Study Tips and Essay Resources

5 Tips to Reduce Stress

Have you ever wondered why your schoolwork always stresses you out? Have you ever wondered how to relieve some of that stress? Many people experience this same dilemma, but thankfully, there are ways to solve this problem. Here’s how you can reduce your stress levels:

1.       Set aside time for a break every once in a while. If you study all the time, your stress level will steadily increase. Try to make time to relax for fifteen to thirty minutes each day. Grab a snack, talk to friends for a few minutes, or surf the internet. Having this break will keep your mind fresh while you are studying so you minimize your stress.

2.       Whatever you do, do not cram. The worst way for any student to study is to cram a lot of material in a few days before a major exam. Try to spread studying out so that you study for an hour every day rather than studying for five or six hours straight.

3.       When you study, make sure that your studying environment is productive. If you study in a place with a lot of distractions, you will cover less material because your focus is not on your academic work. Then, you will become stressed that you have not learned enough. Always keep your studying environment positive and quiet.

4.       If you are worried about a test, quiz, or even homework, go to your professor or teacher to talk about your problems. Often, these people will be more than willing to help you better understand the material. They genuinely want you to be able to understand everything from class, so try to use their knowledge to your advantage.

5.       Along with your planned break, try to make time to do something you specifically want to do. Whether it is playing the piano, writing poetry, or just hanging out with friends, you want to make sure that you have time to vent your stress in a positive way — by doing what makes you happy. Doing this will reduce a lot of your stress and will keep you in a positive mood while studying.

Remember to keep good study habits and to give yourself a nice break every once in a while. You’ll see your stress levels decrease and your grades increase!

A Winning Strategy for Reading Textbooks

Jack finally arrives at his small and cluttered room. He had a productive day at school, but he knows he needs to study for a test he has this Friday. He sits down at his desk and turns on his very bright lamp. The textbook that he grabs and lays on the desk is rather thick and is full of information about chemistry.  He opens it to the chapter that is going to be prevalent on the test and stares at the long paragraphs of block text. Jack’s brain immediately realizes the difficulty of understanding this particular textbook.

If this unfortunate incident has ever happened to you, then this strategy is just for you. Reading textbooks can become a lot easier if you approach it the right way.

When you are reading a textbook, the first thing you need to do is look at the outline of the chapter. You need to have a clear idea of what the chapter is going to try to explain to you. Doing this will create a distinct organization of the material in your mind. Then, you can start reading the textbook.

While reading, make sure that your eyes are not just scanning the pages. Try to understand every word that it is presenting to you.  When you come across new vocabulary, find out its definition and its application to the material you are reading.  While you are reading the information, highlight important details and facts so that studying will be easier later. Also, take notes as you read to reinforce your understanding.

Take advantage of all of the diagrams, side articles, images, and charts that the textbook has. They are there to further your understanding of the material.  Try to strengthen the connection between these visual aids and the text in your mind. When you do this, you will be able to see a clearer association between memorized ideas and their applications in the real world.

Also, do not be afraid to go over a section of the text more than once.  When you have already read the material once, reviewing it is usually a lot easier to understand, and you already know what to expect.

Using this winning strategy, you can avoid the stress of studying from a textbook and easily understand the information that it presents to you.

5 Ways to Avoid Procrastination

A frequent problem for students is the often overwhelming desire to simply not do work. This desire is usually complemented by the desire to have fun. This dangerous combination leads to procrastination which means that little work actually gets done. Because of this, grades can suffer as well. However, there are several ways to try to avoid procrastination. Here are just a few:

1. Choose a quiet and solitary place to study. Try to remove all things that might distract you. This can include anything that creates noise, anything that will make you think more about it than your work, and anything that you have an extreme personal interest for. You want to make yourself only focus on your work and not on external factors. This also means studying alone. When you study with someone, there is often room for talking about things that are irrelevant to the material you are studying. Try to avoid studying in groups if you can.

2. Set deadlines. Many people find that they cannot work without a deadline. If you have a project due next week, set a personal deadline to do it three or four days before the official due date.  This will make you strive even harder to get the work done early. If it helps, promise yourself that if you get the work done by your personal deadline, you will reward yourself by going out to eat or getting something nice at the store. Be serious about these personal deadlines, and it will become easier to avoid procrastination.

3. Study in chunks. Instead of cramming a lot of studying at the last minute, try studying just a little bit every day. If you do that, you will need those last three days of extremely difficult studying and forcing material into your mind. Spread out the course content, and it will become a lot more understandable.

4. Become more organized. When you organize what you have to do in a list or schedule, your priorities become a lot clearer. Try to keep up with assignments and tests, so that you know how often to study and how much to work on the material.

5. Don’t forget to reward yourself! One of the problems with procrastination is that people see too much discomfort in doing work. If you reward yourself after your work is completed, you will learn not to hate doing the work so much, because you will look forward to the following reward, whether it is spending a night out with friends or just sleeping in the next day.

These are some useful tips that can decrease procrastination. Try to utilize some of them, and you might find that getting that essay done earlier is not so hard after all.

How to Write a Book Report

Many teachers require that their students write book reports to assess their comprehension of a certain book. Although some teachers have specific preferences for the formatting of these book reports, overall most book reports have similar organization.

Book reports need to start with an interesting introduction, a detailed body, and summarizing concluding paragraph.

Introduction

The introduction should present the material that was read. It is a good idea to include your initial thoughts of the book based on the book’s reputation, author’s reputation, cover art, and difficulty. You should provide the title of the book, the author’s name, and the type of book. Doing this will create a clear outline in the reader’s mind of what the essay is going to detail.

Body

The body paragraphs need to detail the key aspects of the book:

• It is advisable to start with an introduction and analysis of the key characters along with the setting of the book. You need to label which characters were major protagonists and which were major antagonists, along with the dynamics of the characters. The setting just needs to discuss the time and place in which the story exists.
• The next major feature of the body is the plot. The plot needs to be summarized in a way that is easy for someone who has not read the story to understand. Try to only use the major characters when creating this plot summary.
• The final thing you need to create in your body paragraphs is an analysis of the themes in the book. Try to point out specific examples from the text and elaborate on some of the symbols you noticed when reading the book. Analyze the symbols and other factors to create a small list of themes that you can talk about in detail.
• Before you move on to the conclusion, you need to create a few paragraphs that will focus on your own opinions of the literature. It is a good idea to discuss how much you liked the book, whether you would recommend the book to others, what you found interesting, and what emotions or feelings the book made you feel.

Conclusion

The concluding paragraph does not need to be as long as the others. All that it needs to do is sum up the information you have given and restate your overall opinion of the book.

Writing a book report can be a long and tedious process, but it can be a lot easier if you keep this outline in mind while writing.

How to Do Internet Research

One of the most popular ways of doing research for a school paper or project is by using the internet. However, using the internet for research can be dangerous if you aren’t careful – here are a few simple steps you can use to do internet research in an easier and more credible way.

1.       Vary your search terms. If you can’t find what you’re looking for the first time, try modifying your search. For example, conduct a more specific search, or try enclosing your search term in quotation marks. Another good idea is to use the advanced search option and to search using several different search engines. Finally, learn a few common keyboard shortcuts to make internet searching a lot faster.

2.       Don’t be afraid to search through several pages. Sometimes, the best page for you is past the first ten results.  You can sometimes find the material you need in the first fifty or sixty.

3.       Always check the validity of the webpage. There are billions of webpages on the internet. It is not hard to find inaccurate, biased, or completely wrong information. Find out who the author of the page (a government agency, an organization, or a random person?), and try to find out how knowledgeable the author is on the subject. Decide how accurate the information on the page is. See if they are simply trying to gain money. Really delve into the website before using any material from it.

4.       When you use a website, make sure to create a proper citation in your essay. How you cite your internet source depends on which style of citation your teacher or professor prefers. Typically, it will be either MLA or APA format. Gather as much information on your references as you can while researching online. Always try to save your webpages so that you can check the material again later.

Using these steps, you can make searching the internet for research considerably easier. Just make sure that you validate your information and cite the information appropriately.

How To Do Library Research

Many students have found amazing information from their schools’ library systems. The library is a place where information on almost any subject can be found, and it is also where many professors expect their students to get information for their essays.

Before you ever do research in a library, learn a little bit about the library first. Stop by the library for a visit every once in a while. Get to know the layout, so that you can learn the locations of books, library policies, hours of operation, and even where study areas are.

The greatest help a person can find at the library are the people who work there. Librarians and librarian assistants have typically worked there for a while and are usually more than willing to help a student find whatever information he or she needs. They also understand a lot about the library’s card catalog system and can help with doing the research.

Another major asset in doing library research is in the large amount of information present. When you do library research, it is always helpful to have several resources to collect vast amounts of facts for your work. You can find books on all types of information and on different perspectives at a library, so it is important to analyze what kinds of books you need to do your research.

Also, it is useful to analyze and summarize your information while still in the library. Doing this will save you numerous problems and benefit your understanding of the material as well.  By doing your work in the library, you are guaranteed a quiet place to study. Also, it saves the problem of checking out books and forgetting the due dates. Plus, you have infinite opportunities to go and exchange your research materials for others and collect even more information.

Libraries are definitely useful resources to a student and can help develop a student’s essay or research paper. They have several features that make them ideal for a student and can really enrich a person’s learning experience. You just have to make sure that you make full use of the resources that libraries have to offer students. Many libraries have other research materials, like documentaries, audio recordings, old documents, and valuable records. When doing any kind of research work, you can usually benefit by checking your library for whatever resources they might have.

Top 5 Tricks to Improve Memory

Here is a short list of ways to improve your memory:

1. Connections - Most students with high grades will attribute their successes to the use of connections. Connections are simply creating relations between new subject material and previous knowledge. For example, many students create mnemonics to help memorize concepts.  When you connect ideas like this, your brain finds the material a lot easier to understand. It creates something a lot more permanent in your mind.

2. Visual aids - Another useful tool is creating visual aids. Many people are what are called visual thinkers. This means that they learn more by seeing images and figures. In order to help memorize something, it can be a lot easier to draw a diagram or picture and focus mostly on that. Often, it helps students to pay close attention to figures that appear in the textbooks. One of the reasons it is so beneficial is its stimulation of the senses.

3. Copying – One interesting technique is to trick your muscle memory. Even if you are not focusing on the material you are copying, your brain retains a memory of how your muscles move. Therefore, if you copy something enough times, the copying of it will be ingrained in your memory. However, if you do focus on the material as well, you are also developing a strong connection. You will have the image of the copied paper along with the muscle memory. This is a very useful tool for memorizing.

4. Note cards - Note cards are a very useful way to remember a series of information. It is also useful when studying with other people. The use of note cards can create a fun, interesting, and very informative study session.

5. Practice - The most effective way to retain knowledge is simply to practice the material. For example, if you are studying chemistry, the best way to memorize information is just to practice working problems from your textbook. Practicing your topic is the best way for your brain to fully understand the material. It can sometimes be one of the harder methods for memorizing, but it is certainly the most effective.

These methods of memorization can quickly help you to remember any information, whether it is from a textbook, lecture, or even from another source. It is important to keep these tips in mind when doing homework or studying for a test.

How to Write A Research Paper

Many students find it difficult to write research papers. However, if you know how to approach the paper, it can become a lot simpler. The hardest part of this type of writing is doing the actual research –research papers are not based on personal opinions or biases. There are many things to keep in mind when writing a research paper that can improve the quality of the paper.

First and foremost, it is crucial to do thorough researching of your topic. One of the best ways to do this is through a visit to the library. Many librarians are more than willing to help students find appropriate material for their research papers. Also, using the catalog system can be very beneficial as well.

Another key aspect of the research paper is citing sources. One major problem that professors find with research papers is improper citation of sources. When you use an external source to collect your information, make sure to copy down as much information as you need on that source for your paper. The amount of information needed depends on which style of writing your professor looks for: APA or MLA.

Before you ever start writing your paper, you should compile a detailed list or summary of the information you collected. Then, it is usually best to organize that information. To decide on the type of organization, it is often helpful to first decide what your paper is actually meaning to do. Even though the paper is always trying to inform, the information you relay should be at least somewhat specific. Therefore, many research papers will often have structures like cause and effect, timeline, or even just three main points. Try to organize your information so that it naturally fits in with that structure.

From this point, the only things to work on are paraphrasing the collected information, quoting from text in the sources, citing appropriately, composing an introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph that thoroughly introduce and close the topic, and inserting smooth transitions that can connect your main points easily.

Following these steps make writing a research paper a lot simpler and a lot less dreadful to students. Also, one tip to keep in mind when writing your paper is the openness of the topic. Even when you are assigned a topic to write about, there are still typically many ways to actually approach the topic. It leaves the writer a few more options and allows the research to be fun as well. If you research the topic’s most interesting aspects, it could quickly become an enjoyable and simple project.

Research Resources – Arts and Entertainment

Here are some resources to help you research a term paper on arts and entertainment:

• American Art Timeline, The Phillips Collection
• Artists, ibiblio
• Arts and Entertainment Research and Reference Resources, Madison Public Library
• Arts & Music Free Teaching and Learning Resources, free.ed.gov
• Famous Artworks, ibiblio
• The Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/
• Learning About Art, California State University Los Angeles
• NGA Classroom, National Gallery of Art
• Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Concentration Tips: Do’s and Don’ts

Many students have trouble with concentrating, whether it is for homework, studying, or working on a project. This is often caused by the many external factors of school life, so the best way to master concentration is simply to try to eliminate as many of these external factors as possible.

DON’Ts

Here is a list of some of these distractions:

1. Laptops- One of the most destructive things to your concentration is the influence of social networking sites, online videos, and other online applications that attract the interest of many students. If it is possible, it is better to do your work without the use of a computer. However, if it is necessary, make sure not to open more windows, tabs, or applications than needed to get your work done.

2. Noise- Another distracting factor is being in a place where there is a lot of noise going on. It is fine to study in groups, but you should never study in a place where conversations are going on about topics different than what you are trying to study. For some people, music can be a concentration aid. This is fine as long as the music is not too loud and not too distracting. Try to study in a quiet place such as a library or your own room.

3. Television- If the television is on, or someone is playing video games, it will be very hard for you to study. Even if the sound is low, it is still visually attracting, so try to avoid studying in places where the television is on.

DO’s

However, there are many things that can actually help you study.

1. Food- It sometimes helps to either eat while you are studying or eat before you start studying. If you do this, you will not have to worry about being hungry in the middle of your study session.

2. Group study- Another good way to study is with other people. However, you have to make sure that you study with people who will stay on task. It is important to stay concentrated on the task at hand.

3. Note taking- When you take notes, you are benefit your concentration. Note taking helps you delve into your study material and understand the material as well.

By paying attention to the above do’s and don’ts, concentrating will become easier, and you will find it easier to obtain the grade that you desire.