How to Recover from Study Burnout

It happens; sometimes you can work too hard without realising it, other times it hits right before exam season. Burnout can happen to anyone and it’s important to address it as soon as possible so that you can get back on track. Today we’re discussing the top three things you can do to recover from study burnout and if you’re interested in study-break-related tips to help prevent it, you can click here. Otherwise, without any further ado, here are today’s tips!

The first anti-burnout strategy you can undertake is to set time for yourself to do what you enjoy. You could journal, go for a run, do some yoga, watch a TV show or read a book. All of these things can be really beneficial to your mental health and will assist you in rediscovering your passions. I think this step is really important as sometimes, studying makes it feel like there’s nothing more to life than school. Doing something you truly enjoy can definitely improve your mindset and mood – it’s a crucial part of my recovery strategy.

Next, do something to look after yourself (mentally, physically, emotionally and/or socially). Spending time to reset your daily routine and make yourself feel good can prepare you for the next chapter of your life. You can go to a spa session, cook one of your favourite meals or catch up with your friends. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy but it can make you feel physically better, subsequently improving your mental and emotional wellbeing.

Lastly, make sure you’re sleeping well. Physical fatigue is a huge contributor to study burnout and feeling tired can make it difficult to retain new information at school. Go to sleep at a decent time for an entire week and set an earlier alarm in the morning. By improving your sleep schedule, you can get into healthy habits for later in life as well as feeling super refreshed.

That’s it for my top three burnout-curing tips, I really hope you found them useful. I’m not trying to give medical advice here so make sure you consult your GP if excessive fatigue is plaguing you and take these tips as simple suggestions. Remember, support is always close at hand!

Year 10 Chemistry – An Atomic Article

Ever wanted to find out more about atoms? Here’s a quick article that explains what there is to know at a Year 10 level. I hope you find it useful!

An atom consists of three subatomic particles and a lot of empty space. The nucleus is found at the centre of the atom and holds the protons (positively charged sub-atomic particles) and the neutrons (subatomic particles with a neutral charge). Electrons (negatively charged subatomic particles) are found in electron shells (a.k.a. orbitals). The number of these shells is used to measure the space around the nucleus that is still part of the atom. Depending on how far the shells are from the nucleus, the electrons in them will orbit the nucleus in different ways (if you’re interested to learn more, search “suborbitals“).

The periodic table can help define many things about the elements in the Universe. The table presents each of atom’s atomic number which explains how many protons (and therefore electrons) there are in the stable or most common isotope of the element. The mass number (a.k.a. the atomic weight) describes the total number of protons and neutrons of the atom. It is sometimes a decimal number because it is the average of all isotopes of the element.

An isotope is an atom with a different number of neutrons than its most common element. Ions are another variation on elements and are charged atoms with a different number of electrons than the original element. They can form due to nuclear radiation, photon bombardment or other causes (either natural or artificial). Ions form when atoms gain or lose electrons to achieve a more stable substance. Metals form cations (positively-charged ions) as they need to lose electrons to form ions. Non-metals, on the other hand, form anions (negatively-charged ions) as they gain electrons to form ions.

Atoms can be drawn accurately with the Bohr model method by placing electrons in shells outside the nucleus of the atom. The first shell is filled with only two electrons and then, from the second shell onwards, the number of valence electrons is considered to be eight (suborbitals are a different matter and do not follow this pattern, however they don’t need to be considered at Year 10 level). Suborbitals only come into play from the 21^st element onward, though.

Thanks for reading!

( https://lavelle.chem.ucla.edu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4291&start=2700 )

How to pick your Year 12 subjects

Subject selection is in full swing here in Australia and all I can think about is how to choose which subjects I want to do in Year 12. In the past I was very determined about what I wanted to do but I’ve been worried that not changing my mind may lead to regrets in Year 11 and 12.

Today, to help you out, I’ve decided to create the ultimate guide to subject selection which you can use for any year level’s subject choices.

Do you already enjoy the subject?

Choosing a subject that you don’t like for your last two years of schooling is not a great idea; it can make your teenage years feel like such a drag. And anyway, you’ll do much better in a subject that you like than one you don’t as you’ll probably be willing to dedicate more time and effort to it. Don’t forget that you’ll also be meeting other people with similar interests to you so it can be a great way to make new friends.

Does it complement the other subjects that you’re doing?

Are you doing any similar subjects that would give you the contacts of teachers and friends who can help you with the class content? If so, choosing this subject can be a great way to strengthen friendships and create a support network of teachers and students at school. On the other hand, you may be trying to choose too many subjects with a large workload or lots of content. Make sure that you think through how you much work you would need to do for your subjects to not overwork yourself. You definitely don’t want to spend two whole years of your life doing nothing but studying!

Is it the last chance you have do to do this subject?

In other words, will you be studying it in further education? If you love the subject but won’t have any other chances to work on it, you should probably pick it. Firstly, it will give you a foundation for the topic if you ever change your mind and decide to go back to it but secondly, it will allow you to connect with other people who have similar interests to you. You never know, it may change your university and career preferences, maybe even your whole life!

Is it a pre-requisite for any courses you wish to complete in further education?

From what I’ve heard, universities are really strict on pre-requisites. If you don’t complete a subject required, you will be automatically be disqualified from gaining a place in the course. Choose various courses of a similar scope as there can be very similar classes at different universities that require different foundation subjects. Often, the more specific a course is, the more pre-requisites it will have but you may be able to achieve a similar degree with fewer pre-requisites. On the flip side, don’t lock yourself in too early. Make sure you achieve the pre-requisites for some university courses that you might be interested in taking as lots can change in two years.

Will it have enough other students to go ahead?

At my school, if a subject doesn’t have enough students undertaking it, it won’t run and the students who had picked that subject need to choose a different one. Be strategic in your back-ups and don’t just pick random subjects that you’re not interested in. If there aren’t any other ATAR-contributing subjects that you enjoy, consider applying to university extension programs, TAFE courses or applied learning subjects. These can be fun subjects that you’ll look forward to every week rather than boring ones you only picked because you had to.

I hope this post helped you work out what subjects you want to do in upcoming years. If half the words on this page are jibberish to you, it may be because all my advice is directed towards Australian students. Our final two years are graded differently to many other countries and applying to university is done with your final score. If you’re interested, you can read more about Australian schooling here.

The Lotus Diagram

I’ve got another super useful study resource for you all today, The Lotus Diagram. I found out about this revision technique at school in my forensics class and I think the Lotus Diagram is an amazing way to revise for subjects with a lot of content.

I used it for science, biology in this case, and I think it’s a great way to define key concepts and summarise information. Since it doesn’t always provide enough space for writing, I used sticky notes to add detail but please leave me a comment if you have another idea for including more information! But for now, make the most of the Lotus Diagram…

Straight lines aren’t your thing? Check out the Lotus Diagram’s curvier relative, the Mind Map, here.

Astronomy – Reference Handbook

With exams fast approaching, condensing all of the concepts, laws and ideas that we’ve covered in astronomy is rising higher and higher on my list of things to do. After covering almost fifteen topics in a semester, I have no worldly idea of how I’m going to make it through the exam! Luckily, I’ve finally finished an attempt at writing out all of the notes from astronomy this semester.

Below you’ll find pages and pages of content, most of which (luckily) won’t need to be memorised, only understood.

If you have any questions on topics that you don’t really get, leave a comment so that I can create a blog post dedicated to its specifics.

Year10-Astronomy-ReferenceDownload

Year 10 Science is a crucial foundation for understanding the topics covered inter years. Need more help with something specific, check out my resources here or request a topic in the comments below.

Good luck on the exam!

Year 9 Science – The Nervous System

Hi again everyone!

Today I’m sharing one of my science resources from when I was in Year 9. That year, the nervous system was one of our topics and we learnt all about homeostasis and the neurons in our body.

Here are my summary notes for that topic. When I used them, I printed them out and highlighted important information. I basically used them as printed flashcards and now you can too.

Hope they help you out!

Year9-Science-Nervous-SystemDownload

If you want more resources for Year 9, just click right here to see them all.

Please note: Images included are not my property. All credit goes to owners/creators.

How to get ALL your questions answered…

A New Discovery…

So, I don’t want to be dramatic today this but I honestly think this study technique is amazing and could help SO MANY people learn better. If you’re a person who learns best when someone else is explaining something, This. Is. For. You.

I found this study hack on the ATARNotes website, an awesome resource for students in Australia so I wanted to give them a quick shout-out. I love their site because it not only has really interesting articles but also includes heaps of study resources for pretty much every subject!

And so, without any further ado, the life-changing study technique I have discovered is …

make a shared document with your friends for all your homework-related questions

Ok, I get it. It’s not even that revolutionary. I just think it’s the smartest thing ever, though. I guarantee you that as soon as I finish writing this I’m going to create this doc for my class and share it with everyone. It’s an amazing way to get all of your school-related questions answered in a formal context. You could even include your teachers on the document and ask them to contribute too!

You may not be fangirling over this as hard as I am right now, but I highly recommend using this technique. If you do, let me know in the comments below! I’ll be sure to keep you updated with what I’ve learnt.

Want more study tips and tricks? Everything you need is right here.

‘Til next time!

Forensics – Physics Flashcards

Hey guys,
Another short post today… I’m sharing my physics flashcards for Year 10 Forensics.

I’ve included general physics knowledge like standard units and scalars/vectors so this can be used for core science or Year 10 Physics as well. Here’s the link: https://quizlet.com/_6prpli

If you’re looking for more Year 10 Forensics content, click here to find everything from practise tests to notes.

Forensics – Chemistry Notes

So, you probably already do this before every single test but condensing your notes and reading over them has been a revision strategy for YEARS!

You probably don’t need me to tell you that you should print these out and scribble over them like crazy (by highlighting and adding notes, silly) to get the most out of them. These are answers to the chemistry capacity matrix posted by my Forensics teacher (I’ve attached the matrix itself as well).

If you’re interested in getting these notes as a podcasts, leave me a comment and I’d be happy to record them for y’all.

SFO-CHEM-notesDownload

SFO-CHEM-capacity-matrixDownload

Looking for more Forensics resources, here‘s my complete list!

Forensics – Biology Practise Test

I get it, why would you EVER want to do a test that a teacher mightn’t even look at? I totally understand. But… practise tests are the BEST way to prepare for a real test! Deciding that you’ll do one is hard enough but finding the perfect test for your specific course is nearly impossible! Never fear, though, the perfect Year 10 Forensics practise test is right here.

This is my practise test for the biology quiz in Forensics, as well as the answers and marking scheme so you know exactly what a teacher will be looking for. It’s as easy as printing out these pages!

Forensics-BIO-TestDownload

Forensics-BIO-AnswersDownload

Have you been enjoying Forensics? Let me know in the comments below! Personally, it was one of my favourite Year 10 subjects as it was a real-life application of biology, my favourite science subject!