Online Privacy After the Ashley Madison Hack

Hackers claim to have accessed data from Ashley Madison, a notorious website that helps people cheat on their partners. The hackers claim their actions are based on ethical grounds, but it’s plausible that they could attempt to profit through extortion since this data is particularly sensitive.

The salacious content of this story proved irresistible to news editors. Considering the website’s implicit focus on discretion, the karmic novelty of this story has, no doubt, fueled its momentum. This is compounded by the possibility that the personal information of millions of users will eventually be disclosed.

As you might expect, many of these news articles include sundry tips regarding online privacy. This is as good a time as any, I suppose, to remind people about good practices for online safety, but I’m puzzled that people need such reminders after other high-profile security breaches and hacks have been reported on extensively.  (Remember the Snowden disclosures about NSA surveillance practices? -- and the millions of US federal employees whose personal information was stolen?)

The Internet is a Public Space.

Lots of us would like to imagine that at least parts of the internet are private (we have “privacy settings” after all), but my impression is that the number and scope of these cyber attacks is increasing. When the victims were companies like Target, The Home Depot and Sony’s PlayStation Network, perhaps people weren’t concerned so long as they weren’t customers who had entered credit card data on these websites -- but when an entity like the government of the United States can be a victim, ordinary people have to take notice and consider the choices they make about what kinds of information they supply online.

Photo by FutUndBeidl (CC BY)

Public Law (Infographic)

Combining Multiple Learning Styles Can Boost Your Comprehension

If you’ve been keeping up with me electronically or in person lately, you already know that I’ve started to self-study computer coding.

I really enjoy choosing study materials for myself because I can combine several modes of learning unlike most of my post-secondary education, which was based on traditional lectures and assigned readings. In just a few weeks I’ve made excellent progress by intentionally pursuing visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles. Debate in education sometimes focuses heavily on how to determine which learning style is best for each student, but based on my experience I’d argue that mixing a variety of learning styles can benefit anyone – just the same as how we all need to eat balanced diets that include all of the food groups.

Auditory-Visual:  Online Lectures

I just finished my second online course on Lynda.com:  Javascript Essential Training by Simon Allardice. Listening to this course through headphones made it easy for me to focus on the visual content, whether I was home or underground in the subway. I like having the ability to return to any section whenever I like because it eliminates my worries about missing key details in live lectures.

Visual:  Reading

I’m reading two library books at the same time: (1) Effective JavaScript:  68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of Javascript by David Herman and (2) Starting out with Programming Logic & Design by Tony Gaddis. Completing just a couple of online courses before I started on these has really facilitated my comprehension of the material.

Kinesthetic:  Interactive Online Tutorials

I haven’t finished an entire course on Codecademy.com yet because I found that its explanations were, at times, insufficient to properly grasp the material. Even so, working directly with HTML, JavaScript and Ruby syntax has further enriched my independent learning.

Photo by Dmitry Baranovskiy (CC BY)

Private Law (Infographic)

Managing My News Addiction with Safari’s Reading List

I recently "discovered" a feature of Safari (Apple's web browser) that I had previously underestimated:  the Reading List.

When you want to save a webpage to read later, all you have to do is mouse-over the address and click on the plus sign that appears in a circle on the left side. This saves the content of the webpage so you can read it later, online or offline. If you use an iPhone or an iPod, your can even sync your Reading List across devices! (To save something in iOS, click on the share icon and the option to “Add to Reading List” will appear.)

Although I've been bookmarking websites and clipping content to Evernote for years, I would often end up with useless clutter that I didn't want to save forever. Now I'm using the Reading List as a short-term holding place for content that I want to vet within a day or two.

How I Started to Learn Computer Coding

I secretly worry that I won’t understand what’s happening when computers – or our evil robot overlords – eventually take over the world because I don’t really understand how computers work. But maybe I should be more seriously worried today because the actual mechanics of computers and the Internet, for the most part, puzzle me.

The argument that you cannot understand how pervasive computer surveillance is in our daily lives unless you understand how computers work has persuaded me to start learning how to code. I had anecdotally gathered that coding is well suited to self-directed learners, and since I have more time on my hands than usual this week owing to the reading week break at the college where I teach, I decided to dive in.

I just lied to you:  I know a little bit about computers

Before this week, I knew just a little bit about the inner workings of computers.  For example, I’ve completed a brief online tutorial about HTML basics through Codecademy in order to teach this material to my paralegal students. I’ve been using personal computers since the early 90s, so I know a couple of hot troubleshooting tips like “check that the cables are connected” and “restart the machine”. Still, other than understanding that computer code is essentially instructions that computers follow to do things, I was mostly clueless, and I mistakenly thought that I’d have to borrow telephone-book-thick volumes from the library to get started.

My official starting place

Fortunately LinkedIn informed my by email that it has acquired the online-education site Lynda.com along with an offer for a free trial. I quickly found the excellent course “Foundations of Programming:  Fundamentals” by Simon Allardice, which runs for 4 hours and 47 minutes. Although it’s presented using many examples of a computer language called JavaScript, this course provided well-structured context that addressed many of my questions about computer coding. Throughout Allardice emphasizes that the purpose of this course is to introduce concepts that are relevant to coding in general rather than any specific computer language; however, I quickly became comfortable with the basics of JavaScript. After completing this course, I returned to Codecademy to work on its JavaScript tutorial, and I found that I could fly through the earlier lessons. Some of my previous hang-ups, like where to place “{“ symbols were cleared up quickly by Allardice, so I was able to focus on practicing through Codecademy’s interface. I haven’t finished the Codecademy tutorial yet, but I’m eager to move on to Allardice’s JavaScript essential training before my free trial at Lynda.com expires.

Please leave any advice you have for me in the comments section below!

Photo by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann (CC BY)

Why You Need to Set Goals for Reading Week

My students will be on reading week soon, although we term it “Engagement Week” at my college. Some will be fortunate enough to travel for pleasure and others will put in more hours at their jobs while they have extra time. Unfortunately, I expect that some will do nothing (I was going to write “veg out”, but I’m afraid that makes me sound old) – and even worse, a few of these students will not even enjoy indulging in such nothingness! Enjoying downtime is essential to productivity, assuming that one actually enjoys downtime instead of whiling away the hours and days. We all know what it feels like to think if only I had the time to workout at the gym, binge-watch Netflix, cook healthy food or read for interest. Even if your plan is to do nothing, make sure that your version of doing nothing will recharge your mental batteries – don’t let your precious time off go to waste.

Achieve things that you put off during the semester so far

Some of the students I teach are preparing to become licensed paralegals. In Ontario the same body that governs lawyers administers the formal licensing process for paralegals, which includes a 7-hour exam. Researching the necessary procedural requirements is something that all my students will have to do at some point, but it is exactly the type of thing that some might put off until later if their attention is focused on more near-term goals like coursework and grades. Reading week is the perfect time to cross items like this off of your to-do list. You can ensure that you will cover all your bases for the future, and lessen your workload (and worries) through the rest of the academic term.

Get organized

Achieve inbox zero. Sort your bookmarks. Tidy your files. Backup your computer. In the midst of daily life for college students it’s easy to ignore details that may seem inconsequential until disaster strikes. Imagine how you would feel if you missed an important email, found an ideal job posting too late, couldn’t find a useful PDF you read last term or LOST ALL OF YOUR DATA, then take steps to prevent any of these things from happening. Better yet, while you have the time, design workflow processes to mitigate all of these harms. If you don’t know what “the cloud” means in computer-speak, take time to research it. If you’re hesitant to use cloud services because you don’t understand the privacy implications, when else would you have sufficient time to look into the details?

Photo by sung ming whang (CC BY)

Reinforce Ideas You’ve Already Learned by Teaching them to Your Classmates

As long as you are at least a little bit self-aware, it should be easy to know if you have NOT studied enough before an exam, but how can you be sure you have studied enough? Lots of people just stop studying when they run out of time. Most of us honestly know what that feels like. (Last time I felt this most acutely was during the early AM hours of Tuesday, December 7, 2009, ahead of my personal income tax exam at 9 in the morning.) Others stop studying when they feel confident that they’re well prepared for whatever their professors could possible throw at them.  But what should you do when you’ve already reviewed everything you can think of, yet you lack this kind of confidence?

I suggest that you get together (in person, on the phone, via Skype) with some of your classmates, who are perhaps less prepared, to teach them the pertinent material. This is a win-win solution because verbalizing the important concepts in your course will help you remember them, and your classmates will be focused on you, unless they’re rude, for it’s easier to ignore a notebook, than a kind person. Naturally this strategy assumes the risk of disseminating incorrect information, but on the other hand, say if your student partners are more-than-less prepared, you might clear up your own misunderstandings.

This probably isn’t good advice for everyone, as everyone’s habits differ, but if you’re unsure about what more you could do next time you think you’ve finished studying, try out this technique. On the other hand, if you can’t imagine being this prepared so shortly before your test, check out my post about “How to cram for an exam:  5 Tips”.

Photo by Alan Levine (CC BY)

Why You Still Need a Toronto Public Library Card in the Internet Age

I recently discovered that I know a lot of people who don’t use public libraries. This dumbfounds me, and I can only assume that all these people aren’t aware that nowadays the Toronto Public Library (TPL) offers way more than tangible book lending.

First of all, you should know that you’re entitled to a TPL card if you live, work or study in Toronto! So if you don’t have one, please get one right away, but do check the hours at your local branch beforehand because some of the schedules are unusual.

Use your library card to borrow books, DVDs and CDs

Libraries still do the traditional things well. You can borrow most items as long as they’re available, and if they aren’t  available you can “place a hold”. This is equivalent to joining a lineup to access a specific item that is in high demand or that someone has already borrowed. The wonderful thing about placing holds today is that you can manage them online and have the items delivered to your local branch. Currently, TPL lets you place a stupendous 60 holds!

Explore the digital collections

TPL’s current digital offerings are nothing less than amazing. Among other things, you can borrow digital books, magazines, music and movies. Borrowing these materials is a little bit more complicated than print sources, but TPL has excellent instructions online in addition to in-branch support.

eBooks

eBook borrowing is managed through a system called OverDrive that allows you to read eBooks online using your computer or on a device such as an iPhone/iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, Kobo or Windows RT Tablet. After you install the pertinent software, you can place holds for eBooks, and even set up automatic borrowing for when your items become available. 

Magazines

Before you can access digital magazines you need to create an account at tpl.ca/zinio – a small price to pay for unlimited downloads that don’t expire. Too many quality titles are offered to list, but The Economist, The Atlantic and The New Yorker would all be great starting places for free reading material. Of course you could also binge-download Us Weekly if you were too embarrassed to pay money for it in public!

Music and Videos

You’ll need to create yet another account at hoopladigital.com, but the benefit is totally worth the trouble. Hoopla is kind of like Netflix, except it includes music and limits your borrowing to 8 items per month. The loan periods are relatively short (music = 7 days; video = 3 days), but you can download items for offline viewing or listening.

Photo by Metropolitan Toronto Library (CC BY-SA)

The Beginner’s Guide to Reddit

If you’ve become bored of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you need to check out Reddit. Don’t be concerned if you’ve visited the site once or twice before and decided that it wasn’t right for you because, unfortunately, the mechanics of Reddit are not at all obvious. If you’re interested in anything, then I’m pretty sure you’re going to like Reddit a lot.

Step 1:  Create an Account

Reddit wooed me right from the start with its simple sign-up process. You only need two things:  a username and a password. Associating an email address with your Reddit account is optional, but it’s probably a good idea to do so to ensure you don’t lose access to your specific username.

Step 2:  Subscribe to Subreddits

If you stick with the default settings Reddit will serve up heaps of content that might strike you as trivial (think funny pictures of cats and headline news that was already impossible to avoid elsewhere). Reddit becomes more useful once you learn about subreddits, which organize the web-based content according to interests. There are too many to list, but some of my favourites that you might like are Documentaries and HealthyFood (note:  the names of subreddits never contain spaces). People constantly post information about almost every topic you can think of as well as much stranger stuff (see DeepIntoYouTube).

Redditors (experienced Reddit users) typical refer to subreddits in writing as /r/subrredditname.  To navigate to any subreddit quickly you can type www.reddit.com/r/subredditname.

If you’re into reality TV, you might enjoy /r/Relationships, which you’ll find at www.reddit.com/r/Relationships.

After you subscribe to as many subreddits as you like, your mainpage will be populated by content drawn from all of your subscriptions. Ideally your customized homepage will be more enjoyable (addictive) than Reddit's default homepage.

Step 3:  Participate

So far you might not be impressed because, after all, if you know how to use Google, you already know how to search for things that interest you online. The simple magic of Reddit is its upvote/downvote system that separates the best content from all the boring stuff. Registered users constantly upvote content that they enjoy while downvoting content they dislike. The result of this is brilliant because you can filter the best content by hour, day, week, month, year and all time. When I’m new to a subreddit, I look up the best content of all time is in order to get a feel for whether the content is interesting to me overall. If I decide to subscribe to that subreddit the best content of all time will change relatively slowly, so I’ll check out the items the community has promoted across a shorter timeframe, such as the past week.

Bonus

Once you start nerding out over Reddit you might want to check out this spectacular documentary about its founder, Aaron Swartz.  https://archive.org/details/TheInternetsOwnBoyTheStoryOfAaronSwartz

Photo by Eva Blue (CC BY)

5 Ways to Improve Your Spelling

It’s really difficult to teach spelling in the context of a legal writing class because no one learns how to spell correctly in a single lesson.  Of course rules like “i before e, except after c” are familiar, but when so many exceptions exist such rules aren’t useful.

1.  Read as much as possible

The more you read, the more you will develop a sense for spotting words that just don’t seem right.  Sheer exposure to correct spelling is just one of the benefits of being an attentive reader.

2.  Look up unfamiliar words

Accessing dictionaries has never been easier.  Did you know that you can simply type define before any word in Google to get a basic definition?  If you need a more detailed definition find a good quality reference website for your discipline.  I recommend http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com for my students in legal studies.

3.  Keep a list of words that trouble you

If you have trouble spelling a particular word today it’s likely that the same word will challenge you in the future.  Having a cheat-sheet close at hand will save time and serve as a learning aid.

4.  Study Greek and Latin

Many English words derive from Greek and Latin roots.  Hardly anyone studies Greek and Latin where I live, yet knowing a handful of terms could boost your confidence when you encounter a tricky word.  Visit http://www.spellingcity.com/latin-greek-root-words.html for a brief introduction.

5.  Only use words that you can spell

When I’m writing on the board during class, no squiggly line appears à la Microsoft Word when I make a spelling mistake.  If I wasn’t sure about how to spell editing (one t, not two!), perhaps I’d choose another work like revising.

Photo by Niccolò Caranti (CC BY-SA)

Twitter in my 21st Century Classroom

It took me forever to warm up to Twitter.  Even though I’ve been online since GEnie was a thing, and I’m the type of guy who’s fluent in Star Trek: TNG and Stargate: SG-1, it failed to appeal to me.  What bothered me was my perception that everyone used Twitter to report the most dull details of their lives (“chips are so good”) instead of interesting content.  (Incidentally the thesis of my Instagram account is “food is so good”.)  I used Twitter for years alongside Google Reader (RIP) for news from certain sources (Apartment Therapy, The New York Times), but when I recently became annoyed by how frequently certain stories would be pushed at me, I unfollowed several sources that I used to read on Twitter and relocated some of them to Facebook.

This semester in the context of teaching Communications and Writing for my paralegal students I have the chance to approach Twitter from a different angle.  Having observed Twitter for a long long time, I finally understand that it has no single purpose, which isn’t all that different from other communication technologies like paper.  You can use Twitter to share websites, coalesce activists, tell jokes, express feelings and relate minutiae.  Paper is similarly useful since it can be used to record thoughts, embody promises, map places, stuff gift bags and make airplanes.  Recognizing that there’s no single correct way to use Twitter has wonderfully quelled my anxieties about being a clumsy user.

In my classroom, Twitter helps me teach about technology and digital self-representation.  It’s still early days in the semester, but we’ve already had a chance to turn our minds toward online privacy and conduct as well as linguistic innovations (btw hru tdy?).  On the technical side of things, we’ve discussed how you can limit your audience and using hashtags (#MisheardLyrics).

If you would like to follow along this semester, you can investigate #PRLG722.

Photo by Beau Giles (CC BY)

Serial

I’ve been streaming kind of a lot of kind of good and bad TV lately (Homeland, The 100) – but the new media that I have to tell you about is a podcast called Serial (http://serialpodcast.org/).

I binge-listened to the first six episodes of it inside of a day and half, so I’ll have to wait until Thursday for more.  In the meantime, maybe I can get you hooked on it as well.

This WBEZ Chicago production investigates the case of Adnan Syed, a man who claims that he has been wrongfully convicted for the murder of Hae Min Lee, his high school girlfriend in 1999.  The storytelling is top-notch, borrowing a tone that’s familiar from This American Life.

Serial is engaging because its host, Sarah Koenig, compels us to judge the credibility and relevance of numerous testimonies – some from the courtroom and many more from other sources.  Koenig’s plainspoken narrative is especially compelling because it never insults the audience’s intelligence.  This program demands its audience to listen critically while contemplating how legal discourse produces reality itself, intellectually demanding work that’s wholly aggravating because there’s no right answers.

Photo by cfiesler (CC BY)

Group Study v. Independent Study

Whether or not you decide to prepare for your exams with your classmates or on your own, always be mindful of how you’re spending your time.

Group

Forming a study group sounds like a good idea because with more people you can divide the work of creating study aids like summary notes or flashcards.  No doubt some people learn well by talking about their course material and clarifying misunderstandings with others.  In fact, a great way to test whether you’ve mastered the material is to see if you can confidently teach it to a classmate.  Movies about Harvard Law, like Legally Blonde, make it look like study groups are really important, but they aren’t for everyone.  Scheduling a time to get together can become a waste of time if it takes too long, and of course you face the risk of socializing (or gossiping!) more than actually studying.  Unfortunately it’s also possible for misunderstandings to spread in a group and some individuals may feel insecure if they perceive that the material is much easier for others.  If you plan to work as a team, make sure you choose to work with colleagues you trust and set clear expectations.

Independent

Studying by yourself can provide much more flexibility than working in a group, but you must be disciplined because the Internet age has made it easier than ever to get off track.  Make a plan first so you never end up wasting time aimlessly sifting through notes and textbooks – and never fall into the trap of reviewing the easy parts too often for mere comfort.  Test yourself by making sure you have a strong grasp on each individual subject as well as how those subjects fit into the bigger picture of your overall course.  Without the need to travel to meet other people or focus on their concerns, you can optimize your efficiency, but you know yourself better than anyone else so be honest about whether you can handle going at it alone.

My personal study strategy

During law school I had a regular routine of meeting my best study partner ever in the morning on Saturday and Sunday (or both during exam time), having coffee or breakfast (with gossip!), and then settling in at the Beryl Ivy (Brescia) library, which was very quiet and filled with natural light.  We camped out at one big table and almost didn’t speak until it was time to leave.  Both of us liked having each other’s company because it helped us stay on track to deal with our personal mountains of reading and writing together.  However, even though I was getting so many solid hours of quality studying done it wasn’t enough to get everything done and I also stayed up late most nights to read in my apartment.

3 tips for using your smartphone wisely while you prepare for exams

Exams are just around the corner, and if you followed my advice last week you will have already crossed off almost half of the days on your 18-day plan.  With just 11 days until exams, you don’t have any time to waste.  If you didn’t make an 18-day plan, start fresh with a 11-day plan right now.  Remember, the whole point is to avoid that awful feeling of wishing that you had "just one more day" to study.  In any case, make sure you’re not harming your well-planned productivity by overusing your cellphone!

1.  Disable sound notifications

I used to instinctively reach for my phone every time I heard a notification only for fear of missing out (this is a thing, it’s called “FOMO”).  However, most of the time I would discover that I broke my concentration for uninteresting email marketing or boring Facebook notifications.  Nowadays, I’ve disabled most sound notifications so I’ll only be interrupted when someone actually calls me.  I also turn my phone facedown while I’m working so visual notifications won't distract me.

2.  Use airplane mode even when you’re not in an airplane

Enabling airplane mode will prevent you from receiving calls, texts and data.  This is a better option if you’re not familiar with your phone’s settings or you don’t want to fiddle around with them.  I enable airplane mode before I go to sleep every night because it will prevent interruptions, but it won't interfere with my morning alarm.

3.  Do not waste time playing games

Unless you’ve scheduled discretionary down-time into your plan, you shouldn’t waste any time playing games.  Kim Kardashian doesn’t care if you flunk your exams, and no one cares if you’re an A-lister.  (If you don’t know what I’m talking about see this.)

I won't wish you good luck on your exams because you won't need luck as long as you're well prepared!

Plan your days (and your nights) through the end of the semester

Until very close to the very end of my very long academic career I always wished for just one more day to revise an essay or just one more night to cram more potential exam solutions into my brain.  Fortunately, by the end of law school I finally got it right and I learned to enjoy the luxury of having free time right before my exams.

The exam period at my college will begin on Aug 11, 2014.  You might think about this as 2 and a half weeks from today, but I think it’s more useful to think of this as 18 full days, or better yet 11 weekdays and 7 weekend-days.  (Aug 4 is a holiday in Ontario.)

Even if you could devote 18 solid days toward studying, that’s not very much time per course if you have 5-7 courses – and we both know you have other commitments to meet on top of studying.

Now is the best time to make good choices about how you will spend your time. 

Commit your plan to paper.

If you have everything you need to do written out on paper the time will seem more tangible.  Of course you can count to 18 in your head, but seeing all the studying, final assignments, shifts at work and family functions that you have to attend between now and exams will help you visualize the bigger picture.

Don’t forget to include all the necessary things you’re already doing during the rest of the semester.

It’s important to plan when you will buy groceries, what you will eat and when you will do housework, if only to avoid using such “productive” tasks as procrastination techniques later on.

Schedule your downtime, including sleep.

It sounds like overkill to plan when you won’t be busy, but if you plan to watch an episode of your favourite TV show on Netflix each night as a reward for staying on track you will enjoy yourself more than if you fall behind as the result of 2 hours of channel surfing.  Lots of people get things done by not sleeping, and lots of people are always grumpy.  (Hmmm.)  Regardless of whether you believe in a scientifically valid link between memory and sleep, it’s always nice to have a full night’s rest.  Aim for 8 hours and if you fall short to 7 or 6.5 at least you didn’t plan for 6 and end up with only 4.

Plan right now.

You don’t need to plan when you’re going to make your plan because you’re doing it as soon as you finish reading my post, right? – and you’ll be done in just 15 minutes because this isn't rocket science!

Ask good questions to get better grades after midterm exams

I know some of my students are puzzled about how to get better grades in the weeks following their midterm exams.  I also know that very few of these students will ask questions, which could happen for any number of reasons.

Shyness should not prevent you from asking questions.

The whole point of attending college is to learn about things that you don’t already know.  If you're too shy to raise your hand during class, ask at the end of class, write an email or schedule a meeting.

Inform yourself before asking your question. 

Sometimes professors will refuse to answer certain questions when the answers are readily available in the required coursework.  For example, I might refer a student to the textbook if the question is about a simple definition.  However, I will be happy to explain an issue if a student can distinguish the difference between two concepts, but has trouble seeing how they could apply at once in the same scenario.

Focus your questions on comprehension instead of marks.

Your professors already know that your marks are important to you and that you want a high GPA.  It is one thing to ask “why did I lose five marks?” and another to explain that you answered a question to the best of your ability and would like to know what you missed or how you could improve your answers in the future.

In education, the cliché "everyone learns differently" is repeated to no end.  Maybe this boring idea contains a kernel if truth, but I'm not persuaded that all 30-or-so students in any given class have remarkably unique learning styles.  Attending class is important for everyone, and likewise asking questions can help anyone learn new things or feel secure that their understanding is correct.

What to do after midterms

After you receive your midterm marks your performance will either match your expectations or it will not.  If you expected to do well and you achieved high grades you're off to a great start (keep it up!), but please don't despair if your marks weren't so hot because there's plenty you can do between now and finals.  You will only have less time to make positive changes if you put off analyzing your performance until later.  At some point in the future it will be too late, but that day isn't today or tomorrow.

As long as you're a student it's important to understand that good intentions are necessary for success, yet they are never sufficient.  (This should be obvious because everyone is not successful despite their best intentions.)  Ask yourself how well you prepared for your exams.  Remember:  honesty counts.  Did you scrape together some study time in the few days leading up to many tests or did you make your very best effort?  

Prioritize catching up on key concepts as soon as possible.  It's very likely that a solid grasp of the earlier material is required to make sense of the later material, which is often more challenging.  Also, clarify the relevance of anything that you're unsure about.  Your instructors understand that it's easy to miss the forest for the trees, especially when you're new to a particular subject.

Organize your efforts by focusing on two things:  (1) understanding why you lost marks and (2) how you will avoid the same kinds of errors in the future.  Sure this creates extra work for you, but remember school is the only time when you truly work for yourself!

How to cram for an exam: 5 Tips

Of course if you did everything you hoped to do from the first day of the semester, you would never need to cram study – but sometimes life, or laziness, gets in the way of our best intentions.  Don’t take this post as license to slack off until the last-minute; cramming should always be your last resort because it’s a poor strategy for learning.  Even so, cramming can help you make the best of a bad situation in the short-term, and if you do it make sure you understand that you’re doing yourself a disservice for the long-term.

1.  Clear everything else from your schedule

If you had enough time to study properly, you wouldn’t need to cram.  When you are cramming no TV show or sports game is important – at all.  (Yes, even if the World Cup is happening /right now/.)

2.  Eliminate distractions

Be honest with yourself because you know how you procrastinate.  Turn off your cellphone or leave it in another room.  Delete any apps that tempt you to play them for only a minute (you can always reinstall them later).  If you’re studying on your laptop, disable Wi-Fi.  Dealing with dirty laundry and dishes can wait until after your exam.

3.  Focus your studying on the material that you know least well

If you missed any readings or lectures, make sure you cover that material first.  It can be comforting to revisit the basic introductory material that you already know well, but that’s old news – get the most challenging items out of the way early on in your cramming before you become exhausted.

4.  Plan how much sleep you will need and what you will eat

You probably won’t get an ideal 8+ hours of sleep because you need some of that time for cramming, yet more studying isn’t necessarily better if you are at risk of falling asleep during your exam.  Figure out the bare minimum amount of sleep that’s necessary for you to function well enough, since optimal is already out of the question.  Don’t forget to eat real food before your exam.  Coffee is not a meal and cigarettes are poisonous.

5.  Don’t panic at the last minute

Realistically you are not going to learn anything helpful in the minutes before the exam.  Avoid talking to any of your classmates if you think they will stress you out.  Positive visualization sounds really cheesy – I know – but it can’t hurt; as long as you can imagine yourself being composed and performing well on your exam at least you will not obsess over being unprepared.

Attending class could improve your grades !

Would it surprise you to learn that successful students attend class regularly?  Probably not, but after looking at the scores for the first test in my corporate law class this semester I think some of my students could use some persuasive evidence.

Students:  Please know that I have absolutely no interest in tricking you.  When I say it's important to attend class, I mean it.

I post PowerPoint files online ahead of all of my lectures to help my students focus on understanding the content of the lectures without the pressure to copy every slide.  I believe this practice is pedagogically sound, but it risks certain tradeoffs.  For example, I know some students reason that the slides are the lecture so it's unnecessary to attend class as long as the slides are accessible.  These students miss out on all the verbal content of my lectures as well as the examples I write on the board.  Perhaps some students diligently obtain lecture notes and even listen to audio recordings that were made by their classmates when they are unable to attend -- but realistically not very many students will take such efforts, especially for more than one or two missed classes.  Students who don't attend class often are also at a disadvantage because they cannot judge the relative importance of all the slide materials.  From time to time I tell my students things like, "This slide is SUPER IMPORTANT, you might want to put a giant star on it because it is the key to understanding this topic," or "I won't test you on this aspect, but I want to explain it so you will understand how this works in real life."  Of course other things that only happen during class time, like questions and discussion, will not be reflected in the slides.

You might need more encouragement if you don't already trust me.  Take a look at the following data that I compiled from two previous semesters of law clerk students in my corporate law course (LAWS115).  I only included students who completed the final exam in this course (n=107) since a handful of students withdrew part-way through or did not complete the course for various reasons.  Blue triangles represent students who passed the course, and red Xs represent students who were not successful

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Consider the following observations:

1.  A positive correlation exists between lecture attendance and final grades.

This means that good attendance was consistently linked to better outcomes, but it does not conclusively prove that attendance caused these outcomes.

2.  Students who attended exactly the same number of classes obtained different marks.

While I didn't analyze which particular classes students attended or missed, this finding reinforces the idea that attendance alone is not sufficient to produce strong outcomes.  There is great diversity among students, and some excel at test-taking whereas others do not.

3.  Everyone who attended at least 73% of lectures passed the course.

These data only pertain to the specific students in my sample so attending 73% of lectures doesn't guarantee that anyone will pass in the future, but it's worth noticing.  Moreover, everyone who attended at least 80% of lectures obtained at least a C.

4.  A minority of students achieve high grades without attending many classes.

I know some of my students who had poor attendance were repeating the course to improve their grades; perhaps they just wanted another chance to tackle the evaluations.  Others were probably studying well, which includes completing the readings and asking for help when it's needed.

If you've tricked yourself into believing that your college courses are nothing more than a collection of PowerPoint slides, change your mind now.