Learn More Study Less Review

Check out Learn More Study Less here

Scott Young has really outdone himself this time, the long term blogger has put together a program which I’m about half way through. If you’re not just looking for study skill tips but a multifaceted study skills system to improve your learning skills then I highly suggest you check it out. So I’m not going to beat around the bush, here is exactly what you’ll get.

Learn More Study Less Review – Here are all the videos you get

1. First Steps with the Guide
2. Create a Killer Productivity System
3. Understand More with Metaphors
4. Remember Better with Visceralization
5. Speed and Active Reading
6. How to Study for an Exam
7. Image Association for Vocabulary
8. Holistic Self-Education
9. How to Set Goals You’ll Actually Achieve
10. Flow-Based Notetaking
11. Which Tactics Should You Use?
12. Your Three Month Action Plan

What I’m going to add in to Learn More Study Less

If you pick up a copy of learn more study less I’m going to do two things for you.

1. I’m going to give you a free semester setup guide so you won’t forget about tests, exams, papers or labs. This costs 46 dollars regularly and I’m giving it to you for free when you buy Learn More Study Less.

2. I’m going to give you a free half hour tutoring session where you’ll be able to work with me personally. This costs 75 dollars regularly and you’re getting it free with your copy of Learn More Study Less.

So you really don’t have any excuses, go check it out now and if you’re going to buy, remember to send me your receipt to liam@vtamethod.com so I can give you you’re bonuses.

I have spoken about college study spaces vs social spaces at length throughout this blog and with my online tutoring program. I think finding a solid study space is probably the best thing any student can do to focus their study methodology and get ahead of the daily workload college demands. With that in mind here is a quick review of the fundamentals of college study spaces.

Location, location, location

The same thing they say about real-estate is true in college study spaces, location is EVERYTHING! I’ve had a few great study spaces throughout my undergrad and graduate degrees which have served me very well, all those places had excellent location in common. Here are the fundamental things I look for:

• Ideally you should be more than 10 minutes away from a social space. This is important because you don’t want to tempt yourself with a visit to a friends place or a beer that’s only 5 minutes away.
• Internet should be restricted or unavailable. I worked in a Teaching Assistant office which had thick cement walls which made wifi impossible. This was a blessing in disguise as it required me to walk out of my office and get files/do research out in the hallway. I would focus my time on the work I needed to do with the wifi in the hall then I would go back to my office work. No facebook or instant messenger bugging me. I currently work in coffee shops which are also great as my shop restricts me to 2 hours of wifi. I get on, do what I need to do and get off.
• Make sure there aren’t any distractions at your particular study space. I like music and the white noise of random chatting which is why I like coffee shops. If you require absolute silence, go check out a library, wherever you go just make sure your location isn’t overly distracting.  Only you can really make the call as to whether a space is overly distracting, but if you can’t concentrate or are interrupted every 10 minutes, I’d choose another spot.

Have a predefined goal in mind when you go to your study space

When I go to my study space I’m there to work, so that means no distractions like facebook, phone calls or instant messages. However, this is easier said than done. Without a predefined goal in mind the demon of procrastination will inevitable raise its ugly head as you won’t have a predefined set of goals. I’m a big time proponent of goals as many of my readers already know. Without a goal in mind you have nothing to work towards. I also suggest small goals, always aim for less than you’re truly capable of. So as an example instead of telling yourself you’re going to write 20 pages for your upcoming history paper instead make a specific smaller goal of writing 3 rough pages this hour and then after that define a new goal. This way you always stay motivated and always feel like you’ve accomplished what you’ve set out to do.

Make a STRICT division between your study spaces and social spaces

I’ve already touched on this above but it’s so important that I’m going to reiterate it here. It’s crucially important that you divide your study spaces and social spaces. This is important because if you infect your study space with socialization you’ll become socialized to that behaviour. As an example, the same concept can be applied to exercise; you wouldn’t eat a chocolate bar on a treadmill would you?

Here are some stereotypical distractions that can infect your social space and specific strategies to avoid them:

• People approaching you in your study space: This happens to me constantly in my social space (it just happened about 5 minutes ago). One way to nip this in the bud is with ear buds. You can pretend not to hear strangers and with friends you can pull out one bud, quickly return a response and replace your ear bud. After a couple interruptions friends get the message that you’re there to study.
• People having loud conversations beside you: This happens a lot in coffee shops but can be found anywhere (I once watched a screaming match between a couple in a library for 15 minutes, entertaining but not productive). Easiest way to stop this from happening is to turn on some music and tune them out. Noise cancelling earphones are another good option which I know a few of my students use.
• An important call/email/instant message that is coming in soon: This is a personal demon of mine, if I have a specific person I want to hear back from I sometimes fall into the habit of constantly checking my phone/email until it finally arrives. One way I’ve cut down on this is by employing a bit of a mental mind shift through the realization that checking will not make it arrive any faster. Trust me, no matter how many times you check your messages you’ll never be able to make that email or phone call arrive faster. So just sit back, relax and focus on the task at hand.

What will creating a study space do for your college career?

Very simply, everything… Creating a space in which you focus on a specific goal without the distractions of everyday life will completely revolutionize your study methodology. I suggest you try out a study space for 2 weeks as an experiment and see what it can do for you. I force each of my vtamethod students to do this and most see amazing results.



So my buddy Stefan (see previous post on paper editing) has put his new book out. For a guy who learned english from friends episodes, I’m amazed that he can keep an English blog running. He’s got a new book out and guess what, he wants you to have a free copy. Here is a small snippet of some of the things you’ll learn.

How multitasking can actually be a good thing

This title is probably against everything you’ve read the last couple of years. Multitasking can’t be good, focus is the way you should work. Focussing on one thing at the time is the mantra on a lot of blogs, myself included, hackcollege included and all the other big blogs also. But I believe you probably could implement multitasking, in a good way.

Why even bother, my system works

It does. I’m convinced your system for focus works. But does it feel right? Do you feel right about shutting everything off, about getting at a place where nobody else is, about leaving your friends, just for the sake of focus? I don’t think so. And during your focus session, are you thinking about twitter, about texting someone about watching youtube? The point I try to make is that this form of productivity doesn’t bring you any comfort, it only exhausts you. You will feel tired, and after a big focus session, you can’t do anything but the things (i.e. twitter, facebook and texting) you tried to avoid during your focus session.

How should multitasking work?

You need to divide your tasks into projects. For me, there is ’studying’, ‘blogging’ and ‘fun’. Now get all your tasks and put them into different projects. Twitter would be in the ‘blogging’ project, instant messenger in ‘fun’ and reading in ’studying’.
Now, do multiple tasks at the same time. For instant: When you are writing an article for your blog, keep your twitter on, ask your followers questions, ask for quotes, things like that. Listen to music, make blogging a fun thing to do. When you are studying, read, but also talk to friends about the stuff you have to study. Don’t exclude yourself, just because you want to do one task at the time, try to be among friends. Study at the bar and have fun while you are studying.

Your tasks will be fun again

Try it out. You will have the idea that the tasks you have to do aren’t that big because of the hard focus you need, but you can do it with more fun. Studying with instant messenger on to answer questions (and ask them) from friends, blogging with music, twitter and RSS feeds. Maybe you won’t like it. Maybe you will. There is only one way you can find out!

Multitasking isn’t always a dirty word, you just need to experiment with it.

Stefan Knapen is a medical student in the Netherlands and blogs at StudySuccessful.com about how to study. He just wrote a free ebook on motivation called Nine ways to get motivated for college, you can download it now for free!

I just finished editing my buddy Stefan Knapen’s free ebook he’s giving away. For a guy who learned English from watching ‘Friends’ episodes I’m thoroughly impressed that he runs a completely English blog on study hacks. As I was editing I thought I’d quickly share with you the fundamentals of editing college papers or any paper for that matter.

1: Before you start:

Before you even start, make sure you know what you’re writing about or editing. I can edit a social science paper in less than 5 minutes (correcting thousands of undergrads papers will give you superhuman editing skills!).  Editing a paper on mathematics or chemistry on the other hand is a much slower process. I’m not saying that you couldn’t edit a paper on a subject you’re not familiar with but it is much easier/faster if you do know the content. This brings me to my second point; make sure you have enough time to do the job. Many students don’t give themselves enough time at the end of the day to properly edit before they have to submit their paper. Editing is the most overlooked step in paper writing but crucial to secure a top grade.

2: Decide what kind of edits you’re going to do:

Whenever I edit a paper for a student I decide before I start what level of editing I’m going to be doing. Am I looking at spelling, grammar, sentence structure, flow? Am I going to go deeper and look at the logical connections between subjects, ideas? Looking at all aspects of a paper can take 10 minutes a page for amateur editors. If it’s your own paper I’d suggest you include all the preceding subjects in your editing. If you’re editing for somebody else, simply state what level of editing you were using when you return the paper to them so that they know exactly what you’ve done.

3: Scan for the main idea/thesis/subject and write it down:

As a general rule of thumb, before I even start correcting a students paper I’ll immediately scan for the main thesis and supporting points (if they aren’t on the first page then they’re usually in trouble) and underline it. I’ll write a small note defining the core of the thesis and then compare every supporting point to that main thesis.

Here are couple questions I usually ask:

• How does this piece of information relate to the main thesis?
• Is this relevant or redundant (has this already been stated earlier in the paper)?
• Are there clear connections back to the main thesis or do I have to think about how this information relates?
• Can this information be clearer, if so how?
• Are there any presumptions the author is taking without accounting for them?

4: Don’t be afraid to edit ‘truthfully’:

If you’re editing for somebody else, don’t be afraid to tell them that a particular line sucks! I’m very upfront with this as I believe telling somebody the truth may be painful, but is much more helpful for their long term writing. I’ll often write a note for a particular paragraph or sentence “Awkward sentence consider revising”. Flow is incredibly important to the overall understanding of a document. Just because something is technically correct shouldn’t mean that you should not give your opinion towards the flow and tone of the paper.

5: Use track changes:

This is a biggie! Most desktop publishers have the ability to ‘track the changes’ on a document. In Microsoft word this is found under the tools menu – track changes. This enables all your edits to be shown in red text so that the recipient can choose to ignore or accept each change individually, it also gives you the ability to write notes for your recipient so you can suggest flow and sentence structure changes.

Editing Is A Crucial Step In the Paper Process Give It the Time It Deservers!

Editing is a crucial step within the paper writing process. If you don’t give yourself adequate time to edit you’re leaving serious marks on the table. I highly suggest you edit your own papers and encourage others to look your papers over. You can often miss crucial edits in your work (I know I do) that will lose you marks.

P.S. I have 6 mistakes in this paper, a shiny nickel to the person who can find them all.

I’ve been keeping a big secret from everyone over the last few months and now I’m finally ready to unveil what I’ve been working on all this time. I’ve been studying how premed students succeed (and fail) by talking to thousands of students, premed students, teachers, admission officers, medical students, doctors and education experts to put together a system that is going to completely change the way you see premed. The product is in my opinion amazing and we will be announcing the price really soon. In the meantime you can check out the product and get a free premed course component here.

I’ve been working on this project for 6 months and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed as we’re going to have a ton of free tips, tricks and content, even if you don’t want a copy of the paid program you can still try out the intro program absolutely free.  As an example, here is a free snippet of what you’ll get for free when you check out the free program.

The top three ways premeds sabotage themselves

I’ve been a tutor, teaching assistant and lecturer for a combined 5 years and I’ve learned quite a lot about how students succeed and fail. I’ve been throwing together a great program and talking to a ton of premed students. I’ve come to three big realizations when it comes to self sabotage in premed so here they are.

Premed’s working alone.

One thing I’ve found with premeds which is almost completely unique to their degree is the degree of competition between students. I’ve heard stories of students hiding library readings from other students, students refusing to help out a friend if they’re having trouble and even students purposefully being fed bad information so they fail! This has produced an environment of mistrust which I’ve only seen in law school. It’s a real shame as I feel like when I help others, I also help myself.

I came to the conclusion that premed students didn’t necessarily want to treat their friends horrible but were compelled because that’s how everyone else was doing it and they couldn’t trust anyone. To solve this problem I decided to produce a great community within the new premed program where you’d be able to get direct help from not just high end graduate student tutors and medical students but actual students who are taking the classes you are taking right now! You never have to feel nervous or unsure about sharing information because you’re not competing against these students and you’ll now no longer be alone.

Premed’s studying too much

Premed’s study WAAAAY too much. This is again a real shame as they should be enjoying university life but spend most of their time enjoying their university dorm room. The secret that most premed students never realize is that most of the studying they do is unneeded because of one simple realization.

STUDYING WON’T GET YOU ANYWHERE!

If you are studying, you need to stop, like right now! My good buddy Scott Young has this famous saying that encapsulates the general philosophy behind what I’m trying to say here. He tells everyone to “Learn More and Study Less”. I actually sat down with him and asked him about his learning philosophy which I’ve integrated into our new premed program and you can see it right now for free when you sign up.

Premeds never simplify anything!

The biggest way premed students seem to sabotage themselves is through lack of simplification. I recently taught a collection of medical students on the finer points of efficient study methods. I got a question from a student in the back that absolutely floored me. He asked me “What do you exactly mean by simplifying my learning philosophy? Why do I have to simplify anything?”

This question blew me away, not because I couldn’t answer it, but because I thought most students would have a basic idea of study methodologies, especially those in graduate school.

If you’d like to check out the program I’d highly suggest you take a look now before it’s taken down. I have 3+ hours of video and audio content specifically for premed students that are being giving away for free; just visit premedtutors.com and sign up for the free course.

The National Flag of Quebec

In Canada “where I’m from” we have two official languages, French and English which was formally instituted into our national charter in 1982. This came into being to give the Quebecois people official language status and quell the rebellion of the Quebecois people which climaxed during the ‘October Crisis’ where Quebec was placed under martial law due to increased terrorist/freedom fighter activity. As a result almost all governmental positions within the country require that the employee learn both French and English and almost all citizens have a basic understanding of French and many are considered fully bilingual.
I’m talking about this to show you the context in which I’m coming from. Since I’m currently living in Montreal, most people speak French instead of English and I’ve grown up with both languages all my life. Everyone that I talk to can speak at least two languages and it isn’t rare to meet people who can speak three, four or even five languages which I find isn’t the case when I travel to the U.S. I recently had to take a government French exam to do some contract work and thought I would go through my sure fire, 5 step plan for learning a second language.

Step 0: Have a Clear Understanding Of Your Goals

Ok, this should be a pretty simple set to most of you which is why I didn’t define it as a ‘real’ step. You have to have a clear understanding of your goals and when you’d like to achieve them. So a couple questions you could ask yourself would be: Do I want to be completely fluent? Do I want to be able to hold a 5,10,15 minute conversation in the language? Do I have to pass a test? Am I leaving for a country where they only speak that language? Etc. It’s crucial to understand exactly what your goals should be before you start off as you don’t want to overshoot or undershoot your goal and becoming fluent for a test is very different from conversational fluency and requires a completely different learning methodology.

Step 1: Get the Right Language Tools

Getting the right tools before you start learning a second language is crucial. There are a few main tools I use when I wanted to brush up on my French. I started with a core word list that I’ll discuss later. I also had a Bescherelle which has all the French verbs and is a really guide to use when you don’t understand a verb conjugation. I also started watching French television and radio and started reading a lot of graphic novels in French.

Step 2: Start With a Core Word Set

Start with a core word set for any language you’re trying to learn. If you memorize the top 500 words in any language you usually are about 95% towards conversational fluency. As an example, most newspapers and 24 news channels try to stay within a core 500 word base so that they can maximize their viewership. Many guides are available on the internet for free and there are also many flash card learning systems that are directly based off the 500 core word set model. I picked up a set of used flash cards from a buddy of mine and they worked perfectly. When you look at your 500 word set I suggest you use a system set up by Scott H Young which reinforces effective study skills by creating a matrix of stories and metaphors within your mind in order to remember this word set. It’s a little too complicated to go through now so just check out the link.

Step 3: Place Yourself In That Language

If you want to achieve true fluency, you have to place yourself in the environment. With that in mind I’d take the time to watch as much television in your target language as possible. I will usually watch a show I’ve already seen in English and either add in subtitles in the target language or if the show is dubbed, add in English subtitles. This gives my brain a way to quickly encode and decode the language immediately on a continual basis. My second step would be to go talk to people who speak the language. This can be intimidating at first, but I find a good way to break the ice is to explain to them what you’re trying to do and most of the time they are more than happy to help you learn. Start with small conversations and if you don’t know the word in English describe “in the target language” the word you are looking for. Falling back to English is disastrous for your learning and is probably the most popular mistake most people will make. DO NOT DO IT!

Step 4: Measure Your Progress In Your Second Language

Measure everything! If you don’t know where you’ve been then you can’t figure out where you are and where you should be. You can usually find a great set of free language tests for every language. For French, I got a hold of the Canadian government French fluency exams and took a new test each week. I saw a steady improvement from around 60% in week one to an 80%+ by the end of the month. Not only will tests help you understand how fast you are progressing but it will also give you a target to study for. Take the time to test yourself, it’s really important…

Step 5: Remember to Reactivate Every Few Years

It is pretty much impossible to keep each language you learn in top working order all the time. Inevitably there will be some break down and you’ll need a refresher. The beauty is that once you relearn a language it is relatively easy to brush up on your language and be back to the same level of fluency within a week or two. Just go through the same steps I’ve set out here in a concentrated format. If you want to keep the language in tip top shape, simply set up a monthly discussion group with people in that language or take a trip to that area every few months and keep testing yourself to adequately gauge whether the language is slipping.

If anybody would like a free chapter of my book which is packed full of many more study tips, check out my effective study tips page and sign up to get a free chapter.

So as some of you may know I got horribly burned by hot oil about a week and a half ago. This gave me the opportunity to experiment with various salves and anti-scaring techniques.  So the following video diary is the steps that I took to solve my burn and the resulting successes and failures from my various techniques. Instead of taking the regular route of apply a cold compress and polysporin I instead decided to integrate vitamin E and pineapple which I was told worked wonders on repairing burns and suppressing scarring.

Step 1: Immediately applied a cold compress to the effected area for approximately 15-20 minutes

Step 2: Applied pineapple to the effected area’s 2-3 hours after burn.  I also applied polysporin to seal the skin.

Step 3: At night I applied a thin layer of vitamin E cream to the effected areas to help with skin regeneration.

Results:

As the video will show, my face has completely healed whereas my arm is still seriously burned. Now facial skin is different from the skin on your arms, however from my experimentation I highly suggest the pineapple as a treatment.

Liam McIvor Martin

In my continuing series on basic college study tips I’m going to talk to you today about my favorite health tips for college students.  Many students have horrible health, ‘freshman 15 anybody?’  I’ve been relatively healthy throughout college due to the ability to keep myself accountable to basic health tips.  I’ve used the following tips throughout college to stay trim and healthy and they don’t require much work at all.

Sleep:

Follow a regulated circadian rhythm and get 8 hours of sleep per night.  This is a very simple college health tip, however crucially important in order to develop a healthy and academically successful college student.  So this means getting up and going to be at the same time EVERYDAY.  Therefore, if you’re going to bed on Saturdays at 3 in the morning and it can’t be avoided I’d suggest that you actually go to bed at 3 in the morning every night rather than go to bed early during the week and late on the weekends as this would damage your circadian rhythm.

Breakfast:

The best health tip for a good breakfast for college students is my superman breakfast. This breakfast gives you all the nutrients and minerals you need for the day on top of a massive amount of protein which will speed up your metabolism and give you the energy to get through the entire day.

Snacks:

I would suggest you eat lots of leafy greens, fruits and nuts, along with other forms of protein.  Again, protein will help your metabolism and keep you from getting hungry during a 3 hour lecture.  A quick tip I’d suggest is to keep a handful of almonds on you which gives you the fat and protein you need to stop hunger pains and get you through long lectures.

Drink lots of water:

This is probably the most important college health tip if you want to stay intellectually sharp and healthy.  Drink a liter of water for breakfast a liter for lunch and a liter for dinner.  Try it for a week and you’ll be amazed at how much more energy you have and how much faster you will think.

Dinner:

Follow in essence the same tenants that can be found in the superman breakfast.  Eat a large amount of protein with lots of raw vegetables, try to stay away from simple carbohydrates and include some positive fats such as olives or avocado.

Exercise:

Get yourself a bicycle and use it every day.  This will not only save you money on gas and/or bus fair but will put you in a positive mood for the day and will get you much needed exercise.  I would also suggest you spend 2-3 days a week doing intense physical activity such as sports or weight lifting.  Keeping your body in peak physical condition will increase recall and comprehension as well as increase your energy levels.

Have lots of safe sex:

Seriously!  Have a lot of safe sex.  Studies prove that this will improve your state of mind and make you much happier as well as keep you healthy and lower your chances of getting some cancers.  As long as it does not impact your studies, I encourage you to have as much sex as you’d like as long as it is safe and with a caring partner that you respect.

If you’d like to learn more, go check out my book on study skills and I’ll give you a free chapter on how to get an A on any paper.  Also if you have any other tips, please don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments.

For my continuing series on basic college study skills, I’m going to discuss the basics of how to create a foolproof college study schedule.  I’ve already touched on this a little bit in a previous article but on further reflection I’ve decided this subject needs more input.

Most of you have probably heard the old adage a stitch in time saves nine.  It’s great advice, however very few college students remember these words of wisdom when it comes time to build a college study schedule.  I’ve battled with a lack of organizational skills as well; it wasn’t until I stopped trying to be solely accountable and brought in other people and tools to keep me accountable that my college study schedule really started to stick. So with that in mind I’m going to concentrate on a few tools that you can use TODAY and in the next 30 MINUTES to get yourself back on track.

Semester White Board

You need a semester white board.  I’ve given you an example of mine here which I use to map out my semester.  I lovingly call it my ‘battle map’ as it maps out my entire semester and gives me a good idea of the college schedule battlefield.  Notice how I’ve used different markers for each class and even used a different colour for socializing.  This gives me a great way to look over my schedule and figure out exactly what I need to do today, next week and next month.  These things can cost anywhere from a dollar to 20 bucks.  I’d suggest you buy a good one as I still use it now for most of my work in my tutoring business.  After reading this post you can jump in the car or bus to your local business supplies store and have one in fewer than 15 minutes.

A Daily Planner

Get yourself a daily planner, I don’t really care if it’s digital or a pen and paper version but you must have one for two important reasons. First, this will work as a backup for your semester planner.  Second, your daily planner can work as an in depth to do list which can focus your day allowing you to forget about what doesn’t need to be done today and concentrate on what needs to be done immediately.  I personally use Ical from apple as it updates with my mac and ipod which I use as my daily planner.  However, if you feel more comfortable with paper by all means use that instead.  Just make sure you have something that you look at everyday that gives you a concise breakdown of your daily ‘to do’s.’

Accountability Partners

Make sure you have accountability partners who can keep you accountable for your college study schedule.  Whether this is a roommate, and classmate, a parent or a tutor, you have to have somebody in your life that will hold you accountable if you don’t follow your schedule.  In my company we simply give students Ivy League tutors to keep them accountable, however if that isn’t an option for you, I find the best option is to get a roommate.  You’ll see them everyday and you’ll probably be going through the same kinds of courses and have the same hectic college schedules.

Follow those three tenants of organization and you shouldn’t have any problems with creating the ultimate college study schedule.  If you’d like a free chapter of my book which can help any college student achieve academic success check out my online college tutoring program and I’ll automatically send you a free chapter.

In my continuing series on basic college study skills, today I’ve decided to discuss what I’m personally very good at, writing an A paper!

I’ve been a teaching assistant for almost 5 years and have literally marked thousands of papers.  In my experience I’ve seen the worst and best in paper writing and from the interviews I’ve done with successful students for my book, I’ve come to the conclusion that effective paper writing boils down to sticking to the fundamentals and proper planning. So here are the basic skills you are going to need to write an A paper quickly and effectively.

There are four major stages when writing an A paper; research, brainstorming, writing and editing.  Each stage should be disconnected from each other and should be given a specific start and end date.  Starting and finishing papers are crucial as you will either not get a paper started or get hung up on a particular step and have to hurry the entire process along.

Researching your A paper

You would think that in order to write an A paper you would have to do tones of in depth research, ironically however the reverse is true.  The key to the research stage for an A paper is to research selectively.  Multiple sources get confusing and realistically there are only a few well known sources on any subject, or there are a few major camps for a particular subject in which case you would choose the best readings for each viewpoint.  Take the paper and do what I call the ‘academic meta search.’  Take 5 relatively well known papers on your subject and cross reference them through an online academic database such as ‘Jstor’ and choose the articles that are referenced the most by the authors, only read those articles and abandon the rest.  This will not only allow you to speed up your research it will also keep you focused and motivated as you won’t get confused from multiple sources.  Also remember to database all your articles through referencing software such as endnote.

Brainstorming your A paper

By far the most important step in any paper is brainstorming as you will work out your thesis and outline from this process.  Many high school and even college teachers will suggest that the outline should follow the research; however this is again ironically wrong.  As I tell my students, brainstorming IS NOT an outlining exercise it is instead a thinking exercise.  You should not be working out your thesis in your outline, nor should any of your points be muddled or unclear in your outline.  An outline is simply a tool for the writing stage NOT the brainstorming stage.  For brainstorming I like to use critical thinking.  It has recently fallen out of fashion as a brainstorming technique as many students find it difficult but I have put together a guide which will bring you through the fundamentals of brainstorming in an easy to understand way.  You can check it out by signing up through my university study skills page for free. (This step is quite in depth which is why I’m giving it to you as a free download instead of taking up the next 10 pages).

Writing your A paper

Begin with an outline from your critical thinking brainstorming exercises.  Once you have a good idea of what you’d like to talk about and can see the entire paper mapped out on paper you can begin writing.  Make sure your writing is clear, concise, holds the proper level of diction for the class and above all keep it simple to understand.  I can’t stress this last point enough.  Always offer multiple examples to your reader to explain complex ideas, it’s not that your prof or TA are stupid, it’s simply that if they have been reading 200 papers today, they are not going to have to be hand held through your paper.  Make it incredibly easy for them to give you an A on your paper.

Editing your A paper

Many students forget about editing in paper writing.  This is in some instances more important than the actual research as the content can be great, but if it’s communicated badly the reader will get frustrated.  Unfortunately frustrated readers simply hand out low marks rather than really trying to study the content.  It’s not necessarily their fault it’s just the reality of having to mark hundreds of papers and not having enough time to really engage with each student’s content.  So edit your paper, give it to somebody else to edit, make sure it is easy to understand and go through the critical thinking technique once again so you can see if you’ve covered everything for an A paper.

I hope this is helpful to you, if you have any questions or comments you’d like to make on this guide or the series please leave them below and I’ll get back to you as quickly as possible.  Also remember to check out my university study skills page for a free chapter on critical thinking.