Study Prof

Dust off those synapses and belly up to the brain bar, pardner. You’re going to like this. Website Smart.fm takes some of my favorite learning principals (staggered review, automaticity, the Ebbinghaus learning curve, and more) and puts them all together in one slick and sociable site. Enter in whatever info you want to sear into your cerebellum or take advantage of the memory sets others have already created.

Take a peek at the intro video and then go give it a whirl. Click the pic to watch the video at YouTube.

Procrastination; the Big Bad Wolf in our fairy tale life. The Godzilla in our own personal Tokyo. Put off that slavering, monstrous task and it only gets bigger and badder. As the behemoth bloats so does your anxiety, your shame, and your desire to find a hole to hide in … anything to avoid the red-eyed, demon task. That means yet more procrastination, and soon you find yourself quivering under the bed in the fetal position. Not good times.

What you need, my friend, is an erstwhile hero who can slay the beast, or at least kick it in the shins and give it a wedgie. Enter our hero, the mini-goal. Here’s how it works. Set yourself a laughably small David of a goal that will at least hurl a wee pebble at that Goliath of a task looming over you. Your mini-goal should be an easy first step, something that takes ten minutes or less to accomplish. It should be something you can’t possibly fail at. Example: The evil twenty-page research paper is huffing and puffing (more…)

Caution: you’ll be tempted to shoot this tip down before you even try it. Resist the temptation. What will it cost you to at least try it?

Take a small sticky note–the smallest you can find–and write your immediate goal on it just as you begin a study task. Example: “Complete even problems at end of chapter 4.”

Rules:

1. The goal must be easily doable within one hour. (Forces you to focus on jobs in small, manageable chunks).

2. It must fit fully on the sticky note. (Forces you to be focus your immediate goal).

3. Post the note somewhere annoying, such as the middle of your computer screen or over your cell phone screen or on your watch face. Don’t remove the note until the task is complete. (Annoys you until it’s done).

4. Promise yourself you won’t break any of the rules. Swear by something sacred, such as your mom’s honor or the Power of Grayskull. You don’t want Grayskull gunning for you, so get it done!

Simple and effective as a fly swatter. Try it out.

Trying to study without being able to focus can be like a demonic real-life game of Whack-A-Mole. It’s frustrating, costly, and ultimately useless. Lifehack to the rescue! Take a look at their post on …

Simple Productivity: 10 Ways to Do More by Focusing on the Essentials

Most of us have been making flash cards since an enthusiastic third-grade teacher first used them to pound the multiplication facts into our resisting little cranial cavities. Why did she do it? Why, Mrs. Payne, why?

News flash; Flash Cards, boring and basic though they may be, work. But. They don’t work nearly as well for most of us as they should. Why? Because you’re doing it wrong. At least, I was doing it wrong throughout most of my college career. Here’s how to avoid my early mistakes. (more…)

abstruse
adjoin
alimony
analgesia
apathy
archetype
astringent
awl
behemoth
billowing (more…)

Do you know what “nemesis” means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by an ‘orrible exam … the new GRE. –With apologies to Brick Top

Gahhhh! They’re changing the GRE. It’s newier! It’s spiffier! It’s more gee-whizzier! Or so they claim. Get the straight skinny on just exactly how they’ve monkeyed around with the Test We Love To Hate straight from the equine’s mandibles…

Click to Watch

If you can’t procrastinate, you won’t procrastinate.

Obvious, you say? Then why aren’t you making procrastination impossible (or at least scaldingly painful)? Here’s how you can make the P-word so blindingly agonizing that it ain’t even an option.

First, identify that dreaded procrastination-inducing uber-chore. Hint: What were you thinking you should do just BEFORE you started scrubbing out the trash cans and polishing the plastic ware?

Next, chunk it down into pieces that can be done in under an hour. For example, have you been thinking about embarking on a summer campaign for world domination? Why not start with building that death ray you designed last August. –No, no.– That’ll take days. Let’s just start with figuring out which former Soviet republic has the best prices on high grade uranium. That shouldn’t take more than an hour; maybe much less with a couple of good search terms, a Russian online dictionary, and the magic that is Google.

Finally, get a sadistic buddy or two to help you bring on the pain. Pick any handy roommate/cousin/friend/neighbor, or what-have-you for this role. Next, hand said sadistic buddy your cell phone (or xBox, or car keys, or Facebook password, or … you get the idea). Make him or her promise not to give it back until you can rattle off sources and prices for weapons grade, fissionable elements from at least three different third-world, bargain-basement, munitions wholesalers. Voila! Instant cerebral cattle prod.

Procrastination is not a problem when pain is imminent. So put that red hot poker in the hands of a willing (slightly demented) compadre and kiss procrastination goo’bye.

Take a look at this spiffy Back to School primer. Click on the arrow at the bottom to start. Keep clicking to step through the presentation. BETTER: Click on “More” and go full screen.

Gratuitous "Awwwww" Ammo

Guess what! No … really … just guess.

ETS is planning on releasing a new version of the GRE test in 2011. I know, I know. You’ve heard this before. Weren’t they releasing a new GRE in 2007? And didn’t they axe it a month before liftoff? Yes, and yes.

But this time they’re SERIOUS. Really.

Get the full scoop on the newest new GRE and the anticipated changes here.

What does it mean for those of you getting ready for the GRE? If you are planning on doing some serious prep, do it now, while you still know exactly what you’re prepping for! Learn to lick the CAT (Computer Adaptive Test) NOW, while all the test prep companies still know exactly what the test looks like. Wait until 2011 and it’s anybody’s guess!