How To Become A Straight-A Student
đ What is it about in 3 Sentences
- Tips and strategies employed by actual straight-A students from top institutes across the world
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Who is it for?
My Top 3 Quotes
âWhen youâre working, you should be able to concentrate on working, and when youâre relaxing, you should be able to enjoy relaxing. But you canât devote 100 percent of your energy to any activity when you have important reminders bouncing around in your head.â
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đ Summary + Reflections
The Idea of Pseudo-Working
With hectic schedules and long working hours, students never have the time to relax and get their work done. They believe that unless they forgo sleep or social life there isnât enough time available to complete the college work that is assigned to them. The lifestyle adopted by students as a consequence of such thinking and belief involves studying for long hours, relaxing for none, and still feeling a lack of accomplishment.
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However, such beliefs are false. As humans, we prefer short-time tasks. Our brains are dispirited by the idea of spending long hours in active studying. The reason why most people do not achieve what they should achieve despite working for long hours is because of what Jason, a Straight-A student from the University of Pennsylvania, describes as pseudo-working. A pseudo-worker is someone who works hard but because of a lack of focus and concentration doesnât actually accomplish much. One can find such behavior endemic on most college campuses.
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The reason why pseudo working occurs itâs because students place themselves in distracting environments. By working painfully for large amounts of time, students end up getting tired with their brains unable to think clearly and efficiently. However, majority of the students are unaware of pseudo-working. In contrast, all of the streetâs students from the top institutes are aware of and fear themselves from pseudo working disturb. Straightaway students have the ability to get work done with minimum wasted effort. They make use of this simple formula:
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work accomplished = time spent x intensity of focus
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As one can see, there is an inverse relationship between the intensity of focus at which one studies and amount of time spent for studying. Pseudo-workers spend a lot of time studying but with lower intensity and focus. Straight-A-students on the other hand ensure that their intensity of study sessions are always high so that the time spent to accomplish the work is reduced.
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Time Management In Five Minutes Every Day
Straight-A students understand that time management is the key to get the most out of all aspects of college life. When time is managed the uncertainty vanishes it allows one to fully concentrate on the work he or she does I did allows ones to relax without anxiety. There are two things that are needed to manage time:
- Calendar
- To-Do List
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One can manage his or her day within five minutes by following the given steps:
- Record all the deadlines and to-doâs on your calendar.
- Every morning make two lists: Things To Do and Things To Remember, on a sheet of paper. Carry this paper with you throughout.
- Identify the free time available for you on the day.
- According to your deadlines and to-doâs, schedule time for things you wish to accomplish on that day. Fill them on your âThings To Doâ list.
- When new tasks and assignments enter during the day, write them down on your âthings to rememberâ list. Next morning transfer these new items onto your calendar.
- if you skip a few days, all you need to do is restart again.
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Time management enables one to focus their energy and attention on things that actually matter and reduce associated stress levels. Having a realistic sense of time is one of the most important factors in succeeding as a student. Very often students make a mistake of over estimating their free time.
Five Plans To Battle Procrastination
When Call Newport interviewed Straight-A students about procastination, he received responses which were least expected. Rather than being students who had mastered the art of overcoming procrastination and being productive, even the top students often fell into the trap of âdoing-things-tomorrowâ. However, what set them apart from others is that they fought the urge to procrastinate better than others. In his Book, Call Newport introduces the five plans which helped these students to declare war against procrastination.
- Maintain a Work-Progress Journal
If you are held accountable for your work, you will develop a sense of urgency. If your work is left undocumented, you lose the sense of urgency and procrastinate. By maintaining a work-progress journal, you make yourself accountable for your tasks.
A Work-Progress journal is a mini-work management system where you assign all your to-do tasks for the day and cross them off as they are completed. At the end of the day, you have to jolt down the explanation for the work thatâs undone. The simple act of making yourself accountable to your journal lowers down your ego and adds a sense of urgency to your work.
- Eat and Drink Healthy
Low energy breeds procrastination. Your body needs glucose to carry out the daily tasks. Hence, itâs necessary to Maintain your energy and electrolytes throughout the day to fight against procrastination. Make sure to stay hydrated always. Avoid refined carbohydrates and sugars as they will drain your willpower. Make sure to eat food for energy rather than for satisfaction. Also, beware of excess caffeine. While caffeine gives you an instant focus and drive, in the long run, caffeine makes you restless.
- Make boring tasks eventful
Everyone will have to face boring tasks at some point. Some subjects will never interest us. Yet, itâs necessary for us to tackle them. Our urge to procrastinate skyrocket when faced with these boring tasks. One efficient way of dealing with them is by making a habit out of them.
If we can make stuff that we donât want to do into an event, then it becomes impossible for us not to do them. For example, if you have an uninteresting take to do, make sure to complete them in a cafe or some place thatâs far away from your usual desk. By this way, you are not thinking the work alone. Rather, you force yourself to visit a cafe, grace a cup of coffee and get the work done along the way.
- Plan for Hard Days in Advance
You cannot avoid hard days. But you can prepare for them. And preparation reduces hardness. If you can mark out your difficult days in advance such as the week before exams or the thesis submission, you can make preparations that will reduce the load. You can plan in advance so as to make sure that there are a few relaxing days in between the Hard days. Without planning, hard days pile up and they attract procrastination just as how a magnetic north pole attracts south pole.
- Build A Routine For Productive Work
Just like hard days, easy days also breed procrastination. Human beings fail to Maintain an accurate sense of free time. Often, we procrastinate a lot on our free days than on our busy days. If we could identify our ready days and fix certain hours of these days permanently for a fixed work, we would end up with a few fixed hours of productive work done every week. Over time, the work that is done gets compounded to produce massive value which would otherwise have been wasted for Netflix-and-chips.
The Six Steps To Tackling Quizzes and Exams
Most college students are terrible at studying. This happens due to âpurportingâ. The typical student performs route reviewing which involves reading and rereading the content until Information is stored in our minds. This is an incredibly inefficient way to prepare for exams.
Step 6 : Art of Writing Exams
Straight A students master the art of taking exams in a strategical manner. There are five key strategies to taking tests. These are:
- Review the Test Paper before writing answers
Skimming through the paper before writing answer helps us to know the length and difficulty of the exam. This gives our brain the mentality to prepare for what lies ahead. Most significantly, this first step also helps us to relax. By taking few minutes to review the questions, we break the tension associated with the exam.
- Prepare Time Schedule for each Question
Doris from Harvard points out, âI lay down very strict time limits for myself on each Questionâ. This strategy helps to keep attention focused and prevents wasting too much time on a particular question. To set time schedule, subtract ten minutes from the total time and allocate time for each Question.
- Proceed from Easy to Hard
The most effective way to tackle exams is by answering the easiest questions first. It prevents the panic associated with answering the Difficult questions in the beginning and also helps to build confidence throughout the exam.
- Outline Essays Before writing them down
Before writing the essays, outline the important headings and mini-questions on the paper. Then think about the important points under each heading. This saves time and gives us a direction to tackle essays.
- Check the answers that are written
It is surprising to know how many times final review turns up a mistake or an important concept that is forgotten. Double checking answers can make a difference between above average students and toppers.
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