Why most students struggle in school

Published on January 22, 2011 in Better Grades, Memory Skills, Parents Of Students, Special Students, Study Habits, Study Mistakes To Avoid and Study Psychology. 2 Comments Tags: Memory Problems, Struggling In School, Student Problems.

Simply stated, most students struggle in school because they don’t know how they learn, In Chapter 1 of my worldwide bestselling study book, I explain step-by-step how you can determine what learning style you have so you can stop wasting countless hours staring at your books, frustrated because nothing’s making sense and you can’t remember anything you tried to memorise the previous day.

If you don’t know HOW you learn, you’ll keep struggling in school. Knowing your learning style can be a life-changing revelation.

Let me put it this way – if you’re one of these styles and you don’t know it, chances are, if you’ve just started high school, you probably won’t make it to college.

If you do get to college, you’ll get kicked out within the first year.

Not because you’re dumb, but because you weren’t smart enough to learn HOW you learn.

I know how harsh this sounds, but it’s better that I tell you the truth NOW when you have a chance to fix the problem once and for all.

The Top 5 Best Study Tips

Published on January 15, 2011 in Better Grades, Note Taking, Study Habits and Study Tips. 4 Comments

A lot of people have asked me what the top 5 best study tips are, here they are, in order.

  1. Learning your cognitive learning style (Chapter 1 of my study book)
  2. Speed Reading (click on the hyperlink for my speed reading course)
  3. MindMapping (click on the hyperlink to access my new program with visual artist Paul Telling)
  4. Exponential note taking (Chapter 4 of my study book called “How to write down everything the teacher says!)
  5. Reading before going to class (explained in my speed learning video program)

I would focus on acquiring these skills in this numerical order so that as you start to walk, you’ll be able to run by the time you get to #5.

Getting better grades is not hard, in fact it’s quite easy – when you know what to do and how to do it!

Being smart can make you stupid

Published on January 8, 2011 in Better Grades, Memory Skills, MindMapping, Note Taking and Speed Learning. 16 Comments Tags: ADD, ADHD, Draw Your Notes, Mind Mapping, Taking Notes In Class.

A parent recently bought my study book for her 15 year old son. Despite his high IQ 120 (which actually could be as high as 143) he struggles with being “ADD non hyperactive”. She explains that it rears its head in the typical way, lack of focus, organisation, etc. His weakest areas are working memory, visual memory, sequencing and auditory processing. Skills like targeting sports, math and science CONCEPTS are learned easily. His superior reasoning skills are in the 95th percentile and work well for him except when the topic has many details, rules and/or he is not interested in learning them.

Because he learns concepts quickly, he is overly confident (wrongly) thinking that he has learned it all, so he takes few notes.

He also has a writing deficiency, which combined with poor working memory makes it difficult to take notes and keep up with what’s being presented. As a result, details fall to the wayside and no longer exist as something that he must know. So he is convinced that
he knows the material and does not need to study. He used to do OK in earlier grades that required less detail retention and recall,but now he is failing courses that intellectually he should have no problem with.

The question the mother asked was:

“How can he apply the 80/20 concept when he doesn’t think there is a 20 percent that he doesn’t know and thinks he has it 100 percent down?”

One word – MindMapping.

Click on the hyperlink above and have a look around at a new program that I created with Visual artist – Paul Telling.

MindMapping will help him:

  • Focus on concepts without being distracted with details.
  • Get around any writing deficiencies since the elements are all graphical.
  • Peak his interest because drawing is always a challenge – it never gets dull.
  • It’s easy to start with simple lines and arrows.
  • It’s progressive, meaning he’ll improve quickly as he masters the steps.
  • Because the information is visually stored, retention and recall should be greatly improved.
  • Since the process is FAST, that will deal with the short attention span associated with ADD.

PreMed Student Work-School Balance Tip

Published on January 2, 2011 in Better Grades, Study Habits, Study Mistakes To Avoid, Study Psychology and Study Tips. 4 Comments Tags: Student Work-Life Balance, Work-School Balance.

Pre Med Student Tance asks some great questions about how to get better grades while holding down a job.

Hello Dr. Dussault,
As a matter a fact I have read your book twice already. It is truly insightful and I am truly glad I purchased it. The only dilemma I have and I hope you can help me with this – I am currently in college, in premed, and I work a full time schedule and the only shift I can work is the midnight shift. There are many nights I feel exhausted and sometimes can’t concentrate on my studies. I need the job to support me and my wife.

The only good part is my job gives me quite a bit of money to pay for school. But do you have any suggestions as far as how I can study better with this schedule?

Thank you so much.
Tance

This is a common issue students grapple with, combining work and study. In my study book, I explain in chapter 4 a 5-step system to get everything done effortlessly. So the first suggestion is go back to that chapter and re-read the suggestions. Once that’s done, I think your challenge has more to do with stamina and endurance than time management. Continue reading ‘PreMed Student Work-School Balance Tip’

You Get The Grade You Deserve

Published on December 28, 2010 in Positive Mindset, Study Groups and Study Psychology. 2 Comments

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.

What a profound short little paragraph that says it all :-

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply or create wealth by dividing it.”

Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

Students Cheating

Published on December 23, 2010 in General and Study Fun And Humour. 1 Comment Tags: Cheating, Students Cheating.

Today’s post is just for fun. I like illusions like this.

Student Cheating 1 of 2

Student Cheating 1 of 2

Not sure? Take another look….

Continue reading ‘Students Cheating’

How to focus during exams

Published on December 12, 2010 in Exam Stress and Anxiety, Exams, Study Mistakes To Avoid and Study Tips. 2 Comments Tags: Improve Exam Focus, Improve Exam Performance, Reduce Exam Stress.

Today’a post is from Setimela in South Africa.

Dr Marc Dusssault,

I really appreciate the study and speed learning tips you are giving me but I have a problem losing concentration when writing a test and when doing my assignments. This results in me failing the test. This discourages me hence losing confidence. I am currently doing a part-time diploma in occupational health nursing with WITS University in South Africa. I have already written a test and I didn’t do well. Kindly assist me to pull through.

There is the famous saying we’ve all heard “practice makes perfect”, but it’s actually wrong. It should be “Perfect practice makes perfect.”

I have another blog called the Mindset Of A Champion where you’re find several posts that will help you focus for your exams. It covers topics such as Mental Toughness and deliberate practice concepts.

As a student, if you want to ace your next exam, you need to PRACTICE writing exams – literally. That means creating the same time pressure, even going to your exam room when it’s available to actually PRACTICE writing a fake exam. I know it sounds crazy, but if you actually do it, you’ll be amazed at the difference it will make.

When I did my undergraduate degree, about a handful of times, I went into the SAME (or similar) exam room to write exams on my own, when I knew there would be no one there (at night or on weekends). Sometimes I would sit the fake exam for the full 3 hours and often I would just do part of an exam for 1 hour – SAME STRESS.

It takes effort because you have to:

  • Come up with fake questions. (Ideally, you ask a friend to write them up for you)
  • Find when a room is available.
  • Go to (or stay at) school.
  • Role play seriously – even if that means panicking because you can’t answer the questions.
  • You need to grade yourself honestly after-the-fact.

If this is all too much effort – just keep freaking out during exams.

If you want to get better at anything – perfect practice makes perfect…

Of course there is the alternative which is MASTERING your subject matter – but that is a topic for another day.

Speed Reading Advantages

Published on November 27, 2010 in Speed Learning, Speed Reading, Study Less and Study Tips. 6 Comments

If you’ve ever wondered about the difference between reading and speed reading, here’s a quick comparison table for you.

Average Reader Speed Reader
Words Per Minute 200-300 600-1,200
Comprehension Needs to re-read the same text several times Reduced need to re-read, if required with new material, does it FASTER
Memory recall Poor due to lack of focus and attention due to the long time it takes to read Excellent BECAUSE of laser-like focus for short periods of time
Boring and Banal Material Puts you to sleep Get it over and done with quickly
Theoretical Textbooks Can’t get to the core issues without losing focus Get to the central points quickly to understand them better
Dyslexic Students Struggle to read – avoid it as much as possible Proven to improve reading speed by 200 to 500%.
Lazy Students Read half as much as they should Read everything they should because they are 2 to 3 times faster
Top Students Read instead of going out with friends Can still get top grades AND have a social life
Mature Students Get inundated with pre-requisite material they need to read to get the background to the current material – always struggling to keep up Get through the background material in a fraction of the time to focus on learning the stuff that’s on the exam!
Athletes Usually don’t get good grades because they spend so much time training for their sport Can get through ALL their reading material WITHOUT compromising their athletic performance
Business People Usually skim and skip their reading material – often missing key principles Can not only read ALL their course material, but save valuable time so their career doesn’t suffer while their ‘in school’
‘Bad Students’ Never quite get the consistent As and Bs Gain confidence because this makes them ‘smarter’ than their friends!
Parents Don’t know how to help them get better grades This is a quick and easy skill to learn that is PROVEN to work and improve students’ grades

Great Study Tips Site

Published on November 21, 2010 in Better Grades, Memory Skills, Note Taking and Study Tips. 3 Comments

Even though there are countless great sites on the Internet, often it’s hard to find them. That’s why, as an Exponential Growth Strategist, I come into contact with thousands of people every year and many of them forward interesting and useful links, sites and blogs that are valuable and worthy of bookmarking. The Khan Academy Site is one such example.

David Pitts, a participant at a recent corporate “Super Session” let me know that.

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

The Khan Academy has 1000+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance that have been recorded by Salman Khan. Read a recent San Francisco Chronicle article about Salman Khan and the Khan Academy.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Interested, download the Khan Academy fact sheet. You can also read more about the Khan Academy vision in this document.

The Khan Academy and Salman Khan have received a 2009 Tech Award in Education. The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.

Sal has just launched the alpha software version of the old web app. Try it out if you’re interested in practicing some of the concepts in the videos.. It requires a Google account (not the login from the old app). The old, slower version is still available here.

To keep abreast of new videos as they add them, subscribe to the Khan Academy channel on YouTube.

Get Excited About School Again

Published on November 18, 2010 in Better Grades, Study Habits, Study Less, Study Psychology and Study Tips. 2 Comments

Emahuja is lacking a little motivation to get into studying…

HELLO DR. MARC,

EMAHUJA here, I am about to complete my 11th std and will be starting with my 12th std which is very crucial and important for me as a science student. Till 10th I was very much interested in studies. My grades were very good, but now I don’t know what’s wrong. I don’t have any intrest in studies and very tense regarding my studies. So, can you please suggest some tips to get my interest back into my studies?

Regards,
EMAHUJA

Everyone gets into a rut from time to time, so if you temporarily lose interest or motivation, don’t panic.

I have a blog called the Mindset Of A Champion that is devoted to high performance athletes who want to improve their results. One of the problems they come across is over training.

In your case you may not be over training, but you may have the same symptoms. Chances are you’re just bored. That simply means you need to mix things up a little. Change a few things you’re doing to make it fresh and new. You might even consider taking a break from studying for 1 or 2 days – just to interrupt your pattern.

Other things you can consider doing include: Continue reading ‘Get Excited About School Again’

Why you need to do your homework

Published on November 13, 2010 in General, Study Fun And Humour and Study Mistakes To Avoid. 3 Comments Tags: Why You Should Study.

Today’s post is funny, but then again it’s not really. I come across people everyday that can’t spell let alone put a few words together. Andrew Powell from Montreal Canada found this original article on Yahoo – America’s educational system captured in a single photo.

Well here’s something to make your old English teacher gasp in horror: A road contractor hired to paint the word “school” on a freshly paved stretch of highway near Southern Guilford High School in North Carolina rendering the traffic area in question a “shcool” lane.

But fear not for the surely confused area youth! The contractor, an area company named Traffic Markings, has already corrected the error.

This isn’t the first such mishap on record. Last year, for instance, a Miami area road crew offered the variant spelling of “scohol,” while in 2007, a Kalamazoo team managed to do the same “h” and “c” reversal.

Chalk it all up to a bad day’s wrok.

Today’s lesson – especially for high school students is this: You’re in school for a reason – to learn skills and develop aptitudes like reading, writing, math, research and now typing (properly) on a keyboard which is no longer something you can avoid. I know most high school students think a lot of what they do is a waste of time, but here’s the thing most don’t fully realise – you’ll NEVER, EVER go back to high school.

That means if you don’t pick up and DEVELOP those study skills and aptitudes, you’re #$@%#$ for the rest of your life and career. You won’t get the best promotions, job offers and certainly won’t get the biggest paychecks.

I see it every day – people who would like to write better, but just can’t. For whatever reason, when they should have learned the skills, they didn’t. It’s sad to see – because it’s a handicap. They have to hire other people to write for them. When they send email correspondence, the errors and poor grammar reflect poorly on who they are. Often, a prospect will lose confidence in them just because of that.

That’s painful to see – especially when there is NO QUICK FIX. What you DON’T learn in high school can take 10 to 20 years to learn as an adult – partially because of the lack of time, partly because adults don’t learn as quickly and mostly because trying to UNLEARN something is harder than learning it in the first place!

Anyway, those are my thoughts for the day – I am not sure why I understood this in PRIMARY SCHOOL, but I can remember vividly my classmates in high school who didn’t take it seriously and can now see the definite (wide) chasm between the successful and not-so-successful. It can all be traced backwards to high school and sometimes primary school just like CSI determining who committed a murder – all the clues are there.

The only question is – if you’re in high school or university, will you start to take the basics more seriously?

School In 1957 Versus 2007

Published on November 7, 2010 in Parents Of Students and Study Fun And Humour. 1 Comment Tags: Funny Student Stories, Student jokes.

Things have changed in the last 50 years – especially in schools. Today’s blog post was sent to me by Gavin Buckett, The Gourmet Guardian, Australia’s Food Safety Specialist. Is this really progress?

Scenario: Jack goes rabbit shooting before school, pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.

1957 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s rifle, goes to his car and gets his rifle & chats with Jack about guns.

2007 – School goes into lock down, Star Force called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his ute or gun again. Counsellors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

1957 -Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.

2007 – Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it. Continue reading ‘School In 1957 Versus 2007′

Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

Published on November 5, 2010 in General, Student Jokes and Study Fun And Humour. 2 Comments

You have to be careful when you ask 5th graders questions. They will actually be too honest for their own good, like these examples:

___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:    Maria, go to the map and find North America .
MARIA:         Here it  is.
TEACHER:   Correct.  Now class, who discovered America ?
CLASS:         Maria.
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:   John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN:          You told me to do it without using tables.
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:  Glenn, how do you spell ‘crocodile?’
GLENN:      K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L’
TEACHER:  No, that’s wrong
GLENN:       Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

(I  Love this kid)
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:   Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD:     H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER:   What are you talking about?
DONALD:    Yesterday you said it’s H to O.
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:   Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn’t have ten years ago.
WINNIE:       Me!
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:   Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN:          Well, I’m a lot closer to the ground than you are.
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:     Millie, give me a sentence starting with ‘ I. ‘
MILLIE:         I  is..
TEACHER:     No, Millie…… Always say, ‘I  am.’
MILLIE:         All right…  ‘I am the ninth letter of the alphabet’
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:    George Washington not only chopped down his father’s cherry tree, but also admitted it. Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn’t punish him?
LOUIS:           Because George still had the axe in his hand….
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:    Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON:         No sir, I don’t have to, my Mom is a good cook.
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:     Clyde , your composition on ‘My Dog’ is exactly the same as your brother’s.. Did you copy his?
CLYDE :         No, sir. It’s the same dog.
___________________________________________________________________

TEACHER:    Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD:     A teacher
___________________________________________________________________

It Pays 77% More To Get Better Grades

Published on October 31, 2010 in Better Grades, Positive Mindset, Speed Learning and Study Psychology. 3 Comments Tags: Graduates, Value Of A Degree.

A recent study in the United States revealed that 2007 graduates earned 77% more per hour than those with only a high school diploma. Click on this hyperlink if you want to know the value of a degree.

That’s why a small investment in a study book is a great investment. There, I’ve said it. If you haven’t bought my study book what are you waiting for? It’s comes with an 8-week money-back guarantee, tons of bonuses and has been purchased by thousands of students from all over the world. It’s even been translated into 4 languages, English, French, Romanian and Chinese.

What more proof do you need? Maybe that’s the problem – you need absolute certainty to make a decision.

That’s not going to happen. There is no such thing as “perfect knowledge”. In fact that is one of the many concepts and ideas that I share with you once you buy my study book. Get it now and start improving your study habits.

3 Note Taking Styles: 5 Major Flaws

Published on October 22, 2010 in Better Grades, Exams, MindMapping, Note Taking, Speed Learning and Study Tips. 6 Comments Tags: Mind Mapping, Mind Maps, MindMapping, Radial Thinking, Tony Buzan.

There you are, preparing for your exam… looking back over your notes trying to understand what you’ve written. Trying to remember the words the lecturer said AND put into context the scribbles in your notebook. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

It doesn’t have to be this way. There IS a better way to take notes that will help you understand, remember and retain more knowledge, especially at a critical time such as your next exam!

Did you know there are 3 traditional ways we take notes?

1. The sentence narrative note taking style – This is where you simply write out word-for-word what you hear. Writing line-by-line as fast as you can. You’re basically a stenographer – focused on capturing the words on paper.

2. The list note taking style – this involves taking down the various ideas as they occur usually in a bulleted list, like the one I just created for the traditional note taking styles.

3. Outline note taking style-

Taking notes in a hierarchical sequence using major and

sub categories.

In a waterfall- like structure as shown here

Did you know that these 3 traditional note taking styles have 5 major flaws?

1. Lack of visual cues. As you can tell from the traditional styles above, they all use linear patterns, symbols and text, but use no visual cues, patterns, images or visualization tools. This is a critical flaw because the mind thinks in visual images and pictures and needs these elements to enable selective recall when it counts – on your next exam.

2. Boring. Traditional note taking styles are monotone, meaning your brain gets bored and switches off! Traditional notes all tend to look the same, hiding important key words and subject headings making it incredibly hard for your brain to remember what matters and what doesn’t. This is where confusion and “muddled” memory comes from. The brain knows it’s “in there” somewhere, but like a pile of papers scattered on the floor, it doesn’t know where it is or where it actually belongs.

3. Time consuming. Creating traditional notes is a monumental waste of time – when compared to their more efficient and effective alternative. Because they are boring and lack visual cues, when taking notes “the old fashioned way”, you tend to just keep writing unnecessarily. By writing more, it means your brain has to sift through even more irrelevant stuff to get to the important things that will be on your exam. To increase recall you need to keep reading and re reading your notes over and over and over and over again hoping something will sink in. The problem is that it makes it harder and harder and harder for the important stuff to stand out!

4. Lack of creative stimulation. Traditional note taking fails to stimulate the brain creatively, relying primarily on the logical left brain hemisphere for recall. That’s why it’s so hard. Failing to allow associations and connections to be made between key words and points, the creative right brain remains switched off.

5. False sense of completion. The traditional note taking formats gives you a false sense of completion because of their linear nature. They appear complete even though the complete lack the all-important conceptual connections and inter-relationships between the points.

How do you take notes and do you struggle with any of these issues?

Well by traditional NOTE taking you might as well be NOT taking.

There is an alternative to overcome these problems and limitations – it’s called mind mapping.

Because mind mapping mimics the brain’s thinking format, it uses radial thinking and visual patterning using colours, lines, pictures and (inter) relationships. By giving your brain many visual symbols to connect with, remembering them when it counts – on your next test or exam will be easy.

Mind maps are colourful and creative by nature with key points, ideas and concepts literally jumping off the page enabling your brain to quickly and effectively search and FIND the information you need, within the proper context.

Creating relationships and linkages are natural to the brain’s memory storing function. One of the best things about mind maps is that they’re less time consuming to create than traditional notes and take a lot less room. Usually, you can fit several pages or even whole chapters on one page mind map. That gives you QUICK ACCESS and also gives you the overall “picture” that traditional note taking lacks.

Mind mapping is really the polar opposite of traditional note taking. Instead of working against the brain mindmapping works with the brain, matching it to increase your memory, retention and comprehension to give you confidence when writing tests and exams.

Keep this in mind: Many highly successful business people admit to using mind mapping as a competitive tool in their businesses. If it works for them, there must be something to it!

CLICK HERE -> To get your hands on the “How To MindMap To Get Better Grades Video Program”.

Psst! Take a look at this blog post and COMPARE it to the mind mapping program description page – which one do you prefer? That’s the whole point!!!

Use Colours To Improve Memory Retention, Comprehension And Understanding

Published on October 21, 2010 in Better Grades, Exams, Memory Skills, MindMapping, Note Taking, Study Habits, Study Less and Study Tips. 1 Comment

When we first learn something, information is processed by the brain to form a neural trace which first enters your sensory memory and then, if you’re paying attention, enters your Short Term Memory (STM). If you keep working to process the information and adapt it correctly, it then moves to your Long Term Memory (LTM).

The information which is processed into your LTM is more or less permanent and with occasional reviewing, you will not forget it.

The trick is to adapt the information that you really need into LTM as quickly as possible.

The ability to retain needed information in working memory is important to learning and exam taking performance. Drawings help to improve memory retention, comprehension and understanding. Continue reading ‘Use Colours To Improve Memory Retention, Comprehension And Understanding’

From Doodling To MindMapping

Published on October 17, 2010 in Better Grades, Memory Skills, MindMapping, Note Taking, Speed Learning and Study Tips. 2 Comments Tags: Class Notes, Doodling, Exam, Memory, Mind Mapping, MindMapping, Note Taking, Paul Telling, Recall, Remember, Taking Notes, Test.

Today’s blog post contribution is from Paul Telling, a professional artist and MindMapping expert. I asked him to share his insights and ideas about MindMapping to help you get better grades in school. This is the first in a series we’ll be publishing on this blog it’s in support of a new program we just launched called How To MindMap To Get Better Grades. You can click on the hyperlink to access the program information page.

Hi, Paul Telling here – I thought I would share with you my story of how I caught onto MindMapping along my educational journey.

I have always been interested in school and learning. Although at school it can be hard when you think you have all the answers and the teachers are slowing you down. Or the reverse might be true – you struggle to learn as you just don’t get what the teacher’s on about.

Well I had both happen during my high school years. I was interested in art, computing studies and maths while I struggled in English and physics. I managed to get into university doing a degree in Industrial Design.

Studying at university was where I learned to doodle in my sketchbook – all day long. Of course during design classes but also in classes that I was meant to be taking notes. If I found the lectures boring, I would draw a caricature of the lecturer and this got a lot of laughs from my classmates.

Some of my classmates just thought I was weird because I tended to spend more time drawing things than taking linear notes verbatim. My pages of notes were eighty percent pictures and less than twenty percent text.

Little did I know that this was MindMapping!

We all have a tendency to doodle while on the phone, during lectures especially in maths or science class! Doodling is the sub conscious working in its own visual language to learn the content you’re grappling with to help you remember stuff more easily. Doodles are visual elements trying to get linked up in your brain.

The amazing thins is that I can still remember many of ,my lecture notes from when I was a design student. I can still picture most of them in my mind’s eye even though that was more than 6 years ago.

Back then I didn’t know what I was doing. Over time, I have learned the different skills required to MindMap more effectively. I value this skill as something that helps me learn quickly the first time, every time.

Luckily, I now have the chance to teach you this wonderful skill of MindMapping through the video course I created with Dr Marc Dussault.

When you take the How To MindMap To Get Better Grades Video Program, you will turn, in two hours, learn to turn your doodles into cool, colourful MindMaps that will help you remember and recall more than ever before. Your classmates will think you’re a genius.

I hope you get your hands on the course sooner rather than later so you can start to improve your grades as of the very next test, quiz or exam that’s coming up.

I look forward to sharing more insights with you in future blog posts.

Visually yours,

Paul Telling

Get Better Grades Success Story

Published on October 9, 2010 in Better Grades, Exams, Positive Mindset, Study Mistakes To Avoid and Study Psychology. 1 Comment

Today’s post is a testimonial from one of my clients who bought my study book, his name is Abel.

Hi, Dr Dussault.

All I can say is wow. I’m studying ACCA (online) but my main problem was lack of motivation to study. Like you explain in your study book, what was holding me back was my comfort zone of past success with my studies. What bother me most was the fact that my constant thought was to study but in reality I wasn’t studying! The more I thought about it, the more I ended up sleeping without even reading for a minute! In a nutshell, your study program made me realize that I will never change my life until I change something I’m doing (or not doing) daily.

Now slowly but surely I’m following through. With my study to do list, I know if I follow it I’ll get better grades otherwise… I don’t even want to think about it anymore!

I hear myself now saying… “Abel bear in mind that you never plan to fail your exam but merely fail to plan to pass!”

That’s my best shot.
Regards,
Abel

Readers Make 2.3 Times More Money!

Published on October 3, 2010 in Speed Reading and Study Tips. 5 Comments Tags: Speed Reading.

Here’s an astounding fact – readers make more money – a lot more! Even in tough economic times. According to a number of recent studies, business people who read at least seven business books a year earn over 2.3 times more than those who read only one book per year.

Why?

One reason is they have a constant flow of new ideas and strategies they can use to help their careers, their teams and their companies.

A study by Bersin & Associates found that while 74.9% of all managers understand that reading more would give them a competitive advantage, they simply think they don’t have the time to read more books.

The problem … who has time to do all that reading?

The solution… Learn how to do speed reading! It’s easy and guaranteed!

MasterMind Your Way To Better Grades!

Published on September 26, 2010 in Better Grades, Speed Learning, Study Groups and Study Less. 5 Comments Tags: MasterMind Groups, Study Groups, Study In Groups.

If you’ve read my book “Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort“… You know that it’s the simplest, easiest and most elegant strategies that make all the difference. One of the most useful and practical ways to get better grades is to leverage what’s called a Study MasterMind Group – not a traditional study group, something much, much more effective.

In fact it’s so effective that all great fortunes and humankind’s greatest achievements are a result of MasterMind Groups.

But guess what?

Until now, no one had brought this back to the classroom to help prevent students from wasting valuable time studying in groups.

That’s why I’ve come up with a brand new program – “How to Create a Fun, Effective and Powerful Study MasterMind Group to Catapult Your Grades Sky High!”

I’ve personally achieved a several goals by the time I was 40 that most people will never achieve in their lifetime. I don’t say that to be arrogant of self-righteous, but to make a point.

I’m not the smartest person I know, yet I out-perform people that I know are way smarter than me – BECAUSE I HAVE TOOLS AND STRATEGIES that are better, more efficient.

One of those strategies is leveraging Study MasterMind Groups.

The program I’ve put together is comprehensive and includes a lot of hidden bonuses that are delivered over time – just like I’ve done with my study book.