Friday, December 14, 2007
| Posted By: Simmy |
If students use resources like Cramster to cheat, they will strike out under pressure.
Everyone's out to get you nowadays. No matter if you've never glimpsed at an adjacent test in your life – you have a pencil, a test and a chair, so that means you're a target.
With professors, TAs and even cameras hawking you like your Barry Bonds with a wood and lead-disguised needle, you have to wonder what all the fuss is about.
Of course cheating is bad and unethical, but who is it really hurting?
As a professor, you might feel your time spent preparing the class is devalued; as a student victim, you might feel your hard work is being ripped off by a free-rider; but as the cheater, you miss out on the whole point of being in school.
In that case, you might as well drop out and start channeling your inner Britney.
Good grades could very well translate into a false front of confidence and smarts, but good grades don't compensate for a void of knowledge.
In your professional life, your grades don't improve your work – it's what you did in the classroom and in the library that pays off.
So, as is true with a lot of negatives in life, turn the focus back on yourself and away from the cheater. Trust me: It'll be more worth your time.
There are some people out there who view Cramster's resources as a method of cheating. The availability of textbook solutions in full form raises red flags for them.
Sure, there likely exists a small fraction of students who blindly copy solutions to save time and bypass effort. But returning to my original point, we're not here to dissuade bad students – we're here to help good ones.
Blindly copying answers might get you a homework grade, but it will certainly not get you a test grade and will hurt you when it comes time to apply the concepts to real work.
For the majority of students out there, seeing step-by-step solutions helps to understand the correct process by which to solve problems. The next time they are confronted with a similar problem, they won't need Cramster to find the answer.
Mission: successful.
So the next time you start to feel flushed after finding out a fellow student spent 10 minutes on the homework you spent four hours completing, relax. Tell them you're a little nervous for the "quiz" and ask for clarification on No. 3.
Your four hours just became a whole lot more worthwhile.
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Monday, December 03, 2007
| Posted By: Simmy |
How to approach the night before an important test
When I think about how different people approach the night before a big test, I imagine a commercial with multiple big red buttons (like the Staples "EASY" button) on a desk in front of a perspiring student.
Several will hit "PANIC;" other, less anxious souls will hit "GET HELP;" some well-known bookworms might slam "PARTY;" and there's always that one tender-loving student who will hit, "CRY."
Is it just me or do you also get tired of the seemingly endless number of fellow students who gripe and moan in increasing amounts about their "huge test" coming up because after griping and moaning the previous day they didn't do anything about it that night?
I mean, God forbid these people actually be forced to work hard.
The way I've always approached the night before important tests is that studying on that night shouldn't be so crucial. Going to class, actually staying awake and alert in class, taking notes and doing homework correctly are, in my opinion, infinitely more valuable than cramming 10 hours before the academic shindig commences.
Scoring well on tests has as much to do with skilled test-taking as it does solid preparation. Test taking is an art, or at least an acquired skill that by college we should be pretty good at. Thus, the night before a test should be as much about setting yourself up to test well as it should be about studying the material for the test.
Relax. Browse over the material just enough to keep it fresh in your mind. Don't fry your brain with endless memorization. Get good sleep (eight hours or more if possible). Eat something healthy before going to class the next morning; even if you aren't a breakfast-eater, put something light in your stomach.
Sounds oversimplified, but this basic method has always done the trick for me. Don't take it out of context, however – to take this more relaxed approach you need to have attended class regularly and done what was required of you to grasp the material.
Many consider the SAT or the ACT to be the biggest test of a high school student's career. The night before I took the ACT I watched college football and then played poker at a friend's house; I won enough money to cover my water and banana on the way to the testing site the next morning. I took the test, went home and enjoyed the rest of my weekend, and later found out that I eclipsed the goal I had set for myself.
I've continued this method through my college years and can declare that it hasn't let me down yet.
How do you prepare for big tests? What's the more important skill: test prep or test taking?
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