Greetings Earth Organisms. In my final attempt at stringing words together to form sentences, this year, ive decided to leave you with some common sense advice about your studies, that I try to live by (try to live by) And although this will probably go in one ear and out the other, I think this may well help you prepare for exams and for your studies next year. One of the most common, and most dangerous barriers to education is lack of interest, motivation and concern which are all key factors for success and achievement in education and training. This apathetic attitude has been the downfall of countless promising individuals and not just those involved with academia. Apathy can effect anyone, of any age, race, gender, background or belief, it can lock people into patterns of under-achievement and a lifetimes time of mediocrity. You must do the work required of you both inside and outside of the classroom, even when it requires sacrifices of your working income, or social life. Excelling in any field requires commitment, stamina and spirit - education is no different. Invariably, the students who succeed have determined to do the work, kept their motivation levels thing and persevered at the task doggedly. A good way to ensure you focus on your studies is to set them clearly and openly as your priority. if you are a student (at any level) , consider that to be your job, your main focus and the target of the majority of your energies. Work, socializing, leisure time all come second to this priority. Always remember you are a student first and foremost, working, playing, socializing, exercising and relaxing are all important facets of your life to be enjoyed when time allows but not at the expense of your studies. Students often complain they are doing poorly in a course because the instructor or the subject matter is boring. These students want education to be high-pitch entertainment - an unrealistic expectation. The reality is that some courses, subjects or instructors will be boring, some will be exciting, many will be somewhere in between. Instead of using boring subject matter, or an uninspiring/inept instructor as an excuse for poor performance use it as motivation to do your own exploration of the study material and seek other ways to make it interesting. Never let your studies feel like a burden it will result in a loss of motivation, under-achievement and will keep you from achieving your true potential. If a subject or course is genuinely not interesting to you, you should be all the more motivated to do the work so you can leave the course behind once and for all. Furthermore, some students make themselves too busy, taking on a job that is not absolutely necessary or working more hours in a job than they need to. Others get involved in social activities on and off campus. Still others make personal or family problems so tangled and pressing that they cannot concentrate on their work. There are real cases in which people become so busy or troubled that they cannot do their work. But the many cases in which students become pressed for time are due to people creating conflicts to have an excuse for not doing what they know they should. Whether this is a conscious effort to avoid potentially challenging or difficult tasks or a subconscious act that may be representative of more complicated issues, overloading yourself with unnecessary or trivial activities can be very detrimental to your academic success. Beware of convincing yourself that you work best under pressure. Although it may seem that you have your most interesting ideas the night before a paper is due, or know best the material you study between midnight and two for a nine a.m. exam, you will almost certainly benefit from advance preparation. We put ourselves under enough pressure with the demands of family, friends , the woes of keeping above water financially and keeping ourselves in good health, why place excess pressure upon yourself by forcing yourself into last minute cramming or wasting time that could be better utilized for study. So in closing for the year 2001 I hope that I have provided u with some cheap laughs, some valuable advice and all that other lovely fuzzy stuff. Look to the website, I may add stuff over the holidays and send me your email if u get bored enough to consider cutting off your thumbs and feeding them to the goldfish. I am still accepting first born children for sacrificial purposes to ensure a good harvest of knowledge next year. Wisdom: Do as I say, not as I do. Web. www.geocities.com/thewyrmhole