By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. In this blog post, I share strategies for how to get organized for final exams. But you can also use the strategies to get organized for midterms or any kind of exam that covers multiple units. I have plenty of tutorials about how to study for exams including the following: 11 Study Tips for ADHD 12 Critical Study Tips for College Students How to Study Using Mind Mapping So, if you’re looking for “how to study” tips, you’ll want to check out those guides as the next logical step, after you’re done here. But in this blog post, I’m focusing on the organization part. Th ..read more

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. You can find an endless amount of apps, games and programs that claim to help you study. And while some of these are fun and can be an effective way to do a final review of the material you’re learning, I argue that the simplest tools really are the best. Cue the index card. In this blog post, I’m teaching you 10 ways to use index cards to study.  Why are index cards such a great study tool? So many reasons: Index cards are relatively inexpensive They’re versatile They come in various shapes, sizes and colors They’re easy to find There are so many ways to use the ..read more

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Being a college student is so different from being a high school student. Don’t get me wrong: High school certainly has challenges. But in most cases, high school students get a lot of support from teachers and parents to manage those challenges. In college, however, many of those supports are gone. Whether you live on campus or you commute to college, so much more of your academic experience is in your hands compared to when you were in high school. In this blog post, you’ll learn three important things you need to know before going to college. It’s an extension ..read more

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Motivation is one of the trickiest subjects I cover here on the blog. That’s because motivation is complicated and is influenced by many factors. Some of these factors you have control over, and some are less controllable.  Low motivation in school can lead to a whole bunch of problems, but I’m sure you already know that. Low motivation can cause bad grades, low self-esteem, problems at home, and problems with teachers. It can even lead to failing classes and not graduating. (Yes, things escalate quickly!) In this blog post, I talk about the three most likely reas ..read more

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. It’s a crummy feeling to think you’re prepared for a test, only to realize too late that you don’t actually understand the material. Our brains have this obnoxious tendency to avoid pain, and while I suppose this is essential to our survival as a human race, it can also lead us to believe we’re more prepared for a test than we really are.  In other words, your brain will work very hard to convince you that you know what you’re studying to avoid the pain of admitting you don’t understand the material. In this blog post, I share three signs that you don’t understand ..read more

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. School can be hard for one million different reasons beyond the obvious, which is that class content can be challenging. (AP Physics, anyone?) In a recent YouTube video, I shared 10 ways to make hard classes easier, but in this blog post, I’m sharing 9 tips for how to make school easier in general. How to Make School Easier: 9 Tips for Struggling High School and College Students You don’t have to follow all 9 tips at once, but the sooner you can implement each one, the better. Trust me: This isn’t something you want to put off until later. School doesn’t have to be so ..read more

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. You know when your teacher assigns a huge project that’s due next week, and it’s a big deal, but you’re not that stressed out about it because it’s not due until next week … and you have plenty of time?  … And every day leading up to the project deadline is not that stressful because you still have plenty of time… which means that you don’t need to start the project yet … until oh my goodness, the project is due tomorrow and now you’re so stressed out! I know you know. I see you. I’m glad you’re here. While some level of procrastination is normal, chronic procrast ..read more

Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. Woo hoo! You’re a high school senior and you’ve been accepted to college! That’s incredible. For many students, college acceptance is both a relief and a stressor. It’s a relief because you no longer have to worry about the college application process, but it’s a stressor because your world is about to change. In this blog post for high school seniors, I share a few tips about what to do after you’ve been accepted to college. As much as you might be mentally “done” with high school because you’re already picturing college, you don’t want to let go just yet. What to Do Aft ..read more

By Katie Azevedo M.Ed. In this blog post, I am going to teach you how to study using mind mapping. Mind mapping is a great strategy for brainstorming, taking notes, and studying. It’s a particularly helpful study method for visual learners, or students who prefer information to be organized visually. If you allow me to get a little bold here, I might even argue that mind mapping can be fun.  Just keep in mind that good results often come from using more than one study strategy, so if you plan to study using mind mapping, you might also want to add in the blurting method and interleaved p ..read more

By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed. If you’re in the habit of throwing away your quizzes when the teacher hands them back, stop immediately.  Quizzes can be seriously valuable study resources – and yes, even the quizzes you bomb. What you need to know is this: There’s a logical order to the types of work you do in a particular course leading up to a final exam. First, you do homework and classwork Next, you have a few quizzes on the material Then you have a test covering everything on the quizzes Repeat steps 1-3 multiple times throughout a course Finally, you have a final exam covering everything ..read more