The eduFire Blog » Resources

3 Quick Tips on Becoming a Successful Learner

Koichi — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:46:12 +0000

I found this image in a great blog post that I was reading, and it really struck a chord. How about you? You certainly aren’t one of the 99%, right?

In all before-and-after success stories, there’s one thing that they didn’t tell you about: perseverance. Every one of these people had to work hard to be successful, and even though they make it look easy, it wasn’t! Nothing is as easy as we want it to be, but in the end, if you try hard and take the leap you will make it. Then you will be the one to make it look simple. Today, let’s look at three things you can do to increase your learning potential and be one of these success stories.

1. Write down your goals

You’d be surprised at how much this helps. There was a study done recently, where college students were put into three groups: The first group was the control group, and they did nothing. The second group were asked to come up with their “life goals.” The third and final group were asked to actually write down their goals. Later in the students’ lives the researchers found out how much they were making. Can you guess the results?

Group 1 (no goals): We’ll be comparing the success of Groups 2 and 3 against this group.
Group 2: Made 3x the income of Group 1
Group 3: Made 11x the income of Group 1

ELEVEN TIMES! That’s not too bad.

When it comes to learning, writing down your goals are important as well. What is it that you’d like to achieve? What do you wish to do with the knowledge that you are gaining? Who do you need to contact or meet to get there? By writing your goals down you are clearing the path to victory. Try this out with anything you are doing and watch your life improve!

2. Keep Yourself Accountable and Prevent Burnout

Have you ever gotten really excited about something, gone all out, and then ended up quitting because you worked too hard or got too busy? One way to prevent this is to create an accountability system for yourself. This approach is especially important when you are learning something on your own. Here are some quick tips to do better:

Learn with a Friend: If both of you get into it, learning can be a lot more fun and fulfilling. Just make sure you pick someone that learns at your pace, otherwise you’ll find that one person can get discouraged.
Start a Blog: Share what you’re learning with the world! Starting a blog has never been easier with platforms like Wordpress or Blogger. When you start a blog keep in mind that you are writing to an audience. A blog is a great way to share your knowledge, keep you learning, and stay accountable!
Learn From Different Places: It can be boring for your brain to learn from the same place. Go someplace public, like a coffee shop or library where other people are around. This will help you stay motivated.
Turn Off Your Internet! This is tougher than it sounds. If you have to use the Internet for whatever it is you’re learning, consider separating work and play by assigning them to different browsers. For example, all “fun” stuff goes on Chrome, and all the work stuff goes on Firefox. Make sure you stick to your rules!

3. Use the Right Tools

Figure out what you need to help you learn. Whether that’s the right learning environment, the right software, or the right teacher depends on you and you alone. We think that our SuperPass program is a wonderful way to learn incredible things, but there are other great resources out there as well. Here’s a quick list.

Flashcard Learning:  smart.fm, Anki, SpacedEd
Audio Learning:  LanguagePod101 (SpanishPod101, JapanesePod101, etc), iTunes
Learning from a Teacher: eduFire SuperPass, TeachStreet (Local teachers)
Community Learning:  eduFire, Busuu, Babbel, iTalki, LiveMocha, Lang-8

Then again, sometimes nothing beats a book, a pencil, and a reading lamp, right? Well… we’d probably debate that.

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Top 10 Learning Resources for the Aspiring Esperantist

Scott — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:06:03 +0000

In case you haven’t heard of Esperanto, I recommend checking it out. For a quick introduction, know that Esperanto is a constructed language that is easy to learn, fascinating, and meant for international communication. It is over 100 years old, and has a thriving culture to this day. However, I am not here to convince you to learn Esperanto. Katherine Garcia, one of eduFire’s members, has already done a good job of that. I am here to give you some fantastic resources for assisting you in your studies.

1. Lernu

Lernu definitely deserves to be first on this list. There are probably enough resources for learning Esperanto on Lernu alone to write this blog post, but I’ll stick to a brief overview. The name itself is a command to learn in Esperanto. (”Learn!”) I certainly haven’t been able to explore the sight completely yet. To start off, it’s available in 35 languages! This site has tons of content, including reading material, lessons, games, and jokes. It covers the social aspect through a forum, mail system, and even instant messaging. Additionally, you can scroll over and click on Esperanto words on the site to translate them into English. In theory, you could learn Esperanto solely from Lernu, but I prefer having a tutor, and it’s always nice to take advantage of the other sources below as well.

2. Anki

Anki is an online flashcard service (like smart.fm). Unlike smart.fm however, it has amazing Esperanto content, which happens to be made by Judith Meyer an Esperanto tutor on eduFire. To access the deck she has made, download Anki, then go to File > Download > Shared Decks. The deck is called “Esperanto 101.” Of course, feel free to make your own decks / lists on Anki or smart.fm, but don’t forget that you already have very complete content at your fingertips.

3. Twitter

The number of ways in which Twitter can be used continues to astound me. Yes, you can also use it to practice your Esperanto. There are plenty of tweeps (people who tweet) who use Esperanto, and you can do so yourself as well. The small posting size keeps both reading and writing digestible and approachable. I also highly recommend following @esperanto. The person behind this account retweets relevant content about Esperanto in Twitterlando (the Esperanto name for the twitterverse) from people who tweet in a variety of languages, and occasionally tweets Esperanto related content from around the web that other people on twitter haven’t already brought to the community’s attention. @esperanto is a great way to find people to follow, find great content, and stay up to date about Twitterlando.

4. Online Dictionaries

I haven’t yet found an online dictionary that I’m %100 satisfied with. I currently use two different ones, depending on my need/mood.

Reta Vortaro – This is the leader as far as I can tell. It has translations for a multitude of languages, and it automatically changes the English alphabet into Esperanto letters when searching by using the “x-method” (cx = ĉ). This dictionary is very useful and functional!
Esperanto Panorama’s dictionary - This dictionary is only English-Esperanto, and is basically a giant list of words. To find words, you have to use your browser find function (ctrl + f). This dictionary lacks a lot of the function of Reta Vortaro, and it only has English, but I’ve found that it sometimes has words that Reta Vortara does not.

5. Greasemonkey

Okay, this next one isn’t exactly a tool for learning, but it aids in easing a major annoyance. I don’t know about you, but I think typing Esperanto characters (ĉ ĵ ŭ, etc) is so much more gratifying than using any supplementary method to represent Esperanto characters (ch, j^, ux, etc). The best way I have found (so far) to solve this is the Firefox add-on called Greasemonkey. This add-on allows you to download various scripts to change the way you type. An Esperanto script can be found here. It’s not a perfect fix as it only works in your browser window and is only available for Firefox, but hey, it comes with a cute monkey in the bottom-right corner of my browser!

6. Farbskatol

Farbskatol is probably the best video site for Esperanto on the web. It’s set up kind of like a blog, but it does have categories, a search function, and archives so you can find the type of video you want. YouTube isn’t actually that great for Esperanto, although this video is fantastic for those just starting to learn Esperanto.

7. Radio Verda

Radio Verda is a podcast put on by Arono and Karlina who live in Vancouver, Canada. This is a good learning source because they speak slightly slower than conversation speed, providing you with good listening practice. Radio Verda covers international news that is relevant to Esperanto, so you can stay connected to the Esperanto speaking world. I still struggle with understanding this podcast, but I think it is a great way to make another step closer to fluency.

8. La Eta Princo

The point of introducing this source is actually to introduce reading material as a whole. There’s plenty of content on the Internet in Esperanto to read, but we just starting reading this in my Esperanto class, so I thought I’d share it specifically. La Eta Princo (some of you may know it as The Little Prince) is no longer under copyright protection, so it is available in a variety of languages. Because it disguises itself as a children’s book, the language is relatively simple, making it good for learning. However, there are still some thought provoking themes that make this interesting.

9. Vinilkosmo

One of my favorite aspects of Esperanto is that it has spawned its own culture, including literature, poetry and music. There are musicians all over the world creating music in Esperanto, meaning you can listen to and understand music from so many different people. There are several sources for Esperanto music on the internet. The largest Esperanto record label is Vinilkosmo. They sell CDs and have recently recently released an MP3 section, but you can also listen to a plethora of music for free on their site as well. There are other sources for Esperanto, of course, but this is one of the largest that I have found so far.

10. Esperanto Meetups

Obviously this is a bit different than the other nine points in this list. It can’t be accessed online, and I do not have personal experience with it (yet!). However, I think it is probably the most valuable resource mentioned. Just like learning any language, one of the best methods is immersion. I have been told that going to an Esperanto meetup and forcing yourself to speak only Esperanto is the fastest way to become fluent. Although overnight meetups like the International Youth Congress (IJK) which just finished taking place in Czech Republic for 2009, may be a bit out reach for some, if you live near a city, there is hopefully a local Esperanto speaking club that you can visit. My local club only meets once a month, but I am super excited to go to the upcoming meeting.

I will admit that Esperanto is not one of the most popular second languages, and this makes finding resources to help your studies that much more difficult. Luckily the internet is the perfect medium for passing along tools to learn this language when speakers and learners can be geographically few and far between. (Although there’s still no substitution for going to a gathering of Esperantists in real life!) I hope this list helps fellow learners make their studies more efficient and fun, but I am sure there are other resources that I have yet to find. If I am missing anything, please let me know in the comments!

Good luck studying!

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Top 10 Psychology Blogs on the Web

robyn — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:19:05 +0000

Psychology is powerfully linked to education; without research in neuroscience, speech pathology, learning, cognition, and much more, we would never be able to advance and improve teaching. Besides being useful, psychology is extremely interesting and can tell you a lot about how you learn and why you think the way you do. Sadly, there aren’t too many psychology courses on eduFire, though that will hopefully change in the near future! In the meantime, here are ten blogs about various fields within psychology. All of them provide great ways to learn more about the subject (the links and articles are REALLY interesting) and see how it relates to important social issues like bettering education or special needs learning.

1. The Media Psychology Blog

My personal favorite of the ten, the Media Psychology Blog (run by the Media Psychology Research Center) is a fascinating, up-to-date read for anyone interested in psychology and/or social media. It discusses different forms of research and is extremely applicable to many people today, with the growing importance of social networking sites (Facebook or Twitter, anyone?). Even better, it relates new findings on psychology and media to entrepreneurship, marketing, and current events, so it also gives plenty of information to people with an interest in business or in knowing the latest media trends and how they are rapidly changing our world.
(http://mprcenter.org/blog/)

2. Techpsych

Techpsych caught my attention not only because of the many links, diagrams, and videos, but also due to how well it links psychology with technology and uses both of these topics to discuss how to improve education (that last part sounds a bit like eduFire’s goal too :)!). This site shares an abundance of resources, also aimed at psychology researchers as well as educators and other professionals in similar fields, so it is a great source of information.
(http://techpsych.blogspot.com/)

3. Teaching Learners With Multiple Special Needs

In our efforts to improve education for all students, we can’t forget those who are trying hard to learn in spite of special needs. This blog provides tons of links and resources for educators working with special needs students, however severe or complicated their needs may be. Thus, it provides important information to teachers who are truly making education accessible to everyone, while covering a specific major field within psychology.
(http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/)

4. Perusing Psychology

Somewhat more technical and scientific, Perusing Psychology is another interesting blog that really caught my eye (I only wish I had enough time to read through all the older entries too; they’re quite long!). This site focuses more on neuroscience and psychobiology research, discussing how people think as well as the latest data on diseases that affect a brain’s functioning, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or aphasia. Definitely a good one for anyone curious about the more biological side of psychology. There’s some cool videos on there too!
(http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/)

5. IQ’s Corner

This blog has some great pictures and throws some humor into the mix with a few cartoons as well. Topic-wise, its focus is on intelligence and various theories put forward by psychologists. It is a good source of information on recent research, and also an interesting place for discussion and “musings” on psychology.
(http://www.intelligencetesting.blogspot.com/)

6. School Psychologist Blog Files

The School Psychologist Blog Files is yet another blog dedicated improving special needs learning and helping parents and teachers with special needs students. It discusses child psychology and development, as well as various learning disabilities, topics that I have personally always been really interested in, but which are certainly very relevant to anyone interested in advancing education (as I’m sure eduFire members are!). Hopefully blogs such as this one will be able to change the way we see special needs children and provide more resources for them.
(http://schoolpsychologistfiles.blogspot.com/)

7. School Psychology Blog with Dr. Gaston Weisz

Dr. Weisz runs this blog in conjunction with his podcast, but the site has many great links that again link psychology with education. He also covers child development, like the previous blog, with for example, videos on attention deficit disorder and research on autism (which is becoming increasing prevalent in our society). Once again, this is a great blog to learn more about various children’s learning needs and how to improve education (an important theme!)
(http://drweisz.blogspot.com/)

8. Brain, Mind, and Education

Brain, Mind, and Education also ties new neuroscience/psychology research in with education (as its name would imply) and covers quite a range of topics–from taking care of concussions to theories on human intelligence to why a more detailed rubric may be better than a simple, numerical grading system for students. This blog appears to be a fascinating source of research information, and perhaps more importantly, new ideas for improving curricula and advancing education.
(http://brainmindedu.blogspot.com/)

9. Speech-Language Pathology Sharing

I saw this blog because of its usage and discussion of the latest technology resources (wasn’t there an eduFire class on Prezi recently :)?) But it does a great job focusing on speech pathology and providing help to educators of children who may need special language help. Also, videos, pictures, and other resources abound, making learning about speech pathology even easier.
(http://speechlanguagepathologysharing.blogspot.com/)

10. Assessment and Intervention in School Psychology

I never knew that there was a blog devoted just to (as the name indicates) assessment of child development and learning needs as well as the intervention practices used in special needs situations. But this blog is yet another important one for improving education–how do you deal with psychological needs among kids in school, and how should educators be trained to handle such situations? You will find some interesting discussion here on how children are assessed and how they perform as a result.
(http://treatmentvalidity.blogspot.com/)

Of course, these are only ten of many, many psychology and education-related blogs to be found on the Web. I’m sure if you searched for “psychology blogs” on Google, you would get quite a plethora of results, but these ten blogs, while perhaps not the most famous, all provide excellent resources and are incredibly interesting to read. Maybe they will stimulate more interest in how the fascinating field of psychology can be used both to learn more about why people think in certain ways and to better education. What do you think? Are there other psychology blogs you would add to this list?

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7 Free Online Resources for Homeschool Language Learning

Koichi — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:10:46 +0000

Of course, we think eduFire (not to mention SuperPass!) is an absolutely incredible way for any homeschooler to learn a language or new skill, but we can’t always go and toot our own horn when there’s so many others that do such a good job as well. Here is a list of seven free resources (besides us) that home schoolers can use to study a language quickly and effectively. With the web, using software on your computer is old. These resources are often better, more effective, and free!

Smart.fm

Smart.fm is one of the most in depth flashcard programs on the web, and it’s all free. With user generated lists there are an infinite number of possibilities, from Japanese to Spanish to art and more. They’ve done an incredible job studying how the brain learns new things and applying it to an application that anybody can use. No matter what you’re learning, it’s time to throw away your index cards and get Smart.

Lang-8

Lang-8 is so innovative when it comes to the idea of “community” learning. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent writing and reading on this website. Lang-8 means “infinite languages” (turn that 8 on its side), because it supports all languages. The idea behind Lang-8 is pretty simple, but also really effective as well. You write journal entries (or other content) in the language that you are learning. People who are natives in the language that you are learning will correct your journal entries using Lang-8’s fabulous set of correcting tools. Then, in theory, you would go help people who are learning your native language by correcting their content. I’m always really surprised (happily surprised) by the community and how eager everyone is to help each other out! Start writing now!

Busuu

Busuu is another community driven site, and does a great job making language learning fun! Using the site, it almost feels “game-like” which, when done well (like Busuu) helps kids enjoy learning. Busuu’s platform includes dialogues, interactive tests, listening practice, community, vocabulary training, and more! If you just visit their website you’ll see why it’s different from everyone else!

Babbel

Babbel is another site that makes learning fun (actually, all of these are!). Babbel believes that it’s important to “make the connection between different sense, and associations between diverse kinds of content.” I couldn’t agree more! Everything on the site has a picture or audio along with it, and learning is much more interactive than traditional learning resources, which essentially means Babbel’s system will adjust to your level over time.

iTunes

iTunes, believe it or not, is a great way to practice a language. More specifically, the podcast section (because it’s free). Did you know that you can scroll down to the bottom of the iTunes store and change your location? If you do this, you can’t download any content that costs anything, but you can (for example), change your location to Japan, then go to the Japan podcast section where you have access to a wealth of listening resources that comes from real, native speakers of Japanese. The great part is that when you change locations, all your menu items stay in your native language, which makes it really easy to navigate!

Twitter

Twitter has really boomed in the last few months, which means more and more people from all over the world are Tweeting in 140 characters or less. I’ve found that Twitter is great for both reading and writing practice, mostly because everything comes in such manageable bite-sized chunks. If you follow people tweeting in the language that you’re learning then it’s easy to read / translate incoming tweets just because they’re so short (and not overwhelming, like a text or newspaper translation). Also, for writing, you’ll find that it’s easy to write 140 characters at a time.You can do it in between other things, so you’re always making use of your time. Tweet! (don’t forget to follow @edufire!)

Innovative Languages (Pod101 Series)

You may not have heard of Innovative Languages by this name, but I bet you’ve heard of all their fabulous online products (JapanesePod101, FrenchPod101, etc.). Now, they do have paid versions of all these things, but they offer quite a bit of content for free as well. You can learn a lot from their free audio content, and of course, you can learn even more by upgrading your account. To see a list of languages they cover, just head on over to the products page and gander at the list in the left sidebar.

So what is missing from this list? Add your own favorite homeschool language learning resources to the comments section to help everyone out!

[img source]

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Following the Brilliant Minds Behind Hacking Education

Koichi — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:59:04 +0000

An incredible event went down in New York today: the “Hacking Education Conference.” Jon was there, and even though I wasn’t, I followed it on Twitter and was able to contribute a bit from across the country. Everyone at the conference (or tweeting about it) used the hashtag #hackedu to keep track. All day, I’ve been compiling a list of all the contributors to the #hackedu conversation and wanted to share them here with you, so even after the conference is over, you can continue to see what these educational geniuses are up to. Oh, and of course, with every Twitter-related article, a shameless plug: follow us over at @edufire.

Who’s Tweeting #hackedu? A list of “Education on Twitter”

This is just a list of people who have contributed to the “Hacking Education” discussion on Twitter (will be adding more as they come along, to a certain extent). I don’t know exactly who was at this conference, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. Everyone listed below is passionate about changing education for the better, so if you are as well, this is a great list of people to follow! If they have a blog, I linked it under their name.

If you’re looking for a good recap on the event, AVC does a great overview with some great points as well (my favorite is number 11). My congrats and encouragement to everyone out there hacking education! I’m looking forward to building change and a great future for the system!

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10 Ways to Hack Your Next Exam

reg — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:41:12 +0000

For many people Fall means exam time. Whether it’s a standardized test to get you into grad school or college or simply a mid-term exam, it seems that once the leaves start to turn it means that it’s time to turn to the books. Some enjoy the challenge. Others dread the anxiety. Everyone wants to know how they can do better.

I’ve spent thousands of hours teaching in my life. A good chunk of that time has been focused on helping to prepare people for various exams including the SAT, the ACT and the GMAT (while working for Kaplan) and for various technology exams while working at a Microsoft training center. In addition over the years I’ve taken each of those exams as well as the PSAT, the LSAT, the CMA and Level One of the CFA. I’d like to share the top 10 “hacks” that I’ve learned over the years and taught to others in the hope that they might be helpful to you.

Hack #1 – Surround yourself with people who expect to score well. In my experience nothing will give you a better chance to score well then surrounding yourself with other people who expect to score well. Life works this way in general (the more successful people you surround yourself with, the more likely you are to succeed) but for some reason people forget about this when it comes to test-taking. If you’re looking to score 170+ on the LSAT you want to be hanging out and studying with others who are looking to do likewise. You’ll learn tips from them and be challenged as you study together in a way that you simply won’t be with people who have more humble expectations. And now with the Web it’s easier than ever to connect with people who have similar lofty aims.

Hack #2 – Block your study time. Almost all exams are timed. Yet for some reason most people they don’t time their studies. Blocking your study time serves two purposes. First, it puts you in more realistic exam conditions to what you’ll experience on Test Day. Second, it’s simply more productive. In Tony Schwartz’s excellent book The Power of Full Engagement he recommends breaks every 90-120 minutes:

The body, if you listen to it, asks you for a break every 90-120 minutes. We override that rhythm at our peril. If people are operating effectively and are following the natural demand of the body, it pays for them to take a form of recovery every 90-120 minutes.

Use a timer and block your study time and not only will it be more enjoyable, it’ll be way more effective.

Hack #3 – Research your study materials carefully. I’m shocked at how many people use crappy study material to prepare for their exam. You’re likely going to invest dozens or even hundreds of hours studying. Why would you not spend at least a few hours planning and researching your approach and materials? Sadly, many people find themselves wandering the isles at a Barnes & Noble and end up grabbing the book that “looks good”. Don’t do that. Go to Amazon and read the reviews. Talk to your friends who’ve taken the exam (preferably the ones who have scored very well!). Frequent discussion boards for your exam and ask questions there. And if you end up taking a test prep class grill your instructor about the best study materials (if he or she can’t give you intelligent advice you may want to switch to another class!). The time you spend upfront will be well worth it!

Hack #4 – Teach someone else. This is perhaps the most underutilized form of studying which is a shame because it’s one of the most effective. Perhaps the most effective. You’ve heard the adage that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else and that’s definitely true for test prep. I recently read the excellent book Disrupting Class which contained a great story about someone who discovered this to be true:

Dan recounted to us that as he began to teach accounting, “All of a sudden, I understood it! I had grunted through all those years as a student by sheer guts and willpower, memorizing all the rules. But I never understood why we had to do all of those things. As soon as I had to prepare for class and teach it, I understood it!”

The ideal is to find someone who’s preparing for the same exam and who hasn’t studied very much yet or is not expecting to score very high. Offer to tutor them for free. It’s one of the best ways to reinforce your knowledge of the material!

Hack #5 – Tuck studying into the cracks of your day. We’re all busy but most of us have little gaps here and there throughout the day where studying is possible. Over the course of a day all those gaps add up. Find creative ways to study during those gaps. For instance, preparing flashcards that you can put in your backpack is a great idea. Then the next time you’re in line somewhere break them out and do a quick study session.

Audio can be another great way to maximize your study time. There are audio learning materials available for many exams and even if there aren’t you certainly can create your own. Ideally you can get these onto your iPod or iPhone and listen while you’re in the car, at the gym, etc. I used this hack a lot when preparing for my CMA exams and it was amazing how much studying I was able to do without taking any extra time out of my day.

Hack #6 – Become an expert in the details of the exam itself. Over the years I taught many people who spent lots of time preparing for the exam without having much of an understanding about how the actual exam scoring and timing would go. Big mistake. If you’re going to do anything to prepare the first thing should be to know how the exam is administered. Is it pencil and paper? Computer adaptive? How long is each section? How does the scoring work? You should know the exam so well that you could write a blog post describing all the details that is completely accurate. All of that information is (usually) publicly available so there’s really no excuse for not understanding how the exam is constructed. This hack alone will mean a big difference between scoring well and scoring poorly.

Hack #7 – Utilize The Million Dollar Proofreader Hack. This one can be very effective, especially if you practice it ahead of time. If you’re taking a traditional exam (this doesn’t work as well for computer adaptive exams although you can adapt it), try this once you’ve completed all of the questions. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. When you open them pretend like you are looking at someone else’s exam. Now pretend that you’ve been given a task. For every mistake you can find on that person’s exam between now and when time is up, you’ll be given one million dollars. Go back in and dissect every question as if there were huge stakes on the line (given how much your score can impact your future, there probably are!). In almost every case you’ll find at least one mistake and often many more!

Most people simply get through the questions and stop and wait aimlessly for time to be called. That’s a big mistake. Don’t be like them. Go after those millions.

Hack #8 – Do dry runs. Here’s a secret borrowed from Olympic athletes. Do at least a couple dry runs before your big exam simulating the actual conditions of the exam as closely as possible. If you know your exam is going to be at 9 AM on a Saturday morning then starting a few weeks before do a practice exam on Saturday mornings at 9 AM. This will get your body and mind conditioned properly for the test and you’ll also find out what works (e.g., a good workout the night before) and what doesn’t (e.g., partying until 3 AM the night before) in terms of being ready to go.

For your dry runs try as hard as possible to simulate the conditions of your exam. If your exam is going to be on a computer do your practice exams on a computer. Try to do the timing the same as it will be for the actual exam. Basically you want to set it up so that when you walk into the real exam you trick your body and mind into saying “Hey, I’ve been here before. It wasn’t that bad.”

Hack #9 – Get a tutor. Why a tutor? Simply put it’s the most efficient way of being taught. If you sit in a class with a lot of people you’re likely only spending a fraction of your time learning stuff that’s highly relevant to you. With a good tutor you should be spending almost all of your time on challenging questions and problem areas specific to you. Classes aren’t bad per se but if you really want to hack your exam and get a top score an individual tutor might be a better route to go.

Places like Kaplan and Princeton Review provide private tutoring face-to-face. If you want online tutoring you can find it here and on an increasing number of other websites. craigslist is also a great place to find tutors. It’s amazing how many smart people hang out in the “Tutoring & Lessons” category there!

Hack #10 – Write the exam. This is probably the most advanced of the hacks. And it’s not for everyone. But if you’re looking to get that killer score that will get you into Harvard Law or Stanford undergrad then this is something you should definitely try. Here’s what you do…sit down and pretend you’ve just been given a job by one of the testing companies to write 50 questions for the next year’s exam (you’ll want to do this after you’ve done a number of problems so you’re familiar with the question types, structures, etc.).

By forcing yourself to write really good questions (and importantly, provide really good answer choices) your brain will work in a different way. You’ll start to lay “traps” for the prospective test-taker such as an incorrect answer choice that would be correct if a step in the problem were skipped. By writing questions in this fashion you’re going to be much less likely to fall into those same traps on test day. Writing questions like this can take a fair amount of time and mental energy but it’s an elite form of test prep that will give you an extra edge over the competition.

I hope you’ve enjoyed 10 Ways to Hack Your Next Exam. If you have other strategies for prepping for a test please post in the comments!

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Traveling this Summer? 12 Cool Websites to Learn the Language (Mostly for Free!)

reg — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:27:04 +0000

Today marks the first official day of summer and if you’re one of the fortunate ones who will be traveling to another country this year you’re in luck. There are more sites than ever to help you learn to speak at least enough of the language to get you out of trouble (or perhaps into trouble!). Lists like this have been put together before but given all the great resources that have come online in the last couple of years we thought it was time for a fresh one:

Rosetta Stone “Lite”

Rosetta Stone is software that you’ve no doubt heard of (at least if you’ve opened a SkyMall Magazine anytime in the last 5 years). They have great products but are also a bit pricey. Fortunately there are a few websites out there that offer lighter weight versions of the type of stuff you’d find in Rosetta Stone:

LiveMocha – LiveMocha now offers lessons in over 10 languages plus has a great network of students available for language exchange.

Mango Languages – While Mango Languages’ Premium Course Subscription costs a bit their Discovery Courses are free and a great way improve your vocabulary and grammar. Plus, their downloadable MP3s are perfect for listening on your iPod during your travels.

Babbel – For the more visually inclined Babbel is a treat. It’s an easy way to improve your vocabulary and listening skills. Plus, you can compete against others in the ultimate war of the polyglots! ;)

Language Exchanges

Know English and want to speak some French? Chances are that there’s someone in France who is in the opposite boat. A number of websites now exist to help you connect with someone and trade off speaking and listening in each others’ language. Most of these services utilize Skype so you don’t have to pay anything to talk. Here are some of the best we’ve found:

italki.com – italki.com is one of the larger language exchange sites and is popular in the Middle East, China and India.

MyHappyPlanet – MHP is a well-designed site that is big in Asia (India, China and Japan) and very popular in Columbia.

FriendsAbroad – FriendsAbroad is one of the longest-running language exchange sites and popular with people in Europe.

Podcasts

The tremendous growth in podcasting over the last several years is a boon for people interested in learning languages. There are literally hundreds of podcast episodes available for many languages and this is a great way to turn drive time into study time and learn without taking any additional time out of your day. Here are a couple of resources for finding new language learning podcasts:

Open Culture – Open Culture’s list is a bit old (October 2006) but it’s a good one. You’ll find a lot of podcasts here for over two dozen different languages.

LearnOutLoud – Our sister site, LearnOutLoud has done a good job indexing language learning podcasts. They currently have 55 different podcasts in their languages category available to download or stream.

Of course, iTunes is a great place as well to find language learning podcasts!

Blogs

OK, this is cheating because there are really a ton of cool blogs out there that will help you learn languages faster. We spent some time tracking down the best ones this week and put it all into a post entitled The Top 21 Language Bloggers on the Web.

Videos

Nothing is bigger on the Internet than video these days. Take advantage of those minutes on your coffee break or lunch hour and watch a video or two in the language you’re learning. It’s amazing how quickly you can pick up a language from video (just ask all those people who learned how to speak English from watching Hollywood movies!).

YouTube – YouTube has a ton of foreign language learning videos. You can search for your favorite videos and then when you find good ones be sure to subscribe so you can be notified when they post new content. In addition, you can find innovative tips for how to go about learning a language including my personal favorite Play Video Games to Learn Languages Online.

(Also, we found that it was time-consuming to wade through YouTube to find the best language learning videos so we assembled the best ones in our videos directory. Enjoy!)

Tutoring

One of the best recent inventions on the Internet is the ability to connect to teachers for one-on-one live video learning. A number of websites have cropped up to help you find good teachers and engage in private tutoring sessions. It might not be free but there’s no faster way to learn a language and because you can find someone from anywhere around the world the costs tend to be lower.

Myngle – Based out of the UK, Myngle connects tutors and students for Skype-based sessions. Myngle also offers free student-to-student language exchanges.

Phrasebase – There’s a lot going on at Phrasebase including the ability to learn words and phrases and take lessons or classes plus very cool “Phrasebooks” that you can access through your mobile device.

eduFire – At eduFire we offer one-on-one private tutoring sessions using a Flash-based video chat system. In addition, we also have a number of other tools to help you learn languages including a fun Flashcard game, a Resources blog and the previously mentioned Videos section.

Indeed, it’s a great time to be a language learner given all the outstanding resources available to you. If you know of other great sites that we’ve missed feel free to add them in the comments.

Thanks and best of luck as you learn to Habla Espanol, Parlez-Vous Français?, etc.!

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The Online Education Market is Officially for Realz

jon — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:24:25 +0000

So many of you probably saw this already but GlobalScholar, a company that could be considered a competitor to eduFire, announced today that they raised $27 million. Kudos to Peter and the rest of the gang over there as you have to be doing something right to raise that much $$$ so soon after launching. My first reaction to the news was excitement. I’ve shared my thoughts on competition before so I won’t reiterate here but let’s just say that if there ever were doubts about whether online ed is a viable market this announcement should go a long way towards putting those to bed. Some of smartest minds on the planet are getting behind online education plays and there are some very good reasons for doing that.

While I admire some of the stuff GlobalScholar has done from what I’ve seen so far their vision of the future of education and learning is quite a bit different from ours. And that’s the beautiful thing about competing…as long as your vision hasn’t been realized yet by someone else there’s absolutely no reason to fear any announcement that any one of your competitors could make.

The next couple of years are going to be incredibly fun as all of us carve out our place in this quaint little $2 trillion industry. May the best men and women win and at the end of day what’s incredibly kick ass is that regardless of who “wins” the true winners are going to be teachers and students who are going to be able to leverage technology to lift learning out of its current muck and mire and turn it into something fulfilling, fun and affordable by everyone on the planet. And when you view it through that lens there aren’t really any losers in this battle.

OK, back to work!

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