Researching in SC Chemistry

Researching in SC ChemistryThe University of South Carolina has a SC Chemistry Department that offers one of the most extensive programs in all of the United States. The University is home to over two hundred students in the SC Department, which is considered the largest Chemistry Department in the entire country.The programs offered in the SC Department of Chemistry are some of the most demanding and the most advanced in the entire country. Students are given the opportunity to use state of the art equipment and materials as well as being exposed to a wide range of other professors, faculty, and course instructors who have successfully completed their Master's degree in Chemistry and have continued their research and academic careers in other areas of science. Students take advantage of a variety of professional opportunities as well as enrichment courses in the chemistry department to fulfill their Bachelor's Degree Requirements.There are over sixty undergraduate majors available f or the serious study of the life sciences. These range from the Physiology & Biochemistry major to the Chemistry major, in addition to the students that choose to specialize in one of the many fields of Science. Every one of these students that are in the SC Chemistry Department is given the opportunity to complete a Professional Development Certificate that they can use to enhance their career prospects, gain additional knowledge, and showcase their skills in their professional lives. This certification allows students to perform the types of laboratory and research techniques that they would otherwise not be able to perform due to lack of experience.The life sciences at the University of South Carolina Department of Chemistry are closely tied to the operation of their world-renowned biomedical facilities. In fact, it is very rare for students to not have the opportunity to visit these areas of the campus. Students are exposed to a variety of different medical centers on a dail y basis, where they are able to learn about the various procedures that patients undergo at these facilities and gain a better understanding of how they operate and what they do.In addition to this, students can also earn their Master's Degrees at any of the seven post-graduate study sites that are part of the Department of SC Biology, which is located in Columbia and on the campus of HBCU (Historically Black College and University) on North Myrtle Avenue. These study sites are: Lighthouse Health, Health Sciences Campus, The Michael G. DeBakey Institute, University of South Carolina Health and Education Center, Newberry Hall, and the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. Students can also earn their Bachelor's Degrees in the Department of Chemistry at the USC School of Medicine, which is also located in Columbia.Along with the specialized courses and programs that the SC Department of Chemistry offers, it is also home to one of the largest concentrations of s tudents studying the field of Cell Biology. The study of this particular area of Science is extremely valuable, as it allows scientists to gain insight into the genetics of human diseases.Additionally, Cell Biology has allowed scientists to explore the viability of stem cells, and have uncovered many of the mysteries surrounding them. While these discoveries and developments in Cell Biology have been extremely beneficial to scientists, it has also been incredibly rewarding for students in the SC Department of Chemistry as well.Chemical, Biological, and Biomolecular Sciences, which are some of the more popular programs offered in the SC Department of Chemistry are as follows: Biochemistry; Biophysics; Biotechnology and Nanotechnology; Crystallography; Electrophoresis; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnologies; Proteomics; Protein Structure and Metabolism; Surface Science; Thermodynamics; and Water Chemistry. Each of these fields of study can provide invaluable insight into the study of biolog y and how it is used to discover new methods of treatment and discovery.

How To Get Over A Fear Of Speaking Up In Your First Grad School Class

How To Get Over A Fear Of Speaking Up In Your First Grad School Class pexels.com Read up. A great way to allay your fears about speaking up in grad school is making sure you are prepared to speak up! Especially while you are making first impressions, you want to do so positively and in a good light. Part of the fear of speaking up is accidentally saying something ignorant or wrong and appearing gauche. Avoid this by doing all your reading and homework (which you should be doing anyways) and making sure that you really do know this stuff. Prepare yourself before new lessons, especially on material that you are unfamiliar with. Give yourself a head start! You do not need to know everything yet as you are not an expert (that is what you are in grad school to become). Just take the time to really familiarize yourself with the material you will be discussing so that you come across as confident, poised and knowledgeable. Create talking points. Another reason speaking up in your grad school class can feel scary is because you can feel put on the spot and you end up scrambling for an answer that is both correct and urbane. It can be hard to sound intelligent on the fly! Help yourself out by creating a list of talking points that you can use to help guide your responses. As you are doing your readings or studying, jot down important notes and questions that you have. You have the syllabus, so you will have an idea of what will be discussed and what the focus of the class will be. Use this information! Write it out and avoid scrambling at the last minute and grasping at straws for important information. It will make you more confident, and writing it down or typing it out can also help you to remember these important points better as well. Breathe. Sometimes you know all the right things to say. You have the knowledge; you have the facts; all you need to do is speak up. But that can often be the hardest part. When you open up your mouth to speak, your voice escapes you and it feels like all the air has leaked out of you and no words can come out. Inflate yourself! Regulate your breathing and make sure that you actually are breathing! If you feel a twinge of anxiety, take a deep breath. The professor poses a question, take a deep breath. You have a response, take a deep breath. Fill your lungs so that you can have a voice. And then say it. After all, you know it. Breathe and then say it! unsplash.com Picture your classmates … naked? Look, when you start grad school you are all really beginning on an even playing field. You come from all different walks of life; there is the older adult student coming back to school in a bid to change careers or pursue their true passion; there is the perky, overachiever fresh out of their undergrad days; there is the laid-back student who took a couple years off of school between their undergraduate and graduate studies to get a feel for life and what they want to do. No path is perfect and no path is better than another. You are all there because you need, nay want, to gain more knowledge in this area because you are lacking in it for now. But remember, that is just for now. You can overcome this! But to do so you need to participate in your classes by speaking up. So if you are having trouble finding your voice, remember that you are all equal and you can take it one step further by putting yourselves on an equal level, or rather, a naked level. Imagine your classmates naked if it helps you to feel more confident speaking. You are all unique but you are all equal. Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.

Emotional IQ vs. Intellectual IQ by TutorNerds

Emotional IQ vs. Intellectual IQ by TutorNerds Emotional IQ vs. Intellectual IQ: How do they compare? Emotional IQ is the ability to handle complex, difficult and sometimes very sad situations. It is also the ability to navigate intricate social situations. Some children simply have a knack for socializing and are farther along than their peers (want your student to grow more confident and develop social skills? Try one of our in-home Orange County tutors). However, at the end of the day, emotional IQ comes with experience and time. A 35-year-old with a 110 IQ will almost always have a significantly higher emotional IQ than a 15-year-old with a 140 IQ. Some things just come with time. Intellectual IQ is the potential a person has, at any age, to achieve academically and to understand higher levels of thinking. Gifted children (READ: GATE Testing) can find themselves in really tough situations if their adult counterparts expect them to have an adult emotional IQ. A 5-year-old has had 5 years of life experience, not 10 or 20 or 55. Even if their intellectual IQ is 130+ (the “gifted” cutoff), they still need time to grow and learn about emotional situations. Let’s look at some real life examples. Emotional IQ vs Intellectual IQ: Example One A second grader has an intellectual IQ of 135 but the emotional IQ of a seven-year-old. Her reading level is three grade levels above that of her peers and she easily gets bored with second grade books (Have you considered an Irvine private tutor for your childs reading abilities? Check out: Reading Tutoring). It would be easy to give the child a fifth grade reading level book, but this could potentially be a big mistake. Its really important for teachers and parents to look at the content of the higher level books and think about whether or not the student is emotionally ready to handle the content. How would a second grader, no matter what their IQ, respond to learning about the Holocaust for the first time from a book? How would they respond to reading about the West Nile Virus in the newspaper? Content and skill are two very different things. Its important to challenge a gifted learner intellectually while maintaining socially and emotionally appropriate content. Check out what these parents had to say about these books: ProTeacher.net Emotional IQ vs Intellectual IQ: Example Two A sixth grader, who happens to be gifted at math and has a 145 overall intellectual IQ, is struggling socially. Because he has a high IQ, he is expected to understand social situations that juniors and seniors in high school can handle. Just because he is a math whiz, doesn’t mean that he is able to have a relevant conversation with students five or six years his senior. Perhaps when they are 30 and 35-years-old respectively, the social situation will be quite different but a sixth grader will still needs to socialize with sixth graders, even if they are in different classes. I recommend that parents arrange time outside of school for their gifted child to spend with children their own age and have plenty of opportunity to just relax and have fun being 11-years-old. Emotional IQ vs Intellectual IQ: Example Three A gifted child is asked to handle the academic workload of an adult. Many advanced and gifted learners are asked to not only take on the skill level of much older children or adults, but also adhere to the time table of an adult. Most of us sit down and concentrate at a desk for 8 or more hours a day and we have learned to cope with it. As adults, we know when to take breaks, when to get up and walk around and when to simply power through it. Children, no matter how smart they are, are not accustomed to sitting down for more than six hours in a 24 hour period. The beauty of childhood is to spend time outside, spend time with friends, and use the imagination. Adulthood will come all too soon enough and it is important that gifted children get time to simply be children. They need to laugh, play and have fun like all children. Bottom Line Its essential to assess emotional IQ along side with intellectual IQ. The bottom line is that each child will have a potentially vast difference in their intellectual abilities. Some will be musicians, some will be engineers, and others will be artists or dancers. But a six-year-old is a six-year-old and emotional IQ generally doesn’t vary by more than a year or two if the child is under 18. All blog entries are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at info@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us post about. Orange County parents and students, listen up! Beat the summer slowdown with a private, in-home tutor. We work around your schedule so you can stay sharp while having fun in the sun. Read: 10 Reasons You Need a Summer Tutor. What are you waiting for? Call us. Teach.com

I met my italki Tutor in Korea!

I met my italki Tutor in Korea! Raven (and family) and Tutor Jee meeting up in Korea When you create a community that spans the world, you’ll end up hearing lots of stories. What starts with strangers learning from each other, can ultimately lead to many unexpected experiences. We recently received an email from Aadel, a mother who homeschools her children and is currently based in Korea.  She writes a popular homeschooling blog called These Temporary Tents.  Her daughter Raven actually learns Korean on italki.  Aadel actually wrote about her and her daughters experiences learning Korean on italki on her blog.  If you havent read it yet, you can read it  here. She sent the following email to us: It was awesome to get to meet Raven and Is italki tutor, Miss Jee Young, in person!  We met in Itaewon (Seoul, South Korea) and had dinner and coffee afterwards. She even sent us a photo ?? I met my italki Tutor in Korea! Raven (and family) and Tutor Jee meeting up in Korea When you create a community that spans the world, you’ll end up hearing lots of stories. What starts with strangers learning from each other, can ultimately lead to many unexpected experiences. We recently received an email from Aadel, a mother who homeschools her children and is currently based in Korea.  She writes a popular homeschooling blog called These Temporary Tents.  Her daughter Raven actually learns Korean on italki.  Aadel actually wrote about her and her daughters experiences learning Korean on italki on her blog.  If you havent read it yet, you can read it  here. She sent the following email to us: It was awesome to get to meet Raven and Is italki tutor, Miss Jee Young, in person!  We met in Itaewon (Seoul, South Korea) and had dinner and coffee afterwards. She even sent us a photo ??

I Hate the Organic Chemistry Tutor - Reddit

I Hate the Organic Chemistry Tutor - RedditThe I Hate the Organic Chemistry Tutor is a website that has become popular over the last few years. It has been likened to the classic Beauty and the Beast when it comes to old and new-age witch hunting. This is no surprise in this day and age of the internet.When I was going through my class work and reading up on all the great history and the great people that have shaped the world we live in, I noticed something interesting about a teacher that I'd once considered one of the most intelligent and well-educated individuals. He was only up to English reading level. Now this was interesting to me as he would sit and write down the answer for my homework on his computer, rather than spend time with me in a typical conversation about important issues like the election or the Civil War.The question came to me as to why the organic chemistry tutor had this tendency to do this. The question was answered to me, because I now know that this is the way that many people like this instructor who has embraced a mindset of seeking out information. They won't sit with you in a traditional classroom setting and talk about things that are important to you, but they will seek out all the information that they can on the internet. They will not come to your home and share with you about life's greatest experiences.They would rather seek out information, be it online or on the college campus, the organic chemistry tutor, his story to me makes me wonder about the lack of education among a large part of the current population of the United States. There are so many different areas that are lacking from the regular school's curriculum that this organic chemistry tutor would just as soon take his work to the computer and have his home office filled with info, rather than engage in the honest dialog and interaction that he would like to have with you as a fellow human being.It's interesting how these teacher's mind set and the organic chemis try tutor, with their question about the evolution of Earth and his curiosity about it, have been called out as 'extremists' by the organic chemistry tutor and his students, because it has not been their in depth discussions, but instead it has been the internet that they have used to inform themselves about these topics. Their actions, or lack thereof, show that they do not think much of you as a fellow human being.The organic chemistry tutor, or I Hate the Organic Chemistry Tutor, also happens to be one of the leaders of the independent school movement. This means that he is trying to create programs that are more interactive, have a 'Big Picture' approach rather than a 'Blow by Blow' approach.It is interesting to me that we've created these ideologies of groups that work, whether in the private or public sector, these two ideologies have come together to form what we call the organic chemistry tutor. It is all about the question as to why he has taken up residence in the teacher' s chair and whether he thinks that he should keep his job. What are your thoughts on this issue?

Acphs Tutoring - Success For Students With ADHD

Acphs Tutoring - Success For Students With ADHDAcademics everywhere are as excited about ACPHs Tutoring Services. The reason is that the 'inferior' students are the most sought after group of clients for tutors. Students in junior and senior high schools have trouble learning to read and write, and often find it a challenge to manage their time. These students may also find it difficult to do well in regular classes and can be anxious about how to perform at school.What is more, there are many aspects of learning that students with ADHD also have trouble with, including: organizing themselves, having patience and motivation, memorizing material, and being able to focus on something at once. Plus, the disorder can cause chaos for parents who often have to be around their children, distracting them with tugs and swings. ACPHs provides tutoring services to many schools that are less likely to accept their students, and so ACPHs is a godsend.ACPHs tutes includes a range of services that include personalized attention therapy, academic tutoring, course review, teacher communication and planning, computer use and online collaboration, individualized assessment, online discussion boards, and home study. What makes ACPHs so unique is that the staff has already undergone training specifically on teaching students with ADHD, and the methods they use are backed by professional accreditation. This means that the students can count on receiving a healthy dose of mental stimulation while attending school.It helps if you know which group of students you are trying to cater to when you provide tutoring services. Most students with ADHD struggle with both academic problems and social struggles, and may want to be helped with both. Some may want extra help managing their time, and other may need help managing their homework and schoolwork.You might be surprised how much your students have in common. They all have very similar coping mechanisms and find it hard to learn and follo w directions without help. If you have a student with ADHD who needs assistance in learning to perform basic tasks at school, then ACPHs offers a wide variety of services that will help you create an environment that can help them succeed.ACPHs offers a number of different options for tutoring your student. You can choose the type of tutor you want for each student or focus on a few students in your class. Many of these services will come with one-on-one sessions where you can talk with the tutor about the problems the student is having, and how you can help them cope with the disorder.There are other advantages to ACPHs that make it a great choice for people who are not quite sure what they can do to help students with ADHD. In some cases, ACPHs will even help you pay for a certain portion of your school fees, helping you pay for tutoring or even for an accredited private tutor.

2 Strategies for Getting Off Your Buts - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / 2 Strategies for Getting Off Your “Buts” - Introvert Whisperer 2 Strategies for Getting Off Your “Buts” I hear countless comments from people saying they want to change careers, BUT, but, but, but.   They make up some reason for not changing.   Among these reasons are:   I’m too old â€" I’ll have to take a pay cut â€" I don’t want to make the effort â€" I don’t know what I’d do.   Essentially, I think it boils down to fear of change or no effort to change, probably both. There is a big portion of the workforce truly unhappy with their careers this morning as they drive to work.  They don’t like their jobs, but they keep on doing the same thing day after day, year after year.   They are doing nothing to change the situation.   It’s really unfortunate because their lives don’t have to be like that.   Career change can be made and while it does take an effort, it’s not that big of a hill to climb.   Let’s look at two strategies a person can pursue. Strategy #1:  Decide if you can get happy where you are or if it’s time to go (no improvement in sight)   There are about sixteen factors that play into our satisfaction of our work situation.   It’s little wonder we can get grumpy about work.   However, only the top few are really the deal breakers.   The number one issue to work satisfaction is the relationship with the boss.   After that, the top issues are (in no particular order): work environment â€" work associates job content.   Notice I didn’t mention pay.   Salary is somewhere around 5 or 6, depending on which survey you read. You have to spend some time really analyzing your situation and determine what the real issue(s) is for you.   Once you have identified the issues, you need to do some problem solving to determine what actions you can take to improve those issues.   The actions must be ones you have control over, not silly things like a personality transplant for your boss.   Once you have developed an action plan, before doing anything else, ask yourself these questions:  If I take these actions, will I be happier than I am now?   Will I be happy enough to sustain me in this position for x years?   If you think there is a possibility for improvement, then systematically pursue those actions.   You have nothing to lose and you stand to gain greater happiness right where you are right now.  If not, then go no further.   It’s time to leave and move on to the next strategy. If you do decide to make it better, you may want to consult your library on things you can do that will help you further solve some of these issues.   There are books written on every single work issue you can come up with.   Once you have taken these actions, allow time to make those actions take hold.   At some point (you decide when) reevaluate your situation to see if you’re feeling better in your job.   Many times the simple act of taking action is enough to really improve your situation.   If not, it was worth the effort to see if things could improve. Then you can make the decision to move on knowing you did your best. Strategy #2:  Identify and Research your “buts” for making a career change Stop making excuses and identify the issues that are keeping you from making a career change. You need to stop telling the stories and start doing some work. The person who is reluctant to make a career change sometimes has to address the issues or concerns first.   With this strategy, you need to self-examine what you really think the barriers are to a career change.   Then go do some research to find out if you’re all wet or if you really have an issue worth hitting the pause button for. My observation is that most of the time people come up with barriers without really knowing FOR A FACT that they really have an issue.   Go get the facts.   I also know that once you know the facts, you can devise an approach that will help you should you decide to move forward changing careers.   I’d like to give you a personal illustration.   Early in my professional life, I decided that I was going to change careers.   I was pretty sure I’d have to take a pay cut because I was getting paid fairly high for the work I was doing.   I devised a plan to pay off 100% of all debts I had.   My thinking was that if I did have to take a pay cut, then I wouldn’t have to be so concerned with the pay: and I could focus on a great position in a company with upward potential.   I knew if I had almost no bills, I could take a substantial pay cut and be okay.   I devised a strategy to address the issue.   It took me about a year to put it all in place, but it was well worth the planning and effort. I would also point out that taking that first little action toward a career change will help you build momentum.   You don’t need to be a fireball of career ambition.   You simply need to put one foot in front of the other long enough to systematically confirm that a change of careers is what you need.   If you are the kind of person that does best with a work-out buddy, you might want to do the same in this part of your life.   Identify a trusted person who will hold you accountable to your own happiness.   Motivation is not created from a bolt of lightning.   It is created by the act of doing.   So do yourself a favor.   If you know you can’t make yourself happy where you are, start moving today.   Even small steps forward are better than no steps at all.   Eventually, you will make that career change. You work so much and for so long in your lifetime that you deserve to be happy in doing it! Do you know what your next career step is?   Many people don’t. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my eBook on how to construct your Career SMART Goals â€" that will help you put together your actions and keep you accountable.   Get your copy now and start your action plan today: CLICK HERE Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleash your professional potential. About Author: Dorothy Tannahill-Moran is a Career Coach and expert on helping her clients.   Want to discover a specific career change strategy that gets results?   Discover how to by claiming your FREE gift, Career Makeover Toolkit at: http://CareerMakeoverToolKitShouldISstayorShouldIGo.com/

Subdivision The Easy Trick for Reading Rhythms Rightt

Subdivision The Easy Trick for Reading Rhythms Rightt Suzy S. As youre learning to read music,  youll come across complex rhythms at some point. Here,  Saint Augustine, FL music teacher  Heather L. offers some helpful tips to help you get through the tricky parts Have you ever found yourself sitting in a big concert hall, or in your room, listening to a soloist play a practically perfect rhythm? Almost all of us have, and almost all of us have asked ourselves, How do they do that? Their secret is subdivision. You might be just beginning with learning to read music, or you might have been reading for decades. Either way, chances are that you agree with many musicians that reading pitches is one thing, but reading rhythms is quite another. Rhythm can be what separates some of us from believing in our sight reading abilities. Learning Your Note Value Family Tree As you learn to read music, subdivision is the key to understanding what every note means, rhythmically. You could think of subdivision as a sort of X-ray vision for rhythm, allowing you to see the inner structure of each note. You see, every single note is made up of smaller, or shorter notes. What you see here is a simple drawing of the hierarchy of notes, if you will. In a way, its kind of a note value family tree. At the top, you see a whole note. A whole note is made up of two half notes. Each half note is made up of two quarter notes. Every quarter note is made up of two  eighth  notes. Each of those eighth  notes is made up of two sixteenth notes. If you were to count all of the sixteenth notes at the bottom, then youd find sixteen of them. There are sixteen sixteenth notes in a whole note. Got that? Writing Counts Into Your Music Okay, below is first line of Beethovens Ode to Joy, only underneath each note youll see that Ive written a combination of numbers and plus signs. Each number and each plus sign represents an eighth note. Count out loud, saying, One and two and three and four and If I were to sing this, then Id sing the same thing on the appropriate pitches. By steadily counting every eighth note as you read the music, youre instantly more accurate. Youll no longer be guessing at how long to hold each note. This is especially important when it comes to something like what you see in measure four above. Instead of thinking to yourself, That dotted quarter note is one and a half beats, youll think to yourself, That dotted quarter note is three eighth notes. Instead of thinking to yourself, That half note is two beats long, youll think to yourself, That half note is four eighth notes long. When I have a really tough song to learn, Ill write the counts underneath, just like I did in Ode to Joy above. Whats really cool about subdivision is that it can be used in music that has even sixteenth and thirty-second notes! Counting sixteenth notes means saying, ONE-ee-and-uh-TWO-ee-and-uh Every note has a specific number of sixteenth notes inside it. Just count as many as you need. Though all this may sound tedious, it actually makes learning to read music so much easier. Instead of a vague feeling or intuition about how long or short notes are, youve got a solid understanding of how every single note is constructed. The mystery of rhythm unravels, and suddenly, youre no longer intimidated by it. You can see right through it. Heather L. teaches singing, piano, acting, and more in St. Augustine, FL, as well as through online lessons. She is  a graduate of the prestigious Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and has performed with the New York and Royal Philharmonics, the New Jersey and Virginia Symphonies, the American Boy Choir, and the internationally renowned opera star Andrea Bocelli.  Learn more about Heather here! Interested in Private Lessons? Search thousands of teachers for local and live, online lessons. Sign up for convenient, affordable private lessons today! Search for Your Teacher Photo by Tris Linnell

Breathing Exercises to Ease Your Mind on Test Day

Breathing Exercises to Ease Your Mind on Test Day College life can be filled with stress, from tight assignment deadlines to a busy extracurricular schedule but one of the most stressful parts of college life can be taking tests. Some students experience a lot of test-taking stress, while others experience much less of it, but almost all students experience at least a little anxiety before sitting down to take an exam. Adequate studying, getting enough sleep, and eating a good breakfast can go a long way in helping reduce your stress on test day. However, doing all these things is not always enough to put your mind at ease before an exam; thats where something as simple as breathing exercises can help. [RELATED: How to Prepare for SAT Test Day] Deep, calm breathing is a basic tenant of meditation and yoga, and breathing exercises are a quick and easy relaxation technique you can use anywhere and anytime to keep your nerves at bay. The proper way to breathe deeply is to slowly and steadily pull as much air as you can into your abdomen, helping to fill your lungs with as much air as possible, and then slowly let it out. Deep breathing helps reduce stress because the more air you bring into your lungs, the more oxygen your body gets and the less anxious youll feel. Not sure where to start? Were here to help. Try several or all of the following breathing exercises to help determine which ones work best for you: 1. Abdominal breathing Abdominal breathing is a great way to help reduce your high heart rate and/or blood pressure, resulting in an almost immediate calming effect. Sit on a chair or the floor, or lie down on your bed or a couch. Hold one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. Breathe deeply in through the nose so that your diaphragm (lower part of your ribs) expands and gently stretches your lungs. Breathe about 6-10 slow, deep breaths per minute until you feel more relaxed. If you find it hard to control your breath, you may want to consider using apps that can help you pace your breathing appropriately, such as Breathe2Relax or Relax. 2. Progressive relaxation breathing Stress can cause tightness and tension in the muscles of the body, which can make it more difficult to relax. The progressive relaxation technique is a great strategy for eliminating all sorts of tension throughout the entire body. Consider trying it the morning of your exam. [RELATED: Important Habits of Effective Test-Takers] Start by lying down in your bed or sitting in a chair and closing your eyes. Then, while taking slow, deep breaths, tense one muscle group at a time, one by one, and then relax them: the feet/toes, knees/thighs/glutes, chest/arms, hands/fingers, neck/jaw, and face/eyes. Think of your body like a stress ball from which you are wringing tension. 3. Equal breathing Ever get so nervous the night before an exam that you can barely fall asleep? If so, you may want to try equal breathing. Equal breathing can help you wind down because it helps take ones mind off stressful thoughts and distractions. Equal breathing is simple. All it takes is inhaling and exhaling through the nose for equal amounts of time. Begin by breathing in for four counts and then exhaling for four counts. If you feel like you could breathe more deeply, increase the amount of time you inhale and exhale by a second or two. Dont forget to take breaks if necessary; you dont want to overexert yourself. [RELATED: Top 5 College Study Tips] By employing a few of these simple breathing exercises, you could be that much closer to an A on that exam. Why let stress or anxiety get in your way? You can overcome those obstacles best of luck this testing season! Any topics you want to know more about? Let us know! The Varsity Tutors Blog editors love hearing your feedback and opinions. Feel free to email us at blog@varsitytutors.com.