Let’s get this out of the way up front: Never, ever cite Wikipedia on an academic assignment. No exceptions. Anyone can edit Wikipedia entries, and you have no idea whether or not the authors are experts, what kind of bias they have, or whether the information is even correct. Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced encyclopedia that [...]
Archive for May, 2012
Using Wikipedia effectively
Posted: 31st May 2012 by Ryan in Hacks, ResourcesTags: gradehacks, research, wikipedia
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Consistency is King
Posted: 31st May 2012 by Ryan in HacksTags: gradehacks, msword, powerpoint, strategy
I work in training and communications, so I see a lot of presentation, printed materials and writing samples. Some are good, most are not. Sometimes I can’t even tell if the content is good because I’m too distracted by the way the content is presented to pay attention to the thought behind it. If you [...]
How important are grades?
Posted: 30th May 2012 by Ryan in HacksTags: gradehacks, grades, lifelessons
Let’s start this post off with a story of my own naivety and misguided gradehacking. In the last year of my Bachelor’s degree, I’d had enough of school. I’d been in school for almost the entire last 20 years of my life and there was finally a light at the end of the tunnel. I [...]
If you’re like a lot of students, you probably look at a new assignment and start off by wondering how you’re going to complete it. Maybe you give some consideration to the requirements and the evaluation criteria. These aren’t necessarily bad approaches, but in the gradehacks world, your first question should be, “How can I [...]
It’s probably worth revisiting exactly what a grade is and what goes into it. The school system is in place to develop and transfer skills, competence and knowledge. Teachers use evaluation tools to assess that transfer and assign it a score – either a letter grade or a percentage. That letter or number is an [...]