Strategies To Help Stressed Out High School Students Seeking Selective Colleges

August 4, 2015 7:38 am

Reducing student stress

For many middle- and high-school students, the pressure to do it all and do it all well is taking its toll. Stanford researchers say simple changes can reduce student stress and improve learning.

7 Practical Ways To Cope Up With Exam Stress

August 3, 2015 7:33 am

By Julia Petrova

Almost every person in the world is a patient of exam anxiety except the ones that simply do not care of course. Students undergo this phase during exam season and some even before that. It is important to manage this stress beforehand because this leads to mistakes and this is the reason behind you being unable to recall half of the material you have actually prepared. So, how can you get rid of the unnecessary exam stress? Take a look at the following ways that can help you out in such a time:

1. Prepare Early

Do not assume that you will be able to understand and learn everything at the last minute. You simply cannot stuff everything in your brain in a few hours and in case you are unable to understand anything, you won’t be able to ask anyone at the eleventh hour. Also, staying up all night before an exam leads to exhaustion and all you are left with is a tired and unfocused mind.

2. Time Management

Learn to manage your time. It’s the era of smart phones, so use that phone of yours to create a detailed schedule about how much time you will need to prepare every subject and what to do in case you cross the time limit. Randomly studying subjects can result in you being unable to provide sufficient time for the subject that needs your attention the most.

3. Gather All Course Related Material

Make sure you have every lecture, book, set of notes, and reference material with you before you start studying. If required, borrow lectures from a reliable person or you can take help of the professionals at courseworkspot.co.uk. Students often miss out on a point or don’t write a certain point clear enough, so it’s always better to have extra material for reference and for understanding.

4. Study From The Start Of The Semester

While this might seem problematic, pick 2 days per week in which you can revise everything that has been taught previously. Lectures of a specific subject are often correlated, so it’s better to rectify problems when they occur because otherwise they keep piling up. If you are confused at the beginning, make sure to solve it before moving on to the next topic.

5. Ask For Help

Do not hesitate in asking for help. If your supervisors or professors are busy and you don’t want to bother them, ask a colleague or a friend to help you out and explain the material. The better option would always be to consult your teacher as he or she would be the expert in the subject and would know how to handle the problem skilfully.

6. Take A Break

Over burdening yourself during study sessions is not going to be fruitful. You need to take a break every now and then to refresh your mind. Cluttering your mind with formulas, information, theories without giving it time to digest would result in the data getting mixed up. If you don’t want to take a break, and then simply keep the learning aside and write down to revise whatever you have covered so far.

7. Avoid Distractions

Keep all your distractions aside when you’re trying to study. It’s really easy for your mind to wander in all directions when you’re trying to concentrate. If your phone or laptop is constantly bothering you, then keep them aside or lock them up. If you’re studying something over the internet, then block any additional sites that would divert your attention from work.

Remember to take deep breaths whenever you feel like the stress is getting worse. You have given exams before and you can do it again. Keep in mind that when you work hard, you get its reward in due time.

Jillian Petrova is an academician at day and a blogger at night. She has a never-ending love for fantasy novels lik

Thoughts on Remaking College In A New Postsecondary Ecology

July 30, 2015 8:05 am

Published in orgtheory.net

Academic chatter often assumes research universities are the prototypical higher ed organization, even though only 23% of students are enrolled in such universities (RU/VH or RU/H). By comparison, more than a third are enrolled in community colleges, and nearly 10% in for-profit institutions.

At the level of public attention, focus gets even narrower. A New York Times search gets 310 hits for “community college,” versus nearly 13,000 for “Harvard.” Recently historian David Perry surveyed two months of NYT op-eds containing the word “professor” and found

zero by community college or lower-status teaching school profs, zero by branch campus public profs, and a handful by top liberal arts schools (Smith, Dickinson) or lower-tier R1 publics (Colorado State, South Carolina).

And of course nothing gets our collective hearts aflutter like a good old fashioned spat over whether the Ivy League is an awful, awful place.

So kudos to Michael Kirst and Mitchell Stevens for noticing that the world of higher ed is bigger than that.Remaking College: The Changing Ecology of Higher Education, published a couple of months ago by Stanford UP, focuses on the institutions that are underappreciated by the media and scholars: comprehensive colleges, community colleges, for-profit colleges. By bringing together a diverse group of academics — several of whom take an explicitly organizational approach — to focus on broad-access institutions, they have done the field a real service.

The essays cover a range of ground and approaches. Several, including an orienting one by W. Richard Scott, conceptualize higher ed as an ecology or field. I’ll just highlight a couple I particularly enjoyed here.

In “The Classification of Organizational Forms: Theory and Application to the Field of Higher Education,” Martin Ruef and Manish Nag use topic models based on IPEDS data to generate new sets of categories for U.S. postsecondary institutions. From mission statements, for example, they infer not only two distinct clusters of liberal arts schools and two of community colleges, but several additional types of institutions — globally-oriented colleges, Christian colleges, medical tech schools, student-oriented universities — that might otherwise go unnoticed. Like other good work that identifies patterns from texts, it prompts a rethinking of cultural identity beyond assumed categories.

Regina Deil-Amen makes a significant contribution just by hammering home how atypical the “typical” college student really is. Nearly three-quarters of first-year undergraduates are enrolled in community colleges or for-profit institutions. 53% are not enrolled full-time. Only 13% live on campus. 13 percent! Her quotes of interviews with lower-income and Latino students, who are dealing with family stresses and financial struggles, are telling:

My family has a lot of financial problems, so that’s another stress that I’m constantly dealing with. I have to call them like, ‘Mom, are you gonna be able to pay rent this month?’…I’ve actually used some of my loans to help them pay their rent this year. (p. 146)

These firsthand accounts reinforce how inaccurate the picture of a dependent 18-year-old striking out on her own for the first time actually is.

I also enjoyed Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s reflection on measuring college performance, where they emphasize that they

have vehemently argued against the desirability of an externally imposed accountability schema. We are deeply skeptical of increased centralized regulation of this character—fearing that the unintended consequences would far outweigh any benefits—and have instead called for institutions themselves to assume enhance responsibility for monitoring and improving student outcomes. (p. 170)

I’m not sure they know how to measure college quality either, but it’s a thoughtful piece.

Higher ed really is a diverse organizational ecology, and it’s going to take a lot of work to map out the whole landscape. But I’m very glad that people like Kirst and Stevens are moving us in that direction.

Obama Scraps Plan to Rate Colleges

July 29, 2015 7:52 am

By Larry Gordon : Los Angeles Times

Nearly two years ago, President Obama proposed a federal system to rate the nation’s colleges and universities, one that would provide families with an objective and unified tool to compare schools and for taxpayers to determine whether the massive investments in scholarships and other government spending on higher education are worthwhile.

The idea, however, was met with protests and concerns from college leaders who contended that it was misconceived and could unfairly pit schools against each other.

After repeated delays and many consultations with skeptical college leaders, the ratings system was recently scrapped.

White House officials say that pushback from the higher education industry and congressional Republicans did not lead to the retreat. Instead, they say they could not develop a ratings system that worked well enough to help high school seniors, parents and counselors.

Ted Mitchell, U.S. undersecretary of education, said attempts to bundle many measurements of colleges’ performance into a single score backfired, making the effort “less transparent.”

The department, he said, wanted to avoid “a black box that would be hard for consumers to penetrate and understand and that actually would not be an advance on the state of the art.”

Plus, the supposed simplicity of a single score “would belie a lot of complexity students and families need to understand. And it would mask some very big differences among institutions,” said Mitchell, past president of Occidental College and of the state Board of Education.

Last year, the administration had suggested that it would assign colleges to broad categories such as high performing, average or low, with some recognition for schools that enroll large numbers of low-income students.

Now, the education department is creating a new website that will enable families to research and compare the records and outcomes of colleges and make their own judgments without being offered a composite score.

That system is expected to be ready by the fall and will expand on the existing federal College Navigator and the College Scorecard, which together provide statistics on such factors as graduation rate, average debt payments, crime on campus and ethnic enrollment.

Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access & Success, an Oakland-based organization that promotes broader education opportunities and reduced student debt, said she hopes the new tool “provides consumers better information to help make college decisions and focuses colleges’ attention on what they can do to improve affordability and outcomes.”

Asher, who opposed a single score rating, said the new website should include detailed data about average debt load after graduation and the graduation rates of low-income Pell Grant recipients, items previous proposals lacked.

Early on, one of the arguments against a single scoring system was that it might unfairly pit, say, a Cal State Dominguez Hills, where many students start in remedial classes, against an Ivy League school such as Princeton, or an engineering school that produces highly-paid techies against one that mainly trains social workers and police officers.

Administration officials had promised that its system would account for those differences and avoid unbalanced competition. In addition, some opponents predicted the ratings would have been faulty since important data are not easily available, such as the graduation rates of transfer students.

Opposition from colleges and higher education groups probably was a secondary consideration in the decision to abandon the ratings plan, said Terry W. Hartle, the American Council on Education’s senior vice president for government and public affairs. Despite so much work on the project, the administration “simply concluded there wasn’t a way to do this well or even reasonably well. So it was better not to attempt it,” he said. Hartle, whose group also opposed the idea, said that White House officials should be applauded for realizing that a ratings system could not be implemented “without misleading students, harming institutions, creating perverse incentives or embarrassing themselves.”

Michael V. Reilly, executive director of the American Assn. of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said many colleges were surprised yet relieved that the federal ratings are off the table. He surmised that the White House could not find a formula that was both easy to comprehend and did not penalize schools that serve low-income students.

In addition, with the clock ticking on the Obama presidency, officials may have wanted to avoid a battle in Congress when other education issues are more pressing, such as financial aid and the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. “I think the administration was running out of time on this,” Reilly said.

The plan attracted opposition from a past member of the Obama administration: UC President Janet Napolitano, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. In December 2013, she said she was “deeply skeptical” about a ratings system that would contain many exceptions.

Last week, she praised White House efforts to improve higher education and, while noting her opinion about the ratings, said in a statement that UC will work with federal officials to provide students and families “key data they can use to inform their decisions.”

Top 9 Fantastic iPad Apps for ESL Students

July 28, 2015 8:03 am

By KEITY ADRIAN

When you’re talking about learning a language in the U.S., you’re generally talking about ESL which refers to “English as a second language” or the study or use of English by speakers with different native languages.

Learning a new language seems quite tough but lucky for the students of today as technology has made it a lot simpler and easier. Many schools are now making plans to increase the availability and use of technology in classrooms in order to engage students in learning English language digitally.

Students should realize that smart phones, iPads and tablets aren’t just for playing games. They are also a great tool for learning and practicing English. Today, there are millions of smartphone and iPad applications available for almost anything, ranging from apps for productivity to apps that help you manage your finances, and of course, apps for developing good English language skills.

The Apple’s app store offers thousands of iPad apps for learners of any level, especially for ESL students. So, if you are also an ESL student who wants to learn English or improve his or her English language skills, these apps will be helpful for you:

1. Word BINGO

Word Bingo is basically a word game that allows learners to play with a word list. This game is an interesting way to learn new words. In this game, you have the option to play in three different modes, moving from lower to higher levels of difficulty as you go through the list of words.

2. Berlitz My English Coach For iPad

Berlitz is a famous name in English language learning. Berlitz has created the “My English Coach for iPad” app for all levels of students featuring various questions, answers, phrases, and history and geography lessons in order to strengthen English language skills.

3. Sentence Builder

This is one of the most popular iPad apps available for English language learners. It is the best app for students of elementary school who want to tackle grammar and vocabulary challenges efficiently. This amazing app features connector words that allow students to build grammatically correct sentences based on pictures and videos. This awesome app is recommended by the expert staff of Dissertationpoint.co.uk

4. Speech Tutor

The Speech Tutor app is exclusively designed for students to help them learn proper sounds and pronunciation of English words. In this app, a person is shown from two different angels, front view and side view, producing sounds from both angles. This can be viewed at three different speeds and can be paused in the middle. This app is extremely useful for students who face problems with their speech.

5. Wordbook XL

Wordbook XL is an English dictionary and thesaurus for iPad. It is a fairly resourceful app that contains audio, synonyms, etymologies, bookmarking, anagrams and reference-saving for the ease of students.

6. ESL Express

Usually, students are confused with words that have similar sounds but different meanings. This app is made for the ease of students who are frequently confused with such words. Through this app, students can learn many pairs of words that sound similar but have different meanings in English language.

7. Intro to letters

This app is really helpful for young (elementary level) students. It uses the simplest and the most effective ways of learning the English language. It uses flashcards and puzzles by which students can browse through all the alphabets of the English language. This application helps understand the meaning and use of each alphabet.

8. Kidioms

Kidioms is an app designed for students who face trouble with finding the meaning of common phrases and idioms. The app features a digital notebook in which you will be introduced to an idiom. You will then be given an example with a graphic. In order to reinforce the concepts, this app even includes games for practice. It’s a perfect app which meets the needs of every ESL student, and helps them acquire vital knowledge.

9. Preposition Builder

In this app, students are shown an image for which they have to complete a sentence by dragging some prepositions. Whatever preposition the student selects for completing the sentence, the image represents the sentence they have created. The purpose of this app is to teach students how different prepositions can alter the overall meaning of a particular sentence.

So, if you are tech-savvy and love trying out something new, then these great apps are perfect for you.

Keity Adrian is a nature loving spirit and a well-wisher of students around the globe, pursuing a career in Teaching and doing a part-time job to feed her wallet. She’s also passionate a blogger with decent interest in topics like education, college life, etc.

The Mid Level Skills Employee Supply Gap

July 27, 2015 7:44 am

By Melissa Burns

Ask the average person which professions are most in demand and you’re likely to hear answers like “computer programmer” or “data analyst.” While these are certainly growing fields with a high demand for trained workers, they aren’t the professions with the biggest gaps between available jobs and capable applicants. The skilled trades – occupations such as electrician, boiler operator, HVAC technician are in increasingly high demand, and as the current workforce ages, the gap between the need for employees and the availability of a trained labor force continues to grow.

The skilled trades have a disproportionate number of employees over the age of 45 – but in addition to this general trend, there are also areas where especially severe shortages exist. In many northeastern states, as much as 60 percent of the skilled labor workforce is in the over-45 age bracket. Compounding the problem further is the fact that the physical demands of these jobs prevent many people employed in them from postponing retirement. In other words, whereas some workers’ personal preference or need for additional income might naturally lead them to compensate for the lack of an influx of younger labor, the physical toll of these jobs precludes that option.

The labor gap that exists in many trade industries belies the trend in American high schools over the last several generations to push virtually all students toward continuing education in a four year college degree program. This shift was made with the belief that a bachelor’s degree would better equip every student to pursue secure employment in a well-paying job. However, this push may have been misguided; while rapid advancements in technology have changed the shape of the labor market in many industries, the need for skilled carpenters or welders is likely to continue – or increase – well into the future. Additionally, many workers are better suited to these trades than to a four-year college education. In some cases, students may even come out ahead financially by pursuing a training program or two-year degree and then entering the job market as opposed to finishing four years of college, often by way of student loans that send graduates out into the workforce already saddled with significant debt.

It is estimated that over a half million skilled jobs in manufacturing go unfilled because there simply aren’t enough workers with the training to perform them. If this trend continues, it may have significant economic consequences. As manufacturing output increases and the available skilled labor market remains stagnant, opportunities for economic growth are being missed. Some employers are attempting to remedy this by taking steps to reverse the trend that has prevailed for the last few decades: they are turning their focus toward longevity, training new workers in the hopes that they will remain in the industry for the bulk of their careers, if not for life.

In addition to providing training and taking steps to reduce employee turnover, industry leaders are also looking for ways to beef up the image of skilled labor professions. These jobs provide opportunities for stable careers at several times the minimum wage. If the industry can successfully reshape perceptions of these jobs as viable, stable, middle class careers – and respectable jobs that perform an essential function in the country’s economy – it is hoped that more workers will be attracted to the opportunities these trades have to offer.

Melissa Burns graduated from the faculty of Journalism of Iowa State University in 2008. Nowadays she is an entrepreneur and independent journalist. Her sphere of interests includes startups, information technologies and how these ones may be implemented in the sphere of education. You may contact Melissa: burns.melissaa@gmail.com

– See more at: https://collegepuzzle.stanford.edu/?p=4723#sthash.ZStCAAOQ.dpuf

For- Profit Postsecondary Is Going Through A Course Correction

July 24, 2015 8:05 am

Reshaping the For-Profit

Ashley A. Smith, excerpt reprinted from Inside Higher Education

The large for-profit college chain isn’t dead.

Stop the funeral dirges — or celebratory hymns, depending on where you fall on the political spectrum.

Yes, Corinthian Colleges hit bust. Yes, ITT Education Services is facing serious scrutiny from state and federal agencies that may yet shut down the chain. Yes, the new federal gainful employment rule will have an effect on the sector. And certainly enrollment numbers at many for-profit institutions are dropping. But the industry’s heralded doom is an exaggeration.

If anything, experts say it’s a course correction amid a climate of intense scrutiny and increased regulation.

The decline is undoubtedly happening. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, for-profit student enrollment is down 4.9 percent compared to last spring. The enrollment decreases are playing a large part in driving down revenues and stock prices.

“It’s shrinking. Has been shrinking. Will continue to shrink. Things are getting less worse, but stabilization is a ways off,” said Jeff Silber, an education financial analyst with BMO Capital Markets.

But the demand for for-profit institutions is still there, even as enrollments fall from their peak in 2010, said Steve Gunderson, president and CEO of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU) — the for-profit sector’s primary trade group. In 2012, approximately 3.5 million students attended for-profit institutions. That figure is lower than the 4 million students who were enrolled in 2010, but still higher than the 2.6 million figure in 2007, Gunderson said.

Yet the massive changes in the sector have even shaken up APSCU, which is shifting to focus less on large for-profit chains and more on the nonprofit education sector as a few high-profile members leave the association. (See related article about its future.)

For-profit colleges have been around for at least 100 years in some form or another, but the current-day institutions are unique in that they’ve been providing degrees rather than the certifications granted by truck-driving or beauty schools, said Kevin Kinser, chair of the department of educational administration and policy studies at the State University of New York at Albany and an expert on for-profit higher education.

“What we might see is not the demise or complete collapse of publicly traded institutions, but a different focus for them,” he said. “A niche focus for them … a shift from degree granting to service providers. Maybe they have a higher education institution as part of the portfolio, but the portfolio is in the education service realm.”

Both Capella and Strayer Universities have managed to buck the trend of losing money and students by focusing on approaches experts say will keep the industry alive in the future. For instance, Capella has specialized in graduate degree programs for a long time, which has made them one of the more respected providers in the industry. Strayer found success in part through its partnerships with corporate clients.

“Predictions of the demise of the major publicly traded for-profit universities, colleges and education providers would be premature,” said Gary Rhoades, a professor and director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. “But it is clear that a combination of consumer skepticism, competition from not-for-profit colleges and universities, and consumer protection actions by federal and state governments have reduced, not just market share, but also the image of for-profit higher education.”

If anything, the for-profit sector appears to be in the bust period of its regular boom-and-bust cycle. The last time the industry was in this level of turmoil was 25 years ago, when the government instituted tougher regulations and the sector readjusted, Kinser said. For-profits increased their enrollments dramatically in the 1980s and concerns arose around students defaulting and the amount of aid going to those colleges. So the federal government stepped in to regulate just how much federal money could go to for-profit institutions, among other things, he said — although many of those regulations were rolled back in the 2000s under the George W. Bush administration.

But the current bust cycle is more noticeable now than in the late 1980s and early 1990s because of how much larger the sector has grown. For-profits grew to take up about 10 to 13 percent of the education marketplace and also began offering more degrees, Kinser said.

“For-profits up until the 1990s were still predominantly non-degree-granting institutions … then we saw the transformation of the for-profit sector into the degree-granting sector and that’s why it became so prominent. It touched on what most people think of as actual college,” he said.

New 50-state policy database includes 100 of the largest state-funded financial aid programs

July 23, 2015 8:01 am

While a college education is more important than ever, students face unprecedented challenges in financing the cost. Policymakers across the country are working to design financial aid programs that foster postsecondary degree access and completion.

Education Commission of the States, with support from USA Funds, is addressing this pervasive issue in a two-year intensive project focused on assisting states develop policies that will enhance affordability and, by extension, serve as a catalyst for college completion. The project launched in April 2015 with the release of the report Redesigning State Financial Aid: Principles to guide state aid policymaking.

Today, the Education Commission of the States announces the availability of a comprehensive 50-state database detailing 100 of the largest state financial aid programs across the country. This unique resource is intended to inform discussions surrounding current program design, innovative models already in practice in the states, and assist states in identifying peer programs from which to learn.

“The 50-state data reveals opportunities for states to rethink aid programs in light of contemporary students,” said Brian A. Sponsler, director of Postsecondary and Workforce Development at Education Commission of the States. “Exploring data from 100 of the largest aid programs provides policymakers an opportunity to learn from one another and gain valuable insights into how to design and implement improvements to financial aid programs and policies in their own states.”

Sample findings when analyzing the 100 largest state-funded programs include:

Twenty-nine programs will only fund students who enroll full-time.
Forty-three define the duration of the award by a set number of terms or years, as opposed to anchoring eligibility to the length of time needed to complete a program at varying enrollment intensities.
Thirty-three programs link aid eligibility to college entrance exams like the SAT or ACT, or a high school grade point average – traditional college readiness measures that are of little relevance for adults returning to higher education after time in the workforce.

Another key deliverable of the Education Commission of the States and USA Funds project is state-specific, targeted technical assistance. Any state interested in engaging with Education Commission of the States and receiving direct support is encouraged to complete an online interest form via the State Financial Aid Redesign website.

For questions, contact Education Commission of the States Director of Communications Amy Skinner at askinner@ecs.org or (303) 299.3609.

Redesigning State Financial Aid: Principles to guide state aid policymaking highlights the principles to consider when improving state financial aid policies and programs to best serve students.
Education Commission of the States’ Blueprint for College Readiness initiative provides guidance and support to the growing number of states working to improve student success and transition from high school into postsecondary.
States take a wide variety of approaches in making investments in postsecondary financial aid. This Trends in State Financial Aid report reviews policies enacted through state legislatures in the 2013 and 2014 sessions.

7 Essential Strategies For Students To Create Outstanding Digital Resumes To Get Hired

July 22, 2015 8:12 am

By Jessica Mills

Young people are great with technology, so they should use it for investing in their professional future. College students lack working experience, as a consequence, they have to compensate with an amazing CV, an impeccable online presence and innovative ways of selling their skills.

Below, there are several online tools able to help you create appealing job applications. Don’t be afraid to use them!

1.LinkedIn
Famous companies and powerful employers are present on this platform. It is a huge plus to have an account in here. Students can be visible to businesses in their academic field and they can make useful connections. Internships are a great career start and this is the perfect place to obtain them.

Stand out with an interactive resume containing images, presentations, videos and more. Also, you could use keywords inside the profile, so that companies should find you easier and faster.

In conclusion, students who are looking for well paid jobs must have a LinkedIn profile.

2. Inforg.am

This website is working well with LinkedIn. Users can import data from LinkedIn to Inforg.am and create info graphics. Students can use this tool to emphasize their educational performance and to illustrate their academic activities. In this way, employers can see from one look how good you are!

The website also has other visual materials available. All these are meant to help users create visually attractive resumes.

3.Papersgear

No matter how many extracurricular activities have you participated too, they all must be presented in a commercial way. It is always indicated to invest in yourself by hiring professional writers to complete a flawless CV. After all, you just pay once and use the resume for countless times.

Papersgear works with experienced writers and editors who can improve a text in no time. They will make sure that every experience will be greatly valued inside the profile.

4.About.me

A dynamic resume says more than words. In here, employers can follow candidates in real time, as they add new academic, personal and professional activities. Thus, students can prove that they are constantly improving and struggling to achieve more goals.

Create a profile onabout.me and impress the companies you are aiming to work for.

5.Populr.me

This platform is perfect for those who don’t have time to learn how a certain website works. On Populr.me, everything can be done with the drag and drop method. Students just have to fill in online fields with personal and professional work related experience, educational achievements, impressive skills and hobbies, and so on.

The profile can be boosted with photos, videos and documents. Additionally, the website allows users to look at others’ profile. In this way, you can get inspired and check out the competition. The profile created in here can be shared via e-mail or social media.

6.Accredible

Accredible platform is the right place to be for recent graduated students. They can easily create attractive presentations using the academic certificates owned. Then, these ones can be published online or exported to LinkedIn.

The website has a huge storage space and supports tons of details about a person. Profiles are free to contain text, videos, photos, and documents.

7. Enthuse.me

In the end, any online resume or talented students need a little (or more) marketing. It is important that companies and employers know that you exist. So useEnthuse.me to put your name out there.

Users just have to create a profile and add their educational and working experience. Then, the platform helps them pick the most relevant documents and samples of their activities.

Create online resumes and hunt the best jobs in the field!

Now you are probably asking this: Why do I have to struggle so hard to create dozens of online resumes and presentations, if I have worked hard and graduated from a good university? Because the sad reality is that the economy is not flourishing and there are tons of graduates looking for jobs. Just take a look at the hiring platforms. There are practically hundreds of applicants to one single opening. In these conditions, it is vital to stand out from the crowed and get noticed.

So start using every means of self promoting

Jessica Millis, experienced writer, editor and copywriter. She works as an educator (writing classes) at James Madison University and always tries to use innovations in the study process.

8 Ways International Students Can Muscle-Up Their Conversational Skills

July 21, 2015 8:31 am

By Rachelle Scott

Many international students are comfortable with reading or writing in a foreign language they have practiced in school for so long. This is mostly true for English, of course. However, when it comes to conversational skills such as speaking and listening, they are slightly anxious about how to communicate what they are saying or understand someone with a native fluent accent.

This is especially true if you have a strong foreign accent which native speakers would have trouble comprehending. International students often quote times when they have to spell out what they are saying to get their point across. This becomes even more troublesome when they can’t communicate a question they are trying to ask a professor in class.

Worry not! There are ways you can alleviate the stress from these social encounters by improving you conversational skills. My advice to foreign students who haven’t moved to their international college yet is to give the ToefliBT test (or IELTS if you are moving to British-dominant nation) first! Even if your University doesn’t require this from you, your performance on the test will allow you judge where you stand with your English writing, speaking, reading, and listening skills. The material you use to practice will also allow you to improve on language skills and give you a flavor of what your college environment will be like.

If you still feel you need to improve, here are 8 easy ways you can hone your English conversational skills before and after you arrive.

Before You Arrive:

1) Watch A LOT of T.V.: This is probably going to be your favorite method of studying a language! The best part about learning a language through T.V. shows and movies is that it never feels like “work” or “studying”. While watching movies and shows in the language you seek to improve, you need to closely listen to almost every dialogue an actor speaks. Listen carefully! If you feel there are words you misinterpret or have trouble understanding, write them down, and practice the correct pronunciation of those words. You can also turn on the subtitles in your language to aid understanding.

2) Translate Music: Another effective method to learn a language, and the slang, colloquial, or idiomatic expressions used in it are by listening to popular music in that language and translating it. Again, don’t just listen to music and the beats of the song, find the lyrics and follow every word the singer speaks. Pay attention to slang terms and expressions you haven’t heard before. Write them down and find out their meaning and use. Try to create new sentences of your own using them.

3) Practice, Practice, Practice:As theold adage goes, practice makes perfect, and this can’t be more accurate when it comes to learning a language. You can learn all you want, but it isn’t until you practice the language in real world situations that you actually improve on it. Find a friend who speaks English fluently and possibly better than you do. Ask them to help you out by speaking to you in English, listening to you, and telling you what you say wrong.

4) Find Additional Toefl/ IELTS Material: The material used on these tests is well-suited to the situation of an international studentwho will face an English-speaking academic environment. There is an abundance of material you can use to practice for these tests over the internet. The only problem is that not all of these sources are reliable or have content that is almost identical to that on the actual tests. Nevertheless, Youtube has tons of useful examples, practice tests, and sample conversations that should help.

After You Arrive:

5) Befriend Native Speakers: One of the best ways to improve on conversational language skills is to jump into the real situation and start conversing with native speakers! Don’t restrict yourself to friends with the same native language as yours. Immerse yourself in purely English-speaking social settings and learn as much as you can from them. Listen to them closely and politely ask them to elaborate something you haven’t properly understood. Also tell them that you are working on improving your English so if they catch anything you are saying or pronouncing wrong, it’s their job to correct you. Try not to get overwhelmed with the speed and quality of their speech. Trust that, in time, you will get the hang of it.

6) Tutor Other Students: It’s strange to think of this tip which seems to be the other way around. The trick is to tutor native English speaking students what you are best at – possibly Maths, Science, or another subject—while improving on your English conversational skills at the same time. You can find many platforms to do that like online forums or sites like Dissertation Corp. Tuition classes are usually taught in regular sessions, and therefore, will not require an immense motivation toconduct. Also, both you and the student you are teaching are getting something out of the exchange. Many international students practice this technique and make the most of it!

7) Take ESL / English Language Course: On the last resort, you can simply sign up for an English language course as soon as possible. If your University, after assessing your English, feels that you will need an ESL course for additional support, they will require you to take classes until you get better. You can take the initiative to sign up yourself for off-campus advanced English speaking courses yourself if that isn’t that case.

8) Install Apps that Help: The App markets are full of applications that help improve English skills. The dictionary should help you understand words that were never on your vocabulary list. Also make sure you download an application that has the speaker icon which enables you to listen to the correct pronunciation of that word. Idioms and Phrases is another helpful app that where you can look up idiomatic expressions and how to use them in a sentence.

Rachelle Scott loves to research about new ways technology can be implemented in education and how the two can revolutionize the sector. She also loves to blog on the topics related to Education, College, and more.