O.K so your grades have been bad and you want to do something about it. First of all, let me congratulate you for reading this. The first step in improving your grades is realizing that there’s a problem and that it needs to fixed. There are number of things we can do to help boost your grades. Consider the following:

1. Take your studies seriously

You might be thinking, well I am already taking my studies seriously. Well perhaps but not as serious as it needs to be taken. If you truly want higher grades you should be prepared for what that encompasses. You will have to invest both time and energy into your studies and this needs to be done on a CONTINUES basis. Studying a few hours today and then nothing more during the rest of week is not considered as continuous. Treat your studies as if it was a profession, you’ll have to wake up early and if you don’t study X number of hours every day you’ll be fired. Let there be repercussions for slacking off, promulgate a rule that says “I can’t do {insert something you enjoy} until I’ve studies X hours today“. Don’t be afraid to punish yourself, you’ll have to be strict in order to be focused.

2. Make a plan

Putting things down on paper has an extraordinary effect on people. Don’t just think about your goals, get it down on paper. Make sure you know what you want to accomplish with your studies. Furthermore, don’t hesitate to compile a coherent study plan that you try to follow strictly (unless something more important comes up, obviously). A study plan should include all the major and minor steps that you need to take in order to get better grades.

3. When it’s all already over

O.K so you might have messed up and there’s no second exam. What do you do now? Well if you really want to improve that grade there might be some venues to do so. Some educational institutions allow for students to retake an exam that they’ve already passed in order to get a higher grade. If that option is open you shouldn’t hesitate to take it. However if your particular school or university doesn’t allow for such procedures there might still be another way. I would recommend you to talk with either (or both) your professor in the course of question and your academic adviser. Ask your professor quite bluntly, how can I improve this grade? It’s not uncommon that students are allowed a higher grade if they for instance submit an extra report or undergo a series of exam questions.

4. Enjoy it

At the end of the day if you’re not truly enjoying what you’re learning you won’t be able to get much data stored in that head of yours. I suppose there was a time when you enjoyed this subject, why not try to rekindle that flame? Remember, studying isn’t really that bad, it’s not like you’ve been sent off as a slave to work in a Siberian work camp. Always put things in perspective, if your studies are as important as you hold them to be you will be able to strive much harder.

Forgetting is easy, remembering is hard. Why is this? Well, there are obviously a number of different aspects one needs to consider to be able to answer that question properly. However, there are simple tips & tools you can use like recommended memory software which can help you improve your memory right here and now.

You are not a circus elephant

Don’t believe the myth. Believing that you have a bad memory is the first mistake. Don’t convince yourself that you’ve got a bad memory by default, no matter what people say. All you need to do is harness the memory capabilities that are already present. You see, people don’t develop a bad memory all of sudden, it usually takes time and effort to convince oneself of this. Take the circus elephant for instance.

If you’ve ever been to a circus, you’ll know that the elephants are usually tied up in chains starting from a young age. It lies in the elephants nature to want to escape and it most certainly tries in the beginning. But after a while, when it’s been chained up for a couple of years (it’s pretty horrible when you think of it), it simple gives up. If you were to remove it’s chains it would in most cases NOT try to escape. Now why is this?

Well, you see the elephant has now already convinced itself that fighting back is fruitless and thus it still believes that the chains are there. There’s a lesson to be learned here. You need to remove these invincible chains that are blocking you from remembering things before you can proceed to improve your memory.

2. Throw away the lifelines

Lifelines are the things you hold on to just in case you were to forget. For instance, if you go shopping and keep a grocery list that’s you lifeline or if someone gives you their number and you write it down that’s also a lifeline. By relying on these notes and applications you make less use of your memorization capabilities. Obviously there are times when something must be written down due to it’s importance but in most cases you can go without doing this. So the next time you’re out shopping or a friend gives you a number, don’t write it down and instead try to remember it. The more you do this, the more your brain will start to putting things into memory again.

3. Repeat it, repeat it

It’s extremely difficult to remember something when you’ve only heard it once. Why do you remember your own phone number? Is it because it’s “easier” or because you’ve said it out loud so many times it has stuck in your memory. This is exactly what we want to achieve. If you have something important to remember, always repeat it to yourself as often as possible and if you could, try to talk about it often as well. When you discuss an idea, it’s easier for your brain to remember what was being discussed than simply what you had in your head.

4. Eat well, drink well yada yada

We all know this but how easy it is to forget! Don’ eat to much nor to little or you won’t be able to remember this riddle. Moderation is the key. If you eat too much you’ll feel tired and drowsy and if you eat to little, you’ll feel hungry and fatigued. Both these things are great obstacles standing in your way towards a better memory.

5. Organize your life

Keep things organized. It doesn’t have to be ordered in the way that other people view as organized as long as it fulfills the purpose. The more organized you become, the keener you become to remembering things. That’s why I recommend you to make mental lists in your head. By organizing information you make it easier to recall in the future. Always try to keep it simple and straightforward.

6. Practice

There’s really no super simple technique to drastically improve your memory. In order to improve it you need both patience and a lot of practice. The more you practice, the better. I hope you enjoyed these tips of mine, if you want to learn some advanced memorization techniques I would deeply recommend you to take a look at the Study Guide PRO. It contains a whole section on advanced techniques on how to improve ones memory.

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What exactly is SQRW? Well, it’s a study method where you get the best out of textbook study. It’s a 4-step strategy and each letter denotes one step so let’s go through it and see how it could make your study life a little bit easier!

What does it stand for?

S stands for Survey: That is what you need to do with each chapter in your textbook. Survey the title, the pictures, the graphs, maps or tables if any, the introduction, summary and conclusion.This will give you an overall grasp of what the chapter is about.

Q stands for Question: Ask questions in your mind and you’ll find you stay focused when reading and it also makes for better remembering. Don’t question the summary, introduction or conclusion – do it with everything else. Ask why, who, where, when, what and how!

R stands for Read: So read to understand, read to answer the questions in your mind and read to remember.As you answer each question, make sure you stay focused on the subject.

W stands for Write: That’s what you’ve got to do in your book. Write each question and answer down and read through it carefully. Voila you’re ready to participate in your class discussions

As any good student knows, if you don’t plan for success, you are in fact planning for failure. The core of good planning lies in knowing how to stake out your goals. These goals will then function as milestones, helping you reach your destination much quicker.

If you do not systematically arrange your goals you will find yourself lost in the wilderness of our own thoughts. The clearer your mission is, the easier it becomes to complete it.

Goal setting is in fact a process. You start out by asking yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing right, are you proud of what you have achieved this far and do you think there is a noble pursuit into following this path or is it strictly related to material gains? (such as money?). In short; we have to learn the why, the how and the when of doing things.

Here’s where the importance of setting goals appear, whether these goals are on a smaller scale such as losing a certain amount of weight each month or on a larger scale such as what to do with the rest of your life. That’s why I urge to plan right now, end procrastination today!

Think, ponder, reflect!

Sit down and just reflect over your life, where are you going? We are all going to die in a few years from now, what makes you want live and continue striving?

Grab a pen and paper

It’s now time to set up the actual steps you need to take in order to reach your end. Get yourself a pen and a notebook and start dividing your plan into years, month and finally into days. You might want to look at this article on how to compose a task list.

Start asking…. and answering

An excellent way of starting the whole process is by simply asking yourself some questions. Here’s a few suggestions on the type of questions you could ask. Obviously, you can should add/subtract questions to form a picture that better fits your needs:

* Do I have any knowledge of this?
* What type of information is needed?
* Where can this piece of information be obtained?
* Is there any type of skill that I need to master?
* Are there any resources I could use?
* Is this really the only way to do it, are there any better options?

Take small steps – Think big thoughts

Now when you’ve finished all the planning, it’s time to actually execute the plan. It’s important that you don’t go over your head, be sure to make your goals small in the beginning. Walk in baby steps while keeping your eyes focused on the larger picture. There’s a famous Chinese proverb that says; “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step”

Just do it!

The more you keep on putting all your plans on the shelf, the greater the regrets afterward. How many times have we not wished we would of finished a certain task a long time ago? Don’t ever procrastinate, the faster you can get things done, the better. Always keep this in mind.

1. Confidence

You have to have a positive sensory orientation towards your speech, learn to have confidence. Unfortunately there is no secrets to this, you have to rehearse over and over again until your confident that you can make it.

Did you know that most people can easily distinguish between a speaker who is confident and an uncertain one? This is why you ought to never read your speech directly from a piece of paper. It gives people an extremely bad impression.

2. Spice your speech

“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech”

Make your performance remembered, make it tasty and try your outmost not to bore people. We all dislike hearing a boring professor speak, why commit the same mistake? A good way to spice your speech is by adding quotes to it, the more the merrier.

By the way, young folks are part of this culture where one uses some keywords over and over again which could make your whole presentation contaminated. Watch out for words such as; “like”, “well”, “you know” etc. A good way to counter this is by using alliterations, ie.

A sentence where all the initial letters in every word start by the same letter. For example: “Cool! Crusty´s car crushed Carl”. The important things is; be innovative when it comes to speeches!

3. Your posture

Your “body language” could turn out to be more crucial than you think, some people even claim that it might be more important than the speech it self! Make sure you have a firm control over your body and try your out most to diminish the use of unnecessary movements. This might distract the audience and your recital might even be viewed as void.

4. Eye contact

Be cautious concerning your eye movements. You should avoid starring at someone/thing provocative, you do not want to be angered, annoyed or aroused when speaking.

5. Water

I think that this one concerns those of us with a Y cromose a bit more; men often speak louder and less calmer then women. Here’s where you need the water, loosing your voice in the middle of the presentation is bad idea! If your equipped with a bottle of water, your problem is fixed, plus you get a few extra seconds to fetch your thoughts as your drinking.

6. Cards

Ever watched one of those lousy talk shows they air all the time? I am sorry if I brought back bad memories from the days you use to watch this garbage but in case you paid attention back then you’ve probably noticed howtalk show hosts use cards when speaking.

This is an excellent move, because of a number of reasons:

a) Looks professional. b) By using keywords and sentences, you can summarize a long speech. c) You avoid using normal (A4) paper, if your hands shiver when you speak in public, the paper might shiver and produce a certain sound of ‘pure embarrassment’.

7. Tools

Do you know how to make a power point, flash (or the like) presentation? If the answers yes, then what’s stopping you? In case you do decide to use a sideshow, be sure to avoid disturbing animations or music, it might distract your audience. Simplicity usually works the best.

8. Speak with good manners

This must be emphasized; speak in a gentle and respectful matter as this gives you more credibility. You have to avoid using bad words, phrases or even exessive use of slang can degrade your performance.

9. Your ending

Try to make your ending summarize your whole speech, be innovative and make sure you don’t neglect this part. A good ending will often compensate for a bad introduction.

10. Practice
Good speakers practice a great deal. It’s true that some people have always been good at speaking but even then, they keep on training to improve their performance. Among the ten listed, this one is certainly the most vital so keep it close to you.

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Do you have have problems concentrating? Believe it or not, you are not alone! The first thing we need to do – before we can discuss how to concentrate – is to define the term “concentration”. According to Princeton University’s WordNet, concentration means:

“great and constant diligence and attention”

This is interesting… If concentration is related to attention then that means that we should be able to improve our concentration by simply becoming more attentive, right? Now, here are a few suggestions on how to do just that:

Apply The 5 More Rule

Instead of just quitting the task all together, you tell yourself to do only 5 more things before you quit. When these have been accomplished you promise yourself again to only do 5 more things (such as writing only 5 more pages, solving only 5 more math problems etc). The keyword here is the word ‘only’; by decreasing the size of the task cognitively you feel less hesitant to abandon it altogether. There’s an Arabic proverb that says:

“If you Can’t finish it altogether – Then Don’t leave it altogether”

Treat Yourself Like A Child

What do you do when your little child has accomplished a task? Well, you praise the little fellow and give him/her a reward. Treat yourself in the same manner by offering yourself incentives when ever you’ve completed a task. This will improve your motivation which in turn improves your concentration. For more information on increasing your motivation, please refer to this post on our blog entitled; improve your study motivation.

Why wait? Do it Now! resources

Procrastination is without doubt one of the biggest enemies you will face as a student. The temptation to delay your studies will always be strong, to counter this your will to succeed must be stronger. Why procrastinate and do something tomorrow if the same task can be done today?

Remove All Possible Distractions

The sad thing is that we don’t always notice when we are being distracted! There are really two kinds of distractions:

Those that are visible, such as someone who is having a lengthy (and boring) discussion with you during your ‘offical study time’. Each and every “cell in your body” tells you that this is very disturbing.

The kind of distractions that are not picked up by ‘our radar’. This type is actually worse than the previous one. You can always tell your annoying friend that you’re busy but how on earth will you rid yourself from something that you’re not even aware of in the first place?

Examples of such distractions are (in no particular order); talking with someone on a topic that interests you, watching a movie while studying/working, listening to music and so forth. All of these things are distracting you from your studies even though you’re not thinking about it. The best way to avoid these types of distractions is by avoiding them from the start.

If you continue to have trouble concentrating once all distractions have been eliminated, you may be working yourself too hard. Exercise or take a walk to get rid of nervous energy. A lack of concentration is also a symptom of eye strain, so visit your eye doctor if you consistently have blurred vision or itchy, watery eyes. If a simple adjustment is in order, you can get contact lenses and be back to your old self in no time.

Make A Task List

I wrote about this in an article entitled how to do a to do list. A to do list is basically a task list that makes it easier to concentrate on your subject. It does this by making you think only about one issue at a time. Task lists are in some ways the opposite of mind mapping, since the latter involves scattering ones thoughts instead of collecting them. Although that’s a good way to initiate a project, it’s not very useful when it comes to actually doing the task in question.