Helpful Tips
We are given tips everday, more so if you are a waiter but this section contains a lot of helpful tips to help you stay focused and on task when you\'re studying. More »
Motivation
A motivated individual is a succesful individual because they will not stop until they reach their goal and once they do they set new goals. Sometimes we lack that motivation to help us push through and these articles are great to keep you motivated. More »
Exam Preparation
No matter how intelligent we are, everyone seems to freeze up right before an exam. It is natures way of telling us that we are not necessarily unprepared but are rather afraid that we will not have an opportunity to apply what we know. More »
Study Skills
Do you have the skills to get over that study hill? Your attitude really does determine your latitude. Check here for a few things you can do better improve your performance. More »
Time Management
Time is money but while you are learning it\'s priceless because there is so much more you can do if you had extra time. Learn how to manage your time efficiently so that you can get the most. More »
Planning to live on residence?
So you’ve finally convinced your parents to let you live by yourself on residence at school. Give yourself a pat on the back Mr.Macho. You feel like a million bucks and can’t wait till you actually get out to university/college so you can experience what it feels like to finally stand on your own two feet. Now there’s a lot of different factors that effect just how enjoyable your university life will be. I’ll list a few and a few tips as well. Firstly despite what your friends tell you or what you’re pressured to do, you’re at school for one reason and one reason only. To PARTY! Psyche, just kidding. You’re there to get an education and to get your degree/diploma. Never and I repeat NEVER lose sight of this goal. By acting on impulse you may enjoy the moment but you’ll pay dearly for your slip ups later on. Okay enough with the depressing stuff, on to the good stuff (Jay Z tune in the background).
Living on Campus
1. Residence is a way for your independence to grow and for you to blossom as a young adult. You may feel like now that you’re away from your family, you won’t have as much responsbilities as you did before. That’s not the case my ill-informed friend. You’re going to have to do everything yourself. Wake yourself up, cook all your meals, make your bed, clean up after yourself, and learn how to manage your money. If you’re in the 5% of the population that actually did this before you leave for university, once again give yourself a pat on the back. The other 95% listen up. You may feel over burdened with all this sudden responsibility. But the earlier you learn how to take care of your own stuff, the more succesful you will be. I mean come on now you don’t want to end up being a 30 year old that still depends on your parents do you?
2. A great way to improve your social life and meet new people By living on campus you’ll build a small family with the students and dons that you are surrounded with. Universities usually design their residence programs with you in mind. A lot of neat social venues are usually planned and mapped out throughout the year. Just make sure you get the time to actually go to a few and before you know it you won’t even miss being away from home. You will have found your comfort zone and your “crowd” of people that you can hang out with it. Trust me I’ve been there. The first 2 weeks up until the first month, you WILL feel homesick. This is inevitable, especially because you’ve spent a majority if not all of your life before residence living at home. Momma’s cooking doesn’t taste so bad now, does it?
3. An easy way to get to and from school Living on residence has a huge benefit in that you live RIGHT next to school. Literally 2-5 mins away from school. This gives you no excuse to get lazy and skip or to blame the weather. You should be in class whenever you need to and will end up saving a lot more time than those who commute daily to school. This will also allow you to go to more social gatherings/clubs at school and once again works on improving that social impact of yours. Another great thing is that you will also be really close to the school gym so you can get in your exercise and get back home in time to have a protein drink.
4. Better Academic Success With all this saved time, universities almost swear that kids who live on campus tend to do better academically. It makes sense to me because when you live so close to school, you can easily schedule times to meet up with TA’s, profs or even other students to study and work together. Also you will probably have been exposed to almost everything you wanted to try by living on residence, and that will cause you to grow and see what you really find to be important. Sure with the freshman there might be a few people who just want to party 24/7. But by the time you get to your second year you’ll see that these non-stop partyers will have been weeded out and everyone left will have found the balance between partying and school.
The one downside of living on residence is the obvious fact that it will cost you more. But I can honestly say it’s a small price to pay and by the end of it all you will be glad that you took the chance to experience residence life instead of being one of those people who regret that they didn’t
Why do people fear exams and what you can do to overcome this anxiety?
Exam anxiety is something that’s known to us all. No matter how ready we may seem to be, anxiety always hits us. For some people it’s the night before and it causes them to lose valuable sleep. For others its as they wake up on the day of the exam and for others it can be as late as when you’re sitting in the exam room waiting for the exam to be placed in front of you. But what’s the reason for this fear? There’s a few different reasons for this. Some people frankly just feel the pressure because they feel that this exam, yes this one single exam determines who they will be in the future and they have everything riding on it. A lot of people see it as they really want to impress their parents or guardians, because they’ve been in that situation since they were young. Also theres the fact that if you’re studying the day before and you figure out that you really don’t understand one concept, your world starts to slowly come apart. Take a deep breath and relax, at the end of the day as long as you get a mark that satisfies yourself that should really be what you’re aiming for. They say if you shoot for the moon you’ll probably end up among the stars. But don’t always set your expectations too high or you’ll always be dissapointed and that fear will start building up in you.
Be Fearless when writing your exams
For me personally I used to be one of these individuals who was always stressed out before an exam. I would think to myself “Oh man, a 60% final, it’s either a make or break, its crunch time baby!”, and despite me knowing that I knew all of the content I would still come out of the exam with a 70%. That’s when I tried a different approach, a more laid back approach. I still studied the same amount but I would take a 30 minute power nap at least 2 hours before my exam, then wake up with an hour and 30 minutes left. Get all my supplies ready, and just skim through all the notes I made. This would leave me with about an hour left at which point I would just sit down and meditate for 15 minutes. Yeah I know meditating may sound weird, but it’s a great way to clear your mind of all distractions. I found I did much better on my exams taking this approach. After this I would put my headphones out and walk to my exam room (I lived on campus) and just listen to my favourite tunes. Aim for something soothing, dubstep is definitely not recommended. This really got me in my comfort zone and even once I arrived to my exam room area I would still continue to listen to music. The reason for this being is because once you’re outside your exam room you may have all these students who are in a state of panic asking eachother questions and hearing their questions may just end up confusing what you already know. Fear is contagious so make sure not to catch it right before your exam. Find yourself a nice little way of ridding yourself from the fear of exams. It’s only one exam don’t lose any sleep or hair over it. Life is too big to worry about the little things. I’m not saying an exam is a little thing but you’re almost guaranteed to do better if you don’t worry.
