11 Study Tips.

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As I sit here with my large mug of tea (as per usual) I am mulling over the amount of homework I have left for myself over this long weekend and the utter disgrace it is that I haven’t blogged in so long. So, I figured I would give you some study tips that I saw in a Youtube video. This is for school or college or anything really!

1. Do the hardest homework first.
I don’t know about you, but I have the tendency to start with the easy stuff. It is just much more comfortable to start the hours of homework with something easy. However, this is actually a very good tip because then the homework gets more and more relaxing the more fed up you get… so it kind of works! 😉

2. Have a study group.
Now, this is kind of a hit or miss. It really all depends who is in your study group or who you study with. In sixth year, we have a sixth year library which I often use to study. My friends come in as well and sometimes I am extremely studious but other times…. not so much. It is helpful to find someone who likes being productive and wants to get work done, other wise it pretty much a waste of time.

3. Take Breaks.
Oh yes. Take food breaks! Sometimes when I have a ‘study day’, I reward myself with a Costa or something that tastes good to look forward to because, I mean, what is better than food? nothing. Point made.

4. Listen To Music.
This might not be the same for everyone. Some people might be able to study best in silence, or in the hustle and bustle of a coffee shop, or listening to classical or pop music. It totally depends on what study environment is most effective for you 🙂 Personally, it totally depends on my mood. Sometimes, I need complete silence but other times I like to listen to music. If I am reading a book, I can’t listen to music with words because it confuses me and I end up listening to the song instead of concentrating on the book. I can never work in a overly loud area but apart from that, I’m pretty flexible. I also like listening to music without words because it cancels out surrounding sound but doesn’t make me want to start a song and dance.

5. Test Yourself.
There are many online resources to use that you can test yourself with. As well as this, you could use flash cards or ask a friend to test you with questions. When I am learning concepts or preparing a talk, I like to use flash cards. That is just one method 🙂 I am actually very good at memorizing essays in my short term memory. I know its probably not the best… but for Art exams I always just memorize the essays the night before so they are fresh in my mind and it always works for me. I did get an A in Art so I’m not kidding you! but it does totally depend on what works best for you 🙂

6. Don’t study late at night.
I disagree somewhat with this point.. reason being is that different people find it easier to study at different times. I prefer studying in the after noon but some like studying really early in the morning and others late at night. However, if its the night before an exam then I totally recommend you have a good night sleep!

7. Make Organised Notes.
I am such an organised person. I’m one of those people that are always asked what the homework is or what dates things are due because people just know that I write everything in my planner. I have to do it though because other wise I’ll forget but if its in my planner I HAVE to do it. Its the same for notes, if they are organised, colour co-ordinated and easy to read then studying is automatically less stressful. If you have different notes flying all over the place of unrelated pieces of paper, very little is going to make sense.

8.Use Harmonic Devices.
This is something my brother used to do. He used to make songs out of information he had to remember. I haven’t tried this yet but I think it could be effective.

9. Write your own notes.
In College or University, there may be loads of people that takes their laptops into lectures. I am yet to discover whether I like taking notes on paper or on my laptop better because we don’t use laptops at school but make sure you know what works best for you!

10. Use a planner.
See point 7.

11. Write Your Own Study Guide.
There are many study guides available in book stores or online but if you don’t have access to them, you could also make your own. You could have a piece of information with questions following or you could make spider diagrams. I like to make spider diagrams and colour co-ordinate them. There are many different ways 🙂

FINISHED!

So, apart from the homework I have left myself over this weekend, I also have some exciting things going on. These weeks have been crazy and they are about to get even crazier. On Thursday night, I am going to see ‘If I Stay’ at the cinema with some of my friends (SO excited…). Friday and Saturday I am going to Edinburgh and then to visit my brother in St Andrews. On Monday I have the Orthadontest (*cry*), Wednesday I am going to Perth College Open Day 🙂 and on Thursday all music students are going to see the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the theater. Busy busy busy…
But I kinda love it.

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5th Year Exam Results!

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art, Art and Design, Back to school, belief, City, college, Edinburgh, Edinburgh College, exam results, exams, faith, family, friends, German, Germany, God, Hope, jesus, life, love, Modern Studies, moral, Morning, music, philosophy, Prayers, Praying family, Praying friends, religion, RMPS, sqa, Studying, subjects

As promised… a blog post dedicated to my exam results 😉 Before I get into it, I have a few stories to tell you about this morning. 

So I woke up at 8.30… waiting and wondering when it would arrive. The door rang and my mum answered to a Jehovah’s Witness. Not my exam results. I discovered this after I belted down the stairs “Is it my results? is it?!” No Lisa… bit embarrassing. Then Rachael and her mum waltzed into my home with a big letter… it was them. I didn’t realize they’d still go to her house. Maria, my mum, Rachael and I sat in the living room but I wouldn’t open it with them all there so I opened them with Rachael and these are my results.

German – A (YES!)
Art and Design – A 
English – B (WHAT THE FLIP!)
Modern Studies – C
Religious Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS) – C

I am SO SO happy with them! Yes… I am asking the same question as you.. how in the world did I get a B in English. 1. I failed the prelim. 2. I’ve been complaining about how bad I am at it for the WHOLE year. It appears that I’m not at bad as I thought but there may have been some lovely old generous ladies marking my exam which is also extremely beneficial on my part. 
As you know, I would have literally cried an ocean of tears if I didn’t get an A in German so I am SO over the moon with that! Also, I am so happy with Art…. I spent a lot of lunch times and week days after school working on my projects and making sure that the teacher and myself were happy with them so I am so glad that my work paid of! Also.. I was actually really surprised because for the theory (i.e memorizing essays and writing about painting and designs) I memorized most of it on the morning of the exam because one of the Art teachers had told me to change my essay! But I did not change it.. I just kept it to what I knew and it got me an A so it couldn’t have been wrong haha! ahhh I am so glad 🙂 

So, as you probably know, we can change/add or drop subjects if we want so I’ve had a few brain waves. Right now, for 6th year, my timetable looks a bit like this: Higher Modern Studies, Higher Music, N5/In.2 Maths and hopefully Advanced Higher German (if the head of languages can convince Edinburgh college to let me do it open learning because we don’t have the supplies). So I have been thinking that I might drop Maths and take Higher English instead… and swap Higher Modern Studies for Higher Art. What are your thoughts? I was actually really sad about not being able to take Art and I’m clearly better at Art than Modern Studies so it makes sense, right? Plus, I’ve tried Maths again and its just really not how my brain is wired. So, I only dropped English because I failed the prelim and thought I was REALLY bad at it.. so yea, those are my thoughts. 

Thank you all for your prayers! And I hope that everyone got the results that they wanted and better! And if not, there is always next year!! 🙂 Thank you Jesus! 🙂 

School Supplies!

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aztec, aztec print, Back to school, backpack, Bic, brands, Campus, Campus notebook, claires, exam results, friends, Learning, life, Papermate, pattern, pukka pad, school, school bag, School supplies, shopping, smile, sqa, Sqa exams, stationary, subjects

I don’t know about you… but I actually really love buying school supplies. Especially when I get to buy a new backpack (you will understand my excitement when you see the picture.)
Yesterday and today, I have stalking up on the essentials for school. I realize that my pack of pens will probably last me a week before I loose them all or give them all away (I always fall for the “I’ll give you it back at the end of class.” 😉 ) but here are some things I bought 🙂 

First of all, these are THE best notebooks in the entire world! Better than Pukka Pad or NU or any others they have in super markets. Seriously, go with this one. Their half price in Tesco just now so… I bought two. They have new colors as well which just makes me smile 😉 I am a bit obsessed with notebooks. These just have such smooth thick paper. I wouldn’t pick any others for school over these so take my word for it 😉 

 

 

 

The best is yet to come….. prepare yourself.

 

 

 

Look at it! Its so beautiful…. 
Anyway, so those are my school supplies. 
4 days until exam results and I am SO nervous! 

 

 

Little Note To Say..

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blogging, English, exam results, friends, German, Holiday, life, Maths, Modern Studies, results, RMPS, school, sqa, sqa results, subjects, Summer, vacation

Hey everyone,
Just a little note to say that I will be blogging everyday (hopefully!) For the rest of my Summer holidays. Reason being Is that I have been having ideas of blog posts and I hate waiting for a while before I post the next one 😉 but when the holidays are over it will be difficult to post everyday because I am in my last year of High School so its a lot of work. Fear not! I will still be blogging. Just not everyday! Oh my, its 6 days until exam results… I am so nervous. I found the exams really hard if I’m honest and I wish I was like my brother and could study 24/7. Although I actually love stidying, I do have to be in the mood for it and know what I’m doing so hopefully I studied enough to at least pass the ones I’m less confident in. I’m confident for German and Art which I got an A for German in the Prelim and a B for Art. So that was good! Then I got a C in Modern Studies and RMPS which i wanted to get up to a B in the exam but I’m not sure I wrote enough so I don’t know about that and then English I failed. English, Maths and me just dont go well. Hence why I’m questioning dropping Maths if I don’t do well in Higher RMPS and just retake it and then get an A because I’ll know most of the material already. Anyway, I’m babbling but you can see I have a lot to think about. I will tell you my results when I get them!
Have a wonderful day!:)

Challenging Myself.

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A change in me, Acoustic Guitar, Beauty and the beast, broadway, challenge, Challenging myself, confidence, encouragement, friends, German, Germany, God, guitar, life, love, lyrics, Maths, Modern Studies, moral, music, Music theory, Musical, patience, philosophical, piano, practice, Prayer, Religious, school, senior, singing, subjects, Summer, Voice

It feels strange, being in my last year of high school. I remember when my brother was in sixth year. I thought he was so old and much like an adult. I don’t feel old.. in fact, because of my height, I feel like I could pass as I first year. Last week, I was buddying for the Primary sevens that are coming to secondary school after the summer and I kid you not, many of them were taller than me. I mean, it is slightly worrying but at the same time I do actually love being small. I just had to laugh because I doubt they realized that I’m actually a sixth year. Anyway, this is my last year of school so I wanted to challenge myself a bit.

This year I chose Higher Modern Studies (because I’m so bad at English so I need some literacy subjects) Intermediate 2 maths (bad idea!), Advanced Higher German (Currently trying to convince Edinburgh College to make an acceptation and let me do open learning because apparently our school don’t have the syllabus for this level) and Higher Music. Maths is just not my thing. I mean really… I am literally incapable. But I’m trying. I will stay at least until I receive my exam results because if I didn’t get a good grade in Higher RMPS then I will re-take that and drop Maths. Anyway, Music. I have missed a year of music and therefore I’m pretty out of practice with the theory side of things so this alone is a challenge for me. However, my music teacher is so so patient and does anything he can to help me. On top of this, I chose acoustic guitar and voice as my two instruments. Acoustic guitar? no problemo. Voice? totally out of my comfort zone. I mean 1, this means singing solo infront of people. 2, this means singing without my guitar. 3, this means being tested on my vocal range. As you can imagine, voice is really testing my confidence. Which I don’t have a lot of, to be honest. But this is part of the reason I chose voice. All I want to do is be able to sing without shaking like a leaf. Its actually extremely annoying and I really want to have more confidence because music is something that I love.

My friend is helping me in music because he is also doing voice and plays piano so we don’t need the teacher all of the time. However, yesterday I went into my own practice room and practiced ‘ A Change In Me’ which is from Beauty and The Beast. My teacher gave me the CD so I could practice and it was going really well singing with no one there. Then my friend came in and asked ‘Are you winning?’ and I replied ‘I am actually’… bad idea.. this meant he wanted to hear it. I always sang really quietly so both the teacher and my friend could barely hear me but yesterday I just had to try harder. I asked him to stand where I couldn’t see him so I would be less nervous. But I sang. And I sang louder and it was so nerve racking. I could hit the high notes but I stopped because I was scared I’d mess up but it was ok,he helped me because he knew I could do them.But that was enough for one day. The thing is, I will get more confident and eventually I’ll be able to sing it all with people watching but that was quite an achievement for one day to be honest haha! I’m just trying to challenge myself and praying that I’ll get more confident because music is something that I love.

above, I linked ‘A Change In Me’ so if your interested you can listen to the song I’m practicing 🙂 But I realized that I think the version I’m doing at school is bit higher so its actually easier to sing with this video. Maybe I’ll ask if I can sing in a little bit of a lower key. Failing that, I can cope with the higher notes if I have to haha!

Lyrics I love, R.E Lessons and Decisions.

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animals, belief and science, believe, book, Chris Tomlin, Christianity, creations, crime and punishment, decisions, earth, education, faith, future, God, Gods great dance floor lyrics, heart, holidays, jesus, Learning, love, lyrics, music, pray, R.e, reading, Religious Education, school, study, subjects, university

So first of all I am going to get into the R.E Lessons and Decisions. As you know, this year I have taken Religious Education. Or if you want to be smart, Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies. I have already learned a heck of a lot. The three sections we are doing this year are World Religion – Christianity, Crime and Punishment and Belief and Science. I am especially intrigued for the Crime and Punishment section that we will probably start after the October holidays. It is going to be hard. We have to fit most of the course in, in time for Prelims early next year. So we at least know some of each topic. Just now we are studying Christianity. Although, I do believe in God there is still a lot I have to learn. There is a lot to take in and I love R.E, so far 😉 

There is almost a full class of students in this Int.2/Higher class. Most are doing Higher, I think. Some though just come into R.E thinking its a little bit of a skive or they really just didn’t know what else to take. This year, it’s not. Most of us really do want to learn and I can say that I am the only Christian in that class and everyone has so many questions. One day, I walked into the class to find out we were having a class discussion about our own beliefs. Partly so the teacher could have a better idea of our views but also for us all to know our fellow class mates views. A few said they were brought up as Christians but now are not and others said they are more involved with the social side of church rather than the actual learning about God part. I like 5th year, everyone respects peoples views. You can definitely see a slight increase in maturity. Slight enough for the class to actually be enjoyable. 

In every class, people ask questions. I really admire my teacher or anyone really who can answer questions being fired at them. Really tricky questions too. Yesterday though, someone asked if all Christians believe that God created the earth. Now, I did give a little, quite chuckle at this but my face suddenly straightened up and realized how much teenagers these days don’t know. They don’t care either. I don’t think they realize. Someone once said, although I believe in God, I’d rather believe in God and find out he wasn’t true rather than not believing in him and finding out he is true. Great point. I really pray that the people who don’t know anything about faith and God will soon realize once they find out more and more in these classes. The excellent thing is that they can ask questions to a teacher who knows what he’s talking about. I think that is very helpful:) 

Lastly, I realized that mostly everybody knows what they are going to do when they leave school… I have no idea. I have has phases of wanting to be an Air Hostess. Now though I think that would be kind of boring because although I want to travel the world, going back and forth, to and from the same places wouldn’t be very interesting. Everybody has chosen subjects that fit into what they want to study at University. Where as, I just sort of took middle ground subjects. Psychology and R.E are both good to have. German and English.. it’s always good to throw a language in there and lastly Art. Art is my relaxing subject. The other subjects I chose will be more writing and reading whereas, in Art I can just sit down, draw and listen to music. So, that’s what I chose and I have no idea what I want to do. Everybody who knows me knows that I absolutely love, love, love animals. The thing is, I don’t want to be a vet. I want to care and look after them but you don’t get payed for that and I may need to earn money some how. I don’t know. All I know is I need to know before the end of 5th year. Wish me luck 😀 

Lastly, I wanted to share with you a song that I have been loving. It’s called ‘God’s Great Dance Floor’ By Chris Tomlin.

I’m coming back to the start
Where You found me
I’m coming back to Your heart
Now I surrender
Take me
This is all I can bring

I’m coming back to the start
I got this freedom
In here we feel Your heart
Your heartbeat for us
Take me
This is all I can bring

[Chorus:]
You’ll never stop loving us
No matter how far we run
You’ll never give up on us
All of heaven shouts: let the future begin
Let the future begin

Take me
This is all I can bring

[Chorus:]
You’ll never stop loving us
No matter how far we run
You’ll never give up on us
All of heaven shouts: let the future begin

I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
I feel alive, I come alive
I am alive on God’s great dance floor
God’s great dance floor!

 

That can kind of be my Music Monday edition for the past Monday.. haha! Go and Youtube it 🙂 I love it! 
I’m going to read now and then sleep. Good night all 🙂 

 

Back to School and Vegetarian Week.

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blog, breakfast, classes, countries, cousin, cultures, dinner, education, family, food, friends, interested, life, lunch, meat, motivation, school, south africa, subjects, teachers, update, vegetarian, vegetarian week, week

Today was our first day back at school after our 7 week long Summer holiday. This time last year, I probably would have been dreading the first day back but today was good. It didn’t even feel like we’d been on holiday, it just felt like it had been the weekend and we were coming back to school. Yea, in all the classes there was a little intro to get back into the swing of things but for the most part we had already started our work 2 weeks before the summer holidays. Secondly, everyone was still the same 🙂 There were even 2 new girls. One from South Africa.. I’m quit interested to talk to her and get to know her. When my friends told me, I was so so excited. I love meeting people from different countries and cultures. It’s so interesting! so, school was great. I hope I really enjoy this year 🙂 

You may be wondering what I was on about when you read the second part of the title – Vegetarian Week. No, I am not a vegetarian right now but I have always wondered what it would be like to be one. If it’s easy or hard, if you have less energy from the protein your loosing, if everyone is prone to having Anemia if they don’t eat meat from the lack of protein. Yes, these thoughts were going through my head. Recently, my cousin came up with a brilliant idea of having a week of being a vegetarian , just to see what it’s like. You can check out how it went for her last week here: ( http://mylifelizabeth.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/my-last-week/ ) So, yesterday I was with my friend Rachael and I was reading this blog post my cousin had wrote at the time and I told her about it. Rachael and I thought we’d give it a go. One reason why we’d both do it at the same time was maybe to motivate each other. Now, I have had to do a little more motivating because Rachael already last night ate a piece of chicken lol!! I am proud, I haven’t ate any meat yet and I don’t think I will. I think I’ll manege. Some how I don’t think it will be too difficult at all. Breakfast and lunch I don’t eat meat anyway. It’s just dinner but so far so good. I’ll keep you updated 😉 For me, it’s chicken that I eat the most with a lot of meals so I’ll have to some how substitute that but I am excited to try. 

 

Waiting For The Postie…

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art, Biology, English, exams, France, French, friends, German, Germany, history, life, Maths, music, post man, results, school, Scotland, skype, sqa, study, subjects

I don’t think I have been so anxious for the postie to come ever.. Yesterday the whole of Scotland’s ex 4th years (sounds weird) received their exam results. Now, these results are pretty important. Well, very important. So as the Facebook status’s were coming in and everyone was getting nervous the postie arrived and I opened it while skyping Peta. People keep asking me what I got so, so I don’t have to write it over and over (or if you’ve forgotten) here are my results: 

German – 2
Music – 2
Art – A
French – A
Biology – B 
English – 3
History – 4 
Maths – 5

Now we all see that maths is my worst. We didn’t expect me to get all that good in Maths so I’m not bothered about that one 🙂 History though… I’m meant to be a credit student i.e getting  a 1 or 2. I got a 2 in my prelim so I will see if I can appeal to get that 2 because my teacher will cry (exaggeration) because he really wanted me to have a 1 or 2. I am so happy I passed them all though! And I really did not expect Art and French. I thought they were 2 of my not so good subjects. I can’t really draw so it must have been the design work and I have no clue how I got an A in French. No clue. Thank you God for making me happy with my results 😀

Now though, I am moving on to Int.2’s and Highers so I will be here again next year telling you my results 😀 

My First Day.

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art, book, choice, church, college, day, English, family, friends, German, Learning, library, magazine, Psychology, religion, school, student, subjects, teachers

No, this isn’t my first day of primary school.
No, this wasn’t my first day of high school or college.
Today was my first day of 5th year. My first day of having only 5 subjects. My first day of having 6th years mixed with 5th years and my first day of having surprisingly quit pupils in my classes. Seriously… you would think when people get to the age of 15 nearly 16 they would at least not talk when the teacher is talking.. but no! 4th year was horrendous for the amount of immaturity in the classes. My brother said to me “Lisa, by 5th year all the annoying ones leave.” He was right in some sense but actually quit a few stayed but they are not in my class so I am very happy 😀 Now there are more concentrated students rather than loud ones so they basically just sit in a corner out numbered by the amount of people working. Don’t get me wrong! I absolutely love a good laugh but I also want to do well and not waste my school years. Especially this year. 

Anyway, today was SO good! First I ran into my registration class anxious to receive my timetable from my registration teacher (one of the nicest teachers ever!:D). When I was handed it I was so so relieved. I got teachers that I like. First, I had English with a teacher that I had never had before but everyone told me she is nice. Now, her make up does create great amusement for me because it is quit funny but you get used to it. Then, I had R.M.P.S (Religious, Moral and philosophical Studies) with a teacher that I also had the past couple of years. Since Psychology doesn’t start until August I had a double free period between break and lunch where I was saddened to be told that going to Asda wasn’t allowed and that we had to stay in school 😦 But… it turned out good! The librarian chatted with me and saw that I was reading German magazines. She found out my parents are German and I speak German. Since she studied German too I now think she has great respect for me haha! Her words were “Girls, you are allowed to come in any time you want” (I was with my friend) So, I translated some German, read my book and filled in a form for tomorrows Open Learning College induction. 

For the last two periods I had German and Art. In German two people are doing crash Higher. One speaks Dutch so some of it she understands and the other is someone who I actually know from ages ago. He went to my church when we were younger. His mum comes from Austria so he too has some background of German. I can tell you.. they are learning fast!:) Oh and I got the German teacher I wanted too 🙂 I’ve had him since 3rd year. 
Lastly, I had Art. My Art teacher is a bit odd but I think he’s the best out of the 3.

Overall, I had a wonderful first day of 5th year:)
Tomorrow is time for a day of a 4 hour Psychology induction. I am excited! 

My Exam Room Pet Hates

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exam room, friends, heals, invigilators, pencils, pupils, school, shoes, speedy, stationary, students, subjects, talking

1. Invigilators with Heals – stomp stomp stomp *pause to look around* stomp stomp. I think they just pace up and down and in their heals, boy that is annoying.

2. When someone has a cold – I just feel like shouting “Dude….. actually just go and get a tissue!!” 😀 sadly they’d rip our paper up for doing that.

3. Being the first finished – Just sitting there resorting to talking to the wall until you hear the creek of someone else’s chair. That’s your que to leave too.

4. When people have blunt pencils – have you ever sat next to someone when they are writing in a blunt pencil? It’s the most off putting thing ever!

5. The speedy one that happens to sit near you – All you hear are pages turning and constant writing and your sitting there like, ehh I’m no where near done.. how can you be so fast? So nerve racking.