The holidays can be crazy- but don’t worry! These life hacks will help your holidays go right, and add some extra pizzazz!

#1- Holiday light storage

Sick of tangled lights? All you need to store them right is some clothing hangers. When you’re done with your lights for the season, simply wrap them on the hanger and hang them in the closet until next year.

#2- Tree sap remover

When handling a real tree, things can get pretty sticky. If you get tree sap on your hands, you can actually use toothpaste to remove it. Minty!

#3- Fluff up your fake tree

Alternatively, you can also use green tinsel to fill out your fake tree. If live greenery isn’t your thing, and your fake tree isn’t up to par, grab some green tinsel and wrap it around the inside of your artificial tree to make it a little more bushy.

#4- Gift card balance

If you’ve ever received a gift card as a present, you know that it can be a struggle trying to keep track of how much money is left on it. To fix this problem, just put a file label sticker on the gift card (not over the barcode!) and write the amount left on the card in pencil. That way, you can erase the pencil whenever you use the gift card.

#5- Wrapping paper scraps

Got small wrapping paper pieces? Instead of trying to wrap them all back on the big roll, store small bits of wrapping paper on an old toilet paper roll to keep them organized.

#6- Gift wrapping pro

This last hack is super easy, but will make your gifts look professionally wrapped. Instead of using normal tape to wrap your gifts, use double-sided tape. It will make the presents look seamless!

By: Maggie Alarcon

Getting ready for the long winter, and adjusting to it, can be hard. That’s why you should prepare yourself. Here are a few tips to stay warm.

Dress appropriately:

Layer up, although you might think that big winter jumpers are the way to go, wearing layers of thin clothes will keep you warmer as they trap body heat. Another simple thing you can do is wear gloves and hats and scarfs. Don’t leave the house without being all covered up.

Drink hot drinks:

Drinks like coffee, hot chocolate, and hot tea will also help keep you warm, especially if you are outside at an event or walking. You want be drinking something hot. Clothing only helps trap the heat your body produces and that is what keeps you warm.

Anytime you get cold, the single best strategy for rewarming is to start moving or increase your pace. Just be prepared and always check the weather before going out.

It happens to every writer. It’s inevitable. Your thoughts have turned to mush, you don’t have a creative bone left in your body, and you have nothing to do about it.

Read this article if you need ways to overcome writer’s block!

Go for a walk

Going for a walk will help your brain to take a break from thinking, and it will relax you. Going for a walk will also help with your creatively, for nature is so complex and will help you think about things to write about by simply looking at the world around you.

Change your environment

Maybe move from a closed room to a more open room, it really will change your mood. By moving somewhere else to write it could give you different ideas from looking at the things around you.

Brainstorm ideas with bullet points

This will help you to get rid of the mad ideas, by crossing them off. This will also help you to really think and hopefully give you something good to write about.

Create a routine

Many famous writers have daily routines to summon the Muse. This will help your train of thoughts flow.

Call an old friend

Calling an old friend could bring back so many memories, that you’ve lost, that could be things to write something about.

Listen to music

Listening to music is really effective because its so creative. This could get your mind flowing and you could maybe even write about a certain song.

It’s that time of year where senior’s are the busiest with college applications. This is the time when you get to apply to those schools you have been dreaming to get into, and it can be exciting but, it is a long process and can get very stressful. We have to remind ourselves that we need to take some time for ourselves to destress a little. Here are some tips on how to do that:

Take breaks. After working for several of hours, you can get tired and you’re most likely not understanding what your reading. It’s good to take breaks because you can have that time to just destress and step away from the computer screen. This is a time when you can really just close your eyes and really focus on your breathing.

Be yourself. I know that when writing college essays, it can be be hard because you want to write a good college essay, but sometimes, students write college essays that they think colleges want to hear. A lot of the times, they just want to get to know you and that’s why it’s important to be yourself when writing these essays. They want to hear what you went through  and how it made you the person you are today, and you just need to remember that.

Ask for help. Sometimes, you can be in over your head and you don’t think you’re doing things right. It can be helpful to have one look over things for you just to make sure you’re on the right track. This can be beneficial to you because you can get feedback and notes and can make changes before you hit that submit button.

When beginning school, everyone has the mindset that they want to start school off strong, and do well, and finish off that year. It will be hard, but there are tips and tricks that will help you figure out how to do your best. Teachers play a big role in this because they will be the ones helping you make sure you try and get the best possible grade, but that’s only if you let them help you.

 Starting off my freshamn year, I went into high school thinking that I would be able to do things on my own and be independent. I really just wanted to prove to myself and others that I was able to do things without any help.

Things started off great at first but I eventually started to feel hopeless and felt like I wasn’t doing anything right.

By quarter 2, things started to get harder as we were getting to learn new things. I would always just tell myself that I didn’t need to ask the teacher for help, and i would just figure it out on my own, but then I saw that my grades began to slip.

My self confidence in myself began slip, and I knew that it was time to ask my teachers for help.

When I decided to ask for help, I realized that I didn’t need to be alone, and I had wonderful teachers to help me out. As I started to ask for help, I realized that I got to become closer to these teachers, and I realized that we got along pretty well.

One techer in particular became one of my favorites and I ended being in her class all four years of high school whether that was taking a coure of becoming a TA.

Now, I have realized that asking teachers for help is a good way in helping you become closer with teachers, because they really do help, and you can spark a realtionship with them that you will get to look at later in life.

By:Maggie Alarcon

When it’s close to the end of the quarter, people tend to start panicking and stressing out about turning in their work on time. Most students leave their work to do, or to turn in, until the last minute and end up getting a bad grade.

Although some teachers are flexible,and extend the due date, or let you turn it in later, you still won’t get the grade that you wanted.

During the end of the quarter, you usually get a summative assignment: either a test, or project, or just work.

Your grade depends on how well you do on the summative and how well you prepare yourself for it. It goes easier for you if you actually put in time and study for it.

The whole week of the end of the quarter is very stressful, and you have a lot of pressure to have everything turned in, making sure your grades are good and everything is in order.

I personally think that the SATs are important for many different reasons, but before discussing the importance of it, here’s a brief history of how it came to be.

Carl Brigham, who worked with Colonel Robert M. Yerkes on the army IQ tests, published a book: A Study of American Intelligence. This book analyzed the data from the World War I army mental tests. Brigham came to the conclusion that native born Americans had the highest intelligence out of the groups tested.

In 1925, Brigham devised his own college test known as the Princeton test, and by 1926, he had created the SAT (The Standard Assesment Tests) for the college boards. The SAT would be taken in high schools by students before they would go off to college.

There are different reasons why the Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) are so important. For one, it’s how colleges cormpare your scores to other applicants around the world who have applied to college, so if you have a perfect GPA and a perfect SAT score, college admissions will be impressed, and you would likely be acccepeted into that college.

In high school, if your GPA is not what you were expecting, and is extremely low, taking the SATs might be a good idea because if your GPA is low and your SATs scores are high it can boost up your lower GPA. Because of this, college admissions may accept you into college, and this may even lead to scholarships. The SAT scores can also show a clearer picture as to whether your GPA and transcript are accurate according to your academic ability.

Another reason why the SATs are so important is that the jobs you might apply to may ask for your SAT scores, and if you don’t have those scores, because you didn’t take it, that might lead to you not getting the job. According to an article on Prepscholar.com, a surprising range of companies ask job seekers, from entry-level consulting applicants to senior-level banking applicants, to produce old SAT scores.

Many students that are going off to college may ask, why take the SATs? Taking the SATs can help you get into college because most colleges in the United States require that you take the SAT to compare your scores with other applicants around the world, and also, if you get a high SAT score, some colleges may offer you colllege scholarships and you can get more job offers later in life.

For more information, please visits these sites:

https://blog.prepscholar.com/why-take-the-sat

https://www.ivybound.net/blog/sat-articles/importance-sat-class-2018-2019/

https://www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/test-prep/blog/why-sat-super-important-and-why-its-not/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/where/timeline.html

Procrastination is an easy way that all of us get stuck. And yet, we may not even realize we’re doing it. When we unknowingly act “stuck,” we create reasons in our heads that supply us with enough logic that we can delay the task at hand, but we should not do that. Procrastination might seem like the best thing to do at that very moment, but all that work catches up to you so fast. Here are a few tips on how to avoid the act of procrastinating.

•   Keep a planner. By having a planner it is so much easier to write down everything that you need to get done and when it needs to be done. Plus, you don’t have to actually remember anything when you write it down, all you have to do is come back to your planner

•  Make your own dates. Usually your teacher gives you something to do and then assigns a date for when it’s due, but a smart way to not procrastinate is to set up your own dates. Say your assignment is due on Friday, make a note in your head so it’s due on Wednesday. By doing this, you get things done before everyone else, and you don’t even need to worry about anything procrastination related.

• Eliminate distractions. This is probably the hardest one yet but it really helps. Whenever you sit down to do any type of work, check these things first.
  • Are you hungry? Make sure you eat before you sit down to do work because you don’t want to be getting up to eat.
  • Is your phone vibrating? Turn your phone off and leave it in another room so you’re not tempted to check it.

• Bargain with yourself/treat yourself. If you tell yourself to do your work now, you can hang out with your friends, or go to the movies later. And also, don’t be afraid to treat yourself after hours of work. Be proud that you were able to finish a few hours of work in only a couple hours without checking your phone once.

Are you looking for a good car to buy for your first car? Or a good car for a low price? Here is some information you might want to know beforehand.

Cars under $10,000

Are you a first time buyer or a college student? Take a look at these vehicles, they’re some top sellers with average prices at CarMax under $10,000 as of April 30, 2018.

• Smart ForTwo
• Chevrolet Cobalt
• Dodge Caliber
• Mazda Mazda3
• Chevrolet HHR

Cars under $15,000

On a budget? These five vehicles had average prices at CarMax under $15,000 (based on prices from January 2017 to December 2017) and were top sellers at CarMax in January 2018.

• 2014 Nissan Altima
• 2014 Chevrolet Cruze
• 2014 Honda Civic
• 2014 Hyundai Sonata
• 2014 Nissan Sentra

Cars Under $30,000

Looking for something a little more luxurious? Check out these vehicles with average prices under $30,000, based on CarMax sales data from December 2017 through May 2018.

• Nissan Altima
• Toyota Camry
• Nissan Sentra
• Hyundai Sonata
• Hyundai Elantra

Car seat friendly Cars

Need to transport your youngster(s)? Or do you have a younger sibling you have to drive around? Check out these five car-seat-friendly best used cars.

• 2016 Honda Civic
• 2016 Toyota Camry
• 2016 Hyundai Elantra
• 2016 Chevrolet Cruze
• 2016 Honda Accord

Cars for teens

Are you a first time driver? Check out the best used cars on this list, based on CarMax sales from November 2017.

• 2014 Nissan Altima
• 2014 Toyota Camry
• 2015 Nissan Altima
• 2014 Ford Fusion
• 2014 Honda Accord

Manual transmission Cars

Do you love driving cars with a stick shift? Here are some of the best standard transmission cars, based on available features and sales at CarMax stores from December 2017 through May 2018.

• Honda Civic
• Ford Focus
• Fiat 500
• Nissan Versa
• Mini Cooper

Compact SUVs

Is your crew on the smaller size? November 2017 sales show these to be CarMax’s five top compact SUVs.

• Ford Escape
• Chevrolet Equinox
• Nissan Rogue
• Jeep Cherokee
• Honda CR-V

Crossover SUVs

According to sales and data from November 2017, CarMax customers think these crossovers are the perfect size.

• Nissan Rogue
• Honda CR-V
• Chevrolet Equinox
• Ford Edge
• Toyota RAV4

Electric cars

It is easy being green when you’re driving one of these top electric vehicles, gathered from sales at CarMax between November 2017 and April 2018.

• Nissan LEAF
• Chevrolet Spark EV
• Ford Focus Electric
• Volkswagen Golf Electric
• Chevrolet Bolt EV

Hybrid cars

Hybrids are gaining in popularity with US drivers. Here are five top hybrids, based on CarMax sales in January 2018.

• 2015 Toyota Prius Two
• 2014 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid
• 2014 Toyota Prius Two
• 2015 Lexus CT 200H
• 2013 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited

Luxury cars

For a list of sleek, stylish rides that pamper you with cool features, check out these used luxury vehicles, based on sales at CarMax stores between November 2017 and April 2018.

• BMW 328
• Mercedes-Benz C300
• Lexus ES 350
• Chrysler 300
• Infiniti Q50

Modern muscle cars

We love muscle cars! Here are five of CarMax’s best used cars with heaps of horsepower, based on sales information collected between November 2017 and April 2018.

• Chevrolet Camaro LT
• Ford Mustang
• Chevrolet Camaro SS
• Ford Mustang GT
• Ford Mustang EcoBoost