Nobel International Academy

Nobel International Academy (NIA) - high-quality business education. Apply today!

Nobel International Academy (NIA) - high-quality business education. Apply today!

Mind Mapping for passing exams

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Mind Mapping: In August we spoke about taking notes and in November we talked about training your memory. In this article we will now combine the two and show you how to bring together better memory into your studies with the aim of knowing your subject and passing exams. To start with start organising the course content: you have taken pages and pages of long hand notes; or perhaps you are using Evernote to collate your documentation; so what do you do with it all ?

Long hand notes are the important first step, you have taken the content and brought it into your own words and understanding. This is so much more of a learning exercise than just photocopying the material. These pages now need to be organized and condensed and one of the best techniques for this is to draw up a series of mind-maps covering the whole course. Mind-maps have a very particular structure that plays well to human memory. You start with a central topic, theme or subject that is put in the middle of the page; lets choose ‘marketing’ for this example.

Sample Mind Map

You then build outwards using the major building blocks of that subject; in this case the 4-P’s of marketing being ‘product-price-place-promotion’. These become the main headings in the four corners of the page. Now you are ready to go into the detail for each of the headings. These detail sections are the hardest to remember if you try to ‘learn’ them from cold all on their own. With the memory triggers of “Marketing – 4-P’s – Pricing” all leading the way it becomes much easier to remember that pricing for volume or pricing for profits are key components and that price/volume elasticity is important.

With this as your example, now it is your turn. Take all your long hand and Evernote notes on a subject and condense it all down into one or two mind-maps of your own. Writing out the mind maps will help you revise the subject as you go and you will probably find that several pages of long hand notes all fit onto one mind-map. Take the time to make the mind-map good; put referencing to books and page numbers so you can refer back to original materials if you want to.

A good student will make mind maps as a key-component of their studies during the course and also as a part of exam revision. With a full set of carefully written mind-maps you can even throw away all those endless pages of long hand notes and work straight from the mind maps for exam revision.

Photo Credit: From Study Habits: How to Mind Map

Wondering how to make more time in your life – part two?

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In our last post on “Wondering how to make more time in your life?” we talked about how planning ahead and being realistic are two essential elements of tackling the answer to that question. Today, we’ll share one more.

Set priorities

Knowing what is important and needs to get done and what not is essential to start with. We recommend you to use a chart below to identify in which category anything that you are about to put on your to list is. Those who prioritize well, put anything that is Important & Urgent on their to-do a list for immediate action; that’s why you need to be realistic when planning ahead your to-do list. Then you have to judge what comes first based on your task. Is it important but not urgent? Then do it, soonish, make sure you do it. And lastly, anything that is in the lower boxes so either both NOT important and NOT urgent or NOT important but urgent, you may want to consider giving them the lowest priority and not working on them at all until they change their position.

Priority scale

 

How do you know in the first place what is important though? Well, that depends on how well you know where you are going. If your gaols and your actions are aligned then it is an easy answer. Let’s say you have decided to pursue a degree online so that you can get a promotion. Anything task that you will have in alignment with your goal for getting a degree is likely to be important since this is what you need for your promotion. You need to check your sub-tasks towards their importance of achieving the gaol itself, namely getting a degree. Here, we mean for example if the reading of that article is essential or recommended. You see where this is going?

Have fun with your new way of handling you to do list and gaining more time. We’d love to hear how our approach works for you in reality.

How to achieve your goals more efficiently – part two?

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Goals: In our previous post on how to achieve your goals more efficiently we shared with you some valuable tips to set you up for success. This included setting SMART objectives, defining your actions and resources as well as foreseeing the obstacles. With our agendas so busy nowadays living up to multiple roles in our life, it’s not always easy to stay on track with your goals. There are many distractions in our life that may prevent you from achieving your goals. Therefore, we would like to give you two more tips on your way that we believe are essential for your success on how to achieve your goals.

4. Keep your motivation going

Most people are very excited when they have an idea or a goal and think that it would be nice to achieve it. They put many days (or maybe just hours) at the beginning into creating an action plan, activating their network or investing many hours into studying the material for an exam. And guess what….a week later, the very same actions that seemed so exciting just a week earlier suddenly become a burden. How come? Well, for most of us anything that is new seems exciting. The first steps towards every goal are mostly very exciting and “easy”. Then things become harder, maybe a routine kicks in or we come across something that we can’t master because it is too big of a challenge. There are many reasons why our motivation may suffer but we must know how to get our motivation back. Let’s look how we can get inspired again:

  • Look back how much you have achieved. How does it feel?
  • Get some support if you can’t master something because it is too difficult. Friends, classmates, colleagues, family, tutors, online communities….all of them are there to help you….just ask
  • Start a blog on your goal and write on your progress; some people find that sharing with others creates a sense of responsibility that help them going
  • Are you challenged enough or too much? May this is dragging you down? Adjust your expectations, either raise them if it’s too easy or make it easier if you struggle because you expect too much.
  • Eliminate complexity, think about ways how you can bring it back to basics
  • Redefine your goals/actions….maybe an update to your plan will bring some fresh insights
  • Go out and talk over a coffee with a friend, colleague, classmate about your goal…talk about what’s great about it and why you struggle
  • Make your purpose obvious to you. Why do you want to achieve this goal again? Why is it important to you? What’s the purpose?
  • Get online, browse Blogs, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook etc. for posts around your goal; get some inspiration from others
  • Read industry news on your goal; check out others who have achieved a similar goal. If it is a professional goal, go on their LinkedIn profile, where are they now after having achieved a similar goal? Is this where you want to be?
  • Visualize what’s its like to have achieved your goal. What will be in place? Which doors will open to you? How will you feel? How will your life be different? Dream, just dream and feel it.

5. Am I there yet?

Last but not least, celebrate and make yourself aware when you are getting closer to your goal or even when you have achieved it. Take that time! We often forget about enjoying the accomplishment of our goals or even the major milestones towards those goals. Indulging and being proud of having completed your degree for instance, like in the case of our students, is a major step for your personal and professional life. If you make it a positive experience and acknowledge yourself for having achieved it, then you are likely to pick up the next goal soon and turn it into reality.

And remember, “the difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do”. Choosing the right goals, taking the actions that lead to them and enjoying the accomplishment of those will make you the person you want to be. Do you already know who you want to be?

Source quote: Rebloggy.com

Work-Life Balance and further education

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Work-Life Balance: We have recently posted an interesting article on Work-Life Balance and better ways to thing about it. Inspired by Shana Lebowitz, the writer of that article, we have some more aspects to share on the work-life balance topic, especially in relation to education.

Many of our students happen to be very busy people, they may either be pursuing several degrees at a time, they be working whilst pursuing their degree or they may have a family or a spouse who also require their attention. We all have multiple roles to fulfill in our life and work-life balance seems often too unattainable. We are very clear that many of our students fall in the so-called millennial category where flexibility, family and friends are often prioritized to career. Quality of life is a major factor and therefore we aim at making further education as relevant and flexible as possible.

With the popularity of MOOC’s and a latest trend of competency-based education, there is no surprise that millennial are using those sources to a vast extend. They’re both flexible in terms of timing and location as well as accessible from multiple devices.

Nobel International Fraternity Academy is a leading institution offering undergraduate and postgraduate education. Because it is important to us that our students perform well across all areas of their life, our online platform incorporates both the flexibility and accessibility factor. You can choose to view your course lecture whilst at home on the sofa, during your lunch break at the office or whilst waiting for you dinner to cook. In addition, the courses are run under QCF (Qualifications Credit Framework), a new way of recognising skills and qualifications. It does this by awarding credit for units (small steps of learning) and enables learners to gain qualifications at their own pace along flexible routes.This ties in with the competency-based education where the employer and the student are clear on the competencies that the student can perform. So, what has all this to do with work-life balance?

To insure work-life balance you have to make the right choices in the first place. What do you put on your plate and where do you say no? When choosing further education, make sure it is aligned with your needs and your goals. You want to be sure you can tackle the study program in the time spam provided whilst living your professional and personal life.

Nobel International Academy

NIA

ACADEMY DETAILS

Nobel International Academy (NIA) is registered and headquartered in Switzerland

NOBEL INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY
Aegeristrasse 5
Zug 6300
Switzerland

E: info@nobelacademy.com