The Kaplan Test Prep’s 2010 survey of college admissions officers shows 82 percent of admissions officers use Facebook as a tool to recruit students. It’s also suspected that searching for the social media presence of a prospective student is used by admissions officers at highly-selective schools to help them make decisions when deciding who to admit from a large pool of candidates. Elements like grades, test scores, and volunteering are still more important to a student’s admission but when it comes down to choosing between students with similar credentials, you don’t want your social media presence to give your competitor the upper-hand. In a thread on the website Quora, an interviewer for Harvard College admissions admitted she occasionally will Google students to see if the presence the student carefully crafted for their admission aligns with their social media presence. She suggests if college and career is important to the student, they do a Google search of their name and pull anything that they wouldn’t want their parents to see.

We’re getting ready to watch the Academy Awards this Sunday and are talking about our favorite nominees. “The Fighter” is an office favorite, nominated for multiple Oscars including Best Picture. For those who haven’t had the chance to see it, the movie shows the early life of boxer Micky Ward working his way up to pro status in the economically drained town of Lowell, Massachusetts. Micky’s half brother Dicky, also a boxer, is Micky’s trainer but proves to be consistently unreliable due to his crack addiction. Dicky agrees to have his daily life as a crack addict captured on film by an HBO camera crew, believing this is his shot at a boxing comeback, but which ultimately casts him in a less-desirable role as a leading man in the documentary “High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell.” If you’re interested in learning more about the documentary that’s depicted in “The Fighter” you can watch it in its entirety online, but due to its graphic nature isn’t recommended for young viewers.

While the role of addiction is still in the hollywood spotlight, I am inspired to take this opportunity to share some statistics from a presentation by Pat Wolfe, Ed.D entitled, “The Adolescent Brain and Addiction.”

• The substance dependent brain is physiologically and chemically different rom the normal brain.
• The progression of the disease is influenced by genetic and environmental factors.
• The brain uses natural opiates to reward behaviors that enhance survival and are commonly released by:
  • Food
  • Sex
  • Social Interactions
• Some non-natural opiates (drugs) are so similar to neurotransmitters in their chemical composition that they fit into the receptor sites of the brain’s own opiates.
• When the brain is consistently subjected to artificially high levels of dopamine, the brain starts making less of its own, leaving the user depressed, fatigued, and going into withdrawal unless they relieve it with more of the drug.
• Addictive drugs dramatically blunt neural activity which may lead to poor decision making and problems with impulse control.
• The average age kids start to drink is 12.94 years
• By 12th grade more than 80% of students have consumed alcohol in the past 30 days

Early intervention is key in making sure addicts have a chance at a successful future. Dicky Eklund had a reality check to a degree that many will never get from watching himself as an addict in the HBO documentary and years later in a box office hit. If you know someone who can’t see the addiction, help them yourself or ask for help from someone you trust. To learn more amazing facts about the brain, visit Pat Wolfe’s website www.patwolfe.com

The history of the art of memory begins with the Greek orator, Simonides of Ceos (556-468 B.C.). Legend says, Simonides invented the system of visual memory mnemonics after attending a banquet and later leaving as the sole survivor. During the banquet, Simonides was called outside, and after stepping out the door, the banquet ceiling collapsed on the guests, leaving a group of unidentifiable bodies still at their assigned seats at the table. Simonides was asked if he could identify the bodies, and to do so, he created a visual replica of the banquet hall and the guests in his mind and was able to identify each body.
This memory technique is known as the method of loci or spatial palaces. Simonides figured out that if he could conjure a mental image of the banquet hall and guests in order to retrieve a name, he could use the same method when memorizing any large amount of information. For instance, in the New York Times article, “Secrets of a Mind-Gamer,” science journalist Joshua Foer explains how memory athletes use Simonides method to bring home the U.S.A. Memory Championship trophy. At the competition, competitors must complete tasks like memorizing an entire deck of cards in under 5 minutes.
Ask a memory champion and they’ll probably tell you they have a “normal” brain — and  there is neurological research to back up their claim. What they do have above most of us is technique, and when it comes to memorizing a deck of cards, you’ll find their technique relies on spatial palaces.
To memorize a deck of cards:

• Take a familiar space like your childhood home, your school, the mall, or in Simonides case, the banquet hall. You can also create an imaginary space or the route you take to work.
• Then, take the first three cards and link each of them to someone famous doing something bizarre. In Joshua Foer’s essay, he “walks” into his childhood home and  “Inside the front door, the Incredible Hulk rode a stationary bike while a pair of oversize, loopy earrings weighed down his earlobes (three of clubs, seven of diamonds, jack of spades).” As this example shows, the more ridiculous and creative picture you conjure up, the more likely you will be to remember it.
• After getting through your deck of cards, you go back to the front door, in Foer’s case, and recall all the cards by the images you linked to them.

Want to see it in action? Below, watch the video of the world champion in speed cards, Andi Bell, revealing his techniques in a clip from the BBC documentary, “Get Smart.”

How could you use the method of loci or spatial palaces to make studying a fun activity? Have you ever used this or similar techniques to study? Share your story in the comment box below.

In order for students to succeed at learning, they need to understand their process by discovering their learning style, test-taking techniques, how to best use their memory, think critically and set goals. The following is an exercise for parents and educators to share with their students to increase note-taking skills.

• Start by drawing a line from the top left of the page to separate one third of the paper from the rest. The larger side should be on the right.

Record: On the large side of the paper, take notes on the most important points made by the teacher.

Reduce: While the information is still fresh, summarize the points you recorded on the left side of your paper. This process helps you to remember, process, and understand new information.

Recite: Cover the left side of your paper and repeat aloud what you have just written. Repeat until you can recite your notes without looking.

Reflect: Think about what you learned and apply it to something else you already know. Drawing connections will help engrave the new material.

Review: Take ten minutes to review your notes every day. This keeps the information fresh and you won’t have to try to relearn the lesson from last week.

Do you have note-taking tips you share with your students? Share with us in the comment box below. Also, be sure to visit the blog every Thursday for more study skills to use in the classroom and at home. This Thursday’s lesson was taken from LifeBound’s STUDY SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. For more study skills, visit www.lifebound.com.