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 …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Does this scenario sound familiar? You bomb a test and it brings down your class grade. That makes you feel bad, so you zone out during the next few classes because you think, “What’s the point? I already failed.” As a …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Have you ever noticed that an assignment due in one week takes one week to complete, but a same-sized assignment due in one day only takes one day to do? This isn’t just a “you” thing. It’s due to a psychological …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. I’ve seen this one particular meme a few times now. It’s funny, and I appreciate the humor behind it. Here’s the two-sentence meme: “I’m really glad I learned about parallelograms in high school math instead of how to do my taxes. …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. We’re going to talk about skills that will make you a better learner. Yes, this includes study skills. But study skills aren’t just skills to get you through your next exam. Legitimate learning techniques and good school habits will also benefit …
By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Multitasking doesn’t work. In fact, every time you think you’re multitasking, you’re actually just rapidly switching back and forth between tasks. When this happens, you can’t give your full attention to either task, which obviously decreases your efficiency. But did you …