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Steps:

1. Create learning time.
Make sure you have at least an hour a day to dedicate to learning mathematics.

2. Become acquainted with the vocabulary.
Keep a mathematical dictionary by your side as you study. Many areas of mathematics require knowing a certain amount of mathematical vocabulary and it is less frustrating to be able to quickly look up the meanings.

Negligence will sometimes make a lesson more complicated thoughts, bad eating, sleeping rough, difficult was it physics? seemed to make our life like in hell, too much. Really easy to physics,
1.         The first is the intention, the intention is good to study physics, because without    it, must not be done, because the compulsion is detrimental to learning. How not             forced to do something, let alone learn the lessons of physics that says 'bogey'    lessons, can be stressful, when the stress a person will experience the tension that      affects emotions, thought processes, and the condition of a person. While studying            physics requires a calm mind and enjoy, which will affect the workings of the             brain in learning the physics of matter,
2.         to please the heart in studying physics. Glad there is a feeling without a sense of    difficulty and disappointment, a sense of joy. When feeling happy about   something appears, the sensory nerve cells receive excitatory (impulse) that         carries the signals 'joy' of the receptor and then bring it to the brain or spinal cord, then the motor nerve cells carry a command or response from the brain or spinal             cord to muscles or glands of the body to perform the learning activities,
3.         use mind mapping method in understanding the physics concepts. Mind mapping or the so-called concept maps, gather information about the physics concepts of        matter in the form of branched tree roots, for example:
 4.        lots of practice questions, try every 1-2 days to do anything about the physics of    matter as a material practice, more good practice more, understand more more    practice, more practice more easily on physics,
5.         pray. With the prayer effort will be more smooth, with a prayer, businesses and      roads will be even easier.
Well that's some easy tips that we learn physics, do not talk much. The more fun, a lot of practice, use mind mapping in understanding the concept, just do it, learn physics better and better.

These 3 stydy tips will improve your learning abilities and will dramatically increase your motivation to study for exams. If you think I am exagerating just read what I want to say them tell me if you didn't change your opinion. Lets see those great study tips that can really help you for exams:

As we’ve mentioned before, studying is about a lot more than simply preparing for a test the night before an exam.  It involves several stages, from arranging a studying environment to preparing notes and adopting good in-class habits.  But the moment when all this comes together is when you prepare for the test itself.  That’s when all the careful effort pays off.

It's been a little while since I've blogged a new study tip, but that is not to say we haven't been talking about them around here....

With lots of tests and report card season ahead of us, we have been reviewing all the other tips I've written about here and here and here and here, for example. You can read why this study series all came about here.

If you are struggling in school, it might help you to change your approach to studying. I'm sure you know all of the usual recommendations: make a schedule, take a short break every 20 minutes or so, reduce distractions, read the chapter before class, organize your materials, etc. All of these are good ideas, but none of these address a basic problem of unsuccessful studying. It's possible that you are not really thinking about the material in a way that will help you remember it. I'm going to cover 2 study tips and techniques that can change the way you think about the material and that will therefore change how well you learn and the grade you receive.

Maybe not as hard as some jobs, and maybe not as easy as high school, but it has it's challenges. And one of those things is studying. Oh studying. The bane of many a college exam and student, studying is that elusive creature that everyone seems to chase, but can never 'catch'. But, that is all about to change. I am here to help all of you out there who are struggling to catch studying. By following these 5 simple tips, I promise that when you study, you'll do better than you ever thought you could do. And don't worry, I'm not going to just tell you what not to do and offer no solutions, because that would be pointless. I'll tell you everything you need to know to make studying as easy as pie. That's actually a terrible analogy, because making a pie is hard. Anyway, here they are:

Learning is a joyous activity and something that humans seem to intrinsically move towards. But what is the best environment for learning? In other words, what is the best model of education or mode of schooling? Below are just some examples of the plethora of educational models operating today.
We all know about mainstream public and religious schooling, but here is a list of the most ‘common’ forms of alternative schooling described in 50 words:
Montessori – Rejecting the ‘imparting of knowledge’ view of education, Montessori fosters children’s love of learning and encourages independence by providing an environment of activities and materials which children use at their own pace. This builds self-confidence, inner discipline, a sense of self-worth and instils positive social behaviour.
Ananda Marga – Value creativity, sustainability and universal spiritual values. Daily meditation, yoga and vegetarianism are some of the unique attributes of Ananda Marga education.
Democratic – Learning and school governance in which students and staff participate freely and equally in a school democracy. Shared decision-making among students and staff on matters concerning living, working, and learning together. Classes are non-compulsory.
Sudbury – A form of democratic education in which students individually decide what to do with their time, and learn as a by-product of ordinary experience rather than through classes or a standard curriculum.Students are given complete responsibility for their own education and students and staff are equals.
Steiner – A curriculum that is responsive to the developmental phases of childhood and the nurturing of the child’s imagination in a school environment. The academic, artistic and social aspects, or ‘head, heart & hands’, are treated as complementary facets of a single program of learning.
Grammar – An academically oriented school (Private, in Australia) “[grammar schools typically] welcome and embrace the concept that achievement and striving for the highest levels is not only desirable but also possible and we actively promote this amongst our students and community” (www.scgs.qld.edu.au)
Academy – The Queensland Academies are state schools for highly capable senior school students; a bridge between high school and tertiary study, the academies are designed to maximise the potential of bright students and prepare them for university.
Flexi – Flexi School presents an opportunity for young people who have been excluded or isolated from mainstream educational systems to continue their studies through ongoing social and academic support and negotiable attendance according to individual needs.
Unschooling – Home education respecting and honouring the individual needs of our children whilst nurturing their natural love of learning: guiding and facilitating as they pursue knowledge in their own unique ways.
So what do you think? Through which model would you have liked to have been educated?  Given the choice (which most of us do not have, due to scarcity of many of these schools), to which type of school would you like to send your children, or not send, in the case of ‘Unschooling’?

I really enjoy my subscription to Scientific American Mind.  I stumbled upon a small article from July/August 2011 about a visualization experiment conducted by researchers at the Free University of Amsterdam.
The experiment was really simple:
-         Ask three different groups to putt a golf ball at a target 5 feet away.
-         Let each group see the target first, but then change the landscape for two of the groups:

• Make one group putt under a curtain so that they cannot see the target.
• Make one group put through a small obstacle enroute to the target.

-         Allow the last group to see the target with no obstacles.
After each group putted the golf ball, they were asked to estimate the size of the target on a computer screen.  The group that was able to have an unobstructed view of the target during the task described a bigger target.  This outcome is interesting, especially considering that each group was allowed to see the target first.
It is obvious that golfers in the first two groups clearly understood that the path to the target had changed.  Most surprising however, is that it would appear that barriers to a target negatively change people’s perception of the nature of the target itself.
Perhaps our students would perceive learning targets to be more attainable if they had a clear idea not only what these targets were, but if the targets were in clear view any time they needed them.
Something to think about

The conversation around how schools can react to poverty typically centers around reduced breakfast and lunch programs.  On a few occasions I have heard people express concern as to the access that poverty-affected students have to sports programs, band and other extra-curricular activities.  I have never heard people discuss specifically how the grading of standardized homework is but one more hurdle for students living with poverty.  I think the time has come.
I just finished reading Eric Jensen’s book, ‘Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What being poor does to kids and what schools can do about it”.  In the first three chapters alone, Jensen dumps upon the reader a stifling pile of challenges faced by students living with poverty.  Here is a small sample:
Students living with poverty…
-       are more likely to live in a crowded home
-       inherit low self-esteem
-       own fewer books
-       watch more tv
-       inherit negative views of school
-       have a 50% chance of dealing with evictions, utility disconnection, overcrowding or lack a fridge
-       have mentally adapted to suboptimal conditions
-       have higher tardiness and absentee rates
It should be clear to just about anyone that this litany of hurdles would make completing homework difficult, if not impossible.  To subject students to the grading of standardized, impersonal homework is questionable on so many levels, and I would argue that poverty-related challenges should be at the top of the list.  When any student arrives with incomplete homework, we as educators can never be certain of the reasons.   We should never assume that it is due to a lack of effort, but perhaps a safe assumption is that our most financially-challenged students have faced negative factors well beyond their control.

Our district has a program running within it called Through a Different Lens (TADL).  As best as I can tell, it is a whole bunch of things that serve to personalize learning, without being one thing in particular.
Even people in the project seem purposefully vague when it comes to attaching labels to it.  Here is what I mean: A teacher in the project recently posted the results of a cool Math project.  Students were asked to go out of the class, in groups of four, and take pictures of fractions around the school property.  After deciding that some ‘real world’ scene warranted the classification of a ratio of some kind, the group of students interpreted the mathematical context of the photo using a sentence. Simple. Innovative. Engaging.  When I commented to one of the TADL project leaders that it looked a lot like Differentiated Instruction, I was met with, ‘Sure, I guess so,’ followed by a shrug.
The reaction was fitting, as there are many ways to classify something that makes learning fun and engaging:
If the students shared it, call it collaboration.
If they receive feedback during the learning process, call it formative assessment.
If they review each others photos, I guess it is peer assessment.
“And it is their own thing!”  Personalized Learning…check.
…therein lies the point.
Once in a while you come across a phenomenon that is many good things wrapped up in one, and with that, the very people running it are reluctant to hitch it to one popular term.   It reminded me of a great restaurant I visited in Austin last year.  After eating an incredible meal, I asked the server what he considered to be the establishment’s specialty. The server responded, “food”.
The Through a Different Lens Project is changing lives and you can read more about it at their blog.
Good teaching is creative, education needs to be centered on relationships, authentic learning is formative in its processes, and be default all of this is personal.  What so many people struggle with is how to assess something that is creative and personal according to learning outcomes that are seemingly both standardized and rigid.
I have shared a rather simple assignment template (see example below) with a lot of educators and it allows students to not only be creative, but to also purposefully plan out the medium of their choice and to explain specifically how they plan to tackle the learning objectives.  Using this template, the teacher can assess a project that is novel in its approach, but linked to learning outcomes that are well-established. The example below incorporates a template that is preloaded with the existing learning outcomes so that there is no guessing as to what the learning objectives are.  Secondly, the learning path begins with clear objectives so that the chances that a great project may go sideways are certainly reduced.  This eliminates the conundrum, ‘But it looks so good, it must be good.” Lastly, and most importantly, the student is in control of defining what will be investigated and the manner in which it will occur.  Assessing this Holocaust project was really easy for me, as the student’s ‘assessment map’ was presented with the project.  I must say that the idea behind this template is much like the TADL project: a result of collaboration with Naryn Searcy.
Myron Dueck

The United States places 17th in the developed world for education, according to a global report by education firm Pearson.
Finland and South Korea, not surprisingly, top the list of 40 developed countries with the best education systems. Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore follow. The rankings are calculated based on various measures, including international test scores, graduation rates between 2006 and 2010, and the prevalence of higher education seekers. (See the list of top 20 countries in the slideshow below)
Pearson’s chief education adviser Sir Michael Barber tells BBC that the high ranking countries tend to offer teachers higher status in society and have a “culture” of education.
The study notes that while funding is an important factor in strong education systems, cultures supportive of learning is even more critical — as evidenced by the highly ranked Asian countries, where education is highly valued and parents have grand expectation. While Finland and South Korea differ greatly in methods of teaching and learning, they hold the top spots because of a shared social belief in the importance of education and its “underlying moral purpose.”
The study aims to help policymakers and school leaders identify key factors that lead to successful educational outcomes. The research draws on literacy data as well as figures in government spending on education, school entrance age, teacher salaries and degree of school choice. Researchers also measured socioeconomic outcomes like national unemployment rates, GDP, life expectancy and prison population.
The report also notes the importance of high-quality teachers and improving strong educator recruitment. The rankings show, however, that there is no clear correlation between higher pay and better performance. The bottom line findings:

1. There are no magic bullets: The small number of correlations found in the study shows the poverty of simplistic solutions. Throwing money at education by itself rarely produces results, and individual changes to education systems, however sensible, rarely do much on their own. Education requires long-term, coherent and focused system-wide attention to achieve improvement.
2. Respect teachers: Good teachers are essential to high-quality education. Finding and retaining them is not necessarily a question of high pay. Instead, teachers need to be treated as the valuable professionals they are, not as technicians in a huge, educational machine.
3. Culture can be changed: The cultural assumptions and values surrounding an education system do more to support or undermine it than the system can do on its own. Using the positive elements of this culture and, where necessary, seeking to change the negative ones, are important to promoting successful outcomes.
4. Parents are neither impediments to nor saviors of education: Parents want their children to have a good education; pressure from them for change should not be seen as a sign of hostility but as an indication of something possibly amiss in provision. On the other hand, parental input and choice do not constitute a panacea. Education systems should strive to keep parents informed and work with them.
5. Educate for the future, not just the present: Many of today’s job titles, and the skills needed to fill them, simply did not exist 20 years ago. Education systems need to consider what skills today’s students will need in future and teach accordingly.

To be sure, South Korea’s top spot doesn’t come without a price. Stories of families divided in the name of education are all too common, to the extent that the phenomenon bequeaths those families with a title of their own — kirogi kajok, or goose families, because they must migrate to reunite.
But America’s average ranking doesn’t come as a surprise. A report recently published by Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance found that students in Latvia, Chile and Brazil are making gains in academics three times faster than American students, while those in Portugal, Hong Kong, Germany, Poland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Colombia and Lithuania are improving at twice the rate. Researchers estimate that gains made by students in those 11 countries equate to about two years of learning.
What gains U.S. students posted in recent years are “hardly remarkable by world standards,” according to the report. Although the U.S. is not one of the nine countries that lost academic ground for the 14-year period between 1995 and 2009, more countries were improving at a rate significantly faster than that of the U.S. Researchers looked at data for 49 countries.
The study’s findings echo years of rankings that show foreign students outpacing their American peers academically. Students in Shanghai who recently took international exams for the first time outscored every other school system in the world. In the same test, American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading.
A 2009 study found that U.S. students ranked 25th among 34 countries in math and science, behind nations like China, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Finland. Figures like these have groups like StudentsFirst, headed by former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, concerned and calling for reforms to “our education system [that] can’t compete with the rest of the world.”
Just 6 percent of U.S. students performed at the advanced level on an international exam administered in 56 countries in 2006. That proportion is lower than those achieved by students in 30 other countries. American students’ low performance and slow progress in math could also threaten the country’s economic growth, experts have said.

Here’s the definition for obedience I had them to memorize: obedience is doing what you are told, when you are told to do it, with the right heart attitude.    I would divide them into three groups and give them one of the phrases and have them give that part of the definition when I pointed at them.   Then I would change the phrase for each group.   I drilled it into their minds.
We had some good teams, but I felt the greatest good I could do for them was that at the end of the year that each player understood obedience in a measurable way.    Most all of them had never been taught what obedience looked like in a tangible way and a lot of them had never been expected to obey.   I enforced it ruthlessly (and kindly).
I wanted them to do precisely “what” I said and exactly “when” I said to do it and to have a “good attitude” about their response.    I was consistent with my expectation and felt that most of the parents supported me because I was helping them, too.
The second area that I taught them was to be attentive.   You cannot have obedience without attentiveness.   The foundation of obedience is attentiveness.  My players heard this from me so many times, “You can’t obey if you are not listening”.   I told them that when I was talking they were to look at me in the eyes.   My desire was that they do the same for their parents, teachers and others in authority.
If I was teaching them or just talking to them after a game in the dugout, frequently, especially in the early part of the season, I would stop and say, “Look at me in the eyes.   How do I know you are listening to me?”    And they would all respond, “When we look in your eyes”.
I’m sure to some of those boys that I was the meanest coach in the world, not because I had a temper, but because I refused to allow them to not obey or to be inattentive.   It was a struggle, but it was worthwhile for me as a coach in order to teach them anything.   Better yet, those that applied it will later see success others around them, even those with more gifts and intellect, will not have because of the power of (1) being attentive and (2) obeying completely and with a good attitude.
If you were to ask my children they would say they heard those two things many, many times when they were growing up.   As parents, Paula and I weren’t just trying to teach them how to make a living, but how to live.
The coming posts will deal with this vital subject in very practical terms for parents.   Here is a simple thesis for my covering this topic: parents educate their children best when they initiate it, accept responsibility for it, and model it.    The “it” is primarily character-based training though I think parents can teach their children academically using the same approach.
It’s never too late to start doing what is right.   My heart is to be an encouragement to parents.   God is a God of second chances (and third and fourth!).  There are no perfect kids and there are no perfect parents.   All of us are a work in progress.
I hope these words from the Bible will give you some insight and strength to continue doing that most important task God has given to us, to train our children to know and to serve Him.

Any good parent is interested and committed to seeing that their children receive the  very best education possible.   I know that Paula and I are very serious about having that happen for our kids.
Here is a a caution as we seek to educate our children.  It is a mistake to educate the mind apart from a moral context of character.   In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is a bogus education.   ACT and SAT scores do not tell the entire story, only a part of it.
I think Bob Jones Sr. put it best, “The purpose of education is not only to teach one how to make a living, but how to live”.    A wicked person without a moral compass that is very learned will not use his education for good, but for his own selfish means and even to incredible destruction.
It is my personal conviction that the Bible is the most important and practical book ever written.  It speaks to the issue of the training not only of the mind, but of the heart.   When these two are tethered together it yields a powerful result of blessing and impacting many people through one’s life.

We find this emphasis on education and training in the book of II Timothy.   Paul was writing instructions to a young pastor (Timothy) about how to be effective as a leader in ministry.   In fact, it was the last letter Paul wrote before his death.
Part of the letter included personal remarks concerning Timothy’s background and what had influenced him to be a great man.   It is a very interesting and helpful book, especially for spiritual leaders.
One of the themes of II Timothy is how to effectively educate and train our children, using Timothy’s life as an example.   There are four components of a balanced, quality education that especially focus on helping our children learn how to live.   These will be the pillars around which my posts will be written.
Having children that are well-behaved, disciplined, and contributing to society is not an accident.   It can be done and must be done if we have a chance to influence our culture for good.    I believe in academic disciplines and helping our children to excel in those areas, but this is only part of the equation.
In fact, without the foundation of character in one’s life it is folly to try to instruct a student.    I would go so far as to say it is a complete waste of time.    Apart from discipline there is no attentiveness in the classroom, assignments are ignored, and behavior problems are inevitable.   If the teacher doesn’t have control of the classroom, there is no learning environment.   It’s a zoo.    Teachers didn’t sign up to work in a zoo nor did sincere parents send their children to school to waste their time.
Let me give a personal example.   I coached baseball for over twenty years and was very intentional in my goals for the team.    My practices were planned carefully, even to the minute and we focused on basic skills to help each person contribute to the team’s success.
The first time we got together as a team I taught them two things that on the surface had nothing to do with baseball, but everything to do with their ability to succeed as a person.     Great teams are made up of individuals that subjugate their personal feelings and goals for the good of the whole.
The very first practice I taught them a definition and even had it written on a card I gave to them.    We would rehearse that definition often throughout the season so they could remember it’s importance.
What was the word I had them to memorize and learn?   It was an operational definition of obedience.    I knew that if they didn’t listen they wouldn’t learn and if they didn’t apply what they did hear me say that we were all wasting our time.   I was a volunteer and wanted a return on my investment in their lives.    And the return I wanted was more character-based than winning.    In the long run, those with character will outperform those with talent because of the consistency of their effort and application of their knowledge of the smallest details of the game.   (The same is true of any enterprise for that matter).

The countries that top the world in education tend to offer teachers higher status in society and nurture a culture of learning, according to a chief adviser of the education firm Pearson.
Unfortunately, the United States is not one of those nations. According to a new global report from Pearson,  the world’s largest economy ranks 17th among developed countries in educating its young.
Finland and South Korea hold the first two spots on the list of 40 countries, followed by Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. The Huffington Post reports:

The study notes that while funding is an important factor in strong education systems, cultures supportive of learning is even more critical — as evidenced by the highly ranked Asian countries, where education is highly valued and parents have grand expectation.
While Finland and South Korea differ greatly in methods of teaching and learning, they hold the top spots because of a shared social belief in the importance of education and its “underlying moral purpose.”

The study arrives at a moment when the linkage between American education and America’s position in the world is getting serious attention from two very different men who seek to influence policy.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a perennial potential Republican candidate for president, said yesterday that the U.S. should adopt global benchmarks for students. He told an audience in Washington, D.C., that American students are competing in a world that is increasingly global and digital.
“Where is the outrage?” demanded Bush, who has long made education reform his signature issue — with some controversial results.
According to ABC News:

Education gaps yield income gaps, Bush said, which are perpetuated by a lack of knowledge, particularly among socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
Those who are born in the middle class tend to stay there, Bush pointed out, but those who are born poor also tend to stay poor, so upward mobility is limited.
“This idyllic notion of who we are as a nation is going away,” he said.
The United States spends more money on its students than other countries, yet many students are not qualified for jobs. Even in this tough economy, there is a dearth of qualified candidates for many jobs in science and engineering fields. Conversely, countries such as India graduate an increasing number of qualified jobseekers.

And just this morning, Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist and best-selling author, offered his own, unorthodox choice of U.S. secretary of state to replace Hillary Clinton, who is soon to retire: Arne Duncan.
Friedman wants the education secretary and former chief of Chicago’s school system to represent America on the world stage because education is so crucially important.

The biggest issue in the world today is growth, and, in this information age, improving educational outcomes for more young people is now the most important lever for increasing economic growth and narrowing income inequality. In other words, education is now the key to sustainable power. To have a secretary of state who is one of the world’s leading authorities on education, well, everyone would want to talk to him.

Back to that global ranking. Sir Michael Barber, Pearson’s chief adviser on education, said the survey’s findings show that spending on education is important, but not as much as having a culture that supports learning.
The BBC writes:

Spending is easier to measure, but the more complex impact of a society’s attitude to education can make a big difference.
The success of Asian countries in these rankings reflects the high value attached to education and the expectations of parents. This can continue to be a factor when families migrate to other countries, says the report accompanying the rankings.
Looking at the two top countries – Finland and South Korea – the report says that there are many big differences, but the common factor is a shared social belief in the importance of education and its “underlying moral purpose.”
The report also emphasises the importance of high-quality teachers and the need to find ways to recruit the best staff. This might be about status and professional respect as well as levels of pay.
The rankings show that there is no clear link between higher relative pay and higher performance.
And there are direct economic consequences of high and low performing education systems, the study says, particularly in a globalised, skill-based economy.

There are three important things if you want to be successful in your field. First of all, you must have passion to do all of your work. You will face such boring situation in your daily routine such as; lecturing, assignments and so on. Don’t let the laziness breakout all of your plans! It is hard to maintain the spirit, but don’t give up. Keep fighting and struggling.
Second, people who have talent are able to do things well than people who don’t have it. That’s should be matched between talent and interest in order to maximize your study. How wise if you consider that before choosing a certain department.
At last but not least, you have to discipline yourself to reach your goals. You must obey the rules, order in the class and control your behavior, especially the relationship with your friend. Respect your lecturer and try to attend all of the class! Don’t miss the subject because of an important reason!

1. Stop Skipping Class: I make it a rule never to skip class unless it is an emergency. Sometimes, you have a big midterm or paper due, and you’ve fallen behind and every minute counts – and then it is an emergency. But skipping because you feel too lazy to walk to class, or because your relaxing day was so wonderful that you can’t seem to muster enough brains to attend, or because the commute is just too damn long – those are not excuses that will increase your grades. It isn’t rocket science: class is important; and your perception that missing a class or two is not a big deal is just plain stupid.
2. Adjust your Attitude: Can I confess something to you? The majority of university students go through university with the perception that fun and freedom are as equal in the “university” experience as studying. I believe the collective sibling response to my sister’s comment about this was ” Get your head out of your ass, Leah!” (Haha, sorry – it is a family catchphrase!). But in essence – that’s basically it: if you intend to get good grades, or to improve the ones you have, get your head out of you ass and realize that study and fun are not a 50-50 concept. Sorry to disappoint you!
3. Never Hand Something In Late: It is one of the biggest mistakes students can make – you lose marks for absolutely no reason other than you can’t afford a calendar to mark a correct due date.
Get an agenda! And at the beginning of the term, write in all of your important due dates. When you see a week where there four papers due, you don’t  go out clubbing the night before you paper is due and decide to miss class the next day to hand in your paper late. Even if that is an incredibly stupid example (I know people who have done it!), there are still other common mistakes students make. For example: It is not enough to start working on four papers the week before week they are due. Part of having an agenda is that it allows you to look ahead into the future (yup, it’s a crystal ball) to due dates weeks in advance. When you see four papers coming up, or a very heavy week, start a few weeks early so you aren’t swamped with work the week or night before.
This also goes with …

If you are in university, this is probably right around the time you feel like hell, with exams, papers and a million readings that you put off, even though you swore this was the year you would keep up. Don’t fear, you are not alone.
My younger sister came home for the weekend, in a rather perplexed about her current university experience. She is travelling through her first year and, like some foreign visitors, was marred by an experience of unexpected surprises. Rather than brave the university world alone, she got smart and decided not to re-invent the wheel; instead, she opted to talk to her older siblings. It was a rather rousing debate – there are four of us, all at different universities and programs, and it seemed post-worthy for any university student who needs a little guidance to the elixir of good grades. I’ll confess – none of us are geniuses – but I maintain that because we each have averages above 3.5/4.0 GPA, we feel qualified to give a few tips on improving.

This post is a tough-love post: it is for those students who have been cruising through university, and have suddenly realized their grades are not high enough – whether it is for professional school or grad school, for graduation, for your parents, or just for yourself. One thing my sister mentioned is that university students (including herself) feel lost in their student experience, and that a little tough love from some older siblings might have helped. So we’ve decided to play “older sibling” to all of our readers and dish it out, cold (ice-cream!) style.