College, University, School & Life Study Tips and How-To

In order to truly be successful in college and throughout life, it is critical you understand your brain and learn how to use it to your advantage in studying.

This 100% Free Guide will show you everything you need to know to "Evolve Your Brain" in order to be more effective at studying. Navigate through it using the menu on the side. Enjoy!

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Daily Homework & Study Tips

About Homework / Study Tips

06/30/2009 04:35 AM

Google Tools for Students

Google™ Desktop is like a tool kit that you can put onto your computer desktop (the start screen with all the icons). It is a wide bar that features, among other tools, a search engine that will search your own computer along with the web pages you’ve visited.

When you download the Google Desktop to your computer, you can choose from a number of gadgets you’d like to include. I've created a list of gadgets that are especially helpful for busy students.

06/28/2009 06:31 AM

Eighth Grade Goals

If you're heading for high school, you may be curious to know whether you're really ready for high school-level work, or if you've absorbed all the information your new teachers will expect you to know.
These pages, which provide a list of topics and themes for math, history, language arts, and science, will help you identify the things you're expected to know when you finish the eighth grade.

For example, some students are caught off guard when it comes to math requirements in high school. Most schools require three or four years of math, which means students should be prepared for algebra (not pre-algebra) when they start high school. It's good to know this ahead of time, so you can prepare yourself for teacher expectations.

06/25/2009 04:39 AM

My Own Medicine: Public Speaking

Today I will be making a presentation to a group of future nursing students. I do this all the time; I mean, I teach a few courses at my college, so I was a little surprised that I had an anxiety dream last night about the presentation. It just goes to show you that anybody can get nervous about public speaking.

In my dream, I arrived at the event to find that the organizers had changed the topic on me. I was facing a forty-five minute impromptu speech! What did I do? I ran to a computer and looked up my own advice about speaking in public. Seriously!

06/21/2009 08:42 PM

How to Calculate Reading Level

Have you ever wondered if you are reading or writing at the appropriate reading level? Sometimes it is important to know if the books you are reading are actually challenging you and improving your comprehension skills. You can actually calculate the readability of a book, using a special formula.

The Flesch-Kindaid readability formula is a simple calculation that uses things like "words per sentence" and average "syllables per word" to come up with a grade level. Find out how to calculate the readability of your own writing or the readability of a book you are reading. It's a handy tool for improving your reading and writing skills.

06/19/2009 07:50 AM

Make Your Own Game Show!

Learning games make study time a lot more enjoyable. You can create a fun Jeopardy© style computer game using PowerPoint©! I’ve put together a step-by-step guide to get you started on your own creation.

The guide gives you the basics, but you’ll soon be adding sounds, actions, video, and more color to your own game, once you see how easy and fun it is.

Tip: You can really make your study time fun, by using photos, sounds, and videos of family members as icons or other game elements!

Screenshot presented with permission from the Microsoft Corporation.

06/17/2009 04:49 AM

Math Anxiety Relief

I am just crazy about a new writing tool that allows students to tap on any part of their class notes and hear the lecture that covered that topic. The Pulse Smartpen© by Livescribe is helpful in any class, but it is especially great for students who suffer from math anxiety.

I don't know about you, but I have spent a few nights staring at my own nonsensical math notes wondering what on earth they meant (even though they made perfect sense when I wrote them). I remember thinking, "If I could only hear the lecture one more time, I know I'd get it."

Well--with the Pulse Smartpen, you can hear the lecture again and again as you work through your math examples. I think this is the best medicine for math anxiety I've seen in a long time!

06/15/2009 05:21 AM

Locker Decorations

Will you have a locker this coming school year? Locker decorations are great for expressing your individual style. I've put together a list of fun decorating ideas, from sparkly jeweled mirrors to NCAA magnets. Get a jump start and check out a few decorating ideas.

06/13/2009 05:28 AM

That's a Successful Science Project!

I've always said there are countless reasons why you should pay attention in science class. Here's one more reason: A biology student at Eastside Catholic High School in Bellevue, Washington made an amazing discovery as she gazed into her lab microscope. She found something that doctors had not. She diagnosed her own medical condition!

Eighteen year-old Jessica Terry had suffered for years with a mystery condition that had been difficult to diagnose for a number of complex reasons, so when it came to choosing a topic for a biology project, she chose her own medical case. One day as she gazed into the microscope, she made an interesting discovery. You can read the full story from ABC News to learn more about her accomplishment.

You may not realize it for a long time, but paying attention in class really does pay off!

06/10/2009 05:21 AM

Summer Reading Plans?

I have to confess: I'm no reading snob. I think it's good for people to read just about anything, as long as the spelling and the grammar are correct. Good content is important, but it's also a good thing (as far as I'm concerned) to absorb sentence construction techniques reading a not-so-brain-nourishing novel.

I think there is certainly a time and place for great literature--but it's not necessarily the pool side. What do you think?

06/07/2009 08:01 PM

How Your Brain Is Changing

Recent studies show that human brains undergo a lot of changes during the early teen years. Anatomy of a Teen Brain, from Frontline (PBS), shows the changes that take place inside the brain.

If you think the brain diagram is interesting, you should really enjoy the series of videos offered online by PBS. The videos attack subjects like "Teenagers' Inexplicable Behavior" and "Mood Swings." If you feel a little nutty sometimes, you're not alone. Lots of feelings come about because of brain changes that occur during adolescence.