by Gretchen | May 10, 2018 | blog, College Prep, podcast
Did you know your friends can be a HUGE resource to help you get your homework done? Too many students try to go it alone, but school is hard enough as it is! One of your most useful resources as a teenager is your friends, after all. Why not use them for good? Listen...
by Gretchen | May 3, 2018 | blog, College Prep
College visits can get repetitive and boring, and the “official” tours offered by the school don’t always reveal the hidden details that help you make a decision about which school is best for you. Let Megan school you on how to take your visits to the next level!...
by Gretchen | Apr 26, 2018 | blog, College Prep, Test Anxiety
Do your teachers ever give you the essay questions far in advance of the chapter test or final? Many students don’t take advantage of this key resource. Gretchen walks you through a few ways to use these advance questions to your advantage, including how to: Identify...
by Gretchen | Apr 25, 2018 | blog, Reading, Speed Reading
English teachers beware! You are NOT going to like my tip for the day. A certain subset of my clients simply won’t read their English texts. They just won’t. No amount of cajoling, creative tips, and incremental steps will get them in the mood to tackle a...
by Gretchen | Apr 25, 2018 | blog, Reading, Study Skills
Do you ever struggle to read complex texts that your teachers assign? Some students really depend on HEARING texts to understand them better. Luckily, we live in a day and age when it’s super easy to convert text to voice, and in this video I’ll show you...
by Gretchen | Apr 25, 2018 | blog
Do you get a ton of notifications on your phone 24/7? If you’re an avid follower of my newsletter, you may have noticed that recently I’m working with more and more of my clients to turn off many of their notifications. Not all of them take me up on it,...
by Gretchen | Apr 25, 2018 | blog, For Parents, Student Life
Parents these days are overcome with anxiety — anxiety about their kiddo’s achievement (or lack thereof), ability to get into college, ability to get a good job, etc etc. For better or for worse, a significant amount of time in my coaching sessions with...
by Gretchen | Apr 24, 2018 | blog, College Prep, Study Skills
One of my main tasks as an academic coach — other than to help students study more effectively — is to help teens with learning challenges figure out how to follow through on tasks that feel insurmountable. This week a client of mine reported with such...
by Gretchen | Apr 19, 2018 | blog, College Prep
April 1 was the date by which all colleges should have notified students of acceptance; students have this month to make the final choices and notify schools of their decisions. Tune in as Megan walks you through 10 factors to consider as you make this final decision,...
by Gretchen | Apr 17, 2018 | blog, College Prep, For Parents
Most of us have smart phones these days, and many of us depend on a number of different apps to keep us organized. With a certain subset of my teen clients, however, I’ve noticed that they don’t have their time management apps organized in such a way that...
by Gretchen | Apr 12, 2018 | blog, College Prep, For Parents, podcast
By mid-semester students’ time management routines have often weakened or collapsed. Consider these four questions when giving your routines a makeover so that you can make it to the end of the semester with your grades and self esteem intact: First, do...
by Gretchen | Apr 12, 2018 | blog, College Prep, For Parents, podcast
Believe it or not — raising your reading comprehension scores on standardized tests is often not about improving your reading skills! Tune in as Megan outlines surprising skills to improve if you want improved performance on this section of your tests....
by Gretchen | Apr 12, 2018 | blog, College Prep, For Parents, podcast
How much can a student’s behavior truly change after a semester of coaching? In today’s episode, Gretchen walks us through a sixteen year old’s reflections about how he has grown as a result of academic coaching. The following eight ideas resulted from a brainstorm...
by Gretchen | Apr 12, 2018 | blog, College Prep, For Parents, podcast
The national average of number of AP classes taken by students admitted to top universities is five to eight total. That’s a lot! Deciding whether to take (or not take) Advanced Placement classes is more complicated that simply taking as many tests as possible. In...
by Gretchen | Apr 10, 2018 | blog, Study Skills
Do you ever find yourself sleeping in class? Or struggling NOT to sleep? Ugh. It’s the worst feeling. A client of mine was recently accused by his math teacher of sleeping in class. We spent part of our session discussing the cause, and what he might do about...
by Gretchen | Apr 3, 2018 | blog, College Prep, Organization, Study Skills
Do you ever struggle to take action on important school tasks on weekends? I certainly do, and I’m 44 years old! Imagine being 16! Recently a client revealed that she’d had another weekend of just “laying around”. She knew she had work to do,...
by Gretchen | Mar 27, 2018 | blog, note-taking, Reading, Student Life, Study Skills
Do you ever find textbooks supremely boring to read? I asked my client this the other day, and he said, “Well, not if they’re science. But everything else, yes!” This client — a high school senior — is taking a college class on Western Civilizations, and their...
by Gretchen | Mar 20, 2018 | blog, College Prep, Communication, For Parents, Study Skills
There’s a theme that’s popping up in every corner of my coaching practice these days, and it is: Emotion and cognition are inextricably linked! We academics like to think that it’s possible to learn facts and skills in a totally rational way,...
by Gretchen | Mar 13, 2018 | blog, College Prep, For Parents, podcast
Sometimes small study tweaks can make a difference. In this episode, Gretchen outlines seven small study techniques that can are easy to integrate into your homework time, and can help you be better prepped for tests. We’re listing them here, though you’ll want to...
by Gretchen | Mar 13, 2018 | blog, College Prep, For Parents, podcast
“Make time visible” is a favorite refrain of Gretchen’s, and it’s equally as true for college planning as it is for daily time management and organization. In this episode, Megan walks students step by step through how to make the next four years visible…by making a 4...
