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.



I was speaking with quite a few students lately who have been experiencing a lack of passion with their degree. I recently spoke to two students in particular that were both facing the same problem in my program. A feeling that they had lost the desire they once had in their subject matter and didn’t know how to get it back. Here are the three main suggestions I gave them so they could regain the passion they once had in college.

Remember why you started this degree

After a few years of readings, papers, exams and labs many students forget why they actually started their degree. I asked one of my students this exact question and he couldn’t answer it. If you’re lacking motivation in your degree I suggest you go back to your last year of high school and find out why you chose your subject in the first place, did you really want to become a doctor and decided to enter premed? Did you have a passion for ancient history and decided to become a historian? Were you constantly intrigued with human interaction and wanted to become a sociologist?

Go back to that time when you were starting your degree and find the excitement you once had for the subject.

Concentrate on your end goal rather than your journey

A lot of students have what I call the “I just don’t wanna” problem. Many students concentrate so much on the journey that they forget to pull their head out of their work for a minute and really look at what they’ve accomplished and how close they are to their end goal. Stop right now, take a minute and look at what you’ve accomplished. Think about how far you’ve come! Even better, go take a look at some of your earlier essays, exams and labs; after you stop laughing take a minute to realize the improvements you’ve made in yourself and how much better you’re about to become.

Re-evaluate why you wanted to go into (X)

Unlike other tutors and student mentors, I personally think that sometimes you should absolutely re-evaluate why you wanted to go into your chosen subject and whether you should complete it. I knew a student who was really interested in becoming a doctor, she had the grades but she was so much more interested in design. After a long talk we both realized that it was her parents who had forced her into premed and she really wanted to get into architecture. She switched majors next semester and never looked back. Never get forced into a degree that you aren’t passionate for. Even if you complete the degree you’ll never be happy with the ensuing career. Follow your passion and money will follow.

However, remember that you can’t live on passion alone

You can’t live on passion alone, make sure you stay accountable to the fundamentals but also keep a keen eye on your end goal and you should be able to navigate the line between accomplishing the daily goals that your degree requires and motivating yourself towards academic success.

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.

Over the last few months I’ve had dozens of students join my program. For those of you that don’t know; when I sit down with a student for the first time by phone or over skype I ask that they have 3 pieces of information prepared for me.

1. The courses they took last semester
2. The courses they are taking this semester
3. Their top three frustrations with University

With this information I’m usually able to match new students with a tutor that work relatively well with them. During this initial interview I really get to the core of what they are about. Many students don’t stop to realize what kind of problems they really have with university until I force them into confronting there demons by laying out exactly what their problems are. Therefore to help more students, I’m going to introduce a new series into effective study skills where I share the frustrations many of my students faced and how they conquered them.

During this series I will be concentrating on students’ individual case studies and how they are succeeding in speeding less time studying and getting higher grades

Sud, A great student who is trying to become an elite student

Sud (pseudonym) is a first year premed student, concentrating in classics from Yale. He has so far been doing extraordinarily well in most of his courses.

Here is a breakdown:

Bioethics: A

Constitutional history: A-

Gen Chem Lab: A

Ancient Greek: A

Gen Chem: B+

Sud’s three major frustrations with university were as follows:

1: Inability to understand what I did wrong and the ability to improve what’s not working

2: Time management, staying on top of class readings and not falling behind

3: Having energy to take on the day

Although Sud is doing well in most of his classes, he feels like he is constantly fighting the rising tide, combating conflicting schedules and preparing for courses that never seem to have an end.

Although, it appears at first glance that Sud’s frustrations aren’t necessarily linked, on review I would suggest that these frustrations all related to one overarching subject… planning. Fortunately, Sud has conquered the difficult part of a successful university career, commitment and work ethic. However, he lacks effective time management skills to understand where he has gone wrong, how to optimize his schedule so it doesn’t happen again and how to re-organize his schedule so he can be as energized as possible to take on the heavy course load associated with a premed program.

I made the following suggestions to Sud to optimize his schedule so he could keep his head above water academically and become a better student.

1. Perform exam/test/quiz post mortems finding out exactly what you did right and exactly what you did wrong. Then take what you didn’t understand to the professor or teaching assistant immediately so you can figure out exactly what you need to know to succeed next time.
2. Understand where you are going wrong in tests so you can foresee and anticipate your weak points and work to become better at it.
3. Keep a strong reading schedule each week so that you can stay on top of readings and perform weekly reviews of exactly what you have and haven’t done so you don’t lose track of homework which can very quickly pile up if not paid attention to.
4. Block out some time to disconnect from school through sports or exercise. I suggested he also change his college diet and start taking gaba supplement when he felt stressed out.

Just because you have great marks doesn’t mean their isn’t room for improvement

Just because students like Sud are currently doing well does not mean that high performing students shouldn’t be working towards less studying and more learning. By optimizing his schedule, continually keeping tabs on how his studying is going and by keeping his energy levels up and stress levels down, he should be studying less than ever before while still keeping and possibly improving his already impressive marks in premed.

Have anything to add, have a suggestion for Sud? Leave a comment!

So my brother has opened up a new blog called psone classics. He’s written up a little article on responsible gaming in university. Please check out the post and take a look at the blog.

Video games are a great way to entertain yourself, they’re relatively cheap, engaging, and if you have friends that play as well, they can even be social. But sadly there is a dark side to gaming, and many of us have seen friends slowly disappear to the cave of their dorm rooms with a computer loaded with World of Warcraft, boxes full of energy drinks, with friends and homework forbidden inside.

This is a sad thing, seeing your friends disappear into that world, where nothing else matters but that next item they’ve been working towards, or that boss they need to slay before they can sleep for the night. It’s really tragic to see this take hold on a friend of yours, but even worse when you become that cave dwelling Red Bull guzzling potato.

How can you avoid this gruesome fate?

This list will help.

(I mean, if you don’t stay in school and get a good job, where will your gaming budget go? Down that’s where.)

Part One, Choose the right games.

The Campaign in this game took 5 hours, the online can span hundreds.... - Image via Wikipedia

First off, you need to move away from the “games with no end”. W.O.W. is the big one, but there are others out there, like the multi-player shooters, Team Fortress, Call of Duty, Left for Dead… These games are all a ton of fun, but because they have no end (W.O.W. more so and the others through multiplayer) it’s easy to get addicted, and because there’s no end, nothing is there to make you think twice about gaming all night (and it’s something that happens quite regularly). Playing games with a storyline that has a beginning, middle and end are a much safer bet, once the story is finished there’s a sense of closure. Afterwards sleep seems like an interesting reprieve, and of course, that paper that needs to get done by Friday.

Part Two, use games as your reward.

This is something I do a lot of. When I’m really looking forward to a new release, I’ll pre-order it, and put it on my TV. I also take a post-it note and write a goal on it, then stick it to that pristine box with that sure to be interesting game I’ve been waiting for inside.

This gives you something to work towards, perhaps it’s a reward for finishing your exams, or for completing your last assignment in this way you can make your gaming habit work for you instead of it working against you.

(there is also some research to suggest your gaming habit makes you smarter, check out the link at the bottom of this post)

Part 3, If you’re an online gamer.

If you’re an online gamer and many of you are, there is one trick that will help you not get SO addicted to playing online, that trick is to only play with people that you know in real life.

When someone gets addicted to an online game such as World of Warcraft, they not only get addicted to the gameplay, but to the social aspect as well. A few game companies have realized this and released games such as Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc. on social media sites not only to get them to play those games, but make it so if they quit their habit (of playing an MMORPG or something like Farmville) they’ll lose those people they knew online.

If you were seriously addicted to playing Farmville for instance (a game on Facebook) you’d have to leave the site, because half of all the updates now are “Jenny found a sad little cow on her farm in Farmville, will you help her?” Imagine the power that has, making not only the work you put into the game something you’d lose, but friends as well.

Boiled down, if you play online, have a guild, etc, make it a local guild that does things other than play games together, then you’ll have real friends instead of just nameless people you meet on the internet (not real friends).

Part Four, Use your time wisely.

If you’re studying you need a lot of time to get all your assignments, labs, and papers finished and up to par. But you need time to unwind as well. Gaming works well in this regard as a great source of escapism, but there’s a time for it.

Make a schedule with all the classes, meetings, studying and workouts you have to do, and make some time specific for gaming. If you don’t you’ll run the risk of trading sleep time for game time, or friend time for game time. Even if you have a night of the week that you take off to unwind, that’s ok, but it’s important to keep to your schedule, and have your important goals (studying!!!) levied first.

Part Five, One game at a time.

One at a time Guys - Image by Adam Jarmon Brown via Flickr

If you’re a big gamer like me, you walk by the local game store and see those wonderfully cheap games sitting there in the used games bin, and sometimes you can’t help but pick one up. This is fine, but there’s one very important thing to remember, gaming is like studying, focusing at one thing will save you a lot of time. So in this regard, only play one game at a time!

Having many games on the go at one time will slow you down, and when one game isn’t going well, you’ll skip to the other one, and by the time you get to your third you’ll realize,

You haven’t had any fun, and spent your time being frustrated,

not progressed in any one game, just tread water in a few,

and made you think you need to buy a new game because these ones are either too hard or not fun enough.

Playing one game at a time, keeps you moving (in the game) and gives you that feeling of satisfaction when you finally complete it instead of it just going on your shelf, or under your bed, or… where ever you keep your games.

Bottom line is, Play one at a time, if it’s too hard, take a break (or read a walkthrough if you’re really stuck). Those problem solving skills will love you for it.

So, there you have it, a few tips on how to keep that gaming habit of yours in check. If this list prevents just one of you from chasing the World of Warcraft dragon I’ll have done my job. Keep studying hard and gaming right.

Brennan M Guest blogging from PSOneClassics.com

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.

I’ve spoken at length about procrastination in previous posts however I had a recent conversation with a student who got me thinking about a new aspect of procrastination and how to conquer it. My student started out with a B- average and went to an A- average in a single semester based on what I’m going to share with you today.

But first a little history…

Historically I had always attacked procrastination the way most people do. I’d keep telling myself to ‘get shit done’ and when I didn’t get said shit done I would wonder why I wasn’t capable of getting said shit done. This followed me for years and years. I’ve also spoken to hundreds of students about this particular issue. I’ve also found a solution that works for me and most of my students but it’s more complex than you think. You see ‘and this will be difficult for quite a few of you’ I’m going to share with you a cold hard truth that very few students realize but nonetheless is central to your overall productivity and long term success.

As the head tutor for the virtual teaching assistant method I do an initial phone conversation with each of my students so I know which tutor to match them to and to answer any questions they have before beginning the program. I had a young student who had been battling procrastination. He asked me why he was constantly procrastinating on papers and studying and losing focus in lectures and readings. He had also told me that he had already tried all the stereotypical anti procrastination techniques like creating to do lists (which he didn’t follow), a semester plan (which he never followed) and keeping a daily planner (he had one but he used it four times during the entire semester). He said that he could never stay committed to any of these reminders and asked me what he was missing.

The Basis Of Procrastination

I sat there, going over what he had just told me and realized that he didn’t miss a thing. He was doing EVERYTHING RIGHT and none of what he was doing was resulting in winning marks. If you’re reading this then you’ve probably achieved at least a 6^th grade reading level and you’re probably a high school or college student who is trying to figure out how to banish distraction just like my student. You’re probably thinking that I have some kind of secret kernel of knowledge that I’m about to share with you that will automatically make you a focused and therefore successful student. Fortunately I do have a solution to overcoming procrastination; unfortunately it’s not what you think. You see the reality is that my student could become a ‘focused’ student and banish distraction by completely changing his mindset, personality and upbringing by reprogramming his mind to get his work done on time and I do offer those tools through my book but to be honest with you the insights I provide in 30 mins a day to a 4.0 gpa aren’t much different than any other study book when it comes to procrastination. The reality is that (and this will be hard for you) IF YOU ARE LAZY YOU WILL MOST LIKELY ALWAYS BE LAZY

Sorry, it’s true.

If you’re lazy now chances are you’ll be lazy for the rest of your life without a lot of due diligence or self reflexive work to change your mindset. But don’t worry I’m lazy as well and my student and we’ve both become amazingly successful based on this amazing and kind of weird insight.

Overcoming Procrastination Is a Team Sport

Lazy people need other people to keep them accountable, whether its friends, family, study buddies, roommates or trained professionals like those at the virtual teaching assistant method. The fastest and easiest way to success is getting somebody else to keep you accountable. To prove this to you I’m going to tell you exactly what I did with my student and the results.

My student started out with a B- average which to be honest with you isn’t that bad considering he was at a very competitive college and an even more competitive field. He saw some massive improvement after we implemented the following changes.

• My student bought 2 hours a tutoring per month
• He gave me his syllabi and I created auto responders for him 4 days before each test/exam/paper and gave him further auto responders 3, 2 and 1 day before each exam or paper.
• I got him to recreate the same auto responder sequence on a 4 semester white board which I got him to hang up in his study space. I also programmed google calendar with those same due dates which he could download to his ipod.
• I got him to submit his papers and exam study notes 3 days before it was due to his virtual teaching assistant. If it wasn’t submitted in time, his VTA gave him a call and started yelling at him.

The Result?

He went from a B- to an A- average in a single semester. He had all his assignments, papers, exams and tests finished or prepared for 2 days before the due dates and he ended up with a whole lot less stress at the end of the day. Even if you don’t hire one of us remember that changing yourself is difficult, making sure others keep you accountable to those changes are a lot easier. Overcoming procrastination isn’t easy, make sure you have someone with you to keep yourself accountable.

Hello fellow students

As the holiday season is quickly approaching I wanted to extend my warmest holiday wishes to everyone that has been supporting us over the last 6 months and I’d also like to provide everyone with an update on my little company, how it’s progressing and what other education programs I’m putting together in the new year.

Virtual Teaching Assistants Progress Thus Far

As of today, I’ve gotten dozens of students, hundreds of emails and 12 employees. Our students have done very well, some students have gone from failing classes to passing those same classes in a matter of weeks. Others have gone from B’s and C’s to A’s in the same amount of time. Also, we’ve had zero refunds which is really a testament to my virtual teaching assistants and their commitment to help students achieve academic success.

Challenges Virtual Teaching Assistant Method Has Faced

We’ve also had quite a few challenges, we currently updated to a completely new shopping cart system, I went through a lot of trial and error with pay per click adverting until figuring it out and I’ve been putting way too much work into my little company while it expands.

What’s coming to the Virtual Teaching Assistant Method

I’ve got a lot of new stuff coming down the pipe that we are all pretty excited about. Next year is going to be about specification. I’m going to offer programs specifically in tune with different degrees. I’m going to work on getting more tutors so I can serve you better and I’m going to start hiring some more people on so I can take some time off. For my students, thanks for staying with me and for those that aren’t what are you waiting for?

Liam McIvor Martin

Hello Fellow Students

In my ongoing efforts to experiment on my body and brain so you don’t have to I recently decided to go on a raw vegan diet for 7 days. Just like my College Superman Breakfast and my Superman Dinner experiments.  It was both an amazing and difficult experience. For those that know me, I’m no vegetarian, however I got some really interesting results from this little experiment which I think will really help both students and non-students alike.

My Raw Food Diet Quick Results

• Loss of 3 pounds
• Massive increase in energy
• No significant loss in muscle strength (I performed a pre/post muscle tension test and discovered only a slight loss in overall strength)
• Smoother skin
• Calmer attitude (whether this was mental or not I’m not sure, but I felt less violent overall, if anyone else has done this and had the same thing happen to them please explain it in the comments section)

What is a Raw Diet?

Going on a raw vegan diet or engaging in ‘rawism’ is not eating any food that isn’t heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit or 46 degrees Celsius. The theory is that heating the food loses the essential nutrients and amino acids that the body needs to become and stay healthy. Typical foods are fruits, vegetables, raw nuts, legumes and sprouted grains. Some claim raw food diets result in weight loss, more energy, clear skin, improved insulin tolerance and improved health overall.

The Results Of My 7 Day Raw Food Detox Diet

The first 3 days of my raw food experiment I had extreme cravings for simple carbohydrates and meats. I remember going to dinner with a couple friends, having the raw vegetable platter and my other friends ordering a hamburger, steak and ribs. After fantasizing about licking the bbq off my friend Ruxandra’s face I decided that it would be best to keep myself quarantined from meat eaters for the remainder of the experiment.

After I had quarantined myself from the carnivores I started to lose the cravings for meat and started to see some amazing changes in my body. Take a look at the videos below where I show you exactly what happened to me over the 7 days and a great recipe for raw quinoa salad!

Day 1 Of My Raw Food Diet

Day 4 Of My Raw Food Diet

Day 7 Of My Raw Food Diet

Tips For Anyone Who Wants To Start A Raw Food Diet

I saw some amazing gains over my 7 day experiment.  Although I didn’t see any definitive changes in my brain power; I did lose weight, lowered my blood pressure, got softer skin and had much more energy than I did before. If you’re planning on going raw, make sure you’ve defined a clear start and end date. Try to work with a buddy to keep yourself accountable and most importantly, purchase a multitude of different raw foods to keep your taste buds interested.

Here are some examples:

• Sprouted grains like quinoa and wheat (however, check to make sure that the grains you’re sprouting won’t be poisonous as some grains and legumes such as kidney beans become poisonous when sprouted and not cooked).
• Lots of fruits and vegetables, I would suggest you purchase vegetables that have high amounts of amino acids and therefore proteins in them so you won’t immediately burn them off.
• Root Vegetables, I think carrots saved my life during this diet. A big carrot can keep you satisfied; it’s portable and really tasty with a great crunch. It is absolutely central if you want to stay on the path for the full 7 days.

For Students Who Want To Try A Raw Food Diet

If you’re in the middle of your college or high school classes right now I’d highly suggest that you not try the raw food diet until you have some time off. The first few days are hell; some people report massive headaches and lose of energy over the first few days. If you’re looking for more brain power, from the testing I’ve done, I didn’t see any significant increases in my recall or problem solving skills. However, I did see a massive increase in energy and incredibly smooth skin.  I’ve gone back to eating cooked food; however I’m experimenting with eating higher percentages of raw food to see if I can replicate the same results while still eating the protein I need to keep my lean body mass intact.