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11 Skills You'll Need for a Career
Tweet Share on Facebook November 25, 2009 Comment (7)With today's economy, college students are more worried than ever about what kind of career awaits them. The best way to increase the odds that the job you'll get won't involve waiting tables or flipping burgers is to get the skills you need while you're still in college. Here are our 11 critical job skills that every college student should master, regardless of his or her ultimate career path:
1. Writing clearly and forcefully. Students often don't recognize how important writing skills are in many professions: Many students, without a trace of shame, proclaim "I can't write" and consistently avoid courses that require them to write papers. But the "I can't write" excuse won't stand you in good stead later when you have to write a strategic plan for your business, create clinic notes in your medical practice, write briefs for your legal case, or pitch your advertising plan in a report to the client. Actively seek out college courses that give you lots of opportunities to write. And use the feedback you get on one writing assignment to improve on the next.
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Top 10 Tips for Taking Essay Tests
Tweet Share on Facebook November 18, 2009 Comment (1)Some college students are pros at taking short-answer and multiple-choice tests but are at their wits' end when the prof springs an essay test. Some go to incredible lengths to avoid any course that might have essays on the exam. But with dozens of required courses, many in areas such as social sciences and humanities, such a strategy is bound to fail. Instead, take a look at our 10 best tips for acing the essay exam:
1. Survey the landscape. When you first get the test, look over the whole thing. Figure out what the tasks are, paying special attention to how many essays you're asked to write (be sure to note any choices offered) and, most important, how much time you're supposed to devote to each. You'd be amazed at how many students make a mistake about the basic instructions.
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10 Technology Must-Haves for College
Tweet Share on Facebook November 11, 2009 Comment (27)The holidays are a great time to load up on new technology. What college student wouldn’t love a special gift selected especially for him or her? Here’s what’s hot:
1. Netbook. Every college student ought to have a really good computer. The hottest and best choice is a netbook, a new kind of subcompact notebook that combines a relatively good processor with genuine portability and an attractive entry-level price. We especially like netbooks that weigh no more than 3 pounds, have a 10-inch screen and a battery life of six to 10 hours, and have a 160GB hard drive and a full-size (or at least 92 percent of full-size) keyboard. Top choices include the Toshiba NB205-N312 ($400 at Office Depot), the Samsung N120 ($329 at Amazon), the Asus Eee 1005HA ($359 at B&H), and the HP Mini 110-1030NR ($315 at Buy.com). Students on a tighter budget might consider the previous generation, smaller screen, and shorter battery life Asus Eee PC900 ($230 at Sears), which has a smaller screen and shorter battery life.
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10 Things You Didn't Know About College Grading
Tweet Share on Facebook November 4, 2009 Comment (21)Given how concerned most students are about grades, it's amazing how little they know about how grading is done. Actually, it's not so amazing. Universities go to great lengths to hide—or at least not disclose—facts about grading that anyone who's taught at a university for more than a year knows. Want a peek? Read on.
1. It's 10 minutes—and then on to the next. You might think that your grader will spend half an hour to an hour grading each student's piece of work. Not so. Unfortunately, given that an instructor might have a stack of 30, 40, or even 70 papers or tests to grade, he or she has only about 10 minutes to devote to each piece of graded work. This is why you should make your claims clearly and forcefully, avoid any irrelevant or unnecessary material, and take the trouble to really explain your points.
2. The grading is often outsourced. In large classes at large colleges, the professor giving the lecture is rarely the one who does the grading. Instead, there is usually a cadre of low-paid grad students who do the grading. You might know the grad student as the TA running your discussion section. But your grader might also be an unseen and unnamed person who has been hired only to grade the written work, with no other duties in the course. Some professors actively manage the grad student or grader, going over sample papers and setting a grading scale. But other professors are happy to delegate the whole job to the underling and never set eyes on student work.
