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I figured it would be useful to write a masterpost where I link detailed advice on a lot of school and college topics so you have a nice and condensed list for the future! Just click the topic you need some help on and you’ll be hyperlinked right through it ;)

♥ The Best, Fastest Note Taking Method! (Updated Method!)

♥ Time Management Tips // How to Plan for School/College!

♥ How to Kickstart School/Freshman Year 

♥ Textbook Studying Tips, Tricks & Advice

♥ How to Study With Mindmaps and Charts

♥ My Note Taking Method + Color Coordination (Old Method)

♥ My Top 40 Study Tricks and Tips

♥ Binder Organization and Setup

♥ Backpack Essentials + How to Choose a bag for School

Hey everyone! A lovely man named Mike Strangstalien, MA, MFT, LPC, NCC decided to compile a list of 8 things successful people do. He has been working on this list since 1994 and continues to update this list as he does more research. I decided to share some of his amazing work here with you all by summarizing his main points. Enjoy and good luck!

1. They raise their hand in class.

Now, this may seem trivial and sometimes you’re left with the question, “How can I speak up in class if I don’t even know what I don’t know?”. However, its been proven that people who raise their hand and ask questions tend to do better. If you are unsure of a question to ask, a good technique is to go home and review the material and the next day at the beginning of class, ask your question. This not only gets you to actively participate in class, but you begin to think about the information you learned and are able to commit it to long term memory.

2. They establish routine and structure.

During the day you should try to complete your homework so that at night you can spend your time studying, reviewing and consolidating. Its been proven that studying something before bed can commit it to long term memory. Doing work at night when you’re tired can lead to poor performance and may not commit things to memory if its the first time you’re seeing the information. 

Also, try to go to bed BEFORE 1:30 am! Why is this important? Your serotonin is used up during the day (about 90%)  and is reassembled if you get to bed by 1:30. If you go to bed past 1:30 twice in a row, you miss your key opportunity to replace it and you’re left with only 10%! Do this again and you’re down to only 1%. This affects your concentration, focus, attention, motivation and memory. 

3. They go to office hours.

Those who go to office hours at least 8 times during the semester yield, on average, 0.5-1.2 grade points HIGHER than their non-attending counter parts. The main reason people don’t go to office hours is a fear of looking “dumb”. However, if you just admit to your professor or TA that you’re completely lost, they can help re-teach. Remember to be honest about your confusion because otherwise they may start their explanation off the assumption that you already know something and you’ll have wasted your time and your professor’s. This can be the difference between a C and an A! 

4. They prepare for each lecture.

Preparation for each lecture is essential. Begin by reviewing any information from the last lecture within 24 hours of first receiving this information, otherwise you lose valuable time to commit it to long term memory. Additionally, quick read assigned readings so that the lecture can consolidate what you read. After the lecture, spend about 5 minutes summarizing the major points and look up any vocabulary you didn’t recognize. This all compiles into the three-read principle. 1. Read the textbook (or other materials) beforehand. 2. Reread after the lecture and try to find the main points in the reading. 3. Reread a third time and write notes as though you plan to teach the information. This means simplifying and not writing down unnecessary information. 

5. They remain actively involved when learning, attending lecture, and while studying. 

I have a post about active studying techniques which you can find here. Active learning requires not only that you consciously try to pay attention, but also that you maintain your motivation to learn the material, the willingness to complete the tasks at hand needed to learn it, and saying to yourself, “I am excited to learn something new and I am thankful that I have the opportunity to do it”. Remember, there are kids in other countries literally dying for the right to an education. Your education is luxury, not a right. Additionally, every 15 minutes, stop and ask yourself, “how does this fit into the main idea,” and “what is it that I just read and how can I form study questions from it?”. 

6. They take responsibility for their learning.

Although your professor is there to provide you with the information, it is not their job to make sure you learn it. Often times students fail because they expect the professor to try hard to help them. This is a harmful way of thinking and it can lead to failed exams. Those who take responsibility will make sure they seek help when they need it and they will make sure they search for resources outside of what is provided. If you’re really struggling with a concept, try Kahn Academy, YouTube or asking a TA. Its up to you to earn the A, not your professor. Also, keep track of your own grades and assignments that you turn in. This way if you need to see someone for help, you’re not disadvantaged because you waited until the grades were updated online after you threw away graded papers. 

7. They understand the work load and are prepared to study 7 days a week.

Not everyone can study for hours on end every day. For this reason, those who are successful make sure they break down their studying into 25 minute intervals. Additionally, make sure you touch on this information every single day to keep your brain ready for the class when it comes time and you can avoid procrastination. You also need to be prepared for repeated exposure. This means reviewing the same material 3-7 times. This highly increases your likelihood to not only learn the information for exam, but not become guilty of the “pump-and-dump”. This is especially helpful for anyone pursuing medical school or graduate school. 

8. They have no use for negative self-talk and they are honest with themselves.

“In the beginning, God…” 

Where do you begin your telling of the gospel? 

The other day, I was taught how to do the “Romans Road,” a list of verses that help you evangelize and explain the gospel through verses in Romans. While this is a great strategy that can be useful, I respectfully disagree with the choice of starting verse: Romans 3:32 - “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” 

If we start our gospel story in Genesis 3 with the sin of Adam and Eve, we begin with broken relationships and a fallen world, forgetting that our true identity lies in Genesis 1 with “In the beginning, God created.” We were created by God to be in perfect relationship with Him and to live in perfect relationships with each other. We have to remember that the reason we should hate sin so much is that we were not created to be living in it. We should grieve over our fallen world because it was not created to be that way. Sin is the destruction of a world that was created good. 

Here’s what happens when we start the gospel with “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…” (Genesis 6) rather than “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1): 

1. We lose the meaning behind “Savior.” If the world was always bad, and we were born in sin, what exactly do we need saving from? The reason we need a savior at all is that the Creator God wanted to restore the relationship that was broken and redeem the identity that was lost.

2. We fail to comprehend why Christ would die at all. The biggest question we should be asking ourselves in response to the gospel is “Why would he do that if we didn’t do anything to deserve it? Why does God love us so much?” It doesn’t make sense why God would love us if we don’t understand that he created us in his image. 

3. We put our focus on worldly things instead of eternal things. Sin is temporary, Christ has overcome. We need to start with the explanation of what the world truly is, because our fallen world is not going to last forever. Our focus is not on the sin that we want to escape from, but rather the God we want to run to. 

4. We do not fully understand the end of the story without its true beginning. Without knowing “and God saw that it was good,” (Genesis 1) we don’t understand “Behold I am coming soon” (Revelation 22). We know that Jesus will come again and create the new heavens and new earth as it was always meant to be, because we understand that God is Creator. 

But if we’re going to sum up one reason to remember Genesis one, it’s this: 

Before there was sin, there was God. 

“In the beginning, God…” 

It’s time to go back to the basics. 

If my Sunday school teacher had asked me to tell them the gospel as a 6 yr old, I probably could have done it- and that would’ve been great… expect that for a long time I pretty much stayed right there. I could tell you the gospel, but if you asked me why Christ had to die, why it was essential that he rose again, or where the gospel really began all the way back in Genesis, I was stumped. It’s great to have Bible studies that go deeply into specific topics or certain books, those types of studies are essential to discipleship and spiritual growth, but if you don’t have a strong foundation in your understanding of the gospel, you are hopelessly lost. 

The gospel is the cornerstone of our faith; Without it all the religion in the world means nothing. Yet, do we even understand what we believe when we recite the gospel to each other? 

What about every other part of Christianity that follows? Do we understand why we go to church read the Bible, pray, go on mission trips, help the poor, or anything else we are called to do as Christians? When Christianity becomes cultural, it can be easy for us to go through the motions of doing all the outward signs of Christianity that everyone else expects, without understanding their significance, or experiencing these things in their fullness. 

When we try to build on our faith without a solid foundation in the Lord and His Word, we are easily broken down by the attacks of our enemy and the distractions of the world. As soon as we face hardship, we begin to think that religion is fake, petty, and naive. Look at the parable that Jesus told in Matthew 13 of a farmer (that is God) sowing seeds (the gospel) into different types of soil (our response to God’s words). Jesus said, “Some [seed] fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.” That is what happens when we don’t take time to create a foundation in why we believe what we do. We are beat down by troubles that come. Yet, hope is not lost. “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” We can truly grow in our faith and our relationship with God when we have a foundation to build on, that means hearing AND understanding. 

So we’re starting a series on the wait, why? moments of Christianity- starting with the gospel, because we’ve gotta have a foundation. 

You may think this a good trait to have and yeah, most of the time it is. But sometimes it’s a bit of a burden and today I’m really feeling it.

Often I just wish that people can learn from the mistakes of others.

I feel like screaming ‘look at what happened to me! Learn from that, don’t make the same mistake I did. Don’t put yourself in pains way’.

But I’m learning sometimes it isn’t my place. Sometimes, people can know the consequences and still go ahead with things and sometimes we have to let them learn for themselves.

A kind word goes a lot further than a lecture.

God is showing me that He is the mover and the shifter. He will intervene and I will pray.

Pray for those you see straying from the path, and know that it will be God bringing them back, not your strength alone.

Rely on him when all you wanna do is scream. He will quiet your soul and instruct your heart.

Just pray. I am.