By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. We all know that tests can be hard. Obviously. But for many students, the real reason school feels hard isn’t the work itself: it’s everything around the work that’s the real challenge. The things no one talks about. The invisible stuff. …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. A personal operating system is a set of habits, routines, processes, tools and self-maintenance strategies that we use to manage our lives. Just like a computer needs an operating system (OS) to run programs and process information efficiently, students need a …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. The Pomodoro Technique is a popular time management strategy for increasing focus and motivation during tasks. It’s perfect for students, professionals, and anyone who has work to do and not a lot of time to do it. The classic Pomodoro Technique …
Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. As you prepare to transition from high school to college, there’s one often-overlooked task that can make a big difference in how you’re perceived by future classmates, professors, and even potential employers: cleaning up your digital profile. In a world where anyone …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Shocker, but not all teachers are organized. Some forget to post assignments. Some take forever to give feedback or grade essays. Some change due dates without telling anyone. And while it’s easy to blame a bad grade or an unreasonable deadline …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Many high school teachers and college professors assign final projects instead of final exams. Teachers and professors may choose a final project over an exam for several reasons. First, it may fit the subject better. Second, they want to see if …
Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Some habits feel smart and productive simply because we’ve done them for so long — or because they look like the right thing to do. But not all school habits are created equal. In fact, some of the most common strategies students …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Dual coding is a study strategy that can shorten how long you study and increase how much you learn. Dual coding works best when combined with other study methods, especially interleaved practice, the Feynman technique, and any study method using active …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Disorganization can make everything around you feel out of control. You don’t know where things are, you don’t know when assignments are due, and your external environment signals chaos. The opposite is also true. When we’re at least somewhat organized, everything …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. I often see students take one of two approaches to their weekends: They either ignore school completely until the stress and workload catch up with them, or they spend their weekend frantically catching up on everything they didn’t do during the …
