Brains & Beauty

Monday, February 23, 2015







                                                                                                                                                                 

Hi everyone!

Today I'm going to be doing something different than my usual posts. This post is a collaboration with the gorgeous Rachael from Lucid Stars. We've been sending messages back and forth to give you guys, a few tips to help you ace the school year. Both me and Rachael are entering year 11 this year, therefore we've both have started to take school more seriously. Click here to read her tips! These tips have been tested and used, so rest assured that these tips are ones which have worked and will continue to work for us. Since fashion is my usual forte, I'm also going to show you guys what I wear for a study day.

Part 1: Tips to help you Ace the school year

Tip 1: Plan out your nights

Something that has been helping me lately is to plan out my nights on a study planner. The great thing is that by planning out your nights it doesn't only make you more organised, but it can also help you if you find you procrastinate. So I'm a major procrastinator myself, but this tip I swear by. Basically I set some "mini goals" for myself, in which I study for 30 minute to 1 hour and then I reward myself with a 15 minute break. If you ever find that 1 hour is to long then start off small and go for 30 mins and take a 5-10 minute break. Gradually build yourself up, until you find time intervals that work for you. Another good thing about this is that sometimes when you hit your break time, if you find you're in the zone then you'll shut off your alarm and continue studying. You don't have to plan out your whole week all at once, plans change, things arise, so in saying that, what works best for me is that as soon as I come home I sit down and plan my night.

Tip 2: Prepare before your lessons

Something that has been helping me get through my subjects (especially for chemistry), is to read my lesson topics before class. I recommend going through your course program and read what your next lesson topic is, then go to the following chapter in your textbook and read the topic.  The benefits of reading the topic before you learn it in class, is that it will read the same thing three times. Once before class, again during class and after class. By reading the same thing three times, you will have a higher chance of remembering the content. Let me put this into perspective, imagine sitting down preparing for your test. Try to remember a one hour conversation 2 week ago. Now same situation except this time you had the same conversation for an hour, three times. By comparing those two situation, I think it's safe to say you will remember the conversation in the second situation.

Tip 3: Balancing co-curricular

Now I'm going be realistic, you have to always put your academic work before you do any co-curricular. In saying this, I'm not suggesting that you completely quite all sports and arts just to focus on your school work. In fact I think that it's quite beneficial to have a mix of academics and co-curricular. The key to having a balance is to do everything in moderation. If you have a three term commitment to a production, then consider not doing rowing. If you want to do sport in term 1 and 2 than consider not joining debating. Do you see the pattern? Try not to join everything, because when exam week comes you might find yourself struggling to keep up with both your academics and co-curricular. Not only will your grades might drop, but if you don't give your 100% commitment for your team, then you will be letting your team down as well.

Tip 4: Colour coding

This is a tip that has been helping me since year 7. So I've applied this tip for a good 4 years now, and I can tell you that it works. Basically for each section/ topic of a subject, I would write with a different colour. So each topic of my notes would be in a different colour. For example, let's say you're studying for a human biology test, for the respiratory system you'll use a blue coloured pen to write, and for the digestive system you'll use a pink. Now I'm not sure about the logistics behind my reasoning, but for some reason when test time comes every time I think of the colour blue, all the information I know about the respiratory system comes flooding in. This is a true story, I used this tip for my year 10 human biology test and I got an A. I think it's also worth mentioning I studied and wrote my notes the day before. So the moral of the story, first don't study the day before for a test and that this tip works. The second way to colour code is through highlighting. For example for history each iconic date that I'll need to remember I'll use a orange highlighter, and for every iconic person in history I'd a yellow highlighter. Do you see what I'm doing? Basically I'm highlighting important bits of my notes and categorizing them by colour. Colour coding has definitely helped me for my studies and as another plus it makes my notes look pretty.

Tip 5: Relaxation

Although it is important to study and keep up your grades, relaxing is just as important. There's no point in studying when you're feeling uncomfortable. Trust me when I say everyone needs a break once in a while. If your stressed out whilst trying to study, the information won't process through your brain as well as it could if you were relaxed. So remember to relax and smell the roses every once in a while. For me going to a cafe, spending time with my dog, exercising and blogging help me keep balance in my life. 

Part 2: Study day outfit


Now how do I dress for a study day? Everytime I wear an outfit I keep a two things in mind:
1. Is it practical for what I'm doing that day
2. What do I feel like wearing



Since I was studying that day, I had to dress practical. When you're studying, comfort is key so try to choose materials that won't leave you irritated or have you constantly moving. Shorts, for me are the way to go, they allow more free body movement in comparison to a dress or skirt in my opinion. Last but not least shoes. Be practical, wear something that is comfortable and again easy to move in, for me sneakers, slip on sneakers, flats (I think you get it) are the way to go.



As for what I feel like wearing, each day varies and it so happened that today I wanted to wear a sport luxe look. Hence why I have a cap and a backpack. I also really wanted to style my new Saba shorts which I had purchased recently. At the end of the day, I feel that I just want to wear what I want to wear, and I encourage you guys to do the same thing.


Quickly want to mention how in love I am with my new lipstick. My sister purchased it for me, since this is a shade I would've never thought of purchasing for myself. It's a amazing bronze, metallic colour from Bobbi Brown in the shade 09- Brown Shimmer. Both me and my sister dislike sparkles in our lipsticks, but for some strange reason I love it in this lipstick. I'm officially obsessed!

















I think it's worth mentioning that in the above photo why my face looks a bit "deer in headlights", is because I was explaining to my friend how what I was doing was an example of Newtons 3rd Law. Blogging and studying at the same time, talk about multi-tasking. 

Sorry that I couldn't take a lot of street/street art photos. As I explained that it was a study day, hence why I shot this post 3 mins away from the library. All of these photos were taken on our break whilst we were on our way to get lunch.


















Hope you guys enjoyed this 3-1 post! Remember to check out Rachael's post for additional study tips. That's it for now and I will try to have a new post up soon.

Chantel xx


Outfit Details:
Camisole - H&M
Shorts - Saba
Cap - Evan Evina 
Shoes - Windsor Smith
Watch - Mimco
Sunglasses - Roc Eyewear
Backpack - Seed Heritage 

©MODERNDAYCHIC 2014-2015 All content rightfully belongs to me unless stated otherwise.

You Might Also Like

4 comments

  1. Everything about this post is top-notch, so glad I had the opportunity of getting to collab with you! Cheers to these tips. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was great working with you as well! I love your post, definitely going to help me in the future. Hope to work with you again xx

      Delete
  2. Great post and great tips, they're really helpful!

    Syd
    http://thestyleroll.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete