Need a simple solution to help you compile a bibliography? Try out OttoBib! This no frills site simply asks you to fill out the books ISBN:

Hit “Get Citation” and you will be provided with the necessary information for MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, BibTeX or Wikipedia. You can see the difference in style here:

So head on over to OttoBib to try it out.
- Mal

Looking to save money on school textbooks? Try out Chegg!

Founded in 2001 by three Iowa State University students, the site was created in order to provide an alternative to purchasing expensive course materials by allowing students to rent their textbooks instead.

Students seem to like the service because their revenues went from $10 million in 2008 to $10 million in January of 2009 alone.

Here’s how it works:

Interesting fact: Chegg is a contraction of the words chicken and egg, based on the founders’ experience after graduating from college: they couldn’t land a job without experience, but couldn’t get experience without a job, or a chicken and egg type quandary.

Chegg is also continuing to expand with their eTextbooks, which offer you a greener way to study with lots of added perks. Check out this video to learn more about this new service:

And head over to Chegg to see if they offer books for your College courses.
- Mal

Looking to revamp your presentations? Try out Prezi!

This “cloud-based presentation software opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides.” Using a zoomable canvas you can “explore ideas and the connections between them.” Prezi lets you create “visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery.”

Co-founded by an internationally renowned architect and a profession from the Budapest University of Technology, the site launched in April 2009 .

First check out this video to see how the site works…

And then click here to head on over and start tying it out yourself!

- Mal

Tired of your teachers evaluating you and wish you could asses them as well? Well then you should head over to Rate My Professors and start grading!

They have more than 14 million student-generated comments & ratings of over 1.7 million professors at over 7,500 schools. You should also read the reviews to discover which teachers will inspire and which ones will disparage.

The site also makes for pretty entertaining reading, with some really funny reviews that might remind you of your own educational experiences. Here are some of the best reviews:

• You can’t cheat in her class because no one knows the answers.
• His class was like milk, it was good for 2 weeks.
• Houston, we have a problem. Space cadet of a teacher, isn’t quite attached to earth.
• I would have been better off using the tuition money to heat my apartment last winter.
• Three of my friends got A’s in his class and my friends are dumb.
• Emotional scarring may fade away, but that big fat F on your transcript won’t.
• Evil computer science teaching robot who crushes humans for pleasure.
• Instant amnesia walking into this class. I swear he breathes sleeping gas.
• BORING! But I learned there are 137 tiles on the ceiling.
• Not only is the book a better teacher, it also has a better personality.
• Teaches well, invites questions and then insults you for 20 minutes.
• This teacher was a firecracker in a pond of slithery tadpoles.
• I learned how to hate a language I already know.
• Very good course, because I only went to one class.
• He will destroy you like an academic ninja.
• Your pillow will need a pillow.
• She hates you already.

Click here to check out more!

- Mal

Need a break from practicing for the big test? SAT-com is here to help you procrastinate!

FunnyExam.com is a website entirely dedicated to… you guessed it: funny exams. Check out this Batman themed response one student gave:

And head over to their website for more humorous tests!

- Mal

Wondering which college major is the most lucrative? Bankrate.com has the answer for you. They’ve compiled a list of the 10 top undergraduate degree fields that will train you for a fiscally prosperous profession.

Click on the job titles for more information:

Undergraduate Degree	Mid-career pay	Starting salary
Engineering	$88,600-$155,000	$51,700-$97,900
Computer science	$97,900	$56,600
Physics	$101,000	$49,800
Applied mathematics and general mathematics	$89,900-$98,600	$47,000-$52,600
Economics	$94,700	$47,300
Management information systems	$88,200	$51,000
Finance	$87,300	$46,500
Government and political science	$80,100-$87,300	$39,900-$41,400
Construction management, supply chain management	$84,700-$85,200	$50,200
Biochemistry	$84,700	$41,700

And don’t forget to head over to Bankrate.com for more great articles on college life.
- Mal

Ever wonder what your favorite literary characters would look like? Well The Composites is here to show you.

Using “commercially available law enforcement composite sketch software and descriptions of literary characters” they create drawings of famous literary individuals. For example, the image on the left is their illustration of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins based on the following passage:

• “I watch as Gale pulls out his knife and slices the bread. He could be my brother. Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes. But we’re not related, at least not closely…They erase my face with a layer of pale makeup and draw my features back out. Huge dark eyes, full red lips, lashes that throw off bits of light when I blink…My legs, arms, torso, underarms, and parts of my eyebrows have been stripped of the Muff, leaving me like a plucked bird, ready for roasting…I may be smaller naturally, but overall my family’s resourcefulness has given me an edge in that area. I stand straight, and while I’m thin, I’m strong…Then Venia goes to work on my hair, weaving strands of red into a pattern that begins at my left ear, wraps around my head, and then falls in one braid down my right shoulder.”

Check out the video below for more information on the process:

So head over to The Composites to check out your favorite literary character brought to life!

- Mal

The ACT (American College Testing) is one of the two tests that is required to be taken for college admission in the USA. The other one being, well, the SAT. Today they released their report for 2012 and the results have shown that 40 percent of New York’s 52,771 graduates failed to achieve scores in at least 2 of the 4 subjects (English, Math, Reading and Science).

A typical New York school…. according to Google

If you would like to read more just follow the link below for a breakdown on what this means and how you can judge New Yorker’s by comparing their scores to your awesome ones.

Click here to read the full story.

- Conrad

Looking for a gift for the Bibliophile in your life? Check out GoneReading!

• “GoneReading markets a unique collection of gifts for readers.”

From bookmarks, to T-shirts, to Literary Action Figures, they have it all!

And if seeing an action figure Oscar Wilde isn’t enough of an incentive there’s more!

• “Gone Reading International spreads the magic of reading by donating 100% of after-tax profits to libraries and reading-related charities. Read more about GoneReading’s philanthropic mission.”

Click here to check it out.

- Mal

Have you ever wondered what the people who work with the SAT think about the SAT? Of course you have, it’s one of the mysteries of the universe.

Thankfully Kathryn Juric, the vice president of the College Board’s SAT Program, has just written an article for CNN titled “10 Reasons the SAT Matters.”

I would think you would only need one reason to answer that question but what do I know? I’m Vice President of nothing.

Click here to check it out.

- Conrad

Anthony James-Green, the founder of the Test Prep Authority, has come up with a crazy new way to get higher vocabulary scores on the SAT test. Dumb it down, stupid!

According to Mr. James-Green the critical reading portion of the SAT and ACT is not nearly as difficult as test takers make it and he’s launched a free resource on his site teaching parents and students how to use this to their advantage.

If you’re tired of being smart then head over to his site and check it out.

- Conrad

Want to know which book you’re most likely to enjoy? Ask the YA librarians from Lawrence Public Library in Kansas! These lovely bibliophiles have created a fantastic chart that guides you through a few choices to find the perfect YA book for you. Here is a sample:

And to check out the full chart click here to visit Lawrence Public Library’s Website.

- Mal

According to an article on twincities.com new restrictions have been put in place for next year’s SAT and ACT test takers.

Not only will you need to bring along your photo ID but you will now be required to provide a headshot of yourself that will be screened against your ID and attached to your test scores when they are sent to your school.

Spokesmen for the groups have said that they took this measure to prevent fraud and to give high school students another excuse to look awkward.

Click here to read more.

- Conrad

We did a post on Merriam-Websters Trend Watch a while ago, but if you haven’t checked it out yet we strongly urge you to head on over to their site and discover the most frequently searched words at the moment and how they relate to major news stories as a fun new way to study for your SATs. Some great ones include:

• “Dystopia”

  When: Lookups spiked on March 23, 2012. Why: When the much anticipated film “The Hunger Games” opened, many reviews used dystopia to describe its frightening futuristic setting. Dystopia means “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives.” The word itself is based on utopia, a word that in Greek literally translates as “no place” – since its perfection is unattainable. Dystopia translates literally as “bad place.”

• “Rampart”

  When: Lookups spiked on February 7, 2011 – the day after the Super Bowl Why: During her rendition of the national anthem that preceded the game, Christina Aguilera botched the lyrics and never sang the words “O’er the ramparts we watched / Were so gallantly streaming.” She instead improvised a line that closely resembled a previous line in the song (“What so proudly we hailed / At the twilight’s last gleaming”). A rampart is a wall that is built to protect a castle, fort, or city. Francis Scott Key, who wrote the poem that became the “Star-Spangled Banner,” was observing the British attack on Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in 1814 when he wrote the famous words. Rampart comes from the Middle French word meaning “to protect” or “to defend.”

  .

• “Genre”

  When: Lookups spiked on June 21, 2012. Why: Many reviews used the word to describe the new movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer. For example, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “Genre enthusiasts will lap up the mixture of action and fantasy, while history buffs who don’t mind a bit of rewriting will dig into an alternative spin on the Civil War period.” Genre means “a particular type or category of literature or art.” It comes from the French word that means “kind” or “sort,” and is also the root of gender.

This is a really fun way to learn vocabulary and it also happens to be very efficient because it gives you mnemonics by which to remember words, so head over to merriam-webster.com to check out more Trending Vocabulary!

- Mal

Looking for a simple way to see what the critics think of a book you’re considering reading? Then check out iDreamBooks!

They refers to themselves as the “Rotten Tomatoes” of books because they aggregate book reviews by critics to help you “discover the very best of what’s coming out each week.”

Books that receive positive ratings from at least 70% of critics are marked with a smiley blue cloud icon, while those that rank below are marked by a sad looking frowny-faced cloud. There are multiple ways to sort through their books, including going through by genre and a sidebar on the right hand side quickly links to other items that could be of interest to you.

So click on the link to check out the site.

- Mal

TED is a fantastic nonprofit organization that is devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Founded in 1984 as a conference designed to bring together specialists in Technology, Entertainment and Design, TED has since expanded to encompass a wider variety of subjects.

Along with their annual conferences in Long Beach, Palm Springs and Edinburgh, they also have an award-winning TEDtalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

In their words:
“We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”

So click on this link to find out more.

- Mal

College isn’t just difficult for students to adjust to, but for parents as well. Here’s a website that’s designed to make the transition a little easier. In their own words:

“UniversityParent.com is the #1 college resource guide for millions of parents at over 200 institutions around the nation. We help college parents find out information that they can’t live without – everything from when tuition is due to the closest bank to campus.”

Here are some of the items covered on the website:

• Apartments
• Banks and Financial Services
• Campus Programs
• Care Packages
• Health Care
• Hotels
• On-Campus Housing
• Shopping
• Transportation
• and much, much more…

So click on this link to check it out.

- Mal

Looking to translate something? We have a recommendation to help you out! Frengly.com is a free, easy way to translate into another language.

It works for the following languages:
Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese

So click on this link to try it out.

- Mal

We did a post a while ago about the fantastic book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. The writer of the book has a great game on her website in an effort to Save The Comma!

It gives you a great chance to practice your punctuation:

So click on this link to try it out.

- Mal

Book lending has gone digital through BookMooch. The site “lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want.”

Here are the details right from the source:

• Give & receive: Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you’ve read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.
• No cost: there is no cost to join or use this web site: your only cost is mailing your books to others.
• Points for entering books: you receive a tenth-of-a-point for every book you type into our system, and one point each time you give a book away. In order to keep receiving books, you need to give away at least one book for every two you receive.
• Help charities: you can also give your points to charities we work with, such as children’s hospitals (so a sick kid can get a free book delivered to their bed), Library fund, African literacy, or to us to thank us for running this web site .
• World wide: You can request books from other countries, in other languages. You receive 3 points when you send a book out of your country, to help compensate you for the greater mailing cost, but it only costs the moocher 2 points to get the book. John Buckman, who runs BookMooch, has lived in California, England, France and Germany, and was frustrated by the vast number of books that were printed in just one country and not available in the other countries (for example, many books are published in Britain and never made available in America).

So click on this link to try it out.

- Mal