Study Planner

I have been a fan of planners and diaries since secondary school. Each student received this ‘school diary’ that you can use anyway you liked. Some students ditch it into The Unknown somewhere upon receiving it, others use it for note taking. I used it diligently to write diary entries and simple plans like ‘going out for an outing’ or ‘parents coming’ etc.

As time passes by, I still write in diaries but they were separate from my planners. I keep these diaries in my memory box. I began broadcasting my feelings and thoughts online through blogging in my second year of 2nd year of medical school. It took a while before I settled down here on WordPress. I think I love it for its clean features.

It was only later that I learned about the existence of a planner community and adult-like planners. I was spoilt with choices. This is my 3rd year using Hobonichi and I am contemplating on whether to continue with it next year. I had thought the Hobonichi Mega Weeks was my ideal planner until I enrolled myself in my current degree program. I needed something more practical and wholesome. I liked the Cousin Avec Weekly layout but it would be a hassle to carry it around especially when you have private journal entries at other areas of the book. I am looking out for the A6 companion weekly planner. I hope it will still be around in 2021. That would definitely go into my cart.

I am currently eye-ing the Kokuyo and Jibun Techo. To a certain extent, the TN planner. I will be using the Kokuyo Weekly Campus Study Planner for Semester 3. I am not quite sure if it will work well for part time students but we will see.

Semester 2. Finding the ropes

Due to COVID-19, all of our learning will be conducted online. Apart from the usual e-module, forums and virtual lectures, we now have E-tutorials conducted via GoogleMeet. Seems that my husbands gift to me of a pair of headphones will be put to good use.

I like to get a an overview or outline of the things I hope to study. This semester I hope to become more organized in my schedules. So, after downloading the OUM modules to my laptop and Google Drive, I made a list of the topics and tasks required for each subject.

Guess what?

I just realized this semester that on top of my student email (via Google), I actually get a whole new Google Drive with it too. Meaning, I could keep all my learning materials there whilst having a separate one for my personal use. Uh-may-zing.

Once I have listed down the topics, I try to plan my reading of the topics in my planner. As I am unsure of how much reading is required of each topic, I try to put 1 or 2 topics weekly for each subject over a span of at least 8 weeks. This is so I could have some time to prepare for my exams at the end of the semester. Plus, you never know what might crop up work-wise since I am still working full time.

I find that the subject of History and Philosophy of Psychology to be a challenging read because it is narrative in nature. It’s like a story. And for someone like me who needs to grasp things in point form, will need to develop skills to read between the lines and find the intended meaning. With that in mind, I need to make an effort to REMEMBER when my e-tutorials are as I tend to sleep very early at night. The recent 1st tutorial for Psychology by my e-tutor Mr Manimaran helped to put things into perspective for my learning. Too bad, all of us learners couldn’t join him for that session because of some connection glitch. I hope to join in for the 2nd session next week. It is very fruitful.

I am also actively searching for tutorial videos on Youtube to help me understand the topic better. I will share those videos if I ever find them. In a few hours, I will be having another GoogleMeet tutorial. This time with the library team with the hope to polish my skills in searching for literature and writing up my references well with the APA format style.

It is raining cats and dogs at the moment. I really hope that my internet connection will be stable.