to practice every day! It really makes a difference and learning a language isn’t something you can accomplish overnight!
⭐︎ Keep a journal of your notes, grammar rules, and so on! Use sticky notes and flags to stay organized and easily flip back to charts and important rules!
⭐︎ Set a goal! It’s much easier to work toward a defined goal than just the overall hopes of mastering a language!
⭐︎ Film yourself speaking! I know it sounds weird, but it helps with pronunciation, and you can always look back to old videos to see how far you’ve come!
⭐︎ Learn through media! Watch tv shows and movies, read the news, listen to music, and so on in your target language! It’s a fun way to learn and will help with sentence structure, vocabulary, popular culture, and pronunciation!
⭐︎ Know that your studyblr/langblr community is always here for support! Reach out to bloggers who are fluent in your target language, and message them! Casual conversation in your target language can be helpful, but having a native speaker assist you is even more useful!
Alright current and future science majors, listen up! As someone pursuing a future in science, you are gonna have to keep up with the latest research going on, and if you are planning to pursuing research, you definitely have to keep up! Scientists love to write complicated jargon about their research in a thing called “peer-review journals”. Sounds terrifying, yes? Hold your seats, cause I’m gonna give you a crash course on how to read them and understand them. This is an important skill to have to help you excel in research, peer review and even writing your own paper in the future.
One of my biggest struggle in being a science major and going into research was I didn’t know how to read and understand peer-review papers; sure reading the paper was fine, but understanding? That was a whole new algorithm. But as time passed, and I read more and more papers, I got used to it. It takes more than a skim through the paper to get it, and if you don’t get it the first time, don’t give up! With practice, and a bit of knowledge how to actually read the paper, you might get more out of it than you think!
Before we go on, I want to clarify, the kind of reading I’m going over is about primary research articles, and some of the techniques might not work for you, but it’s a trial-and-error process of learning.
What you need:
Choose your medium: print vs pdf. Most peer review articles are found online, especially if your university has subscriptions to peer-review journals like Nature, Science, etc. Some people prefer simply pulling up the pdf and reading it from there, and that’s perfectly fine. I personally like to print the articles out so I can read, highlight, and annotate on it.
Have two colored pens on hand, preferably not black because you want to distinguish your notes from the paper.
A sticky note pad and/or notebook to take notes on the side if you can’t fit enough in the margins for annotations
2 highlighters, one for general overview of understand the content, and the other for the findings in the research
The Basics
Skim the first time. Read more than one time.
Always write down or underline unfamiliar words. Go look them up!
Annotation is key! Take notes!!
Describe the data in your own words: graphs, charts, pictures, etc.
Reading strategy changes with different papers. Some authors are great at explaining things; others suck.
Abstract & Introduction
Right off the bat, what does the title tell you about the paper?
Read the introduction first, not the abstract.
Look for the objectives and hypothesis; what are the researchers looking for? These are the ideas that the researchers will be investigating to prove throughout their paper.
Noting other references. The intro gives a bit of background information on the topic to set you up for the paper, and makes references to other papers. If you have time or you need further clarification, these references are a great to skim through to get a better understanding of the current field of the topic.
Summarize the background into a paragraph.
“What work has been done before in this field to answer the BIG QUESTION? What are the limitations of that work? What, according to the authors, needs to be done next?” (violentmetaphors)
Methods and Materials
This section isn’t always super relevant, unless you are reading the peer-review paper in order to set up your own experimental design; and if so, it’s best to consult your PI or a head-research faculty member who can assist you through the process, since they are the ones who will be writing research proposals and grants, etc.
Copy names of method used, and research a bit about it; for example, why use a drug-delivery system for inhibition versus making a genetic mutation, etc.
Draw the methods out. It helps visualizing how the research was done. It doesn’t have to be super detailed and art-sy, but enough to get the basic point across.
Results and Discussion
Pay close attention to tables and pictures. Analyze and interpret what they are trying to tell you. You’ll find that most good papers can be explained through their data.
Read the section with close attention. You’ll be surprised how easily you can miss a “few things”.
Try to answer the following questions: Do the results answer the question? What is your interpretation of the results?
Interpret the data in your own words before looking at the captions and the paragraph referring to the diagrams.
What do the researchers think the results mean? Are there alternatives to the results? Are there any limitations to the research that the researchers identified? What are prospective future studies that can be conducted?
Researchers will not always tell you what they did, or why they did what they did. And sometimes what they did makes no sense. There are stories behind this…like lack of funding, low sample size, etc. it’s your job to identify this and keep it in consideration. Remember, just because it’s stated in a peer-review article does not make it correct or “the answer”.
Put it all together, the Conclusion:
Read the abstract. This will summarize everything in the paper, including what the paper was looking to prove/disprove and the results.
Put it all together. Sometimes a mind map helps organize all the thoughts into one coherent place.
Side note: Do not take a peer-review paper’s word for granted. Just because it has been published at a “top-tier science magazine” like Science, Nature, The Scientist, etc. does not always make it the mostcredible and correct source of experiment. Trust me, I’ve analyzed some pretty bad peer-review papers in “top science magazines”. Second side note, science does not prove anything true. It can only disprove something. We are constantly learning something new, and the field is always expanding.
So you’re taking ap us government & politics!! It can be a lot of work at times, but with some effort + dedication you’ll be doing well on the exam in no time. I’ve put together a few resources + a couple of tips which I’ve found useful that I hope will help you succeed!!
HOW I STUDY FOR GOVERNMENT
REVIEW BOOKS
barron’s- i did most of my revision from this hulking monster of a book. i created a revision plan and made notes on each chapter before compiling them into flashcards, although this method definitely doesn’t work for everyone!!
rea crash course- (this links to a free pdf of the book btw) tiny, but i love it. i read a chapter or so on the bus each day on the way home, or between my classes or whatever, and did a lot of annotating in it. super useful resource for when you need fast facts or just the basics, and it was very helpful in addition to my textbook when studying for tests!
STUDY STRATEGIES
detailed notes- i found notes to be the best way to study, and took notes from my textbook, the Barron’s book, and a stellar video series i found online. they’re my favourite method of revising + what I typically do before compiling info onto flashcards!
flashcards- i know they’re not everyone’s favourite, but i utterly adore flashcards. i broke mine down by topics (for the most part following the layout of the crash course book), and included key words. i love them for this class because they’re so versatile + easy to adapt!
quizlet sets- better than actual flashcards for simple vocab! i build oodles of quizlet sets to help me out. there’s a lot of straight memorization involved in government, and for things like knowing court cases i found quizlet sets to be particularly useful!!
graphics- because government is so interconnected, i found that diagrams and other graphics really helped me to learn the material. you can make flowcharts, colour coded venn diagrams, and if they work for you, then the more the better!! for instance, here’s my ‘branches of government’ chart :D
know your court cases! sometimes they come up, sometimes they don’t, but they’re really helpful in the frqs and there’s no reason to lose points on easy court case questions in the multiple choice.
iron triangle!! just know it back to front, upside down, inside out, and doing yoga. the iron triangle is your friend!
plan! if you have a study plan from the outset, you’ll be better able to keep yourself on track and going exactly where you need to be.
get started early! gov is quite content heavy— although most of it’s just memorizing— so getting started in advance will really get you through everything you need to cover. Just keep working at it and you will get there.
focus + have confidence! sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Don’t give up on government and keep on working to the best of your ability.
TIPS FOR LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE ( A SHORT MASTERPOST)
A lot of these are very common ways to learn a new language so you may have already seen many of these tips.
try to learn about 15 words a day
create flashcards for new words
find a website to help you learn and understand the language better (personally, I use Duolingo)
repeat the word several times after finding out how it is pronounced
copy down the word after finding its spelling
find videos to help teach you pronunciations
make charts with synonyms for several words
try writing and forming/saying sentences in the language you are learning
practice makes perfect, so practice each day
if the language you are learning requires learning a new alphabet, try coping down each letter a few times
if you are almost fluent in your new language, then try watching a movie or reading a book in the language to help you understand commonly used words and phrases
speak to people who know the language
quiz yourself every few days to see how well you’ve remembered what you have learned
And that’s all for this masterpost! Sorry it’s a bit short and that many of these tips are so well known and common. These are the ways I usually study a new language. I’m currently learning Spanish. Reblog and let me know which language you’re trying to learn!
In this post, I specifically address how I studied for Calculus III, but the methods I discuss can be used for other math or math-heavy classes (e.g., physics) as well. While intended for college math, ambitious high schoolers might also appreciate this advice. I’ve taken 5 college-level math classes so far (Statistics, Calculus I-III, Differential Equations), so I’d like to think I’ve got the hang of this because I put a lot of effort into improving my techniques, allowing me to ace Calculus III this summer!
Includes:
Reviewing Prerequisite Material
My Homework Process
Keeping a Practice Notebook
Resources to Help with Homework
Exam Studying
This post is very detailed, so I hope it helps you out!
In undergrad I had a three professors who I worked with on various research projects for varying lengths of time, I’d also taken classes taught by each of them. Through those experiences I learned so much about what kind of people I can work with best. This was valuable information to have while applying to grad schools.
OK! The Chem Made Easy study guide has been remastered into a 6-document series. The master or main document, which is linked here (also has the convenient urltiny.cc/easychem), contains the appendix and now also links to five super-unit documents each containing a handful of related IB units. Each super-unit document also has its own short url, which you can get by appending a number 1-5 to tiny.cc/easychem:
Keep in mind this only covers the first year of IB chemistry with a small amount of additional information, which I believe is most of the SL topics. We will expand and revise this next year and include further supplements to round out the guide’s coverage.
we also just finished writing really flowery poetic prefaces for each of the unit docs (because doing that at 1 AM is our idea of a good time) go check them out I’m actually very proud of those
Hi! Looking through your tags I came across a cool photo of your lab notebook, and I was wondering if you could share your "set up", and tips etc! I'm a baby scientist and would appreciate advice :)
First things first: the fact that my lab uses binders for our lab notebook is actually not how it’s supposed to be done. The proper way is to use a close-bound notebook with numbered pages (like this one from Target), that way it’s temper evident if someone rips a page out, etc. Idk why my lab uses binders but I’m too temporary here to shake the system up /shrug/. Ok! So now that disclaimer’s out of the way…
Wait another first things first: a lab notebook has many purposes–but basically it’s so you can keep a good record of your experiments so you have something you can go back to for manuscript writing, or for audits, or someone 10 years down the road wanting to know what you did. Don’t trust your brain to remember anything. Write down all lot numbers of reagents, every little observation, every calculation, all the reasoning and logic behind why you’re doing this and that, etc etc. Basically just be in the mind-set of “ok if my lab is accused of fraudulent data manipulation, will my lab notebook justify that it was not I who effed up”. And don’t procrastinate–write in your lab notebook in real-time. Don’t let your brain work harder to remember things than it has to :)
Also keep in mind every institution or lab prefers their lab notebooks in slightly different ways, so the first thing you should do is ask your PI what format they want, and then maybe look at some examples of your lab mates.
Now onto my lab notebook if you need ideas:
We label each experiment organized as such: year, user initials, experiment number. For example, the first experiment I did in 2016 is labeled as 16JC01. I put that label on all everything related to that experiment, such as file names for data analyses, print outs or presentation slides for lab meetings, etc so everything related to that experiment is “linked” (for example, if I’m giving my PI my fabulous Western blot printout, or I’m entering a concentration of protein in a shared lab-database–I’ll label it as 16JCxx so in the future, if anyone has any questions about it, they can easily go find that experiment in my notebook). The top right corner of every page in the notebook that’s related to that experiment is also labeled as 16JCxx.
The first page of my notebook is my table of contents. It’s a working document (I’ll fill it out as I go), so if you’re using a close-bound notebook, leave the first couple pages blank for this. It’s organized as such: experiment number, short description. You can also put in page numbers following the short description. The experiment number is just 01, 02, 03, etc as I organize my notebooks based on year (so 15JC01 is not in the same notebook as 16JC01). Of course you can use more than one notebook per year if you’re super proliferative!
And now, the colorful sticky tabs that you saw in the picture–those are all the experiment numbers. So tab “01″ is 16JC01, and tab “02″ is 16JC02, and so on. This way, when I’m looking up an experiment (say my PI whips out a print-out of something from 15JC35 and wants to know some molar concentration), I go to my 2015 notebook, find experiment #35 on my table of contents, find my “35″ tab on the side, and flip to that experiment. It saves so much time!
I use this format when recording my experiments:
Date, Experiment Label, Title
Purpose (can also add your Hypothesis) (if I’m repeating a previous experiment, I’ll just write “Repeat of xxJCxx but with the following changes…)
Conditions/Variables
Protocol (usually typed out because they’re shared among the entire lab, so I attach it on the next page and write “See next page”–I usually write down any interesting observations directly onto the protocol so I know which step I observed it at, along with lot numbers, etc)
Calculations
Observations/Results/Final thoughts (sad faces optional haha) (I had attached print-outs of my results following the Protocol page)
Other lab-notebook-rules:
Only use pen to write (black or blue ink preferred)
Initial & date the bottom of each page as you’re done writing in them
If you’re pasting in a print-out (like a protocol or printed figure), initial the print-out so half the text is on the print-out, and half on the notebook paper (so if the print-out is removed, you can easily tell there was something there)
If you intentionally leave a page blank, use a single diagonal line to cross it out and initial & date
If you make a mistake, cross it out with a single line and initial & date
Lab notebooks are supposed to be locked away when not in use but no one really follows that rule bc it’s kinda a pain like no i am not buying a whole new cabinet when I have a bookshelf right here. But old completed lab notebooks or ones with sensitive info really should be locked up (usually in the PI’s office)
Lab notebooks are property of your institution–not you or your PI. So neither you or your PI can take it when you leave/move. What you can do though is make photocopies/scans and take those. But the original notebook has to stay.
Because nowadays so much data analysis is done on the computer, it may be unrealistic to print those out (think genomic sequences). If that’s the case, you can reference the file directory if it’s on a public lab computer or network.
Legible handwriting is a must! You can also type out everything and paste it in (just remember to initial it)
Well that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.. again, your best resource would be your PI and other members in the lab. Assuming they have good lab practices in their record-keeping, it’s best to use their method and be consistent across the lab.
Hope that helped! Let me know if you ever need anything else :) Have fun!
From a former, although short lived, history major.
ID TERMS ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND.
Alright, so ID terms are basically flash card friendly ways of learning history. It is so much more than just memorizing dates, which is the biggest complaint I see/hear about learning history.
Breakdown of an ID term:
Who - if it involves a person (it almost always does)
When - still need to know dates or general time period
Where - where did all of this go down
What - what is this whole thing really about
Significance - what did this lead to, cause, and all that jazz.
ID terms are written as paragraphs, not bullet points. You should be able to summarize the above info into a paragraph easily, try and aim for 4-5 sentences.
EX: Bayonet Constitution
In the late 1800s the Bayonet Constitution was signed by King David of Hawaii. Sanford Dole held King David at gun point and forced him to sign that constitution. A result of the signing was that it gave a lot of power to native whites, including Dole, and stripped poor natives of their rights and privileges. The significance of this document was the beginning of the shift of power from Hawaiians to Americans, which would eventually lead to the US annexation of Hawaii.
I’m not all that eloquent, but that is an ID term from one of my tests and I got full points on it.
I do not have a specific date, as my teacher did not require it. If we knew it great, but if not he wanted the time period, which was late 1800s. Each teacher will let you know what they want. And learning the specific time period gets you closer to the exact date.
The significance is the most important part of the ID term. If you can’t understand history conceptually, all you are doing is memorizing. Knowing the significance also helps you to remember the information better because it does give you a general concept. These things aren’t part of history for nothing!
My last three history classes all required ID terms and I killed it. We never had multiple choice or true/false tests. EVERYTHING WAS WRITTEN. I had to learn 25 ID terms for every test and also apply those to essay questions. If you learn enough ID terms for a specific period in history, it is easier to put them all together for an essay question.
I made 100+ on all tests.
This method is amazing. If you have not been introduced to this method yet, I guarantee in your later years of school, something like this will pop up. Go ahead and be prepared.
RFI (More French radio. Click “Apprendre le français” in the top left corner to listen to a short top-stories broadcast while reading the script)
Pronunciation
Forvo (search for any word and hear a native speaker say it.)
Introduction to French Phonology (I cannot stress enough how much this program will help you if you’re a native English speaker and having trouble pronouncing in French. It’s not exactly super stimulating but HUGELY beneficial.)
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