You Don't Need Discipline To Study

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The vast majority of people will never learn to study consistently. The reasons they'll give are usually pointed at some external factor that they can blame. They might say that they don't have time. Another common excuse is that they got distracted by something more important. Take note that most of these excuses completely attribute their own personal failure to study onto someone or something else.

Thankfully though, you are not like the vast majority of people. If you're actually taking the time to read this article, you're admitting that you have a problem with studying. (That's the first step.) While most people spend their whole lives carefully avoiding their problem, you're willing to step up and face it. You're stepping up to learn how to study effectively.

I fought this battle with myself. I had the horrible habit of distracting myself from studying with absolutely anything I could find. Right before the test, I'd sit there wondering, “What the hell did I do?” Now, by that time, I was pretty good at studying. I could study for most tests in no time but I still didn't end up doing the little studying I had to do. Using the advice I'd always been told, I spent months and months trying to hammer myself down using discipline.

The Failure Of Discipline

This surprises many people but discipline is the art of punishing yourself into compliance. It is not about doing positive behavior consistently. It's just about making yourself do stuff despite the short term desire not to. This can be a good thing and this can be a bad thing. Ultimately, it comes down to how you use it.

Most people would admit that it would take a whole lot of discipline to eat a grasshopper (or a more refined palette than our own.) That being said, that doesn't prove there is anything intelligent about doing it. Disciplining yourself to study is only valuable when you're studying effectively. Unfortunately, the act of having to discipline yourself is instantly counter-productive for studying.

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Discipline can help you get up and go for a run in the morning because running is a solely physical activity. Disciplining yourself is not as effective at getting yourself to study because it's a mental activity. It's the equivalent of breaking your ankles to try to force yourself to go for a run in the morning. It just doesn't help.

To study effectively, your brain can't be in a stressed out state. The more stressed you are, the worse you're going to focus, and the less you're going to remember. When you have to use discipline to study, you activate the stress that you need to avoid.

If disciplining yourself to study isn't an option, how else do you get yourself to study for exams?

Make It A Habit

Your goal should be to eliminate as much discipline from your study life as possible. Instead of focusing you should focus on falling into the habit of studying. That's using your body's natural tendencies to encourage your mind to be in the right place to study.

Make studying something you get into without even thinking about it. Studying should become so ingrained in your life that, by the time you consciously think about studying, you're already doing it. There are a number of reasons this is so helpful.

First of all, your body has a natural clock. When you do certain things on a particular schedule, your body prepares for it by releasing the right chemicals in advance. If you want to release the chemicals that are good for studying, do it at the same time everyday.

Another reason is the natural tendency people have to being stagnate. If you're sitting on your computer and realize you need to study, it's going to take tons of energy just to force yourself off the computer and into the textbook. Once you're in the habit of picking up the textbook without thinking about it, this problem switches around a bit. Instead you'll be studying, if you want to stop studying you'll have to close your books, put them away, make sure everything's ready for class, and on and on. It's easier to make the right decision when it's also the lazy one.

Bear in mind, building a habit may require short term discipline. The first few days of getting into a habit can be very difficult. When you're developing that habit, you're not going to see any major results from your studying. That won't be particularly motivating but a week later, the difference becomes obvious.

Better Than A Habit

Habits are the typical way you can plan on studying. They're the most applicable way to get studying done in most cases. It's not the best possible way though.

The best studying doesn't require habits or discipline, it requires curiosity. When you're genuinely interested in a subject, you don't need habits or discipline, you just do it because you want to do it. I'm sure you've experience that feeling at least a few times in your life.

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When it comes to the educational system that most students are stuck in, there are usually only one or two interests that cultivate curiosity. There is absolutely no shame in no giving a damn about the information learned vast majority of your classes. You're a human being. Just know that when you have the curiosity, the typical rules of studying need not apply.

Cultivating curiosity in a subject is possible. So, before you go and try to force yourself to study, ask yourself if there is anything you actually want to know in the course? At times, you will be able to find a reason for studying that actually interests you immensely. Of course, there are also times when having the habit is your safest bet.

Despite the cries for discipline you hear. Discipline is actually one of the least common means of getting good studying done. The vast majority of effective studiers just have habits that look like discipline to the observer. You don't have to have piles and piles of discipline to get it done. All you need is a little bit of curiosity or just enough discipline to make it a habit.

Are you tired of all the antiquated cliches that most people call study advice? How To Study Faster is a blog that explores how to get the best results from studying without sacrificing all your time for it. Be sure to follow the blog using any of the methods in the sidebar for more. Oh, and please repost this article if you enjoyed it.

10 Minute Test Prep - An Alternative To Cramming

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To properly prepare for a test, you need to invest a lot of time and energy. There is no way that you can expect your best possible grade without investing at least a few hours into studying. That being said, many students make the mistake of trying to pack those hours of studying into a single cram session.

Cram sessions don't work. The brain isn't designed to lock pages and pages of information in place in a single sitting. Sure, you'll get some of the information but you could have invested half of the time to get the same amount of information if you spread it over a week. The worst part is, most students already know how horrible cram sessions are.

Even if we accept that cram sessions could help you memorize a little more information, at the end of a cram session (especially an all-nighter) no one is mentally prepared to take a test. Sleep deprivation steals all the extra points they got from learning all night. If students already understand this, why do they still do it?

Why People Cram?

Students know it doesn't work well but by the night before the test, what choice does anyone have. A week before the test it's easy to procrastinate. The night before the test it becomes impossible. So, in the last second people feel the need to “make up for” the studying that they didn't do. That's just not possible though. You can't make up for a weeks worth of studying in one night even if you have the study time. You also need the processing time.

People know that it doesn't work but still feel the need to try and assert some control. It's kind of like an experiment scientists regularly do on animals. The scientists would give the animals a button and randomly dispense food to them. When the animals get hungry they'd press the button hoping for food despite the button not having any connection to the food. The animals feel the need to do something (even if they can't prove it works.)

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Studying in one cram session is not effective. It's just a way people alleviate their guilt for not studying in the first place. After they get their poor grade back they can say, “Well, I tried my hardest.” Cram sessions are not really intended to help them learn. They're just there to convince themselves they're not completely lazy.

Truthfully, it's better not to cram. You'll do worse on the test. You'll hate yourself for it but you're significantly more likely to learn your lesson and do better next time. The few points extra on your single test score means nothing compared to the points you could be sacrificing by not learning your lesson.

But I Only Have One Night?!?

Okay, so what do you do when you only have one night left to prepare for a test and you didn't do anything to prepare for it? The average student would dig up the textbooks, get a pack of Redbulls, and start studying until their eyes bled. Do not fall into that trap. In fact, if you haven't taken the time to study at all so far then now is not the time to start.

When you pick up the textbooks, it's going to be difficult for you to put them down. There is no way you can significantly improve your grade at this point through bulk studying. You're going to need to work smart instead of hard.

When you're already late starting, the only thing you should do the night before the test is figure out what you should have studied. Look at any material your teacher gave you on the test and find the absolutely essential information that you should have learned. DO NOT TRY AND LEARN IT YET. Once you start trying to remember it you will stress and kill any chance of a good grade.

Your goal is to prepare for one final study session. It's not to actually study yet. You want to find the most important subject that you need to remember. Use everything that you know about the teacher to try and figure out the most valuable information you can learn. If the teacher typically offers more points for certain kinds of questions (essays, tricks, etc.) then take note of that.

There is nothing more that you can do that will help your grade significantly the night before the test. Just try to learn your lesson and sleep well.

10 Minute Test Prep

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The 10 minute test prep strategy is surprisingly powerful but should be used with caution. If you haven't read the rest of this article then do not expect great things from it. This is a last minute strategy. It will not provide you with a great grade. It will usually only provide a score as good as cramming.

Your final (and only) study session needs to take place 10 minutes before class time sitting at your desk. Human memory is good at memorizing things for the long term but it requires consistency to last. Memory is also good at memorizing things for the short term. While most test prep focuses on using long term memory (it's the safest way to go,) this strategy focuses on using short term memory.

10 minutes before the class you need to go over all of the information you know you will need for the test. If you prepared the night before then this should be easy. Focus on memorizing all of the essential information. To make this work, you can't be talking to your friends or daydreaming. You need to have all of your energy invested in learning the information on the page.

Do not start studying too early. Studying too early is just as risky as studying too late. If you start studying too early it becomes easy to lose a lot of information you're trying to remember. It's better to focus hard on the important information and not even try the rest due to time constraints.

When the test lands on your desk forget about the traditional test taking strategies. Go through the test a question at a time looking for the information you just learned to be useful. Answer anything that you just learned first. This information will be gone a half an hour later. Answer it while it's still fresh in your mind. Then go back and finish the rest of the test.

This will not provide you with the best grade you could get but it will put you just about where you would have been with an all-night cram session. The difference is you'll save a whole lot of time and you'll have a significantly larger chance of learning your lesson.

10 Minute A Night Test Prep?

While the 10 minutes single session may be a great alternative to the classic cram session, the most effective strategy is studying over a longer period for short 10 minute sessions. Studying doesn't have to be a long and painful process. In fact, it can be enjoyable once you start looking at it right. Most of the things that make learning enjoyable aren't taught in the classroom. If you want to learn a little about the best study strategies then be sure to check out my article on it. It can change the way you look at studying forever.

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The Truth About The Loci Method

The Loci method of memorization is one of the most powerful methods used today. The top memory champions of the day use this to memorize unbelievably complex sets of information in very little time. This common usage among memory champions lead to an undeserved excessively positive reputation for it. By all means, it's an amazing method but there are times to use it and there are times when it's best to not use it.

Basic Overview

In case you're not familiar: The loci method is a memorization strategy. It involves picturing a location that you can imagine to walk through and putting strange and memorable objects everywhere. Those strange and memorable objects are used to help you remember the information that you want to remember.

If you were trying to memorize Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Eerie, and Superior (the great lakes) you might imagine something like this.

In the first room of your home (or first step in your location) you see a women and shes on a horse. You see her on (Huron) a horse. Then you can walk into the next room and see a gangster sitting on Terry Bradshaw's (a former football player) shoulders saying, “Yo.” Yes, that does sound ridiculous but it helps. You see the gangster on-terry(saying)-yo. (Ontario)

You'll notice how absurd this can get but that just increases the odds of it being remembered. Some of the greatest memory minds in the world use this strategy but it has many many problems.

Consistent Failures

The vast majority of people that try to use the Loci method fail miserably for a number of different reasons.

First of all, it requires a very intensive preparation period. You cannot just pick up the loci method and run with it expecting results. You need to prepare your map and practice different sets of information repeatedly. If you're not careful and focused using this method, you can get virtually nothing from hours worth of work.

Second, just because the top memory champs get the best results from the loci method, it doesn't mean you will too. Memory champions are not the average person in the population. They're usually naturally gifted and hard trained. Not everyone uses the Loci method effectively. (Usually the people that struggle the most are the ones that have trouble seeing images.) There are other methods that won't let the crazy miraculous memory feats possible but will provide much more memorization for the average person.

One of the most important reasons the loci method leads to failures is in assuming it's always the best method to use for memorization. It's like trying to use a hammer when you need a screwdriver. Not all memorization works best with the loci method. In fact, most memorization doesn't get much of an advantage using it. Studying for school in particular has problems with it. The loci method is designed for unrelated information. Studying is loaded with relatable information. Relating that information is usually just as effective.

When To Use The Loci Method

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Using the Loci Method comes down to a number of different factors. Of course, as mentioned before. The loci method is designed to connect unrelated information. It doesn't provide much opportunity for logical linking of information. It requires a very conscious effort that can increase the time investment considerably.

You also have to consider the amount of information you have to memorize. If you only need to memorize a few things or a short list, unless you're highly trained, the loci method is overkill. If you can get away with mnemonics or some other quick method then you should. If it's a lot of information then the Loci method may be worth the time.

If you've never used the loci method consistently then you may want to always avoid the loci method. It takes weeks of practice to make it efficient. For most basic memorization needs, it's not really worth it.

Effectively Using The Loci Method

Once you decide to use the loci method there are a few things you need to do to make it work effectively.

1. Focus

The magic of the loci method works through is intensity in your brain. You need to feel like you're really in the room with the information you're trying to remember. If you're mildly picturing it and thinking about what's on TV, you're not going to see any positive results.

2. Connection

The pictures you're using need to connect to the information you're trying to remember. When you're trained well this will be easy. When you're just getting started, you'll need to make the pictures pretty obvious. (Don't use the Terry Bradshaw example above when you're getting started.)

3. Emotional Images

Boring is your worst enemy in the images that you picture. A boring image is an image that you forget. Pick a picture and then aim to make it as emotionally memorable as possible. Most people do this from plain old weirdness but you can also make them memorable through making it disgusting, amazing, or even sexually appealing.

4. Movement

Do not settle for only images though. Once you get the image. Find a way for the image to move around the room. At the very least, picture yourself walking by the image you created. The more you feel like you're actually there, the better you will memorize it.

5. Multiple Senses

One of the easiest ways to strengthen your maps created with the loci method is by including multiple senses in your thought process. Don't just see it. Listen to the image. If you created something really interesting, it should make some kind of noise. Maybe you'll even have to smell it. The more you sense the room, the better off you'll be.

The loci method is not for everyone but it can be one of the most powerful tools for memorization when used right. If you want to use the loci method for memorization then you need to be willing to invest the time in making it come naturally. It's not as simple as following the steps. It's a process that needs to be done repeatedly to see it's true power. Sure, you can see good results from using it one time but it usually just costs a whole lot more time then just using the less flashy memorization methods.

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How To Write Awesome Essays

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Throughout college, I was known as the go-to guy for custom essays fast. A fellow student would come to me with an assignment and a few dollars, and I would put everything together to make one of the best essay grades they ever received. Despite the common assumption, I was not writing these essays for the money. I only insisted on getting paid because I didn't want to look like an idiot. What was the real reason I was writing all these papers for people? I'll get to that later.

Writing essays can be a challenge for many students. I can remember a few of my own nights just staring at a blank screen and struggling to muster up one good idea to write about. It wasn't until I got the hang of a different strategy that my writing started to come naturally.

Most writing prompts that teachers provide are highly restrictive. They tell you some very specific ideas that you're supposed to delve into. This is where a lot of the problems come from...

Awesome Is Unexpected

Forget about strictly following any teacher's prompt. Treat the prompt as a set of rough guidelines. The more strictly you follow those guidelines, the more your paper is going to look just like every other student's paper. Think about how boring that makes writing the paper. (No wonder you can't get the first line.)

Naturally, if a prompt says to provide something very specific like “3 examples” or “10 ideas,” you should follow those instructions. If the paper says write a story about “growing up” then you can go wild and write about virtually anything you want with the slightest bit of planning. That's where the fun can start.

You want to think about the things that you can write about that no one else would have the courage to write. An awesomely written paper isn't just a retelling of the same points everyone else in the class makes, it's something unique.

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This can sometimes lead you down dark alleys of “off-prompt” but that's easy to correct with one conversation. After you finish your awesome but slightly off-prompt paper, figure out how you actually did explore the prompt. If you were supposed to write a story on growing up but you wrote one where the character didn't grow up, you still have a story about growing up. If the teacher asks you just say, “growing up is a choice that is not always made. I figured everyone would be exploring those that had made that choice. I wanted to explore someone you didn't.”

The truth is these assignments aren't science or math. They're up for as much interpretation as you choose to use. Interpretation gives you the choice of doing something that's completely unexpected. You can write about whatever you find most entertaining.

Awesome Is Clean

Unfortunately, a grammatically poor paper is not awesome. It doesn't matter how great your paper's content is, no one will ever appreciate it with significant errors. Grammar is a subject that many students (and adults) struggle with. It's usually a symptom of not reading consistently.

To make this first point quickly: Reading can improve your writing. That's all I'll say because I'm sure you've heard that a million times before.

If you typically struggle with grammar then you should get someone to review the work you do before handing it in. Preferably, you want to get someone that's as harsh a reviewer as possible. If you're miserable at grammar then you want your paper covered in red marks. If it only had a few then you'd have to question how well the person reviewed it. Take the red marks and correct it.

Even if you're a grammatically sound writer, you want to take a few minutes to go over the paper you've written. The more of an awesome paper you write, the less of a challenge this should be. If you have little enthusiasm to go over your own work then you probably need to focus on coming up with a more powerful idea in the future (see the first section.)

Awesome Has Pride

Going over awesome papers you wrote in the past should be easy. It should be kind of like looking at your personal greatest hits. If you're not absolutely gung ho about reading your own paper then you need to find out why. In most cases, it's a symptom of not doing something that's personally powerful.

Notice how I included the word personally. You should not be trying to write a paper to impress your teachers. There is very little reason to assume you have any idea what they really like to see in a paper. You're not a mind reader. The prompt they provide is not necessarily something they'd actually like. The only person that you have access to is yourself.

When you write for yourself you'll notice that everything comes easier. While it may be slightly off of what the teacher wanted, you'll still usually end up ahead of where you would have been struggling to write each line. When you write a paper for yourself if comes more naturally. By the end of that paper, it's going to be a small reflection of yourself.

You should feel proud of the paper you produce. It should be something you'd be willing to frame and hang on your walls (but don't do it. That's just weird.)

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Naturally, there will be times when you'll just feel okay about it. That doesn't mean you have to throw out the paper and start over. Just review the paper and make the best of it. Then ask yourself if you could live with whatever results that paper will provide. If so, hand it in. If not, go back to wherever you veered off course.

The best thing about writing a paper with this method is not the final grade. Sure, when you see the difference writing unexpected can make on your final score, it will become your natural method but it's not the most important reason to do this.

This might sound funny but when you write this way, your final grade doesn't even matter. When you write a paper that your proud of, it doesn't matter how much the teacher appreciates it. You can still be proud of it. The teacher might not always get your genius but you'll be able to sleep well at night knowing you created something awesome. Creating awesome is it's own reward. That's the reason I really wrote those papers. (But the A+'s help.)

6 Reasons To Ignore Your Textbook

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You know those 10 pound paperweights that your teachers expect you to carry around with you all the time? This may surprise some of you youngsters but... Fun Fact: They're actually books that have information written in them.

Bear in mind, these books are archaic examples of information transmission that should largely be regarded as symbols to keep your teachers happy. The tradition of school providing large books of information while the students ignore them is expected to continue indefinitely.

In case you're one of the few students that actually thinks they're absolutely vital. Here are the 6 reason your textbook is virtually useless.

*This is for the vast majority of courses. When there is an exception, you'll know it.

1. Your Teacher Probably Didn't Read It

The number of teachers that actually go through textbooks for their classes thoroughly is dismally low. This is particularly true for high school professors. The majority of high school teachers have very few options in selecting the textbook there class will require. That gives teachers very little reason to dig through each for the best possible textbook.

Some high schools even have budget concerns that force them to use textbooks that aren't even related to the information they're required to teach students. The standards are updated every year. The textbooks are virtually never.

College professors have a little more freedom in textbook selection but they're only human. They can't spend six months of full-time work exploring every page of 3 or 4 different textbooks. Even if they're disciplined enough to make a good effort, they have to balance their time with their need for a textbook.

In college and high school, the course rarely is designed to the textbook anyway...

2. The Textbook Is Not The Course

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Textbook authors cannot create a textbook that's appropriate for an individual teacher's needs. The goal of a textbook author is to create something that sells to a wide variety of courses. Unless your teacher wrote the textbook, there is no reason to believe the textbook and course have much correlation with each other.

Teachers, having not read the majority of the textbook, have to make a number of tough decisions when designing the course work. A teacher doesn't want to lead a student too far from the textbook but they also don't want to leave a major holes in the student's knowledge. That means they're going to have to veer off the course of the textbook in just about every situation. In my experience, most teachers prefer to go miles away from the textbook than to leave their students without something important...

In fact, many teachers design their course without considering the textbook the slightest bit. It's a side note at best. That means you could spend two years memorizing every word of the textbook and still struggle to pass the teacher's course.

A textbook has a lot of valuable information but that is part of the problem...

3. It's Too Much Information

When textbooks are being written, as mentioned before, they're being targeted for as many courses as possible. That means they need to include stuff that will make every teacher at least a little happy. Unfortunately for the students, that means the textbooks are loaded with irrelevant information. It gets even worse though. Since it's all true information, there is no logical way to distinguish the information you need to memorize from the stuff you can ignore.

There is no practical way for a person to memorize all the information in the average textbook today without wasting hours and hours of time. The truth is, most of the time a student spends reading it is useless. (Have you ever spent 20 minutes reading to only gain 1 or 2 test answers? It's completely inefficient.)

Textbooks are not designed with the students in mind (No. Don't believe those silly letters at the beginning...)

4. It's Designed To Engage Teachers Not Students

Textbook publishers publish textbooks that make teachers happy. They send out copies of their textbook for judgment by teachers. The textbooks that get printed in large quantities are the ones that the teachers approve of. The sad part about this is that teachers already know the subject. They can't properly judge how effectively a textbook introduces it (only how accurately.)

Most of the teacher targeting problems come from the good intentions of the writers. Many subjects are unbelievably deep. The people writing textbooks on a subject can go right into the depths of a subject. Teachers are usually also capable of this. A textbook writer can't get away with “almost” true statements that simplify a subject because they're trying to sell these textbooks as accurate to teachers.

If I were writing a textbook on making a sandwich, I couldn't get away with saying “spread the mayo on the bread.” Teachers can object that the statement isn't quite true in a number of cases. Instead I'd have to write, “spread the mayonnaise on the two interior sides of the bread slices before placing both slices mayo side up.” The complexity of the information is increased significantly.

5. Effectiveness AND Politics Decided The Textbook

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Textbooks aren't always decided with the best of intentions. Many final textbook decisions have very little to do with quality content. By the time the option gets to the teacher, the teacher is forced to select the lesser of multiple textbook evils.

Publishers have gotten caught red handed using a number of underhanded textbooks to get their books into classrooms. They've even gone as far as bribing teachers. Textbook publishing is one of the most profitable businesses in the world and schools pay them a whole lot of money. While most of the business is reasonably fair, some of it is downright disgusting.

6. It's Not The Perfect Source

Oh your teachers will probably hate me for this one. Textbooks are usually not extraordinarily accurate. Sometimes textbooks become downright jokes in their field. The goal of textbook publishers and authors is to be accurate enough. The information you find from a textbook, is not much (if any) more likely to be true than any other source.

In fact, experts comparing Wikipedia articles to Encyclopedia articles noticed similar levels of accuracy. (No, it's still not an acceptable source. No ones name is at stake for it being wrong. Use Wikipedia's citations if anything.) This is common with most information sources. There is no perfect place to get your information. Textbooks may have them all in one nice place but it's not necessarily a more accurate source.

Now, you won't be able to get away with ignoring your textbook in every class but don't feel so bad when you can get away with it. Oftentimes, teachers only pick a textbook because they're expected to do it. It's much better to focus your studies on the information your teacher provides you with. Don't expect the textbook to teach you what you need to do to pass the test. That's where most students get led astray.

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7 Lies Your Teachers Tell You

Most good teachers absolutely despise the bull that's fed about teachers these days. Students are repeatedly told about how noble and special there teachers are for doing their job. This article is meant to help clarify that a bit. There are amazing teachers out there. That being said, there are some miserable ones too. Those miserable ones tend to tell the same lies to there students over and over again.

1. You're not trying hard enough.

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When teachers fail to do there job, they love to put the blame on their students. Teachers love to say that their students need to study or focus better. The truth is, students are only a part of the equation. Too many students spend hours and hours trying to figure out the material they need to learn only to get ridiculed for “not trying hard enough.”

You know if you're not putting in enough effort to succeed. It's a teachers job to inspire a student to want to learn the information. Naturally, that's not always possible but it doesn't excuse them for not trying. Teachers do not know how much effort you put it. There is no reason they can blame you other than to try to alleviate their own guilt.

The teachers job is to help you learn the material. If you're not learning the material, it could be you, or it could be the teacher. The difference is, the teacher is trained and paid to provide an education. You were never taught how to learn.

The teacher knows that motivation is the number of factor. If they fail to motivate you, they shouldn't be blaming you. Education requires both people participating. The teacher is only privileged to seeing their own side of the story. They don't know how much effort you put in.

2. These are the best years of your life.

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Many people that end up teaching enjoyed there time in school. While there are exceptions, most teachers look enviously back at their time in school. That's probably part of the reason they went into that profession in the first place.

For most people, school is not the best time of your life. You're herded into classrooms and forced to learn whatever it is the schools want you to learn. You might get to be with some friends but all your interactions are sterilized by the rules of the school.

Teachers will try to make it sound like you're privileged to be learning this information. To some extent you are privileged but you're not given a choice in the matter. High school is bad. College is a little better. Life is where you're given a choice...

Sure, you can give up and let school be the best years of your life, or, you can step up and make the rest of your life the best. That's all up to you.

3. I'm a martyr.

Teachers are some of the most vocal martyrs there are in this world and students are legally obligated to listen to their complaints all day long. A lot of teachers like to pretend they're suffering for your good. They'll talk about the long hours they work and the poor pay they get for it but they'll insist they're doing it for the good of their students.

If they're a boring lecturer then they'll insist that there students are poor listeners. If they don't prepare there students for standardized tests then they'll blame the tests. Teachers tend to be completely convinced that they know how to do there job right and everyone else in the world is wrong.

Teachers are not martyrs. They are not volunteers. They're getting paid to do a job that they chose to do. They make good money (accounting for the months off,) and they have great benefits and union protection.

You may be forced to listen to there complaining but you certainly don't have to believe it. A good teacher can have doubts but you certainly shouldn't have to listen to it. (A martyr complaining about being a martyr isn't a martyr.)

4. Being Right Is Fundamental

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Your tests are graded on being right and wrong. Life has very little to do with being right and wrong.

When you step out into the real world it's much more complicated than that. You can't just study a textbook and expect to succeed when you get started.

One of the most important skills that you can develop is a willingness to manage risks and be wrong regularly. Most questions don't have right or wrong answers. People that succeed aren't the ones that are right most. They're the ones that are willing to fail hundreds of times while consistently improving their own abilities.

The hardest part about this is that no one will give you red marks on your paper when your wrong in life. You can be wrong for decades and decades without anyone pointing it out. It's your responsibility to mark up your own life with a red pen.

Don't let teachers get you too hung up on perfection because school is the only place you'll end up using it.

5. College is your best option.

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This lie has been repeated way too many times. Most students that choose to go to college should not be going.

College is not the place to go if you're just trying to figure stuff out. In fact, it's one of the most costly possible options. Most students could travel the world for the same amount of money they pay for a semester in college. Even after that semester in college, most people have no idea what they want to do with there lives.

If you have a plan and know exactly what you want (and it requires a college education) then, by all means, go for it. If you have no idea what you want to do with your life then you should not be going to college. In fact, many students would actually have better terms for their education loans if they waited a few years before heading to college. (Parents go off the federal loans. That can end up saving tons of money.)

College can reduce the volatility of your life but the volatility is where you learn your most important lessons.

6. You're going to need to know this...

It doesn't matter what subject a teacher is trying to teach, they tell you it's going to be absolutely fundamental in your daily life. This is just the teacher projecting their own bias onto the students. Most teachers have not had careers outside of teaching. That means, any claim that the information that their class is relevant is baseless because their only experience is in teaching it. (Of course it's relevant to the teachers daily life. They teach it!)

The majority of the information your teachers are teaching you is not relevant to daily life. Have you ever heard of the show where adult professionals are pitted against the information in a fifth grade textbook? The adults are asked questions that fifth graders can answer but the adults always struggle to answer them. Why is that?

It's because for the past 20-30 years the adults haven't seen that information once. Most of the information you're being taught is going to end up like that. If you become a mathmatician then math will be the only information you remember. If you become a writer then you'll remember language stuff. If you become a barber then you might not remember any of it.

7. You're not important.

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Teachers don't directly tell there students this.

They just represent it in everything they project. The teacher stands in the front of the classroom and teaches the students. The students are required to raise there hands to ask questions. Anyone that talks when they're not supposed to is scolded by the teacher. This is not the way life works.

We are all the teachers and we are all the students. There is no authority figure. Even in an office, while there may be a boss, there is rarely a clear hierarchy. Bosses rely on the employees and employees rely on the bosses. Most teachers might as well be talking to a wall.

This has obvious advantages for the teacher but it also has advantages for the students too. Students don't need to stand up to there teacher. Students don't have to embarrass themselves by not being able to teach something. Students are allowed to sit silently and hide in the shadows.

Life is not so simple. You can only get away with not participating for so long in life. If you're not helping everyone else at the place you work then you'll get fired. If you don't speak to your friends then you'll lose them. In life, the most costly mistake you can make is doing nothing and not standing out. In class, that's what's expected of you.

Not all teachers distill these lies to there students. There are plenty of good teachers out there and that's what this article is all about. You don't have to look at your bad teachers as noble creatures because that's just an insult to the amazing teachers that you have in your life. Bear in mind, not all your best teachers will be in a classroom. 

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Why You Suck At Studying

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I'm sorry but if you're like the vast majority of students, you're just plain bad at studying. The average student is taught hundreds of pointless facts throughout their education but it seems like none of the students are taught how to actually study effectively. Effective studying is not reading the textbook or trying to remember all the facts. Effective studying is about doing everything in the most efficient way possible.

When it comes to studying, most students are taught to stay back in the dark ages. Really, most teachers recommend the same awful study advice that was being used hundreds of years ago. Times have changed and our understanding of the brain has increased dramatically. There is no reason to be using the same antiquated advice to learn your material for class. It's time to upgrade to the next level in studying.

Why are you so bad at studying?

You Don't Link The Information

The human brain is not designed to memorize material out of a textbook. I'm sure you know how that goes. One second you're diligently thinking about the material in the textbook, the next second you're imagining how Benjamin Franklin would look at a smart phone. The brain doesn't work through the traditional lens of focusing on a single subject. The brain is more like the internet.

Whenever your brain is thinking about a subject, it's like looking at a page with hundreds of links on it. If you think about Benjamin Franklin, you might see, American history, electricity, printing press, and other links related to him. Every subject that you connect to Benjamin Franklin has a link straight back to him. This might seem a little out there but it helps illustrate the most powerful means of remembering information.

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Instead of focusing on remembering random facts, you need to remember the connections between different areas of information. This is actually what your brain does naturally. Where it gets difficult is in controlling the links tightly focused around your study material. You need to do everything you can to not let any of the information you're studying be random. Find the connections and focus on remembering them.

That being said, one of the best ways to hold onto these connections is to change the way you look at studying.

You Study What You Can Do

To Study effectively in the traditional sense, you need to do a bit of “brain gymnastics.” While that's reasonably effective, there is always a significantly better way to learn. While I was comparing your brain to the internet earlier, don't let that thought sink in too deep because it doesn't go farther than the linking. People are powered by emotions and chemical reactions.

Just think about how pointless remembering random facts would be to a prehistoric man. People are designed for survival. Survival doesn't involve remembering when World War 1 started (unless, of course, you're doing some awesome time travel experiments. Note: Please invite me!) Survival involves physical activity like walking, running, and fighting off bears.

Your memory is most effective when you're able to use your body. Everything is like riding a bicycle. You cannot learn to ride a bike effectively without actually climbing on the bike to ride. Sure, you might be able to learn to spin the pedals, turn the handlebars, and understand the physics of staying upright, but you'll always be a little away from being able to do it. That is no different than learning anything else.

If you're studying math then don't study the equations, just use the equations. If you're studying science then do some experiments. If you're studying human anatomy, don't study the textbook, grab a sharpie and draw the muscles and names on someone sleeping. The more you're able to use the information you're learning, the better off you'll be.

This is why many people use the loci method for studying. The loci method is just imagining the information you're studying in a location you recognize. As you walk through that location, you connect more and more information to different landmarks. This works well because you're turning facts into relevant landmarks and imagining physical activity. While the loci method is often significantly overrated, it has some major things working for it. It at least pretends to have value to the brain. It's still better to do.

You Hate Studying

I can't blame you for this one. If you hate studying then you're going to always suck at it. I used to be one of the most guilty people of all when it came to this. I absolutely hated studying. For years of my life I preferred scraping easy c's and d's so I could avoid studying completely. I hated studying. My grades didn't change until I chose to change my perspective on things.

Studying for school is often a pointless task. Really, you're not going to need most of the information your teachers like to shove down your throat. While some of it's absolutely essential, most of it's a complete waste of brain space. Once I was able to accept that I came to realize something. Most of the information in the world is information we don't need to have.

I never need to worry about not knowing anything. The internet has changed the way most information works. Whenever I have a question, all I have to do is search the internet for an answer. Sure, it can't answer everything but it teaches more than I could learn in a lifetime of schooling. What the internet cannot do is put together the knowledge you're learning. That's a skill that needs to be learned and practiced.

Improving your ability to study and learn information will help you for your whole life, even if the actual information they teach you doesn't. Maybe that doesn't work for you..

If you hate studying then you need to find a way to change your perspective. It can be any of a million different things. Maybe you want to make a good living as a doctor or impress your parents. You need to find some reason to want to study. Once you do that, you're going to be able to study faster and more effectively than ever before.

You're Reading And Not Recalling

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Reading your textbook is not the same thing as studying. In fact, it's usually one of the least effective ways to remember information. Reading is a method of gathering information but most people have trained their brains to just pull the information and throw it out for good. Are you really remembering all the information that you're reading? There is no way to really know.

Recalling information is the secret to knowing whether or not your remember something. On a test, when you are asked a question, you can't reread a paragraph to find the answer. You need to dig below the sports scores and fashion advice through the depths of your brain to find the answer. That is recall. You need to actively use recall during your study sessions to know that you're actually studying effectively.

Most people avoid using recall because of how stressful it can be. It's painful to try to remember information. It's so stressful that most people just give up and go back to reading. If you want to continue to suck at studying then continue to avoid recall but if you want to study like a pro, you need to push through the pain.

Flashcards are the classic means of using recall during studying. You either know the information on the other side of the flashcard or you don't. Use whatever means of recall that you can train yourself to use effectively but make sure to use it.

Studying with recall can make this last mistake a whole lot easier to solve...

You Study Too Much

What?!? Your teachers will probably hate me for this but it's true. Most students that struggle to learn are spending too much time trying to study. If you're studying effectively, you should not be able to study for hours straight. If you're using recall then you'll start to wear yourself out after 15 minutes.

When you study for too long a period of time, you get in the habit of “half-studying.” You probably have seen “half-studying” at least once in your life. Maybe you've seen someone studying while talking to friends, or searching the internet, or listening to music. If you're using recall then it's going to make “half-studying” absolutely miserable. You want to focus on studying when you study. By reducing your study time, this can become a whole lot easier.

Your brain has serious limitations in its short term capacity. If you're actually using your memory then you're not going to be able to effectively study long without significant rest periods in between. While this might sound like completely good news (less studying! YAY!) it's actually a little troublesome if you don't have the discipline.

Studying needs to become a habit. You can't expect to prepare for major tests by cramming the night before. You need to plan in advance and study a little bit on a regular basis.

Fear your sucking at studying no more. You now know enough about studying to change everything. Link the information that you study to get it to stick better. Don't study stuff that you can do. Find some reasons you'll enjoy studying. Recall the information instead of reading it. And kick back and relax a little bit. Using these simple strategies you'll be out of the dark ages of studying and into the modern world.

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Why You're Too Lazy To Study (And What To Do About It)

When a person calls another person lazy, it's usually intended as an insult. Despite the use of laziness as an insult, it's actually not a completely negative action. Being lazy is not being incapable of doing something. Being lazy is being unwilling to do something. This might seem like a minor change in wording but it's absolutely essential to understanding what's behind any bouts of laziness you're suffering through.

If you're too lazy to study then you're not incapable of studying. You're just unwilling to.

But how much do you really want to study? Logically, you may know that the education would be good for you but you most people still struggle with it. Where is this unwillingness coming from?

A History Of Lazy

Not doing stuff may seem unattractive to people today but think about this from an evolutionary perspective. Getting enough calories to survive today might be easy but throughout most of human evolution it was a major challenge. People would have to hunt for hours and hours a day to bring home enough food for survival. Doing anything other than something required for survival is a waste of energy in those situations.

(They didn't run marathons for fun because it would be a dangerous risk of resources. They didn't seek to become bodybuilders either. That may have helped them survive better but survival is the goal not “better” survival. Your education isn't survival. It's “better” survival.)

In fact, if you look at the leaders in many different species, laziness is a rather common trait. Alpha male lions would hunt for only a few hours a day. The rest of the day was used for resting. Any more hunting is excessive and unnecessarily dangerous.

I say this to remind you that your laziness comes from a long genetic line of laziness in the past. Laziness is a sign that you're surviving successfully. The world owes you a big congratulations in successfully setting your life up in a way that allows you to use less energy than you may have had to use.

That's not the whole story though...

You Have To Do It

The alpha's of a species can get away with laziness the most. That being said, you don't have to be an alpha to feel the same desire for the position. What are the real reasons that you want to study?

What are you really studying for? It's it for yourself? If you're mister or misses noble you might say, “I care about furthering my education,” but is that really it? Most people have much different true motivations.

Do you really just want to make your parents happy?

Do you really just want to make your teachers happy?

Do you really just want to make the colleges you apply for happy?

Do you feel like you have to study?

The vast majority of people that struggle with studying do not want to study for their own improvement. If you need to study because of some external motivation then you're always going to have to watch of for procrastination because you're subtly admitting that you're not in control of your own life.

You're not an alpha if you have to do something for someone else. The need to procrastinate is the urge to take back control of your own life. You may know it's temporary but it's your body's way of saying you're still in control.

That brings us to one of the best ways to end procrastination.

You Don't Have To Do It

As long as you think about studying as something that you “have to do.” You're going to struggle getting yourself to do it.

Studying is not something you have to do. You can get subpar grades, heck, most students could still pass all their courses. If you wanted to you could continue to not start studying. Every time you realize that you're putting off studying you should reassure yourself that you can not study anytime you want to not study (and mean it.) Studying is a choice.

We live in the most advanced time in history. If there was ever a time that a person could survive without doing anything that they didn't want to do, it's now. You never need to develop the discipline to farm a field. If you've read this far then you're probably smart enough to do alright in life putting in hardly any effort at all.

That being said, do you really only want part of what you're capable of? (It's okay if you do.)

There has never been more opportunities for you to focus your life on the things you love and do absolutely amazing things with them. Everyone has something that motivates them without even trying (even if it's something seemingly stupid like wandering the web.) You can do virtually anything you want compared to every other time in history.

Knowing that you can do or not do anything you want...

Why Do You Want To Study

In the dream world, everyone would study everything because they absolutely adore the subject. Math fans would spend their time studying math. History buffs would be studying history. Everyone would have their own little joys of learning. The world doesn't work quite so magically but everyone seems to want you to think it does.

You may have a favorite subject. If you do then you probably don't need too much help preparing for it. It just comes natural to you. Teachers tend to want you to feel that way about every subject. Just think about it. Why do math teachers teach math instead of English? It's usually because math is the subject they love. Teachers tend to love their subjects. That makes it difficult for them to understand how it feels to not love them. This leads them to struggling to provide advice when you're not as interested as they are.

You don't have to fall in love with a subject to study it. All you need is a few good reasons. If you're just looking to “pass the course” then, of course, you're going to struggle to get the motivation to study. You're never too lazy to study something you really love though. If, on the other hand, you want to make a career out of the information you're learning, studying will become easier. There are plenty of other reasons to learn subjects.

Every class could have a whole list of reasons. With English courses you could try to learn to communicate with other people more effectively. With Math courses, you could look at the problems like puzzles to solve. At the very least, in any course, you can admit that you're just trying to score a good grade for some external reason like parents or college. While it's not the most powerful motivation, admitting it in advance can help you beat procrastination.

You need to find a real reason that you want to study. It doesn't have to be noble. It doesn't have to be the reason your teachers would give it. It only has to be something that you can relate to.

So, the next time you find yourself struggling with procrastination, don't beat yourself up about it. You're just doing what your body was meant to do. You don't have study if you're too lazy to study. It's always your choice. When you know it's your choice you can find the reasons to study that are right for you.