Where have you been? Been searching all along Came facing twilight on and on Without a clue Without a sign Without grasping yet The real question to be asked Where have I been?
I’m a shapeshifter At Poe’s masquerade Hiding both face and mind All free for you to draw I’m a shapeshifter What else should I be? Please don’t take off my mask Revealing dark
Moments of calm Nothing left to be found A mirror right in front of me That’s where I find An empty glass Reflecting the sad truth It’s telling words not to be told I need the mask
I’m a shapeshifter At Poe’s masquerade Hiding both face and mind All free for you to draw I’m a shapeshifter Chained down to my core Please don’t take off my mask My place to hide
I can’t tell you How to see me Just a cage of bones There’s nothing inside Will it unleash me? Burning down the walls Is there a way For me to break?
I’m a shapeshifter At Poe’s masquerade Hiding both face and mind All free for you to draw I’m a shapeshifter Have no face to show Please don’t take off my mask My disguise
cramming is good for the short term, such as just before a test (i’m talking like an hour before), but shouldn’t be used as an effective study method. you only learn the information in the exact way you read it, so any practical application on your test won’t be easy to answer. you also will struggle with answering the same questions you studied for, but asked differently.
Spacing Effect
the spacing effect is essentially the opposite of cramming. instead of doing a 4 hour study session, break it up into groups of 30 minutes. do 30 minutes, take a nice long break, go back for 30, and repeat. that break in between gives your brain time to encode and store the information. this can be done in either one day, or over the course of a few days before the test.
Mnemonic devices are your best friend when dealing with lists of information
any sort of rhyming scheme, letter association, acronyms, etc. is proven to help you. any american can say ROY G. BIV and know exactly what they’re talking about, another example is HOMES for the great lakes. another major example is “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”/PEMDAS for the order of operations. this helps with lists, i use it all the time in biology for stuff like the Levels of Classification or Characteristics of Living things. for AP Euro i remember “Descartes with a D” because he “Doubts and wrote Discorse on Method”.
Hierarchy Organizing for Midterms and Finals
by breaking information down into a hierarchy, you can figure out how to study all your chapters at once. these are often called “graphic organizers” and it takes the whole topic, then breaks it into subsections, then subsections of those subsections. here’s an example i found for my Memory unit
the whole unit is memory, the subtopics are sensory memory, short term, then long term. then comes the subdivisions of long term memory and so on. this is wonderful for study planning in regards to large information tests.
these are just some of the tips we talked about, and obviously they won’t work for everybody, but it’s really helped my studying process because it’s literally how the brain processes information best for long term storage and retrieval.
Novel: Daydreams a lot. Running through fields. Lifelong friendships. Wants to change the world. Great memory. Tactful. Fine details.Wears their heart on their sleeve.
Poetry: Soft eyes. Wistful smiles. Only a few close friends. Skinnydipping in the ocean. Late nights. Thinks too deeply. Tries too hard or not at all. Moves like they have all the time in the world.
Short stories: Talks too fast. Wants to run away. Kissing in the dark. Quick touches. Falls in loves easily. Humming softly. Whispered secrets. Can’t stay in one place very long.
Dictionary: Overachiever. Probably plans their day out minute by minute. Hard worker. Reads too much for their own good. Bit of a know-it-all. Wants to be a teacher someday.
Comics: Short attention span. Fidgets a lot. Big imagination. Colourful clothes. Crooked grins. Making a statement. Fluffy socks. Printed t-shirts. Doesn’t think before they speak.
Theory: Conspiracy theories. Long conversations. Midnight drives. Late nights. Circles under their eyes. Bites their nails. Gets worked up easily. Long rants in the middle of the night.