• The first tip (#1) is to make sure that you get enough sleep not just the night before the test for but for several nights leading up to it. You need to have your brain well rested and ready for the testing day ahead of you. Part of this tip involves eating a healthy breakfast with some protein and not being hungry during the test so that you are not distracted and all of your thinking is not channeled toward what your next meal is going to be.
•  Tip number two (#2) is to make visual cues for your test, i.e. flashcards, pinning up maps, math problems, dates you need to memorize up in your room so that you see it consistently for a couple of days before your test which helps create a visual in your brain. Don’t think that flashcards or this type of learning is just for little kids. Big kids can benefit from this process as well. Have your sibling, friend or parent quiz you on the subject matter for a few days leading up to the test to guarantee that you will be able to retrieve that information more easily when you need to during the test.
• Tip number three(#3) is to organize yourself before you even get started. There are some subjects we like and those we dislike. Study for awhile on the subjects you don’t like first so that when you get tired of studying at least you are studying something you enjoy.
•  Tip number four (#4) is about noise. I personally work better with the radio on playing music. Others like it quiet. Whatever your personal preference is that helps you study more effectively is what you should do.
• Tip number five (#5) is to close/turn off Facebook, cell phone, Twitter, etc. Spend a solid set amount of time just studying. You can schedule a break every 50 minutes or so to get a snack or look at your Facebook and answer your texts. Just make sure that when those 10 minutes or assigned time is up, it’s time to get back to work with everything off again!
•  Tip number six (#6) is to eat as ‘clean’ as you can all week. Our brains function much better with optimum nutrition and limited caffeine.
• Tip number seven (#7) is regarding friends. Studying with others is great and usually very productive as you can help each other. But if you are more about goofing off and wasting time, reserve that person as a friend and NOT a study partner.
• Tip number eight (#8) is to stagger your studying so that you are not always cramming the books the night before. An extra thirty minutes on a subject each night is better than 2 straight hours of trying to study all at once the night before the test.
•  Tip number nine (#9) is about willpower. Sometimes, you just have to sit down and get it done! Think of the Nike logo — Just Do It!
• Tip number ten (#10) is to relax. If you have prepared properly for the upcoming test you should have no problem and the more you can relax the better will be your recall of the information.

According to a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education (2006), 61% of high school teachers said that their students have never written a paper longer than five pages. And, a 2007 study of George Washington University freshmen found that in high school, the students were primarily taught how to offer and support opinions, while summarizing and synthesizing information took a back seat.  It appears, therefore, that students are not getting enough practice developing a set of sophisticated writing skills, components of which include: analytical skills; writing structure such as grammar and syntax, the organization of ideas, and the ability to plan a linear argument.  How will these students be able to express themselves succinctly, to effectively communicate, to convince a prospective employer, to excite a reader, to analyze a proposal?

Students are also falling into the habit of informal writing that may be acceptable in e-mail to friends and family, but not in formal writing.  At Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, professors and administrators report that they are seeing more emoticons and texting terms in formal work that is handed in, especially in the last five years. This uptick is attributable to the use of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media where it is acceptable to use abbreviations and ignore punctuation and grammar rules. Thus, “I am unhappy because you’re late” has become “Im L cuz, your l8.” Rummana Khan Hemani, the university’s director of academic advising, commented, “There has been this general sense in the last two or three years that we are finding more students are struggling in terms of language proficiency.”

Spurred by low writing test scores on the GMAT exam, even business schools are reacting to the news. They are seeing undergraduates enter without the basic knowledge needed to write effectively, which can hinder their academic and job success.  Investment banks, consulting firms, and even technology companies stress the importance of writing when hiring candidates.  Careers in finance, marketing, and consulting require preparation of multi-page reports and presentations.  Properly drafting an e-mail is essential in today’s business world.

A foundation of good writing is reading comprehension, and if a person can’t grasp the main argument of a text, then he will not be able to create it on his own. “Reading and writing are highly correlated,” stated ACT’s CEO Richard Ferguson. And, if only 51% of all high school students who took the ACT college entrance exam* are prepared for college-level reading, what can students do now to begin working on improving writing skills? One answer is to start as soon as possible. “We need to get more rigorous, more complex reading into our high school social studies, science, and math courses, and so forth, so that students are actually experiencing those skills and then are prepared to use what’s expected of them when they get to college,” says Ferguson.

Independently, students might create a brainstorming bank and practice writing structured essays on a topic of their choice. Or, a student might try reading an op-ed or editorial in a newspaper once a week and then do the following:  ask himself questions, try to criticize the author’s argument, propose a solution (or alternate solution) to the defined problem, or take the opposite side of the argument and shape his writing to convince a reader of the alternate point of view.

Last but not least, Aim High Tutors has a number of excellent writing tutors available to help students at all levels improve their writing.  Call us today at 949.249.2130 to find out how we can help your student.

*according to an American College Testing Program (ACT) report

The leaders of the study aimed to better understand why pressure-filled exam situations undermine some students’ performance.  In the clinically depressed, writing about emotional events has been shown to reduce mental time devoted to revisiting distressing ideas,  and by extension,  the psychologists inferred that writing about one’s emotions before an exam would free up brain power for the immediate task.  Indeed, the study showed that stressed students who were given ten minutes to express their feelings on paper performed significantly better than their peers who either wrote about other topics or did nothing at all. 

As any A+ tutor or student knows, good test preparation is key, but this could be another useful tool to add to the test-taker’s kit. When nervous, write about it!

• Make sure you do some research first.  Have your teen do a ‘virtual’ tour of the colleges she is interested in possibly attending.  Checking out the website can be a great starting point and will help your student decide if the college is worth seeing or not.  Some of the websites even offer blogs by students that offer an insider view.  Some of the criteria to consider is how competitive the school is, academic programs offered, location, distance from home, religious affiliation, all male or female school and the number of students.

• When the list of propsective schools has been narrowed down, you can then find out the policy of each one regarding information sessions and campus tours as well as what days and times they are offered.  Some of the schools will require advance registration either by email or phone.  Let your teenager make the appointments so that they take ownership of the process.  If they do schedule interviews, your student can also schedule those remembering to bring the proper attire for that situation.

• Organize the itinerary.  Limit yourselves to visiting no more than two colleges on the same day–otherwise, it can get overwhelming.  Don’t forget to visit the surrounding areas around the school as that will also be part of your student’s experience should he/she decide to attend school there.

• Don’t take the other sibling with you on the trip unless they are interested also in someday attending that school.  Making other arrangements for younger children would be a smart thing since they can become fidgety and tired and not be able to keep up with the tours offered.

• Parents should try to keep a low profile.  While you are still at home, you can discuss with your teenager different questions that he/she might have about the school but you will want to keep a low profile once you arrive on campus.  Let your child be the one to check in with the receptionist at the Admissions Office and be in control.  Make sure they he/she knows that it is perfectly acceptable to ask any questions after the information session as well as the tour guide as you are walking around the campus.

• Don’t be afraid to wander around.  Feel free to explore the campus more after the tour is over making sure to check out the student union and the cafeteria.  Check out the ball fields or stadium and stop by the academic department that interests you.  Ask students that you meet on campus about the social life, whether they live on or off campus and what they might suggest as far as housing, etc.

Have fun with your teenager.  This road trip is a good time to bond and have fun with your teen as he/she faces important decisions about her future!

Disadvantaged children tend to lag behind affluent students in math at the onset of school, and this study found that most low-income children don’t have board games at home.

The children in the study, 124 preschoolers in the federal Head Start program, used a board game with a spinner and took turns moving pieces along a row of numbered squares.  They played four times, for 15-20 minutes each session, over a two-week period.  At the end of the study, the preschoolers who participated could better identify and county numbers and had a sense of which numbers hold a greater value.

“Parents and preschool teachers should know that playing number board games increases young children’s numerical understanding and lays a solid fountain for future learning of mathematics as well.” says Carnegie Mellon Prof. Robert Siegler, coauthor of the study.  –Eddy Ramirez

The RQWQCQ strategy is not only easy to remember, but also easy to apply.

Try it and see if it works for you.

Read the Problem                                                          The first thing to do is read the problem question through so that you understand what it is that’s required.

Failure to do this puts you at a disadvantage because the chances are that you’ll have either the wrong answer or the right answer in the wrong format. Read the problem carefully and you’ll at least have the right format.

Q is for Question�
Identify what the question is in the problem. Sometimes this could be clearly given, but occasionally you’ll need to find it within the words outlining the problem.

W is for Write�
Make a note of the facts required. A useful tip here is to put a line through any irrelevant facts within the problem so that you can see what’s left that’s important. Remember however that sometimes you’ll only be given relevant facts so this is where reading comes important so you can distinguish what’s essential to the solution of the problem and what’s not.

Q is for Question
This time the question is to identify what calculations or computations do I need to do in order to answer the question correctly

C is for Compute
Write up the problem and make the computations. Check your calculations for errors and make any corrections that are needed. Once you’ve done this, identify your final answer by circling or underlining it.

Q is for Question
The final question is to ask if the answer seems a feasible solution to the problem. If you find that it’s not because it doesn’t seem to relate to the facts given in the problem, then you need to go back to step 1 of the RQWQCQ to see if you get a different answer. Should you find that because of your answer to the final question you have to return to step 1, completely start again using none of the computations that you used to arrive at the first answer. Do this until you are either convinced that however odd it seems it is right, or you arrive at an answer that is more in line with the problem given.

By using this RQWQCQ strategy, together with the formulas you have been taught, you’ll find that you can logically solve any problem given to you in your math class.

There are three main styles of learning, and most students fall into one of these three categories: auditory learning, tactile/kinesthetic learning, or visual learning.

Auditory learners are more receptive to presentations that are oral.  Do you find that the information in class is easier to absorb if the teacher stands at the front the room and talks about a subject?  Do you find that you are quicker to understand information given on audio tape or MP3?  If so, one way of making your grades better would be to record yourself reading from the text book of any subjects that you find particularly difficult, and then listening to the spoken word – because of your learning style you may find that it makes the subjects easier to understand.

Tactile/kinesthetic learners on the other hand learn best in a hands-on environment.  They understand the physical form and being able to touch the material allows them to understand the subject matter easier.  Unfortunately this isn’t the easiest of learning styles to work with in a school setting as many subject areas don’t easily lend themselves to a tactile approach – and school resources may limit those subjects that do.  Consider how you can make a tactile model for subjects you find difficult and then use this to increase your understanding of it.

Visual learners are best with things they can see.  They much prefer the written word or illustrative diagrams to listening to a teacher speak.  Books and charts are the best educational tools for those of you who have this learning style, and therefore you ought to do well in a school environment.  Classes that provide handouts, or use an overhead projector will be your best classroom experiences, but for those where handouts aren’t given, your own notes should provide the best source of information for homework.

If you aren’t sure which learning style you have, pay attention to how you learn next time you’re in a classroom.  Familiarize yourself with each style beforehand, and then try to follow each style in turn to investigate which one of them gives you the easier learning experience.  Once you identify it, and can use this style more thoroughly in your school work, you’ll find that you’ll understand things faster and consequently should see an improvement in your grades.

Each question will have a clue, direction words, as to the kind of response you need to give in order to answer the question correctly – and even if you manage to get the answer right without having it in the right format, you won’t get as high a grade as you could have, simply because you didn’t take the time to read the question properly before you started.

The most common words you are likely to encounter on an essay or test paper are:

Compare – take a look at something against something else (the paper will tell you what you’re comparing, apples and oranges for example) and talk about how they are different, and how they are alike. You compare one against another.

Contrast – in this situation, you only look at how the items are different and what their contrasts are.

Describe – here you need to go into great detail about whatever you’re asked to describe. Break it down into its component parts, and give as much information for each part as you can.

Explain – write about something in a way that’s easy to understand, as if you were telling someone else how to do something.

Define – very similar to “explain” except you should keep it as much to the point as possible.

Diagram – this isn’t writing; this is illustrating your point without sentences. You can use words to label your diagram but your answer should be clear from looking at the illustration without needing a paragraph to explain it.

Justify – give reasons that support an issue or statement.

List – it’s what it says, it’s a list – not an essay, not flowing on paragraphs, just a list.

Outline – this is just the salient points of something set out in a well organized format.

Summarize – take what you know about the subject and write about it in a concise manner. It should contain as much relevant important information as possible, but should still be relatively short.

Trace – this is like a written time-line.Take the subject area back as far as you can, and then write about it up until the event or present day (depending on the topic). Some of the above words are very similar but they have subtle differences so be sure to learn exactly what each one means. Identifying the right word in your next essay or test could make the difference between an excellent, or average, grade!

1. Narration

The narration technique for writing is used when telling a story. The elements of a story include the setting, time, problem, resolution to the problem, a main character and often supporting characters. A novel is an example of a long story and a children’s book would be an example of short story. Movie and play scripts are also examples of narrations.

2. Description

A description is a simple yet very important writing technique. You will most frequently find descriptions in magazines, books, newspapers and many other forms of writing. The purpose of a description is to help the read use the senses of seeing, hearing, feeling and smelling to experience what the writer experiences. Descriptions help the reader to understand things about which the writer is writing.

3. Persuasion

The technique of persuasion is used in writing to try and change the reader’s point of view on a particular subject or topic. In this writing technique the writer presents in a compelling format facts and opinions in order to convince the reader. Persuasive writing is most commonly found in editorials, newspapers, magazines and political publications.

4. Exposition

The purpose of exposition is to inform, explain, expound or clarify the writer’s ideas and thoughts. While similar to descriptive writing, exposition provides the reader greater detail and depth of understanding about the writer’s thoughts and ideas. Expositions are most commonly found in newspapers, magazines and books.

5. Comparison and Contrast

The purpose of the writing technique is to show the reader the similarities and differences about a something. Comparison is used to show or explain how what is alike or common. Contract is used to show what is different. When asked to compare and contrast the Civil War with World War II the writer would show the similarities and differences between these two wars.

Employing the correct writing technique that helps you accomplish your purpose will enable you to communicate more effective and become a good writer.

William Kohler, MD, medical director of the Florida Sleep Institute, director of pediatric sleep services at University Community Hospital in Tampa, and an AASM pediatric sleep expert, says that teens need more sleep than adults because their circadian rhythm is easily disrupted. An adequate quantity and quality of sleep is necessary for optimal learning, and Dr. Kohler encourages teens to establish appropriate bedtime hours and a healthy sleep environment to ensure at least nine to 10 hours of quality sleep.

“A student’s performance in the classroom is dictated by the amount of sleep he or she gets the night before,” says Dr. Kohler. “A teen who regularly gets enough sleep will have improved academic performance, a positive attitude towards their education, and be able to better interact socially with their peers and teachers. Students can also remember better what they learned if they get a good night’s sleep after learning the task. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, increases the incidence of academic failure, depression and behavioral problems.”

Daniel S. Lewin, PhD, of the Children’s National Medical Center at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C, agrees that, in today’s society, in between school, after-school activities and socializing with friends, sleep often takes a back seat among teenagers.

“Weighing the importance of sleep and the essential activities is hard, and all too often in our current culture of achieve-achieve-achieve, sleep loses,” says Dr. Lewin. “The bad news is that when sleep loses, you lose. Here’s why: adequate sleep on a nightly basis is essential for learning, memory, safety and even preventing weight gain.”

Dr. Lewin says that every now and then, a short sleep period is ok and even necessary, but some care should be exercised the next day because the less you sleep, the greater the risk of injury and getting into an automobile accident. Sleep loss night after night leads to poorer grades, difficulty getting along with friends and health problems in the long term, adds Dr. Lewin.

“As mid-term exams approach, remember that adequate sleep will lead to improved memory,” says Dr. Lewin. “Do not stay up late cramming for the test the next day because there is a good probability that the loss of sleep will erode your performance, and last-minute bits of information will not help much. There is some good news. If you sleep for an adequate period of time, then rehearsing or practicing your test material at bedtime will be very likely to improve your recall.”

Research has shown that inadequate and disruptive sleep can lead to problems with behavior and mood along with difficulty with cognition and performance in the classroom. A study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that students who have trouble sleeping do not perform as well in school as students without sleep complaints.

Several recent studies outline the adverse effects of poor sleep among teens with regards to their success in school:

- Students with symptoms of sleep disorders are more likely to receive poor grades in classes such as math, reading and writing than peers without symptoms of sleep disorders.

- The brain responses of those children who don’t get enough sleep can accurately predict the impact sleep loss has on their ability to pay attention during the course of a day.

- Research examining the impact of sleep in school-age children suggests that even mild sleep loss produces marked deficits in their cognitive development and functioning. Sleep restriction can alter children’s initial stages of speech perception, which could contribute to disruptions in cognitive and linguistic functioning – skills necessary for reading and language development and comprehension.

- Teenagers who stay up late on school nights and make up for it by sleeping late on weekends are more likely to perform poorly in the classroom. This is because, on weekends, they are waking up at a time that is later than their internal body clock expects. The fact that their clock must get used to a new routine may affect their ability to be awake early for school at the beginning of the week when they revert back to their old routine.

- Aggressive behavior and bullying, common among schoolchildren, are likely to have multiple causes, one of which may be an undiagnosed sleep-related breathing disorder.

- Consuming caffeine may affect the sleep and school performance of young teens. Students who consume caffeine wake up later in the morning on school days. The study links waking up later for school with having a lower grade-point average. Students who consume caffeine later in the day also are more likely to miss school.

- Over the past decade, children have been going to bed later and sleeping less. This can be attributed, in part, to a lack of awareness in the community concerning sleep need in children and how the amount of sleep a child should get each night is dependent on one’s age. The Sleep-Side Rule is found to be an effective classroom tool that improves children’s understanding of the relationship between age and sleep need.

The following tips are provided by the AASM to help teens get the most out of their sleep. Parents should be aware of these guidelines and should use them to help their teen develop healthy sleep habits:

- Try to get close to nine hours of sleep each night. Get enough sleep so that you wake up refreshed and alert for the day.

- Try to wind down and relax before bedtime. Avoid intense studying, arguing and exercising. Stop playing video or computer games and enjoy some quiet time before bed.

- Avoid bright lights in the evening. Darkness lets your body know it’s time to sleep.

- Try to get bright light in the morning. This helps reset your clock for the next night. Turn on bright lights and open your blinds when you get up. Getting exercise in the morning also may help.

- Try to catch up on any lost sleep when you can. Naps can be helpful to catch up with lost sleep, but don’t nap in the evening. Sleeping later on weekends can help catch up with lost sleep. But do not sleep later than two to three hours past your normal weekday wake up time, especially on Sunday mornings.

- Avoid stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine in the afternoon and evening. Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol can disturb your sleep. Do not drink alcohol. The combined effects of sleepiness with alcohol are very dangerous.

- Do not drive if you are sleepy. Driving sleepy can be as dangerous as driving drunk.

Compiled by the American Association of Sleep Medicine