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Success In Your College Studies

June 8, 2011 International Studies
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There’s an old saying out there that says; if you don’t plan for success, you’re planning for failure. This holds true especially when it comes to studying. A successful student needs to have adapted a good strategy for his/her studies. Some subjects demand more preparation than others but in the end of the day, you need to have a good plan ready on how to tackle all your study material. How do you put these goals done on paper? I suggest you find away that suits you without necessarily embracing one type of strategy all together. The goals that you write down will function as turning points in your academic career, thus making it easier to see where you’re heading.

It’s important that you write down the goals as clear as possible, this will help you form a stark and vivid picture on how to reach that goal. It’s all really a process, you initiate by asking yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing (your motives are great encouraging factors) and then what type of result that you’re expecting. Try to be as realistic as possible without being all too negative or outright naive. To summarize, you need to know the why, the how and the when of your studies.

One of the biggest reasons most people refrain from planning is because of procrastination, we tend to forget that “I will do it tomorrow” turns into weeks and then into months without having done anything valuable. Your time is valuable, do as much as possible, as early as possible! End your procrastination today! I guess you’ve had some time to sit down and think about your studies by know, so what do you do?

Grab a pen and paper

All you need to do is to write down the actual steps that you calculate (which may not occur as you’ve had in mind) needs to be done, all on paper. When you’ve done this, be sure to separate long termed goals from short termed ones. Having difficulties in getting started? It’s O.K, we all suffer from writer’s block once in a while but there are good ways to counter that. I suggest beginning this project by asking yourself questions, important and relevant questions on your studies. The list below shows a few suggestions on some questions you may consider using, they are only suggestions so you shouldn’t probably limit yourself to them. Make sure your plan is suited for your personal needs and situation.

- Is my knowledge sufficient to indulge in this?
- Exactly what type of information do I need?
- Is there anywhere where I could obtain such information?
- What types of skills do I need to master, is it easy/difficult?
- What type of resources can I find and use?
- Is my way the only or could I do I have better options?

If you’ve finished doing all the things I mentioned before, I think we’re ready to actually make the talk into walk and execute our plan. Finally, my last advice to you on this issue is to remind you not to go over your head. It’s easy to become over enthusiastic about something and then lose the flame altogether, walk in baby steps while keeping your eyes on your goals.

Efficient Studies When Going To College

June 8, 2011 International Studies
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It often happens that students study a lot, but still feel the need to excel more. They feel that the amount of input is not proportionate to the output. This is because there is so much to study and with other activities around, it is difficult if not impossible to memorize everything and store that in memory forever. For most of the students there is a problem in learning and remembering. Moreover, these days, students are not only burdened with heavy coursework, but also other non-coursework activities.

As such students need to know as to how they should develop efficient study habit. Our brain takes time to take in information and process it. If you go on with this process non-stop for a long period, the system will get tired and will take longer and longer time to process information. So take a break of about ten minutes for every 50 minutes of work. This will help to refresh your brain and make work longer. This way you will retain information for longer time even if you do not memorize.

Review your notes at the end of the by reading, writing, thinking or talking about it. You can also do this every after one hour of study setting aside ten minutes for it. Researches have prove that if you do not review or recall what you have learned, you are most likely to forget 50-80 percent of what you have learned in the next 24 hours. So try to retain as much as possible by reviewing your lessons.

Review your notes at the end of the week setting aside five minutes to each hour of material for that week. Also set aside two to four minutes of review, per hour of study, at the end of the month. Weekly and monthly reviews are done to make sure that you curb forgetting.

You can also try changing subjects or tasks every hour. You will feel easily bored doing or studying the same things for hours. Hence the brain will take longer processing time. You read a particular subject for an hour, take a break, refresh yourself and come back to study something new. Remember that the human brain does not easily assimilate the same material hour after hour. So better reorganize your studying routine so that you don’t get bored and end up squeezing your concentration power. The best concentration level can be retained for about half-an-hour. So change your task often.

Do not read with your mouth. Some students feel they learn faster when they are mouthing. But the fact is that the brain reads faster than the mouth. Moreover, the concentration level is also high when you read with your brain.

You should also read with a purpose. As you read, develop a questioning mind. Pose questions yourself as you read and also try to answer them. This way will develop an analytical reading habit that will help you to retain information for a longer period.

These study tips will be very handy for every student. For students pursuing distance education, these tips will be very useful. Since they don’t attend classroom lectures, and learn at home, they can benefit if they use these study tips. The same is true of students pursuing online degree programs.

Studies On Green Tea

June 8, 2011 International Studies
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For a number of years now, several benefits have been attributed to drinking green tea. Today, researchers have come up with more proof to solidify the belief that green tea can be used as a treatment for obesity and for weight loss.

It is believed that more than half of the American population have weight problems or are obese. Conditions like these are almost always linked to certain complications like heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, sleep apnea, gall bladder disease, and hypertension. Weight loss can aid in assuaging the symptoms of some of these conditions.

Scientists have tirelessly investigated on the weight loss benefits of green tea. They have found that green tea can actually enhance the total amount of energy spent by the body. From their findings, they were able to deduce that green tea has great potential for a weight loss benefit.

Other researches were able to confirm the weight loss benefit of green tea. A recent study at the University of Geneva had the conclusion that, “Green tea has thermogenic properties and promotes fat oxidation beyond that explained by its caffeine content per se.” Where before it was generally believed that the caffeine content in green tea is the reason for its weight loss benefit, this recent study deviated from that theory. Green tea has other substances in them that are helpful in weight loss.

The same team who conducted the study on green tea’s caffeine content and weight loss banded together in Switzerland to perform another experiment. They were still able to come up with the same results – that green tea has several thermogenic attributes that make it perfect to use in any weight loss program.

Sample Studies: Green Tea and Weight Loss

Green tea reduces body fat accretion caused by high-fat diet in rats through beta-adrenoceptor activation of thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue. Conducted by chief scientist J.J. Choo of the Department of Food and Nutrition, Kunsan National University, this study aimed to find out if green tea can suppress body fat and to find out whether this suppression is connected with thermogenesis spurred by the body’s beta-adrenoceptor being activated.

To investigate the weight loss benefit of green tea on rats, the scientists placed their subjects on a high-fat diet and provided them with green tea extract. It was discovered that even though the rats were on a high-fat diet, the green tea extract counterbalanced fat gain without affecting the amount of energy they took in. Green tea was said to have shown some weight loss benefits in the fact that it can prevent fat from being stored, can increase protein levels, and promote thermogenesis by triggering beta-adrenoceptor to action.

Recent findings of green tea extract AR25 (Exolise) and its activity for the treatment of obesity. This study is a collaborative work between Doctors P. Chantre and D. Lairon of the Laboratoires Arkopharma in Carros, France. Published in the 2002 issue of Phytomedicine, this study aimed to find out if green tea extract has weight loss benefits and can be a potential cure for obesity.

In their study, they used an 80% ethanolic concentrate in green tea extract with standardized 25% catechins. They tested the green tea extract and were able to find that it could directly inhibit gastric and pancreatic lipases. These enzymes are the primary cause of fat storage and by delaying their actions; green tea extract therefore exhibits a weight loss benefit that can help solve obesity problems.

It was also discovered in this study that green tea can stimulate thermogenesis. Given to moderately obese patients, the green tea extract was said to have caused a decrease in weight by 4.6% and a reduction of waist circumference by 4.48% after only three months. The findings of the study clearly implicate the weight loss benefits of green tea.

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