Second Time Around + iPhone

As of lately the blog has been more of a place to vent due to stress in my family, school, or work. Today is bit of a tooting of my own horn and a praise for my beloved iPhone.

My first go-round of college was focused more on clubs, friends, boys, beer, and food than it was actually on my $100,000 education. Sorry mom and dad! I maintained a C+ to B- average the entire time I was there. I went to most of my classes, but for the first two years didn't have a problem skipping. I didn't stay caught up on my reading. Come test time I up a creek without a paddle: didn't have good lecture notes, had no idea of the inclass examples, and didn't have a good grasp of the readings. All of which led to the aforementioned GPA.

Knowing this, my time in graduate school has been a bit different. I'm not there to make friends and hang out. I am there to get my degree and get out. I made my schedule so that I have ample time between classes to get caught up on all my reading and homework. I have only missed one day due to the ski trip (but I scheduled note takers in both classes!). I have completed every assignment on time and done every extra credit assignment presented to me. In two of my three classes I should have at least an A- My third class is really hard and despite my best efforts, and asking the teacher for help, I am still struggling. I will probably end up with a B or B- in that class.

This week was mid-terms. During my undergrad years I would have spent the week before just trying to catch up on reading. This time, the day i got the study guides I quickly filled them out (yay copy and paste from my comptuer notes!), transfered them to a flash card program on my iPhone, and was able to review them every time I had five minutes. I have all the professors point points in either a folder on my computer or a paper folder in my book bag, all annoted from class lectures. I reread them once or twice each, recalling the examples from class. Finally, I pulled out old quizzes and homeworks and practiced them without using the book. With hardly any extra time (other than what I normally spend in a week doing readings/homework) I was well prepared for my mid-terms. Yes, it was some work and practice that I really didn't enjoy. It was all well worth it. I flew through my exams - nothing seemed like a trick question, nothing had to be over analized - i just KNEW the answers!!!

Programs I use to help me stay on top of school:

• www.worklifestudy.com (web upload for the iPhone app My Study Cards (9.99 but worth EVERY penny - I'd pay that in real note cards a year!) - Makes awesome flash cards with programmable study methods

• www.evernote.com (thank you to Dennis) for the recommendation) This is a great program on the MAC to take notes, and it syncs all of them nicely on to my iPhone

• http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ This is a webbased to-do list that includes time, date, locations, lists of lists, etc. Bravo! They integrate into Google (iGoogle, gmail, etc), and have an iPhone app. I prefer to use the "To Do" iPhone app and sync RTM through it, but occationally the interface of the RTM app suits my day better to I have them both on my phone.

• http://www.spanningsync.com/ Until recently, Google Calendar would only feed INto iCal, and not the other way around, making ical pretty much useless. While I was waiting on Google to come up with a solution of syncing iPhone iCal with Google Calendar, I paid some money for Spanning Sync. I LOVE IT! Coupled with MobileMe - I have all the up-to-date calendars and contacts with me at all times! (I haven't tried the new iPhone + GCAL sync yet, let me know how it works)

Now my life is not only on my computer, but in my hand for those stuck in traffic, riding the train, or waiting in line moment - I can review notes or study for a quiz (or watch old episodes of Gossip Girl, yes, I did just say that)

BRILLIANT :)