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: