Your Student Guide to College Life

December 15th, 2008

Writing Your College Admission Essay

The college admission essay is one of the most important pieces of writing that you will create as a high school student. Although your GPA and your standardized test scores are very important, it is your essay that really helps to set you apart from the other applicants. The essay gives you the opportunity to explain to the admissions committee exactly why they should accept your application and admit you to their school. Because admission essays are often very open-ended, it is difficult to give concrete advice for every composition. However, there are certain general principles that hold true for the vast majority of them.

When you’re writing your college admission essay, think about what you would like to read if you were on an admissions committee. If you’re reading hundreds of essays, wouldn’t you like to read something that’s interesting, even entertaining? These are the applications that will stand out. If a committee member remembers your application after reading hundreds of others, you’ll have a much greater chance of getting accepted. Keep your writing interesting with uncommon vocabulary, short stories, and strong statements. Just don’t go overboard.

Above all, admissions committees want to find out what you will bring to their university. They’d like to see which unique qualities you’ll bring to the student body and how you can create a positive college experience for both yourself and others. They don’t want to read about your academic achievements; they can see these on your transcripts and your standardized test scores. When writing your college admission essay, don’t embellish things or make up details. After reading thousands of admission essays, committee members will be able to see this right away. Write both personally and truthfully about what makes you unique as an individual. Tell the committee about your goals and why you chose their school over all of the others that you could have applied to, and they will return the favor by judging your essay and your application fairly.

One of the greatest mistakes that can be made by a student applying to college is not sufficiently proofreading and editing their essay. If your essay contains grammatical or spelling errors, you can count on the committee rejecting it fairly quickly, as it reflects very badly on your preparation and effort. Make sure to look over your essay several times before you submit it and have at least two other people look at it as well. Ask them if your essay flows well or if it is disjointed. If you’re very serious about the colleges that you’re applying to, you may want to use a service such as Essay Edge to ensure that your work is well-written, easily readable, and engaging. Resist the temptation to use a service that will write your essay for you; this is another tactic that committee members will see through, especially if an interview is part of your application process.

December 12th, 2008

Stay Healthy During Finals

While getting sick is never any fun, it can be a lot worse if it comes at a bad time. Some of the worst times include spring break, the day before a big test or presentation, and, worst of all, during finals week. Being sick during your finals can be very detrimental to your grades, as it’s difficult to study and concentrate on your tests. If you want to make sure that you stay healthy during finals, keep the following tips in mind.

Although you can pick up an infection at any time, you’re much more likely to if you’re stressed. The weeks leading up to finals are some of the most stressful of the year, increasing your chances of contracting an illness. During these weeks, then, it’s very important to keep your stress in check. Make sure to get outside every day for a little while, to take breaks from studying at regular intervals, to spend time with your friends, and above all, not to cram. Staying up really late studying for a test coming up the next day not only stresses you out, but also makes you tired, doubly increasing your chances of illness.

Make sure to get enough sleep. Just as too much stress weakens your immune system, so does a lack of sleep. Try to get eight hours every night; if you can’t get eight, then get as many as you can, and catch up on the weekends. If you’re really tired, you won’t be able to properly function, severely limiting your both your ability to stay healthy during finals and the effectiveness of your studying.

Pay attention to your diet. Diet is always important, but when you’re doing everything that you can to keep from getting sick, you should pay special attention to it. Make sure that you’re getting enough B and C vitamins; have at least three servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Taking multivitamins or supplements such as Airborne or cod liver oil may be effective in preventing the contraction of a cold.

Many students are unable to stay healthy during finals; because of this, you may be exposed to many people who are fighting an infection or have already developed a cold. It’s important to minimize the risk that these people pose to you by limiting your exposure. Try to avoid being very close to others, especially if you know that they are or have recently been ill. Being in close quarters with a large number of other people should be avoided. Places like libraries and coffee shops, unless you can maintain enough space between you and the others studying there, can be dangerous.

If you think that you may have caught something, check your symptoms on sites like WebMD. If you have symptoms indicating a common cold, take DayQuil or Tylenol Cold and get as much rest as possible. If your symptoms indicate something more serious, see a medical professional immediately. Most campuses have nurses or nurse practitioners onsite to help students with issues such as this.

December 9th, 2008

Taking the SAT or ACT

Standardized testing is, unfortunately, one of the necessary evils of going to college.  Very few colleges don’t require you to submit test results of some sort; by far the most common required are the ACT and SAT.  The ACT is more popular in the Midwest and the South, while East and West Coast high school students are more likely to take the SAT.  Both exams test the same sets of skills, although the format is slightly different.  Your high school GPA and your standardized test scores are two of the factors that colleges take into account when determining whether or not to admit a student.  Even though some people will tell you that your standardized test score isn’t as important as your application essay or your GPA, high scores will qualify you for more scholarship opportunities, so it’s important to be well-prepared when taking the ACT or SAT.

The ACT is divided into four sections; English, Math, Reading, and Science Reasoning.  You get a specified amount of time to complete each section, and all sections consist of multiple-choice questions.  You can take advantage of this fact if you don’t know the answer by training yourself to eliminate choices that you know are wrong before guessing.  If you can eliminate two wrong answers, you greatly increase your chances of guessing correctly.  The ACT is scored out of 36, with a score of 27 or 28 putting you approximately in the 90th percentile.  For more information on the ACT, you can visit the ACT, Inc. website.

The SAT only has three sections:  Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing, with each section being worth 800 points.  If you can score above 1950 or so, you’ll be in the top ten percent of students taking the test.  The SAT, like the ACT, is a multiple-choice test, but also includes a brief essay.  Check out the College Board site to learn more.

Although many students score well on these tests without studying, it can be advantageous to prepare yourself.  Companies like Kaplan and Princeton Review provide study materials that you can purchase and classes you can attend to ensure that you’re well-prepared.  If you plan on trying to get into a prestigious university, these programs may be worth seriously considering.  Buying a study book is pretty cheap; what have you got to lose?

One of the most important things to remember when taking the ACT or SAT is that everything on the test is something that you’ve learned before.  These tests are reviews of high school materials; so don’t freak out if you see something you don’t immediately recognize.  Chances are you just need to look at it a different way and you’ll remember that you know how to do it.  Staying calm, while difficult, is one of the most important test-taking strategies, and will help you throughout your college career.  Start practicing it now and you’ll have no problem when it comes time to take your standardized test.

December 8th, 2008

3 Study Tips to Help You Ace Your Toughest Test

At some point, you’re going to find yourself racing to study for an important test. Maybe you forgot that it was coming up so quickly; maybe you were just busy with other classes. Either way, you’re going to need to study as efficiently as possible. Use the following strategies to help retain information quickly.

Make flashcards

As juvenile as this may sound, it’s very effective. Every time your brain remembers a connection between two words or ideas, that connection becomes stronger. Flashcards take advantage of this fact by making you remember the connections between ideas. This method is especially good for vocabulary words and math formulas, but is very useful for any type of information. If you don’t feel like paying for flashcards every time you have a test coming up, check out this online flash card site: www.flashcardmachine.com

Re-write your notes

Everyone learns in different ways; some learn best from reading the material, some from teaching the material; many people learn by writing. This method is best used primarily for writing-based tests. Take all of the notes that you have to study and re-write them on a new piece of paper. Then only write a small amount of information (such as headers, topics, sections, etc.) on a third piece of paper and, without looking at either of the first two, fill in as much information as possible. Keep trying until you can write all of it from memory.

Find a study partner

It’s been said that teaching something is the best way to learn it. In many cases, this holds true. This is effective because to teach something, you either must have (or will gain in the process of teaching) an understanding of the basic concepts behind the more advanced information that you’re studying. By teaching all of the material that you need to learn, you will be much more likely to have a comprehensive understanding of it. Be wary of studying with another person, though, especially if you are close friends. This can often lead to distraction and cause a large number of late-night cram sessions, which are very ineffective in preparing you for tests.

The above three strategies are by no means the only effective study methods. Everyone learns differently—it will be very beneficial for you to learn the most effective method for you. Try several different strategies as soon as possible and narrow them down to the ones that you feel are the most effective.

December 3rd, 2008

How to Cram when You’re in a Jam

Yep, you did it—or rather, you didn’t do it. You put it off just one more day. Now it’s the night before a big exam, and you haven’t done any of the reading or studied any notes. Holy-moly, Batman—what do I do now?

Take a nap. WHAT? Seriously, a rested brain—even just a one-hour nap—can do 3 to 4 times the work of the average brain at the end of the day. If you are already tired, take 2 hours. Trust me. BUT MAKE SURE YOU GET UP!

Okay, you’re awake, but still a little groggy. Do one of 2 things: go for a quick walk or jog around the block, (ladies, especially—only if you live somewhere where that is a safe option), or bring on the stimulants. Coffee. Rockstar. Red Bull. Whatever. Get your brain hitting on all 8 cylinders before you hit the books.

Next, turn off the television or radio. You may need some stimulation to help stay awake later, but for now you want as few distractions as possible. Here’s why: your brain processes ever signal of data your senses send to it. So 4 or 5 hours of listening to music, or even worse having the double whammy audio-visual stimulation of television along with studying is almost twice the processing work for your brain. It will wear you out mentally faster, so turn it off.

No, really—go turn it off.

Yes, that means your iPod too.

Now, we are good to go.

If you don’t have a list of all the pages you will be tested on, then make one. Having a reference list will save time. Next, if you don’t have a study guide, go through your syllabus or course outline and look for the themes the teacher pulled out of the unit you will be tested on. For example, try not to think of it, as Chapters 4-6. The teacher will have focused lectures or your reading around a body of information. Pull that idea out, it will help you congeal what you study into information groups that will tie into each other and will be easier to remember.

Now, think back to your writing classes. What makes a good paper—more specifically, what is every paragraph supposed to have? A thesis statement. This should be what that paragraph is going to be about. IF you are in a real jam with a lot of material and not enough time, then go through your pages first by reading only the first sentence of each paragraph—except for the beginning and end of chapters. These are thesis and conclusion paragraphs and usually are quite dense with information on the chapter they are referring to.

If you have time, you can go back through the pages and identify which passages merit a more in-depth reading. How will you know which ones? Knowledge is a funny thing; once you start to know a little bit about something you begin to realize what you don’t know.

For example, let’s say you are studying African American History, and you scanned the first sentences of a chapter that discussed how the colony Liberia came into being. After scanning, you know that Liberia was a colony established for free blacks, while slavery was still lawful in the United States. You know that some slave owners were in favor of it. You know that some African Americans favored it and some opposed it. Great, right? Right. Now you might be wondering why slave owners felt the way they did, and African Americans didn’t agree on the subject. The point is, once you have a handle on the material covered, it will be easier to identify the meatier parts of the material.

Now for your notes. Save yourself some time, and learn how to take good notes. Buy a book, do note-taking searches online, or ask your teacher what the best approach might be for their class. You may or may not get some guidance from the teacher, but either way it won’t be wasted as it will make you look like a dedicated student from the teacher’s perspective, which is always a good thing.

If you are already a brilliant or at least effective note taker, then this will be the easiest part of studying. After you have done your reading, go through your notes and look for gaps in your work—perhaps a detail you missed. If you find something, use your reading to try to find the answer. It will help bring the two learning mediums together.

Finally, and this is where you might be tempted to skimp. TRY REALLY HARD NOT TO. With your reading material and your notes in front of you, go through the material and write a new outline, which pulls from the reading and your notes to form the new outline. This does not mean rewrite your notes or copy word for word from the book. Obviously, you don’t have that kind of time. We’re talking about 3-5 word key phrases per line of your outline with perhaps a few words of details for the really important points. This new outline is what you should refresh yourself with right before class. It should have key phrases of all the major ideas and supporting details.

Last, if you know you will be asked to write an in-class essay, prepare the outline for the essay the night before, and try to commit the outline to memory as best you can.

In the case of math, science and language cramming, flashcards are best. First memorize by drilling yourself with SMALL GROUPS of cards. If you have 100 flashcards, you will learn much faster if you drill yourself with no more than 10 cards at a time. Try not to move on until you have every card in your command. After you complete a new group of cards, go back over the previous groups that you memorized. This method got me through Latin, German, College Algebra, Chemistry and Anatomy, as well as many of my classmates.

Good luck!