Seven Tips to Conquer Finals!

Hello, friend!

I know that finals season is going to be upon many of us very soon, so I decided that I'd share with you guys some of the things that I do to study for high school finals. Okay, let's get staaaaarted!

1. Make a study schedule.
This has been one of THE most valuable things that I have ever done in my high school career. I find my bullet journal(which I can make a more in-depth blog post about later if you want), and then write  down the dates of all of my finals. Then I figure I should start studying for my more difficult finals in a week in advance, so that I don't feel stressed the weekend of. You can go more thorough with your schedule and plan out what exactly you're going to study on which days, or not, if you feel pretty confident at your pace. Reviewing over a longer period of time is way more useful than cramming! Your brain has a longer time to process and remember the information, and you will have a higher chance at succeeding! You will probably be surprised at how much time you actually have to study when you sort it all out. My finals schedule normally looks something like this:

2.  Review with groups AFTER you have studied by yourself.
The emphasis on AFTER can not be stressed enough! When I hear people talk about concepts that I haven't reviewed in a while, I get overwhelmed with all that I don't know, and this can be avoided! Studying at your own pace beforehand and then going over some practice problems, vocab words, etc with other people will be much more beneficial for you and your friend's time.

3. Study in a nice place that's not your room.
I definitely recommend going into a room that is quite boring and doesn't have a lot of things that can distract you(your phone lol 10/10 throw it away that week). OR, if you can, go out of the house and to  a library or Barnes and Noble and treat yourself to a coffee study date by yourself! Those atmospheres can be really perfect because you are stuck with nothing to do BUT study.

4. Put on classical music.
This is so weird, but it is actually so calming and you will just feel more intellectual listening to it. When I was studying for AP U.S. History, I would listen to classical music along with this "rainy mood," website playing in the background(it's basically the sound of rain, link here), and it helped me to block out all of the other noises in my house and focus more on what I was studying. Even if it doesn't work, it's great to be more well-rounded in your music taste!

5. Try to get a good night's sleep the week leading up to finals too!
I know that many people suggest getting a good nights sleep the night before your finals, but even while you're studying, if you get a good night of sleep you will be able to focus way better and take in information easier than if you are staying up every night to cram all the information in your head. The study schedule should help you to manage your time wisely if you follow it, so that you WON'T have to stay up all night cramming.

6. Use online resources.
There are so many great websites out there to help you do well at finals! One cool website that I've used multiple times before is quizlet, and online flash card website. You can make your own flashcrd sets, search for others' sets, and put the app on your phone so you can study on the go! Also, there are study bloggers (studyblrs for short) on tumblr.com and websites like that that will get you inspired to study and make cute notes and be organized. Here is one studyblr that I get a lot of great ideas from: Hermione 2.0,  Just make sure not to spend too much time on their blogs! ;)

7. Don't forget to reward yourself/Take breaks!1
Very important! Even if you call a friend up for an hour in between your studying, I find that it's super helpful and refreshing to do that instead of spending time on my phone for breaks. After I take AP tests even, I will most likely go out to eat with my friends and celebrate that the long haul of studying is finally over! Rejoice that you're done testing, and don't talk too much about the final with your friends. This can stress you out more than you know, and you can't go back and change the past. No regrets!! :)

Remember, finals aren't the end of the world as well. There's more to life after your final and school, even! You will do an amazing job.

Best of luck!
Joy :)

Moving: A Reflection

Hello, friend!

For this week's blog post, I'm just gonna talk about moving and why it's crazy and fun but overall a good thing.

(picture from @drawings_for_my_grandchildren in insta)

At my new school, I meet lots of new people every week who ask me the same questions about moving:

What's different about your new town from your old one?

Do you like Ann Arbor or Madison better?

How does your new school compare to your old one?

 My answers to these questions are, "Well, Madison is 2x the size of Ann Arbor, I like them both(and I can't really compare four years in Ann Arbor to 9 months in Madison), and my new high school is smaller in building size but bigger in population by adding 200 more students than my last school." These answers are short and sweet, and if I am feeling more comfortable with the person or we have enough time, I can go more in depth about what moving is really like. For my readers who have never moved, I will explain what my experiences with moving have been like, and if you have moved, maybe you will be able to compare them to mine and see if we have any similarities. :)

Moving is strange because you are simply stopping your life in one place that you have become familiar with, and beginning it in another. You have to start over with friends, school, street names, landmarks.. even the culture of the new place. For example: I had never heard of cheese curds before moving to Madison. They sound absolutely revolting, but are actually really delicious fried curdled milk. If you have a party in Wisco and didn't have cheese curds, was it really a party?.

There are also some lingering internal questions up in the air, about moving, like, "Who will I ACTUALLY keep in touch with when I move," and, "Is the new city that I'm moving to as great as the place I'm in now?". Moving is just as frightening as it is exciting, because you're going on an adventure outside of your comfort zone(in my opinion, the best stories come from these adventures).

Once you get to your new home, it just takes time to become familiar with it. All your furniture in your old house is in the new one and it seems awkward at first until you make memories in your house like celebrating Christmas, and Halloween. It also takes time to get to know the streets and you celebrate each new place that you can get to without using your GPS. You go to school and realize that there are so many people in the hallways that you see that you will never meet, because you'll only be at this school for a year before college. Navigating the new school can be difficult at first, because you were just in a school that you had known and could have navigated with your eyes closed and now are in a whole new school building where everything is foreign and you don't know how it flows.

Moving can be lonely at times because it is one thing to move away for college as a freshman when everyone else is moving with you, but it is another thing when you are the only one doing it. Even if you have you whole family by your side moving with you, YOU are the only one who can feel YOUR experiences.

It's exciting when you meet new people who resemble other friends you had in your old town, or completely new people who you are grateful for the opportunity to have met them. The biggest benefit of moving are the people. You will have a more diverse knowledge of human beings from different places and backgrounds, and then make some best lifelong friends who you wouldn't have ever met had you not moved. Your familiarity levels just drop a whole lot when you move and can't recognize people everywhere you go, though. Sometimes, it's surprising when you randomly think of people from your old town who you weren't even close friends with, and you wonder how they are doing and what ever happened to so-and-so.

Now that I've moved twice, and visited Ann Arbor after being in Madison for nine months, I can genuinely say that moving to Ann Arbor was a great thing. It was extremely hard at first, but during that trip back, I spent some time thinking about how much I'd learned and how many people I'd met while moving. The friendships that I made in only four years there have changed my life, and they help me to I realize that moving is a literal blessing and  that it is a huge chunk of my story that I am proud of. I definitely believe that it will be the same here in Madison, especially as I transition into college here over the next several months!

Being able to go back to Ann Arbor last month was amazing, and here are some pictures from when I hung out with my friends:

 

Maybe this blog post was long overdue, but I'm just glad that I could put this into words!
Thanks for reading!
Joy :)