Being Intentional

Webster’s defines intentionality as “doing by design”. Many great athletes can be described as intentional. They have a clear goal for what they want to accomplish and commit to working purposely towards this objective.

Being intentional means understanding the process that works for you and then constantly repeating it. When it comes to studying, do not just go through the motions, understand your strengths and play to them.

The road to becoming intentional is fairly straightforward. The first step is to examine yourself. Think about what your objectives are. These could be as simple as getting a good grade on an exam or what your career goals are.

Goal Setting

Setting goals for yourself is always a helpful thing to do. It can help keep you on track and motivate you not to procrastinate. The best way to set goals is to use the SMART Goal method. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-specific.

When making a goal be specific, the more specific you are, the easier it will be to work on obtaining your goal. For example, instead of setting a goal of saving money to buy a new car, a specific goal would be to save up $5,000 in five years to buy a used Honda. The more specific you can be with your goal the better. Having a measurable goal will also make it easier to obtain. Using my previous example, saving $5,000 in five years makes this goal measurable.

Improving Your Memory

We all know the reason for getting an education is to gain new knowledge you can use and remember for the rest of your life. However, as an exam approaches and you have pages and pages of notes to memorize, whether or not you will need this information years from now is the least of your concerns. You just need to pass the exam. This is why having a good memory is very important piece to success in college. If you struggle with remembering class material, I have some advice for you and like anything else your memory can get better with practice.

Oh No, It's Only March! Tips For A Successful Second Half

My name is Christopher DeMilia, and I am one of the coaches here at the Academic Achievement Center. I'm a senior majoring in psychology, and have been a coach for two semesters.

I hope everyone reading this is feeling nice and refreshed after being away from campus and everything that goes along with it during Spring Break. Whether you've just been around the world and back, or spent the week catching up on some much needed sleep (or perhaps on those LOST episodes that you haven't watched because of school), Spring Break was a much deserved time to unwind from all of the stresses of college life. The semester, however, is only half over. Despite the wonderful weather outside, it is still only March! Here's some tips that will help you during the second half of the semester:

1. Make sure to keep attending class! You've worked so hard throughout the long winter months, and now that good weather and March Madness has arrived, you want to go outside and and enjoy yourself. It's alright to watch the NCAA Tournament games or to try and get a tan when you have the time, but never do so at the expense of going to class. Work just as hard as you did for the first half and you will be rewarded with the grades that you want. Besides, we're college students ... we have four months to get a tan later!
2. Interact with your notes. Sometimes attending class, taking notes, and reading the book still doesn't prepare you for an exam, and with finals coming up this is even more important. Study for an upcoming exam before your professor even gives you a study guide and it will pay off. For each chapter you go over, create 10 questions from your notes, and then answer them in the same format that your professor uses for their exams. You'll be more than prepared for that next test!
3. Reward yourself for a good grade. Play Ultimate Frisbee with your friends. Play catch. Relax outside in the sun. If you save these activities until after an exam, you'll be able to have fun and do them guilt-free.
4. Don't forget to talk with your professors. Seeing your professors during their office hours allows them to get to know you outside of class and see that you really are determined to do well. Go over previous exams with them, especially if you got a grade that you didn't expect. This can help you figure out how to prepare better for the next exam (and eventually the final).

I hope this can be of some help to you. Follow these four steps, and I believe you will be well on you way towards having a successful semester. It may seem like there is a lot of time left, but it will all be over before you know it!

Stress Management and Relief Techniques

As a senior graduating in May, I am especially under more stress than usual this semester. One of my issues, as I am sure many students have, is dealing with this stress. While staying organized and on top of your work will relieve some of your stress, no one is perfect and stress inevitably results. Some personal techniques I have for de-stressing are listening to music and working out for an hour at the gym. However, these my not work for everyone and they do not always work for me, so I felt I should have more techniques that I could use in addition to these two. I did some research and I thought I would share with you the techniques I found.

At www.healthed.uconn.edu/stressfree_zone.html you can find several stress management techniques such as the 3-2-1 relaxation technique. This technique allows you to relax your body more and more as you count down from 3 to 1. Another technique you can find on this site is a short breathing exercise where you focus on your breathing while thinking positive thoughts and tuning out distractions and stress. One other technique on this site is progressive relaxation and reflection where you put yourself in a place that relaxes you, then you move on to focusing on and controlling your breathing while relaxing your entire body, limb by limb. In addition to these, the Women's Center on campus offers techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation and massages free to students.

Other techniques I found include deep breathing, meditation, and guided imagery. As with anything, practice makes perfect and the more you practice your stress management techniques, the more effective they will be. Also keep in mind that every technique does not always work for everyone, so it is important that you find a technique that works for you and that you stick to it!

Learning from exams

It’s already the 6th week of the semester and if you have not had any midterms yet, they are probably right around the corner. Getting low grades usually doesn’t bring out the best feelings, but really it’s a chance to improve. Going over previous tests can be a useful tool to help improve the process for studying. There are several steps that you can use to help raise your grade for the next exam. When going over your test, think about the following things: