im • merse /i’mərs/ v. thrust or throw into; devote (oneself) fully to; enclose or envelop completely

***

The language learning community has always been a huge proponent of the idea of immersion. In its most extreme form, this means relocating to The Netherlands (à la Benny of Fluent in 3 Months), but for most students, it involves using Facebook in French, listening to Spanish music or podcasts, or watching Inspector Rex without the subtitles.

There’s no reason, though, that you can’t incorporate this premise into other subjects or areas of expertise. Here are a few suggestions of ways to enrich your experience and understanding of the material you are covering in school or university.

Consume relevant content.

The first step is to expose yourself to material related to your subject more regularly. You can do this in a passive way with not much effort by incorporating your topic into your feed reader or listening to the radio.

• Find and follow revelant blogs and podcasts. New material will be delivered straight to your feed reader or iTunes. This is an easy and non-intrusive way to begin filtering the subject matter into your life. (Aspiring maths students, for example, might enjoy Vi Hart’s blog, The Math Dude, or Tim Harford’s podcast More or Less.)
• Keep up to date. It’s easy to set up a Google Alert to keep on top of recent developments. Tracking tags on popular blogging and bookmarking sites like WordPress or Delicious can also lead to some interesting discoveries. (Try tracking geology or programming, for example.)
• Find and use small pockets of time. The ten minutes before class or the bus ride to work may as well be useful: keep your iPod or Kindle stocked up with podcasts, e-books, and articles to read during your free moments. You could also try borrowing books or magazines from friends, teachers, or your library.

Repurpose “time-wasting” sites and make them work for you.

As students, we are constantly trying to spend less time on Facebook, Twitter, forums, and blogs. Tools like LeechBlock and Chrome Nanny help us curb those habits, but what if we could use them to our advantage?

• Create a Tumblr blog centred around a subject. Keep your eyes peeled for new and interesting content—you never know what you might find! A project like this allows you to view the subject through other people’s eyes—and no post is too silly! (This is particularly good for music students. Searching for content for my own flute-related Tumblr, F Yeah, Flute! has inspired me to practice and introduced me to heaps of new and amazing pieces.)
• Use Twitter creatively. Of course, you can follow professionals and leaders in your field, and interact with classmates, but what about practicing your conversational foreign language skills in small, manageable chunks (the Esperanto community is especially friendly); or tweeting from the persona of a character (like Hamlet) or historical figure (like Edgar Allan Poe)?
• Participate in relevant forums. Two of the most effective ways to learn are by teaching somebody else or by participating in a discussion. Australian students completing their HSC or VCE can use the Bored of Studies forums to help other students with their questions and solidify their understanding of a topic, and students in other areas may be able to find similar online mediums.

Find ways to confront yourself with material.

The more often you see that formula, the more likely you are to remember it! Plaster your life with constant reminders, facts, and figures.

• Put up posters in the places you frequent or see often. The poster on the toilet wall is a tried-and-tested approach—and the entire household can learn together! Other places you could consider include your bedroom wall (or even roof), the front of your planner, or the fridge door.
• Use Popling on your computer. The difficult-to-ignore flashcard program offer an alternative for students who lack the ability to log off their computer and use the old-fashioned kind. The software can be installed either as a browser add-on or a desktop application. Beware, though: multitasking comes at a cost.

Exposing yourself to a wider range of material has the potential to deepen your appreciation, passion, and understanding of and for your subject—and is an easy, quick and unobtrusive way of utilising the tools you already use. I hope it helps you look at your studies in a new and unique way!

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It’s light-weight. One of the reasons many students refrain from using laptops in the classroom is that they are heavy to lug around. Students are often required to carry at least one bag containing several large and heavy textbooks, stationery equipment and other such items. Laptops tend to be quite bulky and heavy, with a typical 15-inch model weighing around 5 Kg. Even the relatively skinny 15-inch MacBook Pro by Apple weighs in at 2.5 Kg. Netbooks tend to be significantly smaller and noticeably lighter, with the Fujitsu Lifebook P3110 offering a screen size of 11.6 inches and a weight of just 1.6 Kg. In further illustration of the point, the popular Toshiba Satellite T130 boasts a screen size of 13.3 inches but weighs a mere 1.76 Kg – a feather compared to some textbooks. Light-weight laptops such as these illicit a pack-it and forget-it attitude that leaves you always equipped to take notes without being concious of lugging around a heavy laptop.

They are super compact. Pulling out a full 15-inch or 17-inch laptop computer inside a crowed lecture hall on those small pull-out desks may be awkward, but you can easily whip out your netbook and take notes with it resting on your leg, without annoying students next to you.

They do what they do, and they do it well. While most laptops boast their flexibility to many uses, such as gaming, media, office work, etc, netbooks specialize in office tasks, such as email, word processing, powerpoint presentations, excel, and internet browsing. Pretty much everything a student needs in the classroom. By designing a computer specifically for these tasks, you get a very cheap device (usually under $500) that does it’s job exceedingly well. Netbooks also have excellent battery life, with some models having upwards of 10 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Digital note-taking without the hassle of a laptop. Another important reason why netbooks are useful for classrooms is that many students no longer write a great deal with the pen. Essays, projects and dissertations are almost always typed up on computers, whilst examiners are becoming more open to the possibility of allowing students to complete exams on netbooks and other such devices. In a world dominated by computers, reverting to the humble pen to take notes and complete work can prove a significant drawback for many students. Digital note are simply more versatile, offering students the ability to maniuplate their notes digitally when studying for exams, etc. Friend slept through a lecture? Email her your notes with three clicks. Netbooks let students reap the benefits of digital note-taking without the hassle of lugging around a large, clunky laptop.

Distraction-free note-taking. Partially a element of #3 above, I think this deserves it’s own point. With a netbook, you can take notes in class without many online distractions such as Facebook or video games. Sure, you could go on Facebook or play a video game, but it would not be a pleasing experience on such a small screen, when you could just check Facebook later on your computer at home. Don’t be distressed at a poor gaming experience on your netbook, you did not pay for a gaming machine. Contrast this to someone bringing in their $2000 MacBook into class, where note-taking is constantly competing with a variety of other computing tasks such as organizing their pictures, visiting YouTube, etc, that have no place in the classroom.

In summary, the netbook is a compact, lightweight and versatile machine that is perfectly suited to the rigours of everyday use in colleges and universities. Students who use netbooks can avail of various programs, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft OneNote, OpenOffice and Adobe Photoshop, on various operating systems to complete their work quickly and efficiently. Netbooks may not be quite as powerful as some of the largest laptops, but they are ideal for the average student who moves around a lot and requires a long-lasting and high-performing computer.

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Today, almost everybody has an online presence – some stop with just an email address, others venture into the waters of social networks as well, and yet others open up their lives through their blogs. We give out so much information online, forgetting or not realizing that it could be used against us in various ways – identity theft, credit card fraud and a host of other scams are perpetrated on the Internet, simply because people seem to be more gullible online. To put it in a nutshell, we live in a glass bowl that offers little or no privacy at all, and unless we’re careful about the data we share online, we’re bound to be in a lot of trouble.

A survey by UK-based job site Career Builder shows that at least 53 percent of employers check Facebook and other social networks to verify the credibility and suitability of potential employees before they hire them. So if you have a Facebook profile or are active on any other social network, it pays to think twice before you put up pictures that you wouldn’t want your employers seeing or write status messages or comments that would be considered inappropriate in any workplace. You may believe it’s your private space, but when it’s the Internet, it’s as public as it gets, and unless you know how to enforce every privacy setting there is, you’re likely to land yourself in hot water.

Very often, the carefree and sometimes callous nature of youth eggs you on to extol your follies and indiscretions – you don’t realize that a random photo of you with a drink in your hand could be the reason a potential employer rejects your application; you’re not a drunkard, you just like your Saturday night fun, but then, you end up being judged by that one picture. You’re not aware that a stray comment or status message could be offensive to potential employers, especially in today’s world where you’re supposed to be racially and politically correct so as to avoid being accused of discrimination and abuse.

And so your words and actions come back to bite you in the butt when you least expect them to, and because of your past behavior, you lose out on a future job prospect. Very often, you don’t even realize that your application was rejected based on information that was gleaned from the Internet. It is because of this that you need to manage your online identity for potential employers – you don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not, just remember that your private life is private and does not need to be shared online with the world and sundry. It shows you in poor light with potential employers, and worse, it stays somewhere online forever, leaving you to worry about it popping up some time when you least expect it to.

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degrees . She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com

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1. Cars actually cost more than just their purchase price. You need to take into consideration operating costs. Some cars tend to break down more often than others and require additional maintenance, so make sure to remember this when choosing a car.

2. Don’t forget about the cost of insurance! If you can’t afford insurance, then you might not be ready to buy a car. If you shop around though, you may be able to find a better price than just going along with the first company you contact. Ask about good student discounts – many insurance companies offer a lower rate if you have consistently good grades.

3. If you don’t feel comfortable with the salesperson you are working with, go to the manager and ask for a different one. You don’t have to deal with a salesperson that pressures you or makes you feel uncomfortable. Be assertive and don’t let anyone bully you.

4. Make yourself a budget and keep to it. Some additional options may be extremely attractive, but will end up costing you extra money that you simply cannot afford. Remind yourself that going deeper into debt is simply not worth those leather seats.

5. Once you’ve decided on a price, it’s time to negotiate. Salespeople often will quote you a deliberately high price with the expectation that you will try to talk them down. Don’t be shy – see if you can get that price lower!

6. If you do a lot of driving, it will be in your best interests to pick a car that is fuel efficient. A gas guzzler will cost you ridiculous amounts of money in the long run.

7. Take your time when signing the contract. Be sure to actually read the contract and check if there are any unexpected fees and extras being thrust upon you without your knowledge. Contracts are often filled with hard to understand text and small print, so if you don’t understand something, ask!

8. Shop around before settling on a particular dealership. Some dealerships may offer special incentives such as cash rebates, low-interest financing, or discounts for students.

9. Before you settle on a particular car model, research its reliability rating and take a look at consumer reports. This research will help you determine if the car is well built and has high safety ratings.

10. Talk to a friend or family member that drives the same make or model of car. Tell them that you’re interested in purchasing a similar vehicle and ask them if they have any positive or negative things to say about their car. You might find out the car your looking at isn’t right for you or you might find out that its a perfect fit.

This is a guest post by Ryan Embly from the discount car rental website Car Rental Express.

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Having graduated from college only a short time ago, I often reflect fondly on my academic and personal trials while navigating the complicated and exhausting world of the university student. As an entering freshman, one aspect of academics of which I was completely ignorant was the ability to ask for an extension on an academic paper.

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1. Clocky: The Alarm Clock on Wheels – For those of you who who are constantly tempted by the snooze button, it’s time to try something new. Clocky is an alarm clock that runs away from you when it goes off, so you have to get up to catch it. Although potentially very annoying, it is no doubt effective at waking you up in the morning! Clocky can take up to a three-foot jump off your bedstand, and will proceed to run around your room wildly, knocking things over and chirping loudly at an affordable $30.
2. SleepTracker Pro – Picked as one of the best inventions of 2005, the SleepTracker is a device that monitors your sleep cycle via accelerometers inside a watch which you wear when you go to sleep. You can set a window of time during which you want to wake up in, and it will decide based on your sleep pattern when is the perfect time to wake you up feeling fresh. You know when you sometimes wake up and you are completely disoriented and confused? That is likely because you were woken up during deep REM sleep. The SleepTracker monitors your sleeping patterns and, if possible, wakes you up during light, non-REM sleep, so you wake up easily and refreshed. You can also plug the watch into your computer and download sleep data into the Sleeptracker software, which is a great way to keep track of your sleep patterns over time. I am the proud owner of a SleepTracker, and I can vouch for it’s effectiveness, as long as you give it a long enough window of time to decide when to wake you. It can even be set to vibrate before it rings, so you don’t have to wake up to a chirping clock every morning, but rather you are nudged awake by gentle vibrations!

1. Sleep Cycle iPhone App - If you don’t want to dish out $175 for a watch, there’s an app for that. If you are an iPhone user, you can get the Sleep Cycle app through iTunes for $0.99, which replicates the features of the SleepTracker. It even shows you your sleep graphs on the device. Unfortunately it will be inherently less effective, as the iPhone is placed on the corner of your mattress and detects vibrations through it’s accelerometer, while the SleepTracker sits right on your wrist, allowing it to pickup much more minute movements.
2. AXBO Sleep Phase Alarm Clock – Although less affordable than other options on this list at $300, the AXBO alarm clock has a similar premise to the SleepTracker and Sleep Cycle app, but with some interesting features. The actual device is an alarm clock which communicates with fabric wristbands that the user wears. The wristband contains a vibrating mechanism and an accelerometer, so it relays your sleep information to the alarm clock. The AXBO will wake you up within 30 minutes of your set alarm via the vibrating wristbands, and the alarm will go off when you set it if you haven’t woken up yet. It comes with two wristbands, and the clock will support two users at a time, so you can both be woken up at different times using this product.
3. Chillow Comfort Pillow – Everyone knows that there is nothing better than a cold pillow, and nothing more annoying than a hot, humid pillow. If you find yourself flipping your pillow three or four times before you can fall asleep, the Chillow is for you. The Chillow is a pillow insert that slips inside your pillow case and keeps the top of your pillow cold, while still conformable, using soft thermal gel and memory foam.
4. Bed Fan – Another comfort device for someone who gets too hot in bed, the Bed Fan sits at the foot of your bed and streams cool air up through your sleeps to keep you cool at night.
5. Pzizz Sleep Software - If you have trouble falling asleep, Pzizz generates an iTunes track with soothing sounds and voice that are scientifically-proven to usher you towards a restful state. They also have a great student discount, where you can get all their software for $20.
6. Light Timer – For the true DIYer, a simple light timer can be used to turn on lights in your room a couple minutes before you wake up, easing you into consciousness.
7. Philips Wake-up Light – If you’ve read our Ultimate Guide to Sleeping Better and Waking Up Easier, you know that light and sound stimuli cause us to naturally wake up. If your looking for a good way to implement both, look no further than the Philips Wake-up Light with iPod Dock! You just plug in your ipod into the dock and set the alarm before you go to sleep. As your alarm time approaches, the light begins to glow brighter and brighter, and a minute before your alarm goes off, one of four gentle wakeup sounds, among them forest and bird sounds, will begin to play, increasing in volume over a minute and a half until your alarm goes off.  No matter what time you are waking up, you can feel like you’ve slept in on a Sunday!
8. Zeo Sleep Coach – A fairly new product on the sleep gadget market, Zeo Sleep Coach focuses on tracking your sleep patterns in detail, but not on waking you up according to them. Zeo has a particularly attractive web interface, so for those who want detailed and thorough sleep records, Zeo is the way to go.

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Fall Asleep Quicker

Avoid Physical Activity & Eating 4 Hours Before Bed

After exercising or engaging in heavy physical activity, your body’s resting heart rate is increased for up to 6 hours after you stop activity. While this makes you feel great after exercising, it prevents the slowing of your heart rate and cooling of your body that facilitates sleep. Eating causes a similar effect. Immediately after eating your body begins working to digest the food, which is great and all, but it conflicts with the slowdown of bodily functions as you enter sleep.

Know When to Go to Bed

You should never spend more than 15 minutes trying to go to sleep. If you are lying in bed awake after 15 minutes, your body is not ready for sleep. You should get out of bed and do a light, restful activity such as reading until you are sleepy.

Your Bed is Used for Two Things…

… and sleep is one of them. Avoid reading in bed for long periods of time, studying, or using your computer while in bed. If you train yourself to consider the bed a place of rest, you will have an easier time falling asleep.

Prepare Things the Night Before

If you’re like me, you’re not a morning person, and that means that you do not function very well in the morning. It may take a couple hours for your mind and body to wake up fully. Try to do things the night before that you would otherwise do in the morning, such as preparing lunch, packing up your bag,  or getting things together. When I have to wake up especially early I pack everything ready-to-go by the door, with my laptop in my back but also plugged in, charging over night. 10 minutes of preparation can save you 20 minutes of stumbling around half-awake in the morning. Not only will it save time, but your mind will rest easy knowing that it has nothing to worry about.

Empty Your Mind on Paper

If you have something on your mind, specifically things to remember, it can be very difficult to fall asleep. For this reason I always keep a pad of paper and a pen in my drawer, so that if I think of something I need to do in the morning just before I fall asleep, I can jot it down without getting out of bed.

Getting a Better Sleep

Ensure a Sleep-Friendly Environment

Make sure that your sleep is not disturbed by an increase in temperature, noise, or light during the night. That means turn off your phone, or at least put it on silent with the screen down. Vibrate can be surprisingly loud in a silent room, and receiving a text can light up the entire room.  Blinders and earplugs are great if your roommate is waking up at 3 AM one morning to fly home or something like that, but if you use them routinely you will become accustomed to them and it will be very difficult to sleep without them.

Make Sure You’re Getting Enough Sleep!

College students generally required 8-10 hours of good sleep per night to function optimally. Unfortunately, you cannot run a sleep deficit during the week and make up for it on the weekend. Your body can make up for only 1 hour of lost sleep by sleeping more the next night.

Lack of Sleep Deteriorates Mind Performance

After an entire week of 6-hour nights, not only will you feel groggy, but your mental capacity will be functioning as if you had been awake for 24 hours. Statistics show that after 18 hours awake, your physical and mental impairment while driving is equal to being just above the legal limit. By depriving yourself of sleep, you are effectively attending class drunk.

Wake Up Easily

Develop your Body’s Internal Clock

If you’re like me, you reflect nostalgically on your elementary school days, where you woke up at the same time every day for school for four years. You even woke up early on Saturday to watch Saturday morning cartoons! You may remember how well-trained your body’s internal clock was.  woke up at exactly 6:59 (Just before my alarm went off) and fell asleep at 10:40, like clockwork (pun intended).

If you force yourself to wake at roughly the same time each day, your body will begin to calibrate itself to that wakeup time, and your tiredness levels at night will adjust accordingly. This is an important thing to keep in mind when arranging your class schedule. Starting Tuesday at 12pm might sound great on paper, but if your waking up at 9am Monday and Wednesday, you might as well be consistent, your morning self will thank you.

Replicate Natural Waking Conditions

Your body naturally responds to environmental stimuli to determine when it should wake you up. Temperature, sound, and light all factor in here. Because your body temperature declines at night, reaching it’s lowest point at 4:00 AM, and then rises again before you wake up. If you have a programmable thermostat, lowering the temperature near bed-time and overnight will give you a deeper, easier sleep, and raising it before you wake up will help your body naturally wake up. Your body responds similarly to light. Try leaving the blinds open, so that the morning sun will fill your room, waking you naturally.

Sound is a little different. Your body doesn’t respond in a specific manner to sound, however you can use a slowly increasing volume alarm tone to gently nudge you out of sleep. I used the free audio-editing software Audacity to create a rising-volume track of bird songs, followed by an alarm tone near the end. I’ve never actually used the alarm tone, because a minute of loudening bird noises will wake almost anyone up.

Avoid All-Nighters at All Costs

Ah, the all-nighter. Simultaneously loved by students as a last minute quick fix for their bad studying habits, and hated for their devastating recovery period. An all-nighter completely wipes your body’s internal clock, which can be a good thing at times, but generally it is not. In fact it is common practice to pull an all-nighter to fight jetlag when between time zones. However travelers often set aside a day or so to rest and adjust, but as a student you’ll be right back in class the next day.

Position your Alarm Clock Outside of Arm’s Reach

A problem much more common than sleeping through your alarm is turning it off before you’re fully awake. If your alarm is always in the same place, you are conditioning yourself to turn it off. Eventually, when you hear the distinct sound of your alarm, your body will turn it off using muscle memory without you even being conscious. You can prevent this by moving your alarm clock out of arms reach, putting it in slightly different places each night, or by having one that is difficult to turn off. All of the above will require you to be more awake to disable your alarm. You could even try some of those novelty alarm clocks such as Clocky, the alarm clock that runs away from you.

What do you guys think? Share your sleephacks in the comments!

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Why You Need to Ask for Help as Soon as You Need It – Definitely something to keep in mind going into the new semester, especially for freshmen. It is super easy to fall behind, and if you don’t ask for help when you are confused, it will only get worse. Talk to a professor after hours for extra help, before your little confusion spirals out of control!

The Dual Screen Suggestion – Most students have laptops these days, with the exception of graphics design or film students. When buying a laptop there is a trade-off between screen real estate and portability. That 17″ Macbook Pro looks great, but it probably won’t fit in your bag, and that 13″ Thinkpad seems really nifty, until you start craving more than 13″ of screen real estate. The perfect compromise is to get an external monitor! No matter what your laptop size, your productivity will definitely benefit from having an additional screen. At $100-250 for most LCD monitors these days, it can make a very good addition to your birthday/Christmas wishlist.

Going Paperless with PDF – As little as five years ago, computers were considered a great creation tool, but whatever it was used to produce, be it word documents, spreadsheets, or flyers, were generally destined to be printed. The tables have turned, and computers are now becoming the primary medium, complimented by paper. Students have little need for large binders anymore, as any informational sheets can be scanned onto their computer, put through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and turned into searchable text in Microsoft OneNote.

7 Important Factors in Choosing a Good Work Environment – Within a couple weeks at university, most students realize that their dorm room is not a good place to study. Here are some tips on picking a good place to crank out some concentrated work.

How to Take Killer Notes and Cut Your Studying Time by 50% – Starting the year with a solid, well thought-out note taking method is a great way to improve over last year, and to minimize time spent scrambling before a large test.

10 Tips for Highly Effective Brainstorming Sessions – You may not be doing much brainstorming at the start of the year, but as your mid-term essays approach, these techniques could come in handy!

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Every year near the start of school, Microsoft starts up their Ultimate Steal promotion, where you can get the latest version of Office for pennies compared to a regular license, and all you need is a valid email address at a recognized post-secondary institution. For $80 you get a license key for the new 2010 version of Office, which includes all the regular fare plus OneNote, which is a great note-taking application for students. The license key is valid on two computers at any time. Get Microsoft Office 2010 for $80 here. You can also get a copy of Windows 7 Professional for $40. This is great to either upgrade your current Windows 7 installation for additional features, or to send home to Mom and Dad as a Christmas gift, as it would cost them $200 to buy it.

The Frugal Student is a weekly column on personal finance for students, brought to you by Chuck over at The Thrifty Lifestyle. Check out TheThriftyLifestyle.com for more frugal tips!

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