Particularly once you get to college and beyond in academia, it seems like your life is spent nose-in-book, coffee-in-hand, trying to find out what the heck your next paper’s going to be about. You highlight passages, and then forget why; you spill coffee on your book; you fall asleep. Not [...]

With more colleges and programs making it easier to satisfy your wanderlust, it is no surprise that more students are taking advantage and heading off campus for a life-changing experience. But before you smile pretty in your passport picture, make sure you've got your bases covered. This 5 part series will give tips, tricks, and ideas to making the most of your off campus experience from start to finish.

   Image © Simona Dumitru Extra curricular activities have two benefits. Firstly, they can really help polish up a CV and help you secure that job or college place. In addition to that they can actually be… fun! A revolutionary concept, many people are just treating extra curricular activities as something that they have to do to [...]

When I’m in class, I tend to take a lot of notes. Then, I proceed to forget everything I learned, hoping I can remember the important stuff later on when I start studying for tests or preparing for papers. The trouble is, I often get lost in the sea of my notes, and have trouble [...]

  “Disorganized Desk Syndrome” can affect all of us. When you are practically diving into piles of paper to find what you are looking for, and the floor surrounding your desk is even cluttered with “stuff”, something needs to be done! Tip One - Get an Inbox A proper physical inbox is a [...]

This semester I have been facilitating breakout groups for the learning strategies course in my faculty. Last week, the session focused on reading and note-taking. One of the activities had the students make a Cornell note on a section of the course’s textbook. When I asked if any of them had heard of Cornell notes [...]

With school comes textbooks, workbooks, and of course, journal articles. The hard drives of college student and professors alike are littered with dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of articles. How do you tame the chaos? Enter Papers.

Image © stock.xchng user RAWKU5 One thing I have been trialling during the first week back at school is deciding what hours I will be working today. Much like the corporate world has set 9-5 hours, I have been deciding what hours I need to work that day and stick to those religiously. Every morning begins [...]

It doesn’t take long to realise that going to university or college is an expensive decision, so let’s not re-hash that now. What we should re-hash though, is how to finance this decision. Which is why I open up the floor to you guys, lovely Gearfire readers who are so chock full of intelligent knowledge. For [...]

Image © Steve Woods Going to school or college unprepared can be a nightmare. It will often result in angry teachers, chaotic days and the near impossible feat of trying to get everything done without the adequate resources. My top tip for preventing this, prepare what you need for the next [...]