INTRO <3

HISIES!

A lot of people (jealous furckz 0-0) go around and call me a nolife nerd, make up stories about my chronic illnesses being fake only so I get better grades, or even say that I pay the teachers. As anyone who reads my bulletins for a day knows, I have WAY more life in my life than I could ask for, and...I spent all of my money on FOB t-shirts, so I definitely didn't pay anyone. Conclusion? I just hab rilly gwood gwades! >w<! In dis blog me wanna share how me does that, since all the way until last 1,5 year (I'm almost 18 now) me was FAI-LING!!!!!!

1. DEALING WITH OVERSTIMULATION

Even though now it's a hot cool new word everyone self diagnoses themselves with (like my generation self diagnosed themselves with bipolar in 2020), it's a problem that touches most of us, whether you're autistic or not, neurodivergent or neurotypical (like me :3), there's no shame in being overstimulated even if you're not ill with anything. Think of it like having a cough; you don't need to have lung cancer to cough, do you?

There are the obvious things everyone struggling with it does; cleaning the desk, turning on a concentrated, bright source of white light, putting earplugs or calming music in, all for your brain to decide it wants to rave (yfm reference).

Here's the thing:  you're doing it all wrong! If you brain NEEDS stimulation, you can't just convince it to not want it! Don't turn lofi music on, in fact, the album that has been carrying my 4.0 GPA from extended biology is Warhead by Phosgore, the most well known aggrtech album (I think), I put it on and suddenly work is SO much easier.

Another REALLY effective thing is buying any normal sized Squishmallow, and having it somewhere near, so you can get the sensory stimulation of a phone or whatever you're doing instead of studying without having to look away from the book/notebook :D!

2. NOTES!!!

"Oh but I study better from reading" babe okay then leave I'm talkin bout what works for me :P

Pretty notes are not only pretty because we like being cute pinterest babes with a romanticized life, nice notes DO help, so go buy that 3 dollar pack of pastel pens and draw hearts instead of dots, your brain percieves cute, separated text WAY better than a wall of meaningless letters.

BUT! Having pretty notes is NOT enough! You need to have good notes, and here's where the hard part comes in - you have to LEARN to make them!!

Here's an example:

"Lymph has three primary functions: it maintains fluid balance by draining excess fluid from tissues and returning it to the bloodstream. It also supports the immune system by filtering out waste, bacteria, and abnormal cells, and transporting immune cells to fight infection. Finally, it absorbs fats from the digestive system and transports them to the blood."

Here's how a good note version of that looks:

"♪*† FUNCTIONS OF THE LYMPH: †*♪

- Filtering out bacteria and abnormal cells (supports the immune system)

- Transporting immune cells to fight infection

- Absorbs and transports fats from digestive tract to the bloodstream."

It definitely takes some time to learn to pick out the important things while not losing the core sense of the provided note, but that's what helped me finish my studying day in school in class, instead of revising it as soon as I'm home because there's too much text.

3. TIME SPENT DOESN'T MATTER!

The whole 'study until the candle burns out' thing makes zero sense, besides when you're writing essays, learning music, or revising a wall of words from a different language.

There will be topics in math, literature, biology, law, in WHATEVER besides the three above when you're like "omfg wtf is this shit I'm going to kms", and will spend 2 hours doing revision exercises and homework, and there will be topics when you'll be like "waoh this shit is so easy what the hell why does everyone else struggle with it?" and finish homework and revision in under 20 minutes.

The natural thought process might be "I have my daily studying time I need to fill it", or even "It's so easy, why don't I just do more?" but actually, you're HURTING YOURSELF! Revising the things you're already good from doesn't cement you in them, it makes the brain think "wait, I do everything right, but we're still doing it? Well there must be something wrong then!" and you start to make mistakes that you normally would never do.

4. DON'T COMPARE!

It's neither "I study so much less yhan them I'm so bad", or "I study so much more than them I'm so much better than them", all it is is "I'm bad (I get things wrong)", or "I'm good (my scores are good)."

If you've found this helpful, leave a kudos!! :D

XOXO - Paulinethecannibalisticdog