All of these were sent to me in one of my emails by a student. It’s made by different students. Take a break from studies and have a laugh.

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One of the scariest things for a student may be transferring to a new school. Nothing can be worse than walking alone in the campus while everyone seems to already know each other and gather in packs. Together with the new environment, you have to deal with academics, extra-curricular activities, teachers, and lone weekends. If only you have someone to go through it all with, school life would be a breeze. 

Building friendships with strangers is not as easy as parents make it sound like. It can be intimidating and the results of a single move to initiate may either be worthwhile or devastating. However, there are ways to successfully merge into your new school, make new friends and make your whole experience fun. Here’s how. 

1. A new school may mean a new attitude. Now is the best time for a fresh start and change the old routines and ways that you disliked from your past school. Try to explore new places and leave your safety zone because it might boost your confidence in the process. It also exposes you to several people that you may have a lot in common with, which means small conversations that could lead to lasting friendships.
   

2. Be confident. Start with your appearance and try to dress well and clean, but comfortable. Smile, be friendly and be ready for quick conversations. Your body language will tell much about your mood; so people will be attracted to you more if you carry yourself well and appear open for anything fun.
   

3. Stop worrying. Worrying will only alter your mood and affect your confidence. Do your best not to be anxious about not being accepted, because there are always people whom you share common interests with.
   

4. Socialize. Join a club or group because these are great places to meet and talk to new people. Ask a few open-ended questions such as hobbies, music, food or anything that can spark up interest. Keep the conversation spontaneous, light and free-flowing. Volunteer in a few activities to widen your network of people.
   

5. Lend a hand. Help someone with her books or homework or offer to sit with someone alone at lunch in the cafeteria. You’ll soon have a person or two willing to stay by you at one moment or another.
   

6. Mind your own business. Whether it is listening to class, solving math problems or playing team sports, people will look up to you for being good and focused on what you’re doing. You’re most likely to have someone asking questions, help or guidance from you. Also, don’t hesitate to ask questions if you need help.
   

7. Fight back. There will always be bullies and people that will try to make you feel bad being new in school but it’s better to fight back – appropriately. Refer to proper authority during such instances like a teacher or principal. You will be admired for standing by your principles and being confident about yourself.
   

School life is meant to be fun, especially when you’re at the prime of your youth. You only need to feel good about yourself before others will feel the same way about you. With the right attitude and patience, in due time, you will be well-socialized, well-adapted and able to perform to your fullest abilities in your new environment.

Can’t meet deadlines? Feel like there are so many things to do yet so little time? Feeling very stressed and yet as if you have not done much after a whole day’s work?

You just might be suffering from lack of time management. Time management is a skill that can be learned through time and constant practice… as long as you are determined to acquire it. And I assure you, if you will take this advice seriously, you will like the result and never look back. In fact, it might even be the key to your personal and professional success!

How do you go about it?

First, know your priorities. Make a list of your life’s priorities from the most important  to the least important – both in the personal and professional facets of your life.

Second, from your list of priorities, make a long term plan, say, what you want to achieve for one year.  

Third, make a shorter plan of, say, six months or a third of a year – based on your long-term plan.

Fourth, make a daily planner – where you will make a daily commitment towards the achievement of your medium and long-term goals. 

Additional guides in making your effort effective:

1)    Never lose sight of your goal- or your long-term plans. If possible, have a visual aid of those plans pinned on your board or pasted on your desk.

2)    Focus on your efforts to realize your plans. Overcome procrastination. It is like an acid that slowly eats up your resolve to do what you need to do, if you give in to procrastination little by little.

3)    Make a matrix of your plans and your developments, and remember to refer to it from time to time.

4)    Evaluate / assess after every short-term plan and see where you have gone so far. And make another short-term plan for the next short-term goal.

5)    Be flexible yet firm in setting and working out your plans. For sure, there are people and circumstances which will force you to make adjustments on your list of priorities for the month or for the day. If somebody makes a request which you think you cannot accommodate and which is not that important anyway, learn to say ‘no’, and stand by your decision.

6)    Reward yourself for every success that you’ve done in the process of implementing your plans. Say, a visit to the hairdresser or a foot spa or an ice cream if you think you have done something in the pursuit of your plans and you deserve a little ‘pat in the back’.

7)    Think positive! Great men have said that nothing is ever achieved with negative thoughts and ideas.      

Life is a long journey of learning. You need knowledge and wisdom to make your lifetime a meaningful one.

This is one reason why learning is an important tool for people so they can improve their lives. This learning will help you in becoming a better person.

Learning is not for students only. It is important in self- development. Everybody has to learn to face the realities of everyday life. There are always possibilities for improvement. For example:

You may be on a vacation at another country where you need to learn a few words of the native language to go about.

You may get a new position in your job that requires a different skill.

You may even find your kids asking your help in their homework.

All these situations are can happen in your life and they all require some degree of knowledge and capacity to learn the new skills. This is where accelerated learning can come in handy to deal with your tasks.

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The power of concentration is a skill that is easy to master, that is if you have the willpower to do so.

“If there is a will, there is a way” according to one saying, the same goes with concentration. Popular television newscaster and personality Diane Sawyer was once asked about her secret to professional success. Her response was that paying attention was her secret.

The question therefore remains, “How does one basically maintain focus and concentration?”

The following are helpful tips to improve your ability to concentrate in the best way possible. These suggestions apply whether you are in the office busy with work, school, business meeting, or if you are trying to finish a particular project.

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Remember the other day I talked about this topic:
By The Details: How I Excel In My Exams And Emerge Among The Top 53 Students

I’ve made it into a slide show. This inspiration comes from Guy Kawasak who is a successful entrepreneur and author. If you ever want to be an entrepreneur, you can do a google search and find his blog. It’s full of useful and inspiring information about entrepreneurship.

And above are the slides. Hope you enjoy it. Share it to your friends too!

Secretsofstudying.com is getting more and more packed with knowledge. Currently, we are emphasizing more on procrastination, general study skills, and winning mindsets. To allow you to look at our best entries again, below are some of the articles where you can click and read more about it.

Some of the great posts from last week:

• How To Effectively Manage Your Time

• How to Stop Procrastinating

• How to Stay Awake in Class

• 5 Hacks That Help Make Study Simple And Effective

• How The Right Comments Will Help Boost Confidence And Self Esteem in Your Child

• What’s Stopping You From Being Successful? Which category do you belong to?

• By The Details: How I Excel In My Exams And Emerge Among The Top 53 Students

Subscribe to our email course to receive our first chapter of our book for free! You can subscribe at Secretsofstudying.com e-Newsletter.

How to use the tools in our blog?

First let me introduce you Digg. Basically quoting from digg.

Digg is all about user powered content. Everything is submitted and voted on by the Digg community. Share, discover, bookmark, and promote stuff that’s important to you!

Digg’s website actually looks like this.

It’s actually at http://www.digg.com.

How can you benefit from it? Because most of the contents found in the website itself are voted by people, and if some articles or videos have lots of votes, it would mean that many people are reading it and find that it is good.

Hence, sometimes you are able to look for ideas and useful information from this website. It’s totally free so don’t worry about it. Alternatively, you can also vote for your favourite article in this website. All you need to do is register at http://digg.com/register and you can start voting.

When you see the button above, you can just click on the button and you can vote too! Vote for the posts in this website!

Next tool.

Your ShoutBox

Do you see this at the side of this blog?

It’s for you to communicate and shout out your thoughts, ideas, problems and even what you need. You can even talk to some other students who have come to this blog.

After going through 2 years of junior college, I had a total different perspective about excel in exams. I don’t really need to be hardworking – I can still have fun, relax and still score distinctions. Here’s some details of what I went through.

1. 7. It took me 7 months of hard work to improve my grades from C, D, E to A, A, A.
2. 3.5. I spent an average of 3.5 hours to study daily. Sometimes I studied lesser and sometimes I studied more. (4 – 6 pm & 10:30pm to 12 pm)
3. 1. I had 1 girlfriend during the 2 years and I talked to her every night from 9 pm to 10:30 pm. I would continue study after that if I’m not too tired. She came from the top 5 colleges while I’m not. Because of this, I had a tendency to work even harder.
4. 1159. Sleeping time was around 11:59 pm. I can’t sleep too late when I’m in college because I’ve got to wake up at 6:15 am.
5. 11. I had 11 books for 3 subjects (Maths, Physics, Chemistry). It includes the past year questions and textbooks but it does not include my notes.
6. 13. I’ve completed a total of 13 papers for each subject from 13 different colleges before I went for my exams. I know it sounds crazy, but I was desperate to get distinctions for every single subject.
7. 6. I was always with the same group of 6 friends. And amazingly, most of us scored full distinctions for our ‘A’ Level Examinations. Sticking with friends that will support you helps in your studies.
8. Saturday – It’s one of the days I went out and have fun. Watching movie and playing games. “Work hard and play hard”.
9. 10. Even 10 days before the teachers teach a new topic, I had already done the tutorials and look through the homework. I was never on a hurry to finish up my homework because I was 10 days ahead of everyone. That is also why I can have fun on Saturday.
10. Sunday – It’s usually the time when I planned the week ahead. Plan what to study, what homework to complete, and what are things to revise.
11. 7. I watched television from 7 pm to 8 pm after school. Sometimes I watched and study at the same time. It’s very unproductive.
12. 8. I spent around 8 hours in school everyday. My school ended around 3pm (sometimes 4.30). There are several breaks in between. I usually spend the time doing tutorials and homework. That explains why I study so fast ahead of everyone else.
13. 53. I was the top 53 students in my college when I’ve gotten back my final grades.
14. 46. My average grades for my first tests were 46. I scored something like C, D, F. Some friends said I was quite good for my first tests.
15. 90. I started revising all my subjects 90 days before my final exams. But mind you, it’s a bit too late to revise. I studied in a consistent basis and hence revision was a breeze to me.
16. 11. I had a total of 11 notebooks, scrapbooks, organizers and planners. Around 3 Scrapbooks to draw Mindmaps for each of the 3 different subjects. I had 3 notebooks to write down all the notes. And I had around 5 organizers and planners.
17. 0. I had 0 tuition teachers when I’m in college. If I don’t understand the concepts, I would ask the teachers.
18. 5. I was 5 days behind schedule even I had planned my revision plans. Fortunately, I had allocated some days as buffer.
19. 4. 4 things you can learn from reading this.
    1. Planning. I had 5 organizers and planners. Why do I buy so many if they are not important?
    2. Being consistent plays a big role. You can have fun and excel in your studies if you are consistent.
    3. Friends can make you or break you. Sticking with the right friends will help you in getting good grades.
    4. Having a relationship doesn’t necessary affect your studies.

Most of you have read about me – my journey from an average kid to a ‘A’ student.

I’m not going to go through my story again but I’m sharing with you what’s stopping you from being successful. Whether be it your studies, dreams, or even self-fulfilment.

But before I go deeper, I have a question for you.

You have sit for an exam and you have gotten your results back. You were depressed to see a big red ‘F’ again.

What’s stopping you from being successful?
What’s holding you back?

[poll=2]
So what’s the truth?

If you look at the above choices, they can be classified into 3 categories.

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There are uncountable times where I put off doing all the tasks till the last minute. Things like homework, projects, revision, have always been things I have to force myself to do. Though I have scored many ‘A’s in my exams, I’m just a human like you do.

Today I have a special guest with me. Lisa Fior is a high school teacher who won the “Best Teacher Award” in her school. Last year, 95% of her students were able to graduate from high school. Below is what she have for you. She is going to share with you some tips on how you can conquer procrastination by planning.

Today’s parents have heard or read plenty about what to tell kids when they do or say something not quite nice, like criticizing the behavior rather than the child.

For example, child experts advice saying “That was not a very nice thing to do”, instead of “You were a bad boy/girl.” Yet, even with the best intentions, parents sometimes make comments that weaken their children’s confidence.

Here are some common scenarios where you might have responded unfavorably toward a certain behavior.

Scenario 1: Your child sadly tells you that he failed to make the first-string soccer team.

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You’re finally living independently in college and it’s been a few months since you left the confines of your home and constant parent supervision, in exchange for a room shared with another seemingly acceptable character. The excitement of living alone and being your own boss has died down after all the fun and exploration; and you finally decide to settle down and focus on your academics, which are the main reason why you’re living away from home anyway.

You, then, realize your roommate wasn’t as cool as he used to be. He seems to be getting on your nerves these past several days. He can’t seem to stop talking to you when you’re studying, or plays his mp3s out loud when you’re trying to sleep before an exam. Despite the initial advantages of splitting expenses and having a constant buddy around, the annoyance of his noisy nature is beginning to take its toll. You realize that you have to deal with it before the situation becomes unlivable.

Here are some tips on how to deal with a noisy roommate. Read the rest of this entry

When I was a student, I was always on the internet. Most of the time, it was for the wrong reason – playing games, chatting with friends.

But now, it’s a completely different story. The internet is now a great source of searching for your research materials and provide useful tools for your studies. In fact, if you know where to get essential items, you’ll have more time for yourself.

Here are the 5 hacks you can use…

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You may have classes of different levels of interest. Some may be boring, some may be worth anticipating; you may even have classes you wish you don’t have to take. Here are some tips to stay awake in your most dreary classes:

1. Have enough sleep the night before. The average sleep for an adolescent is 8 hours daily. Of course, we can’t avoid those late nights or early mornings that we have to stay awake, but make sure that the reason is academics, and not those booty calls. You know what I mean.
   

2. Exercise. Make your muscles and bones happy by giving them stretches first thing in the morning. Some of us might have classes in the sixth floor, then the sixth floor of another building. Engaging in morning exercise prepares your body for that tedious stair-climbing and helps blood circulate to your brain.
   

3. Caffeine. Coffee, cola, chocolates, and the like stimulate the Central Nervous System. This means that taking generous amounts of caffeine keeps your brain working. However, too much is never good; excessive caffeine can cause insomnia, anxiety, and the like. So, if you don’t want to end up being a lifeless vegetable, be careful with your intake.
   

4. Eat. Never come to class hungry, because an empty stomach won’t help your brain and body fully work. Add to that the embarrassment of hearing your tummy grumble, crying for food. In simple words, an empty stomach distracts your concentration. You can just have some simple finger food, but don’t get caught by the teacher.

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