Posts tagged as:

online tutoring

Spark: How to improve your IQ by 20% in 20 minutes

July 23, 2009

sparkbookcoverSo in doing my monthly education readings as a tutor, I’ve recently had the pleasure of  reading Dr John Ratey’ ‘Spark‘.  I believe that every student and educator should read this book.  Ratey lays out the connection between physical activity and mental acuity and gives educators and students action steps to take to become better students through physical activity.

What Dr John Ratey Suggests

His findings suggest there is a correlation between physical activity and becoming smarter.  He suggests 20 minutes of aerobic activity at 65-75% of your maximum output will result in improved recall and comprehension.

In the VTA Method, one of the central cornerstones of academic success is the use of exercise to improve recall and comprehension.  Anyone who is interested in a quick way to boost your recall almost instantly should give his book a look.  Here are some links to help you out.

If you’d like to check out his book go here: Spark Book

If you’d like to get a sneak peak of his book here: Sneak Peek

If you want to help pay my bills go here: VTA Method

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Johnny Can’t Fail Policy: Why University students are becoming stupider by the minute

June 18, 2009

Ok, fair warning, this is going to be a rant post.

This should be Johnny

This should be Johnny

I’ve just read an article by Joanne Laucius on a new education policy called the “Johnny can’t fail policies”.  Very simply, the policy gives high school students the opportunity to redo tests and assignments and receive ‘incompletes’ for missed work and plagiarism instead of a zero.  These policies as stated by the Ministry of Education have been implemented to increase student’s success, quoting studies that failing students or giving them zeros does not cause them to learn their lesson and succeed in the long run.  This is ridiculous.

Why this is Ridiculous

First off, without viewing the evidence of student achievement vs harsh marking for plagiarized and missed assignments I cannot specifically comment from a quantitative standpoint.  However, from a qualitative standpoint I can tell you that this ‘policy’ is absolute bullshit and will only produce low quality, academically unaccountable students.

The western education system has made a choice in terms of how we teach students.  We have decided to use standardized testing in order to categorize and stratify students.  This is a very good way to let people who are good at crossword puzzles and rote memorization to float to the top.  I personally think our system is bullshit but unfortunately I’m not a university dean or in charge of the board of education… yet.

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General Tips for Academic Success: Where’s the “ANY” Key?

June 15, 2009
D,oh, sometimes I'm so concerned with advanced methods, I forget the basics

D,oh, sometimes I'm so concerned with advanced methods, I forget the basics

I’ve unfortunately committed one of the cardinal sins of critical thinking….

I can’t believe I haven’t addressed this earlier but unfortunately I sometimes don’t see the forest for the trees.

I got an email from a student today, she asked me for some ‘general tips for academic success’. I was just about to throw her an email saying “well, uhh… why don’t you just check out the ENTIRE BLOG, WEBSITE and BOOK!

But I then took a look around the blog and realized I haven’t actually given any of you the basic tips for academic success! I suppose I’ve always just thought that anyone who wanted that info should just check out the VTA Method and consult an online tutor. But I want this blog to be a resource for any student, not just ones that have bought my program (although it’s awesome).

So with that in mind I’m going to start a recurring series of the general tips for academic success. Here is what I’m planning on talking about:

General college study tips

Exam study tips

How to study for finals

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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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Neuro Linguistic Programming: How to get free Chai Tea at Starbucks

June 3, 2009

Hello fellow students.

starbucksI’m sitting in Starbucks right now in my favorite comfy leather chair sipping a hot, tasty and most importantly FREE organic chai tea.  Many of you that have read the my book have read the section on Neuro-Linguistic-Programming and how to get your prof to hand you over higher marks through using NLP techniques.  Well I’ve been experimenting as of late with NLP on regular people and have recently been performing a little study on my Starbucks barista’s.

Oh and if my barista is reading this… umm sorry?

I go to my coffee shop usually a few days a week as it’s a great study space.  I can write and do work without the distractions of media and roommates constantly interrupting my flow.  Due in part to boredom and the desire to get free stuff, I’ve been experimenting with getting a free morning tea when I come in through the door using a low level form of hypnotization.  I’ve refined the process down to a success rate of approximately 90% based on a count of 11 interactions after the initial programming took place which took about two weeks.  If you love free tea like me, I highly suggest you give this a try. This may require some time and practice as this is in master Jedi territory.  But once you get it, you should be getting free tea almost all the time!

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Parkinson’s Law: Why extra study time is your worst enemy

June 2, 2009

parkinsonslawHello students.  I have a post today about something that really pushed me into productivity through the end of my undergraduate degree and graduate school.  Let me premise this post with a small case study.

Two people are given an assignment to complete.  The first is given 2 days to complete the assignment and the second is given 2 weeks.

Student 1 freaks out over only having two days to complete the assignment and starts researching immediately.  He gets the assignment in but literally with only a few hours to spare.  He spends the whole two days working on the assignment.

Student 2 doesn’t freak out as he has two weeks.  He thinks about doing some work on the project right away but puts it off until 3-4 days before the due date.  He then proceeds to hold off the assignment till the last minute and ends up spending less time working on the paper cumulatively than student 1.

What can we learn from this?

Very simply, ‘work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,’ the quality of an assignment doesn’t really differ if you have two days or two weeks to accomplish it.  This is the core premise of Parkinson’s Law.

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How to get into Med School In Europe

May 22, 2009

This guest post comes from Stefan from StudySuccessful.com, a site about successful studying!.

How to apply for med school in EuropeMed School applications

I’ve read many blogs about studying, and I ran into some posts about ‘applying for med school.’ The American people have to do strange things and are only focused on grades and extracurricular activities. In Europe, it’s just the same!

I’m a high school student in Holland, and I want to study Medicine next year. There are two ways to get there.

1.  Through a draw.

Every student who wants to study Medicine is registered and you have to get picked out of a big pile of ‘want to become med school students’. Sounds unfair, but it isn’t that unfair. The better your grades are, more chance you have to be drawn. And if your average grade is above an 8 (on a scale to 10) you are in there anyway. This means the Dutch are also focused on grades, the higher grades you have, more chance you have to join the education you want to do!

2. Through the ‘not central selection.’

This is a way besides the draw, and just for the ones who want to. Only a couple of universities work with this system.

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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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