For Students In School: Magick, Recommended Reading

Hearsync · Jun 11, 2021

Great post!

For building and maintaining productivity, and keeping yourself in a steady mindset - I've been meaning to start reading this, which has been highly recommended:

Atomic Habits - by James Clear
http://libgen.rs/search.php?req=atomic+habits&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def
https://www.pdfdrive.com/atomic-habits-books.html

HPS Lydia · Jun 11, 2021

phaade99 said:
Wow, thank you Lydia for always providing information and magical workings for us, you truly make it as simple as it could be. I am actually currently doing a 40 day working that you provided on one of your previous posts. I really appreciate it, thank you so much!

I'm happy to be of help (and to everyone else who posted)

Hearsync said:
Great post!

For building and maintaining productivity, and keeping yourself in a steady mindset - I've been meaning to start reading this, which has been highly recommended:

Atomic Habits - by James Clear
http://libgen.rs/search.php?req=atomic+habits&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def
https://www.pdfdrive.com/atomic-habits-books.html

Thanks, and I have read that book, it's really great. Also check out Deep Work by Cal Newport if you haven't already.
https://www.pdfdrive.com/deep-work-rules-for-focused-success-in-a-distracted-world-e178130338.html

Poet 666 said:
Hey Lydia, what affirmation would you say for using the Jupiter Square?

It really depends on your goal. What are you wanting to achieve?

Lasollor said:
Family doesn't want to pay for education

Only thing I can do now is rtr's

Hail Satan

Where there's a will, there's a way... or at least a suitable Plan B. Online education, government funding, look into alternate options. Maybe there's another path you would not have considered before but it turns out to be a great option

Poet 666 · Jun 11, 2021

Poet 666 said:
Hey Lydia, what affirmation would you say for using the Jupiter Square?

It really depends on your goal. What are you wanting to achieve?

@Lydia, forgot to say it’s for higher education.. what affirmation can I use for that if I do a Jupiter square next week. I might be going to college this year.

Aquarius · Jun 11, 2021

Lasollor said:
Family doesn't want to pay for education
Grades can't get a scholarship

Only thing I can do now is rtr's

Hail Satan

If yours is not a useless degree either get in debt or work while studying.

Aquarius · Jan 5, 2024

I would like to add to this great thread.

Schools take it for granted that we know how to study and use our brain. Unfortunately it isn't like that, since school nowadays is mostly about memorizing facts. I suggest this little book that is in my opinion invaluable for anybody, not just students. We SS are students of life, and we should know best how to use our mind to study.

The book is: "How to study", 1917, George Fillmore Swain.

HPS Lydia · Jan 6, 2024

Aquarius said:
I would like to add to this great thread.

Schools take it for granted that we know how to study and use our brain. Unfortunately it isn't like that, since school nowadays is mostly about memorizing facts. I suggest this little book that is in my opinion invaluable for anybody, not just students. We SS are students of life, and we should know best how to use our mind to study.

The book is: "How to study", 1917, George Fillmore Swain.

Thank you, I love old books

Stormblood · Feb 8, 2024

Aquarius said:
Unfortunately it isn't like that, since school nowadays is mostly about memorizing facts.

I agree with the rest of your post, except with this statement. I think it depends from country to country what school wants. In Italy, I experienced the same. In England, both in college and university (which are different levels here), I was told something more sensible: "You don't need to remember everything. You just need to understand it." If I didn't understand something (very rare), tutors were always available to answer questions and obviously there is online resources as well.

So, I believe it is cultural. Here they don't have the thing that can call you anytime to "interrogate" you and give you a grade. They can ask you questions during class, sure, but you won't be graded on it. Some classes require an oral presentation as an element of coursework, but these are often scheduled way in advance (usually a minimum of 3-4 weeks) and you are given the exact topic, expectations and some guidelines, much like it would happen at work if you had to hold a presentation in front of your colleagues.

So, you'll always have ample time to prepare yourself and also create presentation materials like PowerPoint slides and similar, which is more realistic than just randomly have to know everything at all times. Also, presentations can be both individual and group presentations here. Written and practical test dates are also known with significant advance same as presentations. Some are open-book, some only allow an A4 page of notes (or similar) and some are closed-book. And the final type is coursework, which you usually you get to write a paper at home on a unit/module you're studying. Again, you're given the exact title and content specifications with several weeks of advance, and you are judged on the quality of your work such as your writing, your understanding of the subject, and your analytical ability. No rote memorisation needed in the majority of cases, as you can see.

Another difference is that you don't have to study 9-12 subjects after year 11. You generally pick 3 or 4 and it's not even compulsory, but it's also a little more in-depth. It also depends on whether you're doing things that are like university prep (A-level courses, which are similar to the last 2 years in licei in Italy), technical courses (BTECs which are like technical high schools in Italy) and vocational courses (apprenticeships). Now they also introduced T-levels, which are mixed of classroom training and a period of time which is paid work only.

You also never run the risk that I ran: to do science subjects without ever seeing a lab, since lab experience here is rightfully considered very important. I've seen a physics lab in my first year of high school because I went to a school in the North of Italy. I never saw one again after moving back to the South, nor have I ever done chemistry lab work and biology lab work in the South in my remaining 4 years of high school, which is ridiculous. How can you teach science without getting your students to do experiments lol

If I had gone to school and college here, I know from personal experience and from my teachers here that I would have graduated with 3 to 5 A-levels all at A*, rather than a stupid Italian diploma at 70% which is worth toilet paper, as the assessment methods are much more realistic here compared to Italian ones and more suited to me.

Stormblood · Feb 22, 2024

Fiery Pluto said:
Some aspects of Italian teaching are better than in England. Such as the development of creativity through Italian 'temi' or other forms of literary production.

Moreover, my ex-classmates who went to Canada (hence Anglo-Saxon teaching methods) ended up with higher grades with less (almost no) effort.

You write for nearly every subject in the UK, not just for your Italian Language and Literature classes like in Italy.

I also cannot speak for the methods of Canada, as I haven't studied nor have I been there. I'm just repelling Italian methods that rely exclusively on short-term memory, which are the majority and has nothing to do with learning. Learning is understanding and applying, not repeating what a book says like a parrot.

Most jobs don't require you to stand up in front of others and deliver an improvised presentation of what you know. It's unrealistic. Most jobs that require presentations, you have time to familiarise yourself with the subject, organise resources well in advance and prepare things like slides and other data visualisation resources to back yourself. And that's for jobs that require presentations. Again, most don't. So oral assessments are useless for the majority of jobs.

Aside from the occasional essay in Italian Language and Literature classes, you hardly ever have to write anything and provide references for what you're writing or for the presentations that you make, which puts the validity of what you're saying into question as it's unproven and unbacked by evidence. You probably have to do it in university (I don't know because I didn't attend any social sciences nor humanity classes in Italian universities) but you definitely don't have to do it in high school in most cases.

You shouldn't be given higher grades just because you can prove you retain short-term memory of something without really understanding it. This is especially useless in maths, physics and other scientific subjects.

Also, not everyone learns by hearing a teacher speak about the subject and asking questions. Many people learn better with visual materials, others learn better with practical experience and so on. I went in school to different parts of Italy as my childhood and teenage years had several disruptions, and I saw little variation in the teaching style in those different establishments. The only difference I found between the 2 schools I went to in the North of Italy and the several I saw in the South is that at least those Northern schools included the use of science labs for subjects like physics, which should be mandatory throughout the country.

You cannot learn physics, chemistry or biology efficiently without lab experience. In fact, every science class should be exclusively in a lab. Even the majority of tests should assess your lab work, not how your reply to a written multi-choice quiz and definitely not what you reply to oral questions. As it's pointless to know how titration works in chemistry for example, if then you are unable to use it in a lab. Similarly, it's pointless to know what recursion with Python is, in programming, if you then cannot understand when to apply it practically and are just unable to apply it.

And I don't even want to go into language classes where everyone is supposed to finish high school with a level of B1 to B2 in English but, in practice, most people don't know how to string a sentence together. But I heard language learning is slow and terrible almost in every country's school, so I cannot fault Italian teaching alone here.

Going back to British methods, even in those few occasions when you can do open-books assessments, it's unlikely to get even a passing score if you don't understand what you're talking about. In my experience, your grade often reflects how well you understand the subject and how well you can express it in the assessment form, unlike in Italy.

Fiery Pluto · Feb 23, 2024

Stormblood said:
You write for nearly every subject in the UK, not just for your Italian Language and Literature classes like in Italy.

I also cannot speak for the methods of Canada, as I haven't studied nor have I been there. I'm just repelling Italian methods that rely exclusively on short-term memory, which are the majority and has nothing to do with learning. Learning is understanding and applying, not repeating what a book says like a parrot.

Most jobs don't require you to stand up in front of others and deliver an improvised presentation of what you know. It's unrealistic. Most jobs that require presentations, you have time to familiarise yourself with the subject, organise resources well in advance and prepare things like slides and other data visualisation resources to back yourself. And that's for jobs that require presentations. Again, most don't. So oral assessments are useless for the majority of jobs.

Aside from the occasional essay in Italian Language and Literature classes, you hardly ever have to write anything and provide references for what you're writing or for the presentations that you make, which puts the validity of what you're saying into question as it's unproven and unbacked by evidence. You probably have to do it in university (I don't know because I didn't attend any social sciences nor humanity classes in Italian universities) but you definitely don't have to do it in high school in most cases.

You shouldn't be given higher grades just because you can prove you retain short-term memory of something without really understanding it. This is especially useless in maths, physics and other scientific subjects.

Also, not everyone learns by hearing a teacher speak about the subject and asking questions. Many people learn better with visual materials, others learn better with practical experience and so on. I went in school to different parts of Italy as my childhood and teenage years had several disruptions, and I saw little variation in the teaching style in those different establishments. The only difference I found between the 2 schools I went to in the North of Italy and the several I saw in the South is that at least those Northern schools included the use of science labs for subjects like physics, which should be mandatory throughout the country.

You cannot learn physics, chemistry or biology efficiently without lab experience. In fact, every science class should be exclusively in a lab. Even the majority of tests should assess your lab work, not how your reply to a written multi-choice quiz and definitely not what you reply to oral questions. As it's pointless to know how titration works in chemistry for example, if then you are unable to use it in a lab. Similarly, it's pointless to know what recursion with Python is, in programming, if you then cannot understand when to apply it practically and are just unable to apply it.

And I don't even want to go into language classes where everyone is supposed to finish high school with a level of B1 to B2 in English but, in practice, most people don't know how to string a sentence together. But I heard language learning is slow and terrible almost in every country's school, so I cannot fault Italian teaching alone here.

Going back to British methods, even in those few occasions when you can do open-books assessments, it's unlikely to get even a passing score if you don't understand what you're talking about. In my experience, your grade often reflects how well you understand the subject and how well you can express it in the assessment form, unlike in Italy.

From what you write, Canada's methods seem very similar to those in England. There, too, only four subjects are studied. Moreover, it is also an Anglo-Saxon country. At my school, it was a well-known fact that those who went abroad to study always got very high marks with no effort.

In my school, the highest marks were obtained by those who reworked and understood the subject. Maybe I did a good school. Those who repeated parrot, when faced with an uncomfortable question from the teachers that required reasoning, did not know how to answer.

The Italian essays themselves are a great way to understand how to express yourself best, developing creativity. Then the problems lie with the teachers. Also, you have to provide ample and valid argumentation and there is also a focus on originality. Go and look at the evaluation form for the Italian state exam, which is indicative of this and on which the evaluation in the humanist subjects of the students is based throughout the year.

I remind you that we are discussing personal experience, not statistics. If we continue to argue with personal experience I can bring you more evidence of what I am saying.

Finally, reality is this and a Satanist can succeed and gain knowledge even in the midst of shit. If we acquire prominent social positions we can have a better chance of changing the problematic aspects of reality.

Stormblood · Feb 23, 2024

Fiery Pluto said:
From what you write, Canada's methods seem very similar to those in England. There, too, only four subjects are studied. Moreover, it is also an Anglo-Saxon country. At my school, it was a well-known fact that those who went abroad to study always got very high marks with no effort.

In my school, the highest marks were obtained by those who reworked and understood the subject. Maybe I did a good school. Those who repeated parrot, when faced with an uncomfortable question from the teachers that required reasoning, did not know how to answer.

The Italian essays themselves are a great way to understand how to express yourself best, developing creativity. Then the problems lie with the teachers. Also, you have to provide ample and valid argumentation and there is also a focus on originality. Go and look at the evaluation form for the Italian state exam, which is indicative of this and on which the evaluation in the humanist subjects of the students is based throughout the year.

I remind you that we are discussing personal experience, not statistics. If we continue to argue with personal experience I can bring you more evidence of what I am saying.

Finally, reality is this and a Satanist can succeed and gain knowledge even in the midst of shit. If we acquire prominent social positions we can have a better chance of changing the problematic aspects of reality.

Interrogations are still inefficient. Most jobs that require you and in-depth report of your work, require a written report. Hardly ever a spoken one. So, for example, licei should have these as optional, not the main part. Maybe only 1 assessment should be like that, especially licei scientifici. Same for technical institutes.

I also approve of choosing your own subjects past a certain age. Here, subjects chose post-16 allow you to get more in-depth than you do with 9-11 subjects. The level of depth and breadth of an A-level Maths programme, for example, is beyond what you study for math in a liceo scientifico.

Finally, I agree that we can promote positive change if we acquire higher positions in life.

Fiery Pluto · Feb 23, 2024

Stormblood said:
Interrogations are still inefficient. Most jobs that require you and in-depth report of your work, require a written report. Hardly ever a spoken one. So, for example, licei should have these as optional, not the main part. Maybe only 1 assessment should be like that, especially licei scientifici. Same for technical institutes.

I also approve of choosing your own subjects past a certain age. Here, subjects chose post-16 allow you to get more in-depth than you do with 9-11 subjects. The level of depth and breadth of an A-level Maths programme, for example, is beyond what you study for math in a liceo scientifico.

Finally, I agree that we can promote positive change if we acquire higher positions in life.

Questioning is important for developing rhetorical and socialisation skills. School cannot only be preparation for work. I believe that they should be maintained up to a certain point in schooling, especially for the youngest. then probably as you say at the age of 16 more specialised training should take place. At that point, depending on the training path chosen, one can opt for teaching based less on oral questioning.

In licei scintifici, you get maximum to learn about few types of differential equations in mathematics. Do they go further in England? Like with series, Taylor developments, functions in more than one variable etc?

Fiery Pluto · Feb 23, 2024

for questioning i mean interrogations

Stormblood · Mar 17, 2024

Fiery Pluto said:
Questioning is important for developing rhetorical and socialisation skills. School cannot only be preparation for work. I believe that they should be maintained up to a certain point in schooling, especially for the youngest. then probably as you say at the age of 16 more specialised training should take place. At that point, depending on the training path chosen, one can opt for teaching based less on oral questioning.

In licei scientifici, you get maximum to learn about few types of differential equations in mathematics. Do they go further in England? Like with series, Taylor developments, functions in more than one variable etc?

Oral questioning should be its own separate subject like creative writing should, not incorporated in academic subjects. Someone who is not good at dealing with oral questioning shouldn't be classified as incompetent in the subject nor have lower grades, as they can know the subject just as well as someone who performs well in that assessment method, and they may know it even better than them.

Over-reliance on certain methods creates instances like me, who graduated with 70% from liceo scientifico but had knowledge and could apply it to a level of over 90% if given alternative assessment methods. Doing that, ruins a person's future. I could've graduated from the University of Cambridge, which is number 2 in the world after Harvard, not just because of its academic excellence (including things like 1:1 tutoring with subject matter experts and accomplished people that only Cambridge, Oxford and very few other universities offer) but also because of its research excellence worldwide.

However, just because they were too lazy to offer appropriate alternative assessments, I am forever barred from institutions like that where you need to have graduated with 100% to be considered, other than other parts of your application needing to be excellent. Not just that, but you're also considered laziness just because being a good teacher is optional.

Sure, I could have become better at oral questioning but I had other ongoing personal issues within private areas of my life and no support was offered from my school. So, while the fault lies in both parties (myself and the schools I have attended), the majority of it lies with the schools because they:

Were adults (while I was a minor)
They have a duty of care which is built-in in the special relationship of teacher-student

Regarding the mathematics syllabus, in England you can take A-level Maths and A-level Further Maths. A-level is the type of qualification that is more or less considered in the same way as going to a liceo in Italy. A-level Maths also contains:

Series, which you mentioned
Vectors
Mechanics
Discrete random variables
Poisson distribution (and a lot more probability and statistics than I certainly did)

You can check the full syllabus: for Cambridge International, AQA

A-level Further Maths also contains:

Summation of series and more about series (I think Taylor developments are here in Further Maths)
Polar Coordinates
More on Vectors
Further Mechanics
Even more probability and statistics

Full syllabus: Cambridge International, AQA

They may get some good grades in schools, sure, but qualification exams are what matter here. I don't know about Canada.

I provided some syllabi so you can judge for yourself how different or similar their programmes are. You can also have a look at past "papers" online to see the level of difficulty of their exams and make your own opinion. I would say also that some people say most English students are considered "lazy" though. So, having top grades is not all that common, even more so with the pass grade at 40%.

For example, in November 2023 only 9.4% of those taking A-level Maths with Cambridge International have achieved an A* and only 14.4% have achieved A. However, 55.1% have achieved A or above in Further Maths, which is fitting because only few choose that subject and most of those who do are good at maths.

University here recruit based on your 3 highest A-level grades, and hardly anybody takes more than 4 A-levels anyway due to the scope of the programmes. The best universities also have the best facilities and equipment, not to mention the best research output which is what's most important.

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