Simple College Habits That Will Boost Your Grades

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Simple College Habits That Will Boost Your Grades

College Habits To Help Boost Your Grades

I know it seems impossible to improve your grades without losing your mind and spending all of your free time studying. All it takes is a little bit of effort and some new habits. You should acknowledge other things that will contribute to your grade even though studying is important.

Certain habits that will help earn you some points with your professors and help you to become a better student, which in turn should help improve your grades. In addition, many of these habits are not very difficult at all. You can do this:

  1. Participating in each class

Participate in each class to make your presence known. This might be asking your professor to elaborate on something or even just sitting towards the front and making the occasional, but oftentimes dreaded, eye contact. Don’t be the student whose hand is up constantly regardless of whether or not they have anything of substance to say, but do contribute as much as possible.

  1. Putting your phone away

Whether you are actually using it or not, having your phone out can very easily be portrayed as being disrespectful or not paying attention. Also, ensure your phone does not go off during class by turning it off or putting it on airplane mode. Let your professor know beforehand so they know you are not just being rude in case you expect an important call.

  1. Taking notes with a pen and notebook

This is a great way to force yourself to focus more and pay more attention. You cannot just open a new tab and check Facebook and oftentimes writing things down help, them stick in your memory.

  1. Showing up to class early

You should have already taken off your coat, settled and taken out your books before the class starts. By arriving to class five minutes early, you are allowing yourself to get prepared and settled before your professor starts teaching. At least try to not be late if this is not possible.

  1. Attending your professor’s office hours with a purpose

Every college advice post ever, advises you to go to your professor’s office hours. The problem with this is it is a lot easier to do when you have an actual purpose or reason to go.

  1. Making the professor recognize your name

Do not be annoying, but do attempt to participate or engage enough to the point where when your professor is giving you your final grade, they do not need to scratch their head to figure out who you are. It is also easiest to do this when you consistently sit in the same seat.

  1. Sitting in the front or the middle

This is another good way to ensure your professor is familiar with you. It is easier to forget a face that is way in the back of the room than it is to forget one near the front. This is also helpful when it comes to participating and being able to see the board. In addition, on a real note, it is much easier to force yourself to pay attention if the professor is literally right in front of your face.

  1. Asking intelligent questions

Whoever said there is no such thing as a stupid question was probably that annoying kid in class who asks questions the professor just answered or already responded to in the syllabus. While not everything you ask needs to be the next great breakthrough, try to ask questions that are thoughtful or have not already been answered.

  1. Proofreading your work

Proofreading is not only for your major research papers. Proofread anything that is turned into your professors whether it is a quick e-mail, a homework assignment, or a pop quiz. Grammatical and spelling errors can easily be avoided, which can make a huge difference. Just simply reading something over twice can make a huge difference.

  1. Keeping track of all due dates and deadlines

The worst way to earn a bad grade is by missing deadlines or forgetting to turn projects in. Add Reminders, Google Calendar notes or even physical notes in your planners on the day things are due and for the week before. Let yourself know in advance so you can avoid remembering the deadline the night before the assignment is due.

The Best Productivity Hacks For College Students

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The Best Productivity Hacks For College Students

Top Productivity Hacks You Can Use In College

Do you often think if only you had more time? Everyone complains of not having enough time to do all the things they want to do. However, is time really the cause of our problems?

Most students spend half their day stalking people on Facebook and reading articles on BuzzFeed and yet complain of having less time. They might look like they are always “busy,” but how much work are they actually doing? There is a difference between being productive and being busy.

Which category do you fall under? That is determined by your ability to separate your work from your life. How easily are you distracted when you are trying to get work done? How much time do you waste on social media? How often do you focus on one single task at a time?

Below are some productivity hacks for anyone who wants to get more done in less time:

  1. Create weekly or daily to-do lists

First, you will not be able to do things if you do not have a plan. How can you possibly remember everything you want to do?

You should start every week and every day knowing exactly what you want to achieve. A week should be long enough to keep you looking ahead while not overwhelming you with things that are too far in the future.

  1. Avoid ambiguity

Ambiguity kills productivity. Always try to be as clear and specific as possible when writing tasks on your to-do lists. “Homework” is not an acceptable task. Instead, write tasks using the following formula: verb + noun + object. For example, “Read chapters 4-5 for Econ,” or “Call Dad about health center fee.”

The more specific you can be, the better. Our brains are wired to steer away from ambiguity, so if there is any ambiguity in your task, the less likely you are going to do it.

  1. Do weekly reviews and prune ruthlessly

At the end of every week, review your lists and pull out any weeds. If there’s a task that’s been on your to-do list for more than a week or two, and it’s not going anywhere, what is it even doing on there in the first place? Are you going to do it or not? Be realistic with yourself. If you are not going to do it, take it off. You do not want a cluttered to-do list. Your goal is to clear that list by the end of every day.

  1. Close unnecessary tabs.

Your email should not be open all day long neither should Facebook, or Twitter, or any other social media. Close all unnecessary tabs and keep open only the tabs that you need.

Instead of obsessively checking your email and social media accounts every 5 minutes, set a few times during the day to check all email/social media. If you check your email every time you get a new email, or your Facebook every time you get a new Facebook notification, you are pretty much saying that any email or Facebook notification is more important than whatever you’re working on, which I doubt is the case.

  1. Give yourself a time limit.

The more time you have, the more time you waste. Instead of working on a task for an indefinite period, set yourself a time limit. This will force you to stay focused and actually get things done, instead of just being busy.

Sometimes things may turn out to take longer than you had anticipated which is fine. With practice, you get better at estimating how long things will realistically take you. However, when you do go over your initial time limit, make sure you set a new time limit; do not just blow it off.

If you have been using your time effectively and still feel overwhelmed, you may need to re-evaluate what is actually important to you and drop what is not. While it is good to push yourself, you do not want to stretch yourself too thin. It is better to focus your attention on a few commitments and do them well than to have many commitments and do them poorly.

Chances are you have probably been wasting at least some of your time being busy instead of being productive.

How to Make Your Brain Smarter

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How to Make Your Brain Smarter

5 Practical Ways To Increase Your Intelligence

 

We all know that physical activity helps make us stronger and build muscles. However, our muscles are not the only thing that needs exercising. We also need to exercise our brain in order to increase our IQ and perform better in school. Exercising our brain boosts our intelligence and thinking capability.

 

So, how do we exercise our brain? Here are 5 practical ways on how to improve intelligence.

 

1. Intelligence Boosting Games

Scientific evidence shows that non-violent games can increase your intelligence. Playing games is a great way to stimulate your brain. It will help you think differently, increase your multitasking skills, decision-making, and problem solving skills. For example,Tetris leads to more efficient brain activity and higher brain processing power. Other intelligent boosting games include Halo and StarCraft

 

2. Challenge your brain.

There are a number of ways to challenge your brain into making smarter decisions. One of these is cryptology. Cryptology involves breaking coded messages and solving puzzles. Some ways to make yourself smarter by challenging your brain include doing logic and lateral thinking puzzles to help you explore new areas, and solve problems in different ways. You can also practicecrosswordsandSudoku. You can also try to do some things most people think are impossible like programming.

3. Physical activity and exercise your body.

Science shows that keeping your body fit also helps boost your brain power. The next time you are out jogging, be sure that you are helping your brain get a cutting edge!

 

4. Write Whenever Possible.

Do some handwriting as often as you can! Some practical ways to do this is to send a note to a friend instead of an email, or write a draft of a paper (or an outline) in longhand instead of always doing it on your computer. It will increase visual and kinesthetic stimulation. In addition to this, you should also try to write using your non-dominant hand because it helps you stimulate the non-dominant side of your brain.

 

5. Read voraciously.

Reading enhances the mind’s ability to comprehend and helps you think critically. Reading a book that you have never read before broadens your horizons, thus increasing your IQ.

Reading different genres is even more productive, as well as reading newspapers, current events magazines, multi-content periodicals (such as the New Yorker and Forbes), and even technical manuals.

Make sure the book is in your reading level. Reading something that is too easy for you doesn’t do anything but entertain, and while you may increase your IQ by reading a novel beyond your reading level, constantly referring to a dictionary will sap the joy out of reading.