Most studies show that teenagers need 9.25 hours of sleep a night but regularly only manage about six hours on a school night.  The result is that teens are chronically fatigued and perform worse on tests than when fully energized.  Researchers suggest that teenagers avoid caffeine six hours prior toRead More

A five year study just published out of South Korea shows that some form of autism was present in 1 out of 38 children or 2.64%.  This rate is more than 2.5x what researchers previously thought to be the case in the United States (there’s no reason to believe thatRead More

The Houston Chronicle’s small business section featured General Academic on May 1.  Reporter Sandra Bretting showcased our new Study Lounge while talking about the challenges faced by small businesses.  You can read the article at chron.com.

New research is dispelling the old myth that monolingual children have an advantage over children who grown up speaking two languages.  The reason is that children who actively use two languages have more active minds since the brain is always sorting out different input and output signals.  The report suggestsRead More

According to the New York Times, the Educational Resource Board–the company that administers the Independent School Entrance Exam–admitted that it had wrongly scored at least 7,000 upper level tests.  Some of the re-graded tests resulted in dramatically higher scores.  This admission of error comes after most parents have already decidedRead More

The market for Private Schools in Houston is very competitive and the Independent School Entrance Exam, the ISEE, is an important part of the application process.  By excelling on the ISEE, the student achieves an edge over the other students applying to the same school, very much like the SAT,Read More

There are essentially three aspects to language acquisition: writing skills, verbal skills and listening comprehension skills.  When learning a foreign language, the written component is comprised of producing written material, while verbal is, of course, speaking.  Both of these components form their own separate challenges due to the fact thatRead More

Time management is a skill that everybody seems to think is important and few people seem to have mastered.  As a student, it’s one of the most important improvements you can make not only to increase your current academic performance, but also to become more effective in your extracurricular activities,Read More

Learning to take notes correctly is a simple but necessary step to becoming a successful student.  Not only do taking good notes allow you to study for tests more effectively, the act of taking notes actually helps you to learn the material in class, as you write it down.  TakingRead More

Completing one year in school is always an exciting moment for students, but it can also be quite stressful when peering into the near future.  Advancing to the next grade can present many challenges, including how to adapt to changes in learning strategies.  We recommend that students learn how toRead More

Public speaking is an activity that inspires fear in nearly every student.  Developing public speaking skills, however, does not require you to be active in the theatre department, committed to the debate team, or interested in a future of politics and speech crafting.  In this guide we discuss a fewRead More

If your room is a complete mess, a mess that hasn’t been straightened in weeks, cleaning it can feel like a scary task.  You look at the mess and just think “I don’t even know where to begin.”  Getting your grades to improve in school can feel the same way.Read More

Beginning middle school is an important milestone for both students and parents.  The transition to increased academic responsibilities, new social pressures, and a variety of new extracurricular opportunities can seem like an intimidating path to navigate.  We hope the tips contained in this guide will help you turn the beginningRead More

Does your student seem to understand the material one day but can’t remember it the next? Memory retention is most often associated with “rote learning,” which is learning strictly through memorization.  However, memory retention issues surface in all areas of study.  Memory retention difficulties do not differentiate between difficult conceptsRead More

Psychology research shows that the more specific a plan is for achieving a reasonably attainable goal the better your chances are of reaching that goal. Seems like common sense, right? Well, it isn’t always. Organization and planning time for school-work is important for any student. Skills that make a studentRead More

The state of Texas treats home schools the same as non-accredited private schools.  To this extent, parents have great flexibility to teach or have an instructor teach their children in the manner that they see most fitting.  However, parents planning to interact with accredited public and private schools will wantRead More