Study Prof

Taking a prep course is really an ideal first step for most students.  If you’ve never built a house before, it would NOT be smart to go out and start pouring concrete and putting up boards on your own for a couple of months, and only then go talk to an architect/builder to find out exactly how to do things.

You normally start by getting with an architect to plan the building and by talking to a builder who knows something about exactly how to procede with each step of the process.  Taking a prep course is like talking to an experienced builder and architect first.  Although their services can come at a premium, they can help you make sure that none of your time and effort is wasted.  In fact, they will more than pay for themselves!

A GRE prep course can raise a student’s combined score an average of (more…)

From the series Better Test Performance the Navy SEALs Way.

In a recently televised interview, the Navy SEALs command psychologist, Eric Potterat, listed four key mental techniques taught to SEAL candidates.  Arousal control, the third technique listed, concerns how we keep calm in stressful situations.  Here’s how you can apply this to help increase your own test performance.

You know that sinking feeling you sometimes get when you first turn over that exam and see a question you don’t know how to answer?  Often times you’ll start to sweat and you may feel jittery and hot.  That’s a panic response.  It worked great 5,000 years ago when your great-great-great-great grandfather was being chased by a bear.

His heart rate shot through the roof.  Cortisol–the stress chemical–flooded his system, making him hyper-vigilant to environmental cues and allowing him to react quickly and instinctively.  Blood flowed away from non-essential organs, such as the stomach, and rushed to major muscle groups so he could fight or run away.

Helpful for getting away from bears; very unhelpful for concentrating on tests.  So how do we convince our brains to stop panicking so we can do our best on the exam?  The answer is what psychologists term “arousal control,” and one of the easiest ways to do it is by breathing carefully and deliberately.

Taking slow deep breaths with controlled exhales works to convince the brain that we are not in a situation where panic is helpful.  Expectant mothers in Lamaze classes, meditating monks, the SEALs, and folk wisdom all agree.  “Just take a couple of deep breaths,” is good advice.

Follow this formula…

1. Inhale deeply, slowly counting to six as you do so
2. Hold the breath for a count of two
3. Exhale slowly for a six count, trying to completely expel every bit of air from your lungs.  Feel your face, neck, and shoulders relax as you exhale.  Blow the tension out with your breath.
4. Hold for a two count
5. Repeat three times at least
6. Practice this on a daily basis–in traffic, in line at the grocery store, waiting for class to start–and you’ll soon master the technique

From the Series “Better Test Performance The Navy SEALs Way”
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From the series Better Test Performance the Navy SEALs Way.

In a recently televised interview, the Navy SEALs command psychologist, Eric Potterat, listed four key mental techniques taught to SEAL candidates.  Self talk, the third technique listed, concerns how we focus our thoughts in high-stress situations.  Here’s how you can apply this to help increase your own test performance.

Students who panic on the SAT, GRE, or on classroom exams often have destructive patterns of self talk.  They think to themselves, “Oh no.  I missed those last two questions.  I just know it!  I’ll probably fail this whole test and make a D in the class.  I’ll have to drop out of school.  My parents are going to kill me! I’ll probably end up playing xBox 24/7, eating cheesie poofs out of the giant family-size bag, and drinking massive amounts of Mad Dog 20/20 just to drown the pain of the train wreck that is my life!”

Needless to say, that sort of thinking doesn’t help you solve the next calculus problem.  In fact, it produces massive amounts of panic chemicals that make higher-order thinking almost impossible.

Solution?  Instead of talking yourself into a panic, talk yourself into a better state.  One easy way to put this into practice is a technique I call the personal cheerleader.  Here’s how…

1. Think of someone right now who encourages you when you feel defeated or depressed.  Could be your mom, dad, a coach, a boyfriend, girlfriend, whoever.
2. Mentally take that person with you to the test.
3. When you start to panic, have your mental cheerleader give you a little pep-talk.  “You can do it!  Don’t worry about that question.  Concentrate on the next one.”
4. BONUS: You can take as many mental cheerleaders as you like to the test, and you can take whoever you want.  Try Brad Pitt or the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.  Try Brad Pitt AND the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

Changing the way you talk to yourself as a way to increase your success is supported by scads of great research.  But it doesn’t work unless you do it.  Put it into practice today!

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From the Series “Better Test Performance The Navy SEALs Way”
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

From the series Better Test Performance the Navy SEALs Way.

In a recently televised interview, a Navy SEALs representative listed four key mental techniques taught to SEAL candidates. The second of those techniques was mental rehearsal.  Here’s how you can apply this to help increase your own test performance.

That gray organ betwixt your ears is a virtual time machine that can be used for helping or harming your test performance.  As a highschool teacher I noticed that some of my students–eager and able to answer questions during class discussions–were bombing miserably on my tests.

I began researching test anxiety to try and find a solution to their problem, and soon discovered some rock-solid techniques for reducing that stress that was hindering their performance.  One powerful tool I uncovered was mental rehearsal, that is, carefully and clearly envisioning a successful performance before the event.

Here’s how… (more…)

From the series Better Test Performance the Navy SEALs Way.

U.S. Navy SEALs wannabees are taught goal setting.  Why?  It helps more of them survive the grueling training and actually become SEALs.

If you’re like me, goal setting brings to mind thick-as-your-thigh Covey planners and pretentious self-help gurus.  But if the SEALs are using it, you can bet there’s no namby-pamby lets-all-get-in-touch-with-our-inner-child two-day retreats going on.  Pragmatic techniques that can be used when the world is on fire are what they’re looking for.

Goal setting on-the-fly functions like this; set your sights on an immediate, easily-reachable goal and then take one step after another until you get there.  Then set a new goal.  For a SEAL trainee, their internal dialogue might go something like this…

“Just gotta make it until lunch, then I can rest.” And after lunch, “Just gotta make it over the next hundred yards of beach.” and then, “Just gotta swim this last 200 yards.”

The entire day is broken up into a series of individually manageable steps.

You can do the same during finals to get through the mountains of work that can pile up.  “Just gotta get through this next chapter.”  “Just gotta finish the next page of this rough draft.” Or you can use it when test anxiety rears it’s ugly head.  “Just gotta finish this next problem.”

This technique is deceptively simple, but it’s powerful and proven!  It helps concentrate your efforts not on what you can’t do, but on what you can.

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!

From the Series “Better Test Performance The Navy SEALs Way”
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Part 3
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Part 5

The elite SEALs teams–the U.S. Navy’s Special Ops forces–have discovered how to make their trainees more successful at completing the mythically tough training and actually become Navy SEALs.  In fact, they now teach trainees stress control techniques that may be responsible for helping to boost the number of successful passing candidates from one fourth of each class to one third of each class.

Amazingly, these techniques are very similar to what I’ve been teaching my students for years.  No magic here.  What I teach comes directly out of good psychological research, and the SEALs have been doing their homework!

According to a recent History Channel documentary on brain science, SEAL trainees are now taught four key stress control techniques that allow them to perform better even during the grinding SEAL Hell Week.

The four keys?  Goal Setting, Mental Rehearsal, Self Talk, and Arousal Control.  I normally teach these techniques in my GRE prep course to help students cope with test anxiety and in my College Capable seminar as a way to conquer daunting study schedules.

Check back tomorrow as we look at how the SEALs use goal setting to overcome stress and how you can use it to excel during finals!

From the Series “Better Test Performance The Navy SEALs Way”
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Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

When I was a kid I mowed lawns for extra money during the summers. Sure, it’s hot, sweaty work–especially in West Texas where chickens actually lay hard-boiled eggs–but mowing lawns is great. How else could a twelve-year old make twenty dollars an hour?

One thing I quickly learned was that taking care of your lawn mower makes the work go much more smoothly. Making sure the blade is sharp, the oil is changed regularly, and the air filter is clean can save you hours a day.

I heard of one idiot who failed to check the oil, like, EVER causing the engine to seize-up altogether and transmogrifying the mower into a very large, grass-covered paper weight. My dad was NOT happy.

Your brain is the tool you work with as a student, so take care of it! If you don’t you end up working much harder for poorer results. I’ve seen poorly maintained brains seize up during finals, burst into flames, and significantly char previously quite serviceable head wear.

So avoid trouble and save yourself time and effort by taking care of your gray matter. Here are some tips to on how to keep your noggin humming along. The links give more info and prove that I’m not just making this stuff up. Real scientists–and sometimes video footage–show I’m for real. So there.

1. Get plenty of sleep … http://www.livescience.com/health/071115-sleep-memories.html
2. Exercise regularly … http://www.livescience.com/health/080806-brain-exercise.html
3. Britney Spears kills brain cells … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLUVNRLZzLE&feature=related
4. Eat right … http://www.livescience.com/health/080709-food-brain.html
5. Stay socially engaged … http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071029172856.htm
6. Avoid bull riding unless absolutely necessary … [warning; not for the faint of heart] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uHIQwzHwe4&feature=related
7. Manage your stress … http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/24620.php

I hope you’ve benefitted from the Top Five Ways College Students Work Too Hard. Be sure to let me know in the comments of any other ways you’ve found to get better grades with less work.

Top Five Ways College Students Work Too Hard

1. Cramming
2. Taking too many notes on the wrong stuff
3. Reading more than you need to
4. Studying the wrong way
5. Not taking care of your brain