Study Prof

Double-click any word for the dictionary reference. Check back every day for more words.

abstract
adjacent
alimentary
anachronism
anvil
archaic
astral
awful
beguile
billow (more…)

To become an excellent turnip you simply sit around and wait for someone to dump manure on you and water you from time to time. That makes for a great vegetable, but not a great student. So why do most students sit in class and wait for knowledge to be dumped on them?

To become an excellent hawk you roam far and wide with your eyes peeled for anything that looks tasty. When you see it, you dive on it, kill it, and take it home to the kids. That’s also–figuratively speaking–how to make a great scholar.

During a lecture or while reading a text, you are cruising, eyes peeled, (more…)

Double-click any word for the dictionary reference. Check back every day for more words.

abstinence
adherent
alienate
amulet
antler
archaeology
astigmatism
awe
begrudge
bilk (more…)

Double-click any word for the dictionary reference. Check back every day for more words.

abstemious
adhere
alias
amputate
antithesis
asteroid
avuncular
beget
bilious
boon (more…)

If you’re like me you probably see writing as something you are assigned by sadistic, work-happy profs, but writing is actually a powerful thinking tool. It will help you focus, recall, and understand! Whether you’re trying to get a bead on Charlemagne’s leadership genius, the weaknesses of multi-variate regressions, or the in’s and out’s of stoichiometry, writing can give you the mental boost you need.

How it works

Taking a doughy, unshaped thought and turning it into a well-constructed, logically-articulated sentence forces you to process at a higher level. You’ve got to take the info-mulch roiling around between your ears and (more…)

The BBC produced a program on how to improve your memory that’s worth a watch. Warning: it’s in British, so you may have to do a bit of translating. For example, when they ask you the coin question, think about a common coin in your country.

Enjoy… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGz3ChZJKa4

Double-click any word for the dictionary reference. Check back every day for more words.

abstain
adept
alcove
amplify
antiseptic
arcane
assurance
avow
befuddle
bigotry
bookish
brusque
cantata (more…)

Double-click any word for the dictionary reference. Check back every day for more words.

absolve
address
alchemy
ample
antiquity
arcade
assumption
avocation
beeline
bigot
bombastic
brunt (more…)

If you’re like me, the claims of speed reading courses rank right up there with magic beans and political promises.  Too bad.  Speed reading won’t enable you to read the RandomHouse unabridged dictionary in ten minutes with perfect comprehension.  However, it can easily help you read three or four times faster while keeping pretty good comprehension.

You’ll notice I’m not selling a speed reading course.  No ulterior motives here.  I’ve just seen what a little training and practice can do.  My reading speed about five years ago was around 150 words per minute.  Now it’s closer to 500.  That means what used to take me three hours to read I can now read in less than an hour!

That increase came from consistently practicing some techniques that are freely available on the web.  I practiced three or four times per week, thirty minutes at a time, for about two months, and that investment has (more…)

Since the days of Aristotle, Socrates, and Platyhelminthes, speakers intent on persuading the masses have relied on a tool chest of persuasive tricks to bamboozle, flummox, cajole, and convince. Here are three you can wrest from the evil clutches of politicoes and infomercial hosts, putting them to use For Good. On your next essay test or research paper, for example.

Use lists of three. Whether it’s the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker; the three little pigs; or Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod; some of our earliest memories are of nursery rhymes that present us with threes. Perhaps that’s because it’s a basic principal of persuasion and instruction; threes are easier to mentally grapple with.

Nursery rhymes not convincing? Then check out Obama’s ten minute victory speech; it contained 29 different (more…)