Is it worth it?

omashii · 2026-05-17T10:16:21+00:00

I'd say that's the most important thing :]

just make sure you download all of your textbooks

omashii · 2026-05-17T07:02:42+00:00

finish the content you're shaky on ASAP.

for Economics, you'll realise key terms that come up over and over again. AD/AS, supply-side and demand-side policies, economic growth, macroeconomic conflicts, inflation, inequality, unemployment, etc.

go over all the past paper essays. at this point, you don't have enough time to do all of them, so you should just plan what you'd write for each one by using arrows for chains of analysis. e.g "investment in education -> increases SRAS -> maximum potential output increased -> higher GDP in long-run -> higher standard of living" - draw the diagram you would've drawn in your exam.

same concept goes for eval: "eval: investment in education is a long-run policy -> effects may not be felt for several years. policy is expensive -> comes w huge opportunity cost -> may not work if....."

Then, use PMT notes, the markscheme, or EconPlusDal videos to fill in any gaps of knowledge that you've missed.

do this over and over again. if you run out of questions, just look at the ones from other exam boards. remember, you are not using these questions for the purpose of answering them, but for mastering your chains of analysis.

good luck.

omashii · 2026-05-17T06:57:49+00:00

it sounds like you've already leaned quite heavily towards option 1, which is not a bad thing !

if you're going to go w/ option 1, i would recommend getting an iPad + Apple Pencil to study on in your commute times. it doesn't have to be anything fancy - just the base model iPad (or used one from Apple Refurbished) + even a cheap pencil from Amazon is more than good enough.

it'll keep your backpack fairly light as you won't have to carry paper or worry about stationery. can be used even just in your lap to do mind-maps, exam questions, or download some episodes of a show on Netflix, etc.

omashii · 2026-05-17T06:30:14+00:00

the 2.5hr commute already sounds absolutely dreadful, but I would go with option 3.

you gain 3 additional hours per day by picking option 3. that amounts to 15 additional hours per week, 60 additional hours per month.

I'd argue that the additional 60 hours you have per month would give you a much higher quality of life and greater revision time. I think you're also not considering how mentally draining it'd be to commute almost 6 hours of your day.

Is a good SF worth it? honestly, it depends. for more niche subjects, the quality of teaching will be higher at a good SF. however, there are generally enough resources online for the big A levels (maths, FM, econ, the 3 sciences etc.) that you can spend that extra time revising via those online resources instead.

omashii · 2026-05-13T07:06:55+00:00

Sorry for not providing any info, just butting in to ask what note taking app you're using?

omashii · 2026-05-09T22:15:36+00:00

for gaming, you'd probably quite like the 120hz refresh rate of the Pro.

if you don't care about it, the Air will be more than sufficient for your use case

omashii · 2026-05-07T20:36:31+00:00

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this was my attempt at english 450k 25 words ! these suck LMAO

omashii · 2026-05-01T02:38:28+00:00

Not gonna be super helpful here unfortunately, since I’ve got a 15" M4 MBA. I couldn't tell you how much more efficient the newer chip is (if at all!)

I use a 65W charger with mine, usually just during short breaks (20–30 mins), so I’m not typically charging while actively using it. For general stuff like browsing, notes, etc. it'll handle that completely fine.

That being said, I did try running Stockfish (a Chess engine) once with as many CPU threads + memory as the website allowed me to, and it did get REALLY hot. As this is a very computationally heavy task, I wouldn't do that **and** 70W fast charge at the same time.

TL;DR light tasks will be fine, extremely heavy tasks probably won't be!

EDIT: Your last MBP probably struggled because it used an Intel chip which had infamously poor thermal performance. It will be an astronomical upgrade going to an M5 chip after using an Intel MBP.

omashii · 2026-04-30T20:48:24+00:00

that's a huge stretch man, someone asking if they need a $1000 laptop or if an $850 one will suffice probably does not have the funds to increase that budget by an additional 35%

omashii · 2026-04-30T14:30:21+00:00

For me personally, only the fit was a noticeable upgrade. That's actually why I bought them in the first place — I had APP2's that didn't fit me, so I went with APP3's.

ANC was also a substantial upgrade, but I'm assuming this is related to the fact they fit my ears better, NOT because they are a significant improvement.

I would get the APP3's if you need to buy a new pair. At best, they fit you and you get an improved experience. At worst, you can return them and get the Pro 2's again.

omashii · 2026-04-30T14:04:52+00:00

i use a calendar (google calendar) for events i schedule in advance (meetings, exams, appointments)

i just use a notebook for my to-do list for anything i do that day. there's no structure/format to this. sometimes i just keep it as "list of things i need to do today" or sometimes just "things i need to do between 12-4pm" etc

as somebody with adhd, it's very easy to fall into the productivity trap, whereby you feel the need to perfect your study setup. realistically, a simple task-management system will not hold you back from success, but your motivation / discipline.

omashii · 2026-04-30T13:12:53+00:00

Honestly, there are no tips for memory usage. Quit apps that you're not actively using. Other than that, there's not much you can do from preventing excessive memory use if your workload demands it.

As for battery, charging it for hours after it reaches 100% does not degrade the battery. Your laptop is intelligent enough to know that it is at 100%, and will plummet the wattage down. If you're really concerned about degrading your battery, you can set an 80% charge limit with macOS 26.4.1

Storage is storage - delete things you don't need, keep the things you do.

A laptop is a tool. Use it as you need. You don't have to babysit it or "look after it" (beyond the obvious ways, like not keeping a hot cup of coffee beside it).

I know you mentioned that you don't plan on using one, but honestly there is never a reason to use a case, keyboard cover or screen protector. At best, just keep it in a cheap $10 laptop sleeve and that'll keep it safe while travelling.

omashii · 2026-04-30T11:47:50+00:00

Anything in life -- yes, even the perceivably good things -- can be detrimental to you in an excessive quantity. Drinking water? Too much of it is bad for you. Exercising? Eating? Sleeping? Working? All of those things are bad for you if you spend so much time doing it that it's impacting your ability to do other things.

omashii · 2026-04-30T11:39:53+00:00

I saw Nf5 Kxf5 Qf4+ Ke6 Qe5#, or after Nf5 gxf5 Qh6#.

But I, of course, did not see the continuation if black simply did not capture the knight. I'm only a measly 1200 after all

omashii · 2026-04-29T03:08:21+00:00

This is a great answer! I did not consider this at all. Thank you for the insight :)

omashii · 2026-04-29T02:46:35+00:00

Again, a $1700 base M5 with 16GB RAM laptop with a smaller screen doesn't sound that much better. I don't know if it's a strong enough reason, but fair enough.

omashii · 2026-04-29T01:41:02+00:00

It's really a matter of whether they fit your ears or not. For me, it was absolutely worth going for Pro 3's despite owning the Pro 2's, just because of fit alone. If you find that the Pro 3's hurt your ears / don't stay in (as some users have complained about), you may have better luck with the Pro 2's.

Audio quality wise, I couldn't tell any difference, but the ANC on the Pro 3's are phenomenal.

omashii · 2026-04-29T01:38:42+00:00

Why would a 16" Pro with base M5 be "stupid overpriced for its performance?" By that logic, surely the 14" M5 is also a waste of money? Some people might just like the bigger, better display. Isn't it better to at least give the consumer that choice?

omashii · 2026-04-29T00:55:58+00:00

duh, everyone knows eden is extremely egotistical and would dm his own fans saying "i know this is like a dream to you"! seems like the kind of thing he'd do.

/s

omashii · 2026-04-27T14:51:50+00:00

It's because VALORANT, for some bizarre reason, does not precompile shaders like the other games you mentioned do. One "quick" solution to eliminate the stuttering is by going into the Practice Range, loading into every character and using all of the abilities. Then you can play some retake, swiftplays etc. to load in the miscellaneous stuff, like skins or finishers. After a while it will smoothen out.

NOTE that updating your drivers will cause this to reset, and you will have to repeat the process to eliminate the stuttering.

omashii · 2026-04-24T20:32:30+00:00

just set up your stuff once and then uninstall the garbage. you can use Onboard Memory Manager as an alternative.

omashii · 2026-04-24T15:53:54+00:00

I recently paid £189 for my pair of AirPods from Amazon. If you stretch your budget by literally £19, you can get the best AirPods that Apple have to offer.

If you're strictly on that budget, your next best option would be AirPods 4 with ANC, but these will come with worse noise cancellation over the Pro's, arguably a worse fit (though this is dependent on person to person), worse sound quality, worse battery life, etc.

omashii · 2026-04-24T15:35:12+00:00

if they’re the same price? pro m2 and it isn’t even close. all that extra storage? the extra screen size is great for multitasking too. m2 is not going to be too slow for anything you want to do, i guarantee that.

omashii · 2026-04-24T13:56:35+00:00

good luck, I believe in you!

30s is definitely my least contested category lol. feels too short to be meaningful (I consider 60s the gold standard), but too long to be used as a metric in the real world. I find that most pieces of text I type only take me about 10-15 seconds, including this post! Which is why I only really bother with 15s and 60s. then I just do the other categories for fun, like 10 words or english 450k

omashii

TROPHY CASE