FIRST YEAR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
November 15, 2005
Study Skills Tip of the Week: Preparing for Finals
While Thanksgiving is still a little over a week away, now is the time to start getting organized for finals. There are only two weeks of classes after the Thanksgiving break and most students have a lot to get done. Hence, you want to go back and look over your syllabi and make sure you know everything that you will need to complete before the end of the semester. Specifically,
Identify papers that still need to be written and which of your courses have final exams. If your class has a final exam, make sure you know whether the exam is cumulative and covers material from all of the semester or if it only covers material from a portion of the semester.
Find out the times of your final exams. You can find the final exam schedule at http://www.truman.edu/pages/463.asp -- If you're unsure about the time or location of your exam, ask your instructor.
Don't be overwhelmed by everything you'll need to get done over the next few weeks. After you compile your list, you can begin to lay out a study schedule for yourself. Make sure you have all the materials you'll need to complete any remaining papers. For courses with cumulative finals, you can start to review and prepare study guides now. Most students discover that they need to increase the number of hours that they need to devote to studying at the end of the semester. By increasing your study time now, you'll find the whole end of the semester experience less stressful.
The Healthy Lives Tip of the Week: Healthy Eating
Just because you can eat ice cream and dessert at lunch and dinner, doesn't mean you should or have to. For some students, the myth of the freshman 15 isn't really a myth. Away from home, you have full control over what and when you eat. Hence, you need to think about a healthy diet. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a healthy diet is one that
Some suggestions for healthy eating include:
Whole grains -- Snack on ready-to-eat, whole grain cereals; popcorn can be a healthy snack with little or no added salt and butter.
Vegetables -- Keep packages of baby carrots or celery sticks on hand for quick snacks; stock up on frozen vegetables for quick and easy cooking in the microwave.
Fruits -- Buy fresh, dried, frozen, and canned fruits; choose packaged fruits that do not have added sugar.
Dairy -- Include fat-free or low-fat milk as a beverage at meals; top cut-up fruit with flavored yogurt for a quick dessert; top a baked potato with fat-free or low-fat yogurt.
Protein -- Skip or limit the breading on meat, poultry, or fish. Breading adds fat and calories. Trim away all of the visible fat from meats and poultry before eating.
You can find more information on healthy eating habits at http://www.mypyramid.gov/
Resource of the Week--Audio books and DVDs
If you plan to drive home for the Thanksgiving break next week, consider taking an audio book to listen to on the trip. Pickler Memorial Library has approximately 200 audio books that members of the Truman community can borrow. To browse through the titles, go to http://lance.missouri.edu/search~S6/daudiobooks
The borrowing period for audio books is 30 days.
Pickler Memorial Library also has an extensive collection of movies on VHS and DVD that you can borrow. You can browse the electronic catalog by subject, title, etc. You can find strategies to search the collection by title and subject on the library's website at http://library.truman.edu/searching_for_videos.htm The borrowing period for movies is 3 days.
With the exception of interlibrary loan books, you can renew library materials including books borrowed from MOBIUS electronically directly from the library's website. To renew library materials go to https://lance.missouri.edu/patroninfo~S6/ and follow the directions.
Quote of the Week
"Liberal education will not make life easier but it will or should help to enrich and expand its possibilities. It will or should substitute independent thought, informed appreciation and critical judgment for dependent opinion, simplistic observation, and unthinking assertion. It will or should make intellectual integrity, respect for reasoned conclusions, and the willingness to make difficult decisions in the light of complex alternatives and relationships a goal and a responsibility that we refuse to evade. We hope, too, that lifting trouble to higher plane of regard will at the same time make possible a genuine freedom of thought and action for each of us."
--From The Aims of Education by Hanna H. Gray
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