Hr Provision Essay

Provision function: is a consecutive process of human resources planning, job analysis, recruitment, selection, placement and incorporation. HR Planning The ongoing process of systematic planning is to achieve optimum use of an organization’s most valuable asset – its human resources. The objective of HR planning is to ensure the best fit between employees and jobs, while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses. Sands Corporation would have to look at the three key elements of the HR planning process, which are: forecasting labour demand, analyzing present labour supply, and balancing projected labour demand and supply. Proper human resource planning will enable Sands HR department to plan recruitment, selection, training and career development . The HR plan needs to be flexible enough to meet short-term staffing challenges, while adapting to changing conditions in the business and environment over the longer term. Job Analysis and Design Job analysis is the process by which HR systematically investigate the task, duties and responsibilities of the jobs within an organisation. For human resource to be effective, Sands HR must be aware of the essentials that amount to each position. That is there should be a process whereby the substance, demands and responsibilities of a job are determined. Therefore two sets of information should originate from job analysis. First, Job Description which is the document that identifies and defines: a job in terms of duties, responsibilities, tasks and supervisory relationships. Second, Job Specification which is a written statement which emphasises the characteristics required from the incumbent to perform the job successfully, which should include skills, abilities and knowledge . Recruitment and selection the process of acquiring applicants who are available and qualified to fill the positions and choosing from a group of applicants the individual best suited for a particular position. Recruitment usually comes about as a result of HR planning and vacant positions that have to be filled. The staffing personnel, should use the job analysis as the point of departure, and follow steps such as recruitment planning, recruitment action (how, where and when), the type of recruiting source, screening and selecting . HR manager and the staffing personnel should through the recruiting process, consider the legal aspects as well, such as the labour Relation Act, No. 66 of 1995, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, No. 75 of 1997 and the Employment Equity Act, no. 55 of 1998. Placement this is the process by which the staffing specialist will place a new appointed employee in an organisation, or transfer existing employees are transferred to new posts. Placement is important because of the heterogeneity of the labour groups. The staffing personnel should make sure that there is â€Å"FIT† between the job itself and the new job incumbent, so that there would be high productivity and a lower turn over from the new incumbent. It should be clear that placement is a combination of the employers’ requirement to fill a position successfully and the employee’s motivation to reach the top. Incorporation The specialist in training and development should attend and make sure that the new employee settles into the new position. The employee should be provided with the information regarding the organisation and its culture through orientation, must also be given specific information about the position and the department should be given through induction. The new employee must be made to feel part of the new work group as soon as possible. The training personnel need to explain the organisations policies, rules and regulations to the new employee as well as counter negative influences by fellow workers.

Reflection of Internship Technology

What steps did I take to tackle this monster? I enlisted the help of our service engineer Bryan Irvine who owns the service and Is the subject matter expert to the entire company. Bryan showed me how to use Zones and how to actually go into Zones-Dive and implement changes and sample templates before pushing them to prod. I wrote some very basic python scripts and was able to create templates for a new API service used to run the Nintendo e-Shop environment that rolled out in March. From the time started at Nintendo, I have read through the Zones user's manual and watched a short merman on It through Youth.I used this tool everyday Inside the Network Operations Center and feel pretty comfortable with it from a user†s perspective. From what I learned, I did not have to learn how to manage or setup Zones in order to perform my duties as a system administrator. That particular responsibility is that of our systems engineer. So to conclude, I did not complete my overall objective b ut at the same time, my objective was way too big. I learned that I should be more aware of what Is expected of me before loading myself up with super high expectations.In arms of learning Linux commands, I learned the basics in the first 60 days of my internship. I did look over the Linux in a nutshell book at my desk and discovered how rarely I needed to use any commands outside of the most basic ones such as Is, UDF, who, Greg, AS, l, and SSH. Because most of the server health checks are scripted and automated into Zones, sometimes it was Just a matter of point and click. Usually it was when I needed to Investigate further Into an Issue or If I wanted to verify manually what Zones was reporting that old SSH into a server using putty. Ex and utilize Linux commands. I felt that I completed my overall objective of becoming familiar with using Linux commands but again, I believe my goal was set a bit high. One good thing that came out of my experience is that Linux commands are not t hat hard to learn and they show an immediate result / return for what is typed unlike scripting and programming. Fertilization was a topic which I thought would become a mall focus for me. I become more familiarized with fertilization by running my own virtual machine through Oracle Virtual Box.It was a good learning experience when I had to figure out how to configure the proxy through the VIM to access data on the internet as all traffic through my workstation passed through our corporate proxy server. I utilized vespers to troubleshoot and investigate degraded service conditions. Much of the time all it took was a reboot of the VIM to bring a service back up, otherwise It was a systems engineer's role to configure and maintain in vespers and feel very comfortable navigating around it.Again, I believe I set my objective a bit high and broad in this circumstance and feel satisfied with what I have accomplished over all despite it not being what I originally planned. My 6 month inte rnship at Nintendo has taught me a lot. As an individual I realized how difficult it was for me to find my voice amongst the team. As an employee I could not help but always feel that I could do a better Job in supporting my team mates. I learned that everyone on my team was not as closed off as I thought they were.When I initiated conversations with them and opened myself up, they reciprocated and I felt very safe and happy working with them. Looking back I wish I had taken more risks in getting to know them and share with them who I was and where I came from. I believe my supervisor would say that I am an assertive employee that is quick to read between the lines. I really liked how he offered to serve as a personal reference in my future job hunt. I believe my other coworkers really value me and are always happy to see me and ask about whatever I was up to.They make me feel really at home and as a functioning team member, they always tend to compliment on my intelligence and I fi nd it quite flattering. Professional workplace skills I need to improve including being more open to people. I wish I could smile a lot more and communicate how happy and grateful I am to be working with them. Asking more questions and not being afraid to speak up is one thing I will definitely make a priority for wherever my ext Job might be. Building a relationship with the people around me is one area I want to tackle on head first.My internship experience through Year Up and at Nintendo of America is immeasurable in terms of what it has done for me. I feel like a whole new person equipped with experience and knowledge in the areas I used to lack in. Communication and drive was my main concern before starting Year Up and today it is an ongoing challenge to supersede new goals that I set for myself every day. I learned that I tend to over analyze and over compensate for technical knowledge when it may not be most practical.Clearly my objectives that were set in the beginning were extremely difficult where it may have been something that required superhuman potential to achieve. From my perspective looking back, if I had completed my objectives I would have the qualifications of someone who has worked in IT / Unix Engineering for around 3-4 years gathered in less than 6 months' time. It was a good learning experience nevertheless; I plan to continue tackling my career and life with the same attitude but now with more emphasis on personal relationships and practicality.

Describe why high constraint research is needed to determine Essay

Describe why high constraint research is needed to determine causeandeffect relationships and why variability is critical in aiding in this determination - Essay Example This is because it indemnifies that if a supposed cause is purposely influenced and, thereby, precedes the observed effect incorporate procedures that help finding out if the cause is connected to the effect incorporate methods or not. This helps in reducing and evaluating the influence of inappropriate factors that could create the effect supposed to be attributed to the cause. High constraint research has helped in controlling extraneous variances. To control external influences the subjects are separated into an experimental and a control group. This control group helps in comparing the data and it remains ideal. It also assigns random units to situations to give variability to the situation. This variability helps in determining the causes and effect of the situation if it appears in a different way. For example while performing an experiment different control or variables are taken to ensure the perfect conclusion in different situations. By further comparing the results the tre atment effects are determined. It takes the overall view of a situation and then derives its constants. All the values or situations are put together and the research is conducted. This research helps to forecast the consequences of future cause and effect relationships. Performing experiments is one form of High constraint research. "The experiment provides the most rigorous test for

Medical Biochemistry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Medical Biochemistry - Essay Example Substances levels can give a lot of information to healthcare professionals, in both clinical and research settings. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is present in many human tissues, enabling cells to undergo anaerobic glycolysis; its main cellular function, conversion of pyruvate into lactate, provides the energy production cycle with more substrates. Normal and abnormal levels are now standardized, and measuring its activity in serum/plasma will help elucidate the origins of damage or disease. There are different isoenzymes of LDH, which differ in their structure and certain other properties. In this practical work, which is divided into 3 weeks, we will first make a comparison of the absorption spectra of NAD+ and NADH, since the assay for LDH makes use of an important difference in these spectra. In addition, the linearity of the LDH assay, with respect to the amount of enzyme, will be assessed, and the limit of linearity determined. In week two, we will assess the LDH isoenzyme profile in rat serum and selected tissues, using agarose gel electrophoresis. Finally, the total LDH activity will be determined, using its natural substrate pyruvate. LDH activity will also be measured using the substrate analogue Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a coenzyme, a molecule which aids an enzyme in the acceleration of a chemical reaction, or catalysis. NAD is an agent that accepts electrons from other substrates; when NAD is reduced, the reaction forms NADH, a molecule that can be used as a donator of electrons. In aerobic glycolysis, for instance, energy is produced in the form of 2 adenosine triphosphates (ATP); in order to produce the adequate amount of energy the body cells need, the cellular mitochondria utilizes NADH. The inner membranes of this organelle are impermeable to NADH, so the latter is re-oxidized to NAD and delivers its electrons to certain shuttles that are able to transfer the substrate into the mitochondria. By these means, cytoplasmic NADH is oxidized and yields 3 ATP molecules, much more energy to the cell. Many other enzymes produce NADH in the mitochondria, all of which can be oxidized in the electron transport chain and in the process, capture energy for ATP synthesis. Once the NADH has been oxidized, the NAD can again be used by enzymes that require it, including those of the citric acid cycle (Krebs's cycle), and pyruvate dehydrogenase, among others. 2. Compare and comment on the distribution of the LDH isoenzyme bands within the tissues. Glycolysis is a biochemical cascade that coverts the main body fuel, glucose, into two pyruvates, releasing energy. In certain cells, where oxygen lacks, glycolysis occurs anaerobically: red blood cells, skeletal muscle, etc. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an enzyme that is only used in anaerobic processes. By converting pyruvate to lactate, it reoxidizes NADH to NAD, so that a new reaction can be started using this coenzyme. This is an important function of LDH, because energy production would stop without NAD substrates. According to Brancaccio

Learning profile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Learning profile - Essay Example In the cardiac placement, I came across situations wherein patients would start complaining of chest pain and immediately nitroglycerine spray would be given three times after five minutes interval; later patient would be sent for angiography as patient would still be complaining of chest pain. All the above circumstances helped me increase my critical thinking skills. The role of nurses in all these encounters was very important and all of the situations were handled by the nurses very well. My previous clinical experience has helped me to use the critical thinking skills to provide patient care and will help me in this perceptorship. 2. Strengths in Clinical Practice (reflect on previous clinical rotations). I know my medications before administration e.g. effectiveness, side effects, signs of adverse drug reactions and/or drug interactions. I understand the importance of administrating medication on time and signing them on MAR after administration. I review documentation, prior d ocumentation and provide adequate time to document appropriately. My fluency in different languages (English, Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi) is an added asset for provision of care. E.g.

Reading assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reading - Assignment Example While some support the banning of sex offenders from SN sites, this paper takes the stance that these are private entities and the government has no businesses meddling in their affairs. In addition, court decisions banning sex offenders’ membership in these sites infringe on their First Amendment rights and freedoms (Wynton, p. 1878). Such trends in the judiciary are likely to lead to former offenders’ freedoms of speech being regulated in similar manner. Hence, U.S. citizens’ freedoms of speech and association will be infringed. There are quite a number of policies and practices that vulnerable SN site members may enforce to ensure the presence of sex offenders in these sites does not endanger their lives. The Government should not Regulate SN Membership At the forefront in banning sex offenders from SN sites are the federal courts with, reportedly, many law courts banning sex offenders from the internet via SN sites as a requirement for supervised release or p robation (Wynton, p. 1861). In today’s SN sites, members post and share quite a lot of personal information. Due to the private nature of this data, the government spares no effort in its drive to protect vulnerable members from harm emanating from criminals and former offenders who may want to use such data to harm others (Wynton, p. 1877). Thus, restricting membership is a by which the government seeks to protect individuals from threats to lives and personal privacy found in the online world. Nonetheless, given that social network sites are private entities and people join at their will, it is imperative that members take the responsibility to protect their privacy and safety without the government restricting the membership of others. To this effect, there are several personal strategies that members can implement to ensure they do not fall victim to sex offenders and other criminals. Mostly targeted by sex offenders are children or the youth who must then implement some, if not all of the following practices. First, real-world judgment is the most effective policy to help one avoid being a victim of sex offenders on SN sites, virtual worlds, and blogs and chart rooms. In this regard, the users should not share a lot of private information or post many photos, videos, and comments as these may be used by an offender to target them, hurt their feelings, and reputation. Besides, reminding users that their actions online have consequences, the government and parents should tell users that what they share should be limited. In essence, online manners should be emphasized. Authorities should also talk to users about their activities online. In fact, for young children, it is necessary that parents limit access to the sites and their kid’s profiles. Users should also not impersonate others in their online activities as this may make them to be targeted by sex offenders. Although a child’s site may have restricted access and highly-set privac y, a broader audience than the parents accesses the profile. Hence, children and other users should be encouraged to consider the language they use online and the videos and pictures posted. Stakeholders such coaches, teachers, employers, college admissions officers, and the police should also be involved in children’s and the youth’s SN profiles and communication. All these stakeholders should talk to

The UK yoghurt market (marketing plan) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

The UK yoghurt market (marketing plan) - Essay Example Yoghurt is used to supplement the main diet. Various developments have been registered in the production and marketing of this product in different markets across the globe. Different production companies have developed different brands of the product leading to an increased competition in the market. Besides, other related milk products give stiff competition to yoghurt in the market. The company that is to succeed in the market has to be sensitive and able to respond to the changing market trends. It has to develop a product brand that meets the changing needs of the clients. The organization should develop a marketing strategy that ensures proper brand positioning in the market. There has been a significant growth in the UK yoghurt market in the recent years with 21% increase in the period 2006- 2011 (UK-June 2011 Report, 2011). One of the players in the UK yoghurt is Yeo Valley Organic. This is a farming and dairy company situated in the Yeo Valley of Somerset, England. The company deals in a variety of dairy products and other desserts. Initially starting with the natural yoghurt, the company has expanded its operations to produce more brands of the products to meet the customer needs in relation to tastes or costs of the products. Other companies offer similar products in the market leading to increased competition in the UK yoghurt market. The organization is then faced with the challenge to develop products that rank above those produced by the competitors in customer satisfaction. A good market plan will help the company to position its brand above the competing brands. This calls for an analysis of all the market forces in the UK yoghurt market and id entifying procedures of overcoming the forces. Due to the changing customer needs, the organization has introduced a new product that is of better medicinal value. Apart from the normal ingredients, this new product has a component that makes it suitable for relieving mid pain. The company is in the process of marketing this new product. This paper illustrates a market plan that is to be adopted by Yeo Valley Organic to help achieve its marketing objectives. It is a one-year program to market the new yoghurt products by the company. 2. Mission and Business objectives The management at Yeo Valley Organic has noted that the quality of the products can be improved through proper care given to the dairy animals. This requires proper environmental conservation initiatives. Thus, the organization is committed to providing quality products to customers while reducing the adverse effects of their operations on the environment to ensure sustainable production. The organization has set a numb er of objectives that are concerned with management of environment. It is concerned with ensuring sustainable production in order to survive in the future market. To reduce the production cost

Business strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Business strategy - Essay Example In case of Honda, the strategies of the company, in order to ensure its long term presence and remain profitable are increasing investments, market expansion, new product development as well as integrating technology for operational purpose. As a result of this, the company was able to increase its productivity (Berger, 2011). These choices paid off for the company to a great extent and it fostered Honda to strengthen its distribution network. Although the strategy helped the company to diversify its product line and expand business, the overall sales dropped marginally (Ahlstrom and Bruton, 2009). The figure above makes it clear that the Honda witnessed reduces sales volume for its full size cars, minis and trucks and buses, even after making the new strategic choice. One of the positive outcomes of this strategic choice for the company was that, it allowed them to create value for the stakeholders. Honda: Success as a Corporate Organization A shift in the strategic choice for the c ompany has allowed them to unearth new avenues and dimensions of business. The new strategic choice for the company also allowed them to diversify the product line and cater to overseas countries. However, the only negative outcome for pursuing this strategy is decreasing sales volume. The decreasing volume of sales was also becoming a cause of concern for the company and for that reason further investment in the field of research and development was not possible. Despite that Honda was able to position itself as a successful corporate citizen. With this approach, the company was able to make good market positions for them in the European as well in the US market. In the late 80s, the company succeeded to become the fourth largest car manufacturer in USA. One of the major drivers of success for the company was the decision of Honda to diversify product line into motor cycle, power equipments and automobiles. Moreover, this strategy also allowed the company to target different type o f customers and allowed them to operate in both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) channels. The dealers of the company were also enthusiastic about the same and they supported the company which allowed the company to strengthen their financial status. Hence from the above discussion, it is obvious that Honda as a corporate organisation is successful to a great extent. International Choices of Honda International marketing is a buzzword and business houses around the world consider it as a way to survive in the market and experience growth. Migration, investments, reduced international trade barrier and well defined legal frameworks are the major drivers of international marketing. Moreover, conducting business in the international marketing also allow companies to cater to different customer segment. With large number of benefits, it is therefore necessary for a company to choose the most suitable mode of entry in the foreign soil. In the context of this stud y, Honda is also enthusiastic about making its presence in foreign countries. The principal intention of Honda towards making international expansion was to showcase their expertise in motorcycle design.

M6A2-Conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

M6A2-Conflict - Essay Example Leadership also helps in influencing the efforts of the conflicting parties and ensuring that parties take the responsibility of ending the conflict (Donohue & Kolt, 1994). Leadership also ensures that all parties involve participate in decision-making through provision of opportunities to express their won perspectives, feelings and points of view regarding the conflict (Lansford, 2008). I have learned that leadership in conflict management must aim at proper planning of meeting schedules, installing shared beliefs and strengthening social cohesion. Accordingly, leadership will enable conflict experts adequately identify tasks, differing interests or objectives that require cooperation in ending conflicts (Donohue & Kolt, 1994). From my interview with Professor Marco Turk, I have acknowledged that values play an important role in conflict resolution. The Professor agreed that personality traits, beliefs and perceptions of the conflicting parties might either hinder or foster success ful conflict resolution. I agree that openness to new challenges, open-mindedness, and cooperative values will foster shared goals during the conflict resolution process among the conflicting parties (Jeong, 1999). ... Values such as emotional intelligence, self-awareness and emotional stability helps the conflicting parties minimize negative perceptions or aggressive behaviors such as verbal attacks that may compromise the process (Donohue & Kolt, 1994). My modified personal working model for conflict resolution is ideal for interpersonal conflict as well as group-to-group situation conflict (Jeong, 1999). However, leadership, trust and values are more essential in resolving interpersonal conflicts compared to group-to-group situation. Interpersonal conflicts mainly result from differences in personality, poor communication, cross-cultural differences and task conflicts between two or members in an organization (Donohue & Kolt, 1994). Power struggles and poor leadership within an organization may also lead to instances of conflicts among the staff. The first step is to identify the underlying causes of conflict. Accordingly, I believe the conflict expert will then create urgency for a solution thr ough identifying the detrimental impacts of the conflict to the workplace. Successful leaders must be able to identify the possible negative impacts such as decline in profitability, poor relationships among conflicting employees, poor customer service and lack of cooperation within the organization (Donohue & Kolt, 1994). According to my modified model, the next step will involve creating a favorable environment for resolving the conflict. This step will involve use of essential leadership qualities such as ability to ensure open communication, ability to encourage dialogue and appreciate diversity of opinions among the conflicting parties (Jeong, 1999). In addition, the conflicting parties

The Importance of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise in the UK Essay - 1

The Importance of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise in the UK - Essay Example ameters which tend to change continuously, however when all appropriate preparation has been made, entrepreneurship can lead to a significant development of the commercial market involved. However, in order to ensure the success of their efforts, entrepreneurs should try to follow strictly the principles of the commercial market avoiding risk in cases that there are no limits for the achievement of a particular plan. The existence of alternative plan of action has to be considered as necessary in order for the entrepreneurship to survive on a long term basis. Entrepreneurship should be considered as a fundamental activity that helps the market to be developed. However, in order for this activity to lead to positive outcomes it is necessary that the participants (entrepreneurs) follow a specific plan of action which has to be characterized by the thorough analysis of the market, the appropriate design of strategic plan and the rapid reaction to the opportunities appeared. Of course in any case the existence of risk creates a series of uncertainties for any potential entrepreneurship. But if all appropriate steps of action are followed they are little chances for the entrepreneurship to end up to a failure. This paper examines the characteristics of entrepreneurship as a unique commercial activity and tries to identify all the appropriate ‘qualities’ of a good entrepreneur as they can be observed both in the field of theory but also in practice. For this reason, the relevant literature review has been followed with a few examp les of successful entrepreneurs in UK as they have been evaluated and awarded in a relevant awarding scheme involving entrepreneurial activities in UK. Entrepreneurship has been defined through a variety of terms in order to respond to the needs of the market as they have been observed by theorists throughout years. At a first level, Thornton (1999, 19) refers to entrepreneurship as ‘the creation of new organizations which occurs as a

Investigating Resistance Essay Example for Free

Investigating Resistance Essay Plan of Action I am going to find out what affects the resistance of a wire by using a six volt power supply in order to have a sufficient charge that wont be too strong or too weak, also so the wires wont get too hot very quickly as it would then greatly affect our results. Five different thickness of nichrome wire as well as changing the length. I will use 20,24,28,32 and 36swg and for each one I will record the voltage and the amps for the lengths from 100cm, down every 20 to 20cm. Do this by setting up the equipment as shown in the diagram below and change the wire after you have recorded all the results for the previous wire, doing so for each one: We will then use the results to find the resistance which is: R=V Resistance = Volts I Amps I will then record our results on a graph. After that I will do the same thing but record all the wires at 60cm three times to do an extra graph comparing cross-sectional area and resistance. Trial run Below is a results table showing our first trial run of our plan of action so we can see if anything needs changing. The wire used was nichrome-24swg. LENGTH (CM) V VOLTS I AMPS R RESISTANCE V2 I2 R2 V3 I3 R3. The results do prove my prediction correct but to show it accurately I will change my plan of action to going down in 10cm rather than 20cm. This will give me a wider range of results. Improved Plan of Action I am going to find out what affects the resistance of a wire by using a six volt power supply, five different thickness of nichrome wire and the changing of length from 100cm, down every 10 until I get to 10cm. The thickness that I will use are 20, 24, 28, 32 and 36swg. For each thickness I will record the Volts and Amps from 100cm down to 10cm. I will do this by setting up a circuit like the one below and changing the wire after I have recorded all the results for the previous wire: I will the use the results to find the resistance for each length of each wire using this equation: R=V which is . Resistance = Volts R Amps I will then do the same as the above but only record all the wires at 50cm three times to compare cross-sectional area and resistance. Then Ill do the graphs. Apparatus . Power supply, to supply the charge for the wires. . 5m of nichrome wire, for the charge to travel through. . crocodile clips, to connect the circuit. . wire cutters, to cut the wire down to the desired lengths. . metre stick, to measure the different lengths of wire. . connecting wires, to carry the electric current. . ammeter, to record the amps. . voltmeter, to record the volts. Fair Test I will make sure it is a fair test by using the same bit of wire when we record the 50cm three times, letting the wire cool down before moving on to the next length because heat creates more resistance, use the same amount of power for each wire so there are the same amount of electrons passed into the wire each time. Also I will make sure the circuit is connected properly at all ends. Method . Set up equipment as shown in diagram. . Cut a 20, 24, 28, 32, and 36swg nichrome wire to 100cm using a metre stick. . Start at 20swg and add it to the circuit. . Start at 100cm record the results and move the crocodile clip down 10cm. . Record the results from the ammeter and the voltmeter onto a table. . Move the crocodile clip down 10 more cms and so on until you get to the end. . Change wire to the next gauge and gradually work your way through all of them. . Repeat the 24swg three times at all lengths. . For all the thickness record the results three times at 50cm. . Then find the resistance using the equation R=V/A . Plot the graphs. Safety Box . Make sure bags and coats are in a safe place where nobody can fall over them . Walk in an appropriate manner around the laboratory. . Leave the wires to cool before touching them . Do not take water near the power pack and dont have the voltage too high Results Nichrome-20swg Length (cm) V volts I amps R resistance Nichrome32swg Length (cm) V volts I amps R resistance Nichrome-36swg Length (cm) V volts I amps R resistance Evaluation My results show that the longer a wire is, the higher the resistance will be and the thicker a wire is, the lower the resistance will be. This is what I predicted and it has been proved. The resistance in a wire depends on its shape and size. The scientific reason as to why thin wires have a higher resistance than thick wires is that the sea of electrons that flow throughout a metal all travel through at the same time and if the electrons have a larger area to travel through then there will be more space for them to flow freely with less collisions that cause loss of energy, but if they try to flow through a thin piece of metal they will collide into the other ions creating heat which then creates more resistance. Longer wires have more resistance than shorter ones because a short wire has a certain amount of resistance, now if you double the length of the wire then you will also be doubling the resistance. This is because there is a greater distance for the electrons to travel through so there is a greater amount of resistance slowing the current down. The graph comparing length and resistance shows a linear trend, but I think we may have made an error in the experiment. I think this because the line for the 32swg wire is above the line for the 36swg wire when they should be the other way around. I suspect that we may have used the same wire accidentally because the points for each result are so close, but generally speaking the theory is proved because all of the others have followed the expected pattern of an increase of resistance, in the increase of length and the increase of thickness. The graph comparing cross-sectional area with resistance shows that with each increase in width of a uniform nature, the resistance drops, but by a greater amount each time, i. e. 32swg-10 28swg-5 diff-5 24swg-2 diff-2 20swg-0. 9 diff-1. 6 If I was to do the experiment again then I would improve my method by being more accurate with my measurements of the wire. The problem with the measurements before was that the wires were very bendy and hard to straighten out so as a result the wires would have been longer then the actual length recorded, so I would use straight wire and would make sure it was cut to the nearest mm to get more accurate results. Overall I am quite pleased with my experiment. The results were generally successful and prove my prediction and the theory correct. If I could do it again then I would make sure I had all the correct wires for each experiment, and that the wires werent too hot as to affect the results in a major way by creating too much resistance. I would do this by leaving a longer period of cooling time so the heat will escape and the resistance will drop. There was two anomalous results on the graph comparing length and resistance. The reasons for these could have been an accumulation of not holding the crocodile clips at the right places, e. g. At 50cm instead of 60cm, or the connections that sent the current through the wire may have been held on tighter on one of the distances resulting in a stronger current and less resistance, and loser on the next resulting in a lower current and more resistance.

Why “software as a service” is going to dominate the next several years in information management. Essay Example for Free

Why â€Å"software as a service† is going to dominate the next several years in information management. Essay Why â€Å"software as a service† is going to dominate the next several years in information management. Introduction                  Saas is the acronym for software as a service. It is usually used to describe deliverance of software via the internet to the end users eliminating any need for applications or servers managed locally. Software is only delivered as a service not through a CD or any other media disc to be loaded in any one’s computer. This service is paid for through a subscription service and is not always located or installed in the computer. Since Saas came into being, it has broken barriers to its acceptance and yet it is more considered to the traditional hosting options. The more stunning instance is the people’s unwillingness to take up the traditional on-premise deployment. This has been proven by studies and surveys carried by different IT companies showing that, in the few years back, 90% of the respondents were willing to deploy these traditional on-premise deployments but today it has declined and is pegged at 56%. This paper discusses why Saas will dominate IT management in future (Creese, 2010). Based to studies carried out, the willingness for Saas consideration grows as the company’s size grow. The highest willingness for this ‘software as a service’ consideration lies with the large enterprises, which are also always the least to take on the traditional deployments. So as the main aim of every premise is to grow and expand, Saas will see itself on a high demand as many companies are sprouting up. Also those with most advanced and successful ERP implementations are mostly considering Saas deployments. According to Mint Jutras, a world class implementation of ERP is at 15% based on the results as from when these ERP were implemented. Most of the progress is on the company wanting to achieve the company’s specific goals and also the current universal metrics performance like complete percentage delivery along with customer retention. Those companies with world class ERP implementations are more willing to consider Saas deployment with more preferen ce lying with the manufacturing sectors where the top performers are twice likely to add up Saas as a deployment option (Lisserman, 2010). Despite the past unwillingness to consider SaaS ERP, the good thing of the SaaS equation in most cases extends beyond the evident advantages of outsourcing the maintenance and feeding of the hardware and the involved software. (Lisserman, 2010) when for instance we consider cost, Saas deployment portrays a lower ownership cost and startup costs. A Chief Financial Officer from one small company deciding on the SaaS route about two years ago showed an estimated investment up-front in an on-premise solution accommodating eight users was $160,000. This amount was mainly for implementation services, and also included hardware and involved software. The real up-front cost for the chosen SaaS solution was less than $90,000 and allowed up to twenty-five users. Despite the fact that software and service costs and also pricing models always vary from solution to solution, this difference is atypical. In fact 48% of survey respondents ascertained the lower cost of Information Technology staff as an the most advantage of a software as service (SaaS) solution. Many of the interviewed companies simply said that they don’t have the staff they felt are required to sufficiently support hardware, infrastructure and software, and hence are not interested in investing in the traditional resources. Heavy customization required in these latest resources present the highest barrier to incorporation of this service. Most people also feel that they do not have the required resources for Saas ERP customization, but there are arguments which can be brought about to counter this. This perception prevents most of the companies, in fact more than 27% of the interviewed to take up this solution. First and for most, one should not think that they cannot customize a SaaS ERP solution. This is because, most recent ERP solutions are offering so many options to customize, configure and tailor solutions that users think of performing customizations, although they are normally not touching the codes or structuring barriers to potential upgrades. In addition, if the requirements truly require modification of the code, some (but not all) vendors, even those providing multi-tenant solutions, will always support customization. These Saas vendors will incorporate the customization into the typical invention, mostly with switches and settings that will efficiently either â€Å"hide† the changes away from other consumers or make them optional. Also they can offer the tailored solution in a single-tenant environment (Creese, 2010). Nonetheless, while a lot of individuals or enterprises may think their businesses are unique (hence making customization a necessary option), a great deal of what they do can be quite comparable to any other business or at any rate similar to other businesses in that same industry. The obvious perceived differences frequently arise from the â€Å"we have always done it or we do it this way† mentality. More so, those supposedly unique business processes may always pre-date the accessibility of tools and know-how that can improve these processes Arthur, 2010). However if one truly feels that they require these heavy customization, then they may take time to reevaluate their businesses to ascertain if they really possess the right software tools for the project being undertaken. Fit and functionality should always be the top priority for any company seeking to acquire an ERP for its operations. Also the ease of use should be of great consideration. These two aspects should go hand in hand for any company, and I believe that Saas solution has these aspects. Owing to this, even the one that is perceived as the best fit, if it does not easily navigated on, or does not allow one to work naturally, does not save one’s time and effort, then it will simply never get used to your overall business operations and will never produce quality and value required by any business (Lisserman, 2010). Conclusion                  Trying to balance the advantages and disadvantages of Saas ERP, the prons outweigh the cons and therefore Saas seems to dominate the information technology in future. It shows a great deal in cost savings, start up costs and information technology cost along with its hardware are substantially low. Although the cost of subscription seems to equal the software and maintenance cost in due course, there are sustained savings realized by not incurring the purchase cost and its maintenance. If you feel that you do not posses enough IT staff today, there is no need to acquire or hire some. On the other hand, if you got a good number of staff, let them engage in the most strategic activities in your business other than the day to day maintenance (Creese, 2010).. Whether you opt to a multi-instance or multi-tenant, take time to evaluate the providers of the solution’s approach and carefully track records in terms of innovation deliverance. You should always look for those that update more frequently and also provide â€Å"opt in† enhancements. Moreover, do not engage yourself or your software into unwarranted and excess current customizations. Software configuration is a good undertaking but code modification and having to continue a routine maintenance of it is perceived not to be fair undertaking. If one feels the need to customize, he/she should be sure that they possess the right solution for the same. If in any case you operate in a distributed atmosphere, you can put into consideration the advantages which can be brought about by Saas in terms of enterprise standardization and access provision to the remote employees in ensuring that remote sites are brought up quickly. Also, if you already have invested or intend to invest in other applications that will surround your ERP or already surrounding it, you must take into account the integration capabilities and requirements that come with the said solution. References Creese, Guy (18 May 2010). SaaS vs. Software: The Release Cycle for SaaS Is Usually (Not Always) Faster. Gartner blog. Gartner, Inc. Jumping to SaaS? Take Agile Software Development Along with You. DevX.com. QuinStreet Inc. 8 January 2008. Lisserman, Miroslaw (20 December 2010). SaaS And The Everlasting Security Concerns. Forrester Research. Arthur, Charles (2010-12-14). Googles ChromeOS means losing control of the data, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman | Technology | guardian.co.uk. Guardian. Source document

Wireless Devices and Applications

Wireless Devices and Applications There are different uses of remote gadgets inside a business association. The applications, for example, M-Business and field benefit administration. The advances that are utilized by remote gadgets: Email, SMS, WAP, Wi-Fi, PDAs, Cell phone, GPS and WLAN. Remote telemedicine in which pictures of conclusion and therapeutic treatment is sent utilizing remote system inside an association is one of the WDA application. There are substantial quantities of uses in which remote gadgets are utilized inside associations, for example, document sharing, texting to staff individuals and errand planning. There are countless that are putting forth different remote applications and gadget. The different famous WDA suppliers, for example, Sprint, Verizon and ATT. Contending in the market drives them to give best administrations keeping in mind the end goal to build their profitability and incomes. The point of these merchants is to furnish better remote arrangements with greater security strategies and expanded data transmission and execution. These WDA suppliers have alternatives for moving up to their administrations, according to the client needs and market patterns. These remote suppliers goes for giving best quality administrations more components as changing business sector pattern and client necessities. These associations have adaptable plans of action which give the capacity to assemble and execute such plans that requires change according to the necessities of clients. The plans of action B2B and B2C utilized by Verizon is a standout amongst the most adaptable model in which number of modules and techniques can be added by organizations necessity which extemporizes organizations profitability by executing such models. With the developing innovation techniques the execution and administrations by WDA gadgets must be at the pinnacle so that more clients will be pulled in. Better data transfer capacity, checking frameworks and giving administrations at lower cost is a portion of the regions in which an association r ivals another. Verizon has its reliable model which has a few elements, for example, speed, connectionless, adaptability and security. Verizon has presented another model for performing distributed computing administrations for giving successful business answers for its clients. Verizon concentrates on giving more business-focused way to deal with giving cloud administrations and advancement of such framework which can meet the necessities of clients. This current Verizons cloud hosts a few elements for coordinating third get-together applications and giving information relocation offices better workload functionalities. This present Verizons cloud display goes for giving greater security to the cloud information and applications with availability to open cloud administrations. It has a few elements and apparatuses that assistance in sending of cloud applications and support operations. Sprint additionally has an adaptable plan of action in which changes should be possible as per prerequisites, for example, the new System Vision design has been presented for giving vitality proficient arrangements. The developing innovation gives the more number of business openings by setting their business inclines by giving amazing finished results with fantastic consumer loyalty. The aggressiveness of a business association relies on upon its administrations offered, for example, speed, transmission capacity, flag scope, cost, unwavering quality and execution. These different WDA gives goes for expanding efficiency, better remote arrangements and incomes. Remote suppliers have reliable models for giving superb administrations to its customers with overhaul choices to its gadgets and advancements. A plan of action that must be produced by these specialist co-ops in, for example, a way that it can be altered by changing needs and innovation patterns. On the premise of different correlations made above it has been inferred that among these three remote sellers Verizon it at the top in furnishing fantastic items with most extreme consumer loyalty. Verizon has the biggest number of endorsers eve rywhere throughout the world as in contrast with AT and T and Sprint. As a result of its remarkable plan of action and approached it turned out to be an effective and adaptable model for giving remote administrations over the globe. References Baumer. (2004). Legal Environment of Business In the Information Age. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/0697804534/ Funk, J. L. (12/2003). Mobile Disruption: The Technologies and Applications Driving the Mobile Internet, 1st Edition. [Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781118118207/ Wireless, V. (2008). BUSINESS STRATEGY. Retrieved from http://team6verizon.blogspot.in/2008/07/business-strategy.html.

Self-defense in Criminal Cases Essay -- essays research papers

Self-defense in criminal cases. One of the frustrations faced by many businesses is that after the perpetrators of crimes have been identified, the District Attorney's office will not pursue the case. One option is for victims to sue the DA in an attempt to compel him to prosecute, but this would be costly and proving dereliction of duty would be difficult. The DA is effectively immune. Other options are more promising. The law should encourage (and prosecutors' offices should welcome) private preparation of criminal cases. Prosecutors' budgets simply do not allow vigorous prosecution of all the available criminal cases. Logic and evidence show that in private law, plaintiffs win about 50 percent of the cases that are tried. This is because the parties are more likely to settle lopsided cases out of court. Public prosecutors, by contrast, win far more than 50 percent of their trial cases because they have budget constraints and so elect whenever possible to go to court with only the cases they are likely to win. Vi ctims should be allowed to hire private attorneys and other professionals to prepare cases against the accused and thereby extend public prosecutors' resources. The attorneys can be retained pro bono (for the good) or for compensation. This is already done in some white collar cases where financial complexities exceed the prosecutors' expertise, such as complicated embezzlement cases, some oil and gas swindles and cases involving the misapplication of construction trust funds. At present, many cases are never prosecuted for one reason or another. For example, in about 40 percent of federal embezzlement and fraud cases, charges are dropped because of insufficient evidence to convict, given the resources at hand.85 In some instances prosecutors "deputize" attorneys to try cases, too. Many private attorneys have criminal experience as former prosecutors or public defenders. A logical extension of private preparation for trial is the complete privatization of the prosecutor's job by contracting out. Private attorneys, of course, are often appointed on a pro bono basis for criminal defense. Private attorneys could be deputized for a single trial or for ongoing prosecutor's work, either pro bono or under contract. The same remedies are available to finance criminal prosecution as civil litigation. Commercial insurance policies could be exp... ...ting witnesses before a grand jury, or the person being investigated, has become a well orchestrated, even cynical, minuet. The first and most important task may be overcoming the cynicism of so many lawyers in and out of government to whom concern for "fairness" somehow signifies weakness. It is a cynicism that government lawyers should not have the luxury of acting upon. In reality, a commitment to fairness is a highly reliable sign of strength and confidence in the merits of one's position, and it is usually those who fear the fairness of the forum who most fear outcomes based on merit. Recently, a controversy has erupted over whether Justice Department lawyers are bound by state codes of ethics and analogous local federal court rules of practice. The issue stems from rules that restrict contact by lawyers with parties known to be represented by counsel, including corporate parties. In essence, the government is seeking to exempt its own lawyers from state and federal court ethical restraints in ways that would go far beyond issues of witness contact. Courts, thus far, have been unsympathetic to this government effort at unilateral exemption from the rules of ethics.

Snapshots of Carver and O’Connor, Pre-Mortem :: Photographs Photos Carver OConnor Essays

Snapshots of Carver and O’Connor, Pre-Mortem Raymond Carver is glaring from the other side of the table, one beefy arm dangling on a chair, the other planted firmly in front of him. His eyes are white, ethereally white, and his hair is a salt and pepper gray. He looks like someone who buys rounds of drinks for everyone at a bar downtown, or, as one critic noted, maybe he’s your son’s little league coach. He is tough but jowly, going slightly soft, like a man who had a hair-trigger temper once but has worked all these years to overcome it. Flannery O’Connor, on the other hand, is a Sunday school teacher: bookish, awkward in a necklace, looking much older than 39. She is smiling crookedly, furtively, smiling away from us. At church socials, she would be a fixture, a great conversationalist, or possibly the woman that holds everything together, flitting from table to table, cooing in a gentle Georgia lilt. You might see Carver at the hardware store, or O’Connor picking through the stacks at the library. You might spy Carver raking his lawn on Sundays; O’Connor would be trying to settle a group of eight-year olds in a church basement with colorful stories of Noah and Moses. They seem like people I know, people I have seen around town, people I wave to on Sunday mornings. Yet for all their vigor, for all their presence, their days are numbered. I know that these are snapshots of people who are going to die. In a few years, their vivacity will be undercut by mortality, their photographic presence instead marked with the great void of absence. The later pictures show a Carver who is puffy, bald, with jowls dropping to the floor, paying for all those nights at the bar and all those cigarettes, a victim of intensive radiation treatment. O’Connor deteriorated in the opposite direction, not bloating but shrinking: the sinews in her neck jut out like those of a strange, scraggly bird, her soulful eyes bulge, and her body is rigid with lupus. In the final days, she had her God and her peacock farm in backwoods Appalachia. He had his friends, his writer’s reputation, his temporal achievements. Their intensive creative lives visible across their faces in the early photographs have been replaced by tranquility, the comforting promise of death, and a final absolution.

Impacts of WTO on Trading Countries Essay -- essays research papers f

Impacts of WTO on Trading Countries International trading has had its delays and road blocks, which has created a number of problems for countries around the world. Countries, fighting with one another to get the better deal, create tariffs and taxes to maximize their profit. This fighting leads to bad relationships with competing countries, and the little producing countries get the short end of this stick. Regulations and organizations have been established to help everyone get the best deal, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), but not everyone wants help, especially from an organization that seems to help only the big countries and those they want to trade with. This paper will be discussing international trading with emphasis on national sovereignty, the World Trade Organization, and how the WTO impacts trading countries. To understand how the World Trade Organization impacts international trading and national sovereignty, we must know what they are and mean to countries. All countries must trade to sustain their people and to get the products they need. It is a known fact that certain countries have what other countries need/want; whether it is natural resources, labor or consumer products. Trading though needs to be regulated, because bigger countries can â€Å"bully† smaller less experienced countries. Countries are looking to get the most profit necessary, and with out regulations some countries could take what the need. National sovereignty is when a nation has complete rule over its country or the region in which it controls. When international trading comes into play, that nation’s rule can change, or be changed, to better fit trade agreements, taxes/tariffs, and the sort. National sovereignty is usually bent, even if just a little, to abide to companies within their nation a nd other trade partners. To discuss how the World Trade Organization impacts international trading and national sovereignty we must first explain what it is and why it was established in the first place. The World Trade Organization is designed to create the rules involved with trade. These trading rules include all countries, not just the US, and can therefore be a little tricky at times. "The WTO establishes a framework for trade policies, it does not define or specify outcome... ...end of the stick seem to be the small farms, developing countries, local communities and the environment. The WTO isn’t a perfect organization by any means, but it does try to regulate tariffs and taxes and occasionally does end up helping a few poor countries out. Without the WTO, would the world be a different place? America needs it, this much we know, but do all the other countries? Many protestors would argue that no, the world does not need the WTO and everyone should stick to its own domestic issues. However, others might say yes, the WTO can be of some use when dealing with particularly remote countries that might not have a chance to trade with anyone else otherwise. In either case the facts have been shown on what the WTO is, why it is here, what it does and how it effects trading. Works Cited Bagwell, Kyle & Staiger, Robert W. "A Theory of Managed Trade," American Economic Review. 1990. American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 779-95. Hoekman, B. â€Å"The WTO, the EU and the Arab World: Trade Policy Priorities and Pitfalls.† Centre for Economic Policy. 1995. CEPR. Paullier, Juan. â€Å"In Depth I: World Trade Organization.† Choike. 2004. 04/22/2005.

How to Become a Straight a Student

Contents Cover Page Title Page Introduction Part 1. Study Basics Step 1 Manage Your Time in Five Minutes a Day Step 2 Declare War on Procrastination Step 3 Choose When, Where, and How Long Part One Cheat Sheet Part 2. Quizzes and Exams Step 1 Take Smart Notes Step 2 Demote Your Assignments Step 3 Marshal Your Resources Step 4 Conquer the Material Step 5 Invest in â€Å"Academic Disaster Insurance† Step 6 Provide â€Å"A+† Answers The Plan in Action Part Two Cheat Sheet Part 3. Essays and Papers Step 1 Target a Titillating Topic Step 2 Conduct a Thesis-Hunting ExpeditionStep 3 Seek a Second Opinion Step 4 Research like a Machine Step 5 Craft a Powerful Story Step 6 Consult Your Expert Panel Step 7 Write Without the Agony Step 8 Fix, Don’t Fixate The Plan in Action Part Three Cheat Sheet Conclusion Acknowledgments Getting in is just the beginning Copyright Page Introduction â€Å"My friends always wondered why I was never in the library, but instead in the student center socializing, or at a party, or at an event. They said I made it ‘all look so easy. ’† Anna, a straight-A college studentThis is not your average college study guide. Unlike the titles next to it on the shelf, none of the advice presented here was devised by professors or self-proclaimed academic skills experts. I promise that you won’t find any mention of the Cornell note-taking method, mental map diagrams, or any other â€Å"optimal learning technique† crafted in an office or laboratory—environments far removed from the realities of typical college life. Instead, this book reveals—for the first time—the study habits used by real straight-A college tudents. All of the advice that follows was distilled from a series of interviews I conducted with a large group of top-scoring undergraduates. These participants were drawn predominantly from the Phi Beta Kappa rolls of some of the country’s most rigorous colleges and u niversities—including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Amherst, and Skidmore—and they were carefully chosen to represent a wide variety of academic concentrations. In each interview, I asked the student to detail his or her study habits.The questions ranged from the general (â€Å"How do you defeat the urge to procrastinate? †) to the specific (â€Å"What techniques or systems do you use to locate and organize sources for a research paper? †). If the questionnaire revealed the student to be a grind—someone who earns high grades simply by studying an excessive amount—I discarded the responses. I was interested only in students who improved their grades through smarter, more efficient study skills—not through longer hours and more painful study sessions. How did I know such students existed?I am one of them. When I arrived as a freshman at Dartmouth College, I had no idea how to prepare for exams or write coll ege-level papers. Like most students, I left high school believing that to study meant to reread your class notes and assignments as many times as possible and that paper writing required you to sit down in front of your computer and start typing until you finished. The problem, however, is that college is not high school. The material to be mastered is much more complicated and the professors have higher expectations.In the college environment, simple brute force study methods can end up requiring a lot of time and causing a lot of pain. Nevertheless, most students still rely on them. And this is why they find themselves regularly pulling all-nighters and developing an antagonistic attitude toward their courses. The taxing effects and spotty success of these methods also underlie the common belief that only geniuses and grinds can score top grades. When I first entered college, I shared in these beliefs. But soon I became dubious. It didn’t take long for me to decide that th ere had to be a better way to learn the material.The results of my studying using simple techniques varied widely—I’d spend all night hacking away at an essay and end up scoring a B-, or give what I thought was a frantic last-minute review for a quiz and score an A. I constantly felt like I was behind in my reading, and there always seemed to be new deadlines on the horizon that I had to scramble to meet. It was truly a chaotic existence. But when I looked around, all of my friends seemed to be having the same experience—and none of them seemed willing to question it. This didn’t sit right with me.I wasn’t content to work in long, painful stretches and then earn only slightly above-average grades for my efforts. I wanted to be exceptional. And I wanted to achieve this without having to sacrifice sleep or my social life. To many students, such a goal may sound hopelessly hubristic. But I’m an optimist by nature, and, observing the sorry state of my current study skills, I was convinced that I could do better. It took me most of my freshman year to construct, through repeated experimentation, a toolbox of sufficiently improved study habits.But once I had perfected them, the results were profound. Of the thirty-six courses I took between my sophomore and senior years of college, I scored exactly one A- and 35 perfect As. The most stunning piece of this transformation, however, was how much less time I had to spend on studying. As my strategies became more refined, the hours required were reduced. By my senior year it got to the point where, during finals periods, I would sometimes pretend to be heading off to the library just so I wouldn’t demoralize my roommates, who were preparing for yet another grim all-nighter.What was my secret? Efficiency. The simple truth is that the brute force techniques used by most students are incredibly inefficient. When it comes to exam preparation, passive review is not an effective way to learn complicated concepts. It’s also mentally draining, which further diminishes the rate at which you can absorb and internalize information. For paper writing, this same problem holds. When you approach the task without proper preparation, it becomes incredibly tiring and you can end up spinning your wheels.After a while, even the formation of coherent sentences becomes difficult and time intensive. In contrast, the techniques I came up with were so streamlined that I could learn more material than my classmates and actually spend less time studying. By eliminating stupid habits and wasted effort, I transformed exam prep and paper writing from a dreaded chore to a targeted activity. For a while, I was convinced that I was unique for having discovered such a smart approach to learning. But, alas, this illusion was soon shattered.It occurred during the winter of my senior year, when I was attending a ceremony celebrating my induction, along with thirty other classmat es, into Phi Beta Kappa. This group represented, more or less, the thirty students with the highest G. P. A. s out of my class of over a thousand. Accordingly, I had arrived at the venue prepared to spend the evening with some serious nerds. As it turns out, however, I was in for a surprise. Upon walking through the door that night, I was immediately struck by how many of the other students I knew socially.These were people who, given their level of visibility on campus, I never would have imagined were scoring straight As. They were magazine editors, frat boys, and crunchy environmentalists. I knew them from parties and campus clubs and through mutual friends. They were, for the most part, normal, well-rounded, and interesting—not at all the type of super-grind one might assume would occupy such an elite level of academic achievement. The lesson of that night was obvious: Perhaps I was not, in fact, as unique as I had first imagined.Maybe there were others out there who had discovered similar secrets to academic success. The writer instincts in me soon took over. Fascinated to know exactly how these seemingly normal students had done so well, I sent all of my fellow Phi Beta Kappas a survey about their study habits. Most were happy to share their methods and I quickly confirmed that my suspicions were true. Not only were many of them using innovative, homegrown study strategies, but many of these strategies were surprisingly similar to those that I had developed during the previous few years.At the time I had just finished editing the manuscript for my first book, How to Win at College, so I wasn’t exactly eager to get started right away with another massive writing project. But after seeing these initial survey responses, I knew I had stumbled onto something big. While most college students toil arduously through the study and paper-writing processes, there exists an elite group of undergrads who have discovered unconventional strategies for ea rning much higher grades in much less time. I wanted to share these secrets with other students, and thus the idea for this book was born.Soon I was sending out more questionnaires to more straight-A students at colleges around the country, until I gathered enough responses, from students with enough different backgrounds and majors, to distill the advice presented in this guide. In the pages that follow, you will discover the details of these often surprising study strategies. I’ve included examples and case studies throughout the book to demonstrate how to apply the advice in many different reallife academic situations. You will learn how to: †¢ Manage your time and deal with the urge to procrastinate. Take targeted notes in class. †¢ Handle reading assignments and problem sets with ease. †¢ Prepare efficiently for exams. †¢ Master the art of exam-taking. †¢ Write incisive critical analysis essays. †¢ Conduct thorough research. †¢ Write st andout term papers. Remember, this advice comes from real students and was honed, through trial and error, in real college classrooms. This distinction is important. It’s what separates this book from the many existing study guides that sit next to it on the bookstore shelf.As mentioned, most study guides are written either by professors or academic skills experts, many years separated from their own college experience. The result is that the authors of these guides are disconnected from the realities of undergraduate life. For example, How to Study, by college professors Allan Mundsack, James Deese, and Ellin K. Deese, suggests that students wake up at 7 A. M. each morning, go to sleep by 11 P. M. each night, and on many days schedule only a single hour of â€Å"recreation,† with the rest of the time dedicated to attending class, eating, or working.One gets the feeling that these professors haven’t spent much time socializing with students lately. Even their pl an for Friday—the biggest party night of the week—has the student working until 10 P. M. , taking a one-hour break, then turning in by eleven. Student Success Secrets, written by Eric Jensen, a learning expert and professional public speaker, offers equally out-of-touch suggestions. His tips to help you remember concepts learned from a reading assignment include â€Å"put it in a picture or poster—use intense colors,† â€Å"act out the material or do a fun role play in your own room,† or â€Å"create or redo a song; make a rap. Just try to imagine a sophisticated liberal arts major attempting to make a rap about her recent reading assignment concerning post-structuralist interpretations of pre-Victorian English literature! (Key question: What word rhymes with â€Å"Foucault†? ) The granddaddy of all unrealistic study guides, however, just might be What Smart Students Know, by Princeton Review cofounder Adam Robinson. In this best-selling gu ide, Robinson suggests—and I swear I am not making this up—that students approach a reading assignment as a twelve-step process! That’s right, twelve separate steps.Before you even crack the actual assignment, Robinson suggests that you jot down questions about the importance of the reading and then take notes on what you know about the topic, what it reminds you of, and what you want to learn. He then asks you, among other things, to read the assignment a total of three separate times, write and then rewrite your notes, represent the information in picture form, construct â€Å"question charts,† and devise mnemonics to help you memorize the concepts. Needless to say, this approach to a simple reading assignment is humorously unrealistic.I even did a little math. For a typical college-level liberal arts course, a student might be assigned an average of two hundred pages of reading a week. In his book, Robinson provides a one-page sample reading and descri bes twenty-three different questions that students might ask about it. At this rate of twenty-three questions per page, spending thirty seconds on each query, we would end up spending around forty hours a week (i. e. , a full-time job’s worth of time) simply completing one of the twelve steps on the reading assignments for just one class.Sounds like a great plan! These examples highlight the simple truth that the advice in most existing study guides—written by â€Å"experts,† not students—is often impractical and time consuming. How to Become a Straight-A Student, on the other hand, is the first guide based on the experiences of real college students, and it was written to provide an alternative to the other titles on the market. In the pages that follow, you will find homegrown strategies that are compatible with the demands of your day-to-day student life.They may not be as elaborate as the intricate systems devised by the â€Å"experts,† but the y’re easy to implement—and they get the job done. Best of all, when you start putting these strategies into practice, you will experience immediate results. Keep in mind: If you find a piece of advice that doesn’t quite fit your needs or circumstances, that’s okay. In fact, you should expect this. Each of the students I interviewed for this book had his or her own unique take on the best way to study. Follow their lead and, when stuck, experiment.Replace techniques you don’t like with ones that seem better. If these new techniques work, keep them; if they fail, replace them with something else. The key to improving your grades without becoming a grind cannot be found in any single study habit. It is, instead, rooted in the big picture decision to reject rote review once and for all and begin the flexible search for strategies that work better for you. Above all, remember that college is a multifaceted experience, of which grades are just one of man y important pieces.It’s my hope that this book will help you painlessly conquer this one piece so you can have more time and energy to explore all of the others—the friends, the unburdened idealism, the heroic beer consumption—that make these four years so rich. A common complaint I hear from students is that they never seem to have enough time to finish all of their work. They vent about how many hours they spend—late nights reviewing in the library, weekends sacrificed to paper writing—but no matter how hard they try, there always seems to be something else due.As Matthew, a straight-A student from Brown, explains, it’s easy for college students to become â€Å"stuck in a state of permanent catch-up. † Understandably, these students feel like they have reached their academic limit; they believe that unless they forgo sleep or any semblance of a social life, there are simply not enough hours in the day to stay on top of all their sch oolwork. Let’s start by getting one thing clear: This belief is false. The problem here is not the amount of available hours, but rather how each hour is spent. I know this from firsthand experience.While researching this book, I spent time with some of the country’s most accomplished students, and I can assure you that no matter how diligent you think you are, there is a Rhodes scholar out there who fits in three times the amount of work and activities you do and probably still manages to party harder than you would ever dare. I don’t mean to imply that everyone should aim to become a drunken Rhodes scholar (though it would certainly be fun to try); rather, my point is that a surprising amount of work, relaxation, and socializing can be extracted from a single twelve-hour day.A lack of time, therefore, isn’t enough to explain why so many students feel overwhelmed. So what does explain this phenomenon? The answer, as it turns out, has much more to do with how we work than what we’re trying to accomplish. As humans, our minds have evolved to prefer short-term tasks such as â€Å"run away from that lion† or â€Å"eat food. † Therefore, when you walk into the library on a Sunday morning with the goal of finishing all of your homework and writing a paper, your brain isn’t happy. The idea of spending eight consecutive hours trapped in a study carrel is dispiriting.Plus, it’s hard to focus for that long, so pretty soon fatigue will set in, your concentration will wander, and every distraction will suddenly seem impossibly appealing. Before you know it, the day will be over and you’ll realize that you haven’t accomplished much productive work at all. The next day, new assignments will pile onto those you didn’t finish on Sunday, and the tedious process starts all over again. Jason, a straight-A student from the University of Pennsylvania, uses the term â€Å"pseudo-working† to describe this common approach to studying.The pseudo-worker looks and feels like someone who is working hard—he or she spends a long time in the library and is not afraid to push on late into the night—but, because of a lack of focus and concentration, doesn’t actually accomplish much. This bad habit is endemic on most college campuses. For example, at Dartmouth there was a section of the main library that was open twenty-four hours a day, and the students I used to see in there late at night huddled in groups, gulping coffee and griping about their hardships, were definitely pseudo-working.The roommate who flips through her chemistry notes on the couch while watching TV is pseudo-working. The guy who brings three meals, a blanket, and six-pack of Red Bull to the study lounge in preparation for an all-day paper-writing marathon is also pseudo-working. By placing themselves in distracting environments and insisting on working in long tedious stretches, these stud ents are crippling their brain’s ability to think clearly and efficiently accomplish the task at hand. The result is fatigue headaches and lackluster outcomes. The bigger problem here is that most students don’t even realize that they’re pseudo-working.To them pseudo-work is work—it’s how they’ve always done it, and it’s how all of their friends do it. It never crosses their mind that there might be a better way. Straight-A students, on the other hand, know all about pseudo-work. They fear it, and for good reason. It not only wastes time, but it’s also mentally draining. There is just no way to be wellbalanced, happy, and academically successful if you’re regularly burning through your free hours in long, painful stretches of inefficient studying. The students I interviewed for this book emphasized again and again the importance of avoiding this trap.In fact, when asked what one skill was most important in becoming a non -grind straight-A student, most of them cited the ability to get work done quickly and with a minimum of wasted effort. So how do these students achieve this goal? A big part of the solution is timing—they gain efficiency by compressing work into focused bursts. To understand the power of this approach, consider the following simple formula: work accomplished = time spent x intensity of focus Pseudo-work features a very low intensity of focus. Therefore, to accomplish something by pseudo-working, you need to spend a lot of time.The straight-A approach, on the other hand, maximizes intensity in order to minimize time. For example, let’s rank intensity on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the most intense). Assume it takes ten hours to finish studying for a test by pseudo-working with a low intensity score of 3. According to our formula, this same amount of work can be accomplished in only three one-hour bursts, each with an intensity of 10. The work that took you all da y Sunday to complete could instead be finished by studying an hour after breakfast, an hour after lunch, and an hour after dinner—the rest of the day being free for you to relax!With this formula in mind, you can begin to understand why many straight-A students actually study less than their classmates: They replace long, low-intensity stretches of work with a small number of short, high-intensity sessions. Of course, this is not the whole story behind their success; what straight-A students actually do in these short bursts is also crucial—technique is just as important as timing. Part Two (Quizzes and Exams) and Part Three (Essays and Papers) of this book are dedicated to these technical details.But learning how to follow an efficient schedule, and banishing pseudo-work from your college experience for good, is a crucial first step toward your academic overhaul. To accomplish this transformation, however, you will need to gain control over your lifestyle—and t hat’s often no small task. For example, you will need to spread out the intense work sessions so that you have time in between to recharge. This requires basic time-management skills. You’re also going to have to overcome your urge to procrastinate, because scheduling your work is meaningless if you don’t actually work in the time you set aside. This requires self-motivation.Finally, to obtain the highest possible levels of intensity, you need to choose the right locations, times of day, and durations to study. If you aren’t careful about how you select these three factors, you can unintentionally sabotage your ability to focus. This requires a smart planning strategy. Part One will teach you how to satisfy these requirements. It begins with the presentation of a simple timemanagement system, customized for the busy college lifestyle. Don’t be frightened, the system is incredibly lightweight—it’s designed to require only five minutes a day of planning and can survive periods of neglect.Part One then continues with a collection of battle-tested strategies to help you fight procrastination. This advice comes straight from the experiences of real students and has been proven to work amid the chaos and distractions of the typical undergraduate lifestyle—it is simple, easy to apply, and surprisingly effective. This part concludes with a discussion of when during the day, where on campus, and for how long to study to maximize your productivity. The students interviewed for this book experimented extensively to find the right answers to these key questions, and, in this final step, I pass these answers on to you.Together, these basic skills are the foundation upon which all the advice in this book is built. Without them, you’ll be unable to implement the specific study techniques described in the parts that follow. Master them, however, and you will experience improvements in all aspects of your life†”not just grades. You’ll have more free time, you’ll get the sleep you crave, you’ll party harder, and you’ll be able to devote more energy to your extracurricular interests. So relax. You are about to take your first step toward a much more enjoyable and productive college experience. Step 1Manage Your Time in Five Minutes a Day Real straight-A students, like most reasonable students, hate time management. After all, college is supposed to be about intellectual curiosity, making new friends, and becoming obsessed with needlessly complicated drinking games. An overwhelming interest in time management is best left to harried business executives (or, perhaps, premeds). At the same time, however, you can’t abandon all attempts to keep tabs on your schedule. As mentioned in the introduction to Part One, all of the techniques described in this book require some ability to control your schedule.Ignore this skill, and you doom yourself to four long year s of playing catch-up with your work. As Doris, a straight-A student from Harvard, states: â€Å"Time management is critical—it’s a skill that you absolutely must develop over the course of your time at college. † Most students, however, misunderstand the purpose of time management—they believe it’s used only to cram as much work as possible into the day. But this is not the main motivation behind controlling your schedule. As it turns out, a little planning goes a long way toward reducing your daily stress levels. Having deadlines and bligations floating around in your mind is exhausting—it makes it impossible to completely relax, and, over time, can lead you down the path toward a breakdown. However, once you figure out what work needs to be done and when, it’s like a weight being lifted from your shoulders. The uncertainty vanishes: When you work, you can fully concentrate on the assignment in front of you, and when you relax, you can do so without any anxiety. â€Å"I don’t believe in giving up anything,† says Jenna, a straight-A student from Princeton. â€Å"Not my social life, not my extracurricular activities, not my academic success. Basic control over your schedule breeds balance. This is why time management, as Doris stated earlier, is the key to getting the most out of all aspects of your college experience. The goal of Step #1 is to present a time-management system that helps you achieve this stress-free balance without requiring you to sacrifice the spontaneity and excitement of college. Specifically, we present a system tailored to the typical undergraduate lifestyle that meets the following criteria: 1. Requires no more than five to ten minutes of effort in a single twenty-four-hour period. 2. Doesn’t force an unchangeable minute-by-minute schedule on your day. . Helps you remember, plan, and complete important tasks before the very last moment. 4. Can be quickly restarted af ter periods of neglect. We will cover the details of this system in a few simple steps and then conclude with a detailed case study so you can see how it works in a realistic setting. What You Need This system requires two pieces of equipment. 1. A calendar: It doesn’t matter what type of calendar, and it’s not something that you have to carry around with you. It can be Microsoft Outlook or iCal on your computer, a cheap day planner, or one of those advertisement-laden freebies they hand out at orientation.It just has to be something that you can reference every morning that has enough space to record at least a dozen items for each day. 2. A list: Some piece of writing material that you can update throughout the day. This you do have to carry around with you, so make it something simple, like a sheet of paper ripped out of a notebook each morning. The Basic Idea Record all of your to-dos and deadlines on your calendar. This becomes your master schedule, the one place that stores everything you need to do. The key to our system, however, is that you need to deal with your calendar only once every twenty-four hours.Each morning, you look at it to figure out what you should try to finish that day. Then, throughout the day, whenever you encounter a new to-do or deadline, simply jot it down on your list. The next morning, you can transfer this new stuff from your list onto your calendar, where it’s safe. And we’re back where we started. That’s it. Pretty simple, right? The whole system can be summarized in three easy steps: (1) Jot down new tasks and assignments on your list during the day; (2) next morning, transfer these new items from your list onto your calendar; and (3) then take a couple of minutes to plan your day.Now, we’ll examine these steps in a little more detail. In particular, we need some strategies for how to plan your day each morning using your calendar and what to do when unexpected events interfere and turn that plan upside down (trust me, this will happen more often than not). Update Your Calendar Each Morning This is where the magic happens. Every morning, spend a few minutes to update your calendar and figure out what you should try to accomplish. This is the only serious time-management thinking you have to do for the whole day, so the demand is pretty reasonable.This updating process should proceed as follows: Find your list from the day before. It will probably look something like the example described in Figure 1. Don’t worry too much about how this list is formatted; we will discuss that shortly. For now, focus on the â€Å"things to remember† column, which contains the new to-dos and deadlines that were jotted down throughout the day. Figure 1. Sample List Tuesday—1/24/06 Today’s Schedule †¢ 10:00 to 12:00 Econ class †¢ 12:00 to 1:00 Lunch with Rob †¢ 1:00 to 1:45 Government reading †¢ 2:00 to 4:00 Government class †¢ 4 :00 to 5:30 Finish government reading 5:30 to 6:30 Start French essay Things to Remember †¢ Econ study group, Thur. at 9 P. M. †¢ French quiz moved to Friday. †¢ Laundry †¢ Start researching summer internship opportunities. Transfer these new items onto your calendar. Write the deadlines on the appropriate dates, and write the todos on the days when you plan to complete them. Following the example of our sample list, you would first jot down the econ study group time under Thursday’s date and the French quiz under Friday’s date. You would then choose a day to do laundry and jot down a reminder under that date, and choose a day to start internship research and ot down a reminder under this date. You can move these items around on your calendar as many times as you want, so don’t worry too much about which date you initially choose for a new to-do. However, try to use some common sense. For example, if Wednesday afternoon and evening are packed with meetings and work, this might not be the best day to schedule doing your laundry. Similarly, if you have a big test Monday morning, don’t schedule a lot of annoying errands for Sunday; you’ll need your concentration for studying.If something is not especially time sensitive, such as the internship research example from above, don’t be afraid to put it on a day far in the future, at a point when you know you will be less busy—such as right after midterms or at the beginning of a new semester. Next, move the to-dos that you planned for yesterday, but didn’t complete, to new days on your calendar. In our sample list from Figure 1, the Today’s Schedule column describes to-dos planned from the day before. As you can see, in this example, all the to-dos were completed except the â€Å"Start French essay† task, so you would need to move this task to a new date.At this point, your calendar once again holds everything that you need to ge t done. Now it’s time to figure out your plan for the current day. Go ahead and trash yesterday’s list—it’s served its purpose—and grab a fresh sheet of paper to use as today’s list. Divide it into two columns, as shown in Figure 1, and label them Today’s Schedule and Things to Remember, respectively. Next, look at the calendar entry for the current day. It will probably contain a handful of appointments and todos. Your goal is to figure out how much of this work you can realistically accomplish.You might be tempted to simply copy all of these tasks into your Today’s Schedule column and then treat it as a simple to-do list for the day. Don’t do this! If you want to avoid getting overwhelmed by your work, you need to be smarter about your time. Here is what you should do instead: Try to label each of your to-dos for the day with a specific time period during which you are going to complete it. Be honest. Don’t reco rd that you are going to study for three hours starting at three if you know that you have a meeting at five. And be reasonable about how long things really take—don’t plan to read two hundred pages in one hour.For simplicity, group many little tasks (errands that take less than ten minutes) into one big block (for example: â€Å"10:00 to 10:45—mail letter, return library book, buy new deodorant, fill out transcript request form at registrar†). Leave plenty of time for breaks. Give yourself an hour for meals, not twenty minutes. And, if possible, end your day at an appropriate hour; don’t try to fit in work right up until sleep time because you need to be able to unwind and relax. In general—though it may seem counterintuitive—be pessimistic. The truth is: Things will come up.Don’t assume that every hour that looks free in the morning will stay free throughout the day. Remember, the goal here is not to squeeze everything into o ne day at all costs, but rather to find out how many of the tasks listed for the day you actually have time to accomplish. If you can’t fit all the to-dos into your schedule for the day, no problem! Simply move the remaining items onto the calendar entries for future dates. You can deal with them later. Your final step is to record the tasks you will have time for into the Today’s Schedule column of your list. As shown in Figure 1, label each task with its time.That’s it. You can now reference your list throughout the day to remind yourself of what you should be doing and when. But here’s the important point: The specific times on your schedule aren’t set in stone—they’re more of a suggestion. As we will discuss shortly, you will be free to move tasks around throughout the day, depending on your energy level and unexpected events that may arise. The main reason you break down your to-dos into time slots is to help you avoid the common student mistake of overestimating your free time. Many well-intentioned students use a simple to-do list to keep track of their daily obligations.But without time labeling, they have no idea how much they can actually accomplish, leading to an unrealistic plan. A twelve-hour day seems like a large amount of time, but when you account for meals and classes and meetings and breaks and socializing, your schedule suddenly becomes a lot tighter. The equation is simple: If you overestimate your free time, then you are likely to put off work until it’s too late. And this leads to all-nighters, panic attacks, and shoddy performance. A realistic sense of time is arguably one of the most important factors in succeeding as a student.After a week or two of time labeling your to-dos, you will be well along your way toward developing this crucial trait. Use the List During the Day As you move through your day, use the rough schedule recorded under the Today’s Schedule column to rem ind yourself what you should be doing. Keep in mind that the student lifestyle is, generally, quite unpredictable. Things will always come up at the last minute. Work will take longer than expected, your roommate will point you toward some absurd Web site that immediately demands an afternoon of your scrutiny—you know how it goes.So adjust your time labels as many times as needed. But don’t procrastinate excessively! The list you constructed in the morning should contain a reasonable amount of work, so if your schedule doesn’t become too unexpectedly crazy, you should be able to accomplish most, if not all, of these tasks. In general, if you’re completing most of what’s on your list at least five days out of seven, then you’re as productive as any student realistically needs to be. If not, don’t worry—the next section of Part One will teach you how to combat your urge to procrastinate.Remember, your list also serves another imp ortant purpose. During the day you will probably encounter various new to-dos and deadlines that need to be scheduled. For example, a professor might announce the date of an upcoming exam, or a friend might give you the date and time for an upcoming study group. The key is to get these obligations out of your head as soon as possible so your mind is not unnecessarily cluttered. Jot down a quick reminder on your list, in the Things to Remember column, as soon as they occur. This takes only a few seconds, and then you can forget about them.The actual scheduling of these tasks will take place the next morning; all you have to do for now is scribble a few words on a piece of scrap paper. Remember, to-dos and deadlines that exist only in your mind drain your energy, distract your attention, create stress, and are more likely to be forgotten. When you’re working, you should be able to concentrate on working, and when you’re relaxing, you should be able to enjoy relaxing. But you can’t devote 100 percent of your energy to any activity when you have important reminders bouncing around in your head.Few students have the energy to schedule every new piece of information that comes along during the day. Think about this for a moment: If it’s the middle of the afternoon, and you are hungry, and everyone is just getting up to leave at the end of a long class, when suddenly the professor yells out a notice that a paper topic is due the following week†¦you’re probably not going to have the energy to stop packing up, take out a calendar, think about what steps are involved in coming up with a paper topic, and then schedule each step on the appropriate days.It would be nice if you did, because then you could purge the deadline from your mind and be confident that it’s safely recorded in your calendar—but this is unrealistic. And it violates our original criterion that any timemanagement system should require only a few minu tes each day. That’s the power of the â€Å"things to remember† column of your list. You can’t expect yourself to be able to think seriously about time management at all points during your busy day. But the act of pulling out a piece of scrap paper from your pocket and quickly jotting down â€Å"anthro paper topic† requires minimal energy, no thinking, and barely any time.You don’t have to consider when to begin working on the paper topic, what steps are involved, or how many days it will require. You simply scribble down three words. The key is that the list is a trusted piece of storage. You are confident that tomorrow morning, when you’re doing your only time-management thinking for the day, you will see that reminder and record the appropriate steps in your calendar. Because of your list, the deadline will not be lost. It will be scheduled. Restarting After a Period of NeglectTo date, I have yet to have successfully followed any time-man agement system without interruption for longer than two months. I try, but inevitably I hit a rough patch. Typically, this happens during the few days following a really busy period—I’m so exhausted from the intensity of the preceding work that I find myself unable to even mention the word â€Å"to-do† without breaking into a cold sweat. This happens to everyone, and you can expect that periodically it will happen to you too. Don’t fear these occasions, and don’t let them make you feel like a failure.They’re normal. The key point is that these lapses are temporary. After a couple days of swearing off my calendar, I always find myself growing uncomfortable with the increasing number of obligations that are free floating in my mind. Before I know it, I’m back into the swing of using the system again, and no worse for wear. The same will be true for you. Once you have learned the power of feeling organized, you will have a hard time goin g long periods without it. Fortunately, the system described here is adaptable to these periods of neglect.If you skip a few days, all you need to do upon restarting is to dump all the to-dos and deadlines free floating in your mind onto a sheet of paper and then push these back onto your calendar for future dates. Case Study: A Monday with Stephen Even the simplest systems can come across as confusing when first described. So let’s go through a quick example that will show you how to put this system into practice. Stephen’s story is based upon the real-life college experiences of myself and the many students I interviewed. If you’re already at college, what follows will seem familiar.If you haven’t yet started your undergraduate career, don’t panic! Yes, Stephen has a lot on his plate. Notice, however, how he uses our system to keep control of his many obligations. Though he can’t finish everything in one day, he remains confident that ever ything that needs to get done will get done in time. As you read this example, imagine how Stephen’s stress might increase, and his efficiency decrease, if he didn’t have his list and calendar to guide his actions and capture the new to-dos and deadlines that constantly pop up. Monday Morning Stephen gets up early because he has class at 9:30 A.M. —a horrible thing. He grabs his calendar from his desk and roots around in his hamper to find the sheet of notebook paper that he used as yesterday’s list. He has only a couple of minutes before class, but that’s okay. Our system requires very little time. Figure 2 shows what Stephen finds recorded on his calendar for today. Figure 2. Stephen’s calendar entry for Monday Monday—3/11/07 †¢ Finish reading for Tuesday Gov class. †¢ Gift for Dad’s birthday †¢ First step of research for Gov paper—find books, Xerox relevant chapters. †¢ Pay cell phone bill. †¢ Return Mark’s CD. First half of Econ problem set (due Wed) †¢ Pick topic for Anthro paper (due tomorrow). †¢ Read five chapters from Anthro book (need to catch up for Friday’s quiz). †¢ Dinner with guys—7 P. M. —Molly’s †¢ Ill-conceived toga party—10 P. M. —Alpha Chi Figure 3. Stephen’s list from Sunday Sunday—3/10/07 Today’s Schedule †¢ 1:00 to 3:00—read article for Anthro. †¢ 3:00 to 6:00—write Government essay. †¢ 7:00 to 8:00—dinner with Sarah †¢ 9:00 to 10:00—edit Government essay. †¢ 10:00 to 11:00—start reading for Tuesday’s Government Things to Remember †¢ Call home. †¢ Start researching summer nternships. †¢ Create schedule for practicing guitar? class Figure 3 shows what he finds scrawled on yesterday’s list. There are several things to notice here. First, Stephen has a lot of work recorded on hi s calendar entry for today. More than he can probably accomplish in twelve hours, so some of these to-dos will need to be moved to other dates. Also notice Stephen’s schedule from the day before (Sunday). This is typical. A fun night on Saturday inevitably leads to a late start and a large workload on Sunday. Stephen was too ambitious with his planning, and by 10:00 P. M. e was burnt out from working on his essay and never got around to starting the Government reading he had scheduled. So this task will need to be carried over to today. Finally, notice how Stephen’s Things to Remember column from yesterday includes some long-term projects, such as â€Å"Create schedule for practicing guitar. † This is a great use of the list! If you jot down ideas for extracurricular and personal projects as they occur to you, they will get moved onto your calendar and therefore won’t be forgotten until you finally get around to doing something about them. Now let’ s see how Stephen gets a handle on all of this before class.What Does Stephen Do First? Stephen’s first step is to time label the tasks currently on his plate so he can determine how much he can actually get done. Between his calendar entry for today and the leftovers from yesterday’s list, Stephen has a lot of to-dos to schedule. His strategy is simple: He starts time labeling in order of importance until his schedule is full, and then moves the rest of the items to other days on the calendar. To effectively time label, however, he must first figure out how much free time he has available. Stephen quickly runs through the following in his head:I have class from 9:30 to 10:30, and another class from 11:00 to 12:00. It’s unlikely that I will get any work done between my 7:00 P. M. dinner and the Alpha Chi party that starts soon after. I should also try to squeeze in an hour or two for a predinner workout (have to look good in that toga), so I should aim to be don e with all of my work by 5:00. With his free time now identified, Stephen can begin to time label his to-dos. Here is his thought process: In between class, from 10:30 to 11:00, I can squeeze in my three small tasks—pay cell phone bill, buy a birthday gift for Dad, and return Mark’s CD.After my second class, I will need to get lunch, but then I should get right to work on my Government reading because it’s due tomorrow! Let’s see, I have three Government articles to read, which will realistically take two hours, so I will label this task with 1:00 to 3:00. Hmmmm, I am running out of time here. I need to start that Econ problem set because those suck, and it’s due Wednesday morning, so I’ll label that task with 3:00 to 4:30. Okay, I am down to my final half hour. What else has to get done? My Anthro paper topic is due tomorrow, so I will have to squeeze that in at 4:30 to 5:00. And that’s all I have time for.At this point, Stephen is a lmost done. All that’s left is taking care of the still-unscheduled to-dos by moving them to future dates. Remember, these include both the unscheduled tasks recorded for the current day and the â€Å"things to remember† items from yesterday’s list. On yesterday’s list I have a reminder to Call home†¦this week is so busy†¦okay, I’ll jot that down on the calendar entry for Friday, I’ll be more relaxed by then. I really don’t have time right now for these other two reminders—start internship research and create guitar schedule—so I’ll jot those down on the calendar entry for the first weekend after midterms are over.I should have more free time then. Okay, what’s left? The unlabeled items from today’s calendar entry. No problem. I can move the Anthro reading to tomorrow’s calendar entry, and then move the Government paper research to Wednesday—I can work on it after I hand in my Econ problem set. Done! That’s it. Stephen has finished all of his serious time-management thinking for the day. Before leaving for class, he rips out a fresh sheet of notebook paper to use for today’s list. He divides it into two columns and jots down the tasks he scheduled for the day. Figure 4 shows what Stephen’s list looks like as he bolts out the door.The entire process described above would realistically take only around three to five minutes to complete. The more you use this system, the more natural it becomes. Before you know it, updating your calendar and dashing off a daily schedule will become as routine as taking a morning shower. Remember, this is the only serious timemanagement thinking that Stephen has to do all day. Now he’s ready to face his Monday with his mind free from worry about tasks he’s forgetting or due dates that are looming. He knows he has scheduled all the tasks on his plate and that they will get done eventually.He has a flexible plan. And he can trust it. Figure 4. Stephen’s list on Monday morning Monday—3/11/07 Today’s Schedule †¢ 9:30 to 10:30 Class †¢ 10:30 to 11:00—Gift for Dad’s birthday, pay cell phone bill, return Mark’s CD. †¢ 11:00 to 12:00—Class †¢ 12:00 to 1:00 Lunch/Break †¢ 1:00 to 3:00 Do Government reading assignment. †¢ 3:00 to 4:30 Start work on Econ problem set. †¢ 4:30 to 5:00 Come up with topic for Anthro paper. †¢ 5:00 to 7:00 Get huge. †¢ 7:00 Dinner followed by inevitable embarrassment at toga party (Note to self: Flex a lot at party. ) Things to RememberNow let’s see how Stephen holds up†¦ During the Day on Monday The day starts off fine. Stephen successfully finishes the small tasks that he scheduled for 10:30. During his second class, he remembers that he has some overdue library books that need to be returned. No problem. Stephen whips the list out of his pocke t and jots down â€Å"Return books† under the â€Å"Things to Remember† column. A little later, the professor announces the date and time of the midterm—something else that needs to be scheduled. Again, no problem for Stephen. He adds â€Å"Sched. Gov midterm (4/5, 3 P. M. † to his list, and then leaves the classroom confident that these tasks will be scheduled appropriately tomorrow morning. After a leisurely lunch, Stephen hunkers down in the library to tackle his government reading. The articles are a little shorter than usual, so he finishes by 2:30, which is nice. As he leaves the library, however, Stephen runs into a friend who convinces him to tag along on a Wal-Mart run. To be honest, it didn’t take much convincing. College students, for some inexplicable reason, love Wal-Mart runs. After this (unavoidable) detour, Stephen gets back to campus by 3:30. Now he’s behind schedule.Quickly checking his e-mail, Stephen sees a message from a classmate asking if he wants to join a study group at 4:00 to work on the Econ problem set. Swiftly adapting, Stephen once again whips out his list and makes a couple of rapid changes to the Today’s Schedule column. He bumps up the Anthro paper topic work to start now, and then replaces his Econ problem set work with the study group that he just found out about. One of the big advantages of this system is its flexibility. Schedules will always change, but this the system makes it easy for you to regain your focus after getting sidetracked.Figure 5 shows the new state of Stephen’s list. Figure 5. Stephen’s list Monday afternoon Monday—3/11/07 Today’s Schedule †¢ 9:30 to 10:30—Class †¢ 10:30 to 11:00—Gift for Dad’s Return Mark’s CD. Things to Remember †¢ return books. †¢ Sched. Gov midterm birthday, Pay cell phone bill, (4/5, 3 P. M. ) †¢ 11:00 to 12:00—Class †¢ 12:00 to 1:00—Lu nch/Break †¢ 1:00 to 3:00—Do Government reading assignment. †¢ 3:30 to 4:00—Choose Anthro paper topic †¢ 4:00 to 5:00—Work with group on Econ problem set †¢ 5:00 to 7:00—Get huge. †¢ 7:00—Dinner followed by inevitable embarrassment at toga party. (Note to self: Flex a lot at party. )The Anthro work goes fine. Stephen finds a topic that he is happy with and then runs off to meet with his Econ group. During the meeting, the group agrees to meet again Tuesday morning to finish the problem set. Stephen quickly jots down â€Å"Econ group—10 A. M. † under Things to Remember and then heads off to the gym. He’s done with work for the day. The Aftermath Because he finished a lot of work during the morning and afternoon before the party, Stephen was able to really relax and have a good time that night. In addition, he successfully recorded all of the new to-dos and deadlines that cropped up during the day.Instead of bouncing around in his head and causing stress, they were safely placed in Stephen’s system and will be scheduled in due time. Most important, none of this required him to explicitly think about time management beyond the five minutes he spent planning that morning and the quick rescheduling he did in the afternoon. As suggested at the beginning of this case study, imagine for a moment what Stephen’s day might have been like without the simple time-management system. What if, instead, he’d employed the strategy used by most students and simply tried to remember what he needed to get done?It’s highly unlikely that the small tasks— returning a CD, buying a birthday gift, paying a bill—would have been completed. Without a schedule, people don’t like to do menial chores unless they’re 100 percent necessary. There’s also a good chance that he would have forgotten about the Anthro paper topic altogether after the last-minu te study group came up. What about the big-picture reminders from Sunday—calling home, scheduling internships, creating a guitarpracticing schedule? Those would have been pushed out of his head completely by the demands of near-future deadlines.Without a system to capture them, we can’t expect Stephen to remember long-term ideas for any extended period of time. Most important, without the system, Stephen would have completed much less schoolwork on Monday. The day would have focused, more or less, only on the Government reading, because that was the only big task actually due the next day. Without time labels, Stephen would have had a much hazier understanding of his free time, so he probably wouldn’t have started this reading until later in the afternoon (for the most part, students don’t like to start any work without a large block of free time ahead of them).Remember, however, that this assignment took a couple of hours to complete, so that means if St ephen had waited until the afternoon to start, he would have finished only this single task by 5:00, with the Econ problem set and Anthro paper topic likely falling by the wayside. Instead, Stephen ended up finishing six tasks by 5:00, leaving plenty of time for exercise and debauchery during the evening. As you can see from the case study, this simple time-management system, which requires only a few minutes of planning each day, made Stephen significantly more productive and significantly less stressed.It will do the same for you. In other words, five minutes every morning and a sheet of scrap paper in your pocket are enough to transform you from a stressed-out student struggling to get things done, into an organized, relaxed, finely tuned academic machine. If you remember one lesson from this book, it should be the lesson of this case study: A little organization goes a hell of a long way. Step 2 Declare War on Procrastination In the previous section we introduced a simple time-m anagement system to help you plan your day intelligently. That was the easy part.Anyone can spend five minutes to figure out what they should be doing. The real challenge is marshaling the motivation to actually do the work once it’s scheduled. Without some control over your schedule, you cannot be a happy and successful student—no matter how good your intentions. As you might expect, in conducting interviews for this book, I put a significant focus on the issue of procrastination. Anyone who makes straight As has clearly found a way to consistently get work done when it needs to be done, and I wanted to find out how. As it turns out, however, I was in for a surprise.Every student I interviewed was asked the following question: â€Å"How do you defeat procrastination? † As soon as the first responses were returned, it became clear that something was not quite right. I received answers such as: â€Å"I don’t. † â€Å"Rarely. † â€Å"I didnâ €™t. † â€Å"I don’t think that you can. † These were not the responses that I expected—it didn’t make sense! Everything else they told me about how they studied and wrote papers clearly indicated that these scholastic studs were kicking some very serious procrastinatory ass, so why were they all claiming they didn’t defeat procrastination?What was going on here? Fortunately, many students went on to qualify this first reaction, and it was in these qualifications that I began to figure out what they really meant. â€Å"I don’t think that you can,† was how Lee, a straight-A student from Columbia, began his answer, but he soon added: â€Å"You just have to try to limit it. † Ryan, a straight-A Dartmouth student, started by claiming, â€Å"Really, I don’t defeat procrastination. † But then he continued: â€Å"Or, at least, I don’t think I do†¦although, I suppose, compared to the majority of stu dents, I’m not as bad as I think. † I don’t know that I’ve yet defeated procrastination,† was how Christine, a straight-A Harvard student, began before concluding: â€Å"but I’ve found ways to make this inevitable tendency less destructive. † Over time, these extended responses began to paint a clear picture. When the straight-A students answered â€Å"I don’t defeat procrastination,† they really meant to say â€Å"I don’t defeat the urge to procrastinate. † And this makes perfect sense. To put it simply, some work just plain sucks, and you, like the straight-A students interviewed for this book, will want to procrastinate on this sucky work.It’s unavoidable. Therefore, the goal in this step is not to teach you how to love all work and never feel like procrastinating ever again. Instead, I’m going to describe some targeted strategies to help you sidestep this unavoidable urge when it arises†”not destroy it altogether. This is how straight-A students prevent procrastination from destabilizing their schedule. They don’t rely only on willpower and good intentions, but instead deploy an arsenal of specific, tested rules that help them short-circuit their natural desire to procrastinate.These students, of course, aren’t perfect, and they still occasionally put off work for no good reason. But overall their strategies made them significantly more effective at following a study plan then their peers—and this made all the difference. What follows are five anti-procrastination battle plans drawn directly from my straight-A interviews. These techniques are not theoretical; they are exhaustively used by real students to beat down procrastination again and again. Trust them. Put them into practice immediately. Make them into a habit. The effect will be immediate.You may never fully rid yourself of the urge to procrastinate, and that’s okay. But with t he right strategies in place, you can rid yourself of the fear that you’ll always give in to that urge. Procrastination Battle Plan #1: Keep a work progress journal Think about the last time that you procrastinated on something important. You can probably recall some of the wishy-washy excuses your mind concocted for delaying the work. Something along the lines of â€Å"I don’t have all the materials here with me now, but if I waited until tomorrow, I could get tarted right away with everything I need,† or â€Å"It’s getting late, and my concentration is waning, it would be a waste to start now, so I will wait to tackle this when I’m fresh in the morning. † Why are these excuses necessary? Why don’t we simply think: â€Å"This is boring, and I’m lazy, so I’m not going to do it,† which is much closer to the truth? The answer is that your ego is a powerful force. We procrastinate, but we don’t want to admit t o ourselves that we procrastinate. So we make excuses to ourselves to avoid the truth. A work progress journal is a simple tool that takes advantage of this reality to help you defeat procrastination.It works as follows: Buy a cheap spiral notebook, and keep it near your calendar. Each morning, when you work out your schedule for the day, quickly jot down in the notebook the date and the most important tasks that you are scheduled to get done. At the end of the day, if you’ve completed all of these tasks, simply jot down all completed. If you failed to complete some tasks, record this, along with a quick explanation. The system adds only an extra minute to your morning routine and requires only an extra minute each night before you go to sleep. It’s simple enough to turn into a habit.What’s amazing, however, is the journal’s immediate effect. Having to record, in ink, on paper, that you procrastinated over a task for no good reason is a powerful blow to y our ego. It might be easy to tell yourself a few weak excuses for putting off a tedious assignment, but when you have to record these same excuses on paper their foolishness is exposed. You can no longer get away with lame rationalizations. This is especially true if you continue to delay the same task day after day. After seeing all of those excuses pile up in your journal, there will be no escape from reality: You are being lazy!Your ego won’t like this truth, so it will kick-start your motivation in an effort to avoid it. The journal, in this way, acts like a personal drill sergeant, sitting on your shoulder and yelling into your ear: â€Å"Soldier, I want you to go get me a pillow, because I know I must be dreaming. I thought I just saw you consider not starting your paper this afternoon, and I knnnoooowwww you wouldn’t try to pull that crap with me standing right next to you! Now go grab your notes and get workin’ before I make you record your laziness in ink where everyone can see it! Many students, myself included, don’t keep a journal all the time, but use it to help them get through unusually busy periods. For example, my work progress journal was a key force in getting me through my senior fall semester, which involved classes, grad school applications, and the writing of my first book. Others have had great success with the journal to keep focused on their LSAT preparation while juggling the demands of regular class work. Some students go so far as to use the system with a friend, agreeing to review each other’s journal once a week.As Christine from Harvard suggests: â€Å"If you have a friend in the same class, check up on each other’s progress. † And even if you can’t find a willing journal partner, there are other ways to use friends to jumpstart your drive: â€Å"It helps to simply tell your roommates of your goals, and have them guilt-trip you into working. † Procrastination Battle Plan #2: Feed the Machine Low energy breeds procrastination. Most students know the feeling—your mind starts to feel sluggish, you begin to read whole pages of text without remembering a single word, and writing coherent notes becomes a Herculean task.It’s almost impossible to motivate yourself to stick to a schedule under these mental conditions. Accordingly, during long work periods, you need to feed your body the fuel it needs to perform at it