17.4 Optimize Your Education

Learn to Concentrate

Concentration is the art of being focused, the ability to pay attention. Concentration can help you better remember what you hear, see, and read. Concentration is a frame of mind that enables you to stay centered on the activity or work you are doing. You know when you’re concentrating when you are able to tune out distractions and are able to focus your energies on the task at hand.

There are strategies to enhance your ability to concentrate. Here are some ways to make it happen:

• Choose a workplace. Avoid the bed—many people associate it with relaxing or sleeping. Consider an alternate location to work such as a desk or a table. This will give you a change of scenery and a space that is more conducive to work. Be sure to have good lighting.
• Pay attention to nutrition needs. What you eat plays an important role in how well or how poorly you concentrate. Vegetables and protein foods (such as eggs, dairy, beans, fish, lean meats, and nuts), keep the mind alert, while carbohydrates (such as white bread, pasta, baked goods, rice, and sugary foods) make you sleepy.
• Listen to your own thoughts. Minimizing distractions can facilitate your concentration efforts. Things such as music, videos, or cell phones can interrupt your concentration. Consider putting your phone on silent and maybe even across to the room to reduce the temptation to look at the screen.
• Make a to-do list. If you are trying to study but get distracted by all of the things you need to do, take time to make a to-do list. Jotting down a list and referring to it from time to time can be very effective for clearing your mind and focusing on your task.
• Take short, frequent breaks. Research indicates that you can concentrate effectively for about 15 to 20 minutes before your concentration begins to fade. Therefore, it makes sense to capitalize on your natural body rhythms and take a short break every 20 to 30 minutes. If you feel you are fully concentrating and involved in a task, then work until a natural break occurs.

Learn to Manage Your Time

There are two ways to make sure you have more time in a day. The first and most important way to gain more time is to plan it. Think about planning a group outing with your friends. You need to know where you are going and have a plan to get there. Without a plan, you will waste your time and take longer to get to your destination—if you get there at all!

Find a way to keep track of your weekly tasks and assignments. This could be a physical planner or it could be a calendar/planner app on your phone or computer. Using a method to record your tasks is an effective way to plan your week or day. Also, by capturing the information by writing it down or adding it to your virtual calendar, you do not have to expend the mental energy trying to remember it all.

A second way to gain more time in a day is to do more in less time. This can be as simple as doubling up on activities. For example, if you have several errands, consider the most efficient way to tackle all three. Can you combine trips? Can you map your route to make the most of your time and travel distance? If you commute, you could use this time to study or work on other tasks. You might utilize your lunch break to organize your notes for a class. Use your imagination as to how you can get more done in less time.

Here are some ideas to help you better manage your time:

• Prepare for the morning the night before. Put out your clothes; make lunches; grab your laptop and any other materials you need for the day.
• Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning. Use the time to plan your day, review your assignments, or scroll through the top stories of the day.
• Schedule a realistic day. Avoid planning for every minute. Leave extra time in your day for breaks and travel time.
• Leave room in your day for the unexpected. This will allow you to do what you need to do, regardless of what happens. If the unexpected never happens, you will have more time for yourself.
• Do one thing at a time. Try to avoid doing too many things at a time. We can multi-task to a certain degree but often become inefficient by trying to do too many tasks at one time. Concentrate on the here and now.
• Learn to say “No.” Saying no helps you establish healthy boundaries that protect your time and your mental health. Choosing to skip events or activities when you just don't have the time or energy can preserve that energy and time for other tasks.

How well do you manage your time? Take the quiz in Table 17.4 to find out.

Use Your Money Wisely

You may be funding your education through several different sources, including the following.

• Grants and Scholarships. This refers to aid you do not have to repay. Grants are usually based on need while scholarships are frequently based on academic merit or other qualifying factors.
• Educational Loans. These are usually subsidized by federal and state governments, private lenders, or the colleges themselves. Generally, the loans carry lower interest rates than commercial loans, and you do not have to pay them off until after graduation.
• Work Study. This is federal financial aid to assist with your living expenses while in school. You typically work on campus part time.

There are many ways to cut the cost of going to college. Consider these:

• Going a community college can often save you money in the long-run. You could take core, transferable courses at the community college before finishing at a four-year institution.
• Attending a nearby college and living off campus, rather than in campus-provided housing.
• Enrolling in one of hundreds of colleges and universities with cooperative educational programs that alternate between full-time studies and full-time employment.
• Taking a full-time job at a company that offers tuition reimbursement or assistance.

To learn about college costs and financial aid, consider visiting the website of The College Board, a not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity. Some of the important topics covered at https://www.collegeboard.org include explaining financial aid, facilitating the application process, and finding colleges that fit. There are other websites that also offer information on financial aid:

• https://www.fastweb.com: Fastweb has a database of more than 1.5 million private-sector scholarships, grants, and loans.
• https://www.ed.gov: This is the U.S. Department of Education information site for federal aid programs, including student loans and grants.

Gain some insight into your money management skills by taking the quiz in Table 17.5.

Study Well

To set yourself up for success in any course, complete your assignments on time. Assignments given by the instructor are often used to reinforce key concepts covered. Reading the textbook or other course materials is also good practice to help you be successful in mastering content in a class. If you don't complete an assignment when it is due, not only will you be at a disadvantage in the class, you will have additional work to add to your schedule, your final course grade could be impacted, and you might miss getting feedback from your instructor that is needed to do well on future assignments.

Second, know what material to study. This may sound simple, but all too often students do not ask what material they should study and find out too late that they studied the wrong information. The easiest and most accurate way to learn what will be covered on a test is to take good notes when in class or when studying the material. If you have questions about what might be on a particular test, often you can reach out to the instructor for some guidance.

Tests are one tool used to evaluate your knowledge of particular concepts. Tests can be designed to not only ask you to memorize or recall specific information, but also to give you the opportunity to think critically about a topic or apply a concept to a real-life scenario through extended response questions. To help yourself remember items such as dates, definitions, or terms, you can use memory devices that have been proven to work:

• Recite information using your own words. You will learn more when you reinforce your learning in as many ways as possible. You can reinforce your learning through hearing, writing, reading, reviewing, and reciting.

• Develop acronyms. Acronyms are words or names formed from the first letters or groups of letters in a phrase. Acronyms help you remember because they organize information according to the way you need or want to learn it. For example, COD means “cash on delivery,” and GDP refers to “gross domestic product.” When you study for a test, be creative and make up your own acronyms.

• Try mnemonic sentences, rhymes, or jingles. Mnemonic sentences are similar to acronyms; they help you organize your ideas. But instead of creating a word, you make up a sentence. Creating a rhyme, song, or poem can make the information even easier to remember. The more creative and unique the sentence or poem, the easier it can be to remember. Take, for example, the nine planets listed in order according to their distance from the sun:

  Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

  The first letters of these words are: M V E M J S U N .

  An acronym using these letters would be difficult to remember. But if you create a sentence using the letters in order, you will remember the sequence better. For example: My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming.

• Visualize. Visualization refers to creating or recalling mental pictures related to what you are learning. Have you ever tried to remember something while taking a test and visualized the page the information was on? This is your visual memory at work. Visualization is important for memory because it engages multiple areas of the brain at the same time. Research indicates that using visualization when studying can increase test scores by more than 10 percent.

Table 17.6 helps you evaluate your study skills.

Become a Pro at Taking Tests

Test taking skills involve developing strategies to efficiently pull key terms from the question and using those to formulate your answer. Time management is also important while taking a test. You need to be sure to pace yourself so that you can answer all questions fully in the time allowed. Tests are evaluations of what you know and what you can do with what you know. Here are the rules of the test-taking game:

• Tip 1: Act As If You Will Succeed. Thought is powerful. When you think negative thoughts, your stress level rises. Your confidence level may drop, which often leads to feelings of failure. When this happens, think about success. Smile and take deep, slow breaths. Close your eyes, and imagine getting the test back with a good grade.

• Tip 2: Arrive Ahead of Time. Arriving to a test a bit early can help ease some anxiety and give you an opportunity to get prepared. If your test is in an online format, give yourself time before you begin the test to get your physical and mental space prepared. You will have a better chance focusing, relaxing, and preparing yourself for the test if you have ample time.
• Tip 3: Bring the Essential Testing Tools. Don’t forget to bring the necessary testing tools along with you, including materials that you may need such as your laptop (charged!), calculator, or writing instruments if necessary. If you are taking an exam online, be sure you have the items required for monitoring such as having your laptop camera operational.
• Tip 4: Preview the Test before Beginning. Here’s how to do a preview:
  • Listen to instructions, and read directions carefully.
  • Look at the total number of questions and the point value of each. Decide how much time you can spend on each question and still finish the test on time.
  • Budget your time. If you budget your time and stick to your time limits, you will be more likely to complete the test in the amount of time given.
  • Use the test as an information tool. Be on the lookout for clues that answer other questions. Frequently, instructors will test you on a single topic in more than one way.
• Tip 5: Make Notes. Before beginning the test, write down key terms, formulas, dates, and other important information in the white space on the test paper.
• Tip 6: Complete the Easy Questions First. Answering easy questions first helps build your confidence. If you come across a tough question, mark it so you can come back to it later. Avoid spending so much time on a challenging question that you might run out of time to answer the questions you do know.
• Tip 7: Know If There Is a Guessing Penalty. Chances are your tests will carry no penalty for guessing. If your time is about to run out and there is no penalty, take a wild guess. On the other hand, if your test carries a penalty for guessing, choose your answers wisely, and leave blank the answers you do not know.
• Tip 8: Avoid Looking for Patterns. Have you ever changed your answer because it seemed there were too many "B" answers, only to learn that "B" was correct? Try to refrain from detecting patterns in your answers. Rarely are there distinct patterns to answers that you can discern. Use your knowledge and choose the best answer.
• Tip 9: Be Clear in Responses. If you are taking a written test, make sure your handwriting is legible. This increases the likelihood that the instructor will correctly interpret your responses.

Here are some websites to help you learn more about how to succeed with test-taking:

• Improve study habits across the board at https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/studying-101-study-smarter-not-harder/
• Learn strategies to apply to different types of tests, like essay or multiple choice exams, at https://www.brainscape.com/academy/best-test-taking-strategies/
• Get tips on test prep, test taking, and ways to cope with test-taking anxiety at https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/14-tips-for-test-taking-success/#Four-Ways-to-Cope-with-TestTaking-Anxiety