About writing and life
About writing and life
What Should I Go To School For? All Your Questions Answered Currently, there seems to be a lot of debate surrounding which college majors are worth pursuing. With a large selection of majors being offered by countless colleges, and a lot of talk about high-paying […]
✅ What are some of the popular roles in part-time jobs? While part-time jobs are becoming increasingly open across number of fields, there are some professions which make a great fit for this type of work. With the Internet and the digital age making their […]
Hey everyone, I’m actually an undergrad right now, just had a question for some of you further along in the process. Right now I’m nearing the home stretch of the finals season (one more to go), and after a week straight of 10 hour study days punctuated by various finals I feel mentally/physically ill at the thought of more studying. Granted I brought it upon myself by waiting until the last minute to catch up with everything, I still feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. I can’t imagine doing this for more than short bursts at a time (i.e cramming right before finals, then having a month off), but I’ve heard that med school shoves 100x more info down your throat than undergrad, which could make EVERY week a study week. My question is, do you guys feel like you got smarter or more efficient at studying once med school came around, or is every day filled with massive amounts of studying? I could imagine some serious depression setting in if every week were like finals week.
NO MATTER IF you think you’re not ‘gifted’.
NO MATTER IF you think you’re not ‘lucky’.
NO MATTER IF you think you’re not talented and can’t afford to go to Harvard.
NO MATTER IF you know you’re smart but you have poor study habits.
NO MATTER IF you think of yourself as a “procrastinator”.
Get The Best Grades With the Least Amount of Effort contains a step-by-step formula to help you get better grades without having to study harder and without reading more books or doing extra credit projects to balance out your test scores.
The honest truth is, “studying hard” cannot and will not guarantee you better grades. What you need is a better SYSTEM that makes study a breeze. So you get better grades while studying LESS. Practicing “smarter” rather than “harder” study habits is the best way to get better grades and make it through colleges or universities such as the Phoenix University for example.
Using the secrets you’ll learn in Get The Best Grades With the Least Amount of Effort you’ll study LESS for an essay test, a multiple choice test or an exam and still get better grades on your report card.
But it’s not only about good grades now, is it? It’s about getting the best grades you can so that you get your dream job that earns you good money and provides the lifestyle you want.
Sure, you can find a ton of material on learning strategies on the Internet, but you will never find anything that comes close to Get The Best Grades With the Least Amount of Effort because it’s not about just going over the same tired old “brute force” rote learning strategies your grandfather used when he was at school, but using the latest advances in speed learning psychology to turn you into the best you can be.
Two very good questions. Let me briefly tell you about some of the times I have personally used these study methods to “ace” tests and exams, while still having a life.
Most people, myself included, think math is just hard. That it’s intrinsically more difficult than other subjects, and math proficiency is reserved only the brightest and geekiest among us. I thought this way too, until my last year of university.
Story time: I’ve always excelled at school. I took Behavioral Neuroscience, a historically difficult subject, and crushed it consistently for four years with an A average. Physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology — these were all a total breeze, so I always figured I was smart and capable. Until my last year, where my academic adviser told me I needed to take a first year math class to graduate.
I already felt the panic coming on. I hated math, and had done everything in my power to avoid it like the plague for the last half-decade. How could it have caught up to me?! In hindsight… that’s probably why I was in this position to begin with. I didn’t see the irony at the time.
Eventually, I de-curled from my ball of death and enrolled, figuring that things were different this time around — that I was a wise, intelligent senior and a class like this was only scary if you were a pimply-faced eighteen year old.
Right. Math destroyed me. Again. I studied night and day to no avail, and I barely made it through with a C, which was the minimum grade required to stay in my program. The worst part was, that single math class cost me my Honors designation, which, to me, was practically the foundation of my life at the time.
Immediately after receiving my grades, I was stunned. How could I have done so poorly? It’s clear I was a strong student from my other courses, so why was I so terrible at math? Was I just dumb? These thoughts and more were going through my head when, all of a sudden, I had probably my first truly great idea in five years: why not ask the pimply-faced eighteen year olds who walked out of there with an A?
To a student that was (at the time) treating every one of their textbooks like the Bible, this was news. Until this point, I had always thought that the best resource for acing a class was going to be supplied by the class itself. It just made logical sense — exam material was based off readings, which was based off a textbook… right?
Wrong. Immediately after graduating, I set myself on a path of self-discovery. I wanted to get to the root of why I sucked as much as I did, so I made it a point to spend time nearly every night developing my understanding of mathematics. I’ve now learned more math outside of a classroom than in one.
What I’ve discovered over the last year of study is that math is different. Math isn’t a bunch of disparate facts you need to memorize, like in anatomy or physiology. Nor is it a series of equations you need to regurgitate, like in chemistry or physics.
Math is not necessarily about being smart (though smarter people do tend to be better at it). It’s about looking at every problem from the bottom-up — without presuppositions and without preconceptions. And as you work on solving each problem, you get to build your understanding of the universe anew.
School tries to teach it to you from the top-down. You learn the formula, then you learn how to apply it, but you never learn why it exists in the first place. Derivations are rote-memorized, not understood. This is critical to developing an appreciation for the beauty of mathematics, but most of the time, academia ignores it entirely.
I struggled with math because I always took the word of my heavily dated textbooks as gospel. But that gospel was leading me astray. It’s not enough to treat mathematical concepts as mere facts to memorize — you must internalize their reason for being, and the necessity that spurred their discovery.
School will never teach you this. Not because they’re evil, or because they don’t want you to succeed, but because learning mathematics this way is simply not economical at scale. Public education would rather cater to the lowest common denominator than uplift a choice few, and that’s understandable given their responsibility to society.
If you truly want to learn this, then you must go outside academia. My journey to becoming smarter in math has included the following resources in order (some of these have changed not just my math skills, but my life):
A note: you will not become a mathematical genius reading these books. If that is your goal, once you finish Calculus by Strang you will inevitably have to dive into denser and less readily-understandable material. But even if you finish the books on this list and no others, you will leave math with a deep and solid understanding of fundamental mathematical principles — principles which the vast majority of people will never understand in their entire lives.
Resource:
https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/do-you-get-smarter-in-med-school.350310/
http://get-better-grades.com/
https://nicksaraev.com/how-to-become-smarter-in-math/
Motivation: The Scientific Guide on How to Get and Stay Motivated Motivation is a powerful, yet tricky beast. Sometimes it is really easy to get motivated, and you find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement. Other times, it is nearly impossible to figure […]
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Report writing skills are abilities that help professionals write reports, which are brief documents about a topic. Although there are many writing careers, such as reporters, journalists and authors, report writing skills are applicable for several jobs. For example, lawyers, sales managers or project managers may write reports concerning their profession. These documents may contain updates or analyses about a project or study. Report writing skills may include writing, editing and researching. You can use these skills to create an impressive report with clear and meaningful content.
This guide has been written to provide a general introduction to writing reports. It outlines the typical structure of a report and provides a step by step guide to producing reports that are clear and well structured.
A report is written for a clear purpose and to a particular audience. Specific information and evidence are presented, analysed and applied to a particular problem or issue. The information is presented in a clearly structured format making use of sections and headings so that the information is easy to locate and follow.
When you are asked to write a report you will usually be given a report brief which provides you with instructions and guidelines. The report brief may outline the purpose, audience and problem or issue that your report must address, together with any specific requirements for format or structure. This guide offers a general introduction to report writing; be sure also to take account of specific instructions provided by your department.
Most reports require research. This could include research within your team or department or from external sources. For example, you might find data to support how well your team is performing. Alternatively, you might quote a scholar from your field to add to your report. Research skills refer to being able to find relevant and credible sources that supplement your writing. To conduct research, it’s important to find reputable sources. You can do this by verifying the author and publisher to ensure they’re reliable.
Planning is a stage of report writing where you organize your document into separate sections. Most reports have a summary, introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion. This skill is valuable because it helps you organize the components of your report so that it’s easy to understand. If you know what you’re going to write and how you’re going to write it, then you may have an easier time creating the report. The writing process is usually more efficient when you use planning skills.
Writing skills is the ability to communicate effectively with words. This is an essential skill for reports since creating the document requires writing. This ability also refers to how well you can write. A report with impressive writing may mean that the language is professional and clear. For example, you might use coherent sentence structures and correct terminology. Impressive writing skills may also include your spelling, grammar and punctuation. It’s important to have advanced writing abilities, so your report is professional.
Reports often include analysis, which is making a conclusion or statement based on evidence. Analysis also involves explaining why or how something happened. For example, a scientist might use analytical skills to evaluate the results of their experiment. When writing a lab report, they could use data from the experiment to support their analysis. Being able to analyze means you can summarize the subject and provide evidence that reinforces your ideas.
Brevity in writing means you can explain your content using few words or sentences. Although reports in different professions or companies may vary in length, most reports are typically short. Brevity can help you include all of your content within a page length requirement. Even if your assignment can be longer, brevity is an important skill to have. It can help make your writing concise. Short and simple sentences are typically easier to read than long and complex sentences.
Once you write your report, it’s good practice to read and revise it. Editing is the ability to identify and fix mistakes in your writing. This can make your document easier to read. An error-free document also looks advanced and professional. When revising your report, try to check for grammar, spelling and punctuation mistakes. You can also look for confusing sentences or incorrect information.
Firstly, they’ll need to write in a way appropriate for the audience they are trying to connect with. They will have identified this audience back in the research stage of writing, but they will now need to take this information into account while writing.
Generally, it is good practice for the student to avoid jargon in their information reports or, at least, introduce difficult subject-specific vocabulary with a brief explanation when first mentioned in the text.
While the needless use of jargon should be discouraged, using subject-specific vocabulary is not only unavoidable, it should be encouraged. Where necessary, the student should consider including a glossary within their report to assist the reader to understand difficult, unfamiliar terms.
The most efficient way to inform the reader is to communicate in a direct and uncomplicated way. Students should not try to dazzle the reader with the beauty of sophisticated, grammatically complex sentences.
The purpose here is to communicate information, not to beguile with linguistic virtuosity. Reinforce with your students the importance of a no-nonsense approach to writing their information reports – the practical over the ornate, always!
This individual can be entirely imaginary, e.g. a hypothetical work colleague or boss, but having a clear image of the reader in their mind often helps the student to write in a more direct, straightforward manner.
While the above questions help the student to focus on tangible aspects of the information report’s structure, the student should also consider less pin-downable aspects of their work such as the ‘look’ and the ‘feel’ of the text.
In the next run-through, the student will narrow their focus down to each individual sentence to focus on grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This edit examines the nuts and bolts of the writing process and students should ask themselves the following questions as they edit:
However, they should also cast a critical eye over each and every word in their report themselves. While checkers are extremely useful tools to help ensure accuracy, they are far from infallible and cannot ‘check’ on the writer’s intent. At least not yet!
When pressed up against deadlines and even the desire just to be done with it, students often lack the necessary perspective to be able to adequately edit their own work. And, because it isn’t always possible to get a qualified third party with the time or inclination to run a critical eye over their work, it’s important that students take the time to allow their work to rest.
This slower pace encourages the student to pay more attention to the words on the page and provides them with a further opportunity to catch any mistakes as they listen to the words rather than merely read them.
It is these two facts that should reinforce every decision students make during the writing process. With these facts consistently in mind, it will be difficult for students to stray too far from the report’s original goals.
By practising the skills required to write informatively for a specific audience and for a particular purpose, students will develop the skills necessary to communicate effectively throughout their schooling and beyond into their working lives.
The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh. A former principal of an international school and university English lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane’s latest Book the Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing can be found here. Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.
Sources:
https://www.bangor.ac.uk/studyskills/study-guides/writing-reports.php.en
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/report-writing-skills
https://literacyideas.com/2021-6-24-top-5-information-report-writing-skills-for-students/
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Technology today is responsible for the changes in how we go about different tasks. From education to transport, technology is quickly changing ways of completing tasks and going about various activities. In the education domain, e-learning has been a key aspect that has come to the fore – thanks to increasing digitization and the interconnectedness of websites over the internet.
Various institutions of learning have e-learning programs, and instructors continue to improve and make modifications to their e-learning programs in a bid to enhance the quality of these programs by the day.
Simple Designs and Layouts Streamline the Whole Process
Since most of the e-learning happens behind a computer, or a screen of some device; coming up or adjusting the site to have a simple design can help a great deal. Reducing on-screen clutter and whitespace makes it easier to understand what is going on, and allows for easy navigation.
Simple designs will appeal to most learners, and this will make the whole e-learning process seamless and easy to maneuver.
Use Tutorials
For e-learning to be effective, you need to come up with tutorials on the course that is in progress as well as other courses. Tutorials are easy to understand, and learners can go through the tutorial during the lesson and even at their own time. This helps them to have a ready source of information. Some learners can take the initiative of reading ahead, and this will help to bolster the learning experience.
Tutorials coupled with scenarios or case studies also help to elaborate concepts clearly, which allows learners to understand easily.
Set Goals and Targets
When you work with targets, goals, and objectives; it is easier to track your progress over time. Working with targets helps you to come with a schedule which optimizes the time that you have on a particular course.
Goals make the learners have a sense of the importance of the course, and it also helps them focus on the course outline and the course content in general with an end goal of meeting set targets and objectives concerning that course.
Work on the Quality of the Content
The quality of the content is very important when it comes to e-learning programs. Even with good designs and layouts, coherent goals and objectives, and tutorials; it all boils down to the content available. The e-learning program is as good as the content that is on the site. On this account, there is a need to work on the content to ensure that it is top-notch, and it accurately conveys course content and related information.
References
E-learning has no significant differences with traditional or conventional learning. Research is still a key aspect of e-learning as it is in traditional learning. In this regard, therefore, there is a need for you to provide links to resources and references that relate to the course in progress.
Properly aggregated information on the course does not preclude references and resources, and therefore; you should ensure that there are links that students can use to access content that will help to enhance the course that they are taking.
Mobile-Friendliness
In today’s highly interconnected world, it is hard to talk about access to the web and internet activity without mentioning smartphones and tablets. These devices are some of the key mechanisms that individuals all over the world use to access the internet. Therefore, if you are out to make your e-learning effective, you have to consider mobile users.
Adjust and make your e-learning platform mobile responsive to ensure that learners who use mobile phones do not miss out.
Create a Feedback Mechanism
Since e-learning is entirely online dependent, coming up with a mechanism of getting feedback from learners is very important. This helps you to get views about the platform, the problematic areas, and those that are working well. This information is essential since it helps you to make adjustments geared towards enhancement of the e-learning platform.
Create Scenarios for Group Activity
Group activity is essential, especially when it comes to academics. Group activity allows learners to share ideas on different concepts, which can help the learners to understand various concepts better.
When creating or enhancing your e-learning platform, creating scenarios that demand group activity is an important step in the right direction. It significantly helps to increase the effectiveness of the e-learning program and also enhances the quality of the overall learning process.
In summary, there are ways that you can use to increase the effectiveness of your e-learning program which will result in benefits to the learners as well as the instructors. Improving your e-learning platform also makes it easier to monitor, assess, and facilitate the whole learning process.
Audio Books are the new cool. They are something that I would highly recommend to any person who is not a fan of reading books but fancies the art of storytelling. Any audiobook would give you the emotional appeal that you wouldn’t get by just […]