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Kertu Tenso

Estonian-born former Parisian living in Boston, United States. 💕 Feel free to follow me on my quest for infinite travelling. ✌🏻️

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I promise I will go back to my regular PhD content

I promise I will go back to my regular PhD content any day now. 😅 I just have to post this pink rooftop bar with Empire State Building views. It was to die for. 😍💕

“Floor 100 please” 😱 #nyc #theedge

“Floor 100 please” 😱 #nyc #theedge

Nothing meaningful to say about being a PhD studen

Nothing meaningful to say about being a PhD student, except to remind everyone to NOT FORGET TO LIVE YOUR LIFE.

I’ll never get tired of visiting this great city. 🥰💙

#nyc #visitnyc

“What does your summer look like?” “Are you

“What does your summer look like?” “Are you on summer vacation now?”

I get these questions a lot so I thought that I will put together this post to explain what my summer looks like. I definitely don’t (sadly) get the summer off. 😅

❓What does your summer look like as a grad student?

❓What’s your go-to breakfast? As I’ve ment

❓What’s your go-to breakfast?

As I’ve mentioned before, I am not a morning person. I usually wake up just 15 minutes before my first morning meeting. This means that I often skip breakfast altogether.

I’m glad that @revivesuperfoods sent me a box of their smoothies and flavored oats to try. They’ve really been a live saver on these busy mornings. Fast and delicious + leaves no dishes for me to do. 👏🏼

If you want to try them too, use the code rsf50kertutenso to get 50% off your first order.

#gifted #betterwithrevive #revivesuperfoods

Pro tip: How to make reading journal articles more

Pro tip: How to make reading journal articles more fun? Just add “Harry Potter and the…” to the beginning of the title.

Saw someone did this on Twitter and honestly, it works. If nothing else, it brings a smile to my face. 😂

❓Write the title of an article that you’re currently reading using “Harry Potter and the” in the beginning of it.

I wish talking about mental health in academia wou

I wish talking about mental health in academia wouldn’t be a taboo.

Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for all the small changes, and my school is incredibly supportive, but posting about it in my stories and receiving some condescending and ignorant messages made me see how we really have a long way to go. 😞

As most of you know, I am working on my PTSD, and anxiety and insomnia are the two main symptoms that I have. Evidently, the stress of PhD lifestyle has not been helpful either. The insomnia has been particularly brutal, because there are nights that I haven’t been able to fall asleep until 6am. This has an obvious negative impact on my productivity the next day. So, my therapist recommended for me to talk with a medical doctor as well, to possibly receive some medication that would help me navigate these symptoms and consequently sleep better.

I know I am not alone in this. I posted a series of polls in my stories last week and almost 800 (!!!) of you responded. Here are the results:

❓“Have you ever struggled with mental health?” 94% (740 people) voted “yes”, 6% (50 people) voted “no”.

❓“Have you ever received mental health therapy? ”58% (459 people) voted “yes”, 42% (328 people) voted “no”.

❓“Have you ever taken any medications for your mental health? ”36% (294 people) voted “yes”, 64% (516 people) voted “no”.

❓“For grad students, do you think your mental health has worsened during your studies?” 84% (547 people) voted “yes”, 16% (105 people) voted “no”.

Obviously, this isn’t a scientifically rigorous way of surveying people but the results are telling, that’s for sure. I wanted to share it to normalize this conversation and show you how you’re really not alone. People just don’t talk about it (which isn’t surprising considering the judgement that is out there).

Your mental health is just as important as your physical affect, and poor mental health affects your physical health as well. 🤍

I needed this weekend. Sun, puppies, friends, wor

I needed this weekend.

Sun, puppies, friends, working out, sleeping in, studying outside with birds singing in the background.

Don’t feel bad for taking time for yourself. One of the things we all need to learn in grad school is to advocate for ourselves and our wellbeing.

❓Did you do anything nice for yourself this weekend?

📚 PhD qualifying exam 📚 As many of you have

📚 PhD qualifying exam 📚

As many of you have probably seen from my stories, I’m currently preparing for my qualifying exam.

I put together this simple post explaining what these exams mean, but it varies A LOT by country and program.

This is what my exam will look like:

📌 We are given 7 journal articles to study in depth. At the exam, we are presented with a number of questions that require us to apply the specific knowledge we’ve learned in our coursework.
📌 The exam is broad in scope and the questions will vary from theory to research methods.
📌 It used to be a 8h sit down written exam but since the pandemic started, it has been changed to a 36 hour long take-home written exam.
📌 The answers are blind reviewed by faculty. In order to pass, I need at least 7/10 in every question.
📌 If I fail, I get a second chance to take the exam. We’ve had a number of people fail over the years. However, students who fail the exam a second time will be dismissed from the program.
📌 If I pass, I become a PhD candidate and start working on my PhD dissertation proposal. Defending the PhD proposal is the last step of the qualifying process.

❓Is there a qualifying exam in your PhD program? What does it look like?

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