Memory Improvement Tips for Students

                       Any student knows that memory is crucially important for learning. Generally speaking, when a student has difficulties in learning, they blame their memory. Supposed such blame was true, improving memory would be one of the most essential and earliest things a student should care about and/or do something about.

                In this article, I will share with you some memory improvement tips or strategies that I have personally used in learning. They have helped me to remember what I learn from lectures, classroom discussion, and others. Though they might also for improving memory in general, they are really good for learning, and I believe many students (including you) have probably used some of them too. So without delay, here we go.

1. Revise your lessons

                Revising your lessons is a must, and you can do it each day, week or month. Regularity is the key in lesson revision. The more often you revise your lessons, the better and longer you remember them. Here, the logic is simple and similar to the fact that you automatically remember a lot of scenes in a particular movie that you’ve watched over and over for many times. In my understanding, good students make it their habit to revise their lessons a clear mile before their examination day, which allows them plenty of time to gradually learn and prepare.

                In revision, what you may do are looking at the notes you took in your classes, reading any piece of work in details so as to increase your level of comprehension, doing some exercises, searching for more references or information, and etc.

2. Produce what you’ve absorbed

                Knowledge is one of the world’s renewable resources because the more knowledge you use the more knowledge you have. Some students get confused that they will lose their knowledge if they use it too often. Such thought is completely wrong, in my humble opinion. Knowledge shared is knowledge gained.

            Do you remember the times that your teachers made you rewrite some lessons, say 10 or 20 times? When I was young, my teachers had me rewrite lessons as homework. I sometimes had to write 5 or 10 pages. At the first time, I did not understand why they had to do that to me and really hated them for doing that. But, the more I did it, the more I understood because I remembered what I wrote down. I didn’t have to set aside time to memorize the lessons because I had already understood them from writing.

                I strongly suggest you to produce what you’ve learnt. Never keep it to yourself because knowledge gradually dies if not used. If you learn math, do more exercises. That you learn theories doesn’t necessarily guarantee your ability to tackle the problems or practices. You’ve got to do it often enough to get experience and gain confidence.

3. Use highlighters

                When I mention highlighting, I refer to anything that you can do to make any piece of information stand out. To make certain information spotlighting, you can do many things such as underlining it using pens or pencils, circling it using pens or pencils, highlighting it using markers or highlighters, writing in the margins, writing on paper stickers, folding tips of papers (as to remember the page), and etc.

                The reason we should highlight important information or main concepts is that our attention tends to be drawn to those highlighted words, phrases or sentences, thus making us remember them longer than those not-highlighted.

4. Use senses to help your memory

                In my experience, memory is pretty much related to your senses, and definitely you can use your senses to help you retain certain information. For instance, I am an audio-visual kind of learner. So, I use sound and sight to help me learn. I usually make some graphs or record my voice so as to listen later, especially for revision or reflection. Supposed my teacher had used similar graphs in the test, I would be able to handle the test quite easily because information just flows into my head when I see the graphs.

                For sure, you might not be able to use all the senses at once to help you improve your memory or learn something. But, you can use those that seem so related in the situation. If you are learning how to cook, you can use smell, touch or sight to help you. If you are learning math, you can use sight. Using senses to help your memory really works. (Do you still remember your ABC song?)

5. Use shortcuts

                Your brain works extremely hard daily, and it might get exhausted sometimes. So you need tricks or techniques to empower it. One of these powerful and practical tricks is mnemonics. I’m not going to elaborate more on this, but mnemonics is a strategy to make long phrases or sentences short. For example, ‘WWW’ is for ‘World Wide Web’.

                Using shortcuts or mnemonics really helps especially when you want remember main concepts or key words. If you use it properly, it will help you a lot in your exams.

How to Become a Good Student

How do you define ‘good student’, accurately? Someone who has many friends in class or college? Someone who has good scores? Someone who is liked or loved by their teacher?

                Personally, I have no specific facts about this topic, which I believe to be more opinion-based. Different people have different ideas regarding how to be a good student, and may offer different characteristics about ‘how to be a good student’.

                Therefore, in this article I am going to write all the characteristics of a good student solely based on my personal experience.

                I honestly hope that you (students) reading this article can learn from and adopt the following characteristics as yours so that you can become one of the good students in your class and college.

1. Treat the instructors with respect and courtesy.

                Really, I needn’t mention about this point because almost all students know that they have to show their teachers, instructors, lecturers, trainers, tutors or coaches respect, one of the greatest values that people should have for one another.

                A lot of students know this, but very few students actually follow this advice. I myself used to  one of the most disrespectful students, so I can understand students’ feelings of not liking or wanting to make friends with their teachers, thus choosing a way to humiliate or challenge their teachers.

                Whether you like it or not, teachers are one of the most important contributors to your academic and life success. Teachers of any subject are necessary for the students, for they act as compass and guidance for the students to head to right directions and leading them to right goals.

                Undeniably, any student is still able to learn without instructors, but the pace is surely slower and the probability that the students are able to walk on the right path is also slimmer.

                Before I became a teacher, I was also a student and learnt that my relationship (teacher-student relationship only) with my teachers had got to have to be strong and bound. The stronger the relationship was, the more knowledge I learnt and the more scores I got. Having said like that, I mean that I got very good result when I attended classes whose teacher liked me and whose teacher I liked and respected.

                Personally, even though respect and like are two almost completely different concepts, I honestly believe that they are related to one another in some circumstances and can bet used interchangeably since we sometimes like people whom we respect, and sometimes respect people whom we like.

                I don’t know whether you know this, but like and respect are good motivation for learning. As humans, you and I learn more from those people whom we like and respect and who like and respect us because we actually believe that we are able to talk openly to these people.

                Plus, we know that we are mentally and physically safe being around these people, thus allowing us to originate thoughts, ideas, wisdom and knowledge freely without fear of being criticized or condemned.

                When I was (and actually still am) a student, I think I was very good at showing my teachers respect. How do I know that? It is simple; I was given back respect. (In order words, my teachers respected me back).

2. Be honest.

                A good student is very honest with his teachers, classmates, and especially himself about his study progress, academic performance and anything. He/she doesn’t lie because He/she knows that lying doesn’t bring any long-term benefits, and lies, even if they are white lies, can lead to other people’s losing trust in herself if she is caught lying.

                In case you are ignorant about this, honesty or sincerity is one of the most important qualities that a person must have in order to be successful in life. Regardless of your capability, qualification, and experience, people do not want you to be a part of their life or work unless you are honest. People including you and I don’t want to be cheated or worked over by anyone.

                Personally, I strongly recommend that you, rather than lie about being late or not having an assignment, tell the truth and accept the consequences, which will be less severe than those of lying.

                Please take note that your teacher is not an alien or robot and he/she also used to be a student. They have feelings and are surely able to relate to yours. Tell them all the truths and I assure you that they understand your truths and you as a person. Your instructor will respect you more if you tell the truth rather than make up some obvious lies.

Warning: Don’t overuse this sincerity. No matter sincere you are, you will still face consequences if you repeat the same mistakes or fail to live up to expectations over times. This confession of sincerity can save you once a while only.

3. Come to class on time.

                If you are a university student, you may see one instructor 1 or 2 times per week. These meeting times during the sessions are important; for they help you show the instructor commitment to learn and thrill to better yourself through their lessons. So, you cannot afford to mess up such precious opportunities.

                Coming regularly to class is one thing that you’ve got to have to do. However, coming to class early or on time is indeed another thing. They should not be counted as the same thing by using expression as ‘better late than never’.

                Based on my experience, I can say that missing a class once a while is not a crime. All students are lawfully allowed to be absent from class provided that they have valid reasons and follow college policy.

                Therefore, if you have to miss a class, why not use your given rights? Write your ‘leave form’ to show your instructor that you respect him and his class. However, if you are not able to pre-inform ahead of time, you can just let the instructor know 15 minutes before class (not many instructors like this) and promise to complete ‘leave form for after leave’.

                Personally, I think it is morally important and right to say sorry and clearly explain to your instructor your reasons for being absent from class when you come back the next session; such act can actually melt your instructor’s heart (only if your explanation is sincerely convincing).

                If you clearly show your teachers respect and follow all the required procedure, I guarantee you that you will see their kindness toward you; some instructors are so kind that they even arrange to get the homework for you so that you aren’t behind the class when you return.

4. Classroom participation

                Undoubtedly and obviously, classroom participation is one of the keys to becoming a good student. If you don’t believe me, go and ask any top-performing students you know. If you are bold enough and serious about improving your academic performance, approach one of your classmates who is doing better you do in class, ask them about the importance of classroom participation, and listen attentively to their answer.

                If I am not mistaken, a lot of colleges give a strong emphasis on this very point, classroom participation, for it is believed that student who is active in class tends to learn more quickly and has deeper understanding of the lesson than those who are not. Some instructors literally give a big chunk of score (up to 20%) to classroom participation; if 100 is the full score in the whole semester, students who are exhaustively active in class receive 20 marks and those not active at all 0 marks.

                To put in simple terms, classroom participation is any activity you do in class so as to catch up with the lesson and so as not to get behind anyone. Usually, students who fail to fully participate in class miss instructions of homework or assignments, detailed information related to lesson, etc. Actually, classroom participation can be done in many ways as follows:

1. Asking questions if you have doubts or need clarification about any lesson.
2. Answering questions, making comments, or sharing ideas if you have any. (If possible, you should volunteer to answer since it shows the instructors your great attention and activeness).
3. Maintaining attention with your lecturer through the use of eye contact.
4. Joining peer work, group work and discussion.
5. Doing presentation (slide presentation or just verbal presentation).
6. And possibly, many more positive things.

                Actively participating in class, you show your instructors that you respect them a lot and that you’re paying attention and are actively applying the information. Remember, your instructors don’t stay with you 24 hours a day. They only have very little time, maybe 1 or 2 hours per week, to monitor and get to know you. Therefore, you should use this little time to express to them that you are working hard (and smart) and impress them that they are not wasting time on you because you are someone serious about improving yourself.

5. Submit all your assignments and projects on or even before deadlines.

                If compared, assignments given by your teachers are like work assigned by your employer. If you fail to complete those work on time, it is like you fail to generate money for the company or lose your company money, thus making you a bad employee who deserves to be fired or replaced.

                After you get fired, you will look for a new job hoping that you will survive. However, if you still keep the same habit of not completing your work on time, you will get re-fired for no employer ever wants to pay to hire incapable people who are not able to accomplish any work on time.

                Productivity is actually one of the most important aspects of life. Regardless of whom you are and what you do, you need to produce to survive and live up to today’s good living standard (demanding, competitive, and intense).

                As students, your job (and maybe only job) is to complete your homework and assignments on time. I don’t know whether you have any other roles to play or work to do, but you cannot let those things be your excuse for not having completed your homework or assignments on time before class or deadline.

                Even though they do not have any direct link with financial benefits, homework or assignments do have huge impact on your academic results and future. The more assignments you do, the smarter you become in the field you are studying, the better scores you get, and the more and higher professional opportunities you will have after your graduation.

                To be a really good student, you must prepare for not only college assignments, but also tests. You have to be more than ready even before your exams come. Like championship boxers, you have be train yourself regularly and right, endure some (read: a lot of) pain, rehearse your tactics right, prepare your nerves and confidence, and most importantly, make sure that you know exactly what you are going to do when your exams come.

                Even though they are able to take on surprise tests (if they have to), good students do not like to be surprised by any kind of tests, for such surprise doesn’t bring enjoyment, but fear, sorrows and regret. Having said that, I have learnt that good students make fear their friend through their powerful discipline of constant and adequate preparation.

6.Be well-informed and updated.

                A good student is a goal-oriented person, who has both short-term and long-term goals in life. S/he wants to make sure that their life is completely on-tracked, which is why they make it their daily habit and effort to find out interesting and important things going on in their college (and life, if I am not wrong).

                A good student has reliable relevant information about their study program, extracurricular activities in the college, special upcoming academic events, etc. S/he knows exactly how many clubs available in their college and other colleges within their community, what services such as library they are officially allowed to use, what scholarships are being offered to students annually, etc.

                A good student is like a rich businessman who pays very close attention to information. They are willing to pay for latest news which is beneficial to their study because they know those who get the hottest news are usually one step ahead of the game.

                To keep themselves updated, a good student builds a relatively strong bond with college personnel, friends in class and college, instructors, and other people. With these people, they collect and share important information related to their academic development.

7. Have good results.

                When everything is all said and done, it comes to good students’ having good academic results. Rules may change but the game remains the same. A good student is someone who is able to get good scores, if possible the highest ones in their class or college. One of the ultimate goals of becoming a good student is getting good scores. So, if you fail to get high scores, I can say that you are not a good student even though you do all the above-mentioned points.

                Whether you know it or not, life is a number game. People really do not care about how you do things (even though they may say they do); they just want to see the results.

                Therefore, gaining the highest scores in your class and college should be your priority goal.

In conclusion, if you are a student, you may have so many choices to become who you want to be. You can be an always forgetting person, a loving friend, an always learning student, a good student, etc. It’s all about you and who you choose to be. Therefore, choose well based on what you really love. And if what you really love is to become a good student, please have a good study of all the above-written points. Honestly, they don’t include everything, but they can be a good summary and starting point for you to search for more solution.

                Go for it and I wish you all the best of luck.

The 5 Biggest Mistakes College Students Make

Problem No. 1: Cutting classes. Many students figure they can miss six, eight, 10 lectures in each course and still do well.

Problem No. 2: Overloading. Some student’s think it's a point of pride to load up on as many courses as the college allows (five, six, even seven a semester). And then they sign up for a double (sometimes even triple) major and a minor to boot.

Problem No. 3: Overmedia-ing. Many college students spend hours and hours a day on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Then they complain that they don't have enough time for studying and that they have trouble focusing on any content not dished up in bite-sized pieces.

Problem No. 4: Procrastinating. Many students believe in "no work before its time." They put off papers until the last possible minute and pull "all nighters" right before the test.

Problem No. 5: Going it alone. Many students shy away from going to see their professor or teaching assistant, either because they're too scared, they think the prof won't want to see them, or they think you should only go when you're in trouble. As a result, they end up blowing a test or paper when a few minutes with the instructor could have easily cleared up the problem.

Dealing with Stress during College

            Whether you're facing final exams, managing a long distance relationship or just struggling to stay on top of a pile of homework, college can be a stressful time. Don't succumb to anxiety - follow these simple tips for dealing with stress during college.

Conquer Your Stress

            College students face a host of stressors. University-level homework may be more challenging (and plentiful!) than anything you've ever faced before, and final exams can bring a whole new meaning to the term 'crunch time.'

The difficulties also don't typically end with academics. Romance and social lives can be as much a source of anxiety as they are of fun, and many students struggle to stay on top of the newfound freedoms of living away from home, from cooking to laundry to managing a budget.

In response to these challenges, some students fall behind on homework, stop attending class or worse - they turn to dangerous coping mechanisms like drugs or alcohol. Don't let this happen to you! Here are some ideas for managing your college life and keeping your stress levels under control.

Organize your time.

            Everything will feel less overwhelming if you have a manageable plan for staying on track. Get a calendar and use it to track your classes and deadlines, as well as plan out study time and social time.

Maintain healthy habits.

            Eating well and getting enough rest is crucial for staying healthy and calm. Make sure you account for cooking balanced meals and getting 6-8 hours of rest most nights in your scheduling. Getting regular exercise is also important.

Set realistic goals.

            Many students generate extra stress for themselves by taking on too many responsibilities or simply having unrealistic expectations for themselves. Set realistic, achievable goals and don't be too hard on yourself if you fail once in a while.

Develop good coping mechanisms.

            Some stress will be unavoidable, so it's important to develop healthy ways to deal with it. Popular options include athletic exercise, meditation or simply engaging in breathing exercises. Find something that works for you and incorporate it into your routines.

Seek help.

            Most colleges and universities offer free counseling services through their health centers. Emergency counseling can be a great way to get through times of extreme stress, and many people find that regular counseling helps them deal with day to day challenges.

Funny quotes and cute funny sayings

Always forgive your enemies - Nothing annoys them so much.

If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?

When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

For Sale: Parachute. Only used once, never opened, small stain.

Do you have trouble making up your mind? Well, yes or no?

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Many people quit looking for work when they find a job.

When I'm not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded.

Everyone has a photographic memory.  Some just don't have film.

You know the speed of light, so what's the speed of dark?

Join The Army, Visit exotic places, meet strange people, then kill them.

I poured Spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.

Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need more.(Friend or Money !)

Death is hereditary.

There are three sides to any argument: your side, my side and the right side.

An consultant is someone who takes a subject you understand and makes it sound confusing.

Never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.

When you're right, no one remembers. When you're wrong, no one forgets.

Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make mistakes when nobody is looking.

They say hard work never hurts anybody, but why take the chance.

Always borrow money from a pessimist.  He won't expect it back.

I like work.  It fascinates me.  I  sit and look at it for hours.

If you can't see the bright side of life, polish the dull side.

Where there's a will, there are five hundred relatives.

Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

Remove Computer Virus in USB using DOS command

Removing computer virus in USB is really difficult especially if we don't have an updated anti-virus software installed to our computer. Viruses will easily attack the computer and infect all the system files or even our personal files that are stored on this computer if we don't have an antivirus. Since, the license of anantivirus software is very expensive, here the simplest way to solve this problem(computer virus in flash drive or usb).

The "simplest way or steps to remove computer virus in USB using CMD or DOScommands".

1. Click start button and click Run.

2. Type CMD in the dialog box and Click OK.

     

   3. Type your Drive Letter for your USB and Press Enter in your keyboard, mine is D:

 

    4. Type dir/a to see all the hidden files inside your usb,also look theautorun.inf file. press enter key.

   5. You type this command, attrib -r -a -s -h in the command prompt or cmd to show all the hidden files.  Then press enter.

  6. Type del autorun.inf /s to delete the virus. Press enter after you type.

 7. Type again this command, dir/a to check whether the auturun.inf is already deleted.

Thank you for reading this post....