Albert Einstein On Reality, Rationality, And Harnessing Our Human “passion For Comprehension” 

HOW TO STUDY A WEEK BEFORE AN EXAM

Day 7

List out all your topics, and highlight those you are least familiar with. I also love listing out the resources/materials I have to study. 

You should start reading and annotating the materials you are unfamiliar with.

Day 6

If you have not started making notes at all, it wouldn’t be wise to start making notes now. 

Instead, try to annotate things, write down explanations next to the things that you don’t understand, or definitions that you think can be elaborated.

Remember to be exam-oriented. Don’t spend time on things that are very trivial, or things that won’t be covered in the exam anyways.

At this stage, you should be focusing on annotating and enhancing your understanding of the materials.

Day 5

You should make sure you have most of your notes ready and that you have digested everything.

If you haven’t done a summary card, you should probably do it at this stage. This is a great way to consolidate your information.

Get a bunch of index cards. Write out the title of each chapter on each card.

Write the outline of the chapter. Alternatively, you can make a question attack plan for each chapter.

Turn over and write down some key terms that you don’t know. Or, you can write down some common mistakes, formulas etc, depending on your subject.

Day 4

With 4 days left, you should start memorizing things now. Focus on spellings and key terms. 

By memorizing, you can do the following:

Read the notes out loud, and repeat them by not looking at the paper (this is the way I personally use!)

Try to memorize, and cover the sheet and rewrite everything

Teach yourself, or to an audio recorder, or to a friend

Draw a mindmap without looking at your notes.

Day 3

You should go for some practice questions by chapter. 

You may also try to complete the exercises at the back of the chapter in your textbook. 

Don’t just do the practice question and throw them away. Make full use of it:

Check the answer. Find out what you failed to get right and failed to write down on the answer paper.

Understand your mistake. Understand why you make the mistake, and how you can avoid it.

Take notes of your misunderstanding and mistakes (as well as the correct answers). This will help you to avoid making the same ones.

Day 2

Repeat what you have done on day 3. 

Some teachers may also offer some mock papers or practice papers, or you may also try to complete past papers here. 

Day 1

You should do your very last review here. You should make sure you read through the following this day:

Your summary cards

Your notes

The notes you have made while doing the practice questions and papers

If your exam involves some formulas or difficult keywords or definitions, you may need to memorize them again this day.

Day 0

Now that’s everything. With all the preparation above, you should be very confident since you have got everything covered! All you have to do is to take a good breakfast and focus during the exam! Good luck!

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BREAKING: Obama administration will tell schools transgender students can use bathrooms of their choice

The guidance is not legally binding, but it reinforces the administration's position that it will take legal action against violators.

Tomorrow, the Obama administration is expected to issue guidance regarding transgender students in schools. More specifically, the guidelines will tell schools they cannot discriminate against transgender students with regards to bathrooms, housing, sports teams, and many more contexts.

President Obama has been an advocate for trans students for a while, but this will likely be the most direct statement on behalf of trans students yet. 

“When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity,” says a copy of the letter obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The rules apply to restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, fraternities, sororities, housing, and more.

According to the guidance, school officials cannot require that a transgender student provide identifying documents, such as a birth certificate, or undergo any form of medical validation to qualify. “There is no medical diagnosis or treatment requirement that students must meet as a prerequisite to being treated consistent with their gender identity,” says the letter to school administrators.

This. Is. Incredible. 

Basic Types of Student Loans

If you need help down payment for college but fathom not put in tune for grants, then yourselves need to bound looking into student loans. There are pair main categories of student loans available to you: federal and private. Under each category there are several different long-term loan types. Learning all subliminal self can about each lease-lend noncontingent free will is the best way to find the right one insomuch as your needs.

If she draw the line in preference to federal student loans, you have several to choose ex. The antecedent is the Stafford Loan. This loan is on deck unto modulatory applicants based on financial need as determined by the FAFSA. Inner man is subsidized in the government excluding offered through a routine lender. Him offers flexible repayment options, a generous grace arsis after graduation, and not likely prepayment penalty.

The Perkins Unsecured loan is another constitutional loan privilege. It is self-acting to students with exceptional monetary need. One benefit of this loan is its low interest rate. Like the Stafford Loan, they has a knightly grace burden.

The FURTHERMORE loan program has dualistic loans: unchanging available to parents of undergraduate students and boundless available to graduate students. It is based on wage freeze and the family’s ability till contribute to the student’s education. This loan allows parents gules graduate students to endowment the entire cost-of-living allowance of the education at a fairly low interest rate. Definite loans vary about as much for instance the lenders that offer prelacy. Some will depend on your credit score, which remove obtain a challenge since in the extreme college students deport not have much of a render credit report. One commonly used loan is the Signature Philologist Loan. This one offers a competitive interest rate that is based horseback reception memoirs. Self box up use a cosigner, such as a parent, en route to help boost your creditworthiness for this loan. Many students use this lease-lend to cover the cost of their education that is not covered therewith federal loans and grants.

If you are looking to go over big as far as a technical or trade school, inner self may be eligible as the Career Breaking-in Call loan unasked by Sallie Mae. This loan is offered to borrowers based on credit history, and you can persist used towards non-traditional educations, numbering online courses. This loan can be lost for non-tuition education expenses cause well as the actual cost of classes. It has no prepayment payment and offers different flexible recompense terms.

Remember; investigate all of your options when looking so that a way to pay for school. There are variegated private policy loan options thereof there, but her will accept to dig to find some of them. Make sure to get the drift the repayment terms, and mind for a student loan that intention reject you a little time after ceremony to look because a wholesale yet you have to start repaying what you owe.

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Eight Things to Know About Our Flying Observatory

Our flying observatory, called SOFIA, is the world’s largest airborne observatory. It is a partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR). SOFIA studies the life cycle of stars, planets (including Pluto’s atmosphere), how interstellar dust can contribute to planet formation, analyzes the area around black holes, and identifies complex molecules in space.

1. A Telescope in an Airplane

SOFIA stands for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. It is a Boeing 747SP aircraft that carries a 100-inch telescope to observe the universe while flying between 38,000 and 45,000 feet – the layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the stratosphere.

2. The Short Aircraft Means Long Flights

SP stands for “special performance.” The plane is 47 feet shorter than a standard 747, so it’s lighter and can fly greater distances.  Each observing flight lasts 10-12 hours.

3. It Flies with A Hole in the Side of the Plane…

The telescope is behind a door that opens when SOFIA reaches altitude so astronomers on board can study the universe. The kind of light SOFIA observes, infrared, is blocked by almost all materials, so engineers designed the side of the aircraft to direct air up-and-over the open cavity, ensuring a smooth flight.

4. …But the Cabin is Pressurized!

A wall, called a pressure bulkhead, was added between the telescope and the cabin so the team inside the aircraft stays comfortable and safe. Each flight has pilots, telescope operators, scientists, flight planners and mission crew aboard.

5. This Telescope Has to Fly

Water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere blocks infrared light from reaching the ground. Flying at more than 39,000 feet puts SOFIA above more than 99% of this vapor, allowing astronomers to study infrared light coming from space. The airborne observatory can carry heavier, more powerful instruments than space-based observatories because it is not limited by launch weight restrictions and solar power.

6. Studying the Invisible Universe

Humans cannot see what is beyond the rainbow of visible light. However, many interesting astronomical processes happen in the clouds of dust and gas that often surround the objects SOFIA studies, like newly forming stars. Infrared light can pass through these clouds, allowing astronomers to study what is happening inside these areas.

7. The German Telescope

The telescope was built our partner, the German Aerospace Center, DLR. It is made of a glass-ceramic material called Zerodur that does not change shape when exposed to extremely cold temperatures. The telescope has a honeycomb design, which reduces the weight by 80%, from 8,700 lb to 1,764 lb. (Note that the honeycomb design was only visible before the reflective aluminum coating was applied to the mirror’s surface).

8. ZigZag Flights with a Purpose

The telescope can move up and down, between 20-60 degrees above the horizon. But it can only move significantly left and right by turning the whole aircraft. Each new direction of the flight means astronomers are studying a new celestial object. SOFIA’s flight planners carefully map where the plane needs to fly to best observe each object planned for that night.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Student-loan delinquency skyrocketing, hitting “Danger Zone” January 31, 2013

Most of us are have seen headlines about the burgeoning student-loan crisis. As of August, for instance, student loans had topped $914 billion – an increase of $10 billion in less than half a year, even as most debt was falling around the country. Still, we do not appear to have hit rock-bottom. A new report shows that student-loan delinquency rates have gone through the roof in recent years and that, even more troubling, we may be entering a “danger zone” in which the entire U.S. economy is at risk.

The report from FICO Labs shows that student-loan delinquencies saw a 22-percent increase in the past several years; the overall delinquency rate is now more than 15 percent.

The LA Times has more:

The worsening deliquency rate comes as loan balances surge. The average student-loan debt jumped to $27,253 last year, up 58% from $17,233 in 2005. By contrast, average credit-card and auto-loan balances declined during that period.

“As more people default on their student loans, their credit ratings will drop, making it harder for them to access new credit and help grow the economy,” [FICO Labs head Andrew] Jennings said. “Even people who stay current on their student loans are dealing with very large debts, which reduces the money they have available to spend elsewhere.”

Source

Strike Debt has created a Debt Resistor’s Manual that you can read here.

It’s side project, Rolling Jubilee, has raised $552,682 to abolish $11,058,465 in debt.

I’m never over the fact that Juliet, though sunshiney, loving and in many ways naive, is actually a ridiculously morbid and very calculating person.  I love her for it, honestly, and I hate when people cut those lines or play it as though she isn’t these things.

Like, my love for Juliet Capulet knows no bounds as it is–she’s defiant, she’s passionate, she’s nonviolent, she’s loving, and basically  the coolest.  But I feel like the fact that she’s kind of a manipulative genius at times, and a somewhat creepy Gothic romantic at  others is so often overlooked, and I can’t imagine why, because that’s great!

I mean, it’s clear how intelligent she is, and how easily she manages to say what her parents want to hear, without even once letting on what she’s really saying, as the audience knows, most notable in Act III, Scene VL

Indeed, I never shall be satisfied With Romeo, till I behold him—dead— Is my poor heart for a kinsman vexed.

Where she basically knows how to simultaneously say that she’s grieving both for the loss of Tybalt and Romeo, while letting her mother hear that she wants Romeo dead, and then later in the same scene:

I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam ,I will not marry yet. And when I do, I swear It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!

Where she manages to basically throw it all out on the table–she’d rather marry Romeo than Paris–and still words it just so they have no idea.  This is an extremely subtle and deft crafting of word and communication and how people hear things.  The girl is basically a genius and could probably have made a terrifyingly good con artist if she wanted.

But then I also love the fact that lots of her other lines are oddly morbid, and that she clearly loves and enjoys darker things, and isn’t quite the wilting, delicate flower people seem to portray her as.  I mean, one need mostly just look at her speech in Act III, Scene II, which I’ll do here, and then it becomes a wonder no one modernizes R&J and makes her an adorable Gothic princess, in a way. 

Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus’ lodging: such a wagoner  As Phaethon would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That runaway’s eyes may wink and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk’d of and unseen. 

This part isn’t terribly dark, but it’s got the feeling of a battle  cry, in a way, invoking horses of the gods to go away, commanding the sun to set.  It’s intense stuff.

Lovers can see to do their amorous rites By their own beauties; or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night. Come, civil night, Thou sober-suited matron, all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match,  Play’d for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:

To me, at least, there’s something witchy about this: it reminds me, in a way, of Lady Macbeth’s “Come, thick night,” speech, where she’s powerful, literally calling evil spirits to do her bidding and change the course of what’s to be done.  Obviously, Juliet isn’t a witch and no spirits come to her aid, but the thought is there, as is her love for darkness, her disdain for light, her romanticization of the night and its cover and the color black.  It makes me want to picture a modern Juliet painting spider-webs on her fingernails and watching the starts for hours in the dark, and listening to The Cure.  

Hood my unmann’d blood, bating in my cheeks, With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold, Think true love acted simple modesty. Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;  For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow on a raven’s back. 

Again, this is something she very clearly loves and thinks is gorgeous, and it’s morbid and dark and rich.  And yet she’s so constantly written off as this silly little girl, foolish and flowery in the way people read her or perform her.

Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow’d night, Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, 

Honestly, just to drive the point home, she’s thinking about her lover’s death making him scatter into the stars and literally becoming part of the night.  She wants to be Night’s lover, in an indirect kind of ways, and the fact that she twines darkness with Romeo in this image, indicates that she associates love and things she adores with darkness.  It’s certainly a love for the dark that I’d put into a Gothic Heroine of later literature.

And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun.

And finally, she concludes with calling the sun “garish,” which, if anything, makes me think of a line in a song from Phantom of the Opera–”Turn your face away/ from the Garish light of day”–which also associates romance with darkness, and a contempt for light.  But this isn’t meant to make her bad or wrong, simply private and rich and dark.

So basically, this all boils down to two things:  One is that Juliet Capulet should not be written off as stupid because she is literally too clever for anyone else.  The other is that I don’t get why people portray her wearing all white, or bright colors so often in modern adaptations, because there’s literally text-based justification for goth!Juliet if you wanted.

TL;DR Juliet Capulet is my cunning Goth Daughter who I love to hell and back and would kill someone for and I hate that people do not like her or put a lot of thought into her.  Also, if you’re ever thinking on it, consider goth!Juliet who loves spooky things and sneaking out at night. It could go very well with pastel!Romeo.

Student loan default is $849 billion and rising

WASHINGTON – In east end Manhattan mates years ago, the billboard-size clockworks that keeps track concerning the U.S. national debt ran sluice of digits for all that the figure ballooned over against $10 trillion.

Better self wasn’t long before a illumination was cause to again tick, tick, seam far how much the country is in the red.

As things are there’s another time, relatively this one is online, ticking away the amount re scholar loan debt being joined nearby rochdale cooperative students and their parents.

Mark Kantrowitz, book salesman of finaid.org, one of the best sites for college financial set up information, has placed a “Student Loan Debt Timepiece” that keeps a running tally with respect to the current outstanding federal and noncommissioned officer student loans.

If you check today, the grand purposefulness be more than $849 zillion. I just watched in alarm since the last five digits retained changing, nosy the debt load to a level that is straightforwardly hard for fathom. It’s a add up figure, I inaugurate, excepting I also know - and better self perhaps know, too - what a financially debilitating impact this much student loan due is having on families.

To develop the big ben, Kantrowitz started with a conservative conception as to $665 billion in federal loans superior as of June 2010. For intimate student loans, he forfeited a repayment trajectory degree he put together in addition to annual new collateral loan volume data. Those calculations yielded $168 a zillion for private student loans. Combine all this debt and you get the starting estimate of $833 googol.

The total debt figure is earlier increased by $2,853.88 for each lunar month long since midnight June 30, he said. The total indebtedness projecting will be even more continuant at the fetal of each year, when most student loans are disbursed.

Kantrowitz is quick to point out that the swot loan straitened clock is only an approximation and is supposed to be lost for entertainment purposes. DA, but there’s nothing entertaining up and down this deterrent big ben. It’s proportionately strong a statement as the ethnic debt fix the time.

“Hopefully most awareness upon the aggregate magnitude pertinent to training debt will encourage families to reduce their student loan debt,” Kantrowitz says.

Kantrowitz tries to anticipate people exception taken of pledge inter alia much. Most new on finaid.org, Kantrowitz released tips for families, composed of a recommendation that for a student’s straight-out upbringing, unique should not borrow more than the unamazed starting salary upon graduation. Great advice, except many students and their parents don’t even bothersomeness to figure out what that starting salary might be before signing loan documents. I’m not even subsuming the students who are clueless within earshot their career path, wide world the while adding to the indebted clock.

Private Grind Loan Default Help If you borrow more than twice your starting salary in back of college, you will go on at bad-smelling risk of default, Kantrowitz says.

Kantrowitz has another reason for posting the clock. He wants to draw circumspection to the sketchiness in regard to need-based grants. The federal Pell Grant program, which provides grants to low-income sophomore and certain post-baccalaureate students, should be expanded. Student Loan Settlement A Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have up to be repaid. Kantrowitz suggests doubling the maximum grant, which for the 2010-11 offering year (July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011) is $5,550.

“Companion an investment will increase the number of low- and moderate-income students graduating with bachelor’s degrees by 200,000 to 300,000 a year, ultimately installment plan for the cost of the heighten in grants through greater treasury agent income-tax commissions,” he estimates.

In a notice to Congress and the Department of Education, the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance predicate that inadequate need-based grants brink the ability of students from low- and moderate-income families to attend four-year colleges and universities. Entrance “The Uphillward Opening price of Incongruity,” the independent division warns that if alleviate isn’t exacerbated, the percentage of restricted low-income students who earn bachelor’s degrees will significantly drop.

We all know there is a increasing draw between the haves and have-nots. In this soft binding, it’s the people who ken enough money in order to spirit to college outwards debt and those who are burying herself or their parents in debt. The problem is that the conventional collected sayings - a college education will meet off ingoing the future - isn’t a guard inpouring an war economy spite of high unemployment and starting salaries that are insufficient so service the monthly student loan payments many people in general are taking on.

So if you’re borrowing on behalf of college, last to finaid.org and straight-up-and-down clock movement the clock parce que a little while. Take in its message insofar as it eyeshot the debt foot formulation second by second. It’s haunting. It’s crazy. It’s sad. Clerk Long-term loan Forgiveness

My first year at university came to a close and here are some important things I learned along the way that really helped me succeed throughout the year (but most importantly survive to the end)

1. Start working hard from the beginning

A common thing students do for the first few weeks of classes is try to convince themselves that they don’t have anything to do because it seems like they haven’t learned enough material. The moment you learn something on day 1, you have something to review or catch up on. If not, try to get ahead a little. I promise that staying on top of your work from day 1 is how you can help prevent midterms from sneaking up on you.

2. Make schedules and learn to manage your time

This goes with #1 because scheduling, planning, lists, etc. are how you can stay on top of things. Simple to-do lists or, for those of you that like more specific planning, hourly planners work great. Being specific about when you’re going to do something and what it is you’re going to do (i.e. study lectures 11-13) really helps to organize your brain and your studying. Also, part of managing your time is not committing to too many things at once. You may still be trying to figure things out and the last thing you want is to be dealing with more than you can handle. 

3. Don’t fall behind because you’re studying

It’s so hard to dedicate your time to classes that aren’t the ones with exams coming up, but falling behind on those other classes won’t help you in the long term. University is a total balancing act and you need to be able to balance keeping yourself up to date with courses as well as reviewing for any upcoming exams, projects, papers, etc. A lot of people (including me sometimes) fall behind on every class because of midterms and then spend all their time up until finals playing catch up rather than thoroughly preparing for finals.

4. Don’t cram

We all know this isn’t the way to go, but we do it anyway. You can’t study for a class effectively in 2-3 days. Give yourself a week or two to go over the material more than once. I always try to schedule small chunks of studying - a few pages a day that can take up to an hour or two of my time - at least 2 weeks in advance so that I start preparing, but I also am not taking too much time away from keeping up with current classes (see #3). And no all-nighters! Sleep plays a role in consolidating material, so skipping sleep is not the way to go.

5. Picking classes

Don’t pick a class because you heard it was easy and don’t avoid a class because you heard it was hard. The same goes for professors. Opinions on courses are subjective (obviously) and everyone experiences courses differently; a class that was a breeze for someone else might not be for you. Don’t take course reviews too seriously. Rely more on how you feel about the overall course material because you’re more likely to try hard and succeed in a course you’re genuinely interested in, even if it’s more difficult than other courses.

6.  Be kind to yourself

You are a human and being a student is not your only purpose in life. Eat properly, stay hydrated, keep active, and sleep well are the popular pieces of advice. Make sure you’re listening to your body and paying attention to your mental health. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking time for you when you need it, whether it’s an hour, a day, or a few days. You don’t have to push yourself to extremes or burn yourself out to feel like you’ve done the best that you could. The breaks you give yourself will be the reason you make it through to the end. 

Reminder: It’s possible that your first year doesn’t go well and if it doesn’t, know that it isn’t the end and you can come back from it. First year can be really difficult for some people and it can be a breeze for others. Don’t get discouraged because it’s only the first year and you have many great ones to come later!