Preparing for Post-Secondary Education in Grade 12

HAPPY NEW 2016 YEAR !!!!!
Hey, sweeties! I wish you all the best in the new year. The new year is always a wonderful opportunity to start something new, forget the sorrow and sadness and plan for the future!
In this pre-NewYear blog post, I want to address the grade 12 preparation for university, because in 2016, the majority of us will continue our lives in a new, unfamiliar, although exiting atmosphere!!!
So, there is a number of things you can do being in grade 12 to prepare yourself for success in post-secondary studies. Here we go:

1. Develop Work Ethics
Grade 12 is the time period, when you must work vigorously on your personal, as well as academic skills, such as time management, critical thinking, inquiry,etc. Before entering a college/university you have to understand that it is very different and much stricter than high school, so certain skills just must exist in your arsenal. 

2. Visit Open Houses
That's kind of fundamental to visit your choices, not only because you have to enjoy the atmosphere and the mentality of the institution, but also because you have to use the opportunity to ask questions. Prepare a list of questions such as "What kind of textbooks am I going to be taught by?", "If there a standard or a curve grading system?", "how many people apply vs how many people get into MedSchool from my program?" etc. and ask them all during your visit. Make sure to ask professors, the guidance councillors and the upper-year students to get a full-on perspective.

3. Сonnect Online 
Find your university's and preferably, your program's Facebook/twitter/etc. account and follow it to see how the life progresses. Also, use that opportunity to actually message people and ask them how they like the program and the university. 

4. Get Textbooks and Read
You will have a few months before your post-sec starts to actually, academically prepare for your studies. As you've asked questions during your visit, you should know which textbooks your program uses and if you feel like it, get them (from the library, or for cheap on eBay, etc.) and skim through them to familiarise yourself with the material. It will totally help you. Even though you won't understand some things, they will all make sense when the lecturing starts. 

5. Know Yourself
It's a huge tip! You have to know yourself when it comes to studying. Again, visit your institution and find a place or two where you would concentrate the best. Also, make sure you know what type of learner you are and what time of the day is the most effective for you. Make sure you know which method will be the most efficient to keep you organized and motivated. 

As soon as you've gathered all of that information, you will be absolutely prepared for the uni. 
Here's a quote I like: "Prepare for the worst; Expect the best". 
Happy New Year!!!!

Memorizing Anatomy

Hey guys!
Finally, a legitimate academical blog post! By the way, I've updated my "I Applied" blog post with a few changes! http://makestudyingalifestyle.blogspot.ca/2015/11/university-applications-i-applied.html
Last year, a had a pleasure of talking a Pre-Kinesiology course at school, which contained Basic Anatomy and Physiology of major body systems, as well as a more detailed anatomy of a musculoskeletal system. Overall, I really enjoyed the course and even applied to the Kinesiology program at McMaster University.
When learning a lot of words in a day, you have to have certain studying techniques. In this post, I've outlined 8 methods of learning anatomy, which will hopefully help you as much as they helped me last year. Before we start, I should mention that the main tip for learning anatomy is PRACTICING.


1. Labelling
Basic! Labelling must be practiced. When you're labelling, you are memorising. As simple as that. Label the diagrams until perfect. If you're having trouble with memorising so much, here is the help:

2. Colouring
For all of you guys who are visual learners, a good exercise is to colour. When you colour, you take your time to kind of think about the area which you're colouring and memorize the name of it better.

3. Draw
That method, I find, is much more effective than colouring; and I'm not talking about professional drawing here. I'm talking about very abstract anatomical diagrams. Here is one of my examples:

Here, I drew an abstract diagram of a given anatomical picture. I fitted everything into a rectangle, which outlines the general location of the organs given. Then, I looked at their names (located at the back of the flashcard) and a labelled the diagram accordingly. 

4. Mnemonic Devices

That method of studying is huge. An advantage is that you get to condense information by a dozen of times. Here is what I did:

I looked at the names of the parts of the sacrum and condensed them onto the written above mnemonic device. Keep in mind that you can "square" the letters which repeat, but the key of this method is to know perfectly the pronunciation of all names.

5. Order
If you know that your teacher uses the same diagram over again, try to label them in a certain order (downwards/upwards) which will help you on the test.

6. Hard First
This is rather a tip than a method. You should memorize the hard names first. By saying hard, I mean long, non-associable, funny words. (Such as Sternocleidomastoid).

7. Association
Some organs (often muscles) are hard to memorize, although on the other hand, if you know the associated body parts, it will be much easier to remember.  For instance, radius is a bone located in the forearm area, near ulna. The way to memorize which one is which, is to remember that you take radial pulse near the thumb, what means that radius is the bone closer to the thumb.

You can also associate certain body parts with regular words if you take time to think of it. For example, the bone humerus, is similar to the word "humorous". 

8. Song/Story/Poem

If you are very creative, write a little song, or a story, or a poem about a body part. It will be much easier and fun to learn the words that way. If you are not super creative, though, I'm sure you can look up stuff like that created by other people, and see if it helps you remember. 

Good luck! 

What's in My Pencil Case

Hey, guys!
Today, I'd like to write the tiniest blog ever, which will only contain the contents of my pencil case in a picture. Without me explaining why is every single thing there very important, I'll just tell you that I need a lot of supplies (such as pencils, markers or tape etc) for my extracurriculars: Student Counselling and Peer Tutoring Club. However, I feel like explaining why the flashcards are there. If I'm learning a new term, I instantly make a flashcard with it to review it later, conveniently, before the test. Here it is:

Studying With Colour

Hey guys! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 
I'm so exited for the New upcoming Year and I have lots of plans and goals!

Today, I want to talk to you about highlighting. There are people who like using different colours of pens, but I personally prefer highlighting, and I'll justify my choice as you proceed!

First of all, I want to show you the way I do it, to inspire you (if I can) to try the same method. I'm aware that a lot of people only use 2-3 highlighters, whereas I use all 6 colours while studying.
Firstly, I think you should have a little legend bar (stick it onto the course overview or smth), which tells you which colour goes for which thing. Keep in mind that it will differ slightly for every subject, due to the types of information given. I'll show you how I do it for Physics:

So, here is why I prefer highlighting:

1. Easy to Organize

If you decide to create flashcards, a study guide, or any other study tool you like, the highlighted information would be easier to organise.

2. Easy to Revise

Highlighting takes a bit of time, especially if you have 6 colours. When you've taken down all your notes, you will go home, and highlight them later, processing the material for the 2nd time. The difference between using multi-coloured pens and highlighters, is that pens won't let you wait until you go home to write it all out, whereas the highlighters will, and the info will settle better in your memory.

3. Pleasure

I feel much happier studying a subject with colour. Physics and Math, for instance, are the subjects which require practice (what often means repetition) and if you are using highlighters to help you study your formulae, errors or general concepts, it will just add a little moment of happiness when you're opening your notebook.

Good luck!

Don't Let People Scare You

Hey sweeties! Its our winter break!!!
For those of you who are starting the new courses or trying to decide on which courses to take later, here is my advice: Don't let people scare you!

I knew I had to take only a few sciences (certainly not all maths and physics), but I did. And I'm successfully completing them.
I used to go around and ask my friends and non-friends which courses should I take, which course was hard, which teacher is better, etc.
There are 2 things wrong with that:
- this is incorrectly questioned
- everything is very relative

The reason why it is incorrectly question is because the opinions are personal and the information is going to be relative. If I want to get a legitimate advice on a course, I should go speak to the teachers, read an overview of the course and then, if I want to ask questions, I better ask people:
- what are the methods of teaching used by a certain professor?
- were you using a textbook a lot in class?
etc. This is, to understand the course and judge it for yourself. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with looking up the statistics for professors (if available), but even if the data is not encouraging, try taking a step back and look at the course as another milestone that you will achieve.

For example, I was really unsure with whether I should take Pre-Kinesiology, since it includes anatomy&physiology, exercise physiology and psychology etc.; in other words, heavy material...
I went on asking students around me and the majority was saying that the content is unbearable, that you have plenty of homework, etc.
I took it. It ended up being one of my highest grades. IT IS ALL RELATIVE.


When deciding on your next courses, please don't listen to bias opinions, rather collect legitimate information from correctly posed questions!

Good luck!

DYI Teacher Gift

Hey honeys.
One more DYI for you. I thought, this time, I would make a simple project that would make a perfect gift for your teacher. The gift was very inexpensive to make, although it is very unique and far more memorable than any other gift you would purchase. I'm going to show you step by step instructions, but you could totally change something up:

1. Here is what you will need:

- a jar
- note pads
- to/from cards
- washi tape
- a decorative bow (not shown)
- marker (not shown)
- scissors (not shown)

2. Wrap the washi tape around the circumference of the jar as many times you want:

 3. Take the note pads and write your messages. I came up with "10 Things You Taught Me" theme:

4. Roll each note and secure it with the washi tape. Make sure it fits the height of the jar: 

5. Place them all into the jar and arrange them the way you like:

6. Take a to/from card and write the theme of your message jar and who is it from:

7. Place the thread into the jar, so the message will be easily accessible:

8. Close the jar with its lid and stick a bow on top of your gift:

You're done!

Here is a short list of themes you could come up with for your gift jar:

1. 10 Best Moments in Class

2. Your Most Commonly Used words/gestures etc.

3. 10 Things i Know About You

4. 10 Things You Should Know About Me

5. 10 Reasons Why You Are the Best Teacher

etc.

Good Luck! 

DIY Binder Dividers + Admissions Update

Hey honeys!

First of all...a little new: I GOT ACCEPTED INTO WATERLOO HEALTH SCIENCES, CO-OP!!!! Amazing! It's not even conditional and its very early. I'm very very happy and motivated to continue earning outstanding grades and I'll continue being involved in the community and school work!

Today I wanted to try something new - a DYI. I'm not super crafty, but dividers is something you always need. I will share with you a step by step process outlining the creation of binder dividers. I was inspired by the dividers I recently got at Staples, so keep in mind, that you should totally go creative with your dividers in terms of the way of creating and decorating it!

This is what I was inspired by:

1. Prepare multiple hole-punched pieces of thick paper 

2. Create a table of contents. It might refer to different subjects, topics of units; whatever you'd like. In your table of contents, you should colour-code, like the original Staples dividers did

3. Draw a line with a little protrusion which you are going to cut 

4. Cut following the line

5. Colour in the protrusion and the corresponding side with the colour of your choice

6. Label the protrusion with a number/topic/unit/month/week etc. which best fits your table of contents

7. Repeat with different colours featuring whatever the table of contents covers

And now we're done. Here is what I wanted to add:

1. Since each divider looks overall kind of empty, it would be a good idea to either draw on it, write the course overview, summary of the topic etc.

2. Also, it would look much more professional if the entire thing would be typed, printed and then cut out, unless you are not like me and actually have some craft skills ;)

3. You may also want to laminate them if you feel like it, so they would be a bit more durable

The best of luck!