New Year Resolutions For Students

Realistic suggestions for school students to consider:

New Year's Resolutions: how often do you make them? How often do you break them? Most New Year's Resolutions don't last long because they are too difficult and unrealistic. People swear to lose 3 Kgs, exercise for an hour each day, get awesome grades in school, and become a nicer person-- all by March.

You're much more likely to keep resolutions if they are realistic and attainable. Pick a few relatively easy things that will make life better for you and those around you. Here are some suggestions for simple resolutions that may be useful for college students.

• Whenever possible, get an extra hour of sleep every night.
• Spend ten minutes every evening straightening up your room.
• Read at least one book per term just for fun.
• Work to improve English communication skills.
• Put more effort to improve emotional and physical well being.
• Keep up better with the news.
• Spend a little less time watching TV.
• Spend a little less time on Orkut or Facebook.
• Work in extra walking into your everyday routine.
• Call your mom more often.
• Help a friend with homework when needed.
• Do your laundry (at least a part) by yourself before it piles up on the floor.
• Avoid drama as much as possible, and be kind to your friends.
• Try to improve your attention span in class.
• Attend class more seriously.
• Volunteer for charity or services in your neighbourhood.
• Eat breakfast every day.
• If you're religious, spend a little more time observing.
• Refuse to get involved in relationships that are no good for you.
• Stop comparing yourself to other students who you think are smarter or more attractive.
• Cut your "fun" spending by 25 percent.
• Sew the missing buttons back on your clothes.
• Help your parents.
• Live up to the expectations of your parents, teachers and well wishers.

Say time and again to yourself, I can do it! I will do it? Now is the right time to start!

For your success & Glory!

Boosting Your Self-Esteem - Improving the Way You Feel About Yourself

"Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves."
- Nathaniel Branden
Leading self-esteem researcher and theorist

Improving self-esteem is a very personal journey. It's a key part of feeling happy within ourselves, and of feeling that we're succeeding in the things that matter to us.

Positive self-esteem helps you to be yourself, handle adversity, and believe that you'll win through, despite setbacks. It's an inner force that sustains you, and gives you the courage you need to be the person you want to be.

Low self-esteem, on the other hand, does the opposite. It's connected to self-doubt, and to a general feeling that you're not quite good enough to meet life's challenges. If you have low self-esteem, you may believe that you aren't capable of achieving your dreams, and you may even believe that you shouldn't dream at all. In fact, low self-esteem is used to diagnose many mental disorders, and it can be associated with to a variety of negative emotions, including anxiety, sadness, hostility, shame, embarrassment, loneliness and lack of spontaneity.

What Is Self-Esteem?
You're probably familiar with the idea of self-esteem. It's most often associated with self-confidence, but self-esteem is more than just confidence – it goes deeper. In fact, some people argue that you can have self-confidence and still have low self-esteem – most notably if you approach life with a "fake it ‘til you make it" attitude (in other words, "pretend" until you succeed).

Healthy self-esteem doesn't involve faking anything. And although there's significant debate over the definition of self-esteem, a leading theory is that it's a combination of two factors: competence and worthiness.

Other models have focused on one of these factors or the other. However, it's the relationship between the two that provides the best description. Nathaniel Branden says the following in his book "The Psychology of Self-Esteem":

Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects: it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living.

Competence and Worthiness
The competence element of self-esteem deals with how far you believe that you have the skills and abilities you need to succeed in areas that matter to you.

This isn't generalized success, or even a general sense of competence. It's specific to areas of your life that are particularly important to you. For example, if you can sing and dance and entertain a crowd like no one else, that won't contribute to positive self-esteem if what you really value is academic success. Likewise, if you rise to the top of your profession, but you're not proud of that profession, it's unlikely that it will help your sense of self-esteem much.

It's this idea of "value" that brings us to the other element of self-esteem: worthiness. This is where you express your overall evaluation of yourself. It's based on your values, and on whether you routinely behave in a way that is consistent with these values. Together, these factors influence whether you believe you're "good enough", and whether you like and respect the person you are.

By combining competence and worthiness, and by looking at how they relate to each other, we get a full and dynamic definition of self-esteem. Just feeling good about yourself isn't self-esteem. There has to be a competence element, so that your behaviors result in positive actions, not destructive ones. Too great a sense of worthiness can lead to conceit, and even narcissism. Healthy self-esteem keeps those things in balance.

Improving Self-Esteem
Now that you know what self-esteem is, you're in a better position to improve yours in a robust and balanced way.

Here are some tips for improving your self-esteem:

Think about yourself positively – The only person who can change your view of yourself is you! No one else can give you self-esteem – you have to build it by thinking about and using all of the positive things in your life. Make sure that you get into the habit of positive thinking, and learn how to detect and defeat patterns of self-sabotage. And be your own best cheerleader and supporter!

Take pride in your accomplishments – When you do something well, celebrate it. Don't wait for someone else to tell you how wonderful you are. Tell yourself!

Set goals – The more successes you achieve, the better you'll feel about yourself. Goal setting is a great technique for targeting, tracking and recognizing success. It helps you to build competence and, from this, build a sense of pride and a feeling of worthiness. Make sure that you embrace goal setting!

Be consistent – You improve self-esteem when you act in ways that are consistent with your values. If you find yourself in a compromising or difficult situation, do all that you can to make a decision that is consistent with these values. Achieve your goals with integrity, and don't undermine your self-esteem by cheating, or acting in a dishonest way.

Remember that you aren't perfect – Don't be too hard on yourself. We all make mistakes, and that's often OK, just as long as we learn from them. The only person's standards you have to meet are your own: stop worrying about what others think, and focus on the great things about yourself. If you do, your inner confidence will shine through, and more than compensate for any shortcomings you might have.

Look after your physical self – Being active can improve self-esteem. Activities that improve your overall health help you feel more in control, and give you a sense of satisfaction that carries though to other areas of your life.

Key Points
The way you feel about yourself is key to self-esteem. You're the one in control, and you can make a difference. If you like yourself, and believe that you deserve good things in life, you'll have high self-esteem. If you dislike yourself or criticize yourself excessively, you'll have low sense of self-esteem.

Having healthy self-esteem is important because it helps you get through life's challenges and achieve the things that matter most to you. As such, make a commitment to yourself to value what you do and who you are!

For your Success & Glory!

How To Improve Your Study Habits

30 Tips Guide for all Students
1. Start by keeping a priority assignment notebook or to-do journal.
2. Keep a notebook for all of your school subjects, bring it to class and update it often.
3. Attend your classes.
4. Listen attentively to your teacher, and participating classmates.
5. Ask questions in class if there is a need to clarify some points.
6. Listen well in class, and don’t allow problems to distract you.
7. Keep your attention focused on the subject.
8. Take class notes.
9. Have a note-taking system.
10. Have a private shorthand system for taking notes.
11. Study effectively. Have sufficient study materials to help you.
12. Read. Underline your textbooks.
13. Look up new words in the dictionary.
14. Read even tables, charts, and graphs.
15. Research in the library. Use the (card) catalogue.
16. Organize your notes before writing a paper.
17. When making papers, do a first draft.
18. Proofread for spelling and punctuation errors.
19. Submit all of your assignments.
20. Prepare well for tests and exams.
21. Keep a long term calendar of scheduled tests, reports, projects, and other school activities.
22. Also study on a regular basis.
23. Follow a daily schedule. Have a regular place to work and study.
24. Study with your friends.
25. Try to always learn in school. Always make use of your mind.
26. Also take care of your body. Eat healthy meals.
27. Get seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
28. Reward yourself with R & R, rest, relaxation, recreation.
29. Keep track of you progress.
30. Constantly improve your study habits. Make adjustments or improvements on any or all of the suggestions above.

You can improve your study skills, and eventually, improve your grades.

Read, Learn & Flourish!

How to Prepare for Exams?

Exams can be a dreaded word, especially if you’re teaching to high school students. Students’ notion of exam is memorization, comprehension and pressure. So this time around, aside from teaching them lessons that they will be quizzed on, why not impart several nuggets of wisdom on how to prepare for exams? After all, exams do not end in high school. And the better adjusted they are to the concept of exams, the better the grades they’ll get.

Set realistic expectations and goals
Not everyone is an honor student, so expecting to jump a year level or two overnight is just a road to disappointment. Improving grades by doing well on exams should be set over a realistic time period. This way, the student is in control and is motivated.

Goals can be set with to-do lists, priority lists, notes on monthly calendars. But the fact that students have goals will not be worth anything if they are not achieved. Try to get them to write their goals in these broad categories: career, family, health, finances, intellectual, and hobbies, among others. This way, all the things they do can fall into one big picture.

Take a break
In Stephen Covey's book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, he wrote that people should sharpen their saws. It refers to a story of someone meeting a guy in the woods trying to cut down a tree with a saw. The guy asked the woodcutter to take a break and sharpen the saw so it would go faster, but the woodcutter replied that he had been cutting for five hours. He didn’t have time to sharpen his saw!

Stress gets relieved with exercise, when the body gets an influx of endorphins. In order to stay motivated and alert, students should do enjoyable exercises, get proper rest and eat properly. This could also serve as the much-needed break of the mind and body from stressful situations (like cramming for exams). Taking time to recharge physically and emotionally increases productivity.

Prepare in advance
Cramming is not the answer to most exams, and so does the myth that facts stick easier to the brain if studying is done on the day of the exam. Preparing in advance is much more effective, and makes the student more confident in taking the exam. This is because there was time allotted for background research, perusal the school’s exam databases for past exams on the subject, and total comprehension of the issues raised in the lessons.

Get rid of barriers
The biggest barrier is procrastination, and the best way to overcome it is the “Swiss Cheese Method.” It means dividing things to do into smaller chunks (ex. 15 minute tasks) with rewards at the end of the task. This helps students and even you to focus on one issue at a time.

The next biggest barrier is interruptions. If there are phone calls, visits and other problems to deal with, just leave the premises, and fit them into another schedule. Lastly, the third barrier is stress. Did you know that 75% of all worries never happen, but stressing over them can waste so many hours?

The best way to get rid of these barriers is to manage time properly. Make it into a habit, and see the concrete improvements in the students’ academic and overall performance.

Nurture yourself
Nurture the greatest asset your students have—themselves. To be an effective student, an effective time manager, they should enhance not just the physical and mental dimensions of their lives, but also the social/emotional and the spiritual.

Light reading is better than watching television, as it integrates academic issues into real life situations. Develop good communication with friends and family. Engage into activities and pursuits that can make students find out more about themselves. Discover spirituality so there will be a core in their lives.

These things, if taken seriously, can be beneficial to students in the long run. Achievement does not come with just a snap of the fingers. So never give up!

CBSE's New Grading Sysatem for class X

HOW CBSE’S GRADING SYSTEM WILL WORK?

THE NEW ORDER
With Board exams being made optional from the academic year 2010-11, a new system of evaluation – Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) – based on grades has been approved. It comprises formative and summative assessment of the student to be done over two terms – first and second -during the year-long academic calendar.

Summative Assessment Based on the term-end examination
1) There will be two evaluations each in the first and second terms.
2) Each evaluation will carry 10 marks apiece.

Formative Assessment To evaluate and grade class work, homework, assignment and project work
1) There will be one term-end exam for each term.
2) The first term-end exam will carry 20 marks.
3) The second term-end exam will carry 40 marks.

EVALUATIONStudents of class IX and X will be evaluated on a 9-point grading system. Each grade, given on the basis of both formative and summative assessments, will correspond to a range of marks as indicated below:
A1 95 and above
A2 90 to 94
A3 85 to 89
B1 80 to 84
B2 70 to 79
C1 60 to 69
C2 50 to 59
C3 33 to 49
D Less than 33

Points to Remember:
(i) Assessment of theory/practical papers in external subjects shall be in numerical scores.In addition to numerical scores, the Board shall indicate grades in the marks sheets issued to the candidates in case of subjects of external examinations. In case of internal assessment subjects, only grades shall be shown.

(ii) Subjects of internal examination in Class X the assessment shall be made on a five point scale I.e. A,B,C,D & E.

(iii) The grades shall be derived from scores in case of subjects of external examination. In case of subjects of internal assessment, they shall be awarded by the schools.

(iv) The qualifying marks in each subject of external examination shall be 33% . However at Senior School Certificate Examination, in a subject involving practical work, a candidate must obtain 33% marks in the theory and 33% marks in the practical separately in addition to 33% marks in aggregate, in order to qualify in that subject.

(v) For awarding the grades, the Board shall put all the passed students in a rank order and will award grades as follows:

• A1 : Top 1/8th of the passed candidates
• A2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
• B1 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
• B2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
• C1 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
• C2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
• D1 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
• D2 : Next 1/8th of the passed candidates
• E : Failed candidates

Important:
(a) In case of a tie, all the students getting the same score, will get the same grade. If the number of students at a score point needs to be divided into two segments, the smaller segment will go with the larger.

(b) Method of grading will be used in subjects where the number of candidates who have passed is more than 500.

(c) In respect of subjects where total number of candidates passing in a subject is less than 500, the grading would be adopted on the pattern of grading and distribution in other similar subjects.

Memorising

By C. Radhakrishnan

Dear students, I know very well one question that haunts you all the time ‘how can I memorise whatever I learned for the next exam’. Here are some ways that might help you memorise:
• Decide to remember.
• Take regular breaks.
• Review notes regularly: after an hour, after a day, after a week, after a month, and so on. (You need an excellent time schedule to make sure that this happens, but it is extremely effective.)
• Use multisensory memories, i.e. remember using as many representations as you can.
• Generate visual images that involve moving, interaction, and colour.
• Use the same background music to review as when you learned, and perhaps associate particular music with particular topics.
• Organise meaningfully using key words.
• Look briefly at a mind map, then put it away and try to recreate it. Repeat until you can reproduce it perfectly.
• Use flash cards with the key content on them.
• Use higher-order mind maps to connect individual mind maps together.
• Review at bedtime.
• Number points.
• Over learn, i.e. learn beyond the point at which you have complete recall.
• Compress the amount of material by chunking and using keywords.

Make you know and feel
There is no need to tell time and again, self-confidence is the key to success in any aspect of human life and it is very true even in memorisation. Demonstrating to yourself that you really do understand and remember can increase your confidence that your learning is really working. Teaching someone else, or writing mock or practice assignments and tests, can be useful here.

Reviewing and reflecting on the learning process
After every learning session, review the process you followed. What worked, what didn't, what would you do differently next time. Do the same thing at the end of each week, after each assignment, and after each test. Make notes of what you've learned about learning, and use them to improve your next learning session.

If you have any other successful tool to memorise please let me know.

What makes a good learner?

A good learner is........

an active listener
willing to voice their opinions
questioning
open-minded
positive
enthusiastic
determined
adaptable
shows initiative
prepared to learn from their mistakes.

How Can I Draw Up An Effective Revision Timetable?

Plan your revision carefully. The following top 10 tips should help:

1. Divide your time into subjects.

2. Consult your lesson notes and the syllabus for each course to make sure you cover all the necessary topics. Ask your teachers for advice if necessary.

3. Consult your exam timetable. You will have longer to revise for some exams than others so plan accordingly.

4. Be sure to include any revision sessions that you’d like to attend at school. Many departments are running revision classes during study leave and “booster” sessions immediately before the exams. Ask your teachers.

5. Reflect upon your strengths and weaknesses and allot time accordingly e.g. give more time to topics you find tricky.

6. Are you at your best in the mornings, afternoons or evenings? It may be best to put the most challenging topics at these times.

7. Vary your timetable. Don't plan to spend all morning on one subject. An hour per subject is fine.

8. Plan in “blanks” which can be used when things don’t go according to plan.

9. Do allow yourself mini-breaks between sessions and quality relaxation time.

10. Be prepared to update your timetable as your revision progresses. So don't spend hours colouring it in or making it look great on the computer!

Which Revision Strategies Will Work Best For Me?

1. The more you DO with the information you have to learn the more you will understand and remember it.
2. Focus on the methods listed under your preferred learning style.
3. However, remember that it is important to use a variety of approaches – VA and K.
4. Ask your teacher for help if necessary e.g. to recommend suitable websites, to explain something once more, for a missing worksheet.