Category: Student Peer Advisors

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Hello lovely person who’s reading this! If this is around the time it was posted, then happy beginning of the semester!! Sadly, it’s not the traditional beginning, meaning endless use of Webex, Zoom, and Blackboard Collaborate. Virtual learning can make focusing and finding motivation difficult, but I have some tips for you! Thanks to my experience of online school from last semester, meetings with peers and faculty, and TikToks, I have compiled a list of tips:

1. Find your dedicated workspace where there is less chance of you falling asleep (so your bed may not be the ideal place to have class:/). It helps to have the separation of work and life, so leaving the place where you relax as solely the place you relax will help you get the break from work you’ll eventually need.
2. Eliminate distractions – that includes phones (TikTok is a black hole for me), people (don’t let your family distract you), and even laptops. Since everything is now online, don’t let yourself stray away from class by playing an online game or scrolling through a feed in another tab. Try to give yourself a clear workspace when in class (you can do that by having a desktop for classes where the only tab open is what’s related to the lecture you’re in).
3. Set goals for yourself. They can be small like once you finish reading a page or section, reward yourself with a piece of candy. Or they can be large like once you complete an assignment, allow yourself to watch one episode of a show you’re currently watching. But just ONE. That can easily turn into the whole series, which has happened to me, but please try to practice self-control (which I am still trying to figure out) – because practice can turn into habits!
4. Schedule your day. I bought this planner from Target that has each hour listed so I can plan the exact times I will complete an assignment and take breaks (and don’t forget to drink some water and eat!). If you’re motivated to stick to your schedule, then you’ll be more productive during the allotted time. But also note that you can use Google Calendar or any other type of planner system that’s best for you.
5. Create study groups with friends. Even though we’re in different parts of the world, we can still connect through video chat! Being productive can be much easier when you’re surrounded by other productive people.
6. Know when to give yourself a break. It’s easy to say you’ll go to sleep after you finish this assignment, but if that turns out to be harder than expected, then accept it and give your brain a rest. If staying up late works for you, then go ahead and do that. But remember that you may have synchronous classes early in the morning. Just know how your body works and what’s best for your mental health.

A little side note: one account I found on TikTok (@oneoldkid) posts videos with brain breaks. He strengthens your cross lateral skills by giving small exercises to practice. One example is pointing with one hand and giving a thumbs up with the other. Then you switch them. You can find other exercises on his account, just be aware of how long you’re scrolling! It can easily turn into hours, so be mindful.

Speaking of mindfulness, here’s a quick breathing exercise. You can practice these anytime throughout the day. They’re nice ‘resets’ for when you may feel overwhelmed.

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Good luck this semester! You all will do great things 😊.

Best,
(from your peer advisor) Mei

Check out the following study tips from Senior Peer Advisor Gwen Umbach (CCAS ’20)!

On the second day of this semester, the slam of my apartment door startled me from a social media stupor yet again, to see my homework spread around me, long since abandoned. I hadn’t intended to spend thirty minutes checking my notifications, I actually wanted to get ahead on my work this time.

UHP students are notorious even within GW for doing lots of things at once, and for me one of the biggest challenges of college has been keeping myself focused enough to finish all those things. Though it’s always a struggle, this semester I’ve finally managed to implement some of the great advice I’ve gotten over the years, and I want to share a of the few things that have actually helped me not only start my work, but finish it.

As the brilliant Ben Faulkner pointed out to me, not all homework is created equal, and choosing what to work on first helps maximize time. Whether you’re a morning person, or one who only does homework when it’s dark out, knowing what time of day you focus best (not just when you’re the most
panicked) helps manage those assignments that require the most brainpower. Similarly, when I have lots of assignments to do in a night, working from hardest to easiest, or giving myself easy work between the hard assignments, has helped make my brainpower last much longer than it used to.

The second and the biggest change I made to my work habits was defining where I work. In high school, I always studied at home, and when I started college I continued that without any real thought, but over time it has become apparent that I am terrible at concentrating in my own home. After trying most places on campus, I have finally settled on the DC Public Library as my place for more intensive homework. For easier or less pressing work, I choose a different location—maintaining the sanctity of
the library as a hard-work-only zone has helped me stay on task when it matters the most. Regardless of what the best place is for you, finding it and committing to it makes a big difference.

The last, and hardest, piece of making a work schedule, has been the actual ‘schedule’ part: deciding when to work. This is the advice that I heard repeatedly from professors and advisors, and failed repeatedly to put into place: Block off time for homework, and if anyone asks you to hang out during those times, say you’re busy. In order to stay focused, not just during one afternoon but in the long term, consistency is key. That means tricking your brain into thinking that you absolutely have to sit down and work, even though there is nobody forcing you to follow through. This is a big adjustment to make from high school, where parents, teachers, and coaches oversaw most of our activities and knew if we skipped out on something. And it’s even harder when you start long-term projects like an honors thesis, that might require a lot of self-discipline. Last semester, I utterly failed at this. I ditched my scheduled work hours for activities with friends, campus events, and even peer advisor meetings. Now, though, I’m holding to that schedule (so far), and it has made a huge difference in the amount of work I get done.

It is both frustrating and heartening to realize that now, as I’m about to leave GW, I have finally discovered some strategies for working and studying that I can actually stick to. As useful as this would have been four years ago, it’s remarkable to think about how far my habits have evolved from where I was in my first year. I’ve finally accepted the reality that study habits are a skill to be practiced, and despite the many question marks in my future as a soon-to-be-graduated senior, I’m starting to trust that as time goes on, I will continue to improve at the skills that I’ve gotten a grasp on in college. Even when I still find myself hopelessly distracted, it’s comforting to know that if I’ve come this far, I can get even better in the years to come.

On Tuesday, January 21, 2020 The Review had its first monthly meeting where we discussed Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone. Here is what we had to say. (Warning, spoilers!)

First, our general consensus is that the novel reads like a bestseller. The story checks off many boxes of fiction like romance, adventure, coming of age, trauma, and family crises. At the end of nearly every chapter there was a cliffhanger or new plot line opened, making putting down the book a challenge. Although there were important themes that were thought-provoking, the novel didn’t change most of us. If anything, the constant movement of the plot became tiring and fantastic, which made it challenging to read.

The three main themes in the book that we discussed were trauma and violence, the forms of love present in relationships, and the themes of feminism. First, we discussed the challenge of placing blame on Leni’s father or seeing him as a victim of PTSD. Hannah wrote Leni’s father’s character in a way that made reader’s conflicted and almost felt relief when he died, yet felt sorrow for his pain and how he had to deal with PTSD. It made sense given the time period that his suffering after being a POW in Vietnam would be glossed over and not well-played out, since many veterans suffering from PTSD at this time had similar experiences. What was interesting is that Matthew received therapy after his traumatic experience with his mother’s death, so it was not as if treatment was unavailable for people living in Alaska at the time. Leni’s father refused to accept treatment ever, making him not just a victim of his experience. Another great question brought up by my own mother who read the book after I did is whether Leni’s mother should feel blame for putting Leni at risk by following her father to Alaska.

For themes of love in the book, Hannah plays out neighborly love, love as a “sickness” with Leni’s parents, family love, and love as a form of survival. We did notice that there is never true platonic friendly love. Leni misses that even when she moves back to Seattle, where Hannah only develops out the love she experiences with her family. Large Marge and the other female neighbors help Leni and her mother survive in the wilderness and Leni’s father, again following the theme of love as a form of survival. Even Leni and Matthew’s love becomes a form of survival.

Finally, we discussed the themes of feminism and strong female characters in the novel. A clear example of this was the strong female neighbors and their protection of Leni and her mother. What we struggled with is that Leni did not seem to grow much as a character on her own. When she was in Alaska, she may have been lonely but she was not growing on her own and in her own will. When she left Alaska, she was a young mother and had to grow as such. The only true decision she made on her own was returning to Alaska, where she immediately returned to being in a relationship and growing with Matthew. It was frustrating that Leni could not grow as her own person, but perhaps that was the tragedy of her character.

Interested in joining The Review? You can sign up for emails regarding our meetings here. Next month in celebration of Black History Month we will be reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.