Tag Archives: back to school

Heading off to College? 4 Things to Do to Ease the Transition

Posted in college, college students, dorms, education, parents, school, self-help, universities by

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, but I wanted to share this article I wrote on how to use ritual, and other time-tested techniques, to ease the transition from home to college.

The focus of the article is on Jewish ritual, but the advice applies to anyone who is going through a life transition.

Please share with all your college-bound friends and family!  “4 Things to Do Before Heading Off to College”

auditorium benches chairs class

Going off to college can be overwhelming – for both students and parents.  But it can also be a beautiful experience.  Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

 

 

 

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Quick Tips Part 7: Using Technology for Group Projects

Posted in college, college students, education, getting better grades, high school, technology by

By Stefanie Weisman

Group projects are an unavoidable fact of life in high school and college.  Whether you love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying that technology can make them a whole lot easier.  Here’s some great free software that will let you share documents, set up meeting times, work remotely, and lots of other cool “teamwork” stuff.

Google Docs: Allows you to share and collaborate on documents in real time.  You and other members of your group can make changes to docs simultaneously; the app will show you who changed what, and when.

Skype: If one of your members can’t meet in person, bring a laptop to the meeting and have him/her participate through Skype.

Trello: Trello is a project management program that can do wonders for group work.  With this program, you can share documents, make lists of tasks to be done, and keep track of progress.

Dropbox:  Allows you to store and share large files with a group.

Lastly, use a program like Google Calendar or MeetingWizard to plan meeting times.

What are your favorite group project apps?

Get more back-to-school tips with The Secrets of Top Students.

Quick Tips Part 6: How to Study Actively

Posted in college, college students, education, getting better grades, grades, high school, school, study skills by

By Stefanie Weisman

Did you know you learn better when you study actively?  Next time you have a test, instead of passively reading and re-reading your textbook, try the following active study techniques:

  • Explain concepts in your own words, to yourself or someone else.  Remember: it’s okay to talk to yourself!
  • Make review sheets/ Write out the main points.
  • Join a study group in which you and the other members test each other on the material.
  • Write and re-write things — like names, dates, formulas, vocabulary, and verb conjugations — from memory.
  • Draw out/ diagram complex concepts.
  • Do practice problems — and don’t look at the answers until you’re done!
  • Take practice tests provided by your teacher.
  • Think up potential test questions (and answer them).
  • Test yourself with flash cards, lists, etc.

For more study tips, check out The Secrets of Top Students.

Quick Tips Part 4: How to Use Google for Academic Research

Posted in college, college students, education, getting better grades, going to grad school, high school, humanities, liberal arts, school, study skills, writing by

By Stefanie Weisman

Sure, you use Google to look up cute cat videos, but it can also be a great tool for academic research.  Here are some tips on how to use Google to find sources good enough to cite in your papers.

  • Use double quotes to search for an exact term or a set of words in a specific order.
  • Include “site:” to limit your search to a particular website (e.g., “site:nytimes.com”) or top-level domain (e.g., “site:.edu” – this is useful if you only want to search websites hosted by universities).
  • If you’re looking for pdf documents – which tend to be more scholarly than regular websites – enter your search term(s) followed by “filetype:pdf”.
  • When trying to find a term on a web page, don’t forget about Ctrl-F (or Command-F if you use a Mac).  Just type the word or phrase you want to find in the box that pops up, and it’ll show you all the places where it occurs.
  • Use Google Scholar to search for academic articles, and Google Books for easily searchable texts.

What are some Google search techniques you like to use?

For more tips on writing and research, check out The Secrets of Top Students.

Quick Tips Part 3: Common Grammar Mistakes All College Students Should Avoid

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Make sure you know the difference between . . .

  1.  Your vs. You’re
    • “Your” is the second person possessive adjective and describes something as belonging to you.
      • Ex.: Your paper is written very well.
    • “You’re” is the contraction of “you are.”
      • Ex.: You’re going to do very well on this test.
  2. Its vs. It’s
    • “Its” is a possessive adjective meaning “of it” or “belonging to it.”
      • Ex.: I love that bakery.  Its bread is to die for.
    • “It’s” is the contraction of “it is” or “it has.”
      • Ex.: It’s also got amazing coffee.
  3. There vs. Their vs. They’re
    • “There” can indicate a place, introduce a noun or clause, or be used for emphasis.
      • Ex.: I’m going to be sitting over there.
    • “Their” is the third-person plural possessive adjective meaning “of them” or “belonging to them.”
      • Ex.: I don’t like our new neighbors.  Their dog was barking all night.
    • “They’re” is the contraction of “they are.”
      • Ex.: They’re buying a house.
  4. Who’s vs. Whose
    • “Who’s” is the contraction of “who is” or “who has.”
      • Ex.: Who’s going to the baseball game tonight?
    • “Whose” is the possessive form of “who.”
      • Ex.: Whose baseball bat is this?
  5. Who vs. Whom
    • “Who” is a subject, the person performing the action of the verb.
      • Ex.: Who wants ice cream?
    • “Whom” is an object, the person to, about, or for whom the action is being done.
      • Ex.: To whom should I send this letter?
  6. Then vs. Than
    • “Then” can mean “at that point in time,” “next,” “in addition,” “also,” “in that case,” “therefore.”
      • Ex.: The man opened the door.  Then he turned off the light.
    • “Than” is a conjunction used in comparisons.
      • Ex.: He is taller than his brother.

For more tips on grammar and writing, check out The Secrets of Top Students.

Quick Tips Part 2: How to Use Citations in Your Papers

Posted in college, college students, education, getting better grades, grades, high school, school, study skills, universities, writing by

By Stefanie Weisman

Writing a paper and need help with citations?  Can’t choose between APA, MLA, and Chicago Style?  Here’s a quick overview to help you decide:

The three most common citation styles are APA (American Psychological Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and CMS (Chicago Manual of Style).  Your teacher may tell you which one to use, but MLA is used most often in humanities courses; APA is generally used in social sciences, engineering, and business courses; and CMS tends to be used in history courses.

All of these citation styles consist of two parts:

  1. A section at the end of your paper, in which you list all the sources you used for your paper, in alphabetical order.  In MLA style, this is called the “Works Cited” page.  In APA style, this is called  the “References” page.  And in CMS style, this is called the “Bibliography.”  In this list, you will usually have to include the author of the work, the title, the journal or anthology it comes from (if applicable), the editor or translator (if applicable), the publisher, the publisher’s location, and the date of publication.  If your source is a website, you will probably have to list the web address and the date you accessed it.
  2. Attribution for each quote, paraphrase, and summary in your paper.  Whenever you use someone else’s words or ideas, you must state the source and the page number(s) where they come from.  This may occur in the form of in-text citation, which appears within the body of the paper (as in the case of APA and MLA); or in the form of footnotes or endnotes (as in the case of CMS).
You do NOT need attribution when:

  • You state your own, original ideas.
  • You state something that is common knowledge.

If you’re in doubt about whether something needs attribution, however, you’re better off citing it just to be on the safe side.

 

Here are some great online resources to help you with citations.

Online Guidelines:

  1. Bedford/ St. Martin’s Website guide to researching and documenting sources
  2. The OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab

Online Citation Generators:

  • Griffith University provides a free online referencing tool in which you select what citation style you are using and the type of source you are citing.  It then shows you an example of how to format that citation.
  • Son of a Citation Machine is another free online source in which you choose your citation style and enter information about your source in order to view the correctly formatted citation.
  • EasyBib provides a free citation generator for MLA format.
  • You can also use Zotero to organize your research and generate citations automatically.  This requires you to download some free software.

What are some tools you like to use?

For more tips on writing papers, check out The Secrets of Top Students.

 

Quick Tips Part 1: Taking Notes in Class

Posted in college, college students, education, getting better grades, grades, high school by

By Stefanie Weisman

It’s back-to-school time!  I’m going to be posting a series of “quick tips” on this blog, to help you start the school year off right.

Here’s quick tip #1: When taking notes in class, make sure you use lots of symbols and abbreviations to record things quickly and efficiently.  Here’s a list to help you get started:

Symbol/ Abbreviation  Meaning
 + and, in addition to, plus
 –  except for, excluding, minus
 =  equals, is equal to, is the same as
 ∼  is similar to, is like, is about, resembles
 <  is/ has less than
 >  is/ has more than, exceeds
∴ therefore, thus, because
→ leads to, results in, means, signifies
 ↑ gets bigger, increases, grows
Δ change in [something]
w/ with
w/o without
b/c because
ex. for example
vs. versus, as opposed to

You should also develop your own abbreviations for different types of courses – especially for long, complicated words that come up frequently.

And when the teacher uses multi-syllable words that take a long time to write, try to substitute them with shorter synonyms – for example, “means” instead of “signifies,” and “but” instead of “however.”

For more study skills tips, check out The Secrets of Top Students.

Infographic: Top 10 Trends for Back-To-School and College 2015

Posted in budget, college, college students, dorms, education, high school by

The summer is half over! Have you done your back-to-school shopping yet?

Top 10 trends for back-to-school and college 2015

Source: National Retail Federation

Don’t forget to order your copy of The Secrets of Top Students for the new school year!

A Brief History of Education

Posted in college, college students, education, high school, humanities, liberal arts, school, universities by

What kind of education would you have received if you had lived in a different time? Interesting to think about.

Before Modern Education
Source: BestDegreePrograms.org

Give your child the gift of great grades.  Order a copy of The Secrets of Top Students today!

 

Book Signing, NACAC 2013, and Congrats to Ted Fiske!

Posted in college, education, getting better grades, high school, school, study skills, writing by

What a busy week it’s been!  I had my first official book talk and signing for The Secrets of Top Students at the Columbia University bookstore, which was a lot of fun.  Thank you to everyone who attended!

Stefanie Weisman Book Signing

My first book signing!

The next day I flew up to Toronto to join my publisher, Sourcebooks, for the 69th national conference for NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling).  I met a lot of great people there.  I must say, college admission counselors are an amazing group.  They really care about helping students and giving them the best education possible.

Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the NACAC conference took place. Love the woodpeckers!

Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the NACAC conference took place. Love the woodpeckers!

I was also extremely fortunate to take part in the 30th anniversary of The Fiske Guide to Colleges, where I got to meet the man himself – Edward (Ted) Fiske.  It’s really an amazing accomplishment.  Sourcebooks honored him with a champagne toast and gave away several stacks of his books, which were gone in two minutes flat!

The champagne toast - Congrats to Ted Fiske for an amazing 30 years!

The champagne toast – Congrats to Ted Fiske for an amazing 30 years!

Tomorrow I’m giving a talk at the Stuyvesant Parents’ Association.  Back-to-School is a busy but exciting time!