When we are young, our lives are defined by the summer.  We look forward to it almost deliriously.  In fact, I think the only time we weren’t counting down the days until summer vacation was when we were counting down the days to some shorter (but closer) vacation.  Three months of idleness is enough to make anyone with a full-time job more than a little jealous.

They say that summer used to be a time when students stayed home to help out on with the harvest.  This was, of course, in the days before a measly 2% of Americans called themselves farmers.  Our society has shifted from agrarian and rural to knowledge-based and urban.  Today, only 17% of people live in what can be considered truly “rural” parts of America.

Assuming that summer once had a purpose, what is its purpose now?  Are we simply so used to this rotation that we don’t dare change it?  More than likely.  Globalization has made the nine-to-five office job all but irrelevant these days, yet people still find themselves falling into familiar work patterns.  Change is hard for us to accept, apparently.

Now, let the record show that we at TestSoup are not advocating for the end of summer vacation.  Long live summer vacation!

But long live education, as well.

Today’s American students have a tough time keeping up when it comes to math and science.  We’ve already tried throwing money at the problem.  Spending per pupil in America on public education has increased from $2,500 in 1960 to $10,000 today (in inflation-adjusted dollars).  Clearly, the key to churning out well-equipped students is not to be found in expensive tech or other budget-busting fads.

Real education happens when students are actively engaged in the lesson.  This can be the result of any one — or a combination — of several factors: Quality teachers, a naturally inquisitive mind, supportive family members or friends, or even a desire to get an “A.”

That’s the first part of the equation.  The second part is the work.  An engaged student is a great and powerful thing, but if you don’t take steps to keep him or her that way then you won’t get very far.  That’s why the summer is such an important time for students.  Three months is a long enough time to forget the vast majority of what you learned during the past nine — or enough time to forge it into a solid foundation for next year.

America used to make its living with our hands and our backs.  During this time it made sense for students to neglect their studies in favor of the harvest.  But now we make our living with our minds.  Should the fact that we have no fields to plow mean that we are allowed to do nothing for three months?

Take the summer for what it is: a chance to unwind and recharge your batteries.  But also as a time to set yourself up for success next year.  Read books.  Sign up to take classes that you are interested in but had no time for during the school year.  Parents (if you have little children), send your kids to a camp that’s more than just playing outside.  And teachers, please use the time to improve your skills as well.  Our students’ futures are in your hands.

Studying for finals can be a stressful time. Reviewing an entire semester’s worth of information for all of your classes in a short period of time can be nerve racking and extremely difficult given the high-pressure situation. However, there are many ways for someone to help themselves study for exams to minimize stress and maximize scores.
First, start studying well before the given final takes place. For example, if you have a test on Friday start studying on at least the Monday or Tuesday preceding the test so you can go over everything a few times and get to all the last details. By giving yourself more time to study, you can become more aware of what topics you have difficulty with and concentrate on them and you can be sure to avoid any last minute cramming.
If you can find a study partner it would be wise to take advantage of the opportunity. Studying with a friend gives you a chance to not only study material, but also actively talk about it with someone. Talking about the material will force you to put the information into your own words and will help commit it to memory. Furthermore, it is often easier to start studying when you’re doing it with someone else. By having someone studying with you, it’s more difficult to keep putting the study session off.
There are things you can do that aren’t directly related to studying that can help with your tests as well. Living a healthy lifestyle leading up to the exams will give you a sharper, clearer mind when it comes time to take your tests. Be sure to get to bed early and get plenty of sleep. Eating healthy foods helps too, as many nutrients are associated with brain function and keeping you alert throughout the day. Eating bad foods can make you tired, sluggish and leave you struggling to find the right answer when the time comes.
On top of everything else is simply to just stay calm about finals and remember that everyone has to take them. You aren’t the only one nervous about tests and feeling stressed. Keeping in mind that everyone is in a similar position as yourself will make you feel better about your own situation and may even become a comforting, distressing thought. Get studying early and good luck!

Applying for college is an extremely stressful time for all high school students. Pressure builds as parents and friends weigh in on where they think you should go and the applications begin piling up—the essay, any supplemental essays, filling out all of the information. Getting everything done in addition to staying on top of your schoolwork can be difficult for many.

A few easy tips can go a long way in help you reduce stress and stay on top of everything while still meeting deadlines and getting everything done in time.

Make sure you have safety, target and reach schools in your list. Safety schools are those schools that accept students with credentials that are not as good as your own (gpa, SAT/ACT, extracurricular, etc.) are, for the most part, superior to the “average” accepted student and you can be almost positive you can get in. Your accomplishments should match the expectations of your target schools (ex.—if they expect students to have a 3.5gpa, the school is a target for you if you have maintained a 3.4-3.6), and reach schools are those whose expectations may be higher than what you’ve accomplished—but you still have a chance and there is no good reason not to take it. You need this variety so that you can shoot for schools that might be a little better than what you can expect to get into; if you get in, great , if not, no harm, no foul. Target schools should leave you feeling comfortable about your chances of getting in and are great schools for you, and you need safeties in the off chance that if all else fails, you’ll have somewhere to go in the fall at the very least.

In addition to having a wide array of colleges that you are applyinh to, you should be sure to narrow the list down to a select few that you really like. A good number may be two reach schools, three target schools and two safety schools. Any more applications than this may become overwhelming to get out in time, and any less and you are only hurting your own chances of going to a school you enjoy. You should also be sure to go to commonapp.org and see if any of your schools allow it. I was able to use the common application for seven of the eight schools I applied to, saving me a lot of time by requiring me only to have to fill out two applications instead of eight.

Start writing your essay early to allow ample time for revisions, re-writes and corrections. You can’t send in a first draft, it needs to be your best work. As such, you must provide yourself a lot of time to work on it. Remember, every college will require at least one essay, and you can usually use the same essay for each. However, some colleges require additional essays and you should be sure to make sure which schools of yours, if any, require this early so you don’t find yourself scrambling to put an essay together at the last minute—or not applying at all.

Good luck applying to schools, it is a stressful yet exciting process that you should put your best effort into.

I was inspired by this flippant blog post from Bethesda World News to write about the difference between smart studying and just cramming answers into your head to help you pass an exam.  Obviously, there is a big difference, and this difference becomes quite apparent when you’re talking with someone who knows only enough to get by (the slacker student who is convinced they have it all figured out) and someone else who actually understands the material (the professor — hopefully).

Let’s start by considering just how complex and fascinating a thing our own memories are.  Memory is not an on-off switch — it’s not like we either remember something or we don’t.  First of all, there are several different types of memory.  But think about the times when you know something but you just can’t recall it at a particular moment.  Why does this happen?  I’m going to be completely honest here: I don’t know.  I’m not a doctor.  But I do have what I consider to be a reasonable hypothesis.

When a piece of information enters your brain it can go any number of places.  Perhaps you will disregard it entirely.  Maybe you will give it a small amount of your attention and store it very temporarily (such as for the duration of a conversation).  If it’s important, hopefully the information will get processed and stored somewhere ready to be converted into a long-term memory.[1] But just because a piece of information is stored doesn’t mean we’ll always be able to access it at will.

In some cases, we may not know enough about the information to know that it’s relevant and worthy of recall in a particular instance.  In others, we may not even be aware that we’ve learned anything related to the task at hand.  It is only through a solid understanding of a subject that we can develop the neural network to connect all the random bits of information that we’ve ingested on a subject to make good use of our memories.

Here’s where the difference between the slacker who crammed right before the exam and the professor who has been studying this subject for years is thrown into sharp relief: the slacker may be able to spit back the correct answer when posed the exact question that he is used to, while the professor actually knows enough to answer questions that are only loosely related to it.  Why?  Because the slacker has ruthlessly created only one pathway to the information in his head; the professor has developed a vast network of interconnected ideas, any one of which can be used to tap into the main source of knowledge on a subject.

The slacker method may work for an exam, but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be asked those same types of questions in “the real world,” thus rendering his study efforts useless after the course is over.  Maybe he won’t care (he is, after all, a slacker), but many of us do.  We go to college not for the degree but for the education.  For this reason, we seek understanding first and good grades second, and so we study smart.

We’re all familiar with the idea that there are many different learning styles out there.[1] For a quick and dirty overview of the three predominant types, LDPride has some decent explanations that aren’t weighed down with excessive scientific detail.  You can also take one of the many tests available online to see which one you are — just do a Google search for “learning styles.”

Of course, you can also think critically about how you learn to figure out your learning style.  I’m a man of many hobbies.  When I write, I find myself thinking in full sentences, reading a lot, and seeking inspiration in the world around me through in-depth conversation.  When I play an instrument, I learn best from hearing the piece performed.  When I work on my car, it’s not enough to simply look at what must be done — I must be instructed before I feel confident enough to start turning any wrenches.  This suggests that I am predominantly an auditory learner, with some degree of kinesthetic learning present.

While it may feel good to figure out what type of education benefits you the most, it is important to note that everyone has elements of all three working in their brain.  If you really want to internalize a subject you need to work on combining all three methods into your studies.  This is why I would use the notes I gathered throughout the semester in each subject to construct a study guide for myself that I could read over or have someone else quiz me on before each exam.

Now might be the time for a shameless TestSoup plug.  TestSoup’s system allows you to harness all three learning styles with their digital flashcard system.  First of all, you will see the information presented to you in a way you’re likely to see it on an exam.  That covers the visual side.  Then you read the information and process it yourself and can even have someone else read it to you if you have the luxury of a study partner.  That takes care of the auditory style.  Finally, you’re answering questions with full explanations rather than just passively taking in the information.  Score one for the kinesthetic learners of the world.

The point is, no matter what learning style suits you best, it is possible to find a way to study that will cater directly to you.  This is what will net you a good grade, and more importantly, a lasting understanding of the subject matter.  So take some time to figure out what category (or categories) you fall into.  Then use that information to make your studying more effective.

President Obama recently signed legislation into effect that will pump $2 billion dollars ($500 million per year over four years) towards community colleges, which already saw a 17% spike in enrollment from 2007 to 2009.  He is calling for community colleges, “the unsung heroes of America’s education system,” to produce an additional 5 million graduates by 2020.  Amidst these difficult economic times, Obama points out that two-year education programs are more important than ever.

TestSoup could not agree more.  The unfortunate reality of higher education is the opportunity cost associated with attendance.  Four year programs place such heavy demands on students’ time that they often have time for little else.  What about those who want to study who can’t afford to give up their livelihoods?  What about those who are attending school while raising a family?  What about those who just want a leg up with a career change but are a bit beyond dorm life?

For people in these situations, and many others like them, community colleges are there to help, just like TestSoup.  With a wide variety of test preparation and study solutions, TestSoup can help students prepare for final exams, placement tests, and even keep up with class work.  But the benefits of the program don’t stop there.  TestSoup also has offerings for teachers that can help them give their students the technological edge to succeed in today’s world.

If the President wants America to make better use of our excellent system of community colleges, then TestSoup is right there with him, with high-tech online services for universities, school districts, individual classrooms, and even government networks.  Our education solutions can boost enrollment by offering students the resources to dominate their next test, encourage them to immerse themselves more completely in their subjects, and facilitate the sharing of resources across departments or even districts.

Community colleges are all about giving people the opportunity to find the sweet spot in their education, their careers, and their lives.  And TestSoup is here to help.

There are tons of articles online about improving your memory.  A quick search will bring up pages and pages of results.  I spent a few minutes clicking at random and then a few more sorting through the articles I chose.  Here are three of my favorites:

• Discovery Health has a good piece about improving general memory that should help with aspects of your life outside of your studies.  I am including it at the top of the list because it provides a good base (and also because their first tip is to drink a glass of wine, which is both unorthodox and totally awesome).
• For a quicker read that involves less clicking, try this WikiHow article that has 15 good tips and links to a bunch of other articles that may be helpful to your more specific situation.
• If you want to know more about what memories are and how your brain works to create lasting memories, check out this article on HelpGuide.org.  It spells things out scientifically in ways that are actually comprehensible to people without much psychological training like myself.

But what about improving your memory specifically for your studies?  Learning things for school is a particularly difficult task because it involves a certain amount of precision and recall that is not normally required in “real life.”  After all, we can almost always hop on the internet and look up something when we’re not in a classroom taking a final exam.

The best way I found to make sure I actually remembered something in school was to make studying an active process.  Reading and highlighting your text book or paying close attention in class may help create a base from which you can work, but it’s unlikely that you’ll remember quite enough to ace your exams just from reading.  To make lasting memories, you need to make your studying something you do rather than something that just happens to you.  I touched on this in another post, but let’s go a little deeper this time.

Your process for test preparation should place your mind in a state similar to the conditions of the test itself.  In other words, you need to test yourself repeatedly before the test begins.  If you know that you will be required to do certain types of math problems then don’t just look over the formulas — try doing sample problems without referencing your text books or class notes.  If you know you’re going to have to write an essay explaining an idea or historical event then don’t just read about it — try writing about that idea or event.  This way you won’t just be remembering the starting point (the equations or the basic facts) but the act of using the ideas you have taught yourself.

If there is one central idea to take from the myriad of articles on improving your memory available online, it’s that lasting memories make their home in more than one place in your brain.  The human brain is a complex thing, with hallways and passages leading every which way.  The more anchors that you can link an idea to, the easier it will be to remember it.  That’s why actively engaging your brain (and optimally the brains of your classmates) in the study process is so essential.  So study often, study actively, and study with others whenever you can.

Mondays are busy days for me.  Unfortunately, they are also the days that I am most prone to distractions, with the possible exception of Fridays.  When you work in an office, distractions like funny websites and coworkers to chat with can be a problem.  When you work at home and can technically do whatever you want without anyone knowing, distractions can become a disaster.  Students find themselves in an awkward place here: they are constantly asked to do work at home — and they aren’t even getting paid for it!

When I was in school, there were certain things I had to do if I wanted to get any real studying done.

1) Listen to music without words. On the other hand, I knew a lot of people who could only study in complete silence.  Whatever works.

2) Find a place where you have to be productive. For me, this was either the library or my desk at work, which involved a lot of down time.  At either of these places, distractions were at a minimum for me, and the more I got used to studying in these places the more natural it felt.  Find these places for yourself.

3) Silence the phones. How much studying are you going to get done if you’re chatting?  Remember, the sooner you get things done the sooner you can catch up with people.  Let that be your motivation.

4) Schedule your day. I had to plan when I would work and when I would take a break in advance.  Trying to “catch as catch can” always led to forgotten assignments.  I used (and still use) daily to-do lists to keep myself on track.

5) Only work when you’re productive. Some days I know that I’m not going to get much done.  So I take care of the bare minimum and do some rescheduling to be more productive the next day.  This way I’m not fighting my own inertia.  I also try to work/study only during the day, because after dark I am completely useless and would much rather goof off.  If you’re better at working during the night, try scheduling your personal time during the day and your work time after dark.

Remember, the habits you make now will dictate how you work in the future.  If you spend four years getting used to procrastinating and scraping by then those will be hard habits to break.

If you want some more concrete tips, here are two excellent articles I found (that pretty much say the same things but differently).  The first states things more generally (take short breaks, limit inputs, start the day off right, etc. etc. etc.) while the second has some great tips with a more specific “business feel” to them.  I recommend them both.

To close, I’d like to bring up an idea that I first learned from a high-school history professor.  He was diagnosed with ADHD as a child but his parents didn’t believe in medicating him for this.  So instead, they taught him to meditate.  He learned a number of quick meditation techniques that he would use before (and during, if necessary) every test he took to help him stay focused.

So arm yourself against distractions with some of these basic tips while finding what works for you alone.  Then you’ll be ready the next time they strike.

Last week, I mentioned that my study system in college involved not studying in advance for tests and quizzes to see how much of the class material I had actually internalized.  That’s not the whole story, though, and since I don’t want to mislead anyone (this is, after all, a site devoted to helping you study more effectively) I thought it might be a good idea to note a few of my study tips.

While it may be true that I tried to avoid cramming for every quiz or test that came along, it wouldn’t be the whole truth to say that I “didn’t study.”  Of course I studied.  Studying is part of college life.  I did, however, study differently than everyone else I knew.  Here are a few of my rules:

1) Read your textbooks, go to class, and take notes.  It may not be required but it is important nonetheless.  You need to keep up with reading, pay attention, and have meaningful notes to look back on when it comes time for the final.  Of course, it helps to have interesting classes that won’t put you to sleep when you show up or sit down to read the text book.  Thankfully, many colleges give you a lot of latitude when it comes to selecting classes, so do your research beforehand.

2) Review your notes regularly and randomly.  There’s a lot of down time in college between classes — so use it!  A few minutes here and there add up, and will do wonders for reinforcing the core concepts in your brain (in fact, that’s the basic idea behind TestSoup, except they’ve made the notes and quizzes for you).

3) Ignore the quizzes beforehand but spend as much time as you need on them after they’ve been graded.  This one may seem counterintuitive, but in most cases quizzes don’t even count for a very large percentage of your final grade so it’s no biggee to sacrifice a few points here.  I did this to test how well I was keeping track of the course material.  Once I got the quizzes back I would review them to make sure I now understood everything I missed.

4) Use your quizzes to study for tests.  In most cases, quizzes are a good indicator of what material is most important to the class.  So I would use them, along with my notes, to study for tests.  Since I had already marked up my quizzes with extra notes explaining what I had previously gotten wrong, these were very helpful study guides.  I would then do pretty much the same thing with my tests once I got them back to make sure nothing slipped through the cracks.

5) Make a detailed study guide for the final.  Professors will usually distribute a list of stuff you should know for the final.  These are massively helpful, but even without one you can usually use your syllabus to list all the important topics.  Once you know what to look into, use your notes, quizzes, tests, and textbook to write yourself a “mini-textbook” of several pages explaining all the core concepts in your own words.  This active studying will reinforce everything you’ve been learning about.

6) Start studying in advance.  Like I said before, I would look over my notes regularly so that I didn’t need to cram for quizzes.  For tests, I would review my notes and old quizzes briefly the afternoon or evening before.  For exams, I would make my study guide two or three days in advance and then review it the day before like I would prepare for a test.

So the truth comes out.  It’s not that I never studied — it’s that I would spread out my studying throughout the semester so that I never had a crunch time.  When other students would discuss how long they had studied for their final exams, I was inevitably on the lowest end of those who actually had taken the time to study, and yet I would generally hold my own when the grades came.

Why?  Because I had been paying attention, reviewing, and studying throughout the course of the semester instead of slacking off.  This prolonged repetition allowed my brain to truly process and comprehend the information it took in and turn it into a long-term memory rather than a short-term fact that would disappear soon after the course ended — and all without sacrificing my social life.

I’m always amazed at how excited people get when their classes get cancelled.  Here you are at an expensive university, paying good money to get a quality education, and yet you get excited when you miss out on a chance to learn something?  Something’s not right here.

College is not supposed to be a mere extension of high-school, where you pretty much are rewarded for how well you can regurgitate information in a form that matches your textbook or your teacher’s PowerPoints.  That’s basic education, where you learn the building blocks necessary for participation in a world that revolves around knowledge.  But college is higher education, where you learn to think critically in a way that can actually advance the knowledge that’s already out there.

Think of higher learning like the Beatles thought of love: where in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.  Sure, you can still scrape by doing the minimum: signing up for the easy classes, registering for the easy major, and choosing the most lenient professors.  But in the end all you will have is a diploma and not much else to show for your four years in college besides a lot of goofy pictures of you and your friends holding solo cups and cigarettes.

My dad, a professor at Loyola University Maryland, always said that what you’re paying for in college is not the classes but the opportunity to be around a lot of smart, motivated students and professors.  Your course work and textbooks are important, to be sure, but less so than all the chances you have to engage others in intelligent conversation and to find something that you’re passionate enough about to devote the bulk of your life working on it.

The habits and relationships you make there will set the tone for the rest of your life.  Are you going to be content doing the bare minimum to get a decent grade and collect a pay check or are you going to want more?  If the never-satisfied culture of America has anything to say about the matter, you’re going to want more.  How do you get it?  By working hard to discover and self-actualize.

My system for studying was a little different than most of my friends.  Instead of cramming for tests I would take careful notes during class and while I read my textbooks.  Then I wouldn’t look at them until after the test was over.[1] That way my grade was an accurate reflection of how much of the material I actually understood.  It felt weird to study for a test that I had already taken in the beginning, but it eventually gave me a much better grasp of the material that stayed with me long after the course was over.

I’m not sure I would recommend a strict adherence to my unique policies to everyone — my GPA (a cumulative 3.5) lagged behind the 4.0s that many of the others in my advanced business program.  But I would recommend working hard to really get involved in your education so you get the most you can out of it.

There are thousands of over-qualified candidates to jobs these days with excellent GPAs.  These days, the way to get ahead is through a voracious appetite for education and self-improvement that will be evident long after your formal studies have concluded.  But you have to start cultivating that as early as possible, or overcoming your own inertia will be a difficult task indeed.  So stop celebrating class cancellations and start working on finding which parts of your schooling get your excited.  Challenge yourself and you will be rewarded, if not with a perfect grade then with a life you enjoy.