It's question time: Are you doing what you really want to do?

This is a question many nontraditional students ask themselves: is my job or career fulfilling?

This neat clip art is from the Microsoft Images pages

Other questions could be: Am I doing what I really want to do? and What do I want to do with the rest of my life? These questions answered truthfully have helped many nontraditional students decide to go back to school online or in person.

When I was in high school, I took a personality/aptitude test. I still remember what careers it said I would be good at. One was teaching, one was accounting, one was being an artist, and another was being an office worker. I think. I actually have this test around somewhere.

Now I have taken some more (free) tests online and most of the time I wind up with the same results, but sometimes they give me new and great ideas of things I may never have thought of for myself before.

Do you still have your old aptitude test from high school? Did you take one?

Maybe you have changed since then, and now want to do something entirely different, or give back to the community with your whole life or career.

You can take a personality or aptitude test now. 
These tests can help you zero in on what you want in your life. For many, this can mean finding a job more fitting to their interests and dreams. I found some free aptitude tests online that you may want to take to find out what kind of job suits you the best. Especially if you don't think what you are doing now is really YOU.

Here are some links to explore:
The Fun Education Site Free Career Test (485 questions)
This site also offers a lot of other tests to take.

The University of Kent test page - How to pass aptitude tests with example tests
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/psychotests.htm

About.com's Career Aptitude Test suggestions 

For medical students: The MSAT: Medical Specialty Aptitude Test at the University of Virginia School of Medicine: http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/.
Thanks to the Student Doctor Forums for this one.

And here is my More Career Tests Online page.

Did you find out something great? Leave a comment.

-Betsyanne

Former Nontraditional Student

Some more of my Nontrad links are: The Nontrad site and blog 
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo, and 
Nontrads on Twitter

Scholarships and Grants for Nontraditional Students

Nontraditional Students, Scholarships and Grants

I think that the very best way to go back to school is NOT to have to pay for it. OR at least to put off the paying for it. I'm sure you agree.

That's where loans and grants come in.

I have to admit, I personally went the loans direction. But if I would have decided to go back to school sooner, I would have tried for at least a few scholarships to help out.

I have some scholarships listed here on other postings, but the best place to find them is on the pages Scholarships Page One and Scholarships Page Two on the Nontraditional Student website.

I am fixing the Nontrads Pages right now whenever I can. So you will find some pages looking spiffy, and others having sightly small type and links to things I used to think were cool. But both are interesting, I think.

Another good place to find scholarships is at the Find Scholarships and Grants site I started later on. It's another Blogger blog.

There are different due dates for scholarships, depending on the details of each. Migrate to each scholarship's main page, and you will find this information and more.

As to grants, each grant giver site is also unique.

It is imperative that each deadline be followed. That's why a good bookkeeping system is crucial. Stay organized! And apply for as many scholarships and grants as you can. That's my best advice. One of these days I may take it...

Good luck!

And here are a few more links you might like:
Get organized - and keep track of your scholarship and grant applications

The FinAid page "Financial Aid for Older and Nontraditional Students".
USA Today: Degrees of Difficulty: "Non-Traditional" students struggle with schools, loans.
Fastweb's tips for nontraditional students

And here are more of my Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter

Nontraditional Students and Midterms - how is it going? Are you in the groove?

Nontraditional Students are in the groove this week.

Or are they?

In other words, are you having smooth sailing right now?

This beautiful photo is from the Microsoft Images pages.

It is a busy time for most nontraditional students right now. Some nontraditional students are in the middle of Midterms this week. Others have tests or quizzes. And yet others are working on term papers or other assignments.

Hopefully students are "in the groove", not in a rut, and are sailing along, well-prepared and doing well in all their classes.

How is it going, nontraditional students? Well, I hope.

I will share a couple of links and some ideas to help you with your studying today and through this semester.

The first one is the wonderful Son of Citation Machine site. This site has a handy footnote maker that helps you conform to APA, MLA, Turabian, and Chicago style while you are crediting your sources for term papers. Here is that link:
Son of Citation Machine.

The second one I shared last posting. It is the Joe Landsberger Study Guides and Strategies site. Here is that link:
Study Guides and Strategies.
As I explained earlier, this site helps you study smarter, but using proven learning and remembering methods. It also has lots of other good links to help with projects and a whole lot more.

More ideas

Have you started a study group for your more difficult classes? This is a time-honored method that still works today. The younger people in the study groups I started really benefited from it, as did I. We quizzed each other with questions each one of us thought would be on a test, and it was great to find out that the questions others had were completely different from those I had!

This reminds me, I need to write another posting about Study Group Tips. Be looking for it soon.

In the meantime, here is a posting link to help you start a study group if you want to:
Study Groups for Nontraditional College Students 

Good luck, everyone, on your tests and midterms.

Leave a comment below.

And here are some more links you might like:

Study Skills for Nontraditional Students - get the best grade you can
10 Study Tips for Nontraditional Students
The Power of Study Groups (from CollegeBoard.com)

And don't forget these Nontrad links:
The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo
Nontrads on Twitter

My favorite Study Skills site - the Joe Landsberger Study Guides and Strategies site

Have you discovered the Study Guides and Strategies page yet?

Original photo from MS Images.

I went to check out one of my favorite study guide sites today. This site not only has SO many links to help all students study smarter, but can be translated into many different languages too.

The site is the Joe Landsberger Study Guides and Strategies website. I discovered it years ago, and really admired it. It covers so many different subjects. Now this great website has been completely redesigned, and it has even more information, pages, links, and help on it for students of all ages.

Some of the things he covers here, like Public Speaking, your personal Learning Style, studying with flashcards, group projects, intrinsic motivations of motivation, how to write great reports, and how to memorize things using different methods, are things that were covered in my Education classes.

Teacher Education students may find some of these links and pages familiar. Others can boost their learning speed and test scores a LOT by following Mr. Landsberger's advice.

If you are a nontraditional student who wants to get better grades, study smarter, learn more about research, do better on tests, and stay motivated, the Study Guides and Strategies site is the place to go.

Discovering the Study Guides and Strategies site today could help you ace your Midterms tomorrow. Good luck -  and I hope it really does. Wouldn't it be great to get a SUPER grade in your classes using some easy tips from Joe Landsberger?

And those nontraditional students who are parents, you can share these tips with your kids too.

Let me know what YOU think about the site after you check it out, and what places you went.

All for now,

Here is that link again: The Joe Landsberger Study Guides and Strategies site.
Here is Joe's Travels page.
Joe's CV and Resume

Enjoy!

And here are some of my Nontrad sites and links:
The Nontrad site and blog 
Join Nontrads on Facebook 
Nontrads on Yahoo 
Nontrads on Twitter

Nontraditional Student bloggers, comment about a nontrad blog today!

I love reading other nontraditional student blogs. 
Some of these blogs tell about the day to day discoveries they are making as a nontraditional student. Sometimes I get ideas from them on what to write about. Other times I read them to find out new stories, completely different from my story of when I was a nontraditional student in 2004-6. (I can't believe it was so long ago now!)

Here are just a few nontraditional student blogs you may enjoy reading. I have added their names, where I can. Some bloggers don't share their names, which I can understand. I hope to add to this list soon.

Older Non-Trad Student (Zickbee, An Arizona native. She has graduated, but has some good advice for other nontrads here, plus of course her earlier postings.
Back to School at 40 (or 41) (Jeffrey from Alabama) - this is a new one; I can't wait to read more here.
Diaries of a Neurotic Non-Trad (Nicki from New York, USA)
The Mature? Student (A mature 2nd year female student from Galway, Ireland)
Man Who Stares at Coats (2nd year medical student Patrick from Indiana)
My Life as a Mature Age Student (Caz from Australia)
College Mummy (by Cup O Tea from Glasgow, UK)
Rantings of a Middle-Aged College Student  (Connie from the Ozarks, USA)
Studying Parent (This student has just finished her dissertation. She had been going back to school for about 7 years before that.)

She recommends these additional sites on her blog, which I look forward to checking out.

http://onlyonechance.wordpress.com/ http://oldgirlatuni.blogspot.com/ http://maturestudenthanginginthere.wordpress.com/ http://secretworldofahousewife.blogspot.com/ http://blossom43.blogspot.com/ http://maturestudent102.blogspot.com/ http://vivisunoriginal.wordpress.com/ http://juxtabook.typepad.com/books/ http://workingmumonverge.blogspot.com/ http://bookworld.typepad.com/book_world/ http://aliceinwonderful.blogspot.com/ http://goodenoughwoman.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much for these suggestions,  Studying Parent!

More suggestions:

Undergrad RN (From a "20-something Canadian student"), and
Going the Distance... Three Credits at a Time (Colleen from Maine, USA) She's graduated, but you can see her earlier postings for more.

Do you have some nontraditional student favorites you would like to list? Or would you like to tell people more about your blog?

Leave a comment!

Here are some of my Nontrad links:
The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo
Nontrads on Twitter

Would you call yourself a techie? Remembering Steve Jobs...

Steve Jobs... all students, including nontraditional students, owe him a lot...

Students around computers - from the Microsoft Office clipart website.

I have been learning so much about the late Steve Jobs after his passing yesterday.

He helped to change the world as we know it, by further incorporating tech and computers into our daily lives.

Steve Jobs, the co-creator of Apple Incorporated, helped change the face of computing and how we learn.

He gave new tools to the whole world, really - making research, studying, and lots more a lot easier and quicker. School really has improved today. Notetaking can be done by computer, and instant messaging transfers safety information quickly on school campuses if there is an emergency.

I wish we had these tools 20, even 30 years ago. I think they are great. Now schools teach students using computers in classes, showing presentations on screens in class, and offer online courses with many students and the teacher speaking to each other using White or Blackboard programs.

Would you call yourself a techie? Do you use a Mac, an IPhone, an IPad? Do you order music on Itunes? Did learning how to use a computer help you at school?

A curious mind wants to know! Leave a comment!

"We're here to make a dent in the Universe." - Steve Jobs
"Your time is limited... so don't waste it living somebody else's life..." -Steve Jobs

Some Nontrad links:
The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo
Nontrads on Twitter