My Blog Name is Misleading??

Hey guys, so I've noticed a few comments on my IGCSE pages asking questions on how to do well on exams, if I have more notes, etc. To...

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Busy Busy Busy

Hey guys,
Just letting you know that I've been quite busy lately and I'm going to University in a few days so won't be able to update any notes or upload any new posts for a week.
However, you can still visit my other blog: Black & White & Wise
for new posts 3 times a week! Head on over there! :)

I will be uploading Chapter 4 Notes for IGCSE Environmental Management once I settle into University life.

I will also, over time, be adding notes for A levels Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Math!

Stay Tuned :)

Sunday, June 25, 2017

A list of Extracurricular activities you can do during High school!

Sports

soccer, cricket, American football, doesn't matter what sport you do! If you aren't a sports person, read ahead.

Volunteering

Community service
Volunteering at an Animal NGO
Volunteering at an orphanage
Conducting/Helping conduct events for and NGO
Working at an NGO

Independent project

Doing an in-depth project on a specific topic, maybe even earning a prize for it if entered into a competition
Writing a survey paper

Research work

Writing a research/survey paper under the guidance of your teacher/a doctor and getting it at least accepted into a physical/online journal.

Fundraisers/any activity that helps your community

Fundraisers to feed homeless children
Fundraiser to raise awareness
Fundraiser to donate to a cause

Blogging

Display your writing skills by creating a blog

YouTube channel

If you like the idea of blogging/sharing stuff online but writing isn't for you, then you could try creating a YouTube channel.


Activities at school

Debate competition
Essay competition
Math competition
[any subject] competition, and so on..

Saturday, June 24, 2017

The only Guide you will ever need to ACE your Exams - GCSE Edition \\ Part 2

Not a GCSE Student? This guide could still help you but why don't you click here to see my general study guide to ace your exams (no matter what board you are studying!). 

.

Click here to see my personal study tips you probably haven't thought of!

Welcome to part 2/2!

5

Notes

Base your notes mainly on study guides, notes from other resources like a better textbook than the one you own or the internet, and the syllabus. Your original textbook should only be used when you cannot get the same topics in another resource that fulfills the syllabus requirement. Study guides contain all the required information but in a condensed form and sometimes topics are even explained better! Make sure you use a certified study guide/textbook!
Here's a Venn diagram to summarize the above:

6

Past Papers

Solve all past papers! Learn from the past papers. The best way you can score more in your exams is to understand how the Marking Scheme answers questions. Okay, now I know this will sound extremely weird, but You have to think like the Marking Scheme. You have to learn what keywords are used, etc. The questions that have a total of 3 or more marks are the ones you should absolutely know on the tip of your tongue because these questions could get repeated. A lot of the long-answer questions have gotten repeated in previous papers - you'll see them at least twice. Even if you don't see a similar question twice in the whole past papers bunch, learn it because it could come in your paper. The best site for all papers in one place is xtremepapers.com. Hands down.

Just in case you didn't know this already: if a question is for 4 marks, the examiner expects four points from you in the answer.


7

Updating your notes

Update your notes once you finish solving past papers or, even better, while you are solving your past papers. Write down the long-answer questions and their answers. If there are variations in the answer of a question that has come twice in the past papers, you can do one of two things: write the combined answer in your notes (i.e. write duplicate points only once and then add the different points below those) or write down the answer to the question which is in the most recent paper. For example, if a similar/same question has appeared in a June 2012 paper and January 2015 paper (with slightly different answers in the marking scheme) write down the answer from the January 2015 paper. Be careful and don't mistake to similar looking but completely different questions as the same! GCSE papers can be tricky like that!

8

Other things to keep in mind

Definitions are also important and even though they usually carry 1 or 2 marks there are a LOT of definitions to know and you should know all if you really want to snag every mark you can. If you are good at memorizing things, excel at whatever you know is important to memorize!
I probably still have my biology and/or chemistry & physics definition on my flashcards so comment below if you'd like me to update definitions on the IGCSE sections for the respective subjects.

Some papers require special preparation. For example, the Biology ATP paper usually asks for a magnified diagram of a picture provided. In that question you should know to make clear lines, not to shade, and to label parts according to your syllabus (for example if it is a plant, label all plant labels that you can recollect from your textbook or if it is a finger, label nailbed, keratin, etc).

Science ATP papers are usually specific when it comes to questions and if you spend a little extra time on the past papers you'll realise there are only a bunch of questions that keep repeating and you should basically just know all of them if you wanna ace your Science ATP paper.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

The only Guide you will ever need to ACE your Exams - GCSE Edition \\ Part 1


Not a GCSE Student? This guide could still help you but why don't you click here to see my general study guide to ace your exams (no matter what board you are studying!). 

.

Click here to see my personal study tips you probably haven't thought of!

1


The very first step is to be thorough with the textbook

GCSEs are all about concepts and applying knowledge. Your textbook is your foundation. In the beginning of your semester/academic year you should begin reading the textbook, highlighting in it (basically whatever works for you). At this point, you could start making notes, but I strongly recommend not to finalize these notes and study from them as in the beginning, you won't know all the points you have to know. Remember that the textbook contains foundation, not everything you need to know. In fact, most of the time the textbooks will miss one or two things if not more.


2

Initial Studying

Find techniques that work best for you! Flashcards, highlighting, underlining, making notes in the margin of your books, and the Pomodoro Technique (if you haven't already, click here to view my post on what the Pomodoro Technique is and click here to see the pros and cons of the technique) are just some of the ways you can choose to study. At the beginning of the year, experiment with different methods and see what works. Read your study resources all over again once you have read and understood everything once - I assure you, some concepts will become clearer.

3

Syllabus! Syllabus! Syllabus

My English teacher wasn't wrong when she told me class "Syllabus is God!". Yes, it sounds extreme and yes, it sounds funny. But you should base all your studying on the syllabus. A-levels could require a bit more research beyond but related to the syllabus, but GCSEs do not require any additional concepts to be known. Stick to the syllabus! The syllabus is key when you are making your own notes

4

Don't hold back

When you think you haven't understood something properly either go to your teacher or the internet (or both if one of the above doesn't help).
When a question pops in your noggin about something not mentioned anywhere but you know that understanding the answer to that question will help you understand the topic go to your teacher or the internet! Trust me, it's better to be safe than sorry. If your gut tells you that you should at least try to figure something out, then do it! Making yourself more knowledgeable can not hurt in any way!


To be continued in Part 2! Stay Tuned!

Sunday, June 11, 2017

THE ULTIMATE STUDY ROUTINE TO ACE YOUR FINAL EXAMS IN HIGH SCHOOL (HOW I STUDY) + TIPS

Hi guys! The heading I put up above is actually that of my post on my other blog. So if you'd like to know some study tips and my study routine for my final exams CLICK HERE to go to my post

Or you could simply watch the video below to see my study routine for highschool!:

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Useful Study Tips You Didn't Think Of!

Tips
  • Keep a water bottle/snack/both near your study desk or where ever you choose to study so that you don't have to keep getting up every time you are thirsty and/or hungry. This will just disrupt your flow and concentration and you probably don't want that to happen if you want to remember what you read.
  • If you have trouble concentrating for a long duration, try out the Pomodoro Technique, click here to go to the post on my other blog about the technique if you don't know what the Pomodoro Technique is. Personally, however, the Pomodoro technique didn't quite do the thing for me, click here to see what I thought were the pros and cons of the technique and why the technique may not be for everyone.
  • Make your own notes if you have the time to do so! Writing your own notes will help you understand better and remember better compared to just reading online notes or someone else's notes.
  • Make your notes neat and clear so that when you are revising, you actually feel like studying.

And finally, the biggest lesson I've learnt, is that if you are unsure whether something will appear on your exam, do it! Most of the time, something related to what you thought could be unimportant, will come! There is nothing as worse as the feeling that you could've just spent another minute reading the text but didn't do so and lost a mark or more on your test. Unless you have a very straightforward syllabus, you should definitely listen to this tip! (Also note that the syllabus may be straightforward but it may not mention every single detail you need to know in a concept, so learning a little extra, even if not helpful, won't hurt!

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Sorta good news for IGCSE Environmental Management students!

Hey!
I did some digging and found one more PPTs I had prepared when I was giving my IGCSEs. Unfortunately, I couldn't recover the other two PPTs but I found my PPT for Chapter 1 Lithosphere!!!

So go check the IGCSE Environmental Management page to view the ppt (or click here)

Happy studying! :)

Friday, May 26, 2017

Pomodoro Technique: is it for everyone? - Pros and Cons \\ Study Techniques

I put up a post a long time ago outlining what the Pomodoro technique and why it is effective. But is it for everyone?

Don't know what Pomodoro Technique is? Click here to see my short post outlining the method

The Pomodoro technique is quite popular on the internet and is known to be an effective method that works with your brain's attention span in a way. 

4 reasons why the Pomodoro technique could be great for you:

1. Because of the short time intervals, you don't totally zone out and if you have a very small attention span, a little bit more will power is all that's needed to get through the 25-minute study sessions. Great for those with a small attention span.

2. The small 5 minute breaks are like little rewards for studying for 25 minutes. It's gratifying and you feel like you've crossed a checkpoint after every interval.

3. Your brain is more likely to absorb information if you study in portions. 

4. You can grab a snack or get up to drink water while your timer is on and not completely get distracted because you know you only have 5 minutes. The 5-minute timer almost prevents you from procrastinating, unless you don't have any willpower that is - you gotta work on that shiz.

reasons why the Pomodoro technique didn't work for me

1. I personally like studying in batches. I like to study chapter-wise or module-wise or even according to the number of pages. If you don't like being interrupted before completing a task, this technique isn't for you! When my chapters were larger it just felt like I was doing less work because of all the breaks in between

2. It may get annoying to set all the timers - simple as that. It takes some time just to set them up and you'll lose some time in that; not significant time, but it can be annoying when you really want to get work done.

3. I, personally, don't have attention span issues most of the time, so if you're like me and can handle 1-hour study sessions with small/medium breaks in between you should be good without this technique.

4. When I don't have any time, this isn't the best technique. If I'm trying to revise plenty of chapters in one day before an exam or simply trying to get work done because I have to go somewhere, this isn't the most time-saving technique. 


Basically, it depends from person to person if the Pomodoro Technique is effective or not. It doesn't harm to try out different studying techniques in the beginning of a semester. I did use the Pomodoro technique in the beginning of high school when I had less intense studying to do but as the difficulty level increased throughout high school, it just didn't work for me.

I hope this post helped you understand the Pomodoro technique better! Happy Studying xx 







Thursday, May 18, 2017

Update on the A-levels Section of this Blog

I added new pages "A-levels Physics" and "A-levels Biology" to this blog!
I will be adding more subjects soon and I will be uploading more content soon. Thanks for visiting!

The following subjects for which notes may be included:
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Math (Core 1, Core 2, Core 3, Core 4, Mechanics 1, Statistics 1)

Be sure to keep an eye out after June 19th, 2017 for the additional pages and study material. Don't forget to subscribe, either normally (find the button in the sidebar) or by e-mail (find the link at the top of this blog)!

Happy Studying!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

I'm back!


So I kind of left this blog for some time because I had nothing new to post on it really but I later realized that I have so much advice and new notes (for A-levels) to post here since I'm almost done with my A-levels. In the future I could even post college notes if that's what you guys want. Please comment below and let me know what kind of posts you would want so I can start posting good content that suits your needs.

I have one exam left and I will be done with my A-levels so after that (around mid to end of June) I will be adding a lot more notes in the Edexcel Section (Maybe to make it more organized I will divide the subjects into pages like I did for the GCSE subjects)

I will also be posting study tips and exam hacks (some oriented for GCSEs A levels especially). So also comment below what kind of study advice you would like. I already posted a generic post recently on how I studied in my first two years of high school. I'll soon post a how I studied in my last two years of high school, and two more posts are planned for GCSE and A-level specific studying tips. 

I'll post, along with the main content, my actual scores in my GCSEs and A-levels to show that the tips actually worked for me. I may not have gotten straight A*s (To give you an overview I got 5 A*s & 3 As in my GCSE exams, and 1 A*, 2 As and will be expecting 2 Bs in my A-levels)
My scores may not be the best, but they are pretty good, and if you already are doing decently well in school, my tips may help you achieve whatever your academic goals are.

Hope my future posts help you too and follow this blog if you want to be sure you don't miss my new posts. 

Thank you for visiting my blog! :)

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

How I studied in my first 2 years of High school - Life Hacks to ace your tests

Here's how I studied in grades 9 and 10!

This is some basic stuff that'll help you stay organized and study efficiently!

1. Random things:

During the beginning of the academic year, try figuring out what study methods work for you. You can try various techniques, some I tried out were:
  • Pomodoro Technique 
  • Flashcards
  • Highlighting and reading
  • Only reading textbook
  • side notes in margins of books
  • copy pasting notes from various sites onto one document 
  • making my own notes from various sources
I ended up doing points 2,3,5, and 7. It depends from person to person what techniques are most effective at helping you study and remember everything. There are a lot more techniques and variations of each technique. You should find out what's best for you in the beginning so that you have to time to adjust and study the right and most effective way for most of the year.

2. Flashcards

I found that flashcards worked way better for me for definitions than simply listing down all the definitions on a single/few page(s). It was easier for me to test myself and you can shuffle the cards so you can make sure you know the definitions and not the "order".

Tip: You should start memorizing the flashcards in the same order without shuffling till you get most or all of the definitions right especially if you are a visual person. Once you think you know all the definitions keep shuffling the deck every time so you can make sure you really know your definitions. Make sure to segregate your cards according to your subjects or it'll be confusing at the end. You can write the subject in a corner to make sure you have your stuff organized.

Flashcards help you memorize faster because they're less dense like a sheet full of notes so helps you not mix up your definitions. It's also a great break from all those words together in one page.

3. Be Organized!

The best way to make sure you get studying done, and in time, is to make a schedule. Make it realistic so that you don't end up not following it all together. If you have a lot of classes to study for, make sure you study for at least 2 classes each day - even if it is only 30 minutes each. As your exam approaches, make sure you leave enough number of days to get all your intense studying done. You can classify "types of studying" like Learning definitions, textbook reading, making notes, and revising notes. Assign a realistic number of days and assign the studying categories backward going from near your exam date towards the current day. You'll then know when you have to start studying seriously.

Tip: Don't assign times to your schedule like "9.00 am - Physics" unless you are 100% sure that you will be able to do it at that time. Most people will end up not doing tasks on the timings assigned and that results in not following the schedule. Keep your schedule more relaxed so you don't feel discouraged or feel forced to do something at a time you don't want to.
Don't be too hard on yourself if you have plenty of days remaining. If you go out one day or are sick or simply lazy, you can always do extra on the next day and cover what you should've done the day before. If you know you don't have time on Saturdays, assign a small task or only one class/subject to study.

4. Other Resources than your textbook

Try to find as many online resources and concise study guides (either online or in your library) as possible. Sometimes, especially in my experience, textbooks don't always cover everything if you have a syllabus not based on your textbook. Study guides are also a great way to revise and you may end up learning something new or understanding a concept that wasn't explained good enough in your textbook. If your fundamental concepts are weak, you should always google the simplest questions that come in your mind if you feel silly asking your teacher. But! If you are not satisfied with an internet answer (from a trusted source, of course) then you should go to your teacher. It may be a silly answer that you didn't think of but you'll remember it and who knows if solving that question/ being thorough with that particular concept helps you score a few extra marks in your tests/exams!

Some additional tips:

No matter how good your study notes are, ALWAYS refer to your textbook(s) and other study guides/revision material, because there is a chance that you might have missed something in your notes

When making notes, first take a rough notebook/notepad and make quick notes with a pencil so that you can make changes and decide how you would like to arrange the points and/or diagrams. This ensures that your final notes would be more organized, satisfactory and you wouldn't have to worry about squeezing important points in because they were at some other part of the book or whatever other reason.

This last one may sound silly but draw or print a fake report card with straight A's or whatever goal you want to achieve. Keep it in front of your study space so you can be reminded and motivated every time you look up and maybe you'll end up doing five more minutes of reading and get the chapter done instead of procrastinating.