Amidst the start of a new semester, it is easy to find yourself feeling a lack of motivation. However, the mid-year winter blues are not unavoidable – you can keep yourself on the right path with these 4 tips: 1. Be Social Managing social and academic time is one of the biggest challenges for undergraduates. [...]
…write about what’s making you anxious, for 10 minutes, immediately before you take your exam. Really! Speaking recently to a number of students worried about the anxiety that might derail their ability to do well on exams, I remembered a study that any student suffering from exam anxiety will want to know about. Researchers at [...]
Recently, Erin, a blogger with UpbeaT, wrote about why she makes a point of sharing notes with fellow students when they ask. If whether to share or ask for notes is something you find yourself thinking about, check out Erin’s post, “Note to Self: Why I Don’t Mind Sharing My Notes,” as well as the [...]
I had “fresh starts” on my mind this morning when I picked up Mary Oliver’s Blue Pastures. Even though I was thinking about “fresh starts”–the New Year, the start of a new semester, the return to regular posting on our Academic Success Blog–I turned to Oliver’s “Afterward.” Here she is: Writing this book has been [...]
Although “The Official SAT Question of the Day” is not meant as a teaching tool for university students, it happens to offer excellent exercises for testing and improving your knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary (as well as mathematical thinking). There’s good variety to the questions, and you can gain a lot with a small [...]
Last night, I was lucky enough to go to the screening of the People’s Choice Award Winner, “The King’s Speech,” at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film played to a full house at the Ryerson Theatre. One of the things I was struck by in this often quite moving story of a relationship between [...]
While watching Jane Campion’s film “Bright Star,” I thought about writing papers and how, sometimes, a kind of premature focus of energy on wanting to produce a finished draft can distract from the work at hand. Campion has poet John Keats answer his sweetheart’s request to help her understand poetry: A poem needs understanding through [...]
Confused about when to write its and when to write it’s? You are not alone! Here is a way to think about the difference. ITS (no apostrophe) is possessive. Use it when you mean: something belonging to it. I’m looking at the cool orange cover of Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems. I’m looking at its cool [...]
In her entertaining, down-to-earth writing guide, Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott describes keeping a one-inch picture frame on her desk. She does this, she says, so that when she feels overwhelmed by a writing project, she’ll remember that she’s not setting out to write a whole, finished piece in one sitting. She likes to remember [...]
Like many homes with young children, ours became the family and keeper of a small furry addition: the hamster. She was chosen among her peers for her soft coat, alertness and general keenness. We thought we were embarking on a “pet experience” – the fun and friendship we would share and the lessons our child [...]
