Posts tagged as:

study hacks

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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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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Top 10 Study Blogs: Where Students should begin for Academic Success

May 29, 2009

 

Hello Fellow StudentsOnline Tutoring program

So instead of writing out a large and long article about my 10 favorite study websites I have instead decided to do a video.  These are my top picks for academic success blogs.

P.S. I don’t actually think I’m number 1… yet J But I mean COMMON, its my blog right?  I’m not going to rank myself last!

 

10: http://www.debtfreescholar.com/

 

9: http://www.brokegradstudent.com/

 

8: http://www.survivingcollegelife.com/

 

7: http://studenthacks.org/

 

6: http://studysuccessful.com/

 

5: http://www.academicproductivity.com/

 

4: http://www.zencollegelife.com/

 

3: http://theuniversityblog.co.uk/

 

2: http://calnewport.com/blog/

 

1: http://virtualteachingassistant.com/blog/

 

 

Anybody have any suggestions as to other blogs I missed?  Please comment below.

 

As always please help me pay my billirini’s (yes that’s not a word, but again my blog so I can invent words) by visiting my main site:

 

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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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