Beyond ‘Just Study Harder’: A Modern Guide to Academic Success

If you’re a student today, you know the pressure is real. Juggling classes, assignments, exams, and life outside of school can feel like a constant balancing act. For generations, the standard advice has been simple: “Just study harder.” But what does that even mean? More all-nighters? More time staring at a textbook until the words blur?

Let’s be honest: that approach is outdated and often leads to burnout, not better grades. The secret to thriving in your studies isn’t about brute force; it’s about strategy. It’s about working smarter, using your time more effectively, and leveraging the right tools to support your learning. True success comes from understanding the game and playing it well.

This guide will walk you through three key areas that can transform your academic performance: building a rock-solid foundation in math, strategically tracking your progress, and adopting study habits that are actually proven to work.

Making Peace with Math: Building a Strong Foundation

For many students, the word “math” can trigger a feeling of anxiety. It’s often seen as a rigid subject of right and wrong answers. But math is so much more than that—it’s a powerful tool for problem-solving and logical thinking that you use every single day, whether you’re splitting a bill with friends or trying to make sense of a news report. A good grasp of math opens doors in countless fields, from technology and science to business and the creative arts.

The key to getting comfortable with math is to focus on understanding why things work, not just memorizing steps. This takes practice, and it’s normal to get stuck. When you’re wrestling with a tough problem, like finding the roots of a quadratic equation (ax2+bx+c=0), it’s easy to get frustrated and lose confidence.

This is where you can be strategic. Think of online math calculators not as a cheat sheet, but as your personal tutor. After you’ve worked through a problem on your own, use a calculator to check your answer. This gives you instant feedback. Did you make a small mistake in your multiplication? Did you apply a formula incorrectly? Catching those little errors right away is one of the fastest ways to learn and improve.

You can also use these tools to play and explore. What happens to a graph when you change a number in the equation? How does a small change in the interest rate affect the final amount over 20 years? By quickly testing different scenarios, you build a much more intuitive feel for the concepts. You’re not just learning the rules; you’re learning how the game is played.

Your GPA: Telling Your Academic Story

Your Grade Point Average (GPA) is a huge part of your academic life. It’s what colleges look at for admissions and what organizations consider for scholarships. But it’s helpful to think of your GPA as more than just a number; it’s the story of your academic journey. Like any good story, it has its ups and downs, but with careful planning, you can be the author of a great ending.

The biggest mistake students make with their GPA is being reactive. They wait until the end of the semester to see what their final grades are, and by then, it’s too late to make any changes. A much smarter approach is to be proactive, and a GPA Calculator is the perfect tool for this. Think of it as a GPS for your grades.

At the start of the semester, you can plug in your classes and your target GPA. This immediately shows you what grades you’ll need to aim for. It turns a vague goal like “I want to do well this semester” into a concrete action plan.

As you get grades back on quizzes, projects, and midterms, you can update the calculator. This gives you a live, up-to-the-minute picture of where you stand. Are you on track? Is one class pulling your average down more than you realized? This knowledge is power. It allows you to make smart decisions. You’ll know exactly where to focus your study efforts. Instead of worrying, you can answer specific questions like, “What do I need to score on my final exam to pull my grade up to a B?” or “How would getting an A in this class impact my overall GPA?” It takes the guesswork out of the equation and puts you in control.

Adopting Study Habits That Actually Stick

The best tools in the world won’t help if your underlying study habits aren’t effective. The good news is that science has shown us a lot about how our brains learn best. Here are a few powerful, research-backed strategies you can start using today.

First, move beyond passive review. Simply re-reading your notes or highlighting your textbook is one of the least effective ways to study. Instead, practice active recall. This means forcing your brain to retrieve information from scratch. Close the book and write down everything you remember about a topic. Create flashcards and test yourself. Explain a concept out loud to a friend (or even to your pet!). This act of pulling information from your memory is what builds strong, lasting connections.

Second, space out your studying. Our brains are not designed for cramming. The Pomodoro Technique is a fantastic way to structure your work. Set a timer for 25 minutes and focus intensely on one task. When the timer goes off, take a 5-minute break. After four sessions, take a longer break. This method fights procrastination and helps you stay focused and fresh. Combine this with spaced repetition—reviewing material over increasing intervals of time—to lock information into your long-term memory.

Finally, don’t sacrifice the fundamentals. Your brain is part of your body. To function at its peak, it needs proper care. Prioritizing 7-9 hours of sleep, eating nutritious food, and getting some form of exercise are non-negotiable. It might feel like you don’t have time, but these activities are an investment that pays off with better focus, improved memory, and more energy to tackle your work.

Ultimately, taking charge of your education is about making conscious, strategic choices. It’s about understanding your foundation, tracking your progress, and using proven methods to learn. Move beyond “studying harder” and start studying smarter. You have the ability to write your own success story.

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Techniques for overcoming Exam Anxiety and to boost Confidence

When you are young, there are no more stressful moments than during exams at school. This anxiety often starts the night before and lasts through the test itself. For some, this period is even longer, starting a few days before and not ending before the results are given out. Here are a few techniques that will help a student overcome exam anxiety and boost his confidence.

Get some Help

What causes exam anxiety? The sensation that we are never quite ready for them. And in most cases, this is true. If we are lucky, the teacher will ask a question on a subject that we know by heart, but if we are not, it can all go wrong. Therefore, the best solution is to be ready for anything the teacher can throw our way. To do so, you need outside help. Private tutors are there to make sure that you master all the information that is provided to you. He or she will guide you through the teacher’s syllabus, so that when you sit down to respond to the questions on the exam, you won’t be worried anymore, but oozing with confidence.

Do not overstudy the Night Before the Exam

That is a common mistake most students make. They waited till the previous night in order to start studying for the exam they will take the next day. Not only will it not suffice, but they find themselves going to bed late, showing up at school tired instead of having a fresh mind. This will cause a lot of anxiety, as the person won’t be able to focus as they should. Rather than cramming all of your revisions into one night, it’s much better to create a study plan and to begin a couple of weeks before the exam to ensure you commit what you’ve learned to your long-term memory. Sleeping well before a test is one of the most important things that you can do to reduce your anxiety.

Don’t get Overwhelmed by the Number of Questions on the Test

When you sit down for an exam, most of the time, you do not know how many questions there will be and what they will be about. The worse mistake that you can make is to start looking at each of them, one by one, without responding. In such cases, if you find yourself facing many requests that you don’t have a response to, you will most probably start panicking right away, and won’t be able to concentrate anymore. This will only render the task at hand, even more difficult. Start with the first question on the paper, and worry about the rest as it comes along. If you can’t answer one question, move on to the next and return to it, only once you have gone through the whole thing once.

Eat Well before an Exam

The important word in this subtitle is “well,” which doesn’t mean “a lot.” Otherwise, you will feel heavy and lethargic. Make sure to get protein into your meal, whether it is breakfast or lunch. In the morning, add some fruits, and for lunch a good heap of vegetables. Try to avoid ingesting too many carbohydrates. Don’t drink too much water, coffee or other liquids, if you don’t want to be disturbed by your bladder the whole time.

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What Is Academic Writing? Do’s and Don’ts for Students

Academic writing is a formal style of writing that is used by the academic community. For example, academic writing is used by universities and academic journals. If you want to publish your article in a peer-reviewed journal, you should stick with the academic style. Students need to use the academic style when writing research papers, dissertations, literature reviews, essays, and other types of academic assignments.

In the opinion of betterwritingservices.com, the vast majority of American students avoid the stress of writing academic papers and prefer to buy them online from legitimate essay writing companies.

In this article, we will consider some specific features of academic writing in more detail and take a look at the main dos and don’ts of formal writing.

The Key Features of Academic Writing

First of all, academic writing should be unbiased and formal. All your claims must be based on evidence, and you cannot build your arguments around your personal opinions or assumptions. You can make your writing unbiased by presenting research results accurately, acknowledging the limitations of your own research, and addressing opposite viewpoints. The formal style of writing requires you to make your paper consistent in terms of logic and structure. Besides, you should avoid colloquialisms, clichés, and contractions.

Academic writing should also be precise and clear, which means that you must avoid vague phrases and statements that can be interpreted in different ways. Besides, you should avoid words like “perhaps” or “likely” because your arguments should be specific, and you should present them with confidence. We recommend that you read academic journals to familiarize yourself with the writing style and vocabulary.

Last but not least, academic writing must be well-structured and well-focused. Your arguments and all the information that you provide must be perfectly relevant to your general topic. The overall structure may vary depending on the type of paper and word count, but the structure of the content should meet some common requirements so that your paper will be easy to comprehend. For instance, each of your paragraphs should focus on a specific idea expressed in a topic sentence. Use transitional phrases to connect different paragraphs and include transitional words in sentences to indicate the connection between different ideas.

As you can see, academic writing is all about precision, clarity, and credibility. Therefore, you should also select reputable sources. While you might feel tempted to use any sources that support your opinion, you must make sure that your sources are actually credible and relevant. Use your university library and academic databases. Don’t forget to cite your sources according to the necessary citation format.

The Do’s

 

  • Write clearly
    Even though your academic papers might be dedicated to complex topics, you should make sure that they are easy to read. Your readers should understand exactly what you’re saying. Always start paragraphs with topic sentences and keep your sentences brief. Avoid complex terms if you can deliver the same information in a simpler way.

 

 

  • Stay objective
    Academic writing must be based on facts and logic. It should also be precise and not influenced by emotions. You need to present information in an objective and impersonal way. To stay objective, you must only use reliable academic sources and support all of your arguments with data. Avoid clichés because they will damage the overall clarity and make your writing less specific. Besides, you should only write in the third person.

 

 

  • Use various sentence structures
    Academic writing can easily become boring, especially when your audience needs to read the same long sentences over and over again. Moreover, long, overcomplicated sentences may make your audience think that you’re unable to formulate your ideas in an easy-to-understand way. In contrast, if you use short sentences only, you won’t let your readers reflect on the overall meaning, creating a sense of a rush. We recommend that you choose a well-balanced approach, using both long and short sentences.

 

 

  • Use technical vocabulary
    All academic subjects have a certain jargon, and you can use it to communicate your thoughts precisely. However, you should only use specific terms when you actually need them. Don’t try to impress your readers with complex words because this way, you will just make your text difficult to read.

 

The Don’ts

 

  • Avoid a personal language
    Although you may use the first person when writing admission and narrative essays, the use of the first person is generally prohibited in academic writing. Besides, one of your main goals is to stay objective so there’s no place for your personal perspective.

 

 

  • Avoid colloquialisms
    When writing academic papers, you should be especially careful with your word choice. While conversational English enables you to use some slang words and informal phrases, you should never use them in academic writing. We recommend that you read your paper once you’ve finished writing, and replace any colloquial language with appropriate forms.

 

 

  • Don’t use the wrong verb tense
    Students often change the verb tense by mistake, switching from one tense to another, even though different actions may take place within the same timeframe. You should always be careful with the verb tense because it indicates whether something happened in the past, present, or future. We recommend that you always check the verb tense when editing your papers.

 

 

  • Avoid inappropriate fonts and formatting
    When it comes to formatting, you should follow clear guidelines. There are different formatting styles used in academic writing, such as APA, Chicago, MLA, Harvard, and others. Every style has certain requirements regarding margins, fonts, and other details of formatting. Before you start to write your academic paper, make sure to check the rules of the required citation style and determine what fonts you can use, as well as what your headings, citations, and main content should look like.

 

Final Thoughts

Academic writing requires you to stick with the formal writing style and to express your thoughts in the most precise and objective way. All students have to be familiar with academic writing and use it when writing assignments. Even though academic writing is much more difficult than informal conversational English, it’s easy to master once you’ve familiarized yourself with some clear rules. We hope that this guide will help you avoid some common mistakes and write academic papers that will be appreciated by professors.

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Correct grammar: is it possible in the era of messengers?

Young people communicate through text messages all the time. Many parents try to prevent their offspring from spending too much time online, but it’s hardly going to change any time soon. Another worry that unites preoccupied adults is the kids’ ability to speak and write English properly. The language kids use in their text messages is very different from the language the students are expected to use in their written assignments. So will the future generations learn to write properly or will texting change our language forever? 

One of the most prominent researches in the area was conducted by Clare Wood and Nenagh Kemp at Coventry University in the UK in 2014. While similar studies have been done in the past, it was the first study ever to consider the long-term consequence of frequent texting on the kids’ writing skills. To begin the study, Kemp and Wood asked 83 primary school students, 78 secondary school students, and 49 college students to provide them with all the text messages they’ve sent in the last two days. Consequently, the texts were analyzed to determine how often a particular student uses so-called textisms. After collecting the text messages, researchers asked the students to take several grammar, writing, and reading tests. Besides taking the test at the beginning of the study, the students were also invited to repeat the tests 12 months later. 

The results of the study came as a surprise: there was no correlation shown between frequent use of textisms and poor grammar skills among students. In fact, young people who used textisms more often performed even better than their peers and showed more improvement over the course of a year. While that was true for middle school and high school students, college students who used more textisms did achieve worse results than their colleagues, although the correlation was quite weak. 

So are fluent texters actually better at writing than students who don’t use textisms? It is still quite early to draw such conclusions. However, many scientists have their theories regarding the positive (or at least neutral) effect of texting on writing proficiency. 

According to John McWhorter at Columbia University, we shouldn’t be surprised by the results of the study. He claims that texting has nothing to do with proper writing. Instead, it’s a “spoken” language. Just like no one talks like they write their novels or essays, we aren’t supposed to use the same structures in texting and other forms of writing. One might argue that people used to write letters to each other and still used proper English for interpersonal communication. But texting has its own norms and culture. With texts, we can communicate through writing just as fast as we can communicate through talking. That’s why it calls for innovative language structures. Texting requires a language that is concise and expressive at the same time, which can be achieved by emojis and abbreviations. Punctuation or capitalization, on the other hand, are not helpful at all. 

The authors of the research support McWhorther’s claims and suggest that texting should be viewed as a new way of interaction with the language, not a threat to the old ones. Kemp says that texting can be considered as an additional literacy skill since it’s essentially expressing what you would say in speaking in the written form.

Interestingly enough, there’s also a plausible explanation of why texting has a more positive influence on younger children than on college students. When kids are learning how to write and how to text, they get familiar with the language by playing with it and finding different ways to express their thoughts. Abbreviations and symbols such as emojis are not exactly new — kids have always been using them in their written notes and letters. Wood also brings attention to the fact that the majority of texting abbreviations are phonetically based. Therefore, by using them, children are practicing phonics — a skill of understanding the relationship between sounds and letters that is widely taught in primary classrooms. So when children write “2” instead of “to/too” or “cya” instead of “see you”, they are unintentionally learning about the connection between sounds and letters that represent them.

If playing with the language really leads to better spelling and grammar among young people, it makes sense that college students who use textisms wouldn’t show as much writing improvement as middle school and high school students. That is because when we get older, we don’t see texting as a way to play with the language and find creative ways to use sounds and letters anymore. When we are adults, we don’t see it as an experiment, but merely a social norm and a way to fit in. 

So as long as the schools keep teaching children formal writing and grammar skills, grammar nazis can stay calm. Although most of the kids seem to understand it without further assistance, teachers should specifically mention when you have to follow all the rules and when it’s not that important. And if your children are struggling with grammar and writing, don’t blame texting. Instead, check out pendrago review that will help them become successful students and proficient writers.

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Vol 65 (2020) Journal of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics

Vol 65 (2020)

Table of Contents

Articles

Journal coverpage PDF
Journal Editor
Associations of Body Composition with Hypertension in the Case of Geography and Health and Physical Education Teachers PDF
Awoke Tibebu 1-7
Factors Affecting Consumers’ Purchase Decision of Over-The-Counter (OTC) Medicines: Empirical Evidences from Community Pharmacies in Ethiopia PDF
Meseret Wube Temechewu 8-25
Antibacterial and Antiviral Effects of Water Catholyte, Oxidal with Methylene Blue and Colloidal Silver PDF
Ignat Ignatov 26-31
Antioxidant Effect of Bilberry on Oxidative Stress Caused by Acute Exercise in Rats PDF
Songul Doganay, Serap Yıldırım, Arzu Sahin, Esra Laloglu, Ozlem Saral, Abdulkadir Yıldırım 32-39
Comparing the Efficacy of Postoperative Diclofenac Suppository with Intramuscular Diclofenac in Children under going Inguinal Hernia Surgery PDF
Ayesha Yaqeen, Hafiza Sidra, Maria Saeed 40-45
Efficacy of the Epidural Blood Patch for the Treatment of Post Epidural Puncture Headache PDF
Maria Saeed, Hafiza Sidra, Ayesha Yaqeen 46-50
Assessment of the prevalence of Respiratory Symptoms among the Workers of Automobile Industry PDF
Andleeb Shariq, Shazaib Akhtar, Bilal Nazar 51-55
The Comparison of Sensitivity and Specificity of ELISA-based Microneutralization Test with Hemagglutination Inhibition Test to Evaluate Neutralizing Antibody against Influenza Virus (H1N1) PDF
Shazaib Akhtar, Bilal Nazar, Andleeb Shariq 56-60

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TOK Essay Writing: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students

TOK essay is an independent research work, the purpose of which is to systematize, consolidate, and expand a student’s theoretical and practical knowledge on a particular topic. Students can choose a topic independently or from a list of numerous options the teacher proposes. The volume of this paper is usually 1600 words. 

The main task of the author of the TOK paper is to demonstrate the level of scientific qualification and ability to independently conduct scientific research and solve specific scientific and practical tasks. This scientific content has an internal unity and reflects the progress of the selected topic development. Arguments and counterarguments form the basis of the essay. They allow expressing the author’s position and drawing reasonable conclusions.

Writing a TOK essay is not easy. The student must be able to formulate the purpose of the research, draw up an outline, conduct a bibliographic search using modern information technologies, etc. If you have difficulties completing the assignment, you can always contact professional writers and buy a tok essay online. The speed and quality of work will please you. However, if you want to cope with the task yourself, read the step-by-step guide below and learn how to write an excellent paper in just 5 steps.

Writing a TOK Essay in 5 Easy Steps

The execution of the TOK essay can be conditionally presented in the form of 5 interconnected stages. Each is described in detail in the following sections.

Justification of the Topic and Purpose of the Work

The first stage includes justification of the topic and purpose of the work. Choosing a topic is an essential point. The success of the essay largely depends on this. To make the right choice, it is necessary to pay attention to the scientific and practical relevance of the topic, required literature availability, materials for implementation, etc.

At the beginning of the work, it is essential to imagine the general result of the research, that is, its purpose. In addition, specifying the general purpose of research objectives should also be performed.

Determination of the Research Objectives

The second stage allows for determining the objectives based on the main purpose. It is important to think over the paper structure and outline. The outline should reproduce the work’s main content and structure – the form of its implementation. 

Analysis of Literary Sources 

The third stage includes the processing and analysis of literary sources. First of all, you need to study the literary sources and compile a bibliography. Bibliographic directories, reference catalogs, and library catalogs (both alphabetical and systematic) represent a good basis for an independent search of literary sources. Try to give the most important attention to periodicals, magazines, and newspapers. They often include the latest results of scientists’ research.

TOK Essay Writing According to the Structure

The TOK essay consists of an introduction, several paragraphs, a general conclusion, and a list of sources used. In the introduction, it is necessary to justify the choice of the topic, reveal its scientific significance and relevance, highlight the history of its study, as well as note controversial and unresolved issues of the topic.

The main body of the work consists of several paragraphs. Therefore, you should alternately provide arguments and counterarguments with examples here to support the stated position.

In the conclusions, try to concisely state the research results, recommendations, and suggestions for their practical use. Complete the work with a list of used literature.

Paper Proofreading and Preparation for Submission

The TOK essay is drawn up, reviewed, and prepared for submission to the teacher at the last stage. Found errors are corrected. Formatting of the paper according to the requirements takes place.

TOK Essay Writing Algorithm

The TOK essay writing process can be presented in the following sequence:

  1. Selection and justification of the topic;
  2. Identification and selection of literature on the topic;
  3. Clarification of the purpose and objectives of the research;
  4. Studying and summarizing the literature on the topic;
  5. Drawing up a preliminary work plan;
  6. Presentation of the text according to the structure of the paper;
  7. Conducting experimental research, summarizing its results;
  8. Formulation of conclusions and recommendations;
  9. Drawing up a list of used sources.

Concluding Remarks

Thus, a TOK essay is a work that allows a student to develop practical skills in scientific work, reveal the level of knowledge in a particular specialization or field, demonstrate the ability to think independently, as well as make generalizations and conclusions.

The process of writing a TOK essay involves several stages. The quality of the paper is significantly influenced by the skillful use of available theoretical and practical material. The selection of data, their critical understanding, and processing are critical in preparing and writing a TOK essay. Apply the tips provided in the article and cope with the assignment successfully!

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