From the category archives:

Mind Shift

Academic Goals: If you want to succeed, keep your goals to yourself…

June 12, 2009

goal-comicSo I just got a link to a great article which you can find here about how to achieve goals.  In the VTA Method goals are the first step towards academic success.  All the online tutors that work here also make goals a major component when they tutor college students.

Whether you’ve read the VTA Method or not, I’m going to give you one of the greatest secrets behind the VTA Method now confirmed by a New York University study.

Goals should be kept to yourself

Results from a new study from New York University suggest that whatever your goal, keeping it to yourself is a better idea than broadcasting it to the world.  The article goes on to suggest that sharing our goals with others doesn’t necessarily motivate us to achieve.  In actuality, by talking to others about our goals and plans we start to feel a premature sense of completeness about our goals.

The VTA Method on Goals

This directly relates to what I discuss in the VTA Method when talking to others about academic goals and who to talk to them with.  I teach that when you begin to become a better student, it’s crucially important to NOT talk to others about it, especially those people who can’t hold you accountable for your goal.  The reasons why you shouldn’t share your goals seem a little counter-intuitive, but let’s take an example.

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Past Present and Future: Cementing Your Academic Mind Shift

June 5, 2009

Hello Fellow Students.

In researching for my online tutoring system, The VTA Method, I interviewed dozens of students and asked them how they became successful so successful in school.  The one thing they all had in common was their mind shift from thinking they knew they were going to succeed to knowing they were going to succeed.

Difference between Believing and Knowing you will succeed in University

Let me describe the distinction between believing and knowing.  Believing you’re going to succeed at something is when you don’t exactly know how you’re going to accomplish a goal but you have the faith that you will be able to achieve it.  This, in itself is a rare and highly successful way to think.  Many successful students and people have this mindset and have accomplished great things by implementing this kind of mind shift.

Knowing is a little different.  Knowing your going to succeed is having the same mindset that you will be able to achieve your goal BUT having a fully laid out plan to accomplish said goal.  So believing you’re going to succeed is having faith that you will be getting an A on a paper, knowing you’re going to succeed is having all the research, brainstorming and essay outlines completed and refined ready to be used to write an amazing paper.  You first need to believe before you know, and knowing requires quite a bit of testing and refinement, but once you know it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

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Utilitarianism: A beginner’s guide to Utopianism Pt 2

May 27, 2009
The Ultimate Utilitarian

The Ultimate Utilitarian

So last post I talked about the fundamental aspects of Utilitarianism, if you haven’t checked it out, I highly suggest you do.  Go check out my post 1 on Utilitarianism.  Today I’m going to talk about the pro’s and con’s of utilitarianism and my arguments as to why it is so clearly a great way to run your own personal moral compass.

Why Philosophy Snobs don’t like Utilitarianism

Many philosophy snobs see utilitarianism as an ethical dinosaur and lacking any clear ideology.  Deontological ethics which does not see the consequences of an action as its moral determinant; and virtue ethics which focuses on the character of individuals to guide actions rather then looking at each action individually, pretty much think utilitarianism is bullshit.  I have had heated discussions with many philosophers on the subject and here are the major critiques and my rebuttals.

The Qualitative Nature of Happiness

Utilitarianism sees people’s happiness as a single factor when in reality each person experiences pain and happiness individually and cannot therefore be aggregated into a single variable.  It is impossible to quantitatively compare one person’s pain to another person, therefore choosing action that creates pain or happiness based on more than a single persons happiness cannot be aggregated and therefore should not be taken action upon.

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Utilitarianism: A beginner’s guide to Utopianism Pt 1

May 26, 2009
The Ultimate Utilitarian

The Ultimate Utilitarian

Hello fellow students.  I’m going to talk about a subject that has been near and dear to my heart for years.  I’m talking today about the philosophical calculation of utilitarianism and how students (and anybody for that matter) can apply it to make the world a much better place. This is related to chapter two in the VTA Method so go check that out if you’re interested in a more general overview of philosophies of life.

What is Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is very simply an idea that the moral worth of any action is determined by the contribution to its overall utility.  Therefore, the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome, or as Spock would say “The ends justify the means”.  (I’m pretty sure other people said that too but when I think of a pure Utilitarian, I always think of Spock)… Yes I’m a dork.

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The 90% principle: How to regroup after a bad mark

May 19, 2009

The VTA Method has placed a large amount of importance on how to maximize your academic potential.  However, I have been talking to some students about what happens to them after they get a bad mark back.  Quite of few of my students lose faith and start to self defeat themselves when they get a bad mark back on an assignment or test.

What is the 90% Principle?

One thing that I picked up on with successful students was how they regrouped after a less than satisfactory mark.  I’m going to call this the 90% principle.  Very simply the 90% principle is a way to look at your marks from a completely different perspective.  Instead of looking at marks as adding up to 100%, look at the marks you lose in comparison to your overall mark.  Check out the example below.

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