So you have survived the last few semesters or the last year of college? It’s time to start fresh again. What you did or how you did in spring is behind you. Now you have to focus on what’s ahead. It’s still the start of the semester and you can gather your thoughts and focus on being motivated for coming back to the campus again. There are a few things you should consider and keep in mind while starting the semester in fall.

Don’t Fall behind in Class

It’s the start of the semester so it’s a good thing to stay on track and complete each assignment on time. If you submit all the assignments and projects on time, there would be no reason for you to fall behind in class. None of us want to spend the holidays catching up on missed work or buried in textbooks.  So, make sure that you don’t fall behind in class because you don’t want to regret it when all your friends are having fun and you are busy with college work.  Organize and plan everything. Try to get most of the things done in your syllabus and ace the midterms to make sure the finals go great.

Cold Weather

We know how annoying it is to get out of bed when it’s really cold and chilly outside. But, it happens every year. You can’t just roll up in bed with Starbucks and expect to go through the semester without any struggle. Waking up in cold mornings and encountering freezing temperatures is indeed difficult. Grab a hot cup of coffee on your way to class and out on some warm clothes is the only way to deal with it. If you don’t pay attention now, things will really get warmer near the exam week and you will start to feel the chill. Also, you are not the only one who has to get up in the morning. If you really have a hard time getting up in the morning then exercise for a while before getting ready. It will help your muscles relax a bit.

Don’t miss classes

Absences happen but you have to be cautious about it. There are days when you are so bummed out and stressed that you want to relax and take a day off. However you are only allowed to have a few absences, before the teacher starts to notice your absence and drop a letter. There would be some days that will be really cold or you may have to take a day off due to some illness, then what? Save your absences foe the right time and the best time to make the most of them is in the end of the semester.

Harder Courses and Classes

If you are enrolled in a fall semester that can mean two things: either you are a freshman or you have been in college for a year or so. If you are new then things are quite different as compared to high school. There would be countless assignments, quizzes, projects and finally exams. It’s a lot to take in at once. If you are an old student, then you must be aware that courses get tough and you are required to invest more time in college work.

Either way you have to work hard to get through the semester with flying colors. Professors don’t always play around in college to cut you some slack. Set your priorities and focus on studies too.

End of the Semester

When the semester will come to an end, it will be around the holidays and you can’t just help but fall the victim of the festivities around you. At the same time, you are piled with hundreds of work and projects before the final exams. You may think that you will be able to manage but things get quite rough and it’s difficult to manage studies at that time. Don’t you want to spend time at home with family or close friends? So, just chill and relax! Make a proper plan to work things out so that you can enjoy the festival season.

These are some of the basic tips and ways that you should follow in order to maintain your grades and finish the semester like a pro!

All graduate students have unpleasant things to say about literature review. The process is not very exciting. When you are done with the literature review and move on to collecting the data and research, there is never enough time update literature review. If you stop searching for frequent articles and journals doesn’t mean the research world stopped publishing. In the time it takes for you to complete the research, articles will be published and you will eventually have to go back to the daunting task of updating the research. Here are some efficient strategies for keeping up with the never-ending literature review when it’s not your number one priority. These efficient tips will also help you in the real world after graduation. So, here we go:

Related Articles to your Thesis

It’s important to track search terms in the process of literature review process. When you are busy with other parts of the thesis, it’s good to set up automatic searches. It allows you to enter keywords and you receive an email regarding all the latest papers with your standard keywords. If your search engine doesn’t support the feature of weekly emails, then try out Scopus and PubMed. The biggest advantage of tracking search terms is that you will get the most of the up to date research.

Articles not directly related to your study

The above strategy that we discussed is limited to searching related articles and general methods with different techniques. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds for journals related to your field of study. If you are not connected to the university server, then you can read all the abstracts in the Table of Contents. They don’t change very often however; you need to figure out a way to check the ones from the press. They are updated frequently. You can use Google Reader or the Pulse app on iPad for browsing. Another technique is to find a listserv related to your main topic.

Media Coverage

We generally give priority to scholarly work, it’s good to track all the major headlines related to your work. They can be valuable in guiding you how the general public perceive your field. Skygrid for iPad is a great way to start. It lets you enter keywords and you can receive article headlines. This isn’t the most perfect app because search results are often too broad; you will get the basic idea. Articles from different news outlets will come your way and you will get to know what’s trending. Keeping up with Twitter feeds also helps in covering media grounds for research.

No matter what tricks or tricks you use to keep your literature review updated, remember two things: don’t check it too often because you have other tasks too and try to automate the searches as much as possible. Following these simple guidelines you can the literature review process less painful as you reach the finish line!

Books are the most trustworthy and amazing partners in the world. We all should learn from our mistakes, but great are the people who learn from others mistakes. Books help us extract messages and lessons that we could learn without making any mistakes.

They say you become what you read and if you wish to build a successful company where you get to call all the shots, you might want to start following some specific books.

Here are some of our top recommendations for this season:

1. “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand

Some of the well-known entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban, a self-made billionaire and Charlie O’Donnell, partner of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures recommend this book to every entrepreneur.

It sums up entrepreneurial passion better than any other book. The real question is not who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

2. “The Effective Executive” by Peter Drucker

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon made his senior managers in the company read this book for the all-day book club. It is among the three books that he recommended his managers to read.

In this book, Druker helped to visualize ideas about today’s management in the workplace. For example, it was pointed out that the employers and managers should work together towards common goals.

The Effective Management is the best book that explores decision making habits and time management that helps business executives to be productive and helps the organization to move forward.

3. “The Innovator’s Dilemma” by Clayton Christensen

Another book that Jeff Bezzos had his senior managers read was The Innovator’s Dilemma. It is one of the most influential books of all time related to business.  It is also of the top pick of many VCs and founders all over the world.

In this book, Christensen discloses why large companies act like a dinosaurs. He also proposed solutions in this book. Thus, entrepreneurs must give it a read as one of those how to books to beat large companies as competitors in their own markets and industries.

The book does not revolve around one single idea. However, it does focus largely on a misused phrase “disruptive technology”.

4. “Business Adventures” by John Brooks

This book is a collection of stories based in New York by John Brooks. It is Bill Gates all-time favorite business book since 1991.

Bill Gates says that the book is all about strengths and weaknesses in the challenging business world. However, all the circumstances are still relevant regardless of the time and age.

5. “Benjamin Franklin” by Walter Isaacson

Benjamin Franklin is an all-time favorite book of the Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk. He shares that Franklin, the main character in the book started from nothing and became an entrepreneur. He was just a runaway kid and turned his life around.

We all go through that time when it comes down to surviving comprehensive writing exams. Once the studies for comprehensive exams are over, it gets worse. A lot of us fear writing so it seems like a terrifying idea. Here are a few tips that will help you in surviving comprehensive writing exam.

So there are things you must do before the exam and some during the exam. We have break down of the things you should do before and after the exam.

 Before the Exam

• Organize the notes

Organize the notes in a manner that explain everything to you. It should make sense and should be organized in the correct order. You can use color tags to relate the concepts, authors and themes together. Always make sure that the notes are on your finger tips to find the information quickly. The color tags will help you remember where the notes were written or stored. Let’s say you wrote a couple of concepts in the red color section. Think of all the key points that you remember jotting down in the red section. The label will help you find the information.

• Keep everything you need with you

When you sit for the exam, make sure you have everything. Keep all the writing tools, notes, water and snacks with you. These are some standard things that will be required to write the comprehensive exam. However, if you are writing from the comfort of your own home, create a comfortable spot in your room. Minimize the distractions as much as possible to keep your focus on writing only. If you work with music then update the playlist with your favorite songs. Keep tea, coffee or water at arm’s length to keep you alive.

During the exam

• Write down the Basic Terms, Dates, Concepts and Authors

This step is really important when you are writing without any notes. Before you look at the question, write all the relevant information to keep it at the top of your mind.

• Read the Exam Carefully

This particular step is crucial if you have to choose the question. Underline the terms as you read the paper and make sure you understand all the things asked in the question. The key question usually lies in the end so read the whole thing.

As you read the question, think of a rough idea to answer each question. Take mental notes about the sources you will use, what theories and concepts would answer the question. It will help you fill gaps. You will be able to tell if you are missing something or all the concepts are allocated accordingly and how long can you spend in giving a response.

• Draft your Answers

Before you actually start writing, take some time to plan how you will answer the question. Sketch out an answer with arguments and thesis statements.

• Meta-Cognitive and Sign Posting

Now it’s time to draft your answers and the 5 paragraph structure will help you out. Start with an introduction paragraph and then write the rest of your answer. Use a lot of sign posting and try to be meta-cognitive in your answer. Take each paragraph to tell what every section will do and why. If your thoughts change slightly, go back and change it.

Use the first sentence as a mini introduction for each paragraph and tie it with the thesis statement and highlight what you are going to do in each paragraph. This entire plan acts as a road map to help you focus on a topic if you are running out of time.

Don’t lose hope on the amount of information out there on your topic. Literature research may seem like a lot of information that will make you drown in quicksand. Getting through this chunk of information is indeed a huge task but if you plan it, you can get rid of that problem, one bit at a time.

To help you get through all that information in small sizes, we have compiled an easy plan for you to follow.

Step 1: What do you want to find out?

Do you have a research question ready or are you looking for information to make your research question strong? Before you start reading all the relevant information, make up your mind about what you are researching for. If you are at the stage of exploring a topic or a subject, then state the purpose of your research as “understanding the basic ideas of topic ABC”. If you are looking for opposing theories on the effect of event A on event B, then write it down clearly.

Having a clear perspective and goal will help you find the right information at this step of the research. You will begin to notice that reading for different goals for your research will help you focus on various aspects of publication.

Step 2: How much time do you have on your hands?

You can spend the whole day or just 20 minutes on the entire paper. If you really want to manage your time in the best possible way, then give you work a structure. Plan the work by giving yourself deadlines.

Once you are aware how much time do you have on your hands, start planning. If you have a month for the entire research, take 1.5 weeks to go through the essentials, 1 week to explore the sidelines of your research and 1 week to write a literature review.

Step 3: Study the essentials

Identify the key publications of your study. A good way to start is to find an authentic and a detailed review paper or a report. Start the topic by chewing on the references on that paper or report.

To understand the basics of the new subject, you need to spend some time on it. Understand the basic equations and principles of that study. All this will require sitting down, noting down important points and slowly working your way through all the relevant material. The process will be similar to a student going through a difficult chapter of a textbook. You may find yourself spending too much time on the some papers. However, they will build the foundation of your research along with further readings.

Step 4: Speed through the Sidelines

Separate all the papers that you find interesting, give additional insights but are not relevant to the field of study. Note that these papers are not of lesser importance, you can’t skip the side information. You have to understand all the concepts spend less time in order to understand all the elements.

The key is to go through everything in a quick manner. It will be like speed-reading through everything. Train the eyes to look at a group of words rather than looking at a single word at a time.

Step 5: Archive what you read

Reading is important but finding that paper and looking for more information is a vital aspect in controlling the large chunk of information over the time.

You can keep a digital archive or archive hard copies. Arrange your document in such a way that you are able to find those papers even after three years.

Step 6: Keep an eye on the outcome

Don’t rely on information and results available when you first researching on a topic. What appeared to be the truth yesterday may not remain the same with today’s results. Develop a strategy to keep your research updated in order to maintain the best outcome. Subscribe to the publication updates of the relevant journals and set up RSS feed on relevant keywords.