Blog – Page 2 of 17 – The Anti-Boring Academic Life Coach

Q&A: Math Mistakes, Gap Years, Distracted Studying & More

March 20, 2017March 21, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

It’s another Q&A Show! Here are the questions that we tackle in this episode:

1. Weird Mistakes in Math. My math teacher is a little confusing, which gets me doing weird things that complicate matters on simple problems. Mom thinks it could be that I’m making it complicated in my head, and I can see that, but I don’t know exactly. Thanks for the offer, and I think I’ll try it, ~ Ella, Middle School Student

2. Gap Years and Scholarships. I have been a fan for years and really appreciate your podcast. My daughter is a senior, and she was accepted to her highly selective Early Action school, so things are looking good and the pressure is off! Now we’re waiting for the other schools to respond from the regular decision round. My question is about applying for scholarships when you are planning to take a gap year. My daughter has not told any of her schools that she is planning to take a gap year, but she will ask the ones that she is deciding between if it’s OK after she has all of her acceptances. We already know that the Early Action school is a very pro-gap year and I think the others will be fine with it too, they’re all private liberal arts schools. As she’s been looking into scholarships, she has found that they all apply to students who are going to start college this fall. So, if she applied and received one of these scholarships, would she then have to tell them she’s taking a gap year and then have to re-apply for it next year? If so, there’s no point in going through that, and maybe she should just wait to apply for scholarships next year.

3. Distraction When Studying. I got distracted every time I sit to study. I need some suggestions. ~Aish

4. Sports Communication. I have heard you mention in 2 previous podcasts that you have a student you are working with that is interested in Sports Communication. My son Sam is a junior, and he is interested in Communication, sports or political journalism or broadcasting, and we are also in Texas. He is homeschooled, and we do not have a high school counselor. I would love to know any helpful information you have found for this student and what this field looks like regarding universities, especially in Texas.

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

How to Make Time Visible… and Feel Less Anxious Too

March 14, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

All too often, the teens with whom I meet tell me, “Oh, I don’t have much to do. I can remember it all in my head.”

Sometimes that’s true! But more often, we discover that they DON’T have their “to do list” as down as they think they do.

In this video, I share a story about a client who recently gave me this line, how I handled it, and what he discovered in the process!

Hey there, don’t have time for the full video? No worries, I’ve got your back. Here’s a summary:

With the start of the new semester, a client I’ve been working with a couple of years now was telling me how he was sure that this year he didn’t need to get any time management systems going again this year. So I shared some brain facts I have in my Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying and then I asked him, given the facts I shared and how the working memory needs things to be as clean and clear as possible if he’d be up for just practicing a planner to make time visible. So we devised a time tracking sheet that worked for him.

Gretchen Wegner | How to Make Time Visible | Reduce Anxiety | Time Management | Organization

After we created this blank chart, which we called the week sheet, he looked up everything he needed to do and what he needed to take care. After a little bit and it was all mapped out, some of which he needed to my help to be reminded of – mainly the major due dates for the future – I asked him, “How does it feel now that we’ve put all of this out there?”

Gretchen Wegner | How to Make Time Visible | Reduce Anxiety | Time Management | Organization

His response, I felt, was absolutely amazing. He said, “Before it felt fine, but now it feels better. I couldn’t actually tell how much anxiety I was feeling before, but now that we have it all mapped out in that chart, I don’t have to struggle to remember anything anymore and I didn’t realize that was causing me anxiety, but now that I feel better I realize it was.” I thought that was so smart of him, as a junior in high school, to be able to articulate that kind of understanding of his experience.

If you want more tips to reduce anxiety or time management, then I have tons of them in the Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying, which you can learn more about by clicking here.

3 Tips to Make Worksheets More Than Just “Busy Work”

March 14, 2017March 16, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Worksheets may seem like useless “busy work,” especially to bored students.

But actually, they are great tools to help you score well on tests if you use them in the right way.

Tune in to find out more about how to:

Be less bored when filling out worksheets
Turn worksheets into quizzable study tools so that you can better prep for tests
Make sure you’re answering all the questions correctly so that you can…
Use your worksheet as a quizzable study tool,
and more!

Learning how to maximize worksheets as a learning tool is an underutilized habit for both students and teachers alike, which makes this a particularly important episode. Click here to listen to this episode!

An Essential Daily Routine For Students

March 7, 2017March 7, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Do you ever get started on your homework and realize you have NO IDEA how to do the assignment?

This happened recently to a client of mine, and it caused him to lose points because he ended up turning the assignment in late. For students with ADD and other attentional difficulties, missing one assignment can snowball out of control. So it’s important to find routines that ensure that NOTHING gets in the way of turning work in on time.

Check out this video to find out more details about the new daily routine my client discovered he needs.

Hey there, don’t have time for the full video? No worries, I’ve got your back, here’s a summary:

It’s a new semester and one of my clients, a junior in high school, just had his first late assignment. He said he turned in an assignment a day late, and while he did get it turned it, he lost points. So I asked him, “why did this happen? What occurred that you ended up turning this in late?” Evidently, he had left the classroom before reading over the assignment and so when he got home he realized he didn’t know how to do it. So he had to wait until the next day to ask the teacher how to do it, even though it was due that day. I then asked him, “what was the lesson here?” to which he gave me a great response:

Any student, whether you are in high school, college, university, or some other level of education, can benefit from developing this daily routine. I promise that if you look over all assignments and actually think about what you’ll need to do to complete them before leaving the teacher’s presence, you will solve a lot of your time management woes.

If you want to learn more time management tips, or other great habits, then I encourage you to check out my course by clicking here.

Time Saving Homework Tips, Admissions Deadlines, & Early Decision – Q&A

March 7, 2017March 7, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

You’ve got questions, and we’ve got answers!

On today’s Q&A show, learn about how to make online textbook reading less time consuming, what to do once you’ve been accepted via early decision, and whether there’s wiggle room to submit another ACT test after the admissions deadline.

Here are the questions to which we responded:

My daughter applied to a couple of universities with Jan 1 admissions deadlines. We still don’t think her ACT score is strong enough for some of these schools. Can she take the February ACT and send those scores? Will that help?
I am an online college student getting a business degree. How much time would you say someone should spend reading their textbook? Before doing their homework. Finding it really hard to read all of the chapters and get the homework done any ideas?
My son was accepted, early decision, at his top choice university. Yea!!! What do we need to do now?

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

How to Prep for an Essay When You Don’t Know the Prompt

February 28, 2017February 28, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Argh! It’s annoying having to prep for timed essays when you don’t know the prompt, isn’t it?

Recently I got this GREAT question from a student who stumbled across my videos on YouTube:

A junior in college named Yaya asked, “I have a timed essay coming up in January and don’t know the prompt. However, I do have the readings which are 4 different articles, and all kinda surround Angela Duckworth’s idea of Grit. Any ideas on how I can prepare for such essay??”

Yes! I DO have an idea. Watch the video for my complete answer to Yaya.

Hey there, don’t have time for the full video? No worries, I’ve got your back, here’s a summary:

The problem we’re looking at this week is how do you prepare for an essay when you don’t know what the prompt will be? For Yaya, this was causing her stress, and that’s completely understandable, after all, how do you prepare for something when you don’t know what you’re preparing for?

Well, the first thing we can do is look at the 4 articles she was assigned to read. We can note that they all revolve around Grit, and there are some themes we can see right away just from reading the subtitles, such as “The limits of grit”, “Is grit overrated?”, “how grit helps with perseverance and passion for long-term goals”, etc. So when you start reading you should be looking for these themes and marking down stuff like, when is their passion showing up, what are some limits to grit, when are long-term goals brought up, etc.
Gretchen Wegner | The Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying | How to Prepare for an Essay When You Don't Know the Prompt | Essays | Writing | Academic Life Coach | Academic Coach | Academic Coaching

Then I’d create a chart like the one above. I’d list each of the readings and the themes, and I’d annotate every time I found the themes and I’d fill out the boxes. This way, I have a good understanding of the building blocks of each of these articles. Once you understand the core themes of the articles you should be very well prepared to write any essay on these readings.

An added step you could take is to consider or ask others, what some potential essay prompts from these articles could be, and then practice making an outline for them. Just from reading the titles and the subject matter, I could make an educated guess that one potential prompt they would give you is, “Analyze Grit, is it a good thing? If so why or why not?”

I hope this is helpful to you all, and if you want more tips like this, click here to check out my course which has a lot of tips for preparing for essays.

Lesser Known Tests for College Admissions

February 28, 2017March 1, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Did you know that there are more college admissions tests than just the ACT and SAT?

Some of these replace the ACT/SAT, and some of them are required in addition to these tests. During this episode, Megan walks us through all the lesser known college admissions tests.

She starts by reading us New York University’s unique admissions testing policy that allow students to submit other tests in place of the ACT and SAT.

We then discuss:

The General Education Development (GED) as an alternative to a high school diploma
The International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement tests as replacements and/or additions to the ACT and SAT
How to use the SAT subject tests strategically to enhance your application
The importance of paying attention to local state requirements for what testing is allowed,
How to plan in advance based on the requirements of individual colleges you might consider,
The “catch” when it comes to replacing ACT/SAT with these lesser known tests,
And more!

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

Every Student, Teacher, And Parent Should Memorize This ASAP

February 21, 2017February 21, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Hey Y’all, I’ve got a very special video for you today. I strongly believe that every student, teacher, and parent out there should memorize what I call The Study Cycle. It needs to be a part of the daily language in classrooms and households. Normally I keep this video locked up in my paid online courses, but today I’m releasing it for you to watch for FREE!

Check out the video here. And then — if you’re a teacher, tutor, school administrator or academic coach, please considering joining me for my upcoming course The Art of Inspiring students to Study Strategically. We start on February 27th. You will learn everything you need to know to ensure that students have the tools they need to rock their learning with or without you!

Hey there, while I HIGHLY recommend watching this particular video in full, here is a summary:

The Study Cycle is composed of 3 steps and is the most effective, efficient, and anti-boring method I know for studying. So before we begin going over the steps, I have a little image here, which we will be referencing.

Step 2 of The Study Cycle, which the majority of students skip, is practice retrieval. This is the process of getting the information out of our brains and assessing what we actually learned. By doing this, we get two very important pieces of information. The first is what we do know, what we actually did learn in step 1. The second is what we didn’t encode in step 1. What we didn’t learn, or encode, we put back into the basket of knowledge.

Then we have step 3. Step 3 is one of the least practiced steps, but just as important or more important than the other 2. Step 3 is to encode the information we assessed we didn’t learn in step 2 in a NEW way. The important thing is NOT just to try to re-encode it the same way you did in Step 1, but to encode the information in a new way.

My course, The Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying, for students, and The Art of Inspiring Students to Study Strategically, for Educators, both are filled with a wide variety of tools to help students encode information in new ways. So check them out, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Take Better Notes with This Simple Math-Inspired Technique

February 21, 2017February 21, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Students struggle to summarize information effectively, often resorting to writing too much or too little in their notes.

Gretchen has perfected a technique that adopts symbols from math to help students read more effectively and take notes more efficiently. Tune in to discover:

What math symbols provide the best shorthand for note-taking
How to read texts with an eye for identifying what “math formulas” are present in the ideas
Three examples for how to summarize key info in a text using math shorthand
A client story that reveals how successful this note-taking method can be

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

How to Avoid Illusions of Knowing

February 15, 2017February 15, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

When you study, do you often FEEL as if you’re ready to take the test? You re-read the notes or chapter and think, “I got this!” Only to discover that actually — you didn’t know it as well as you thought?

Recently a client of mine had a similar issue, and so we made a study plan that helped him avoid what some authors call “illusions of knowing.”

Check out what we discussed here!

Hey there, don’t have time for the full video? Don’t worry I’ve got your back, here’s a summary:

The other day I had a fascinating session with a client. We were working on preparing for his finals, and we were talking about electron configurations and chemistry. To do this I was having him write everything he knows about electron configuration on his whiteboard, and then review with his textbook and notes what he got right/wrong and what he didn’t even know.

Then he made a VERY insightful comment. He said, “Oh my gosh, I thought I knew it better than I actually knew it.” In turn, I asked him if he’d not studied the way we just did, would he have realized he didn’t know it that well, and he replied, “Oh no, I totally wouldn’t have. I would have been reading it [in the textbook] and been saying, oh yeah I totally know that.” And this is something that neuroscientists talk about, referred to as illusions of knowing.

An illusion of knowing is when we think we know something, but we don’t actually know it. So it’s important that when you are studying, you create PROOF of what you know.

Avoiding illusions of knowing is just the tip of the iceberg. If you’d like practice and tons more tips on how to study effectively and efficiently, you can learn about that by clicking here.

Eight Reasons to Apply to Canadian Universities

February 14, 2017February 14, 2017 April Sullivan Leave a comment

Did you know that you can save more than $20K a year by going to Canadian Universities, as compared to American ones?

There are many other reasons why American students might want to consider Canadian universities. Join us as guest expert Whitney Laughlin, Ed.D maps out the reasons why you ought to consider Canada for higher education.

Differences and similarities between the Canadian and American university systems
8+ reasons benefits to choosing a Canadian university over an American one
4 reasons why you might NOT want to consider a Canadian university
how to get scholarships in Canada
and more!

The free resources we mentioned on this episode include the Canadian government’s website about their university system, an informative newspaper article about the Canadian university system, and this index of colleges and universities.

Whitney Laughlin, Ed. D is an independent college consultant who works with families to choose the perfect college for them in either Canada or the United States. Check out her website to find out more about her college and career counseling services, workshops, and nonprofit consulting work.

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

Always Write These Two Things In Your Planner

February 8, 2017February 6, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Did you know that the WAY you write something in your planner can have a big effect on whether you actually follow through?

My client recently discovered that there are two things he needs to write in his planner for every major assignment — the WHAT and the HOW of what he needs to do.

Check out the video to find out more.

Hey there, don’t have time for the video? No worries, I’ve got your back, here’s a short summary.

I LOVE it when I get blown away by the concise way my clients articulate something they’ve learned in our sessions. I had a college student who was a freshman in college and in high school, he’d never used a planner. So we were working on making sure he planned out his assignments. In this instance, he came to the session and said he had an essay assignment, but not to worry he was great at writing essays. I asked him to take it out and just review it, and it turned out, while the essay was simple itself, the process for completing was a bit more complex than he had thought.

This led my client to realize that when he’s writing an assignment into his planner he needed to add 2 very important details. He needed to note, not just WHEN he would work on the assignment and when it was due, but also HOW he would complete it. For his essay, he needed to plan out a few different topics to discuss, as well as take the time to go to the library and research the topics chosen. So in his planner, he put down when he would figure out his topics, and when he would go to the library to research them, and when he would do the final writing.

It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t just want to plan around WHEN you will do something, you also need to plan out HOW you will complete what you’re working on when you plan to do it.

If you’d like more time management tips, click here to find out more about my online course.

Scams to Watch for Related to College Planning & Admissions

February 7, 2017February 7, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

When parents and students are afraid of their college prospects, they’re more susceptible to scams that prey on this fear.

In today’s climate of expensive schools that seem increasingly competitive, this fear and susceptibility can be a problem for families. During this episode, Megan helps us identify:

what is a scam versus what is a legitimate opportunity
the top five kinds of scams you should be on the look out for, and
questions to ask yourself to make sure you’re not spending money on a scam

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

How to Make Sure You Follow Through On a Plan

February 1, 2017January 30, 2017 Gretchen 1 Comment

Do you ever get a good idea about something you want to do in the future? But you don’t act on it right away, and soon enough you forget the idea… and nothing ever happens?

Recently, I was working with a client who had a very good idea about how to make sure he studies well for his next test! Check out the video to find out how he almost sabotaged his good idea… until I made sure he did one little thing that prompted him to follow through.

Hey there, don’t have time for the full video? Don’t worry; I’ve got your back, here’s a summary:

Recently I was working with my client, preparing his study plans for his final exams. He had the idea to study with his friend, which I thought was a wonderful idea. So I asked him, “when are you going to study with her?”, to which he replied, “Oh I don’t know, but I’ll study with her.” He was procrastinating, so I suggest he send her an invitation to study right now. He laughed and agreed, saying, “you got me if I do it now I’m more likely to follow through.” This is a perfect example of how the “team” part of my “Tools, Team, Routine” triangle I teach in the Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying.

The “team” part of “Tools, Team, & Routine” is not just him studying with his classmate, but also utilizing me as a source to make sure he doesn’t procrastinate contacting his classmate and setting up the time to study. It’s usually other people’s presence that helps us take action on difficult tasks. I know this is true for me, as I always save my hardest tasks for when I’m working with co-workers. It’s a great help to have someone there to help us not procrastinate.

If you’d like to learn more about “Tools, Team, & Routine” or just want other amazing tips on how to follow through on a plan, check out my course here.

Start Now to Plan Meaningful College Experiences

January 31, 2017February 7, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Teens and parents! What will you do this summer to have experiences that are both meaningful and impress colleges on your applications? Looking for free and low-cost solutions?

Now is the time to start planning. We know it seems super early, but the truth is that many of these opportunities have application deadlines mid-semester. We don’t want you to miss out just because you put off planning.

Here are the 5 types of experiences that Megan suggests students and parents consider; tune into the episode to hear details about how to find each of them:

Subject-specific camps at colleges and universities
Hands on work in the field of study that interests the student most
“Big” volunteer experiences that meet or exceed 80 hours a week
World travel through organizations like your local rotary club or the state department
Full-time jobs that actually clock 40 hours per week

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

How to Get Past Debilitating Roadblocks

January 25, 2017January 24, 2017 Gretchen 2 Comments

Do you ever experience huge roadblocks that make it impossible for you to finish a big project you started?

Recently, I had a client who was working on his first major research project ever. As often happens with students who struggle with executive functioning, there was a supposedly simple task in the research process that seemed insurmountable to him.

In this video, I walk you through how I helped this teen move through his roadblock.

Don’t have time for the whole video? I have your back, here’s a short summary:

It’s so common when working on a large project to hit a roadblock, some task in the project that simply seems insurmountable. So we tend to procrastinate, which is exactly what my client was doing, procrastinating.

The client I was talking to recently, a 9th grader, was working on his first massive research project and what might seem like a very simple task, had become a roadblock for him. He was stuck on the task of transferring his notes into his main rough draft. He knew how to do it, but in his mind, it just seemed like too much, he was suffering from cognitive overwhelm. Not only was he stressing about the task, he was also procrastinating which was just making things worse.

The solution for this is actually pretty simple. With my client I just sat with him while he copied and pasted, over and over, from his notes to his rough draft, acting as a force to help him do what he knew had to be done, but couldn’t seem to force himself to do. Whenever you run into a roadblock, it’s often best to simply ask someone you know, reach out, and have them help you push through the roadblock.

Anyways, I hope you found this tip helpful. If you did, and you want more free tips and resources, click here to check out The College Prep Podcast.

Are My Scores and Grades Good Enough?

January 24, 2017January 25, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Junior year it’s time to start compiling your list of colleges.

However, how can you tell if your grades are high enough to be considered by the schools on your list?

Megan introduces us to a cool online tool that provides a host of valuable information about what schools you qualify for and why. During this episode, she walks us through this corner of the College Board’s website, showing you how to use their data to build your college list, including:

Graduation Rates
% Admitted
Class Rank of Admitted Students
SAT / ACT of Admitted Students
(nice to know) What that school finds important in evaluating applications.

Your goal in using this website is to have an honest, fact-based idea about the admissions process at each school, as well as to build a list of colleges that will result in multiple admissions and allow you some choice about where you want to go.

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

Having Trouble Paying Attention? Maybe It’s This

January 18, 2017January 17, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Recently, a client’s teacher emailed me to say that in his physics class, this teen seems glassy-eyed and has trouble focusing. When I checked in with my client, a high school senior, he reported that indeed — he has trouble keeping his eyes open in that class. Low energy!

We talked it over and realized that the problem is probably what he’s eating for breakfast! Check out what we discovered — and how he fixed the problem.

Hey there, don’t have time for the full video? Don’t worry. I’ve got your back. Here’s a summary:

This past week I had a discussion with a student, that I’ve never had before, and it just cracked me up. My client’s teacher had emailed me that he was like a zombie in class, he just didn’t seem to be paying attention. So when we had our weekly coaching session, I talked to him about it, and he did realize that he was just super tired by the second period. During the first period he felt fine, but by the second he had low energy. My first thought was, well what is he having for breakfast. As is pretty common, he was eating cereal, and I went, “AHA!”

Cereal, whether sugary or not, often leads to sugar crashes, so I told him he needed to get some healthy snacks. This led to a discussion on grocery shopping, as he said his parents weren’t buying him any. As I told him, he’s 17 years old, he can go grocery shopping, he doesn’t need to be relying on his parents for his groceries!

I realized that there are 4 key things students, especially high-schoolers, need to be aware of. They need to pay attention and be aware of when and why their energy is low. It’s often because of what they are eating, and usually not because the teacher is just too boring. With that in mind, they need to be keeping track of their nutrition, which means going grocery shopping for themselves when they need certain things!

I love working with my clients, there’s always something interesting I can help them with. If you are interested in academic coaching or want some awesome Anti-Boring tips and tricks for school, check out my course!

How to Read a 400 Page Book in Under Two Hours

January 17, 2017January 25, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

One of the most time-consuming activities for students is reading!

Tune in to discover simple tips for reading faster and more effectively than you ever thought possible.

The section of the book readers usually skip (but shouldn’t)
How to skim for the structure of the information so you remember the main points
How to find secret clues inside the chapter that will allow you to quickly identify main ideas
How to use your hand while you read to help you read faster
How to annotate a nonfiction text (it’s not what your teacher taught you!)
and more.

If you’d like to check out the original video 4-part series that this podcast is based on, check out Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four of How to Read a 400 Page Book in Under Two Hours.

Click here to head over to the College Prep Podcast to listen to this episode.

Do You Lose Papers in the ADHD Wormhole?

January 11, 2017January 11, 2017 Gretchen Leave a comment

Do you tend to lose the work you do? Is there a wormhole that completed assignments get sucked into?

I have several ADHD clients who can’t seem to track papers to save their lives. THEY swear they completed an assignment and turned it in; their TEACHERS swear that they’ve never seen the assignments. Who is right?

In this video, I share with you my attempt at a solution to this problem, and it involves the app CamScanner. Check it out, and see if this might work for you.

Hey there, don’t have time for the full video? Don’t worry I’ve got your back, here’s a summary:

I want to know if you’ve ever experienced this: The ADHD Wormhole. I have a few clients who swear they’ve turned in a homework assignment, but their teachers swear they’ve never seen it. I know they’ve done the work, but no one knows where the assignment has gone, it’s like there’s this wormhole in the universe sucking in all these lost papers.

The best solution I’ve found for this problem is the smartphone app CamScanner. I recommend for my clients to scan their homework the moment they finish it. This allows students to bypass the wormhole because if they lose their homework they just need to shoot off an email with the scanned image of their homework to the teacher and they are good to go. The hardest part of using this method is developing the habit. I recommend to parents to try making it a scheduled event at night, to make sure that their student has scanned each piece of homework.

If you’re wondering why I am recommending CamScanner over taking a picture, it’s because CamScanner actually scans the image, just like a printer, so the quality is a lot better than a picture would be. Of course, you could always use a printer if you have one instead.

As always, this is just one of my many tips available in the Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying course. So click here to check that out as well.