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Earlier in the year, I wrote about protests at the UC campuses due to the huge increase in student costs. Since then, these protests have died down a lot, but they are still ongoing in small ways at various campuses.

However, coming up next Thursday is an event planned at all campuses: a nationwide strike for public education. I know mass protests will be ongoing at the UC and CSU campuses, but these protests are open to all levels of education across the country.

I’m not entirely sure what to expect on March 4th for California campuses, but I am hoping it will be big and will resonate. I expect students to occupy buildings, as they did earlier in the year, and that will inevitably create a lot of tension. I’m expecting some faculty to join in the protests, and many UC/CSU workers. I expect the chancellors to try hard to scale it down and make them look like victims, as usual. All in all, I expect normal university life to be completely disrupted that day.

I’ll do my best to give an overview of what happened the following day (and continues to happen, since if buildings are occupied it will surely last into the next day).

More information about March 4th can be found here.

While you’re in college, professors may require you to open specific files to read, do homework, and to study. If you are unable to open these files, you’ll be in big trouble.

1. PDF – FoxIt Reader

A “PDF” is marked by the file extension “.pdf”. These files are all over the Internet and are very common in college. FoxIt Reader will open them for you. You might also try Adobe Reader, though FoxIt is a bit faster. Keep reading »

I noticed in high school that, for many students, yearbooks are either something to get every single year, or not at all. Some students buy a yearbook no matter what, but others completely refuse every year. Students always are told, “you’ll want a yearbook to look back on!”, but being young it’s hard to actually decide if that’s true or worthwhile.

Why buy a yearbook?

Having a yearbook is a cool way to be able to look back on the year. Looking back at pictures of yourself and your friends at different points in your lives can be pretty fun, and a great way to reminisce.

Plus, having friends sign your yearbooks is always fun. It’s cool to see what people have to say about you. Keep reading »

Your grade-point-average (GPA) in college is still a very important statistic. Many employers will look at your GPA before deciding whether or not to hire you, and graduate schools will definitely look at your GPA before deciding whether or not to admit you. It’s important to have as high of a GPA as you can get by the time you graduate college.

If you calculated your GPA and you don’t think you have a good GPA, you should definitely consider trying to raise it, no matter what year you are in your studies. If you’re a freshman, keep in mind that it feels a lot easier to maintain a decent GPA than it does to bring a low one up. If you’re near graduating, every bit can help out, and raising your GPA a tenth of a point could still make a pretty big difference.

Raising your overall GPA

Because your GPA is based only on the grades that you earn in college, there’s only one way to raise it: get better grades. If your GPA is around a 2.2, then any grade that counts for more than 2.2 points (a C+ or higher), will help increase your GPA. Vice versa, any grade that counts for less than your GPA will lower your GPA (if you have a 2.2, a C or lower will hurt you).

Any grades that are way above (or below) your GPA will make a much bigger change — an A will raise your GPA much more than a B. And any grades that are pretty much the same as your GPA will keep your GPA where it is. To improve your GPA, you need as many of the best grades that you can get.

This is pretty straight-forward and obvious, but how you go about getting better grades can definitely vary. The key to raising your grades isn’t just “get better grades”, but to identify why your grades are low in the first place. Take a minute to think and ask yourself, “what is the major reason my grades are low?” Keep reading »

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Jay Willingham writes a college advice blog at CampusByte. His site’s main aim is to help people develop Study Skills by incorporating new technology.

Are you the type of person who starts every semester with that little promise to yourself – “I’m going to make this my best semester ever!” Do you start the semester strong, get lazy during the middle then cram when it comes time for finals? Maybe you’re the type of person who feels like they do everything right but just can’t seem to make the grades they desire.

If you can relate to any of the above questions then this article is for you. Most students start the semester strong because they have a fresh slate to work with. Then, as the semester drags on, apathy kicks in and students loose sight of their goals.

In this article I want to address the 5 main reasons students fail to make the grades they desire. I hope these points help you see where you might be going wrong. Keep reading »

One of the best benefits about going to college nowadays is the option to take notes using a laptop or netbook rather than handwriting it. Typing out your notes can offer many distinct and huge advantages:

• Speed. If you know how to type, you can usually type much faster than you can write. The less time you spend writing, the more time you spend listening.
• Convenience. If all of your files are saved on your laptop, you don’t need to worry about losing your notebook for that class, or checking to make sure if you have the right one.
• Organization. You have a lot of control over how you take notes — you can make lists, you can bold/italicize/underline words, you can highlight important topics, you can make headings, and so forth.
• Ctrl+F. If you’re trying to find a specific topic, you can use the nifty shortcut ctrl + f to find the topic quickly rather than hunting through many handwritten pages.
• Easy to share. If a friend needs to look at your notes, it’s easy to just copy the file/text, rather than lending out your notebook or photocopying a couple of pages. Plus, it’ll always be neat and legible!

If you want to take notes with your laptops, there are some things to definitely think about beforehand: Keep reading »