You can tell school is back in session, every other thing I’m reading today concerns students.
Most of it, however, is not terribly useful. But some certainly is, like the following!
Firefox is preparing a Firefox: Student Edition, which comes pre-bundled with certain studenty extensions. You can do the same thing, of course, simply by installing them yourself… but, you know, whatever floats your boats. Even when you get lots of people using Firefox, few make the next leap to extensions. This should help. Featured extensions are: FoxyTunes, StumbleUpon, Zotero. Info care of Lifehacker.com. They’re taking suggestions on extensions you’d include, you should check it out - because even if Firefox doesn’t include the recommendations, there is no reason you can’t.
DIY Life has a post about saving money on text books, and aside from their suggestions I’d like to suggest this to you. Get the ISBN (I usually get it from the Amazon page of the book) and then go to Google Products (previously Froogle) and put it in there. Generally, Amazon has pretty good prices (including shipping) but sometimes you’ll find a book in a weird place. Just be careful, lots of the smaller dealers can really screw you regarding proper editions.
As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, I’m not big on web-apps unless they can dynamically work with my computer all the time. But, a pretty close option (suggested by Lifehacker, though I’m pretty sure I visited it before this) is Notely. I gotta say, looking around I’m very impressed. I’ll play with it this week and get back to you. But really, I generally like to keep these things in one or two places - and what I mean by that is I want all my calendar type things in iCal, which in turn sync with my phone or ipod, and all my notes in my iDisk and always available on whatever computer I’m using. Notely does work with iCal, but I’ve got to put it through the ringer first. It’s Facebook integration may be the strongest thing going for it.
As for my own suggestions to you… I submit the following:
- Gradefix. You can see what I said about it here. It works with RSS and iCal, and I find it invaluable for managing my study time.
- Set up regular study-times, then stick to them. As much as possible, try to keep your non-study time.. well, not studying. That may mean tweaking your schedule from time to time, but try to keep a division between study and life. And make you sure you HAVE a life. You don’t have to be drunk all the time, but get out some. Go for a walk.
- Read smarter. Underline, use post-its, whatever. A well noted book is invaluable, I can review an entire book in minutes if I sufficiently underlined and made note of important ideas.
- Take breaks. A good working rule is the 3/4th rule. For every hour, take off about 15 minutes and do something relaxing, better yet - take a quick walk around the block. It helps. Really. The human mind can only take in so much.
- Get plenty of sleep. I am the king of insomnia, and I know a billion things compete for your time, but try to get some rest.
Technorati Tags: backtoschool, college, education, student, reading, student, studying
24/08/2007 at 9:56 am Permalink
Hey,
Thanks for the link to Notely. Anything that helps spread the word is brilliant. If you have any comments/questions about Notely or if you review it do let me know. You can email me at the above email or hit the contact link on Notley in the footer.
Hope you find Notely productive.
Cheer,
Tom Whitson