Civil Engineering Graduate Shows Students How to Balance School and Work

Sept. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- Over the last several years, university tuition in Canada has become quite high. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the lowest average yearly tuition in the country is the province of Quebec's, which is about $2500. The average tuition bill in Canada was around $5000 in 2012, with Ontarians paying, on average, around $7000 per year. On average, tuition fees had risen 4.3% between 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, and 5% between 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. For 2013-2014, to give a few examples, there has been an increase within the same ballpark at the University of Ottawa in Ontario and at universities in the Maritime provinces (according to New Brunswick’s Sackville Tribune). At the University of Calgary in Alberta, there has been a slightly smaller increase.

What does this mean for today's students? It's going to be tough to pay all of one's bills without a part-time job. For example, in Ontario, students must pay around $7000 for tuition, as mentioned, and around $400 (give or take a hundred dollars) to rent a room off campus. If they choose to live on campus, they must pay several hundred dollars per school year in residence fees. If they are single with no dependents, the maximum amount of funding Ontario students can get from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) is $360 per week. Once one considers tuition, rent for at least eight months (if not the entire year), books and school supplies, and living expenses such as food, times are going to be tough. For some students, obtaining a part-time job may be necessary if they want to eat properly.

Attending university without the requirement of having a job at the same time is hard as it is. Since the job market has been poor in Canada for the last few years, due to the Great Recession of 2008, employers have increased their standards when hiring. This means students must volunteer in order to gain the one to three years of experience which are normally needed now to obtain an entry-level position, while still maintaining better than average grades (there are so few jobs available for graduates, someone who graduated with a C+ average is unlikely to get a job unless they have personal connections to an employer). With the extra activity required of students, and the extra pressure this puts on them, it's easy for them to become overwhelmed and bow out of university altogether. However, they must avoid doing so, because even in a poor economy, university graduates generally have better future prospects than those people who did not graduate.

This is where "Max Grades Min Effort" comes in. This is a new study system introduced by Jacky Truong, a civil engineering graduate of Australia's Griffith University. The program will teach students how to effectively manage their time so that they can fit all their essential academic and extra-curricular activities into their schedules, and even excel at them, while still having a bit of fun on the side. "Max Grades Min Effort" will also show students how to be efficient with their time, putting in the lowest number of hours possible while achieving the best grades possible (sometimes, quality of time matters more than quantity). Truong knows what it's like to struggle in school—before rising to the top five per cent of his class by graduation, he was actually almost flunking out of school. However, by experimenting with different study strategies, he eventually found out which ones would give him the maximum results, while requiring the minimum amount of effort. Now, he wants to share those secret strategies with students worldwide.

The program contains five modules in e-book format, with each covering a specific topic related to studying. Students attempting to balance academic life and a part-time job will find the third module, "The Time-Management Secret," the most helpful. This section contains a handy chart within which students can calculate how many hours they have left for studying each week, after taking the time they spend on their other activities into account. "Max Grades Min Effort" also comes with two bonus features. The first is Truong's Gantt Chart Time Management software, an easy-to-use program which allows students to schedule every single one of their activities on a colourful, easy-to-read chart. The program's second bonus feature, the 14-day Action Plan, assists busy students with getting started on the program.

"Max Grades Min Effort" will regularly be sold for $497, but due to its recent release in August 2013, it is available at an introductory price of $37. One is able to download the entire program immediately after purchase from http://www.maxgradesmineffort.com. After one purchases the product, they get a lifetime membership with the organization, so they are able to receive all future updates for free. All students who have taken on a part-time job in addition to a full course load should strongly consider giving "Max Grades Min Effort" a try, since using it could make the difference between being academically successful or giving up on university. Parents who know their child may be struggling with a busy schedule of work and school should also consider purchasing the product at the current introductory rate.