Not everyone enjoys reading. For some, reading for an assignment seems a tiresome, boring, or even stressful, chore, and being asked to “read more” doesn’t at all sound worthwhile.

But reading is one of the most useful skills you can have, and being a competent reader can help you succeed in many arenas in life. Fortunately, it’s easy to improve your reading abilities, because all you have to do is read more, and then some more again, and soon you’ll see the benefits of reading.

Here’s why you should take the trouble to read more than just what is required at school.

Win At School

If you’re in middle school or high school, you’re probably already well aware of the amount of reading you have to do for school. And if you’re not into reading, maybe you’ve been scraping by with the bare minimum of reading so far, or opting for SparkNotes from time to time (we’ve all done it!).

Trust us, reading more will help you out and here’s some data to prove it! Increasing the amount of reading you do can also work wonders for your reading comprehension, whether it’s literature or a social studies text or a science article. Reading more often can quickly help you read faster, improve your vocabulary and build critical thinking skills, which can cut down the amount of time you spend on homework each night.

Win At College

While reading assignments might be a common feature of your high school experience, college is a time where reading is really taken to the next level. The amount of reading you’ll likely have to do simply to keep up with your classes escalates dramatically – even if you’re not a liberal arts major. The things you’ll be reading about can be more complex than you’re used to, and you might be reading about things you’ve never even heard of.

College readings can take you a bit more time to digest and fully understand, so reading more often can help you develop your ability to process lots of information. Reading a lot also helps you develop your writing skills, which will almost inevitably come in handy as you’re writing your college papers. By practicing your reading, you’re setting yourself up for success in higher education and beyond.

Win At Your Job

As we already mentioned, reading more often can improve greatly improve your critical thinking skills, which will be definitely be an asset in any career you end up choosing. In addition, the link between more reading and better writing isn’t just useful for college papers; writing is an integral part of almost any job. Reading can help you clearly and concisely convey your thoughts in writing, a soft skill with immense importance in the professional world. Even engineers have to write professional emails, right?

And, to make it even more worthwhile, there are many excellent jobs that reward people with good reading skills, so if you read more, you’re also increasing your job opportunities!

Win At Life

In general, reading exposes you to new ideas and broadens your horizons. By increasing the amount of reading material that you consume, whether it is fiction or nonfiction, you’ll be exposed to a variety of viewpoints surrounding the same issue, which can help you develop your own informed opinions – not just blindly accept what you read or hear. Equally, this kind of exposure can help you develop new interests, or even allow you to take a deeper dive into the things you already know you’re interested in. Hone your ability to search for new information, or even ask others for their reading lists to keep you engaged and interested.

Reading has also been shown to make you a better person in many different ways, and a smarter one too. All of this will help you win not only at school and work, but also at life – and who wouldn’t want that?

Our recommendation is that you start by carving out some time every day to do a little extra reading. Pick books that will interest you (here are some ideas to get started), and soon you’ll find yourself wanting to read more. Enjoy!

Welcome to Week 5 of the semester…or is it week 6…? Regardless, you’ve probably been at school for a while now. It’s been quite some time since Winter Break, but you’re likely still a few weeks out from Spring Break. The beginning of the semester seems like it happened a thousand years ago, but the end seems just as far away. You may be wondering how to get over the mid-semester slump. No worries, you can do it! Here are some of our favorite tips to get keep you focused and motivated.

Hmm…what do I do?

Find A Friend Or Two

Like Senioritis, the mid-semester slump is something that affects everyone. If you’re feeling less than motivated right now, the odds are high that one of your friends is feeling about the same. Use this to your advantage: grab a friend and help each other out! Whether you’re studying together, relaxing together, or commiserating about assignments together, you can help keep each other focused. You can even get bonus points if you’re studying the same thing, so you can help each other out when one or the other of you gets stuck.

Prioritize Your Life

As the semester has really gotten going the past few weeks, so has everything else in your life probably. Juggling classes with extracurricular activities and social events can be a daunting task, but it’s definitely a challenge you’re up to. Try and figure out which things you do are the most important, and see if you might want to put a thing or two on the back-burner so you don’t run out of gas this early in the semester. Don’t be afraid to say no to a commitment if it runs the risk of seriously affecting the time you can spend on something more important. Try laying everything out, and see where you may be spending too much time or where you may not be spending enough time. Increase your efficiency!

Stay Healthy

Midterms and projects are likely just around the corner if they’re not here already, and your life is probably getting more stressful as the semester drags on. Right about now is a super important time to remember not to neglect your health. Make sure you’re sleeping a decent amount every night; remember, studying without sleeping is worse than not studying at all. As your time gets more crunched, it can be tempting to eat poorly, but make sure to make some time for a healthy diet to give your brain the brain food it needs. Stay hydrated too, to make sure your body is cheering you on as you get through this semester. But most importantly, make some time to relax a little bit!

With just a little bit of attention, you can sail through the blahs! Do you have ideas for handling the mid-semester slump? Let us know!

It’s that time of year when the media is full of Valentine’s Day stories. But what exactly is it? Does everyone celebrate it? Are you rushing around to get the perfect gift? We can’t help with the last-minute shopping (read this to plan better!) but here are a few fun facts about the big day that can give perspective – and make for some lively small talk over Valentine’s day dinner!

It’s Huge, In the U.S.

The majority of Americans (55%) are planning on celebrating Valentine’s Day 2018 in some form or another. But the celebrations don’t come cheaply: The National Retail Federation estimates that Americans will spend around $19.6 billion this year to celebrate, mostly in the form of jewelry, an evening out, flowers, candy, and clothing.Though some call it a “Hallmark Holiday” – over 131 million cards are exchanged! – Valentine’s Day wasn’t created by any corporation, though corporations do promote it to encourage sales. In fact, the average American is set to spend around $143 for Valentine’s Day this year!

It’s Gaining Popularity

Valentine’s Day began as a Christian celebration of Saint Valentine in medieval England, but the holiday as we know it only really got going in 18^th century Britain, when it was first associated with romantic love and gift-giving. Since then, the holiday has since shed most of its Christian roots, and has spread to several other countries outside of Europe. In addition to most Western countries, Valentine’s Day is also now popular in Asia, particularly in China, India, Japan, Korea, Thailand and parts of Latin America. The highest Valentine’s Day spenders can be found in Hong Kong spending an average of $273 each, almost double what Americans will spend!

It Has Poetic Roots

The exact origin of Valentine’s Day has proved difficult to nail down exactly. Scholars have found a possible dark origin story with the death of a few Roman fellows named Valentine in the 3^rd century AD. However, the association between Valentine’s Day and romantic love have appears to come as a result of English literature. The day was romanticized first in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer and then William Shakespeare in Hamlet. As the celebration started gaining popularity, exchanging hand-made cards would have been a regular occurrence in Britain during Shakespeare’s time. So when you write a card or a poem to your crush, you’ll be following a centuries-old tradition!

Japan Has Two Valentine’s Days

The first Valentine’s Day in Japan is celebrated on Feb. 14, just like in the U.S, and has been around since the post-war days. However, Japanese Valentine’s Day consists solely of women giving gifts to the men in their life. The most common gift is chocolate, but it isn’t only given to their significant others. Women also give “Giri-choco,” or obligatory chocolates, to their male friends and colleagues. The average Japanese woman gives them to around 6 men in her life, spending approximately $56 per year just on these chocolates. However, men return the favor on March 14 each year on a day known as “White Day,” and frequently give white chocolate or other gifts back to the women that gave them gifts in February. White Day has an even shorter history in Japan than Valentine’s Day: in fact, CEOs of confectionary companies literally invented the holiday in the 1970s!

Anti-Valentine’s Day Is A Thing

If you think all of the fuss about Valentine’s Day is a bit too much, you’re not alone; remember, only about 55% of Americans say they’re celebrating the holiday this year! The National Retail Federation found that about 30% of Americans are still planning on celebrating Valentine’s Day in unconventional ways, like treating themselves to something, getting together with loved ones, or even purchasing “anti-Valentine’s” gifts for others. Others still are planning to celebrate their own holiday the day after Valentine’s Day in much the same way, known as Single’s Awareness Day (S.A.D.). This tongue-in-cheek holiday is meant to celebrate those without significant others, and there’s certainly no shortage of things to do!

However you celebrate (or don’t celebrate) Valentine’s Day, you’re in good company. Enjoy the day!

Do you, like millions of others, suffer from to-do-list anxiety? Are you feeling so overwhelmed with what you have to do, you don’t even have the energy to start? Wish there was a magic wand to make it better? We’re not Hogwarts and don’t know much about magic wands, but we believe a daily planner could work like magic in making your to-do list less daunting!

But what if you feel you’re one of those people who doesn’t like planning? It appears that every article and how-to guide advises everyone to use planners and schools believe in them so much they even hand them out to the students (check out our earlier post on what’s popular with students). Here are some compelling reasons why even unstructured, spontaneous people might want to do some planning – especially if they’re students!

Save Your Brain

Between family, friends, school, and extracurriculars, your to-do list can be long and exhausting. With a daily planner, you don’t have to remember events and deadlines. Writing down tasks and events can free up some of your working memory bank to focus on other, more crucial information, like what you need for your test! If you can, try to keep a physical planner! Studies have shown that writing things down helps you remember things much better than typing them.

And of course, your planner doesn’t just have to be about things that you have to “work” on; use it to keep track of the fun things going on in your life like get-togethers with friends, so you’ll have something to look forward to!

Manage Your Time

Keeping a daily planner is a great way to help you visualize how you’re spending your time. A planner helps you clearly lay out your days of the week, so that you can appropriately budget your time and prioritize events or projects. If you have 3 due dates next Friday, maybe think about working ahead this weekend!

A planner can also help you see which areas of your life you might not be focusing on enough. Did you only leave 30 minutes to study for your final? Or are you not spending any time to do the things you love, like play guitar, read books, go running? Taking the time to sit down and write a planner can force you to think about how you’re spending your time, and can help you decide for yourself if you want to change it up. The planner helps you balance your time so you can fit in all the things that are important to you.

Get Stuff Done

By planning out your time in advance, you can figure out when you need to start something to make sure it gets done by the due date. You know yourself and can adjust for the fact you read slow but write fast, or find math easier than social studies. Keeping track of how you’re spending your time can also help you fit things in that you may not have thought you had time for! The daily planner can show you which days are light and which ones are packed and let you adjust what you get done and when – it can be your best friend during your busiest weeks!

Need another great reason to get comfortable using your daily planner? You’d have acquired an undeniably useful life skill that’ll keep you on top of any to-list that you encounter along the way – and still have time to be spontaneous if that’s what you want!

What do you think? Planners are over-rated or they’re the best way to reduce the stress of getting things done? Share your thoughts!

Are you feeling less than excited for your classes during this, your last semester at high school? Do you experience a strong desire to hang out with friends? Are you reluctant to even look at your books for this semester? If so, you may have come down with a case of senioritis. Yes, it’s real. But don’t worry! Our experts at Meemli are well-versed on the issue. Here are the answers to some of the most common questions about the affliction.

Who Gets It?

Senioritis is very common among high school seniors, affecting almost every one of them at some point or another. Senioritis is also incredibly contagious and spreads quickly within friend groups, so make sure your friends are not afflicted as well!

What Are The Symptoms?

Symptoms of senioritis vary with the severity of case, but may include the following: late assignments, declining test scores, or a general lack of academic motivation. Other more severe symptoms can include: skipping class, not turning in assignments, or poor second semester grades. As you can see, it’s important not to let your senioritis case worsen.

Is It Serious?

Some senioritis is perfectly normal. You’ve worked hard academically for the past 3 and a half years, you just went through the stress of college applications, and the end of high school is clearly within sight. A slight break on your part is well-deserved, and some of your second semester should be devoted to friendship, relaxation, and making memories.

However, it’s crucial to remember that your second semester of senior year still matters. Low second semester grades can lower your GPA, and can indicate to admissions officers that you aren’t committed to your education; every year, students get admission offers rescinded due to their second semester performance. But this isn’t meant to scare you! Senioritis can absolutely be overcome, but it’s easier to manage if it’s caught in the early stages.

What’s The Cure?

Experts are working furiously on the problem, but unfortunately, as it stands, there exists no known cure for senioritis – it can only be managed until it goes away on its own (after graduation). Throughout your second semester, it’s important to keep your eye on the prize and keep your end goal in mind: College. You want to look your best before leaving high school, and finishing strong academically helps maintain the image you’ve presented to colleges and future employers.

A great way to stay on track is to have friends that help keep you focused. If you and your friends make sure to buckle down and study between your other activities, it’ll be less tempting to slack off. Plus, you’ll still be spending time with friends!

A winning strategy is take out your planner and craft your schedule in advance, so you can stay on top of your assignments while still having some time for fun and friends. Scheduling helps reduce stress, something that should be relatively minimal during your second semester.

Senioritis affects millions of students every year, and can pose a significant challenge to those who don’t take notice and deal with it. But, with the right mindset and approach, you can keep up your awesome school record and still make your final semester of school the best one!

The Meemli team wishes you a speedy recovery from senioritis!

There’s a lot for students to look forward to around this time of the year. Winter vacation is getting close, and if you’re a senior, a less-stressed second semester is right around the corner. But one obstacle stands in your way at the end of the year: finals. And it can be more like five or six obstacles, depending on how many classes you’re taking!

Finals week is always a stressful time for students. Huge assignments come at you quickly in a relatively short period of time, and instructors have a tendency to forget that you’re taking classes besides their own. You have to work hard to manage it all. But is there a method to the madness of final exams added to this stressful time or are you being tortured for no particular reason?

Why Finals Are Popular

Apparently there is a reason why schools have finals. This 2013 study found that final exams are critical to the long-term retention of information within a given course. It’s not too hard to see the logic behind this notion: finals, especially cumulative finals, give students an incentive to revisit past material they may have forgotten. Even if you missed some of the material the first time around, it’s useful to revisit past lessons at the end now that you have a more “big picture” overview of the course. Consider this input about the final from a professor at the University of Albany:

It might be stressful, even terrifying, but it has the singular power to force students to go back over material, think critically about what they have read, review hard-to-grasp-topics once more, and even talk about the subject matter with classmates and instructors — all of which enhance learning. 

Of course, it’s doubtful you’ll remember everything you were taught in a class. But retaining the most important pieces of information from class can help to better prepare you for higher level classes, and the information may even be relevant to whatever you decide to pursue!

Others consider the fact that the value of final exams may lie in the test-taking practice they provide to students. Even though finals can be overwhelming, that can be good practice for other types of formal exams like standardized tests, inevitable college finals, or even higher-education exams law school or medical school entrance tests. Finals can also be viewed as a sort of opportunity for students. Because final exams typically account for a large percentage of the overall course grade, any student who is dissatisfied with their pre-final grade can potentially use the exam to make up for their performance earlier in the semester.

Why They May Be Changing

However, despite these apparent benefits of final exams, the importance of finals seems to be decreasing in higher education. In 2010, only 23% of undergraduate courses at Harvard had a formal final exam. But this doesn’t mean students got off easily: formal final exams are being increasingly replaced by long-term assignments, like projects or papers. The goal of this move is to reduce the role that memorization plays in the undergraduate experience. By emphasizing the practical application of classroom topics, the focus shifts from straight up memorization to an approach more centered on the synthesis of information, a valuable life skill.

Another different approach to student assessment is in the form of incremental testing. One study found that students in a math class that were quizzed weekly outperformed students in a class with just a few large exams by an average of 16%! Incremental testing has also been shown to reduce stress among students. Not only are they less pressure psychologically, but they also provide more “room for error” in case one or two smaller tests turn out poorly.

Maybe one day final exams will be a thing of the past, replaced by incremental testing and/or a larger project that checks how you apply what you have learned. But for now, it looks like finals are sticking around in some form or another, and continue in most colleges, so just take a deep breath and start preparing!

How do you deal with finals? We’d love to hear about it!