I’ll be in the Festival’s Author’s Tent on Baltimore’s beautiful Inner Harbor signing my book, College in Four Years, There will be contests for free books and coaching sessions, as well as other giveaways.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Saturday, September 26, 2015
11 a.m. until 7 p.m. – Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
Use this link for more information about the Festival.
In my last post, Strong Shoulders, I talked about the importance of having family and mentors who shape a young person’s life from birth. I was blessed to have people like this in my life. The first one I want to tell you about is a friend of the my family we called, The Bishop. He was not a man of the cloth as the name suggests and I’m not sure how he got this nickname but that’s what my father, who was his lifelong friend, called him. The Bishop was known for his sage advice and one day, he told me,
“Granville, be grateful in your life if you can have three friends – your mother, your father and one other person.”
I am grateful that for more than fifty years, I had, my mother and father in my life, guiding, supporting and encouraging me. They are the ones who helped me learn how to think and how to express myself. As long as we lived at home, they my sister and me to be home for dinner six days a week – Sunday through Friday. Saturday you were on your own and that helped me learn to cook to eat on the weekend! However, each night we had a family dinner, we would finish the meal and then do what I call, “talk some good talk”. There were no restrictions on what we could talk about or who could talk. All comments were taken seriously and responded to critically. Not that what was said was criticized but that meant that if you didn’t have something substantive to say, you listened and learned until, then you talked. I learned so much about people and the world at that dinner table. As I approached adulthood, the discussions became more important to me than the meals. I always learned something.
My wife and I had the same rules in our house – home for dinner six days a week for good food and good talk. Our friends and our daughters’ friends were always welcome to join us for dinner and conversation – around our table, everyone was family. My daughters who are now 25 and 32, one with children of her own, still say how much they enjoyed being able to talk with us about anything and, to some extent, reconnect at the end of each day.
My mother use to say that you can’t make the world safe for your kids you have to make your kids safe for the world. I think talking good talk at dinner is a great way to do that. Even though I can’t be with them at dinner, I take every opportunity to talk some good talk with my students in my roles as teach and mentor. I believe this can be just as important to student success as doing well in the classroom.
I enjoyed a great discussion today with host Maggie Linton on preparing for success in college and the benefits of graduating in four years. If you missed the show or would like to hear it again, you can listen to my interview on the Friday, August 21st edition of The Maggie Linton Show by clicking on the link below. Let me know what you think.
Good diet, adequate rest and regular exercise are as important to your performance in class as studying and understanding course material. Numerous studies tell us that you can’t think of these practices separately – like a three-legged stool, they support each other and you. Lack of rest robs you of the ability to process and understand what you’re studying and the ability to recall during tests. So, pulling that all-nighter won’t help you, it can only hurt you.
I learned this the hard way, I once stayed up until three in the morning studying for a math exam. I was alert the whole time pumped up on adrenalin and caffeine, but I wasn’t learning anything. I got a seventy-six on my exam. I could have gone to bed at ten thirty and done that!
Staying up late wasn’t the only mistake I made.The sugar and caffeine I consumed kept me awake alright but they also caused me to “crash” later, just about the time I was taking my exam. The tiredness and fatigue came over me so quickly, I almost fell asleep in the test. This is definitely not the way to go. You’ve got to put the right foods in your body to work for you or you’ll pay the price at the worst possible time.
The last critical piece here is exercise. As little as fifteen minutes a day can help keep you refreshed and ready to study productively. An uninterrupted cycle of study and work with no chance to stretch your muscles and get your blood flowing wears on you down. Every hour you keeping going becomes less productive; you accomplish less, learn less and are less prepared to use what you once knew on your tests. Taking time for brief period of exercise is time well spent.
Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your study time now and in the future:
To thank you for your participation in The College in Four Years GradeUP! Challenge, I am offering a free E-book version of College in Four Years: Making Every Semester Count, from Wednesday, April 22 through Friday, April 24. Click this link or simply log onto Amazon.com, search College in Four Years by Granville Sawyer and download the kindle edition for free.
I’d like to know what you thought about what I’ve shared from the book during the GradeUP! Challenge. Be it good or not so good, I’d greatly appreciate your leaving a review on Amazon, and if you’re a member, Goodreads. To leave a review on Amazon just click the customer reviews hyperlink just under the book title and that will take you to a page where you can leave your review. For Goodreads just access your profile, list College in Four Years as Read and leave me a review.
Thank you in advance for your review and for your participation in the GradeUP! Challenge. If you would like information and intermittent news about my upcoming events, giveaways, webinars, new resources or books, I invite you to join my Email List.
Over the past few GradeUP! Challenges we’ve been talking about the view from where you are to where you want to be – better known as planning. I started with what’s closest on your horizon – this semester (Challenge #19) and then what’s in your longer view – next semester and beyond (Challenge #20). Before I finish up the GradeUP! Challenge blog series with advice on preparing for finals, I want to share some information with you on how to take advantage of a unique opportunity that will help with your plans for your longer-term future – the after college future.
The college setting is one of the few places where you have the ongoing opportunity to talk with professionals from the private and public sectors. Take advantage of every opportunity to attend a talk when speakers come to campus; learn from their experience and use the information these professionals share to help your future plans. Too often students only hear these visitors say the equivalent of, “This is who I am and this is what I do and if you work hard you can do it too.” That’s because most students rely on the speaker to deliver information that will resonate with them. To get more than a recent version of the speakers resume, you have to ask the questions that you want answers to. You have to be proactive in getting the information that you can use to launch and build your career from the foundation that college provides.
Here are some questions designed to help you get the most out of your exposure and engagement with a professional. As soon as the speaker ends their presentation with, “Are there any questions?” throw your hand up, stand and ask these questions:
Use the answers you get to these questions to help you set long-range and short-range goals. Start with your long-range goals and then work your way back to the short-range goals achieving all of your goals, step by step.
Go to www.granvillesawyer.com/resources/ to get your own set of interview and planning sheets. Click on “Ask The Professionals: What Was Your Post-College Plan For Success?” and “Key Questions: What Is My Plan To Succeed In College?” You can also find more detailed resources along with the questions above in Chapter 10 in College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.
If you don’t have a copy of College in Four Years, I’ve made the book available at $14.99, a 25% discount from the regular retail price of $19.00. This special pricing is only available during the GradeUP! Challenge and expires May 3, 2015. Click the link above or on the cover of the book to the right, then scroll to the “Special Pricing” section on the page.
All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week by Week page.
In GradeUP! Challenge #19: Plan For a Big Finish I gave some advice on planning for a strong finish this semester. However, unless your graduating this semester (if you are, congratulations), there’s more than a semester to plan for. So, I’m taking off my professor hat and putting on my academic advisor hat and we are shifting our focus to the long view.
It is time to preregister for next semester. Here’s a step-by-step checklist that takes the long view by planning for the upcoming semester and the rest of your time in college:
Following these steps means you’ll never say, “I didn’t know I had to take that course,” or “I didn’t know this course wasn’t offered this semester. I need it go graduate!” Or, my favorite, “OMG the curriculum changed – didn’t it?!!”
By taking the long view of your college career, you’ll know where you’re going, how you’re going to get there and when you’ll arrive. You’ll also know:
Don’t let things you do today based on poor planning or no planning come back to haunt you in future and, cost you time, effort and money. Plan for now and the future – that’s the long view, the smart way to finish your degree.
All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week-by-Week page.
You can learn more about planning your college career in Chapter 8 of College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.
Midterms are finished – you’re over half way to the end of the semester. It is time to update your plan for success this semester to ensure you finish strong in every class. In GradeUP! Challenge #2, I talked about using the syllabus to develop your game plan to be successful in each class. Now use that same syllabus as the basis to update your plan for a strong finish in every class. Follow these steps:
Update your game plan for a strong finish in all your courses. You still have time to make it happen in all your classes!
All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week by Week page. You can learn more about getting the help you need to do better in your classes in Chapter 6 of College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.
We’re about half-way through spring semester now and on many campuses mid-term grades have been posted. If you’ve followed and adopted the GradeUP! Challenges you should be satisfied with your performance this semester. However, if you want/need to do better, don’t try to improve on your own. Remember, no one gets through college alone. You need help because it’s hard to be objective about what needs to be done – especially if it’s going to be a challenge. Go see your professors right now! They have graded you on enough work to know what you’re like as a student and can use all of their expertise and experience to make recommendations on how you can get better.
Unfortunately, students who need help the most, are least likely to talk to their professors. They’re embarrassed about their performance in class and don’t want to admit their short comings to anyone, especially their teachers. This attitude will just make things worse. Instead of trying to hide your performance in class, take these steps to better grades with the help you need to improve:
All previous GradeUP! Challenges are available on the GradeUP! Challenge Week by Week page.
You can learn more about getting the help you need to do better in your classes in Chapter 13 of College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.
Click on the hyperlink to learn more about College in Four Years; Making Every Semester Count.
We’ve completed six of the 12 weeks of the College in Four Years GradeUP! Challenge. If you’ve accepted the Challenges and learned how to put the information we shared into practice, you have the tools you need to prepare yourself to do well on your mid-term exams. Here’s a link to all of the GradeUP! Challenges we’ve posted to date. If you have a question about a Challenge, leave me a comment and I’ll be glad to answer.
The best definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity – you’re prepared so take this opportunity to make your luck and max those mid-terms!
Next Tuesday, March 17, we’ll start on the final phase of the GradeUP! Challenge where we take you to and through finals.