Study, study, study… it’s what students do almost every day of their life. And, if they aren’t studying, then they are worried about when they have to start studying again after their short break. Unfortunately, that is just the way of the student. There are good and bad ways to study though. If you are a student who wants to improve your grades, then there are simple tricks and tips to keep in mind that will not only improve your grades, but possibly make your own studying habits a little simpler on yourself.

Overall, it comes down to planning. Think ahead a little bit and try out these 7 things to help improve your study skills and, ultimately, your grades.

#1 Get Rest

Although this has been gone over many times, it is never said enough – Get enough rest before you go to school. Showing up to school tired means that you are not focused on the material that your teacher is lecturing or on what you are reading. If you are having trouble focusing in class while you yawn every ten minutes or more, chances are that you are not getting enough sleep during the night. If you are still skeptical on the importance of getting sleep, there is an entire blog on Eduify that is dedicated to the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation.

#2 Eat Before an Exam, (but don’t drink much)

Food is fuel. When people do not eat properly they become tired, weak, and grumpy. None of those symptoms of hunger are conducive to proper concentration while you try to study or attend class. If you are in class and you stomach is grumbling because you skipped breakfast again, you are going to end up daydreaming about food rather than listen to the lecture. Do yourself a favor and eat something that will tide you over while attending class. However, you may not want to drink anything in excess. The feeling of a full bladder and needing to run to the bathroom in the middle of class can be just as distracting as an empty stomach.

#3 Arrive to Class Early

When students are showing up to class late they are often out of breath or are interrupting the instructor’s lesson. A late entrance not only distracts the students, but it distracts the teacher, which is no way to get on a teacher’s good side. Being late also means that you have missed some material that was first given in the beginning of class, which may leave you a bit frazzled and possibly missing even more information as you ask a fellow student, “What did I miss?” I recommend showing up five or ten minutes early to class, so you have time to take your seat and set up your books without disturbing anyone with your backpack’s zipper or adjustments of your chair. An early student is prepared and in a ready state-of-mind to be taught.

#4 Make Flash Cards

Many students make flash cards when they are preparing for a test. I suggest making flash cards even before your test. Make early preparations for your test. If there is some information that you feel will be difficult to remember, you should put it on a flash card, that way when it is time to take your test, most of your flashcards will already be set for you, which should make you more relaxed than having to prepare cards last minute for your test.

#5 Record Lectures

If you happen to have a teacher who goes over material quickly or does not seem to stay on a topic long enough for you in class, ask the instructor if he or she would mind that you record the lecture. With a copy of the lecture in your pocket, you can later rewind and listen to any important parts that you may have missed jotting down in your notes. Most teachers do allow students to bring a recorder in to class, as long as they are warned ahead of time. It is not ethical to record a person talking who is not aware of it, so be sure to ask your teacher for permission before doing so.

#6 Read the Material after the Lecture

It may seem simple, but there are far too many students who only listen to the teacher lecture over a subject, but never actually read the material in the book. After the lecture, make time to read over the same material your instructor went over. Going over a lesson twice will help solidify the information in your memory better.

#7 Discuss Material with Friends

Although most students do not want to talk about their homework, having a discussion about the material you are studying is a great way to help remember information. If you are reading something confusing or interesting, relay that exact information to a friend or family member. When you force yourself to repeat the material and think about the topics in a conversation, you help yourself remember the information better. Since I had trouble remembering dates in history, I used to spout off facts to my brother with, “Did you know…?” He would usually roll his eyes or ignore me because he didn’t want a history lesson, but I just continued talking at him and it was a lot of help for me to remember the facts easier.

When I was a freshman, I was stressing through my first college exams when my brother,  who was three years above me and had already learned the ins and outs of college life, took me aside and said: “Find the Egg Chair. Trust me.”

Mystified, I followed his directions to the Counseling Center on campus, where I found a room called Stress Services. The room was dimly lit, and soft music was playing in the background.

“Um, excuse me?” I asked the student receptionist. “Is this where I can find the Egg Chair?”

The student nodded, and asked for my student ID card. “Come this way,” he said, and I followed him into a small room, where a massive massage chair lay waiting. I could see why they called it the Egg Chair—it had a circular seat and a little white dome overhead. “You can turn on the music if you want,” he said, gesturing to a stereo behind the chair. “You’re entitled to thirty minutes,” and then he left the room.

I was awestruck. How was it that, halfway through dead week, I was somehow entitled to my own personal massage chair? Just how many university students knew about the magical Egg Chair? And what other equivalent services could I cash in on with my school ID card?

As it turns out, most colleges and universities offer a plethora of student services. Believe it or not, but schools are not just for classes. Now that your semester is winding down, here’s a list of the Top 5 Campus Resources You Forgot Were There. You never know, there might be an Egg Chair out there for you.

5. Drop-in Tutoring

The transition from high school to college can be a big academic jump. For this reason, most schools have an on-campus tutoring center where students can make appointments or drop in to get help with their homework.  Depending on the class, your professors might be able to direct you to a specific extracurricular workshop that corresponds with your field. Many of these tutoring services are also linked to programs such as the Economic Opportunity Program (EOP) and the National Collegiate Athlete Association (NCSA), so if you qualify for those scholarships, you are usually guaranteed a certain number of tutoring hours per semester.

If you can’t make the tutoring times, you can always get help here on Eduify with writing. We offer a whole group of great writing tutors that are standing by 24×7.

4. Counseling Services

As my experience with the Egg Chair shows, Counseling Services can apply to a variety of different things. For many students, starting college can be a surprising life change, and sometimes it can be hard to ask for help away from home. It is also common for certain health conditions, such as depression or bipolar disorder, to emerge in late adolescence, so it’s always a good idea to check in with counselors if you feel the need. Most colleges will offer a series of counseling sessions with a therapist, and can refer you to other resources if necessary.

3. Career Services:

Here’s a service I wish I’d utilized more as an undergrad. Most colleges have programs in place to help students meet with career counselors, take aptitude tests, research grad schools and internships, and attend resume and job skills workshops. These are amazing resources that are pretty hard to find once you leave school. Many career centers also offer a service where students can save letters of recommendation from their professors on file, in the event they want to apply to grad school. This is great because professors can write your recommendations while your work is still fresh in their minds, and also helpful if you plan to take time off before applying to graduate school.

2. Study Abroad Services:

The opportunity to study in another country is a privilege that might not interest everyone. That said, it is an incredible opportunity to immerse yourself in another country, and, sometimes, language. Even if you have no plans to leave the country, it is worth visiting your school’s study abroad center, if only to meet exchange students on your campus and learn about school and internship opportunities beyond your college. Many majors and departments have affiliated programs in other countries, especially foreign languages. Given the state our economy is in these days, many companies value students who have lived, studied, or worked abroad. ¿Por qué no?

1. Recreation Services:

Most colleges these days support athletics programs in a huge range of sports: football, basketball, soccer, swimming, water polo, volleyball…sailing. That said, you don’t have to be on a college team to use the facilities and equipment on campus. As a student, I often registered for half-unit recreation classes such as weight lifting, aerobics, or swimming, just to become familiar with the facilities. Of course, you don’t need to take a class to use a Stairmaster. Take advantage of these services while you’re enrolled; they get a lot pricier once you graduate!

Believe it or not, but universities offer a lot more than simply classes. Regardless if this is your first semester or your last, you still have time to take advantage of some of the student services on campus. Many students might not realize just how many programs help universities run, as well as how many services they qualify for. So what are you waiting for?

Working is all fine and good. But as Jack Nicholson in The Shining pointed out, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you have nothing but white walls to stare at, you might find yourself kicking your laptop down the hallway at three in the morning instead of using it to write your seminal paper on Stanley Kubrick. Eduify doesn’t want that to happen. So we’ve assembled this list of distractions to keep on your desk, giving your eyes and brain a rest before plunging back into the labors of a scholar.

1) Doodling supplies

None of your teachers want you to doodle in class, but doodling can often be a focusing tool for many students, especially visual learners. When the eye and hand are busy making an image on the page, their mind is able to better absorb what they are hearing or studying. They might look at the doodle later on and be able to subconsciously conjure up an entire lecture, even if their sketch of a man floating down from a cliff using his umbrella has very little to do with the phases of cell mitosis. When studying alone, a sketchbook or Moleskine notebook, together with good pens (I like Pilot Rolling Ball Fine) might both provide an escape from your paper and a way to break the mental block preventing you from finishing it.

2) Toys

Games on your computer are not the be-all and end-all of distraction. When’s the last time you took out a yo-yo from your desk drawer and brushed up on your old tricks? (My best trick, the Tangled-Up String, is really something to see.) And what about Slinky? I dare anyone not to be mesmerized by the shiny coils undulating from one hand to the other. While studying in Japan, I once saw an entire group of monks amused at the sight of a Slinky moving end over end down the long front steps of the temple. Along those lines, you could always keep a miniature Zen garden on your desk. Grooming a little square of sand and rocks can help you organize the much larger chaos of a semester’s worth of notes.

3) Workout equipment

Maybe you don’t use a ten-pound dumbbell as a doorstop, as I did in college. (Yes, ten pounds was about all I could handle.) But you might be able to keep a rubber resistance band in your desk drawer. Just sit on the floor, put your foot in the middle of the band and pull each end inward, alternating between hands. If you prefer a more mobile workout, go for a jog (if you aren’t working in the middle of the night, that is.) Even ten pushups or situps might provide some much-needed adrenaline and help clear your head.

4) Art and photos

There’s a reason so many college students have complex M.C. Escher prints or Magic Eye drawings on their walls. When you spend so much time inside your brain, it helps to have something you can just stare at and get lost in for a moment or two. By the same token, office workers almost always have framed photos of friends and family around to help them get through the day’s tasks. Even if all your photos are online at Facebook or Flickr, keep a few particularly important ones in old-fashioned physical form on your desk. You might rather be back on that kayak with your best friend or dancing at your cousin’s wedding again than writing your paper, but at least you can return there for a brief mental vacation.

5) The Internet

Yes, you probably don’t need this online guide to tell you how to use the Internet to distract yourself. You know how to obsessively check the stats of your fantasy basketball team and how to become an expert pumpkin farmer in FarmVille on Facebook. But this list would be lacking if it didn’t mention the greatest procrastination tool in human history. It is possible to use the Internet for educational good rather than evil: for instance, the site freerice.com lets you generate rice donations to aid organizations by taking multiple-choice quizzes to test your vocabulary. And you can easily kill an hour following random links across the vast compendium of knowledge on Wikipedia, or the often intriguing news flashes and blogs of the moment at MetaFilter.com. In fact, you have already embarked on this virtuous path by choosing to read this post. Time spent looking at Eduify’s blog and useful writing tips isn’t procrastination at all: it’s research. Score! The end of that paper has never seemed closer.

In our fast paced lives, music is often the perfect remedy to slow down our pace and bring focus to a writing project. Consider the effects of the tempo and rhythm of your favorite songs or the mood a certain musician brings you to and how your creative faculty responds to those elements. Whether you’re doing a last minute paper in the wee-hours of the morning, letting some submerged thoughts spill out in a stream of consciousness free-write, or carefully constructing your masterfully novel, music can help unlock thoughts and enhances your writing process. Although musical tastes are highly subjective, Eduify has identified 5 albums to accompany your future writing projects. We’ve even thrown in a style of writing we think fits the theme of the music for each album.

Click here to listen to Eduify’s Write to Radio on Last.fm! All these albums and our fan’s suggestions. Free!

Miles Davis “’Round About Midnight” – Jazz

Whether you’re a fan of the jazz or not, it would be hard to find something bad to say about this classic Miles Davis record. What could be better for getting those original ideas hidden deep in the core of your mind onto the page (or screen) than listening to some masters of the art of improvisation at work? Along with the Miles Davis lyrical trumpet melodies is the innovative and untouchable John Coltrane on saxophone. If you don’t know what you’re going to write about, don‘t stress, a lot of the best jazz musicians like John Coltrane and Miles Davis didn’t know what they’re going to play until it was played. Eduify’s imagines this albums as sexy, noir crime novel in some big city in the early 20th century, rich with muggy night clubs and rainy alleyway rendezvous.

John Fahey “Blind Joe Death” – Blues

Alright, so maybe listening to five people exploring the limits of their instrumentation all at the same time is too distracting. If you’re working on, say, maybe a paper for school, you might need something a little more mellow. John Fahey is considered by many a virtuoso of the blues guitar and this record is audible proof. Nowadays one might hear the term ‘guitar virtuoso’ and think of wailing, light speed riffs and hi gain ultra-sustain whammy bar show-offs. If you hate the monotony of writing your papers in the same desk, in the same old room when you would really rather be somewhere else, maybe the songs of John Fahey’s Blind Joe Death can help you pretend you’re writing underneath an old oak tree in the country. Think old American folktales told around the fire in the woods after a hard day of work at the farm.

Ravi Shankar “Sounds of India” – Classical Indian

Let’s escape our current location. Let’s go to Northern India! A whole world of foreign traditions and different ways of life may tune your mind to a different frequency. In actuality, you might still just be in the same old chair as always, but listening to the man many consider the most important classical sitarist of the past century could give your mind some unfamiliar inspiration and get your inner atman writing. Eastern music is known to be fundamentally different in many ways to the Western traditions of music, theoretically, thematically and instrumentally. (Western hemisphere that is–not the shoot ‘em up, saloon-brawling style ‘western’). This could be the soundtrack to some poetry collection found locked in an ancient treasure chest you stumbled upon during a quest alone through some tranquil mountains.

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and The Upsetters “Super Ape” – Jamacian

We’re trying to keep the selection as diverse and well rounded as possible, but maybe the drones and sitars are too far out for you to concentrate on finishing your homework. We don’t want to leave out any music for our readers who dig the steady pace of the drum and bass we hear in popular music today. Maybe it’s me: I think it’s difficult to finish writing when you hear someone saying more words in ten seconds than you’ve written in your last paragraph. Check out Jamaican producer, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, with music performed by The Upsetters. Most of his work, along with this album, was conceived in his own back yard studio, The Black Ark, and has continued to influence following generations of various types of music up to today. This music is like that book you’ve always wanted to write, but it’s still being planned out in your head until you think of the perfect ending.

Earth ‘Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method’ – Hypnotic

If this is all still all too distracting for you to get that novel or term paper finished that you’ve been slaving on for what seems like years, then maybe you just need to write in silence. Well, that’s not our 5th album suggestion, but not far from the peace of quiet is the atmospheric worlds crafted by the hypnotic Telecaster sounds of Earth. Look to some of their older albums and you may find music more apparently inspired by metal and blues, but Earth has always had a leaning towards repetition and continuity: two elements perfect for undisturbed concentration.

Our fans tell us they love to listen to these artists while writing!

- Taylor Swift
- HIM
- Pride and Prejudice Sounds Track
- Iron Maiden
- Hawthorne Heights
- Enya
- Ayumi Hamasaki
- Megumi Hayashibara
- Just Turn Hulu On Continuous Play = Background Noise
- Whatever’s Playing – Try Pandora or iTunes

What are your favorite musicians or songs to listen to? Comment below!

(Photo Credit: Getty / Discovery.com)

The Raven, from http://xkcd.com/

By Julia H. Jackson

Imagine that your significant other has recently fallen ill. You are an orphaned adult. Everyone who is close to you is slowly dying of tuberculosis, or as you call it, consumption. You can’t sleep. You fidget. You wait by your writing table and contemplate the slow descent of humanity. And suddenly, there is a knock at your door.

I should mention that you are a sometimes-successful editor of literary magazines. It is 1845.

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.’”

You are Edgar Allan Poe. This is the first stanza of perhaps your most famous poem, The Raven, a poem that English teachers and professors across the globe will soon be expecting students to analyze and understand. And just how exactly are they supposed to do that?

In this second installment of Write Like You Mean It, we offer a few suggestions for digesting such literary classics as Edgar Allan Poe, and invite you to craft Raven-esque poems of your own. Here are three tips to help you break down The Raven:

Context.

Sometimes it is hard to understand older works of literature because the author’s   vocabulary and cultural cues are different from what new readers are used to. If the text appears unrecognizable upon first read, return to the writer’s background and setting. When and where was the author writing? What major historical events were happening? What victories or tragedies were occurring in his or her personal life at that time? In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe was struggling to make ends meet as an editor of literary magazines. He had lost both his parents at a young age, and two years later his wife, a cousin fourteen years his junior, would also die. Given that, the following two lines carry even more weight:

“Other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.’”

Terms.

Where is the “Plutonian Shore?” Who is “Pallas,” and why is it important that the raven sits upon his statue? What is a “nepenthe?” You’re a student—use your dictionary. While it certainly  isn’t helpful to look up every other word, it can be useful to note terms that could refer to important historical figures or myths. Poe has constructed this poem carefully, and these key words are little hints to the reader to think critically.

Style.

Poe achieved literary gymnastics with The Raven by writing it in trochaic octameter, a complicated meter that few poets have attempted since. The word “trochaic” refers back to “trochee,” a two-syllable word with emphasis on the first syllable. “Octameter” can be broken down into “octa” (eight) and “meter” (the pace or beat of the poem). As if that weren’t enough, he also use internal rhyme (the middle and third word of the first and third lines of each stanza rhyme; think dreary – weary, etc.), but he also rhymed the second, fourth, fifth and sixth lines rhyme as well (lore, door, more). For a full explanation of Poe’s rhyming scheme, check out this article from Shmoop.com.

Become Poe, Write Your Own.

No wonder Poe was feeling dreary and weary. Poetry is a lot of work! The Raven is an example of a narrative poem, meaning that it has a clear plot and typically uses a set form or meter. Now that you have grasped the cultural context for The Raven, looked up new terms, and examined the stanzas for their literary acrobatics, you are all set to write your own narrative poem. Here are some tips for getting started:

1. Keep it simple. Trochaic octameter is not necessary for telling a good story. If you want to try meter, maybe start with a basic rhyme scheme.
2. Remember that poetry is about word economy. Try writing what you feel in a sentence, and then parsing the idea down to a statement half its length.
3. Metaphors and similes are often more powerful than multi-syllabic adjectives. Instead of saying the sky is dark, say that the sky is spilled coffee. Own your metaphors.

In honor of Halloween, we challenge you to write to your own ravens. Frightened? Never say never –or should we say, nevermore.

How do you win a scholarship? Perhaps the easiest way if you have an essay is to enter the eduify.com Wunderkind Scholarship contest. Beyond doing what you can to get the most votes for the essay you submit to the eduify scholarship contest, you can also win other scholarships by taking the application process seriously. Put your best effort into winning a scholarship and you raise your chances significantly. Don’t send generic, canned scholarship applications out. Scholarship admissions committees can tell when an applicant is half-heartedly applying or not taking the application process seriously enough, so why risk losing a scholarship for lack of effort?

How do you take the scholarship application seriously? We’ve already shown you how to write a stellar scholarship essay. Now, we’ll show you how to put together a great scholarship package.

Prepare

Preparation is essential to creating a well-crafted scholarship package. Many scholarship applications require the same things: strong, academic letters of recommendation (which we have shown you how to score), a copy of your transcript, a list of your extracurriculars, a personal statement, and a photo of yourself. It might be beneficial, before scholarship application time rolls around, to pick up some additional extracurricular activities in order to show yourself to be a more well-rounded student. It might sound deceptive, but it’s actually a smart idea. Preparation is key, so get the things you need together, well in advance, so that you have more time to focus on your essays (the most important aspect of the whole application process).

Research

A key aspect of finding scholarships is to do research. You can research for scholarships online or in books like The Ultimate Scholarship Book of 2009 which lists scholarships you might be eligible for. While you are researching scholarships, make sure you actually qualify for them. Read the fine print. Nothing is more a waste of time than to spend hours creating a scholarship package that you don’t actually qualify for — and trust me that this happens more than you’d think. Read all the rules and regulations of your scholarship before you send anything off.

Stay organized

Before embarking on your quest for a scholarship, write down all the key dates that you need to know. You don’t want to automatically disqualify yourself from a scholarship by sending out your information too late — or even too early. Dates are important, and you should always have your eye on the scholarship application timeline. Another great tip is to keep your different scholarships filed away separately. You don’t want to mix up your scholarships and send out the wrong applications to the wrong places. Put everything away in separate folders, label your scholarships with post-it notes, or put your applications in a filing cabinet — whatever works for you, as long as you stay organized.

Put your best foot forward

Represent yourself well to scholarship committees. When writing, make sure you keep a meticulous eye on grammar, spelling, and style. Put work into craft well-written, solid essays. Add some extracurriculars to your schedule to appear more well-rounded. Prepare yourself for your scholarship interview, and practice wht you’re going to say. Whatever you do, just put your best foot forward. A little effort goes a long way in winning that scholarship money for college.

There’s no doubt about it: scholarship essays are a tricky matter to approach. Scholarship competitions often arrive at your doorstep during the last half of the school year, by far the most hectic time in the academic year when students are already bogged down with extracurriculars, final exams, looming end-of-year grades, not to mention stress-inducing standardized tests. More often than not, high-schoolers focus on their “real schoolwork” and procrastinate on the “optional schoolwork” of scholarship applications, to the point where they end up scrambling, up to the final hours, to turn in shoddy, half-hearted applications, essays, and personal statements to a host of scholarship competitions they actually would have had a good chance of winning, had they simply believed in themselves more and taken more time to do a job well done.

There are easy tricks to consider when penning a scholarship essay — a feat which is definitely less challening than students may think. Considering the sheer number of students who write “fluff essays” to scholarship competitions, half-heartedly listing their accomplishments and not ever really investing their full energy into the application process, even putting forth any effort at all immediately puts you above the average crowd. Here are some simple tips on how to channel your inner wunderkind and win that big scholarship, without stretching yourself too thin or causing you too much stress. We promise.

Consider the organization

So what’s the deal with the organization that is giving you this free money? Because it would probably benefit you to do some research. Is this the Alaskan Oceanography Society? Because, if it is, you probably should not write your essay about how you think offshore drilling is a good idea. Is this the National Rifle Association giving you this money? Don’t tell them about your liberal belief that gun control is the only moral way. Be smart, think about where the money is coming from, and sell yourself out. You heard me. Sell yourself out.

Analyze the scholarship application questions and prompts beneath the surface level

Really. It won’t take you take much time to analyze a simple question to a slightly deeper level. If you are willing to walk 10 feet, you might as well go the extra, I don’t know, 5 feet. Although the best thing to do would probably be to take a little more time and walk a mile. Most students are so bored with scholarship essay writing that they spend as little time as they need to, to think of answers to essay prompts that are neither piercing, intellectual, nor remotely interesting. Spend a little more time thinking about the question than you otherwise would. Analyze. Study. Even research, if you need to. A good think will take you a long way when it comes to getting your hands on that cash.

Edit, Edit, Edit

Maybe it’s not a good idea to have your classmate who is applying to the same scholarship edit your essay, but it’s a good idea to show it to a teacher or a parent or a tutor, to get a fresh perspective on what you’ve written. Don’t just write a hasty essay and mail it off to that Impressive Scholarship Committee without having it looked over once, twice, ten times if need be.

Brag

So this scholarship money is supposed to go to the ‘most qualified candidate’ right? So show them how qualified you are! Wow them with your accomplishments, your honors, your academic record. But do it in a graceful way. Don’t boast pompously about how much brighter you are than your lowly peers. Tell the committees, straightforwardly, why you believe that you are a good candidate. Not why they should think you are. Frame it as a personal belief only. And don’t try to be annoyingly modest. False modesty brushes people the wrong way as much as straight-up bragga-lagging, so just be real as possible. Ya heard?

‘Twas the night before the SAT, and all through the house, everybody is stirring, and being loud and obnoxious—especially your little brother who keeps running by your door and pointing at you and laughing…oh, uh, sorry about that.  I got a little carried away there for a minute.  But, seriously, the night before your SAT or ACT can be chaotic and your nerves may be on edge.  But Eduify is here to help! We’ve created this list of things to do the night before the test, so it doesn’t turn into the Nightmare before the SAT.

You’ve been preparing for this test for the last year—reading SAT or ACT guides, attending study groups, taking practice  tests—and the time has finally come.  The test is tomorrow.  This is it…your entire future rests on this single test and if you don’t do well, you’re going to be flipping burgers at McDonald’s for the rest of your life.  Actually, it’s not that big a deal.  Even if you don’t score well on the SAT or ACT, you can always take it again; so take a deep breath and have a nice, relaxing night to make sure you’re physically and mentally prepared for the big test.

Stay Home – Even though half your school is taking the test with you tomorrow, some of your classmates are still out on the town tonight.  Maybe they invited you along.  Don’t do it.  There will be another party tomorrow night, and, if you do well on the test, you’ll have something to celebrate rather than vituperate.

Take it Easy – You’ve been studying for this test every night for the last three months.  Chances are, cramming the night before will do more bad than it will good, for cramming is a sign of anxiety and unpreparedness.  You have no reason to be anxious, though, because you’re ready.  So, even though it sounds odd to say so on the night before the test, give yourself a break!  Do some light reading, take a walk, or watch a movie.  This will help you to relax before the test.

Prepare – The last thing you want to be doing on the morning of the test is running around your room searching for your wallet, phone, and keys.  So make sure you have all of these things ready to go before you go to sleep.  And you can’t take the test in your pajamas, so it’s probably a good idea to lay your clothes out on your dresser the night before. Pick out some comfortable clothes and shoes, and remember: it’s not a fashion show.

Make sure you know how you’re going to get to the test site.  If you’re going to need a ride, make sure the person is reliable—your best bet is probably your mom or dad. Try to arrange your ride a few days in advance and make sure you remind the person frequently about the date and the time you want to leave.

Pack Your Book Bag – It would be pretty embarrassing if you got into the classroom thinking you were prepared only to realize that you’d forgotten a pencil.  One, in fact, is probably not enough.  Pack a couple of pencils just in case one breaks or gets dull during the test.  Pack a calculator as well.  You’ll be at a big disadvantage if you have to spend the time doing simple arithmetic on your scratch paper.  Check the College Board Website for acceptable calculators (no, you’re not allowed to use the calculator on your cell phone).

Some other things you might want to pack are extra batteries for your calculator, a bottle of water, a light snack, and a watch.  It’s a good idea NOT even to bring your cell phone with you into the classroom, for if it makes even the slightest sound, you could be disqualified from the exam.

Sleep Well – Perhaps the most important thing you can do before the test is get a good night’s sleep.  It’s important that your mind and body are well rested, so you should get at least eight hours.  Set your alarm clock to allow yourself enough time to get ready and get to the test site with at least twenty minutes to spare.  Having to rush to the test site will only make you anxious.

SAT / ACT Checklist

• Your Admission Ticket
• Acceptable photo identification
• Two No. 2 pencils and an eraser
• An acceptable calculator
• For a Language with Listening Subject Test: a portable CD player with earphones (yeah, they still make them)
• A watch (without an alarm)
• Luck (hey, it never hurts to have a little on your side)
• A backpack
• A snack and bottled water
• Extra batteries
• Confidence (you’re going to do great, because you’re well prepared!)

What are 4 things to do on your college visit and 3 things to avoid doing? Read our tips after the jump!

Do socialize

Talk to other students, ask plenty of questions, and most importantly, make sure you stay with a current student during your visit to get a real sense of campus life! As we wrote in 5 things to ask yourself when picking a school, “A variable that often gets overlooked when you apply to school is your inherent personality. Your happiness definitely matters when going off to school, and there is no worse feeling than going to a school you dislike, where you don’t get along with the student body and are unhappy. One thing you have to ask yourself is, in general, what the student body will be like in the ideal school you attend.” It’s important to socialize with other students during your campus visit in order to gauge whether the types of students you meet at the college you are visiting are the type of people you want to spend the next 4 years of your life with.

Do eat

Whether the food is good shouldn’t be one of the bigger deciding factors of choosing a college (because, chances are, the food won’t be good). However, eating at the school cafeterias is a great way to talk to currently enrolled college students. This goes back to our socializing point. Go to the cafeteria, grab a snack, and strike up a conversation with someone. Generally, students are understanding of visiting high schoolers (they were there at one point too!) and are more than happy to answer some general questions. I’m not saying you should monopolize their precious mealtime, but there’s no harm in sparking up a short chat.

Do learn

You are going to school to learn, and the departments and curriculums that interest you are definitely a relevant factor in ultimately picking a school. College visits are a great way to sit in on classes and see/hear what the whole shebang is all about. For those who are extra ambitious, see if you can schedule a meeting with a professor during office hours! Just make sure you have a list of relevant questions in hand as to not waste anyone’s time.

Do explore

Ditch the parentals and go off exploring on your own! This is your college visit and it’s totally your prerogative! BUT, don’t get lost. Make sure you have a map, a guide, or a clear understanding of your surroundings. You don’t want to be THAT high schooler who flies out for their college visit only to get lost in a neighboring town.

Don’t get arrested

It goes without saying that getting arrested or getting caught doing anything illegal should be number one on your “don’t” list. If you are caught before matriculating doing anything of questionable legality, the administration won’t hesitate to rescind your acceptance. Better not take any chances. After all, you’ve worked so hard for the past four years to get in, so it’d be a tragedy to lose it all in an instant.

Don’t be parented

Don’t let your parents dictate your opinion of the campus too much. Say they want you to go to Wharton, but you’re totally set on the Fashion Institute of Technology. It’s your life, your career, and your responsibility to choose the right school for YOU. Their input should be minimal!

Don’t judge

You are on a college visit to gather information, and not to disperse it. Keep an open mind and don’t judge. If you’re a die hard straight edger and you witness some college students getting rowdy at a kegger — keep in mind that they are living their lives according to their own desires, not yours. Likewise, if you are a social butterfly and can’t fathom why the campus is full of science nerds who live in the library — don’t judge. Colleges all come with their own personalities. You are looking for one that you fit in with, not trying to fit them to you. That distinction is crucial if any good is to come out of your visit!

So you’ve been accepted to a university.  It’s smooth sailing from here on out, right?  You’re going to breeze through your senior year, live it up during your last summer at home, and move off to your college town.  It’s a good plan, but if you  actually want it to work, you’re going to have to dodge the senioritis storm.

Though it’s not an actual clinical disease (as the name suggests), senioritis is real.  Perhaps it’s caused by the boost of confidence you get when you receive that college acceptance letter or maybe it’s that there are so many distractions during your senior year…you know, with prom, graduation, and, of course, the parties.  And you should be confident and proud and you should enjoy the festivities that go along with senior year, but it’s important to stay focused on your academic and professional ambitions as well.

Eduify has prepared the following list of things you can do to avoid senioritis and to make the transition into college smooth and seamless.

Balance Your Time

All of the other items on this list are predicated on your having a balanced and well-managed schedule.  Aside from helping you organize your social life, a good day planner will help you stay on track during your busy and often-hectic senior year.  Use a computer program such as Microsoft Outlook to help you manage your time and stay in touch.

Challenge Yourself Academically

You’ve been grinding it out for the last three years so you would be able to take it easy during your senior year.  But, really, what’s another year?  You are, after all,  going to college where the standards are higher and the classes are more difficult, so why not challenge yourself with a couple of classes that will help you prepare your brain for college?  If you take a year off (mentally) from school–which is often a symptom of senioritis–you’re going to have a more difficult time making the transition to college.

Speaking of transitioning to college, why not get a head start by taking some college courses at the local community college?  This is a great way to get some college credit while you’re still in high school.  And you thought you had an open campus when they allowed you to go to McDonald’s for lunch.

Befriend Your Counselor

A big part of your school counselor’s job is to answer your questions about college.  They can be an invaluable resource for you when you’re planning your senior year and post-graduate options.  Among other things, your school counselors can help you figure out your course of study for college;  give you information about college classes that are available to high school students (above); help you find scholarships, financial aid, and student loans; help you fill out college applications; and, perhaps most importantly, they can help you stay on track during your senior year.  As a policy, their doors are always open, so stop in and introduce yourself–you won’t regret it.

Get Some Experience/Volunteer

Though you may not be sure what you want to do as a career or even what your major will be in college, it’s a good idea to get some real-life experience under your belt before you make any long-term commitments. Like animals?  Spend some time volunteering at an animal shelter or by answering phones at a veterinary clinic.  Such experiences will help you decide if you want to make a career out of helping animals.  This, of course, is only one example, but you get the idea.  Your school counselor might be able to help you find an internship at a local company or organization that fits your interests.  Senior year is a great time to explore and discover the options that you are going to have after graduating from college.  Another benefit of work and volunteer experience is that it looks great on a resume.

Extracurricular Activities

Joining student clubs and groups, running for student office, and playing sports are all great ways to stay focused during your senior year, and each, in its own way, will help you develop important skills that will not only help you in college but also in your life after college.  As an added bonus, these activities are great ways to meet new people and make the most of your time in high school.

Here’s a tip: start an online group for your classmates who are planning to go to the same college as you. This is a great way to meet people who are going to be around you for the next four years, and it never hurts to have a friend in a strange place.  Spread the word in your school’s newspaper and on bulletin boards.