How To Improve Your Study Habits and Remember Better

If you''re a student attending classes, you have probably experienced many moments when it was hard to make yourself settle down and study, even when an important exam was coming up.

If you''re like most students, you put off studying until the very last minute. The night before the exam, you''ll stay up all night cramming, getting little or no sleep. In the morning, you''ll drag yourself out of bed, psych yourself up with lots of coffee and some cigarettes, and go into the exam feeling exhausted, drained and jittery all at the same time. You''ll find it hard to focus or think, and you''ll be cursing yourself for not starting to study sooner.

And not surprisingly, unless you''re blessed with natural brilliance, or you happen to know the subject matter extremely well, you''ll probably do terribly on the test.

If this is your typical method of studying, you already know it doesn''t work. Every time you go through this ritual, you tell yourself that you''re going to smarten up the next time you face a big exam. Next time you''ll start to study weeks in advance, you say. But instead, you keep repeating this crazy pattern. Why does this keep happening? And what should you be doing instead if you want to get better marks?

A big problem for most people, especially those who are young students, is that life gets in the way. If you''re a student, you probably have a part time job, and like most young people, you also want to have a social life.

Studying can seem very boring compared to all the exciting temptations just outside your door. Or the games on your computer. Even watching old reruns of Sesame Street can seem more interesting than the biology text your teacher is expecting you to master!

One reason we often don''t start studying until the last possible minute is that we have misjudged how long it will actually take us to absorb and understand the material. If your mid-term is still six weeks away, that might seem like plenty of time left before you need to get around to studying. You might find however, that the subject matter is a lot harder to understand than you thought it would be, and all of a sudden there''s no time left to ask someone to explain it to you.

Another reason we often put off starting to study is that we are too overwhelmed with how big the project actually seems to be. Somehow we convince ourselves that putting off a tough study project can be the best way to avoid feeling overwhelmed by it.

When we are faced with a study project that seems exceptionally difficult and overwhelming, it can be to maintain a high level of interest and motivation for the duration of the learning process.

If you have been guilty of all these bad study habits, it''s not too late to learn some other habits that will work better for you.

First, remind yourself why you want to do better in your studies. Maybe you need a good mark to get into a good college. Maybe you want a chance at a career that will pay you well. Always keep your end goal in mind.

You can put little cards up around your room with inspirational messages, and attractive photographs that will remind you why you want to do well in school.

If you feel very overwhelmed, you can improve your motivation and your performance by breaking up the project into smaller sections, or "chunks". Each time you accomplish one little bit successfully, give yourself a meaningful reward.

If you have a deadline looming, decide how much of the project you need to tackle at one time.

Let''s say you have six weeks to master the content of a difficult biology text. Looking through the book you realize that if you study one chapter each night, you can get through the book in 28 days, leaving two weeks in which you can again review the material.

With this knowledge you can pace yourself. You know what your assignment is. You know how much you need to read every night. Concentrate on the immediate task at hand. You don''t need to feel overwhelmed by the entire book at one time. Next, work out a system of rewards for yourself. Give yourself a series of small rewards each time you master one chapter, and a larger reward for completing the entire book.

For rewards to work they must be immediate, and personally meaningful to you. There is no point in rewarding yourself with a new fishing rod if you hate fishing.

Rewards don''t need to be material objects if there is something else that would really motivate and inspire you. How about attending a special concert, or taking a special trip? You decide. Get creative and think of something that will spur you to take action.

It''s very important that the reward take place soon after the work has been accomplished. This creates a sense of positive reinforcement. Give yourself a small reward every time you finish a small part of the job, and a bigger reward when the project is completed. If there is too long a gap between the activity and the reward, it will not have the effect of reinforcing the desired activity.

Besides motivating yourself with a series of external rewards, learn to motivate yourself internally. Tell yourself you''re a good learner. Tell yourself you enjoy learning. Tell yourself you enjoy giving your brain a good work out. Congratulate yourself for your efforts. Tell yourself you love acquiring new knowledge, and let yourself feel a joy in learning. Be proud of yourself for the work you do to gain more knowledge.

For information to sink into your brain and be accessible to you, you need to review it several times, and your brain needs to sleep properly for the memories to be encoded in your neurons. You need to reduce your mental stress. Your brain needs good nutrition and it needs to be in a peaceful, confident state. Drugs and alcohol don''t help the process of learning.

Write out what you are learning in your own words, and find a learning buddy. Practice explaining to someone else what you have learned. This will increase the likelihood that your brain will remember it.

If you start to cram the night before, you are putting your brain at a big disadvantage.

You''re increasing your physical and mental stress, and you''re not giving yourself time to review the material several times. By cutting back on your sleep, you''re not giving your brain a chance to put the information you''ve been studying into the hard drive storage of your brain.

By starting your studies early, and reviewing what you''ve learned, you have a much better chance of remembering and understanding what you need to know when you face a big exam.

Royane Real is a science educator and the author of several books on improving learning. This article is taken from the new short report "Your Quick Guide to Improving Your Learning Ability" You can get the paperback version or download it from http://www.lulu.com/real', 122, 'How To Improve Your Study Habits and Remember Better, College-University, College-University articles, College-University information, about College-University, what is College-University, College & University Information', 'How To Improve Your Study Habits and Remember Better plus articles and information on College-University

Writing Effective (and Requisite) Essay Openers

When we write for college courses, we write for an audience other than ourselves. And it''s an audience of more than one-the professor who assigned the piece. A good way to think of (and never forget) audience is to imagine we are writing the assignment for a popular magazine that sits in multiple copies on the shelves of an equally popular bookstore. For each magazine sold, pretend, we get a percentage.

Our goal, then, is to have as large and widespread a readership as possible-to hook as many browsers as we can-with an effective opener (also known as an introduction). We therefore must engage, first, before we entertain, educate, or inform.

First the Caveats and Comments on Ineffective (Bad) Openers

NO to SNORE openers ? Forget burdening or alienating your readers with comments of how many people in many countries have many different ideas about life and society and all those other blah, blah, blah hard-to-wrap-the-brain-around opening commentaries?which really just send the reader off to find a more intriguing read.

NO to OBVIOUS ? Similar to the snore generalizations, the obvious comments in an opener will have eyes (if not heads) rolling as readers take in the TV is mental masturbation or ads are used to manipulate us statements you can avoid--by using an old Marshall McCluhan quote or Cleo awards description, for example, instead.

NO to HYPERBOLE ? Putting myself through school as a waitress, I had a number of regular customers who were writers, too, they said. They would talk at me all through my shift, reciting their best work. One insisted on reiterating his description of the verdant rolling hills that kissed the edges of the glistening waters at the feet of the majestic span of the Golden Gate Bridge?until I would get so mental I would fantasize about bringing the heft of the glistening glass coffee pot screaming down onto his head. In other words, do not exaggerate. Do not bring in heavy drama and description that will overwhelm and, again, alienate your readers. Stick with the truth. Stick with the openers that work.

We Use Modes for Engaging Openers...and I''m going to Use One Here, Out of Necessity...and Spite

I once read a how-to article on web content writing, on making a site that brings traffic (the attention of many). I had already begrudgingly given in to the understanding that web content writing is very different than academic writing--it has different goals, different audiences, and different elements that lend themselves to an ''A'' piece of writing. In fact, it is so different that to write for the web we have to unravel all we have worked to weave, have to unlearn all we have learned as college English writers.

Don''t Confuse Web Content/Writing and Academic Writing

So the writer of this article says to start web copy you skip the opener and go directly to the main point (what we in academia know as the thesis). Okay. This made sense, I thought, as web readers read differently: they read fast, they skim, they scan, they skip...to draw the most usable info in the shortest amount of time. (Probably the way you are reading now, hoping I get on with the point).

-I was with Mr. Web when he explained these facts.

-I was with him as he noted the research findings that back up the rationale for sacrificing good academic exposition for web text.

-And I was there with his tips and tricks, which were great...until he went too far, editorializing about writers who actually use openers:

He claimed that writers who rely on openers don''t have "the courage" to just get to the point. So he lost me.

Don''t Let Anyone Shame Your Learning Writing Tricks

We can adapt to just about any rhetorical style. We can adjust our notions of what makes for good writing. But we should balk when a how-to writer insults other methods of writing. We should even disregard implications of cowardice as unnecessary ad hominem attacks. False attacks. Fallacious and floppy and frivolous teaching. Screw that.

Readers of Academic Essay Writing Appreciate (even Prefer) a Good Opener

Openers in academic writing, whether in a creatively developed literary response or a historical survey, are imperative. They are a gentler way of drawing in, luring our readers. They are at first quite challenging to get right, but our mastering them--which is possible--has nothing to do with courage, which comes from the French word, "coeur," heart. We have plenty of heart. We''re studying English, for hell sake.

Against my wishes, then, this page opens with a declaration and gets right to the point. At first. But it also has a "grabber" slipped in--because we''re looking at grabbers and because, well, I can''t help it. I want to model decent prose for you.

Samples of Effective Essay Openers by Mode/Type

Even better, I''ll share with you some samples, written by my former students (who have granted permission for the use of their work as models):

****People Love Stories. We Love to Tell Stories. The Narrative Opener:

Once upon a time, during the era of slavery, whites were afraid of blacks, and the "word" was born. That''s why someone came up with the "word." Two hundred years later around my sister''s house, the children still use this "word". Sometimes I even hear myself say this "word." But guess what? I check myself and correct myself, because when you use the "word" to address someone, no matter who you are or what color you are, it is totally disrespectful.

The word: "nigger". (1)

****To Establish Credibility, Try a Sober, Scholarly Introduction. The Statistics/Facts Opener:

By the age of forty-four, 47 percent of American women will have had an abortion. (Day 6) To describe this statistic as anything other than a tragedy is to deny the sanctity of human life. The Christian abortion debate rests upon the moral and theological dimension[s] of this issue. To examine the moral dimensions of abortion without examining the social realm is to ignore the mutually dependent relationship that surrounds this debate. (2)

****Appealing to the Senses Lures and Keeps Readers Interested. The Descriptive Opener:

Rain is pelting my car relentlessly as I drive home from [XXX] College. Cars rushing on the freeway cause the water on the pavement to burst into a fine mist, surrounding each and every vehicle with a billowing sheet of opaqueness. Finally, I arrive in front of my little two-bedroom home. With a sigh of relief, I enter my living room.

Lately, this house has turned into a haven of safety, sheltering me as much from nature''s elements as from the unpredictable and unprovoked malevolence I experience from one of my instructors. My dread is heightened by the fact that I appear to be the primary recipient of this teacher''s outbursts of viciousness. Slowly, my gaze shifts across the room and comes to rest on the play I have to read for my English class. It is Mamet''s Oleanna. I pick up the book and soon find myself drawn into the story. Quickly, it becomes clear to me that this play [deals with] the relationship between a teacher (John) and his student (Carol). While both characters show evidence of an interesting variety of behaviors, John mesmerizes me to a greater degree. I begin to wonder whether John displays symptoms of an underlying psychological disorder. (3)

Put the Readers in the Frame, Inside the Paper. The Direct Address Opener:

You are in the midst of a blazing inferno. Your mind is moving at the speed of light. Yet you are paralyzed by fear. The silence is deafening between the confinement of the four walls. You are no longer in control. You wonder how the communication between the members of the family has ceased, specifically between Mother and Father. Each passing day, only silence can be heard. The usual chatter at the dinner table is considerably lessened. It comes down to, "Pass the corn, please." Or one excusing oneself from the table. (4)

Advance Trust, Establish Authority from the Start. The Authoritative Quote Opener:

"Generations of students have studied calculus without ever seeing its power." This statement is found in an article by K.C. Cole titled, "Bringing Calculus Down to Earth," from The Los Angeles Times. I most certainly agree with Cole. At one point earlier in the course of the class (calculus), I was not sure about the use of calculus and the importance of it. Others like me, such as friends, felt the same way. For this reason, I would assume, I am doing this research. This research is for students like myself to realize that "there is something about calculus," as Cole states in the article.... (5)

Keep with the Traditional "Show, Don''t Tell" Lesson. The Example Opener:

Sex is great. To me, it is all about feelings and experiences--the feeling of flesh against flesh, the experience of orgasm after orgasm. Sometimes, even, there is that feeling of being special, wanted, and loved. I suppose my parents had sex. It is not really an image I like to bring to mind. But when my father has sex with someone other than my mom, how am I supposed to feel then? (6)

Engage by Asking for the Readers'' Opinion and Thoughtful Participation. The Profound Rhetorical Question Opener:

Is the play, True West, written by actor/writer Sam Shepard, a sublimation of his own sibling rivalry or a rationalization of one? He writes of two brothers who are equal in intelligence but opposite in character. The older brother lives by his wit and the younger by his pen. In his unique style, Shepard uses many symbols describing the keen emotions that make up these two brothers. He also uses metaphors that reel you, the audience, into the depths of anger, pain, and the reality of life.... (7)

Finally, the Encouragement of Effective (Good) Openers

YES to APPROPRIATE introductory material. That is, use an opener that is relevant to your essay topic. Use an opener that fits the material. For example, a definition of alcoholism (which might work if you were writing a book) might be too clumsy for a cause and effect paper studying the influences of alcoholism on the family.

YES to APT openers. Do the modes that you are best at writing. And do what you best like doing. Write what works for you, your audience, and your assignment.

YES, modes overlap. A narrative opener will have descriptive details. A quote may be combined with statistics and facts. But instead of tripping on what the exact boundaries are between modes or types of writing passages, focus on the specifics of one type of opener as you understand it. The rest will be bonus material that merely enhances your style.

And YES to engaging, alluring introductions that lead your readers in to the place where your thesis/opinion sits waiting to declare your bold, informed truths. Which should never be denied or neglected?any more than your audience should be.

End Notes

(1) Bronson, A. "The Word."

(2) Roncella, L. "Judging Abortion."

(3) Prince, U. "Who Cares? [A Study of Oleanna]"

(4) Tolosa, W. "Dark silence."

(5) Pham, D. "Calculus as a Necessary Tool."

(6) Guiterrez, R. "Dad, Why Cheat?"

(7) Stark, C. "[...a Study of the Psychology of True West]."

N.H.-born prize-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, memoirist, and award-winning Assoc. Prof. of English, Roxanne is also web content and freelance writer/founder of http://www.roxannewrites.com, a support site for academic, memoir, mental disability, and creative writers who need a nudge, a nod, or just ideas?of which Roxanne has 1,000s, so do stop in for a visit, as this sentence can''t possibly get any longer??.', 122, 'Writing Effective (and Requisite) Essay Openers, College-University, College-University articles, College-University information, about College-University, what is College-University, College & University Information', 'Writing Effective (and Requisite) Essay Openers plus articles and information on College-University

The Family University Network: Unplugging Institutional Higher Education

Why not build a Christian family enterprise with the energy, funding, and infrastructure that would otherwise build the state or private educational institutions?

It is common knowledge today that serious moral problems exist in families, churches, schools, colleges, corporations, and political arena. These problems have academic, moral, and philosophical roots reaching back centuries, and have been promoted by the systematic separation of knowledge from faith in God. The significant amount of teaching required to equip people with the ability to discern the times and apply Scripture by faith to all areas of life, requires diligence in all areas of learning, and at all levels of education.

Secular universities are openly hostile to the Christian worldview, and the best of the Christian colleges cannot replicate the family away from home. Nehemiah Institute worldview assessment of 1177 students in 18 Christian colleges over 7 years demonstrated that Christian students are graduating from Christian institutions with a secular humanism worldview, even where their professors have a Biblical Theist worldview. Even the above average Christian colleges are little better than their secular counterpart because the curricula are developed under the same institutional accreditation guidelines, the same text books are used, many of the faculty were trained at secular institutions, and the family learning context is ignored.

Even the best of Christian distance education does not purposefully involve the family in the learning process, nor couple with individual family convictions, nor uses the family knowledge base, nor earns family income. It is time to unplug institutional higher education and bring higher education home.

The establishment of family universities and networks based on the fellowship of the church is one solution. This can help individuals and families implement the Christian philosophy of education through developing their own family university and complementary business as a part of the dominion mandate (Psalm 8). University education needs to be reinvented with a Biblical understanding to strengthen the family and church. Christian people can easily learn how a family university can uniquely provide the humble, relational, and Spirit led ideal Biblical higher education for their young adults to participate in building a strong Christian family, church and culture.

The benefit of a network for learning was forseen by Ivan Illich, philosopher of the 1970s who spoke in favor of home education. He stated that "If the networks I have described could emerge, the educational path of each student would be his own to follow, and only in retrospect would it take on the features of a recognizable program. The wise student would periodically seek professional advice: assistance to set a new goal, insight into difficulties encountered choice between possible methods. Even now, most persons would admit that the important services their teachers have rendered them are such advice or counsel, given at a chance meeting or in a tutorial. Pedagogues, in an unschooled world, would also come into their own, and be able to do what frustrated teachers pretend to pursue today." Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society, 1970.

There is only one such family university network in operation at this time, but the time has come for this concept and therefore this is likely just the beginning of home schooling expanding into home college.

Dr. James Bartlett, PhD, PE ret., is President of Bartlett University which hosts the Family University Network with its Christian business incubator. Dr. Bartlett and his wife Lynn homeschool four boys in the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota. Dr. Bartlett can be contacted by calling 701-263-4574 or visiting http://bartlettuniversity.com.', 122, 'The Family University Network: Unplugging Institutional Higher Education, College-University, College-University articles, College-University information, about College-University, what is College-University, College & University Information', 'The Family University Network: Unplugging Institutional Higher Education plus articles and information on College-University

Five Questions To Ask A Computer Training School Before Signing Up

As with any field, there are good technical training schools, and bad ones. When you sign up with one of these schools, you''ve made a significant investment in time and money. You deserve to know everything about the school and your job prospects after leaving that school before you put down your hard-earned money. The problem is, sometimes it''s hard to know the right questions to ask.

The point of this article is not to bash technical training schools. That''s how I got my start in IT eight years ago, and today I''m a CCIE? and own my own Cisco training company and my own consulting firm.

Before I ever put down the first dime, though, I asked some tough questions. So should you.

What are my true job prospects and legitimate salary levels after I graduate from your school?

We''ve all heard the ads on the radio? "Did you know the average salary of an MCSE is $80,000?" "Are you worth $65,000 a year? If not, call us!"

I''m an optimist, and I often tell people that no field rewards individual achievement and drive like IT does. Having said that, none of us start at the top, and darn few of us start at that kind of salary.

I''m sure that there are some people who broke in at $80,000, but I haven''t met very many of them. Be very wary of technical schools that use the famous/infamous MCSE Salary Survey as a marketing tool. They tend to represent those salaries as starting salaries.

Ask your technical school what the average starting salary of their graduates is. And keep in mind that salary is not the most important factor to consider when looking for your first job in IT; it''s the experience you''ll be able to put on your resume later on that you should weigh heavily at this point.

In short, be very careful about schools that brag about starting salaries. It''s not where you start, it''s where you end up.

How up-to-date are the courses you''re offering?

Make sure the school you''re going to attend has made efforts to keep their courses relevant. Ask what changes have been made to their curriculum in the last three years. No field changes faster than IT. If the answer to that question is "none", look somewhere else.

I want to work in IT security. Have you placed anyone in this field lately? If so, can I talk to them?

Technical schools are jumping on the security bandwagon, with a couple of schools running ads about training you to work in Homeland Security. If that''s your goal, that''s great, but keep in mind that you have to get a security clearance for any job like that.

And how do you get a security clearance? You have to be sponsored.

And who will sponsor you? Your employer.

Can you get employed in a Homeland Security job without having the clearance in the first place?

Hmmm. Probably not.

Hello, Catch-22.

Again, I''m certainly not saying you can''t eventually get an IT security job; if that''s where you want to go, you can eventually get there. The key word there is "eventually". Ask the school you''re thinking of attending whether they''ve actually been able to place graduates in such jobs. Ask to talk to them. If the school''s managed to do so, they''ll be glad to put you in touch with such graduates.

What textbooks does your school use?

Some technical school chains use only books that someone in their organization wrote. I''ve heard some of their own teachers complain about the quality of these books. The technical school I attended used off-the-shelf books, and the quality was very good.

If you''re looking into entering the IT field, you probably know someone who''s already in it. Use that resource for everything it''s worth. Ask that person what they think about the books, or for that matter, what the local reputation of the school is. IT is a small world, if the school has a good or bad reputation, most of the IT personnel in your city or town probably know about it.

The fifth question is a question to ask of HR representatives. Every technical school lists companies where they''ve placed their graduates on their promotional material. Pick up the phone, call these companies, and ask to speak to someone in HR. Ask that person about the reputation of the school. Five to eight phone calls will give you a good picture of where the school stands with local employers.

Making the decision to attend a technical school can be the best decision you''ve ever made; it certainly was for me. Make sure to ask the right questions before writing a check or taking a loan to attend; the answers to those questions will indicate to you whether this school is truly the school that can help you achieve your dreams.

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantage''s website offers FREE ebooks and tutorials for the CCNA and CCNP exams, FREE subscriptions to "Cisco Certification Central", and sells the best CCNA and CCNP prep courses and books on the market today. Visit his site at http://www.thebryantadvantage.com today !', 122, 'Five Questions To Ask A Computer Training School Before Signing Up, College-University, College-University articles, College-University information, about College-University, what is College-University, College & University Information', 'Five Questions To Ask A Computer Training School Before Signing Up plus articles and information on College-University

Student Removals - How to Get the Lowest Quote

The problem with student and any small move comes when a small load has to be transported a long way:- For the moving company, the mileage and road time costs are not much less than for moving a whole house...So your quote is unacceptably high.

There are two ways to approach a solution to high cost removals: You could hire a van, (and there are van hire companies that will rent a small van 21 year olds, sometimes one way), or you could look for a removal company with whom you can part load with someone else going the same way.

One way van hire could be particularly attractive if you could then find a partner to split the cost, and get a one way deal, but the problem of finding a qualifying driver may be insurmountable.

So the problem for most student movers is in finding a company who will part load at a good price.

Moving Tips

1) Spend some time phoning around: There is an element of luck in finding a van going your way.

2) Be as flexible as possible with your date - maybe you can organise someone at your destination to receive your property.

3) Try to find your own partner who is also going your way, and approach a removal company with a joint proposition.

Apply common sense to make sure the job is easy to understand and execute for the remover To get the best price it is vital to convince a remover that your assessment can be trusted.

4) Stop and consider the quantity of your removal:- because removals tend to be arranged before you have packed, peoples own estimates are often hazy, usually under assessed, and sometimes the actual job bears little relation to that described.

5) Package and box as much as possible, for speedy loading, protection, easy trolleying, and secure, tidy stacking on the van.

6) Consider any likely impediments to access or delivery (like locked barriers on campus)

7) Offer all the assurances needed about having your things easily accessible and that you will be ready to go before the van arrives.

The author has spent 25 years in various service industries, including the last 8 in the removals sector. His website http://www.student-movers-forum.com is a resource for all small movers. You can find sources of low age van hire, specialist part load removers, packaging, message boards and advice.', 122, 'Student Removals - How to Get the Lowest Quote, College-University, College-University articles, College-University information, about College-University, what is College-University, College & University Information', 'Student Removals - How to Get the Lowest Quote plus articles and information on College-University