Improve Grades

Archive for May, 2010

ONLINE TUTORING CAN BANISH BAD GRADES IN ENGLISH ONCE AND FOR ALL!
Today’s kids are electronically and computer oriented.  Online tutoring captures their attention.  It helps them become more involved in the learning process and retain more information.   Struggling students are able to bring up their grades in a comfortable, secure setting in your home.  The student may feel more at ease using the internet approach since they are not sitting face to face with a teacher.  Many students find that they are no longer shy about asking questions they need to have answered.    The student receives the one on one attention that is missing in a classroom of thirty students.

Students who are at or above grade level also benefit from online tutoring.  They are able to move ahead at their own pace.  They find the computer-based process more interesting than  sitting with another in a string of teachers.  They feel challenged as they move along at a pace they need.

Parents don’t need to buy any more equipment or software.  All that is needed is a computer with internet access, speakers and a microphone. This gives instantaneous interaction using a whiteboard as well as speech.

Since the tutoring takes place in your home at your computer, you don’t have to take your child to the tutor or straighten up the house before the tutor arrives.  The tutoring session can be arranged at any hour that is convenient for you and the tutor .

Online tutoring sessions are secure programs.  The student and the tutor both need to log-in.   Most tutors offer e-mail and telephone contact information as well as background information. 

Parental involvement is encouraged.  Many tutors offer weekly updates and suggestions so that the progress of the student and additiona lneeds can be discussed.  Some tutors like to update parents after each session.
 
Online tutoring is typically cheaper than private tutors.  The hourly rate for some online tutors may be lower than that of others, but, keep in mind that lower rates may reflect lower standards.    Some online tutors offer package deals which allow them to offer a reduced rate for a block of sessions.  This is a win-win situation – the tutor is able to keep the price down and the student receives the hours needed at a lower rate.

The parent needs to ask questions when choosing a tutor.  Find out if the session is one-on-one.  That is, does only one student work with the tutor for the entire hour?   Does the tutor offer a satisfaction guarantee?  What subjects does the tutor teach?  Is there a yearly contract? What is their session cancellation policy?

Stop agonizing.  Don’t wait for your child’s grades to get worse.  Don’t let their self-esteem suffer any longer.   Help your child learn to be self-motivating and help them start to enjoy learning once again.

Discover how you can boost your child’s grades in reading, spelling,vocabulary and essay and report writing.  Lynne Williams invites you to watch a FREEdemo at:   <A rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=http://www.tutorfi.com/lynnew>  See for yourself how this works</A>

Bullying is a phenomenon that children often have to deal with and as parents it is up to you to help them cope with it and overcome the fear of bullies. Bullying is seen to occur in schools and colleges across the world and if not treated and addressed early on, it can have devastating effects on your child’s life. The child becomes weak and unable to stand up for himself/herself in life.

Bullies are usually people who have deep insecurities and bully others in order to face the insecurities. They look for weak people, preying upon them because it makes them feel strong and powerful. Usually soft spoken and weak children become targets that bullies pick on.

Let us deal with this topic in a systematic manner. The following are a few pointers parents can follow helping them address the problem of bullying. Let us say your son, named Jack, gets bullied everyday in school and comes home sad and crying, lamenting always that he does not like the children who bully him. Here is what you can do:

1) Ask Jack the names that the bullies call him. Then try and explain to him that name-calling can not really hurt him. There is an excellent story in this regard: once there was a sage who lived in a hermitage in a forest with his disciples. One day, when he was giving a sermon explaining the ancient scriptures, a lady came into the sermon and started abusing the old sage accusing him to be a fake. At this the old man just kept silent and quiet, having a slight smile gracing his face. The lady left and the furious disciples asked the sage why he did not say anything to the lady. The sage told them that she had come to give him some gifts, and since he did not like the gifts, he did not take the gifts. The gifts were her harsh words. The sage remained calm and equipoise resuming his sermon as if nothing had happened. You can explain to Jack that he does not have to accept the gift of the bullies.

2) Explain to him what is happening, that they pick on him because he reacts when he cries. And they feel good and continue.

3) The magnet theory. Likes attract. Opposites move away. If he were to become strong and confident like them, they will no longer bother him.

4) Make a chart, putting up smiley faces whenever he does not react. Reward him for this.

5) Discuss with him how he overcame bullying. Tell him you are proud of him.

6) Ask him how long it takes the bullies to find new prey.

For more i nformation on Child safety and tips …. <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.firstparent.com/”><b>First time parents”</b></a>

Be a Prospector, not a Sponge.

Unless you have a photographic memory, the passive absorption approach is a very inefficient and ineffective strategy. If you are committed to taking your grades to the next level, then you need revolutionise the way you study by becoming an active rather than passive learner.

High achieving students are, almost without exception, active learners. They know that all study should be the search for answers to specific questions, and they base their study strategy around that. Questions are the core of active learning, and are critical to the process of identification, analysis, evaluation, absorption and assimilation of relevant information.

When you are studying, you should act like a prospector, not a sponge. Formulate questions to guide your study and then scour the text you’re reading for anything that helps to answer them. Don’t try to passively absorb all the information you are reading. Formulating relevant questions, and then evaluating the information you read to see if it can help answer them, has so many advantages over the traditional passive learning approach of reading and simply trying to absorb everything indiscriminately.

How to formulate questions to direct your study

One way to formulate relevant questions is to start with the text itself. In academic texts, at the start of every chapter there is usually a list or discussion of the key concepts that the author wants you to understand by the time you finish reading the chapter. Many students just ignore them, but good students will use them to their advantage.

Take each one of theses statements and restate them in the form of questions. For example, if you are studying an economics textbook, and the chapter is on monopolies, you might see a learning outcome statement such as “the student should be able to explain the relation between price, marginal revenue and elasticity for a monopoly”.

You could restate this as question like: “what is the relationship between price, marginal revenue and elasticity for a monopoly?” As you proceed to study the chapter, you will constantly evaluate what you’re reading by asking: “does this help to answer my question? If so what does it tell me?”

Another approach you can use is to turn chapter headings into questions. For example, in our chapter on monopolies, you might come to a section in the chapter entitled “Monopolistic Competition”. Instead of simply reading on and trying to absorb the information as presented, you should restate the heading in the form of questions such as: What is Monopolistic Competition? What are its key characteristics? What are its effects? How does it compare/contrast with other forms of competition? etc. Again, this will help your mind to analyse and evaluate what you are reading in terms of its relevance to your original question, and it will impose its own structure on the text.

If there are few chapter headings or learning outcome statements in your text, then that’s not a problem. You can use an even simpler approach. As you are reading each paragraph, continually ask yourself “what is the main point being made here?” or “What is the author trying tell me here?” and then summarise it in your own words, preferably in a single sentence.

By forcing your brain to evaluate the material and identify the main points and then summarizing them in your own words, you will not only have a far deeper understanding but also you will remember far more of what you cover, versus simply try to absorb the text verbatim.

Summary

In summation, using questions to direct your study will help to switch on your brain, stimulate analysis, deepen understanding, highlight the interrelationships among concepts and ideas and ultimately greatly improve your recall of the information that you have processed. Top students consistently achieve higher grades using this technique than those using the traditional passive reading/absorption approach.

Use it to take your own grades to the next level.

Saints Life Story

There were many miracles in the life of Saint John Vianney the Cure of Ars. The most famous possibly was surviving an attack by the devil which set his bed on fire.

And the Miraculous appearance of Our Lady, but in addition there were two miracles that we want to tell you about today that you may not be familiar with. These two are the multiplication of the flour in the kitchen of La Providence, his school just across the street for his rectory, and the miracle of the wine.

The Miracle of the Multiplication of the Flour.

Once, at La Providence, there was not enough flour to bake even an oven full of bread. The mill couldn’t grind the wheat that had been sent over. There was just enough flour to bake three loaves of bread. When they had seen there was not enough flour to feed all the girls in the school, they went to John Vianney.

He told them to use the little they had.

They took the small amount of flour they had, and began to knead it. The trough filled, overflowing with dough as on days when they had a large sack of flour. Had John Vianney prayed

Did he ask the Lord to multiply the loaves as He had, on the Mount of the Beatitudes? It is definite that a Miracle was granted by the Lord for the John Vianney’s spiritual children. Was it by his intercession? What do you believe? Saints Life Story

The Miracle of the Wine.

One day, John Vianney came to his people, advising them a full cask of wine had split and the contents had spilled onto the sand floor. Sure enough, when they investigated, the cask was empty. They tried to retrieve whatever they could of the clearest wine from the sand. They were barely able to collect two little pails of clear wine.

They poured what little they had into a cask which was nearly empty. To their amazement, they kept drawing from the cask for days, till there was nothing left!

Beside the now empty cask was another cask of wine, half full. They decided to pour the 50 liters of wine from the half full cask, to the empty one beside it, which had a capacity to hold 200 liters of wine.

Jokingly, one of the women teased, “See if the cask is full!” Imagine the look on her face when the other woman replied, “It is! Look, I can touch the wine with my finger.” Saints Life Story

Mastering Your Memory EBook And Audio. Learn To Master Your Memory With This 68 Page EBook And The Companion Audio Book. Top Commissions.
Sorry I Forgot – Learn To Improve Your Memory.

Calculation speed and accuracy usually prove to be inversely proportional in a timed GMAT mock. It is not about 700 plus score at top B-schools like Harvard, Wharton and Sloan. It is the 99 percentile barrier that matters for top MBA programs.

Anybody can solve the GMAT Quant in 4 hours but you have only 75 minutes to complete the quant section. 37 questions on Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry can change the name of your B-school and the course of your career.

You have done your research. The Quantitative questions are divided into two sections:

1. Problem Solving

2. Data Sufficiency

You work out the average calculation on your calculator– 2 minutes per math question?

Yes indeed. It is exactly 2.027027027027, a non-repeating rational number too enormous for an average calculator to hold in LCD display. But I can bet you will be able to hold this infinite math number in your mind for the rest of your life.

Why? Because mind works on pattern recognition and once your mind detects a pattern, it can remember it for long. Ancient Indian sages knew this and much more and their observations led to Vedic Math, derived from the Hindu holy books called Vedas. Today Vedic Math is an open secret thanks to the brilliant scholar Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha (d. 1960).

So here are 5 reasons to learn Vedic Math for your GMAT best score:

1. Beat the Calculator: As calculator is not at all allowed, you need to spend precious time on basic operations like addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. With Vedic Math you can boost your calculation speed 10-to-15 times. Unbelievable but true!

2. Double-check your Answer in 6 seconds: Vedic Mathematics allows you to double-check your answers mentally in simple, easy manner which can boost your score way up. Remember in Computer Adaptive tests like GMAT, GRE etc, a wrong answer not only means lost marks on that question but also that the next question is below medium level of difficulty and hence has less weightage. This loss can be significant if you do not manage right answers, especially in the beginning.

3. Most Significant Digit First: As the Vedic Math calculations are done from left to right, you can intelligently choose the right option without wasting time on fully solving the quantitative questions. Have no qualms about it: GMAT is about picking the right option in the given multiple choice question. No less and no more.

4. Mental Math with Minimum Scratch Work: Remember to save time and also paper. Do not forget your entire Scratch Booklet has only 10 pages. You will need it badly like paper soap in the middle of a jungle. By mastering mental Math, you economise this limited resource for difficult questions in both sections.

5. Superfast Arithmetic and Algebra Shortcuts: Vedic Math is not only about speedy calculation. It is an entire parallel system of Math with many comprehensive (and fast) tricks and techniques for Algebra and Arithmetic.

Always remember that Quantitative Section for exams like GMAT or GRE is not about method — you can choose any. It is about speed and accuracy– so race towards your dream MBA with Vedic Math.

Anyone can calculate faster than a speeding calculator.

Rock Climbing Improvement.
How To Climb Three Grades Harder.

I’m a freshman in college and right now my grades are terrible. I was an honor student in high school now for this semester I’ll be lucky to get a 2.0 – 2.5. How do I improve my grades? Is it the college that I am at? I’m probably going to transfer so I can get the degree i want at another but I want to have good if not decent grades on my transcript. HELP!!!!!!!!!

If you want to loose weight, you might be one of those people who can’t seem to find the time and energy involved in a diet. You have too many other important things you need to do such as your job, housework, school or being with family. When you get home from work after a long day, you are too tired. Or maybe you planned to exercise and diet, but once you got started, you went right back to your old habits after a few days. You may have gotten discouraged because you didn’t see any instant improvements.

Well, you are not alone. You are just like most people who want to loose weight.

The answer to success is to obtain these three rules.

The number 1 rule is “DESIRE”. No matter what you want to be or do in your life, you first have to “want” it. Desire is doing whatever it takes to achieve a goal.

The main reason people fail to obtain success in diet and exercise is because they are lacking a strong desire. If desire isn’t present, there is no way you can be successful. Unfortunately it is typical for people to take on a sudden desire only after a serious health issue arises. But sometimes, it’s just too late. Some people have been known to have a heart attack and then get the will power and desire to start working out or change their lifestyle.

The second rule to success is “DISCIPLINE”. It is needed to have successful in everything you do. Discipline means that you have to do something everyday without fail. You can’t just stop in the middle. You need the discipline to keep yourself going without backing out.

Discipline is greatly needed when it comes to diet and exercise. You have to look at it as a permanent lifestyle change. You won’t get anywhere if you diet and exercise for a few days, weeks or months then stop. This is why diets don’t work for many people. People think that diets are temporary change. Even if they do loose some weight, once they have reached their goal, they will stop the diet sometimes resulting in gaining the lost weight back and sometimes more.

The third rule to success is “DETERMINATION”. You must have the mind set that tells you to never give up. If you have determination, you will be successful in getting what you strive for. We all realize that life is full of events all having their up and downs. When you are having a good moment, appreciate it and enjoy it. The bad moments are what it takes for determination to kick in. You must have that determination to get back up.

Last but not least is ATTITUDE. The proper attitude is needed to support the 3 rules of DESIRE, DISCIPLINE and DETERMINATION. Believing in yourself is key here. There are many people who want to be successful. Come to think of it, everyone wants to be successful in one way or another. But what most of those people lack is positive attitude. Not having this will make it extremely difficult to have the needed DESIRE, DISCIPLINE and DETERMINATION.

So stop and ask yourself if you have what it takes to be successful.

If you don’t have what it takes, you will have to change your attitude. Make diet and exercise a main priority in your life. Put it above your job, money, and your material possessions. However, realize that you will have to permanently change your lifestyle to achieve this. Follow these 3 rules and I guarantee you will achieve success!

Arnel Ricafranca is a six pack abs expert, fitness boot camp coach, author, and a motivational speaker. He has authored and co-authored several books including The Ultimate Weight Loss Success Strategies For Busy Men and Women Over 40 available online at www.elitefitnessexperts.com. Mr. Ricafranca has been featured as the fitness expert on numerous media such as Jersey 101.5 FM, and Morris Health and Life Magazine, and numerous websites such as NBC WALB 10 News, NBC KPLC 7 News, and KTRE ABC 9 news. Mr. Ricafranca can be reached via email at fitnessvip@gmail.com

Arnel Ricafranca’s websites

http://www.iwantsixpackabs.com

http://www.womensworkoutguide.com

http://www.mensworkoutguide.com

http://www.workoutseries.com

http://www.introtobodybuilding.com

http://www.howtogetbigger.com

As one knows there are many things that can be said about the education system. In many areas there is a distinct advantage if the school is private or public. In the area of public another distinction is social status of the educational establishment. There are teachers who under perform and those that excel. That can be said of the students too. To date, it has been very difficult to find a school system where every student can hit the A grade status. Is this possible or just something out of Sci-Fi. Well pay careful attention to an area that is accessible to all – The internet – a area that should be used to unite that I personally believe is undermined.

Lets explore the areas of how the current approach is to the internet and why this is a flawed approach ( well we really do not have to look to why it is flawed with so many educational establishments failing against the world stage to create top flight students).

In a debate by Barak Obama and John McCain, Barak mentions that Americans spend the most per child then any other nation in the world but get incredibly low results. First people go to blame the government, then the teachers, then the students, then the resources -STOP already!

In all fairness, many are instrumental in the failure but how do they constitute themselves to success in the rapid phenomenon known as the internet? Well :

1. Understand its worth
2. Understand its user
3. Control the environment to your terms.

Simple and you have success. Under the simplicity are specific notions of complexity. For example the net has a billion uses, so you have to understand what it is worth to you.
Also the user is unique so the number of uses can become staggering.

Being able to control your environment can create the a clear path through this all.

Here I will begin to explain how you can achieve that A grade success and retain all teachers ( remember many teachers are only resourceful to the resources they are given and trained to observe- an old saying “a bad workman blames his tools” – the teacher being the tool and the educational system being the workman!).

Well many of us know that virtually all schools have computer access now and those that do also have internet access. Currently schools use a specific scoring system like FCAT or TASK (depending on state). They often also include weekly tests. Many see them as critical in record keeping on student progress which is reciprocated on school achievement. Yes to some degree but then with all these high tech net related systems, why do so many students continue to fail or get low grades?

It lies again in the understanding the core – the student. Teach the student right and they will achieve the goals. Many people look into issues such as limited teachers, resources, socioeconomic issues etc to try to explain the faults. This is the wrong way to analyze.

There is a study that suggests that is commonly used in buyer behavior, it is called “association”. What this means is that if someone associates with you then they respond more effectively. For example, you are currently looking to go on vacation to Barbados and are watching the TV. An ad comes up for Barbados – you instantly associate compared to someone who is not looking for a vacation.

The schools have it right to a certain extent with the record keeping system but what should be noted is that these are designed on stringent generic setups that allow uniformity to the programming style of the organization. However are students uniform? Ask yourself that question and you will come to the same conclusion as me – NO!
This is why these products alone are not getting the results in.

What is needed is a system that can easily integrate with these current multibillion dollar spends while not tapping out the resources we already have – ourselves!

In an average class there are the bright students and not so bright students. We determine due to time and resources, some will get the grades and others will fall behind. Although no teacher wants to look at it this way, under the current system this is what happens. Unfortunately in areas where there are too few teachers and too many students ( predominantly in the poorer areas of society) this disparity gets larger, to an extent that crippling society’s and America’s future success in the world.

Now here comes a company called supercandidate.com, which could change the precipice of this thought – that in say even 20 years from now, hesitating on technology we have today could create a major disparity in our ability to compete on the world stage.

In an average class lesson, the teacher conducts the lesson, then has a Q&A session with their students. Some kids put their hands up while others do not. Then the next lesson comes and the same happens again. Now with students often not answering questions, it relates to their lack of knowledge and as lessons go by the failure of previous lessons leads to the problems of associating to the lessons of now ! We all know that disheartened students are not engaged students where other disruptive manners could offer a different corridor of inopportunity!

Now as I mentioned there are correctional techniques such as premade weekly tests and seasonal tests. However this misses two core points:

1. First they are usually made by someone not actually in the classroom so the teaching style of the teacher is lost ( a very important part of interpretation by the student)

2. Secondly, if you lack knowledge of the fundamentals, you are already behind and the school is often pressed to move on due to limited teacher and resource time.

Well supercandidate which is primarily a testing tool offers a really good solution as it addresses the “Teachers and Students need” in a clear approach. It empowers them from day one to use the tool under their terms. How?

Now from day one, the teacher can do the lesson, go online and create a test in a few minutes which is saved to a databank for future tests etc. This does not just include the standard generic tests to meet structure standards but also the teachers personal questions which allows for their teaching style. Add to this the fact that the teacher for the first time can add video for cell phones ( say for a physics experiment) or vocal sound (for a language lesson) as well as the normal pictures, text within a few clicks of a mouse, makes this product clearly more user friendly to the teacher then any generic tool given out by the large state institutions ( I am sure many will disagree because they have hugh vested interest but realty check with people who use the products will tell you the truth about why a product with so much flexibility for micro level use can actually heavily improve the macro environment of such structures). Remember pictures paint a thousand words so video description can trigger the mind as never able to on text, the same can be said about vocals with respect to text and real language skills.

With this in mind let us move to the student. Each student is told to do the lesson’s test at school or at home after the lesson. The teacher gets the results within seconds ( as does the school or anyone else who needs oversight). It is like as if the teacher asks a question and every student raises their hand.

Here the teacher can “INSTANTLY” see where their teaching style is failing and needs a change or exactly what each student is failing in so he can direct that student in the following lesson in a manner that will help them understand.

Now under conditions prior to supercandidate, an expectation like this would be impractical. However here the teacher and student waste less time ( due to more accurate methods of spotting errors based on the content on that particular lesson, by way of teaching style( as the teacher’s own style is used) and by way of student perception(as the teacher is seeing directly how the student has understood the teacher’s method of teaching).

By reducing the learning curve time by using such efficient methods everybody wins. First of all lesson by lesson the accuracy of the learning is very controlled using less resources and time. Secondly when it comes to the standardized tests, the concepts are grasped well by the students so they can interpret the questions regardless of layout by the standard. Thirdly the educational establishment saves money, time and resources and can keep the teachers they once were looking to cast out.

Remember the key to all of this is that everyone is bright if you use the right method to get their attention. You should not overlook technologies like supercandidate which offer a user-friendly approach with the power of the latest video, sound etc, which empowers the student and teacher as never seen before.