How to Hack Homework Time by up to 50%

What’s the one thing we all hate about school the most? It’s probably homework. Think about it: after a long, hard day of school, you’re probably tired and ready to go do whatever really makes you happy. Instead, you have a long night of homework, projects, and studying ahead of you. And that just plain sucks.

I used to have a big problem with homework in middle school. My grades were suffering and I was getting Bs where I should’ve gotten As and Cs where I should’ve gotten Bs. And I blame how I was doing (or not doing) my homework for it.

I would come home and say, “you know what? I just don’t care enough! I think I’m just going to do whatever I feel like, and as for my homework, oh well!” Doing my homework got me so down and out that I just gave up doing it.

And of course this isn’t good for your grades, especially if you have a teacher that checks HW for completion daily.

But luckily, things have changed since then. I’ve read a lot of self-improvement and learning books, and did a lot of experimenting, and finally I started to figure out a way to make homework less of a burden. (In fact, I even recently wrote an eBook about it called How to Do Homework (Faster), which you can download here.)

So how can you “Hack” your homework time per say? Well, the answer is pretty counterintuitive. Instead of just sitting down and working at your homework, you have to spend more time NOT doing your homework and less DOING it. Sound backwards? It is.

So here’s the two ideas behind the SchoolDestroyer Method to Hacking Your Homework Time.

1. Spend Time ensuring that you’re working at Max Efficiency

2. Reduce the Time you need to complete your homework and studying well

 

 

For the first step, let’s first define what “max efficiency” means. Maximum efficiency means a couple things:

1. You know exactly what homework you need to do
2. You have it all prioritized and know what order to do it in
3. You have plenty of energy and your brain is ready for learning
4. Distractions are gone and you have a great work environment

I cover the 3rd and 4th steps plenty in the eBook, so if you want to learn about having more energy, better brain health, and the perfect homework environment, check out How to Do Homework (Faster).

Anyways, let’s talk about those first two parts. Obviously if you’re going to do homework, you need to know exactly what you’re going to do. I use a sort of funnel to make sure I know everything I need to do.

If you’re anything like me, I have two types of teachers: Those who assign homework the night of in class, and those who hand out syllabuses with due dates for the upcoming month or so. I also have two tools to help me keep track of what I need to do: My school’s agenda, and a software for Mac OSX called Schoolhouse.

An example of a school agenda or homework planner. Most schools give these out.

What you can see to the left is an example of a school planner or agenda. They show you a week at a time and have spaces for you to write your daily homework assignments. In school, as homework is assigned, I write in here in my agenda.

Then, once I get home, I take everything from my agenda, and from the different syllabuses I have for courses, and put all of the night’s homework into a software for Mac OSX called Schoolhouse. There I can insert due dates, put the homework in by course, and assign priorities to each task so that I know what order to do my homework in.

Schoolhouse (osx) app where I organize my homework daily

So once I do all that, not only do I know everything that I need to do during the night’s homework time, but I also have a priority order to do it in. I also do the part about energizing and getting all ready by getting rid of all distractions, eating a good snack, and unwinding, all of which are topics I cover in the new eBook. So if you’re interested in learning more about prioritizing or other pre-homework rituals, check out the How to Do Homework (Faster) eBook.

So then you should be ready to work at max-efficiency. Now let’s talk about decreasing the time you need to spend doing your homework. There’s a couple things that slow me personally down when doing homework:

1. Facebook
2. Having to leave what I was doing to get materials or a book I forgot
3. Lack of motivation
4. Lack of energy
5. Other distractions/friends

So the “Lack of Energy” part we already discussed by taking time to unwind and also eating a good snack. Make sure you have water on hand while you do your homework too. But here’s how you can make sure you’re working fast and getting rid of those other distractions:

For Facebook: Just close out! Stay far away from internet when doing homework! And if you need the internet, know exactly what you need it for and clearly tell yourself what you’ll be doing. Stick to it.

For Materials: Get it all before you start work!

For Motivation: Try turning on some music while you work. Quiet classical music is sometimes recommended. More on this in the eBook…

In the eBook I actually spend a lot of time talking about Facebook and a) why it’s evil, but b) why it’s so so so necessary, even for homework. There’s even a little section called “How to Use Facebook to Do Homework Faster” or something like that. If you want to read it and have an excuse to be on Facebook when your parents catch you during homework time, you’ll just have to read the book!

Now in addition to all of this good common-sense but often overlooked information, there are things called speed-study / speed-learning techniques that you can check out, but we’re not going to cover those here. For more information on speed studying, i’d refer you to Dr. Marc Dussalt, his blog, and his book called How to Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort.

So if you do a couple minor changes to your homework routine: Working at Max Efficiency, and Working Faster/Without Distractions, just focus on your homework and you’ll see your homework time go down DRASTICALLY.

Now, if you’d like even more nifty information, and the full top-secret, step-by-step School Destroyer Method to Hacking Homework Time, you’ll have to check out How to Do Homework (Faster). Here’s what some students had to say about the eBook:

“I wish I had some of this stuff in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade!” – Tricia M.

“Well, it actually made me feel a little stupid because I crammed for a test about an hour ago. Now I realized I could have made it a lot easier on myself. I like that it doesn’t tell you to be a crazy worker bee that never stops, but that it wants you to balance it all. I think this will help me be a lot more productive and feel more satisfied that I’ve done everything I want to do. Thanks!”

“Just wanted to let you know that your book helped. Got all my homework done in like 2 hours including a chem project… thanks!” – Katie L

So if that sounds like something you’d like to check out, then by all means please do. If you have thoughts on the book, or this post, leave us a comment below. Also leave a comment with YOUR techniques/tips/ideas for doing homework faster, we’d love to hear them.

Until Next Time,

Ryan

 

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Some College Application Words of Wisdom

            Applying to college is probably the most stressful and terrifying thing a person between the ages of 16 and 18 has to do (unless, of course, you’re a teenage matador sensation). It’s not that filling out an application and writing some essays is particularly difficult; it just falls at approximately the worst time possible. Junior year is the educational equivalent of being put on “the rack” and by the time senior year rolls around (when you really should be preparing your application), nobody really feels like working anymore. Fortunately, I’m beginning to see the light at the end of this dark tunnel. As a veteran of the college application wringer, I feel obliged to pass on a few of the tips and tricks I learned along the way. While I can’t promise a college process miracle pill, I know that these will help:

 

1.     Start early! And I don’t just mean applications. Start visiting schools early. I visited my first two schools during spring break of my sophomore year. While it may seem to be too soon to be thinking about college, it is very helpful in many ways. Firstly, it eliminates the need to visit three or four schools a weekend during junior year. If you start visiting a school every now and then when you’re a sophomore, you’ll be able to take it easy (easier, that is) as a junior and senior. The only downside to this is that you may need to go back to a school that you visited earlier on. Secondly, there’s nothing more exciting (about the college process) than being on a campus that you really love. I came away from my first college visit excited to start the process and more motivated to work hard in school.

2.     Visit “safety schools” first. I didn’t do this but I realized about a week ago that I probably should have. Between sophomore and junior year, I visited all the “good” schools that I would want to apply to but it didn’t even cross my mind to visit the “safeties”. Now I’m scrambling to visit my safeties because many of them require interviews.

3.     Get organized. Without a doubt one of the most important pieces of advice I can give. Make spreadsheets to keep track of schools that you’ve visited, have yet to visited, loved, hated, were indifferent to, etc. This will make it easier on you when it comes to assembling the official “list” and it will make it easier on your guidance counselor, who will probably want to know what you’re thinking. Which leads me to my next tip…

4.     Get to know your guidance counselor and make sure they know you. They have to write you a letter of recommendation (whether you like it or not), so it is important that they know you pretty well. All you have to do is schedule a meeting with them. They will be more than happy to talk to you and it never hurts to make a good first impression.

5.     Make a resume. This serves two purposes: it is something for you to use in interviews (college and job interviews) and it is infinitely helpful when completing the Common Application. Make sure you include the activities that you participated in, the years you participated, any leadership positions you held, community service that you’ve done, jobs you’ve had, etc. The more you can put on it, the better.

6.     Don’t panic. Applying to college can be stressful but panicking will only make it worse.

I wish you all the best of luck. The college process, while stressful, is very exciting (and a great excuse for staying at home on the weekends). With that said, I really should be going – I need to finish my college essay. 

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Economics in the Buff: A Breakdown of Charles Wheelan's "Naked Economics" and the NCEE Nine Principles of Economic Thinking

Economics, a science that most consider as appealing as a root canal, is far more important to our daily lives than we might think. The following was a blog post that I wrote for my AP Economics class that I think can open up the world of econ to those people less inclined to explore it. 

1. Everything has a cost. Wheelan addresses the topic of implicit and explicit cost in Chapter 3, “Government and the Economy.” He uses an example from his personal life, a situation in which he sold his Honda Civic to buy a safer, albeit less fuel-efficient, Ford Explorer. In this example, Wheelan considers the explicit costs of driving a larger car – the cost of the new car, the cost of increased gas consumption – as well as the implicit costs of his new Explorer – the environmental impacts of increased carbon dioxide emissions, the danger a multi-ton car poses to smaller cars. He also classifies these two costs as “private” – having an impact on just himself – and “public” – impacting more individuals than just himself.

 

2. Incentives matter. This next principle of economic thinking is the title to Chapter 2 of Naked Economics. According to Wheelan, incentives are what drive any kind of economy. He uses the black rhinos as his primary example: black rhinos are endangered because there are more incentives in hunting them than in preserving them. Thus, black rhinos face extinction. The same concept applies to Communism – why work when the incentive to work is exactly the same as the incentive not to work?

 

3. People gain from voluntary trade. In Chapter 11, “Trade and Globalization,” Wheelan discusses the mutual benefits of trade and how people benefit from globalization. The benefits of trade are most prevalent in the long run and, although the short term benefits of trade may not always be obvious, the long term benefits are numerous. Sweatshops in Vietnam may seem inhumane by our standards, but they benefit both the workers (Vietnamese) and the consumers (us). Instead of farming or working as a prostitute, sweatshops give Vietnamese women the opportunity to work in a relatively clean and safe environment while earning more money than they would otherwise. On the other side of the coin, we as consumers have access to cheaper goods. Increased consumption begets increased demand, which creates more jobs. In short, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

 

4. The price of a good or service is affected by people’s choices. This principle of economic thinking is addressed at the very beginning of the book, in Chapter 1, “The Power of Markets.” Of this, Wheelan says, “since there is a finite amount of everything worth having, the most basic function of an economic system is to decide who gets what” (Wheelan 19). The price of a good is affected by how people choose to prioritize it. How important are Super Bowl tickets? If few people choose to buy them, their price will drop. Conversely, if everybody chooses to purchase them, their price will rise and only those who can afford them will get them.

 

5. The test of a theory is its ability to predict. While Wheelan does not discuss this point in great depth in Naked Economics, he does use John Maynard Keynes’s economic theories as an example of a theory that has been applicable and has succeeded in the real world. He hesitates, however, to extol the virtues of economic theory, especially in fiscal policy, because of the wringer it must go through in Congress.

 

6. People choose for good reasons. For this point we return to Wheelan’s example of the choice between a Honda Civic and a Ford Explorer. He, just like any other person, had a perfectly legitimate reason to choose the Explorer over the Civic. Although he did not state this point explicitly, Wheelan implies that people do not choose arbitrarily. Every significant decision has some reason, which is valid to the chooser, to back it up.

 

7. Economic actions carry secondary effects. Again we return to the Civic v. Explorer example. While the primary effect of purchasing a new Ford Explorer may be an increase in gas consumption or an increase in safety, a secondary effect would be a child who suffers an asthma attack as a result of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or an ice cap that melts as a result of global warming. Similarly, if I purchase a pizza every day for lunch, the primary effect would be that I am giving business to this company, which may need my money. A secondary effect would be that I am adding unnecessary grease to my body every day, resulting in intense obesity and, as a result, a profit for the insurance company.

 

8. Economic thinking is marginal thinking. Economic thinking involves being able to consider the marginal costs and marginal benefits of a certain action. If I decide to wait in line for a pizza, the marginal costs to me are the time it takes to wait in line (time I could be using to be productive) and the price of the pizza. The marginal benefit, however, is that I am no longer hungry. To determine, economically, if this choice is “worth it,” I must consider whether the cost of time wasted and $10 spent justify the pleasure of fullness that the pizza will bring me.

 

9. People create economic systems to influence choices and incentives. Economic systems, like a market economy or a command economy, influence choices and incentives by changing who makes the decisions for allocations of resources and who pays the paycheck. In a market economy, the people allocate resources based on their own beliefs and workers are paid based on the success of others. The incentive for success is high. In a command economy, the government calls the shots and the government pays the paychecks, regardless of the success of the workers. Thus, the incentive to work is low. 

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Girls and Grades: How to Get Both AND Do Better in School

Yes, it's true. You CAN get both and STILL do better in school. How? I'll tell you. While I can't claim to be a dating guru or hot-blooded casanova and some things (like your acne) are beyond my control, I can give you a few pointers as to how you can use your brain to get the ladies.   

1. It's all about the confidence. If you don't have the confidence to walk up to a girl and have a simple conversation, how can you expect to contribute to class discussions? You can't, really. While there's no quick fix to low confidence, it always helps to have faith that everything will be okay. So you answer a question wrong in class? "Oh, well," you can say, "I'll get it right next time." Conversation ends up being awkward? "That's fine," you can say, "I'm just getting to know her." When you're confident with a girl, she'll be able to tell - that makes everything a lot less awkward. The same thing applies in class: if you're confident with the material and if you're confident speaking your mind (especially in discussion-based classes), you will get so much more from the class. 

2. Take advantage of the "Wikipedian Loop." It's about time that I introduce you all to the concept of a Wikipedian Loop. This concept was first defined by Urban Dictionary contributor Marie Penney. While initially defined as a negative "infinite loop of addiction," it can be used to your advantage. A Wikipedian Loop occurs when you are reading an article on Wikipedia and you enter a "loop" by clicking links within the article. The more articles you jump to, the longer you are stuck in the loop. It generally results in homework not getting done. Here's the upside to it: girls like it when you have things to talk about (other than yourself, of course). The best part of being stuck in a Wikipedian Loop is that the more you read (thus, the more you learn), the more things you have to talk about. Instead of saying "uh...uh...uh...how is school going?" you can talk about the social ramifications of the short film "8 Guys" (that, obviously, you learned about while stuck in a Wikipedian Loop) or how funny you think Dane Cook is (he wrote and directed "8 Guys" - you would know if you read the Wikipedia article). How does this make you smarter? IT'S LIKE READING THE ENCYCLOPEDIA! You never know when you can make a connection in school to something you read on Wikipedia! You might be taking a test in history and encounter a difficult question about George Patton in France. You then remember reading about Patton's Third Army in WWII and the vicious fighting that it engaged in as a result of the "Falaise Gap" - boom. That's money (points) in the bank. The vast wealth of knowledge that you will acquire as a result of being perpetually stuck in a Wikipedian Loop will astonish and enamor of you any girls you're talking to and will increase any test score by a whole letter grade (not guaranteed). If you find this helpful, I would suggest looking at Cracked.com's "Topics" sections - now you will be able to make jokes about all the things you read on Wikipedia.

3. Go out! How, you ask, will this help you in school? Well, when you spend time on dates or with friends, you learn how to behave in social situations (i.e. SCHOOL). You will learn important things like, for example, you can't just shout over somebody who is already talking. Can you think of any classroom applications of this? I can. You'll learn polite discourse and how to engage in an intense conversation (i.e. debates). All of these things are helpful in school and even MORE helpful when approaching a girl. 

If you take my advice, I can guarantee that you will do better in school (maybe) and that you will be "scorin' mad biddies" in no time (also maybe). 

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Four Easy (and legal) Ways to Get a Five on the AP US History Exam

Before I write anything more, I want to thank the site host, Ryan, for a few things. First and foremost, I wanted to thank him for taking me on as a writer - I look forward to helping all of you succeed in school. I also wanted to thank him for unknowingly inspiring me in an email to write this post. Now, without further ado, I give you some easy ways to get a five on the most notorious AP test ever created: 

1. Buy Larry Krieger's AP US History Crash Course Book: While not strictly "legal" at Montgomery High School, this book is the most important study tool you can have - even more so than the gigantic REA APUSH book. I'll first explain why it isn't legal at MHS - the APUSH Part II teacher (who will remain nameless) dislikes Larry Krieger because he runs an APUSH test prep course at the school and consistently releases College Board practice materials to his class before our teacher can release them to us. I'm sure you understand the conflict here. So, as a result, our teacher has taken to confiscating Krieger's Crash Course book. With that said, I want to emphasize that this book is in no way cheating and is (at schools other than MHS) in no way illegal. Why is this book so great? Well, Krieger puts all (or almost all) the information that you will need for the exam into an easy to memorize outline format and words it almost exactly as it will be worded on the test. I know this from personal experience. As test day got closer, I simply could not seem to remember the information that I needed to know. I had read the entire REA test prep book and had done four of the six practice tests. I was stuck. My friend loaned me his Crash Course book and from the minute I started reading it, I knew this was the key to my studying. After I finished the book, I took a practice test and it felt like I had cheated - I remembered all the information and it was almost identical to the test. Come test day, I was as prepared as I could have been for the multiple choice section. Guess what? I got a 5. 

2. Try to predict the Document Based Question ("DBQ"): We did this in my APUSH class and it gave me a pretty solid idea of what I should be focusing on for the DBQ. If you don't do this in your APUSH class, go online and find out the DBQs from the past 10 or so years. The College Board rarely recycles topics more frequently than every 10 years and if you can think of a topic (keep it general) that hasn't been used already, write it down and study it. Keep in mind that the College Board prefers social history over military history. So instead of studying "military actions in Vietnam," study "the social ramifications of the Vietnam War." This strategy works best if you brainstorm with multiple people - they will often come up with ideas you wouldn't otherwise think of. The DBQ on the exam was one of the few that I predicted and prepared for. Guess what? I got a 5. 

3. READ THE QUESTIONS: While you are taking practice tests and on the day of the exam itself, it is imperative that you read and examine literally every part of the questions presented to you. While taking the test, mark up the wording of the questions - circle important years, underline key phrases, etc. That way you won't forget anything. If you are presented with a picture/political cartoon/etc, look at the copyright information. That was the key to one of the questions on this year's test. The question at hand was a painting of a Campbell's soup can and the text of the question read something like, "This is an example of _ art. a) Realist b) Impressionist c) Pop d) Romantic". If you looked at the copyright information under the picture, you would have learned that the painting was credited to Andy Warhol. Well that makes it easy, doesn't it? Even if you know almost nothing about art, everybody knows Andy Warhol's famous painting of Marilyn Monroe and, with a little thinking, you would remember that in almost any cheesy photo editing program, the "Pop Art" effect is identified by the Marilyn picture. I have met enough people from my school alone that got that question wrong because they didn't see the copyright credit clearly located under the picture. On test day, I made a point of reading every question carefully. Guess what? I got a 5. 

4. Do practice tests: There is literally nothing more crucial to your test preparation than practice. The most challenging aspect of the exam is not the content but how it is presented to you. Any history student could tell you that the Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the revolution, but would you be able to pick that choice from a paragraph of text about French involvement in the war? Maybe not. Once you learn what the question is asking, you can answer the question. The best way to become accustomed to the way the College Board asks you questions is to do practice tests. You can find them fairly easily online. My favorite website is www.historyteacher.net/USQuizMainPage.htm - the quizzes are written in the AP style and allow you to go back to questions you got wrong. This caused many an "Ohhhhhhhh!" moment while I was studying. Buy the fat REA test prep book with the "REA TestWare" so that you can use the 6 practice tests - in my opinion you shouldn't use it for anything else. I took MANY practice tests. Guess what? I got a 5.

While the test isn't until May, it's never too soon to start preparing. I won't say that just using these four techniques will get you a five on the exam, but it sure won't hurt. I wish you the best of luck in studying for the AP US History exam! 

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