Finals are less than a week away. If there is one thing that all college students enjoy, it’s a good nap. While you’re dosing-off trying to get those last few pages read, don’t worry – take a nap!

“Not only do we need to remember to sleep, but most certainly we sleep to remember,” is how Dr. William Fishbein, a cognitive neuroscientist at the City University of New York, put it at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience last week.

Associated Press: Nap without guilt: It boosts sophisticated memory

The first day back to classes after a week break is always difficult, but welcome back! The first significant snow of the season is here too (although there will be plenty more in the coming months – don’t worry about that). We have three more weeks until Winter Break. Time to get studying!

If you’re like many of your peers here at U of I, you’ve probably just gotten your midterm exam grades back with less-than-optimal results, and you’re determined to make your next exam better.

You can’t improve yourself without actually changing things, though. Time to go to the pros:

1. Read a chapter ahead – Most students listen to the lecture and then read the textbook if necessary. It is much better to read the text book to understand the section and then use the lecture to help solidify your understanding …

One additional idea: instead of “Reading other textbooks,” many students find Wikipeidia articles to be sufficient. Read your textbook, and then read the Wikipedia article to get some more clarifications. This method usually works great. For all six tips visit: Productivity 501: Study Tips

The commencement of each semester is a great time to examine the way you study. One way to improve your study skills is to take better notes. Most of us take notes in the classic “outline” approach, but in the 1950s, an education professor at Cornell University proposed a different system. Check it out on Wikipedia – it might just be the key to your academic success this coming semester.

Cornell Note-taking on Lifehacker

Havoc Distribution recently announced that it will be producing a University of Illinois Energy Drink. The drink will be sold and distributed across Illinois.

CK Williams, president of Havoc, said: “This is another example of the success that we are achieving as a company in executing our marketing program of co-branding our product. And to be partnered with an institution with the reputation of the University of Illinois is an honor and very exciting.”

In a school where late study sessions and all-nighters are typical, the new energy will be a good addition to any student’s fridge. The drink won’t really be anything special, just the normal Havoc Energy Drink with an orange and blue label.

According to the Havoc Energy website: HAVOC® is a refreshing energy drink with stimulating and invigorating effects that is ideal for the modern person’s work and leisure routine. The refreshing flavor, unique among the energy drinks, guarantees a perfect symphony of emotions. All this thanks to a well crafted and healthy composition of natural ingredients. None of the important ingredients of HAVOC have an effect on their own. The secret lies in the refined composition of ingredients. It improves your stamina and performance and even tastes great.

Havoc Energy Website
News Report from TradingMarkets.com

When you’re studying or doing final projects, Facebook and other “Internet time wasters” are a real problem. Robert Scoble noticed this in a recent post:

Want to get something done? Turn off Twitter. Turn off Facebook. Turn off blog comments. Turn off FriendFeed. Turn off Flickr. Turn off YouTube. Turn off Dave Winer’s blog and Huffington Post.

Not productive enough? Turn off the Internet

We college students only need to worry about the big one: Facebook. How can you turn it all off? Short of disconnecting the Internet or modifying your HOSTS file, blocking a website is hard to do. I propose that you simply turn off all email alerts in Facebook, and then make a promise to yourself that you won’t visit any of these time-wasting sites until the sweet, sweet summer. (Although this sounds easier than it actually is, it is indeed possible)
If you really want to get something done these last three weeks, turn it all off.

Of all of my exams so far on campus, Physics exams (PHYS 211, 212, 213, 214) must be some of the most intensive. I’m only an average physicist, so these tests really challenge me. Studying for these include studying past hour exams, notes, quizzes, discussion section problems, labs, online homeworks, online supplemental material, and the equation sheets. Whew! It’ll all be over Wednesday night. Then it starts all over again.

(yes, I’m writing this post to procrastinate studying for my exam)

Photo: Paul Kwiat, Professor of Physics (right). Courtesy the UIUC News Bureau.