Much to my annoyance, I was listening to "The Tortoise and the Hare" (Elmo's version) for about the 98th time the other day. My two-year-old son likes it, so I do what I can to make sure he's not lapsing into one of his famous temper tantrums – so, shoot me.

Anyway, it got me thinking about the dumb rabbit.

What a moron, right?

What kind of bunny let's a turtle win a race that's measuring speed?

In actuality, the hare was doomed from the start. He was arrogant, and thought that he could take a nap during the majority of the race and then hurry and finish at the end. The ever-wise tortoise knew better. He plodded along, step-by-step, and managed his time efficiently to pull off the big win.

So are you the tortoise or are you the hare? I like to think I'm both – I'm quick like the rabbit and I get things done like the tortoise. In actuality, I'm often just the arrogant bunny taking a nap on the side of the road while email, dishes, laundry, projects, and other detritus of life piles up.

Time management isn't always my thing.

If you're like me, and want to conquer time management once and for all, then we could probably learn a lesson from our reptilian friend. Slow and steady may not be cool, but it'll often win us the race.

Have no idea what I'm talking about? Are you a time management guru? Then share your best time management tip with us below, already! We're drowning over here!

Share Your Best Time Management Tip

Photo © flickr user Rennett Stowe

Want the inside track to the Ivy Leagues (or at least a better SAT score)?

Nick Green, the founder of Ivy Insiders, a tutoring program started in 2003 that's giving tutoring programs like The Princeton Review, Kaplan, and Sylvan a serious run for their money, is offering just that.

So, how does Ivy Insiders work?

Basically, Green, a Harvard grad himself, recruits tutors from Ivy League universities to set up an Ivy Insiders branch in their hometowns during the summer between semesters. These tutors are called "Branch Managers" because each, in essence, is running a small business right in his or her hometown by offering classroom tutoring sessions to students who want help acing the ACT, SAT, or school subjects in general. Many of the tutors also offer year-round online tutoring, as well.

You can find a profile of each tutor, including their past SAT or ACT scores, current majors, extracurricular activities, and pictures right online so you can choose the tutor that best meets your needs.

So far, their track record has been stellar. The average SAT score has gone up by 310 points for students who've purchased 30 hours of sessions with the company, and those 310 points translate directly into dollar signs, friends. Universities offer cash in the form of scholarships for higher SAT scores. Plus, you have a much better shot of getting into one of those Ivy League schools if your SAT or ACT score is the highest it can possibly be.

And if you get in, who knows? Maybe you'll be running your own tutoring/test prep company and making a zillion dollars when you graduate. Nick Green is!

Photo © Flickr user j.gresham

Attention grad students! The GRE may not be your biggest worry if you're trying to get into the grad school of your dreams, especially if you're a slacker.

But people applying to grad schools aren't slackers, right?

Right.

For the most part, it's probably accurate to assume that people headed to grad school are motivated, resilient, organized, and have the utmost integrity.

If that's true, however, then why do nearly half of all students who start higher education programs like masters or doctoral degrees drop out? Don't they have the motivation to continue? The chops? The stamina?

That's what ETS is hoping its new standardized test, the Personality Profile Index (PPI), will find out. This new test, with 24 questions, is a tool designed to measure those immeasurable qualities listed above, and since it's given to faculty members who know the students instead of the students themselves, the results should be fairly accurate.

On the test, five faculty members of the evaluated student's choice, are asked to rank the student on a scale of 1-5 for the above character traits and are given the opportunity to explain their answers. The student obviously has no knowledge of the faculty members' responses.

Although the test can't replace the highly-sought-after recommendation letter, it can provide more info so admissions counselors can determine which grad students are up to the task of masters' programs. And maybe, just maybe, attrition rates will go down as a result.

At least, that's the theory. One never knows if it will work, but I guess it's worth a shot – after all, it's free to send the PPI score reports to four grad schools of choice.

And we all know that slackers love getting stuff for free.

Photo © flickr user nonofarahshila

Think Harvard's business school is just a bunch of stuffy suits with rigid laws and impenetrable doors?

Think again.

HBS recently announced that it will begin taking GRE scores along with GMAT scores for consideration of acceptance into its illustrious programs. Now if that's not flexibility, I don't know what is.

Most applicants headed to graduate school, whether they're going into education, math, engineering, sociology, or a plethora of other fields, take the GRE, the graduate record examination. In the past, the GMAT, the Graduate Management Admission Test, has been the test exclusively reserved for grad applicants headed to business school. And business schools just wouldn't accept the GRE under any circumstances.

So what gives? Why the change?

HBS states that both tests will give a reliable view of an applicant's ability to perform in their MBA programs, and since both measure Verbal Reasoning, Analytical Writing, and Quantitative Reasoning, that makes perfect sense to me. The scores are similar, too.

Maybe the rest of the country's schools should follow Harvard's lead and allow applicants the flexibility to choose the test better suited for them.

After all, high-schoolers get to choose between the ACT and the SAT; shouldn't our grad students be able to do the same?