Use These Subliminals to Improve Your Grades and Academic Life

Subliminals are now being made for almost all areas of life. Some creators are now focusing on education. Some of their subs can help you improve your grades and academic life in general. But of course, you should go for those that have great reviews because that means they are effective. Below are some of them. Feel free to bookmark this page for updated list. At this time, it is hard to find good reviews for course specific subs. That is why, they are not listed here.

For information on how to use subs, check the technical guide. Pay attention to side effects. The guide should help you understand how to speed up the results and what other options you have to make your mind accept the sub suggestions.

Test out the subs on mundane things first. Don't risk your grades by taking them for granted. They are merely supplements and you still remain the main effort maker in your journey. 

Keep in mind that nothing at this time can outperform human brain and traditional studying techniques. In brief, you should carry on with your usual test and homework preparations. All the best!

Learn Fast

Slow learning can be quite frustrating. If you just can't take that anymore try the following sub. According to users, it makes both learning and remembering information a lot easier.

Get Good Grades Without Studying

If you have not studied for your upcoming test this sub may come to your rescue. Please do not have blind faith in it. As mentioned before, you should always make an effort to study. Subs are not magical beings as you will see next.

Always Get A's

Although the sub is made to help students get A's always the real results are a bit different. It seems to accompany the effort being made being in the class. 

Have Less Homework

The following sub is supposed to make teachers lazy about giving homework. But of course, for this, you have to listen to it. Users report that it did not completely ban homework. They were able to see a decline and they were able to finish the work quicker.

Overcome Creative Blockages/Writer's Block

Sometimes the mind is too blocked to think about what to make creatively. This hinders working on projects and papers. It seems the sub below has helped many to eliminate that problem. See if you can join them.

Become A Math Genius

You have sympathy of many if you feel you are terrible in math. Many subliminals have been made to destroy the issue, but only a few received great reviews. Two best ones are given below. Note that you should not listen to too many subs at the same time because their affirmations may clash and that means your mind not taking them seriously. Choose only one. If it does not work go to the next one.
1.

2.

Become An Elite Student

The creator of this sub claims it can make teachers and professors favor you. It is supposed to make you an excellent student and improve your inteligence. What the users say? They are astonished that their test scores and grades mysteriously went up.

Be Persistent And Reach Your Goals

If you are in your dream major, but greatly struggling with its courses you may find this next sub helpful. This is not limited to school life. You can use it for any goals of your choice.

Cool Free Stuffs for Students (2018)

If you are a student who does not take advantage of directions filled with free stuffs you are doing disservice to yourself.

In fact, you are jeopardizing your grades.

Don't do that foolish thing.

You are already paying high tuition fee. You don't want to bear more in burden. Think profit!

Reduce your expenses in other academic areas.

Reduce the time needed to do a paper by taking care of tiny, but hard things upon which some of your grades rest. Take advantage of what is given below.

MLA Styled Template:
Sometimes professors will tell you that you must follow MLA format for your paper. You know quite well that manually focusing on that kills time. You don't want to be wrong either. Good news is that Microsoft now provides a completely formatted MLA template for free on their site. It is very detailed with instructions and examples.

All you have to do is simply plug in your stuffs to that template. Do remember after you do that you need to delete the square brackets or anything else not required by you. For instance, if you are not asked to include charts to your paper then in the template you delete the ones given by Microsoft. If your MS doc is older the template may not work. However, you can still copy the style example from it for your paper.



APA Styled Template (6th Edition):
APA style doesn't leave us alone. If you are used to MLA, that one is tricky. But relax, Microsoft provides template for that one also.



Memorization tool:
Good news, there is a memorization software available for free. It is called Anki. The best thing about this software is that it can help you memorize literally anything. The one we have below is made for windows. You can also get it for your android or iPhone.



Related: Bizarre Exam Preparation Techniques that Actually Work

Book for quantitative and qualitative methods of research:
As you can see on this website, we spend a lot of time talking about research. What if you found all in one? This is where the book below comes in handy.


Related: Valuable Resources for Survey Based Research

Grammar Book:
Consider yourself lucky for coming here. You now have access to a grammar book used by even writers. Its name is The Only Grammar Book You'll Ever Need: A One-Stop Source for Every Writing Assignment by Susan Thurman. You really want to hold onto it even after you finish school. It has a good list of corrected commonly misspelled words.



Related: List of Transition Words for Essays

List of Transition Words for Essays

Transition words are not new to anyone. They basically make our ideas easy to understand. For this reason, not just verbal communication, but also papers demand them. However, there are some transition words which we can go without, but when added to a paper make it look more creative. Sometimes it is possible to create a unique one.

Don’t be shy to brainstorm for it. At the end of the day, it will prove that you are truly into artistic English. For the time being, feel free to go with the ones given below.

As you go over the list, you will find repetition of certain transition words. The reason behind this is that they can be used in different ways to justify the true meanings of different sentences.

Similarly, two or three transition words can mean the same. To avoid repetition of one in a single paragraph, take advantage of all of them. Consider this page to be gem, for it lists some of the rarest transition words.

To display agreement, reasoning or similarity between lines or ideas:

• Because
• As a result
• Consequently

Three transition words used for the same idea

• Hence
• Thus
• Therefore
• Under such circumstances
• In this situation
• In order to
• Clearly, then
• Correspondingly
• Moreover
• Furthermore
• What's more
• In the same way
• Following this further
• Also
• Pursuing this further
• In the light of xyz
• Similarly
• Likewise
• By the same token
• As well
• Just in the same way

To show sequence or time (chronology)

• First/Firstly
• First of all
• Second/Secondly

This is how you can use points to justify your idea

• Third
• Finally
• At the end
• Eventually
• At first
• In the first place
• In the mean time
• In due time
• In the middle
• Also
• Besides
• Additionally/In addition/In addition
• Lastly
• In the first place
• Pursuing this further
• Above all/Above everything else
• To be sure
• After
• Afterwards
• After a short period of time
• At present
• As soon as
• At last
• At the beginning
• Before
• Before long
• Later
• Henceforth
• Meanwhile
• Next
• Soon
• Soon thereafter
• Then
• Suddenly
• All of a sudden
• Without a warning
• Subsequently
• Simultaneously
• Prior to
• Pursuing this further
• In the future
• Next year
• Recently
• Months later
• Weeks later
• In the past
• At present
• In the morning
• At noon

For opening a paragraph initially with an strong tone and for general use

• Admittedly/ By general admission
• Assuredly
• Certainly
• Conveniently
• Indeed
• Granted
• To be sure
• No doubt
• Without a doubt
• Nobody denies
• Obviously
• Of course
• Conveniently
• Not to mention
• Needless to say
• To be sure
• Undoubtedly
• Unquestionably
• Generally
• In general
• At this level
• By all means

By all means and of course share the same meaning

• As a matter of fact
• In fact
• Believe it or not
• (Whether you) Like it or not

To display contrast, conflicting and contradicting ideas

• But
• Yet
• Still
• However
• On the other hand
• On the negative side
• On the other side of the line
• On the contrary
• Nevertheless
• Notwithstanding
• Nonetheless
• To the contrary
• Conversely
• Contrastingly
• By way of contrast
• By/In contrast
• Whereas
• When in fact
• Although this may be true
• Even though
• In spite of
• Despite
• Then again
• After all
• In reality
• Instead
• Otherwise
• Rather
• Regardless
• Or
• That said
• With that being said
• Having said that
• Ironically

Ironically is ususally added to pipoint sarcasm or hypocracy

To signal conclusion

• In final analysis
• In conclusion
• In final consideration
• Indeed
• In summary
• Finally
• At the end/In the end
• At last
• Lastly
• Ultimately
• Eventually

To restate a point within a paragraph in another way or in a more exacting way

• In other words
• Point in fact
• In fact
• Specifically
• To put it differently
• In brief
• In short
• In summary
• To be clear
• As stated earlier
• As mentioned earlier
• As said earlier
• As shown earlier

Top 8 Ways to Save Laptop and Hard Drive Space

These days doing a class without a laptop or notebook is almost out of question. Almost all students require one, for many professors and even teachers are now using blackboard and prefer papers to be written using Microsoft Word. In some classes, software download is necessary. Moreover, saving notes on a hard drive instead of in paper format is far more convenient. But a hard drive has limited space and sometimes the laptop goes bad. Both are nightmare for the students. Good news is that there are other ways to save both. Here are some of them:

1. Try to utilize flash drives: Flash drives do go bad and even can be lost. So try to use them as temporary cushion to save the hard drive. To do this, no matter what program you need, always search for its portable version. This way you don't have to make your hard drive lose space or laptop bear abuse. The portable version can be installed easily on the flash drive and used from any computer. 

2. Dedicate an email address just to notes: Gmail is the most chosen one here simply because it gives more space while showing less tantrum. So make an email address over there and at the semester end, send your notes to it. Don't share this address with anyone. This is the way to unburdening the flash drive. You will not have to worry about it getting lost either. Keep the email address exclusively for the notes. Sometimes unused programs can also be stored there in zipped form. How about Microsoft Skydrive? That is not bad. However, the service of the company is not so reliable. 

3. For writing notes in the class, use Google Docs online: This is extremely beneficial in the sense that this application will not require you to hit save button each time you are done typing your notes. You don't even have to use your hard drive space for it.

4. Use a voice recorder: This is far more convenient than typing the notes. However, whether you will be able to use it depends on the permission of the professors. Some of them do not like their lectures to be recorded. 

5. Make use of school computers: Try writing your papers using school computers as much as you can. They are in the library and lab for a reason.

6. Don't keep too many pictures, videos and music on your laptop: They eat up a huge amount of space on hard drive. Put them somewhere else. A laptop, flash drive or portable hard drive which you will not be using for work can be a good solution. Make an effort to delete the ones you do not require anymore. 

7. Go for CCleaner: This is an application designed to remove useless files from the computer. It is available in portable format and that means you can run it from your flash drive. Its free version does a good job.

8. Have an optional cheap laptop or notebook: eBay is home to many used laptops and notebooks. Some are priced below $100. Get one for yourself. Abusing one will not make you regret much unless you get too attached to it. 

Valuable Resources for Survey Based Research

Surveys are a great window to understanding people's viewpoint, needs, wants and much more. In quantitative research, they say a lot just by some simple statistics. Surveys are not just helpful in marketing and sociology. Even healthcare and public administration have been finding immense benefits from them.

As the demand is going up, many tools of surveys are becoming commercial. These days, you may see that even the survey answers cost money. People will not answer until they are promised some kind of reward. That said, the traditional preliminary process has never been free. Think about questionnaire printing. At home, it is our printer giving away its valuable ink. Just for once, since our university got into a deal with Xerox, we were able to print ours for free.

The newest trend is to go online, but that too is accompanied by our credit card numbers. Majority of the sites facilitating the survey making ask for money. That is just the result coming from the demand of doing survey based research. Needless to say that such sites always make it to the top in Google results. For students, who find them tiring, there is still hope.

There are still two great sites that allow free survey forms and allow them to be used for unlimited number of days. One of them is called Google forms. It is slightly ancient for today's time. You will need to practice how to use it before you embark on your real project of making the questionnaire.

The second is eSurv which actually is the best for students. It has been kept free by the funds coming from educational and research institutions. The site is not just easy to use, but also has quite a good number of templates, color adjustment features and much more for questionnaire.

This is a simple description right from the site

After making the survey, you will need people to answer them. You can try emailing them to your classmates, but in my experience, they hardly ever take them. Facebook friends may turn out to be the same simply because most people don't want to let their weakness be known to their pals. Under such circumstances, something different is needed and that happens to be Reddit Sample Size which is designed mainly for getting survey answers.

Your participants there are not going to be the average people. Majority of them are either doctorate or masters students. They help one another get the answers. Others just love to take surveys for fun. This subreddit is highly moderated probably to keep it away from scammers' abuse. Researchers are required to format the title of their survey request using rules created by them. As you can see, above, it is important to mention what the survey is made for. Incorrect formatting gets the post deleted. Despite this, it must be noted that getting the surveys filled is guaranteed there. The members are also very polite. In some cases, if the questions do not seem to have the correct format they do not hesitate to point it out.

10 Realistic Tips for New College Students

Congratulations to all those who have got accepted by college this year. Perhaps, you are about to begin your classes or on your way to finishing up the first semester or quarter. No matter what your story is, if you are little confused about what you should be doing in college to make your future life smoother consider the ten tips given below. They are based on realism. Some of them are also secrets that no other person will ever reveal to you.

1. Work on having a GPA of 3.0 or slightly higher: You must have heard that you need to compel yourself to have a GPA of 3.4.This is a myth and not many students can get to it actually.The best thing to do is to maintain a GPA of 3.0 or slightly better like 3.3. Why?  Because that is your ticket to scholarships and masters programs. Additionally, when applying for jobs, you will be able to include it in your resume without any hesitation. Does it make you look great to employers? Not fully. According to latest trend, attractiveness of GPA is pretty much replaced by some other elements which we will discuss in a few minutes. One of my own professors who has a day job with the state told us that high GPA shows we answered exam questions correctly, but the problem is that after the end of the class, we forget those answers. Another one who has same kind of work told us that someone working to boost GPA is a great follower, but not an innovator and independent problem solver. This is how employers currently think.

2. Take classes wisely: Do not just take any class. First research the amount of load it has. Find out how its professor is. Trust me, not all classes are same. While some are easy, others are deadly. Perhaps, you are a fan of a good challenge, but in college, such thing can turn out to be troublesome especially under the shade of psycho professors.

3. Think before you take more units than you can handle: It is believed that taking as many units as possible per semester helps one graduate quicker. Probably, it is true. Nevertheless, keep in mind the GPA factor and the load that come with those units. Yes, you might get passing mark in all your classes, but with GPA pushed downward. Note that these days, employers can ask you to show your transcript to make sure that you have the classes relevant to work you will be required to do in your job. Don't you think you will be embarrassed when they will find out that you have lots of C's?

4. In a hard class, try to make friends for group studies: Sometimes due to budget crisis, it is seen that every class of a specific course is taught by just one professor. This is very common in public universities. It is possible that he is hard or the material itself is too abstract. Under such circumstances, do not hope that just by attending the lecture you will be able to sail through the class. Try gathering some people from the class for group studies. It will turn out to be very helpful.

5. Study in advance: Yes, do not wait for the last moment. In college, exams are often based on lecture, PowerPoint slides, chapters and even lab work. If you start going through them one day before the exam you will feel find yourself panicking.

6. Give importance to networking:  Make friends in your classes. Keep professors in hand. They can sometimes help you get job after graduation through recommendation. If possible send them friend request on Facebook.

7. Do not give away a great idea to your professors: This is for business students. In majority of the classes, you might have to come up with unique business ideas or product concepts. Make sure that you do not give away the great ones to your professors. They can actually use them to expand their own career. This is true. I know one girl whose original marketing concept was sold to an apparel company by our professor. She did get a good grade from him, but not the money and credit from the company.

8. Take advantage of scholarship offers: Majority of the time, most scholarship offers in colleges go unnoticed because they are not heavily promoted. Keep your eyes open for them and apply for the ones that seem easy to you. Do not worry if you are bad in writing essays. It is always possible that you are their only applicant! So no matter what, you might end up being the winner. Yes, your ego can make you detest free money. But do remember that you will be able to insert the scholarship names in your resume under the section called awards. Some employers do look for them.

9. Try to buy textbooks from either eBay or Amazon: Whether used or new, textbooks are expensive in college book stores. But same is not always true online. Both Amazon and ebay have sellers selling them at lower prices. Take advantage of that.

10. Focus on getting skills and volunteership while still in university: These are the elements that have replaced the attractiveness of high GPA in the job market. Of course, in your sophomore year, you cannot get a professional job relevant to your major. This weakness can be prevented by saving the classwork. They can turn into a portfolio which you can show the employers. But do note that things are always changing. 

Sometimes being in college equals to being lost in the ocean. The semesters go on, but the arrival of fourth year seems too out of reach. This can sometimes tempt you to lose interest in school work. In this situation, keep the dream of your future in your eyes. Just think about how what you do in college will have an impact on your future. From time to time, do have fun with friends and family. But always let yourself know that you can make it through the college.

Enable Audio in Your PDF to Make it Read Your Notes

PDF reader of most versions has audio feature. If you happen to be a Vista user you will not see the Speak command attached to your Word Document. Under such circumstances, you can convert your document to PDF to make it listenable.

If you find it missing in the one you own right now you can download the latest version from here. Audio feature comes with all free PDF readers.

 Now lets find how to enable it. There are two methods. We will first go to the long one. If you don't have time scroll down to method 2. For demonstration purpose, this article has been converted into PDF. Feel free to do the same if you don't have a file in that format. Now here are the steps to get to audio function:

Method 1
1. Open the PDF.

2. Click View. From its menu, first go to Read Aloud and then click Activate Read Out Loud.

3. Doing this will not make the PDF to start reading. Instead you have to click the line you want it to be read. You can also click an entire paragraph. You can see that the click creates a black border around the chosen line.

4. If you want an entire page or file to be read then choose any of the options given after Deactivate Read Out Loud.

Method 2
In the last screenshot, look at all the keyboard shortcuts present next to each Read Out Loud option. What this means is that we can override the Method 1 simply by using them. So to activate the audio feature without clicking View simply choose Shift+CTRL+Y from your keyboard. Memorizing the other shorts given above in the screenshot will help you get to other options like Read This Page Only and Read to End Document.

Enable Audio in Your Word Document to Make it Read Your Notes

Both Microsoft Word and PDF reader have audio feature. If you just hate reading notes coming from them then you should utilize it. Audio feature is available in Microsoft Word 2007 to 2016 versions. Don't have it? As a university student, you maybe eligible to get Office 365 for free. Use your university email address here to see if you can get it. Let's now get to enabling the audio feature. Two methods are available for this. 2007 Word users have to scroll down to method 2. One thing that must be noted is that by following this same tutorial, you will be able to make your Powerpoint, Excel and most of other programs that come with Office speak. Excel has many other options like audio for columns and rows. Things can't get much easier than this for the lazy eyes.

Method 1
Step1. First open Word

Step2. Open a new document

Step3. Left click FILE. 

Step4. Now you are going to see the blue menu window from which you would pick Options.

Step5. A new window would pop up. From this, click Quick Access Toolbar.

Step6. You would be now see the options below. From this, choose Command Not in the Ribbon.

Step7. Underneath it, you will see many commands arranged through A to Z. Scroll down to S to look for Speak. Click it. After this, click Add.

8. Hit OK.

9. Now you will be taken back to your Word document. Over here, you will find the new command with the icon of speech bubble and arrow.

10. To test it, feel free to copy words from this page to paste to your Word Document. The pasting would make the command alive. Highlight the Word sentences and click this Speak command to do its task of speaking.

Method 2
1.Open the Word and click the downward arrow situated next to redo icon on the left. After this, choose More Commands.

2. Now follow step 5 to 10 given under Method 1.

7 Characters You Will Meet in a Group of College Class

One of the most common traditions of college classes is group work. Any long paper or presentation cannot simply go without it. The advantage of this is less work for each student. At least this is how we like to think. Professors also say that working in group is the way to learning how to work in team at the workplace. This is not even politically correct.

In the real world, random people do not work for an organization. All employees are selected based on their knowledge and skills. If one errs he can be told to leave. Same is not possible in a college class. Working in groups here is sometimes not very different from tug of war. Compatibility among members can either be a problem or heaven-sent. At the end of the semester, we reach the final conclusion that each has character of their own. But they are always common. Have a look:

1. Friend: This person is an ally hand picked by us. We know them from previous class or they are someone from high school. We sometimes separate ourselves from the rest of the group to have more chitchats with them. Otherwise, we use them as a force to allow our domination to spread over all.

2. Passive butterfly: The passive one likes to be under control of another group member. This person religiously does their portion of the work and often asks for verification about whether they are going in the right direction. By far, passive butterfly is the most reliable member in the group.

3. Object of Infatuation: This one usually is someone from the opposite sex. When mutual attraction kicks in we start dating them. It is no more a secret that it is possible to find a husband or wife through a group. During the group work, the object of our infatuation compel us to work harder. We become more prompt and communicative about the class project, but not because we have good intention towards all the members. Our mission here is to hear the voice of that person and market ourselves to him or her.

List of Editing and Proofreading techniques to Make A Paper Perfect

It is wonderful that many teachers and professors allow students to write the first draft of the essay. Others like to see only the final work. Either way, final editing matters. This is what generates a perfect paper. But this is the generation of technology.

Computers and printers have replaced pens and papers. Unfortunately, this is where the problem is. On computer, it is quite easy to make mistakes. Word software usually is very skilled at highlight them, but sometimes it can skip a few non mainstream words.

The latest Microsoft Word has some problem with space too. Its smoothness can at times create undetectable red line free double space between words. If you don’t practice caution you will not be able to find them. Writing assignments always include questions. The student’s job is to answers them in details through the paper. Thus proofreading must always be accompanied by whether it is truly providing the answer in clearest possible manner. How do you do that? You may not believe, but going old school while taking ample advantage of the technology is the way to do it. This is what we discuss here. The last portion has a secret that no one told you before. So lets get started.

Methods to edit and proofread a paper
1. Try finishing up the paper a little early before the due date. This is going to give you enough time to ponder on where you went wrong, catch mistakes, look for loopholes in your answers and replace words in your paper.

2. Print out your draft. This is going to make your paper more readable. Use pencil to edit what looks questionable. Printing the draft is the best possible way to catch every mistake.

3. Pose questions. When reading ask yourself whether your explanations are flowing in the right direction.

4. Have the assignment question right in front of you along with all the instructions provided to you by your instructor about it. If the grading rubric is given never ignore it. Match your paper with it. Ask yourself whether you have included everything asked by the instructor. Circle the ones you find in your paper and note down what it does not have. Include them during rewrite.

5. Does a line look grammatically incorrect? Copy and paste it to google to see how others wrote it. If your line is a unique creation you will not find it in full, but yes similar ones shown by google will help you know whether it is right or wrong. You can actually do the same with questionable words.

6. Use online thesaurus for synonyms. You don’t want to repeat same words or phrases again and again. They make the paper odd to read. Replace them with synonyms. But make sure you are using the correct ones. Some actually have completely different tone. That is why, check the meanings of your chosen synonyms using online dictionaries.

7. If you don’t trust yourself have someone else read the draft. Colleges and universities usually have tutors to make this task easy for students. But friends and family members can also turn out to be great proofreaders. Yet no one can be better than the instructor who gave you the assignment. Writing the paper a little early can enable you to go to them to get them read it for mistakes. This in turn will help you gain good reputation. Most instructors like hard working students.

8. Proofread till the last moment. Take advantage of every minute. We have noticed that this makes a great difference.

How to make the paper perfect:
Introduction containing thesis and conclusion: Whether you are a freshman or master’s student, your paper should always have a thesis upon which you should focus. This thesis should be a short answer to your instructor’s assignment question. Always summarize your points at conclusion.

Format: Even if the instructor does not say anything about follow a standard format such as APA and MLA. You can actually get their templates for free from Microsoft.

Say it all: Never make your paper raise questions. Say whatever you have in your mind. Fill out loopholes by providing more details.

Satisfy your instructor’s psychology: You might not believe, but while male instructors prefer logic, female ones are more taken by emotional lines. So if your instructor is male make your paper as logical as possible. Make your analysis very neutral. This means you should not involve too much of your own opinions in the paper. In the class of female instructors, emotional papers are okay, but no they are not looking for rants either. Then how to win their hearts? The answer lies in emotional words. Yes, including them in the paper is a good way to get them to give you good grades. Yet hold on! Is your instructor highly opinionated? Does he or she strongly feel about a cause? If the answer is yes never hurt it. A sad truth is that instructors who strongly associate themselves with a cause or ideology are not open to freedom of speech. What this means is that for a good grade you have to actually feed them what they wish to listen. Here is how you do it:

• If they are Republican feed them only republican ideologies. 
• If they are atheist never bring up religions in your paper unless you are asked to explain them. Even in this do not be highly opinionated about which one you support.
• If they support gay marriage never criticize this topic in your paper.

Facebook Asks Users for Social Security Card and Bank Statement?

Facebook is only a social networking site used by teens and now, mamas and papas. Every user has the same intention and that is to stay in touch with friends and family through it. No one can deny that the site is simply a place for warm online pleasure consisting of sharing memories and rants.

But somehow Mark Zuckerberg, the founder who has been accused of stealing the site concept from his Harvard mates and brags about being a legal hacker, seems to be taking it too far. No one has done what he has put to work recently. Facebook now asks users to upload their passport, immigration ID with signature or government identification card which in case of nonexistence can be compensated by the upload of social security card, utility bill, bank statement, birth certificate and what not! And yes, for the second option, just one document is not enough. Facebook must be fed at least two different papers. This is neither a joke nor a rumor from those who stay away from social networking sites. Have a look at the screenshot.

It is hilarious that they are saying that they will delete the documents despite the fact they are known for saving the deleted profiles and photos of their users. If you click on "I don't have a government-issued ID" you will be taken to the second option which looks like this:

These two options are part of martial law styled cyber checkpoint that Facebook uses on people trying to get into their locked profiles. Generally, they are first asked for verification of birth date. When this is rejected the second option given is a quiz in which the users in distress must identify their Facebook friends from a set of photos. Now trilogy is brought to life with the option of uploading of government issued documents. If this one is chosen lots of things can go wrong for the user. Here are some things to consider:

Fake privacy
The so called strict privacy of Facebook is not so strict after all. Federal trade commission found the company guilty of breaking promises linked to it in several occasions. According to complaints filed, the site violated their agreement to allow users restrict who can see their profiles. The investigation showed that the third party application owners got access to all the information that the user wanted to restrict simply by allowing them or their friends to use their apps. Facebook was also found guilty of selling users' information to marketers and making certain parts of their profiles fully available online during layout changes without allowing them to know it was going to happen. To make things worse, even the deleted profiles were accessible. In short, Facebook does not respect people's privacy and in their eyes, informed consent can go to hell.

Thief of Facebook
Also it would be silly to think that Facebook can be trusted. Couple of months ago, few case studies showed that the site was involved in unscrupulous dealing with the marketers trying to reach potential customers through fan pages. What happened was that they received likes, but not from expected and targeted locations. It became even more complex when the rarely known American small independent businesses found out that their Facebook ads were increasing the likes on their pages, but those who were giving them resided in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. No real activity right on the pages from these users was noticeable either. Exploration of their profiles revealed that they also gave likes to the pages of competitors. In the end, the marketers lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What was exactly occurring? Those who are in search engine optimization knows the answer. Several sites offer Facebook likes either in exchange format or for as low as $10. Sometimes they pay to likers also in cents for each like, attracting great number of people from South Asian countries looking to make residual income. Facebook in public is against it. They say in their policy that they are highly intolerant of those who buy likes. However, the conclusion of the case studies is that Facebook itself uses such sites to make their ads appear effective to marketers. The news broke out like wildfire. But even today nothing has been done about it. Facebook keeps boasting about how they are improving their ads. After hearing it, can you truly trust them with government documents that can change your life overnight?

Virus in love with personal information
In the past, Facebook admitted to being attacked by viruses which did not just spam the profiles, but also targeted credit card information of users. At least 11 million computers were infected just through this social networking site. Although now Facebook says they are working with FBI to fight this problem remember that infinitely creative virus inventors are not taking a break from innovation. Credit cards and government issued documents go hand in hand. But of course, they are nothing compared to chunky bank account number found right within the statement. As for company ID, it is possible to be in trouble with the employer for free online share of it.

The question we need to ponder upon is whether it is worth asking for social security card to help a user unlock an account of social networking site. Imagine Myspace doing the same during its hey day. Media would have attacked the site with fury of the hyena. Thanks to association with the government, Facebook does not have to experience it. But no one can deny that it is by far the best spy machine the Internet has ever seen.

Ways to Stop Buying Expensive College Textbooks

Textbooks are getting more expensive day by day. They seem to consume more than what they give us. The nightmare is worse for those in Computer Science, Engineering and Business. Textbooks of those fields can be as high as $300. Yes, it is insane. However, there is always a way to avoid paying such a high price. Just see below:

1. Verify with the professor: Syllabus or bookstore probably will always show you a textbook for your class. But you truly need to figure out whether it is even necessary to buy it. Some professors actually don’t use any textbooks at all. Hence, it is completely useless to buy them. So before everything else, talk to your professor. Ask them if you are actually using the textbook in the class.

2. Buy used textbook, but not from the school bookstore: During my freshman year, just like an unaware person, I religiously bought my textbooks from the school bookstore. They were used, but their prices were not so low. But then came a time, when I decided to check out what was out there online. To my surprise, Amazon was selling the same used text books at a very lower price. So I ended up becoming their "half and half" loyal customer. I say this because I learned that on eBay similar books were cheaper. So sometimes I used that store too. Buying books online can save a huge amount of money.

3. Look for international edition: After some research, I came to know that it is far better to buy the international versions. They probably have newsprint pages, but contents remain the same. So do your research well. If the international version is available go for it. Usually, eBay is a good place for it.

3. Check for older edition: Yes editions change, but contents can still remain the same with a slight difference in page numbers. Amazon usually allows interested parties to see what is inside the textbook. If you find two or three editions of your textbook there try to compare them using this feature. You will be surprised how you can actually save a lot by ditching the new edition for the old one.

4. Check for PDF format of the book online: Many sites like Slideshare carry the PDF format of textbooks. They are downloadable and most often free. So before everything else, try doing a search online. I got my Human Resources textbook once online. The entire semester I used it.

5. Renting is not bad: You have to be very smart with this. Some places charge higher prices. So you need to research a little before you make up your mind about who would want to pick. The renting version is available in two formats: digital and hardcopy. Chegg, most often, offers both. Coursmart has only digital versions. They tend to offer coupons sometimes or normal discounts. Some universities also have started doing the same. Their prices, sometimes are very reasonable.

6. Do an exchange: Have friends in college. It can benefit in millions of ways and  one of them is book exchange. It is even best to be friends with those who are in your major.

7. Send out an email to students: It is possible that some students in your current class already finished a course right before you. They may have the textbook you are looking for. Since there is no way to know who has it, you have to send out an email to entire class asking for it. However, for this, you will require your university email address and access to blackboard.

8. Place a wanted ad at Craigslist: First of all, do a search at Craigslist to see if anyone is selling the book you want. If no search result appears place the wanted advertisement asking if someone would sell it to you.

9. Bulletin board: Bulletin boards can have ads of textbooks you are looking for. So do check it. If find nothing there add your wanted to it.

10. Get the Xerox copy: Some former students will not hesitate to lend you their book if you wish to photocopy it. But most often they will try to sell it to you. This is not that bad. Only problem is that they might charge you something higher than the market price. The problem of going for the Xerox copy is that some professors state clearly in their syllabus that it should not be brought to class as they believe it is illegal. But sometimes the books are so expensive that we basically have no other option left. That said, never forget to calculate the amount you will be using on photocopying each page. Compare it with the actual price of the book. If buying saves your money more do not head to copy machine. By the way, if you cannot find a former student of your new class you can photocopy the book from the school library. They usually keep one or two copies for students.

11. Participate in Book buck contest: Not many students are aware of the fact that schools hold book buck competitions. This is true mainly for community colleges. Problem is that they end up getting no participants at all. If you take part in it you will have a high chance of winning. According to contest rule, we simply need to write an essay on our financial hardships. If you wish to know about this contest try going to your college office.

12. Check libraries: This is one secret some students will never leak from their stomach. University and public libraries usually are parts of bigger networks. If you just search for your textbook in in their online catalog you would be surprised to find them in libraries of other universities connected to them, making it easy for you to request it for your use.

13. Your learning style can overrule textbooks: If you are an auditory learner you probably will not even require buying a textbook at all provided you get no homework directly from it and your professor explains a vast number of details in the class. So research on your learning style. Many students actually do ace exams without reading the textbook. When they are asked how they do it they answer that they can remember everything they hear from the professor.

Bizarre Exam Preparation Techniques that Actually Work

Nothing in the world is creepier than an exam for a student. This is that one special thing that creates an abstract do or die situation. There is just no easy escape. One who has decided to go to school will have to face it somehow. Interestingly, even after graduation, this nightmare does not end. Plenty of fields like Engineering, Accounting, Human Resources and Law  require special certification or license which can only be acquired by passing an exam outside university. It is the requirement of different states. Whatever the situation is, preparing for exam is something that cannot be avoided. What we know is that it always tests our knowledge. But how many of us truly remember everything just by reading the books and attending the lectures? In the end, careful studying and memorization are the only strategies. But again, do you think your method of studying is helping you? If not try any of the well tested and effective bizarre ones from below. Some of them are powerful enough to be the last  minute study tips.

1. Sing your contents: Yes it sounds weird and extremely silly, but it actually works like magic. You will know it only if you give it a try. No extra preparation is needed. Just sit in an isolated place and sing whatever you are trying to memorize. Music is not necessary, but can help. This method can make you remember huge amount of notes in a very short amount of time and thus, is a great weapon for last minute exam preparation.

The more you enjoy singing memorization, the more you will remember the notes!

2. Fill in the blanks: Pick whatever you wish to remember. Is it an essay like content? No problem, just pick the first paragraph from it. If it is too long, split it into two sections. You don't want to be too hard on yourself. Copy down the section by keeping some of its words missing.  Keep spaces for them in their right places. Choose only the easiest ones to hide and keep the quantity very low. Reread the section once more and then put it aside to find the missing words in the question you just made. Grade your answer. If you made a few mistakes, do not worry. Reread and then make another question in the same way, but this time, hide a few difficult words from it. Reread and then do the question. The third part should have half of the words of the sentences missing. Again read and then do it. By this, time, you will have the section completely in your head. Carry on doing these steps for the remaining sections. If do not understand the technique have a look at the example given below.

If you hate writing type using Microsoft Word or Quizlet site. This way you will be able to save
and do the tests again.

3. Write your notes several times: On a piece of printer paper copy down the first few sentences of whatever you wish to remember. See them and again copy. Keep doing this until they have got into your head. Test your memory on a different piece of a paper without looking at the previous one. Do this for the rest of the sentences.

4. Speed up verbal memorization: Speeding up will divert your attention from the rest of the world. But instead of saying an entire paragraph, pick one sentence at a time. Repeat it several times. After this, test your knowledge by writing it all down on the paper.

5. Role-play: This works best in a study group. First try to understand the notes and then turn them into a script and make interview questions based on them only. Get into the role of an expert. Make one of the group members the interviewer and tell them to interview you. Act like you know the stuffs while giving this interview. Utter only your notes. If you have no study group, you can do the same role playing in front of the mirror. Otherwise, grab your sibling and start a conversation about the topic. In between, in the form of explanation, say your notes.

This method is being secretly used by plenty of big brothers and sisters around the world

6. Write reflection: Many teachers assign reflection paper as an assignment to students. Do it for yourself. Don't care about being formal. Your teacher is not going to read it. In your reflection, be positive where it is necessary or just be sinister. Criticize the author for the content. Make fun of it. Ask questions about how what is mentioned is possible. If you hate writing, just write down such things in short format next to the notes. The reason why it works as an exam preparation technique is because when you make an effort to critical think about the content you actually end up remembering it.

7. Have a schedule: The worst thing any student can do is opening the book the night before the exam. It is the kind of poison that affects health, psychology and even the exam grade. Students can avoid this by having a schedule for studies. Still it must be mentioned that dedicating an entire day to one single course is wrong. This is boring and torture. This is what contributes to procrastination later because it prevents us from doing our personal things. Avoid that by having a daily schedule. Create it the first day of the semester. Dedicate only half an hour to each course. Schedule works best when the hours are shortened. Keep it limited to 2 hours. If you try to be an overachiever by making a mission to finish a complete chapter in one day it is not going to work. You will start ignoring and finally killing the schedule. That is why, it is best to go over only a few notes of each course.

8. Record and listen: If you simply hate reading then buy a tape recorder. Record yourself reading the notes. Listen to it. This is a very convenient way of studying. You can just upload your recordings onto an MP3 player and listen to it in the car while driving.

9. Make use of Mnemonics:Remember PEMDAS from math class? It stands for Parenthesis Exponents Multiplication Division Addition Subtraction. It was coined to help students remember the order of operation. In science classes, mnemonics are used for terms and order of how something happens. It is never too late to take advantage from this kind of learning technique. You can do the same. Make up your own Mnemonics. See in the example below how it is done.

10. Dump your house for reading: Some exams are open book and open notes. What this means is that they must be read in advance. Is it difficult to do this due to procrastination? You will not believe, but one of the reasons behind this is your house. It comes with responsibilities and comfort, giving you every opportunity to avoid reading the assigned chapters with full concentration. That is why, you need to dump the house for a few hours. Read in your school or public library. Sitting in a restaurant and doing this can also work.

You may also like:
Ways to Stop Buying Expensive College Textbooks 
List of Editing and Proofreading techniques to Make A Paper Perfect
7 Characters You Will Meet in a Group of College Class

Can College Get You Job? Research Report

The last decade was stormy for United States. Two wars, end of industrial revolution, housing market crash and soaring fuel price mirthlessly tried to put its economy to sleep. Globalization was coming to life.

Wealthy grew wealthier, but the middle class suffered. Unemployment rate skyrocketed. It is now believed that the the economy is recovering from recession and new jobs are being created. Americans who lost jobs due to the recession are reentering the workforce. But are they managing to get positions relevant to their education or majors?

Current trend shows that there is a high unemployment rate among new college graduates. Does this mean higher education no more has any value? One government employee reported to us that high school students see very little hope in college now. They don't trust the future. But is hope truly lost? We recently did a research to know whether Americans are truly doing jobs irrelevant to their majors. It was for actually for a class. The collected data turned out to be quite a surprise.

Making and Releasing of the Survey

The research was done through survey. Our pick was structured questionnaire. We designed 19 closed format questions focused on level of education and jobs related to it. Most of the responses were chosen from current trends. That said, we assumed experiences differed individual to individual because of differences in age, years of graduation, skills and fields of professions. Consequently, prior to the main questions in the survey, participants were asked to mark their age group from our given list. The second thing we did was to allow participants to go with the option of “other” and provided them a box where they could write down their response in brief.  No attempt was made to design personal questions to help us or readers identify the participants individually.  Attention was given to easing their ability to provide responses correctly. The core questions pertaining to the study were:
1. State your highest education level.
2. Area or discipline of your degree/education?
3. Before declaring a major, did you conduct any research pertaining to jobs related to its field?
4. What is your current employment status?
 5. Your current occupation is in what field?
6. Which type of organization do you work for?
7. Is your current job position relevant to your educational background?
8. What level of education is required for your current position?
9. How many years of experience do you have in your current field?
10. State any reason(s) that may have caused obstacles for you in obtaining a job relevant to your education/major.

The situations of the participants connected to this study were dependent mainly on questions number 7 and 10.  While question number 7 asked participants to answer in yes or no form, the latter gave them choices; these included:  competition, outsourcing, lack of experience, inability to relocate and ‘other,’ with a box for participants to write their own answers.  However, without knowing what they studied and whether or not they researched on jobs relevant to their majors, there was no way to come up with a reasonable conclusion. That is why, we included questions related to them in our survey. With that being said, to lessen the error in reasoning, we planned to separate the population from those who acquired jobs through fraternity and academic clubs. To make it possible, we included a question that asked if any of the participants had been such a member. It was followed by the question of whether the membership helped them gain the jobs through the network.

200 participants took part in this survey from all over US. Approximately 17 percent of male participants went to college, but did not acquire a degree. The remaining 83 percent obtained an Associate’s, Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.

Findings (Data Analyzed Using SPSS)

1. 57.5 percent stated that the primary reasons for pursuing higher education were for an improved quality of life and better job opportunities.

2. Prior to declaring a field of study, 60 percent of individuals stated they conducted research on jobs related to their area of interest. We were interested in knowing if this was helpful. According to survey result, 63 percent of those who researched had successfully acquired major related jobs.  This satisfied the theory that being vigilant about what major to choose does yield to a good result.

3.As stated earlier, the US economy is on the verge of recovery. Despite this, businesses are constantly doing all they can to lower production and service costs.  It is believed that one tactic they use is hiring experienced workers because this way they can avoid spending on training.  This enables the experienced older generation to get jobs while the young ones keep knocking every door.  Once patience is lost, they say yes to jobs that do not match their education background. For this research, participants were asked to pick an age range from the questionnaire as well as respond with yes or no to the question of whether their jobs were relevant to what they studied in school. When analyzed using the contingency table, the data revealed that 50 percent of all those who fell within the age range of 25 to 34 years did not have a job relevant to their education. Apparently, this group had full-time jobs in other fields and earned a monthly salary of $2,000 to $4,500.  But can experience be held responsible for their irrelevant jobs?  Data analysis revealed that the participants who had less than 5 years of experience in their fields took an outside job. But this is not the only issue the group struggled with. In fact, they rated outsourcing and competition as some of the other reasons that formed barriers to entry to jobs relevant to their education.

4. The reasons behind barriers to entry varied person to person in the survey.  The most rated response in it was “other”. Using it, the participants wrote down their own unique reasons such as:

• Graduating with a major that never had a proper job in US
• Extremely low salary for entry level job related to the major
• Some employers requiring both education and experience, and if an individual has 15+ years of experience, but lacks the educational component, an employer feels compelled to take a chance with a newly graduated student
• Shutting down a government related industry and its jobs are no more available anywhere

5. Gender wise, women struggled the most in the job market. According to our survey result, women were 12 percent more likely than men in saying yes to jobs that did not match their education level. Majority of the female participants also stated that they did not do any research on jobs related to the majors they wanted to declare in college. Their monthly salary was either $4,000 or less

6.The issue of irrelevancy in jobs does not apply to majors of all areas. Data analysis revealed that 75 percent of participants who came from arts and science with the exception for Information Technology were more successful than graduates of business in getting a relevant job. Among the participants, 76 percent of them worked in professional and management fields. However, the monthly salary correlated with them was less than $4000. The worst hit was those who were in education.

7.Based on this study, the pursuit of higher education is one of significant importance. The analysis revealed that 57 percent of those who had bachelor degree were able to get relevant jobs.

8. Associate’s degree was another one with high success rate. 21 percent of those who acquired it did have relevant jobs. The struggle was at its highest peak for those who possessed a Master’s degree and no degree.

9. Among fraternity, sorority and academic club members, only 1 percent got a job relevant to their education. This shows that probably they are not so useful for careers anymore.

10. Finally, how was the response to the question of current job position relevant to educational background? Believe it not, 47 percent participants answered yes to it, confirming that the struggle in the job market is rather moderate.

Conclusion

It might be difficult for recent graduates to get a job, but there is still hope. Competitions, low salaries and lack of experience don't make them incapable of finding something full time.

5 Reasons Why A Popular College Major Should be Avoided

It is universal for people to go for professions that pay best and are in demand. Catching the early bus can make anyone lucky. But then there comes a mid day when majority of the students are showing interest in the popular major. In bay area of California, there was a time when computer science was the ultimate major. Silicon valley was just bubbling. There was a huge need for employees. After this came the time of accounting and finance. Many students in the bay area enjoy math and hate the idea of writing long papers. They often end up choosing accounting or finance option from Business Administration. Now there are just way too many graduates from these options. Same goes for education. Most state schools generate a huge number of teachers every year. But the irony is that public schools for some reason prefer to hire teachers from other states. With all honesty, when a major begins to attract too many bees, it should be skipped. Why?