Like every year, New Year’s and all that it entails has come and gone. Did you make a resolution? Did you stick to it? If you did in fact not succeed, shame on you! We gave you such great tips and offered all the necessary incentive; there really is no excuse. … Except for the fact that changing your habits in order to change your life is probably one of the greatest challenges we can face. It is never easy to kick a long-standing habit, even if we know that the end result will be rewarding on many levels. If it is not the incentive we’re missing, there are numerous other things that can trip us up along the way. In fact, our own happiness and confidence can turn out to be the greatest enemy. David DiSalvo wrote a book on this subject entitled What Makes Your Brian Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite. His fellow bloggers at Psychology Today reviewed the science-help guide and excerpted below are a few tips on how not to fall into that happy trap. Read through the advice and armed with this knowledge, why not give it another shot and finally break your habit? (more…)
How To Successfully Change Your Habits
Why We Forget
When presidential candidate Rick Perry was not able to name one of the governmental agencies he wants to abolish during an infamous presidential debate this fall, the public’s reaction covered a wide range from sympathetic to outright gleeful at the flub. While his supporters would have liked to cite neurological problems as responsible for the lapse , critics just saw it as proof that the Republican does not know his own politics. So why did he forget when he needed to remember? (more…)
How to improve your long term memory
The Guardian’s recent recap of how long-term memories are encoded, how they decay, and how to strengthen these memories is right on point. It’s great to read such a succinct summary of why repetition intervals are so important to best remember what you’ve learned. A great review of Ebbinghaus’s original findings and how to practice your memory now.
From the Guardian:
“During the 19th century, Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, spent more than 15 years learning random strings of nonsense syllables, and testing himself on their recall. What he found has become one of the few certainties of neuroscience: namely, that all memories grow continuously weaker, but that the rate of “decay” lessens each time you review the information. Ebbinghaus found that the ideal time to review a memory is just before you are about to forget it.”
You can view an entire series of articles and memory games on the Guardian: Maximising your memory.
How Being Forced to Study Phonetics Made Me More Aware of Languages
At some point in our lives, we are all forced to sit through a lesson on something we do not care for at all, yet that particular thing later turns out to be very beneficial to us. For me, this happened in my second year at university. It came in the form of a phonetics class, uniformly the most dreaded course everyone studying American or British Studies has to sit through – and pass. The final exam is split in three parts: 1. a pronunciation exam 2. a theoretical exam 3. a transcription exam.
The first should be self-explanatory. For those completely unfamiliar with phonetics, the second takes a closer look at such concepts as sound production, articulation, word stress, etc. In short, any and all things that go into the production of sounds and how they can be explained, categorized, produced, etc.
And for the final part of the exam, we all had the dubious pleasure of studying the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and then transcribing an English text in phonetic script. Sounds easier than it is, especially if you’re not a native speaker and may not even know how some of the words you’re supposed to be transcribing should be pronounced correctly. The failure rate for that class, as a result, is a whopping 80%. Before you applaud me for triumphing despite the odds: I did, in fact, not make the 20% cut of this statistic.
But let me start at the beginning of my classes. (more…)
How Memory Works: an Infographic
For our blog’s sections on ‘Your Brain‘ and ‘Test Prep‘, we’re always on the lookout for great articles, videos and charts on memory and retention. By helping you understand how our brains work, we want to allow you to try different approaches to studying that will hopefully help you become better learners for life.
Over time, we’ve compiled articles on brain foods, how motivation and memory works, methods for better retention, … If we take a look at the sum of all articles and areas of interest, it seems obvious that there should be one chart that combines all of these elements that make up and influence our memory. Thanks to onlinecolleges.com, there now is. (more…)
12 Hours Left: 1/2 Off Brainscape Apps!
Only 12 hours left to get Brainscape’s foreign language and vocabulary apps 1/2 off!
Keep your New Year’s Resolutions with the aid of Brainscape: Learn a language and improve your vocabulary.
Until tonight at midnight, Brainscape’s Spanish, French, Chinese, GRE, and SAT apps are HALF OFF.
On Screen with John Katzman, founder of 2Tor
When most people think of online college classes, the first thing that comes to mind is often a “cheaper,” more convenient alternative to traditional in-person courses. The problem with this model is that “cheap” often brings with it a grossly inferior learning experience.
John Katzman is trying to change all that. After a successful exit of his last education startup – The Princeton Review – Katzman has founded 2Tor as a way for universities to finally offer high-quality online degree programs. 2Tor’s instructional designers work directly with professors to incorporate their content into the company’s growing array of flexible tools, for high-impact education delivered both asynchronously and synchronously. According to Katzman, legitimate online degree programs should focus on “excellence first, and cost containment second.”
I sat down with John Katzman this afternoon to learn more about the history, justification, and future of 2Tor. Please check out our conversation in the video below, and be sure to let John know what you think!
Food for Thought – 10 Food Tips to Help You Learn Better
No matter which guide you consult or which article you read on effective and healthy studying, every single one will include the words ‘eat healthy‘ and ‘drink enough’ (in some variation or other). As our bodies, especially our brains, need nutrition to function to the best of their abilities, this is probably the most important piece of advice to follow. But while we may keep this information at the back of our minds, we do not necessarily know what the ‘right’ food might be. Or we do know, but may not find the time to prepare a full and healthy meal.
No more! Once the big test approaches, stock up on what you may need (and want!) to eat; look up and print out recipes that might come in handy; why not prepare a meal beforehand that you can warm up later? That still leaves the big question: What is the right kind of food to eat? Startcooking.com put together this list that might give you a few ideas and might even surprise you. Give it a try and let us know: What is your favorite food for thought? Any quick-to-make but tasty recipes to recommend? (more…)
Keep Your Resolution: 1/2 Off Apps Until 1/18!
This week only:
Brainscape’s foreign language and vocabulary apps are 1/2 off!
Did you resolve to Learn a Language or improve your Vocabulary this year? We figured some of you could use the extra motivation 2 weeks into the new year, and what better motivation than a new fun and effective tool to help you learn your target language!
From today (1/12) until next Wednesday (1/18) at Midnight, Brainscape’s Spanish, French, Chinese, GRE, and SAT apps are HALF OFF.
Memory Outsourcing: The Google Effect
Why does anyone still bother to memorize anything when the answer to everything you might ever need to know is just one click away? Most likely, the answer is that you either have to, or you want to. In the course of our education and then later in professional life, we will encounter situations where it is not possible (or advisable) to look up the answer to a question. That would be a possible scenario where you have to study and memorize facts that must be recalled at a later point. If you want to learn a new language, mastering the vocabulary will be inevitable. In that case, since you’re hoping to one day be able to converse with a native, you want to remember what you learned. The point is that no matter how far advanced our access to knowledge has become, it will never completely replace our memory. (more…)
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