Having a hard time keeping up with what the prof is saying in a lecture? And after reading about the awesome Cornell Notes you probably want to write everything down. But you cannot keep up, so you cannot write anything down and you cannot learn anything from that lecture! Stress stress stress.

There must be a way right? To keep writing everything down the prof is saying and to pay attention. And lucky you, there is. All it takes is a little (really a little) creativity and 3 minutes after the lecture.

How to keep up with your notes in a lecture
When you are sitting at a lecture, writing down the material your teacher is covering, find little abbreviations (shortcuts, however you wanna call it) to write down. For instance, if the teacher is talking about cardiac heart failure, you probably don’t want to write down that word all the time, so you write CHF instead of the long word Cardiac Heart Failure.

Isn’t this obvious? Yes it is. But nobody is using it in a smart way. When you are jotting down notes, make sure you abbreviate a lot. Have a lot of abbreviations for words, so you can write faster and pay more attention. But! Make sure what these abbreviations mean. You can write down the word you are going to write down a lot one time completely and write the abbreviation after it (e.g. Cardiac heart failure (CHF)). This can be done in class, so you don’t need the extra 3 minutes after class. But you can also revise your notes (as you are already doing probably because of your Cornell Note Taking) and write down the abbreviations at the top of your paper. You will have a short, cool list on top of your notes with a couple of abbreviations. Awesomeeee!

Quick tip for the people who take notes with their laptop
When you have your laptop to take notes on, install WordPilot (TextExpander for Mac) and fill in a couple of words ahead. What this little application does is making you able to write only the abbreviation, but the full word will appear in your word document. This is how I answer my email 5 times faster. Instead of writing ‘Kind regards, Stefan Knapen, http://StudySuccessful.com, http://StefanKnapen.com, http://twitter.com/StefanSSF’ I just write down ‘kr’ and it will expand that abbreviation to the whole sentence.

Put words in ahead of a lecture. If it is about microfinance, fill in words like ‘mf = microfinance’, ‘pfia = poor farmers in Africa’. You are creative enough to find you own abbreviations!

Good luck, have fun, write faster.

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

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I have the opportunity to give a workshop ‘how a student works smarter (as in lifehacking)’ to the IT department from my university. That makes me wondering: What do you miss at the university computers/software?

Some examples from my side. What bothers me:

• No RSS in Blackboard. What about that? I have to go to blackboard every day to check for updates on my courses. So I have to go to a website to see if it changed in one way or the other. That kind of actions has been way easier for years and we call it RSS (Real Simple Syndication), I don’t want to go to blackboard for updates, blackboard should come to me!
• ‘No software download policy’ on university computers. I understand that this prevents a lot of viruses on the computers, but there are a couple of programs I use all of the time on my laptop (Google Chrome for instance) that I miss big time on the university computers..

So what bothers you? What do you miss on the computers or what kind of things could be way easier? How do you want to hack (again: as in lifehacking) the computers of the university, what isn’t possible right now! Please share it in the comments!

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

Everybody knows that you can learn a lot from a lecture. At least, that is what the teachers want you to believe. Attend every lecture, just keep listening and you won’t have to study anymore. A bunch of bullshit, according to me. According to me, there are 3 factors which makes it worth to go to a lecture.

The 3 factors that determine if the lecture is worth attending

1. Is the material hard enough? If the teacher is in front of class talking about things you already know, why should you spend another hour listening to him? You can spend your time with studying material you don’t understand and becoming way better than your peers. Look at last week, how many lectures did you attend which probably weren’t that useful because you already knew the material covered? If this is more than 2 or 3 hours, you may start considering skipping the lecture before it has even started, with only looking at the subject. When you already understand the venous vein function curve already, why would you spend another hour on it?
2. Did you prepare the lecture good enough? In a lot of cases, you don’t have to prepare the lecture, but you have to have some basic knowledge to understand what the professor is saying. If you don’t understand what he or she is saying at all, you will just come home with a head ache and the will to drop out of college right away. Probably not that good of a motivator, right?
3. Is the professor good enough? This is the most important factor for me. Is the professor worth listening to? This sounds more worse than I mean it. What I mean is: is the man or woman able to speak in front of a class? I have seen teacher who kept staring to the monitor and repeating what the slides said. We are in college know, we are paying a lot of money (or others are doing it for us) and that is why I expect to have good (if not very good) speakers in front of me, explaining things where they know a lot about. And when the teacher isn’t good, I won’t be able to listen just because I am frustrated about the fact that the money is not well spend. You probably have lectures from the same professor a couple of times in the semester, so if you already know that that person shouldn’t be in front of class and you know you can’t stand that, you probably shouldn’t go at all.

These are the three factors that determine if the lecture is worth attending or not, these are external factors which you probably cannot influent that much (except the second). But there are also reasons to not go to a lecture because of you.

The 3 factors from within which determine whether you should go or not

1. Are you awake. I’ve discussed this one in the first chapter of my free ebook, so I won’t get that deep on this one. But it is really important to be awake during the lecture, you should be able to understand what the professor is saying and to process the material he is covering. A lecture is important and a lecture can cause you to not read the study material anymore because you already know it, but you should be paying attention at the lecture, which isn’t possible when you are sleeping, right?
2. Are you able to concentrate? Do you have a clear mind? Do you have a lot of things going on which distract you from the talking voice in front of class? Are you able to pay attention? For instance, if one of your best friends has lost a relative just the other day, you probably cannot pay attention because you are thinking about him/her. This doesn’t make the lecture worth going to, you may need to go to your friend in stead..
3. Are you in the mood to be a knowledge sucking sponge? Cause if you aren’t, will the time be spend useful? When you are not in the mood at all, you probably end up drawing flowers or talking to friends, not that effective. You need to be motivated and in a certain mood to suck up all the knowledge the professor is spreading over you!

I know, not a lot of people will tell you to skip a lecture, I am also not a big fan of not attending them. But look at the last couple of weeks, how many hours have you spend at lectures which you could use in a better way? I know people who don’t go to lectures at all but pass with great marks. You may have a better use for your own time, also this is a part of time management.

Find out which lecture you probably shouldn’t attend and have peace with it. So if you are not going, read the chapter in the book a little bit better, talk to your friends about what they have learned, how does this work for you? Let me know.

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

This is a guest post by Bianca from Study-Up, a blog about studying (in Dutch!). Bianca is an educator who teaches high school students.

Everybody has had that moment were they have to make a multiple choice test and all you can do was guess. The beauty of a multiple choice test is that guessing is actually a pretty good way to get a good result (of course learning works better but sometimes you just have got better things to do). These tests are made by humans after all and we all know that humans are easy to predict. If you follow a few simple rules you should be able to make a multiple choice test succesfull without studying!

1. Read the questions and instructions before you start: This is really a important part of making any type of test. You will never forget this step once you’ve made a big mistake because you didn’t do it. A good example that I often use is the following: You have to make a history test (not multiple choice) and you’ve got 3 hours to make it. You studied the material really good so you quickly begin to write. After 2 hours (and a lot of writing) you are done and you feel as if you knew everything. When you quikly read the instructions just to make sure you didn’t miss anything you find out that every question had to be answered on a different piece of paper. This sucks, if you’ve only read the instructions first!
2. First make the questions you already know: Even if you haven’t learned there is a chance that you already knew a few questions. You should always begin with these, because it would be a shame if you don’t have time for them anymore at the end.

And now the rules you have to follow for all the other questions you think you don’t know. Unless you get -1 point for every wrong answer you should answer all of them. Never forget that you know more than you know!

1. Cross out the wrong answers: Usually there is 1 answer that is so obviously wrong you shouldn’t even bother to think it over. Don’t doubt yourself just cross it away immediately.
2. When there are opposite answers; one of them is true: Often if there are 2 answers that are competly opposite one of them will be true. So now you’ve got a 50-50 chance of picking the right one.
3. The longer answer is good: It takes more words to describe the good answer than it does to describe the wrong answer (remember: this is one of the last rules you have to use; so only if no other rule can be used)
4. Mark answers that contain ” none of the above” or “all of the above”: there are 2 reasons why this answers could be there: 1; They couldn’t think of any more wrong answers, or 2; its the right answer. Mostly you can see that some answers could be right so of course you then pick “all of the above”. If you really haven’t got a clue I suggest you pick “all of the above” or “none of the above”. Running out of wrong answers seems quite unlikly.
5. Save the question for later: If you have absolutely know idea what the question is even about, just leave it for later. Sometimes they give away the answer in questions yet to come. Of course this is a very dumb mistake so in very important tests your chance of reading the right answer in a next question is little. But just remember that these tests are made by humans, and humans make mistakes.
6. Pick anwers that sound as if your teacher said them: If your teacher uses the word “naturally” a lot and this word is in one of the answers then chances are big that this is the right answer. (of course you do need a test that your teacher made himself)

If you have learned for your test and you think you know the right answers, BUT according to these rules you should pick a different answer; then don’t. These rules are and will be just a way to gamble better. It’s better to trust yourself than these rules!

This was a guest post by Bianca from Study-up, do you want to do a guest post here? Contact me!

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

One of the essentials to get a good grade on your test is having good notes to review. But that sounds easier than it is. You can write down a lot, and still not getting the essence of what has been told to you. And when you are reviewing your notes, you have a lot to review. There is just so much, can you get all of this in your head? Probably not. There is a way to get good notes to review, including the essentials of what has been told to you, this is the Cornell Method of note taking. This will force you to understand the essence and to take complete notes.

What Cornell notes?
The Cornell method means that you divide your piece of paper in 3 boxes. The above-right box contains the name of the class, the date and the name of the teacher. This gives you a good overview and you know where to go to when you have any questions.

The big box on the right is where you take your notes. You take notes as usual, you write down what you have to write down and you make a pretty big, complete story. Everything you need to know is on there and more. In this box you also make drawnings and write down examples and cases. This box contains a lot of text and when you write it down you know you won’t remember all of it.

The small box on the left contains the key points of what you have written down. And nothing more. Only the essentials, you can review the notes on the right when you don’t understand something good enough.

How to make notes with Cornell notes

1. When you enter class, get your notebook and draw lines to divide the boxes. Write down the name of the class, date and name of the teacher (and maybe his email address?) in the box top right.
2. Start taking notes. Write down almost everything the teachers says in the big box at the right and do it fast. Use abbreviations and doodles to write faster. When you are in doubt whether or not you need to know this, just write it down.
3. Go to the library after class and review your notes. Get the key points, the essentials, out of what you’ve done. Write them in the left box, where you keep the key points. Don’t write too much, you don’t need to explain points again, just cite to the right box. Make use of arrows.
4. When you are on the point with your studying for a test that you need to review your notes, review the key-points only. Don’t bother the big story at the right anymore, only review the key points. When you don’t understand something, or it is not completely clear, take a look at the box on the right. See the examples there and understand what you meant when you wrote the key points down.

The Cornell Method will make you understand your own notes better and saves you time. Besides that, you will also remember the lectures better, because you have reviewed them right away. The key-points will be floating around after the lecture, so you will remember those better.

Start now, start dividing your notebook in 4 boxes, or just buy a Cornell-method notebook (pre-divided, awesomeness). Put it into practise and be a winner.

Have you download the free ebook on motivation already? Download ‘Nine ways to get motivated for college’ from Stefan Knapen now!

I had some classes in my schoolcarreer with a really bad teacher. You know what I mean, the teacher doesn’t seem to know what he is talking about, doesn’t understand your questions and can’t cover the material. It’s the class where you can just talk about your weekend, draw doodles and practise origami. This classes seem useless, a waste of time and you get desperate you will fail that class.

Why you need to transform this class

You deserve better. You are probably paying (or your parents are) for college, this means you are paying for quality education. You do want to have that right? You do want to get your diploma right? You do want to get successful right? How is that possible with a bad teacher? You can take up loads of homework, self-learning and study groups, but that will cost way more time and effort. These tips, doesn’t cost you that effort and really not much time.

How to transform a useless class, with a bad teacher, into a usefull class.

• Ask the teacher prepared questions. The teacher never gets your question, explain something what your question wasn’t about or just don’t know it! Maybe it isn’t all about the teacher, maybe you don’t ask the question correct enough. You should prepare the question, know that the teacher will give the answer to the question if he hears this question. Prepare the question at home, write them done and ask them!
• Fix a ‘Presentation Period‘ with your teacher. Alright, your teacher isn’t capable to explain the subject, your class might be. Propose the prestation period, where your classmates explain the topics!
• Ask for another teacher. Of course, this is a last resort, but you won’t get stuck with this teacher the rest of the year do you? Gather signatures from your classmates and step with one or two to the school board. Explains why that teacher isn’t capable and describe how it is in class. The board will understand and if it is possible, they may will get you another teacher!

Come on, you deserve a better. Well, let’s take control and transform those classes in a better class, a class in which you are developing to a Successful Student.

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And it did happen, once. It was a really hot day, and the teacher decided to show some dia’s about his holiday, with the curtains closed, so I think he asked for it!