The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less

This book is good if you're between the ages of 18-22 and live on campus and your main concern is "how do I have enough time to study and party and socialize all at the same time." For a 24 year old online student working full time, this book was useless.

I appreciate all the tips that the author explained in this book. I personally have suffered from a lack of time management. However, after reading the time management techniques, I am hopefully on my way toward a much better semester.

This book gets 3 stars because it is a little bit old and it needs to be updated... Here it goes

So I completed my first year and I want to add some supplemental things to this book to enhance its advice and strategies. First thing, this book does not guarantee to get you an A in your classes, however, it does help you achieve the highest grade that you can get in your classes (yeah C's really help me get to where I need to get through my first year). Did I get my A's this year following the advice in this book, yes and no. I highly recommend students to use ratemyprofessors.com in selecting the professors for the desired courses that they must take. In addition, ratemyprofessor is a very good popular source to find the best professors in achieving an easy A with or without little studying required. Take into account when this book was written, and some of the advice is still relevant today, however some advice is archaic or out-dated and it needs to be updated. One way is, you just can't register for classes without checking the professor's profile. If not, you will have a huge risk of working like a dog in the class that your in and if you follow the strategies in this book, it might not even help you because no matter how much work, time, and studying that you put into the course, your grades are coming back low or you might have to take a risk in taking a W (which I should have done). If the easiness score is above a 3.0, select that professor and I am sure you will have a change in getting A if you follow the strategies in this book.

Next, I do agree about everything in this book when it comes to time management, which is VERY important in a college student's life. However, when the student register for courses, the student needs to be very careful of the times those classes are given, which the author did not mention in this book. Each college student academic schedule is different of course, but sometimes students register for classes that have no breaks in between or simply have a full day schedule is very dangerous because what if you have a test in each class on that specific day?

Lastly, every student has a different studying habit. The strategies in this book is excellent to introduce to you new and proven studying habits, use them wisely! In my opinion, studying in groups is a total waste of time, if you study on your own in a locked room or quiet room where no can disturb you. You will learn exactly what you need to learn and the strategies in this book explains in full detail as well. So therefore, choose between studying among your friends or yourself.

I also recommend getting this book with by the same author, How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country's Top Students.

I'm doing A levels, but thought this book would help me study more effectively. It does have some useful advice - but most of it is suited to college students. If you are one, then this book would probably help you a lot!

The content seemed geared more toward students at small liberal colleges. Some of the advice might be good for GE courses or humanities/social science majors but there wasn't much useful advice for science majors. Some of the suggestions I found really appalling like don't do the technical reading because it will be covered in the lecture!

Its not perfect but is near ... 3 part
first time managing with simple carring book system second how to take notes study and take test and third how research information to write papers and thesis ... short but effective ..recomended !! for any college student ...i will buy the other newport book How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country's Top Students ...Thanks!! Newport

I bought this book based mostly on the reviews. This book is probably best suited for freshman or anyone who hasn't found their learning rhythm yet. Some concepts are common sense (don't study one thing for 8 hours at a time), but there are a few handy tidbits that I picked up (such as: set a time each week that you do certain difficult activities and make it a routine, once it turns into a habit, it's easier to get it done).

There was a lot of filler, talking about how much everyone wants to "drink hard" after "studying hard" just about every other section. If you're looking more at your GPA, a better recommendation would be "Professors Guide to Good Grades".

I can give much better tips than this book in three lines.

1. Make sleep, diet and exercise your #1 priority.
3. Develop self discipline
4. Explore every method of learning - try colored pens, ask your friends what they do, try doodling, keep a journal, etc.

For me, my problem is forgetting what I learned the next day.. so I'll make a screen-capture video explaining what I learned (similar to [...]) which I can refer to in the future.

Newport offers a simple set of strategies to potentially become a straight-A student in college. That being said, I would like to offer an adapted version of his scheduling advice revealed in Part 1 of the book. One problem that was stopping me from following this advice was that I didn't constantly want to take out another piece of paper each day and carry it around with me to jot down things to remember or follow my schedule. My solution requires that you possess a smart phone (I will write in terms of google calendar):

1) SYNC google calendar with the calendar in your smart phone

2) SCHEDULE the activities that should be done the next day on google calendar through your computer right before you sleep
3) FOLLOW the schedule closely on your smart phone throughout the next day
4) JOT DOWN things that you have missed or should remember as they come to you on your smart phone.
You might have to jot the notes down as an 'all day' activity on the calendar in your smart phone
5) TRANSFER the notes you jotted down to the Tasks pane in google calendar at night

6) REPEAT 2-5 everyday (Steps 5 and 2 should be done in the same sitting)

Note that there probably is a better way out there but this way is highly convenient for me.

Some good content is smothered in Cal's tone, which for me ruined my experience with his book. He places judgement on "other students" who clearly have not had the privilege of coming across his groundbreaking new book.

If you don't like my sarcasm, you probably won't like his. In referring to books by other authors, he bashes some of their techniques, following with "Sounds like a great plan!" One technique Newport condemns is one advised by Eric Jensen - acting out situations or making a rap. Thing is: these work! Remember this...? "A gerund is a noun, a gerund is a noun. Oh can't you see the -ing, a gerund is a noun!" He doesn't approve of memorization tools like that. And, while disapproving of acting things out, he strongly recommends as a study technique pretending to lecture to a class while speaking the lecture aloud. (which, by the way, is a technique I stumbled upon in HS that does indeed work very well) But, yes, it seems he knocks essentially the same techniques he advocates in his own special way later.

So, the guy's gathered some great information here, but the tone is elitist. Aside from that, the book is marbled with entertainment, obviously.
Examples:
"hard to conquer"
"two dangers work together in a devilish counterbalance"
"pull off a strong grade without too much suffering"

This, in a book on strategies for college? I pulled those examples from within a span of five or so pages. The book is saturated with fluff and negativity and instructions and tips worded in the negative. Allow me to explain. In bold, we can often find "Don't do this in your head." then in regular print it follows with what we are expected to do. This might seem like a small nuance, but it's a general pattern that I noticed in the author's writing. He goes to great length to explain how typical methods fail. I say, who cares? It makes things confusing by attracting more attention to what we should avoid doing.

As far as the level of insight to be gained, don't expect much unless you did not do well at all in high school. Don't most of us already know to look over the entire test? Skip a question if it's too hard and come back to it later? I think most people who get into college have heard these things before. He recommends we "start with the most approachable questions before moving on to the more forbidding." That's a mouthful of smooth talking for what we've all been told before, if you ask me.

Still, there is an upside. There are good tips and strategies to be found in the book. And, even if nothing new is to be found, it still helps to hear wise words once more.

Still, if you are pressed for time, there are other simple techniques to consider, like the pomodoro technique. It was developed decades ago (and thus out of copyright and available in many places for free) by an Italian who needed help studying. The pomodoro technique, in a nutshell, involves focusing for 25 minutes at a time with 3 to 5 minute breaks in between. After four 25-minute blocks of focused work, take a break for 15 to 30 minutes. It's especially useful for anyone who is easily distracted. Like Cal's advice on studying intensely when you're most focused, the pomodoro technique ends procrastination and allows us to work for extended periods while maintaining our mental sharpness. The pomodoro technique also teaches us how to manage our time more effectively with lists. It's a short, to-the-point technique that has been copied and resold by many people. And, best of all, it can be learned in less than a few hours, even if you read slowly like I do.

To sum it all up, this book has valuable information, but the tone is not for me. I plan to finish reading the rest of it but am glad I won't need to until later.

If anyone insists on buying a book on the pomodoro techqniue, there is one here on the store. (I didn't use this myself.)
Pomodoro Technique Illustrated: Can You Focus - Really Focus - for 25 Minutes? (Pragmatic Life)

I am a junior in college and would describe my academic performance as average. I bought this book so I could learn ways to get my GPA higher, but instead my grades have declined this semester dramatically because I followed the author's studying advice. If you are a freshman in college then this book may be good for you, but once you get into your upper division courses then you may want to forget most of everything you read.

That's it, saved you $11 and shipping.

In all seriousness, Cal is right, but he keeps repeating the same idea, work hard and don't procrastinate, which is what we all know we should without reading it in a book. It's not worth your money simply because it doesn't contain much more than that.

This is a great book. There is a problem with the digital format, the book jumps back to page 402 every time it is opened making keeping ones place in the book incredibly labor intensive. Please fix this!

It's clear Newport meant well and put forth a solid effort in writing this, but I'm only giving it 3 stars because I felt it was very incomplete.The first problem I have with this book is that Newport's tone is very condescending. He openly bashes other books on studying. For all of his criticisms of the other authors being out of touch with the average college student, I actually found much of Newport's advice to be unrelateable for the average student. The students he interviewed are all elite students from top colleges. They are all likely very intelligent, and also likely had very rigorous preparation in high school. Being able to juggle extracurriculars, social life, and achieving straight As with only studying a few hours daily is a learned skill that these elite students have mastered. For average students who haven't mastered these skills, just having the knowledge of how elite students do things alone won't be enough to improve their grades because they lack the same skill level.

My biggest problem with this book is that the advice on actually studying is missing a lot of important aspects. For one thing, Newport downplays the role of route learning / memorization. I agree that going over something you already know 100 times is excessive, but most students who get As spend a lot of time memorizing and then reviewing material many times. A degree of overlearning/overkill is sometimes necessary to get an A in hard classes in which you're expected to know tons of detailed facts, and Newport definitely doesn't make this clear. Also, his advice for handling technical classes is lacking depth. Just understanding all of the in class examples and problem sets is the only the bare minimum required to get through a hard calculus or physics class. For most students, doing lots of extra practice problems is crucial for getting an A.

In closing, I should mention that there are some parts of this book that are worthwhile such his advice on time management. There are also many great basic insights to be found in this book about how successful students study. For example, studying by yourself in short bursts with study breaks is more effective than studying in the library with a group for 8 hours. I think Newport goes a little overboard in trying to distinguish what top students do differently than most students, and forgets to mention that most top students have honed their skills through much trial and error, often over several years. I think this book could be very helpful to any underclassmen or student looking to learn some new tips. However, beware that the actual study techniques provided aren't enough to ensure great grades. Route memorization, lots of practice problems, and many, many of hours of studying (yes even on the weekends if needed) are often required to get really good grades. Don't be misled into thinking you can skip this and still get As just by using Newport's strategies.

Overall I found this book to be incredibly unhelpful and a waste of time.

I suppose that if you struggled in high school and you never learned anything about studying this book would be worthwhile to you. It has a lot of basic, no-brainer tips that most college students should know.

I was highly disappointed with the fact that the author is extremely unrealistic about time. He outlines sophisticated ways of taking notes, writing, and studying yet he declares over and over that you won't spend much time on your homework. You should be able to skim almost everything and magically do these sophisticated, and what I see as time-consuming, techniques. If anything this lowered my sense of self-efficacy for a bit because I felt like something must be wrong with me if I "grind" through homework using techniques I devised in my own academic career that are similar to his. He must be blessed with an incredible memory or something to complete work so quickly!

Instead of reading this book I would recommend you read "Study Smarter Not Harder" by author Kevin Paul.

The book is full of material to look over. Much of it is common sense, like not procrastinating. The book is also very tedious to read. But the biggest flaw in this book is that they fail to mention one of the most effective ways to learn. And that is teaching the material to other people. As a straight A student, I can personally testify to this. The great physicist Richard Feynman said him self, that the best way to learn something to teach it to other people. When you are responsible for your classmate's grades, it forces you to master the material. When you teach to other classmates, they ask you questions you never thought of. It forces you to gain a deeper understanding and also to break down and simplify complex subjects. It is probably the best way to master a subject. Missing this major tip, made the book a failure in my view.

When I saw How to Become a Straight A Student by Cal Newport on the library shelf I instantly decided I needed to check it out. I was interested to see the plan featured for scoring high while studying less. How to Become a Straight A Student is split into three parts. The first parts focuses on studying basics. I really found that planning your day by calendar might be really useful. I think if you plan your day out in advance as the book suggested you should remember all the tasks you need to complete on a certain day. The tips on how long to study were useful as the book said you should only study for an hour or so and then take a break. The second section of How to Become a Straight A Student focuses on how to study and take quizzes and exams. It is common knowledge that most students entering college to not know how to study. I really felt that the tips on how to study for exams were very helpful. The tips tell you how to study for a technical and nontechnical course. The plan on the book is to study less and score higher and the tips features meet and exceed that statement. The third and final section of the book focuses on how to write essays and papers. I felt this was a great section as the tips featured give you advice on how to write the best paper possible in a way where you will not be up all night working on the paper. Overall How to Become a Straight A Student gives you insightful ideas on how to optimize your studying time and how to study better,how to write a great essay without sacrificing your social life. I would recommend How to Become a Straight A Student to students going to college or already attending college and perhaps parents and educators who would like to share the advice in this book with those who are interested.

Got bored of it. If you wanna become a good student just study and be passionate about the things you learn. It's always hard work, there is no "trick" to it. I know it sounds tough and all but you just gotta do it if you wanna succeed. If you fail, dust yourself off and smack that wall even harder than you did last time. Never give up. Also don't waste money on this.

This book lives up to its name completely. The strategies presented in this book, when followed, make academic excellence a habit. You'll never find a closer thing to a step-by-step guide to improving your GPA. You don't even have to read the entire thing (it's not even that big of a book), I didn't and I still got straight A's. Probably my favorite thing about this book was that it didn't just list off "tips." It gives you full-blown techniques that you can learn and tailor to your own college life.

I'll share details about my experience. I achieved straight A's before, occasionally in high school and consistently at technical college, but never at a university. I could no longer skate by with taking good notes and the occasional last-minute cram session. This book helped me most with one of the key points of academic success: time management. This book offers an almost foolproof time and task management system when followed closely. You'll also find techniques for studying, writing papers, avoiding procrastination, taking exams, doing homework problem sets, and it works for any major. I'm a computer science major, and this book would work just as well for a political science, history, biology, education, or engineering major. I could take the study techniques and apply them to writing a program, for example.

I said that you don't have to read the entire thing, and that's true. I skimmed some sections, while I thoroughly read and re-read some other sections to ensure I absorbed everything. I'll also say that you don't have to stick to this book 100% of the time, that would be impossible, and the author knows it. Stuff happens, sometimes you simply don't have enough time. The techniques in this book can be resumed after weeks of neglect. I stuck to this book about 60% of the time over this last semester, the rest of the time I was in a never-ending loop of procrastination and last-minute study/programming marathons. When I got tired of that, I would return to the system and be back on track in no time.

This book doesn't make it effortless, academic success is still hard work for most. Those to whom it comes naturally are either in piece-of-cake majors, are flat-out geniuses, or, most likely, are employing the tactics listed in this book! Cal Newport interviews straight-A students from the top schools in the nation and shares their tactics with you. This book gives you all of the tools you will need to improve your grades in college, while having more free time!

Are you a good student but want to be a great student? Get the book. Are you a nervous high school senior who doesn't know what to expect in college but wants to hit the ground running? Get the book. Are you struggling to manage all your coursework and you simply feel like there are not enough hours in the day? Get the book. It's one of the best investments you'll make. Will you actually get all A's? Maybe not. Will your grades go up if you read this book and actively use the tools it provides? Definitely.

I know the title seems like false advertising but it is really not. All I can say is I went through all of my schooling without ever having gotten straight As. After reading this book and applying it, I've gotten 4.0s ever since. I used to think straight As could only be gotten by selling your soul to the devil or being the next Einstein or whatever. It's actually only about hard work and good time management. You won't regret this purchase. Damn I feel like I'm advertising this book now.

This is the best book I have read about juggling with your classes while still managing to have a life. I got this book at the end of my freshman year this past May and was astounded to find out that managing time for school and fun is as simple as keeping a to do list and a calendar. I wish I had bought this book when I started college I probably wouldn't have dropped 2 of my classes ( I was taking 6 to my advisor's suggestion) and wouldn't be behind in my degree plan. I plan to use what I have read and apply it this coming fall when I start classes again, I am also tossing the dice and taking an extra class to my already full schedule of 4 classes so I can get ahead using these new time management techniques. I love how this book is written by an actual college student who knows first-hand the struggles of keeping up with both your studies and social life. Other books were written by so-called "experts" who have no idea how hard it can get and provide unrealistic suggestions that you can't apply to real life. This one hits the target and provides ways to be a great student and still have fun and because they are so simple there is no excuse not to follow the author's advice. He also knows that not everyone has the same schedule and suggests to improvise when his advice may not work for you at a certain time. This is probably the best book any college freshman can get and read before starting because this knowledge can save them from a lot of anxiety and frustration. College should be one of the best experiences of your life not a huge rush all the time. This book can change your life, I know it changed mine!! Thanks so much to Cal Newport for writing this book.

After about three pages, I knew I was not going to rate this book very highly as I figured it was one of those hyped up books that simply would not deliver. I have already been doing most of what the author suggests in my own way. I stopped reading this book on page 136 when the author assumes that your professor will grade on a curve. If you are going to write a book on how to get straight A's, how could you include this information? Yes, some professors will grade on a curve in technical courses but this should never be assumed. I took a calculus-based physics course and I saw F's in the pile of graded papers. I even swear one kid got a "13" on an exam. I hope he didn't read this book and expect a curve. Of course there was no curve on this test because there was that one nerd who aced it. If I am buying a book on techniques used to become a straight A student, I am looking for advice that I don't already know and I am willing to do all the work and preparation necessary to ensure I achieve similar results. I did not see any of that information in this book.

In the first section the author tells you to keep a monthly calendar and then to walk around with a scrap sheet of paper to jot down new tasks encountered during the day so you can construct a daily and long term "to do" list by transferring these daily tasks to your calendar. I don't know about you but the first thing I bought at the bookstore when I was a freshman were my books, a t-shirt, and a calendar. As far as the scrap sheet of paper he talks about, I've been carrying around a more organized day planner since the fifth grade. The schools even handed them out to us for free.

As far as writing your to do list out on a piece of paper, you should be able to do this mentally by the time you are 18. Before I go to bed, I plan my day out and when I wake up I know the main things I need to do or accomplish during that day. If something else pops up during the day, I can handle delegating it mentally. If you have a problem with procrastination or discipline, you need to read a book on the subject to identify the underlying cause and work around it. Procrastination is a habit that can be unlearned and has nothing to do with laziness. The advice on procrastination in this book is useless. I suggest you read "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore or "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Heavy stuff for 18 year olds but they are good books and highly rated.

Regarding his study techniques, he is against rote learning. I disagree with this. I will give you a valid example. When I took Intro to Psych., We had five tests for that class. One test could be dropped and a bonus cumulative exam would be given immediately after our final exam which would substitute the dropped exam. So in other words, if you get a low grade on the first test, you would have to ace all the others for an A in the class. I was anticipating B's in organic chemistry and calculus so I needed a guaranteed A in psych to make the Dean's List. The format for each exam was 100-120 multiple choice. And not A-D, this professor used A-H. Each reading section for each exam was around 80-100 pages. I'm sorry but the only way you are passing this class is through rote learning or unless your brain works differently than mine. I read each section four or five times over the course of about two weeks and when exam time came, I flew through each page; only getting stumped on maybe two to three questions -and that too I could narrow it down to two choices. I didn't even need to size up the exam once I received it like the author suggests you do. My studying allowed me to plow right through it. I can promise you that the author's study methods for non-technical classes would not get you an A in this class. Not every non-technical course is structured like this psych course but if they are you need to adjust your study habits appropriately. I don't understand how you could use anything else but rote learning for mass memorization classes -especially ones that you don't have previous experience with.

I mean he does have some legitimate advice in here but my problem is that his good advice is common sense. If you're halfway smart, you're probably already working with flash cards and you probably know how to read an article or a passage and break it down into "Main point, Evidence, and Conclusion" format. You're doing a lot of this stuff subconsciously and you don't even know it. Honestly, I use his quiz and recall method every time I read a book and sometimes I don't even know I'm doing it.

EDIT: I actually went ahead and read the rest of the book and it deals with writing essays and term papers. The main point in this section is not to wait till the last minute, take advantage of your professors office hours, and proofread your work. How many of you already do that? It's much harder to guarantee A's on papers than it is on tests.

This is what I have to say about books promising getting straight A's. If you take 10 equally qualified students from around the country and send them to the same college for the same major, you have no idea what kind of academic background each of those students is coming from. If one student is smarter in math than another, the smart kid will have it easier in the calculus course. If another student is a history buff, naturally he or she will be more inclined to ace the history course. The bottom line is that everybody is different, everybody learns differently. During the first two weeks of any course, you have to feel the course out and adjust your studying and effort to that. For example, I had a useless philosophy course which only required three papers and attendance to pass. The professor was a hippie and really laid back and I knew very early that it would be an easy class. I had a needlessly hard comparative politics course which required two exams, papers, four extremely dry books, and debates and it was taught by a visiting Yale professor. I also took orgo with lab that semester. Obviously, I spent less time on the philosophy course and devoted all my time to orgo and the political science course. I felt the professors out in the beginning and adjusted my time and study habits accordingly. Normally, I wouldn't devote as much time as I did to a political science course but in my case I had too.

My advice for straight A's is to take college one semester at a time, and use whatever methods YOU need to make the grade even if some people might think they are not practical. This book does not give you a magical study method that you have never heard of or used before. Just because Cal Newport made straight A's does not mean you will because you are not Cal Newport. I had a friend during college who was a biology major and was in the seven year pre-med/med program. He ended up accepting another offer to the UPenn school of medicine. He also took engineering courses for fun and aced them. He was one of the most relaxed people I knew and there was a certain balance to his life that I cannot understand even today. People like this do exist and I don't believe that it is necessarily genetics but you better believe his study habits started when he was in grade school and he was probably a standout preschooler as well. He did not read a book like this and get those types of grades. I also want to add that his home environment was probably more conducive to this type of performance as I know his dad was a doctor. Maybe Cal Newport is like him but I am not and most of you probably are not. That doesn't mean you can't get straight A's. It means you will be working harder than these two guys to get them. I guarantee you if my friend gave me his study habits, I would not see similar results. Lets imagine that my friend and Cal are represented by "Jason" from UPenn and "David" from Dartmouth --two of many straight A students surveyed in this book. Just because they offer a certain method, it does not mean it will necessarily work for you.

If you can get into college, than you already know how to study, it's all about pushing yourself and challenging yourself to go above and beyond what you were used to in HS to meet the demands of a college curriculum and to learn something in the process. There is no secret formula to winning at college. Also, when I'm paying roughly $20000 per semester to obtain a degree that I chose to pursue voluntarily, my academics are first and my partying is secondary. If I have to miss an event because I have a calculus exam in a few days and I'm not 100% confident that I am prepared, then I'm missing the party. Trust me, if you don't have a social life or hobbies, you will become weird; I understand that. Free time is good but it is not guaranteed and you should not study in a way where free time becomes your goal. Some people are just better at this than others. Of course the author does suggest constructing the calendar and to-do list to help you manage your time. However, if your specific study methods require all-nighters (I don't recommend them either) or more study hours to get high grades, then that is your method and there is nothing wrong with that.

I'm sorry for the long rant but this book just made me mad because it suggests something that it does not deliver. I know the author wrote this with good intentions but the premise of the subject matter is way to broad to apply to the entire student population. I also bought the Adam Robinson book titled "What Smart Students Know" and another book titled "How to Study" by Ron Fry. I will update this review if I can recommend another title. I don't think any book promising straight A's will deliver on that promise. I do want to say that I read Cal Newport's other book titled "How to Win at College" and I liked that book more than this one. I gave it a much higher rating because it gives you advice on creating an environment that encourages optimal learning and productivity so that you can be in a better position to get straight A's.

Regarding getting straight A's. I think that this is more of a motivational and "how to learn" issue and I came across a good book aptly titled "Motivation and Learning Strategies for College Success" by Myron H. Dembo. Judging by the table of contents, it appears more appropriate for understanding how to get straight A's.

For now, I think this book is not worth your time and money. It is mostly filled with common sense, some assurances, and is light on specific advice on how to get straight A's. I gave it two stars for effort.

I rate this book 4 stars only because there is tons of great study advice on his blog that should be included in this book! This book does have some "basic" advice in it as other reviews stated, but combined with the info on his blog and your own personal study habits you can really cut down on "grinding".

For instance, in this book Cal points out the pitfalls of highlighting: You have to go back and read it again, which wastes time. He also discusses taking notes in the QEC format, and mentions how having your readings for technical classes available during class make lectures easier to follow and understand. While QEC notes are great, it is hard to do this in class, even with a laptop. His blog mentions the "morse code method" where you essentially identify the components of your potential QEC notes by marking a dash next to main ideas in your reading material, and mark dots next to information supporting that idea. When I'm in class I jot down as many questions as possible. These questions capture big ideas of the lecture, and help me create a practice quiz for later. During slow moments in lecture I skim the reading and mark up my book with the morse code method. I then read the text after class (as recommended in this book) and take QEC notes based on the questions I captured during lecture, and the morse code marks I put in my book, which makes note taking that much easier. This is more efficient than highlighting, because it doesn't just say "hey this is important" but also says "this is a big idea, and this over here supports this idea."

One thing that is definitely lacking in this book is advice on how to deal with memorization. You've all been there: languages, cellular respiration, medical terminology, taxonomy and phylogeny, functional groups. I'd say that the best way to deal with this is quiz and recall (as Cal introduces in his book) with a twist. For chemistry, make a list of functional groups, write some elements and ions on some post-it notes, write some dashes for single and double bonds on post it notes of a different color, then Q&R the functional groups- rearrange the post-its until you've built each one without checking your textbook. Then save your post-its for later. Same goes for cellular respiration: write down the enzymes and substrates, and reorganize them in order until you've got it memorized. For taxonomy, I'd write the characteristics in jeopardy style questions on index cards, Q&R, and then group the cards into groups. Then shuffle and repeat. For terminology, write composite words on index cards for Q&R. In a notebook, fold each sheet of paper into two columns, and write the root (suffix, prefix, whatever) in one column, and the meaning of the root on the other. Q&R the meaning of the vocab word based on the roots in your notebook. For tissues bones, and other anatomical structures, scan pictures from a photographic atlas, shrink them to fit on the largest index cards you can find, and glue the image to your card. On the back of the card write the number and name of each structure. On the image, number each structure and then cross out the name of the structure if it is labeled. Then Q&R.

There are plenty of great things on his blog that when coupled with the information in his book really do cut down on the amount of time you spend studying. With respect to other reviews, I would also have to agree that this book is excellent for undergraduates, but probably won't help people who are in grad school. I haven't finished undergrad yet, but I assume its balls-to-the-walls-all-hell-breaks-loose with respect to the demands of studying, synthesizing information, and learning in grad school ^-^. There does seem to be more emphasis on nontechnical study tactics in this book, but if you adapt his advice to your courses you'll get a lot out of this book. For example, his advice for master problem sets is applicable to more than math courses. Chemistry and physics students would greatly benefit from these same strategies. His QEC notes are great for nutrition, psychology, physiology, and environmental science. The time management tips are great for a foundation, but I'm a bigger fan of his "visual panic schedule" which is published on his blog. While the case studies in his book are realistic and refreshing, the case studies on his blog are much more inspiring! I highly recommend the book, because there are a lot of useful tips that are *only* published in that book and do not reappear on his blog. BUT there is a lot of stuff on his blog that I find equally helpful (and there is more of it). Buy the book, and read the blog.

This slender tome contains a wealth of simple, accessible information which can help push an average or straight-A-but-struggling student to the top tier. I was already a high-scoring student before reading this book, and I was surprised to find many strategies I had independently formed through trial and error to be elucidated by Newport. Thanks to this, I was able to identify weak points in my strategies and pick up new tips to make my academic experience better all-around.

If you are struggling and doing poorly in classes, this book is not for you. However, if you are looking for that extra "oomph," this should be required reading.

This is good, but it's a bit oversold and gimmicky. The author keeps going on about this 'amazing new system.' I think if you don't take what he's saying with a grain of salt you could be misled and even study suboptimally. I'd actually suggest you read Secrets Top Students Techniques College ebook which contains all of (and more of) the same information, but without the hard sales pitch and a more realistic attitude - that, yes, you WILL still have to work hard and one persons method may not work for everyone.

Honestly, I knew a lot of the things I should be doing to get better grades. Keep organized, don't cram, don't procrastinate, etc. etc. But I always ended up doing these things anyway. But when I picked up this book, something literally clicked. Seeing the simple words put into an easy to read, easy to reference book was extremely helpful. Even if you know a lot of the tricks already, it does a world of good to READ everything you need to know. No fluff, no complicated methods or dozens of ways to do things. No 'find out what's best for you'.
It's clean, short, sweet and simple. A perfect way to gain control of college life.

I got this book for my son as a high school graduation gift, expecting it to be abandoned, unread, like so many "parents advice" books given to teenagers. But over the summer he poured through it, and told me it was really good.

My son has just finished his freshman year at Emory University with a 3.85 GPA. He worked hard with a challenging course load, but he also had a great freshman year, joining a fraternity, participating in sports, and having a balanced social life. "This book really helped me do that," he told me.

As a college and career coach, I recommend this book to my students when they go off to college. The proof is in the pudding.

I am a part-time student and I also gained a lot from this book.

Some of the main points:
- Smart students used their time wisely and don't spend hours per day madly cramming for tests but instead study a little bit per day. Smart students think about what they want to cover in a study session and stop when they've covered what they intended to cover.
- Smart students plan their day by tracking in a Daily To List spending 5 mins per day creating a daily schedule.
- By using smarter studying techniques, most people can spend less time and achieve better results.

Book covers different class types and how to study for each. Attend class and pay attention during class are discussed. Ask questions when things are not clear. Use your classmates to help you understand rough spots.

Excellent discussion of test taking strategies as well. Also, advice on paper writing.

The format of this book -- interviewing straight A students and getting directly from them their study habits and test taking strategies made me really pay attention to what the author writes. I thought interviewing successful students was great strategy in writing the book. Adds much more creditability. Plus, the author has achieved something like 30 straight A's.

Overall, I got a lot of value and tips from this book; well worth the ten dollars!!

Prior reading this book, I was in desperate need to improve my study habits. I entered my junior year using the same techniques I used last year, which was extreme rote review, and the effort put into studying has never deserved the credit that I would expect from quizzes and tests. This book will help you find a great opening, a way to study less and learn more by using a different method. As I practiced and started learning the suggested tips, my grades increased and my stress reduced greatly. Time management and your study skills are two factors that this book highlights greatly, which plays a critical role in achieving well productivity. Not only has this book helped me with study techniques but also writing essays both critical analysis and research papers. You will be able to craft a paper using the suggested steps explained in great detail and it does make paper writing much easier. Instead of staring at a blank screen and trying to think what to write, the author guides you through a paper writing process starting with a well developed topic, then thesis, and crafting a topic outline that sets the stage to write. I use these steps to write my critical analysis papers and indeed they make life much easier and less stressful.

I regard this book as a great reference for students. Whenever stuck with a research paper, use this book to jumpstart your research paper and tackle the project early. Whenever in need for study techniques for both technical and nontechnical courses, use this book as a reference guide for really good suggestions to getting a better grade.

This book has changed the way I studied and has demystified the common mistakes that most students tend to make. When I picked up this book, life became much easier.

This is a great book for any college student. I am a college student myself and this book really helped out with getting me more organized and focused. Before, I didn't really have any system and i was always falling behind on stuff and also forgetting assignments. With the help of this book and the great little tips it has, I got myself more organized and now, honestly it is easy to keep track of all my stuff going on at school. To put it simply, I have been getting A's since I read this book and applied some of it's techniques. But you also have to start working hard. This book just tells you how to manage your time better, but you have to out in the time to get good grades.
Overall, great book. I recommend it.

This book is amazing. I am a ninth grader taking all honors classes at a competitive high school, and I was so overwhelmed at first. I turned to this book, and I am so glad I did! It has very practical advice for organization, studying for tests, and writing papers, and I would highly recommend it for both high school and college students. It is unique because his methods are very simple, yet innovative and extremely effective. I've seen some studying books that require twelve steps to get a reading done! In addition, they are great for modifying as well to make them suit your lifestyle. Although I got 2 B's after reading this book close to the end of the first semester, I am working my way to straight A's right now!

Cal Newport is a grad student at MIT, and he is getting his PhD this year, I believe. I would highly recommend his blog as well, Study Hacks, as it has a lot of information extracted from his books and some of his newer methods as well, such as the "Zen Valedictorian" idea. Here's the link:[...]

This book is awesome! It's not a book based upon some theory but a book based upon practical skills developed by hundreds of real straight A students. That's what I like about it.

It's a homegrown system so it eliminates all unnecessary practices. Many of these techniques I had learned in school which allowed me to get straight A's. But some were very new to me and very interesting.

I definitely would highly recommend this book.

I am currently a freshman at a very large, research based university and I think this book helped me to survive classes where the average test score was a C. I started reading the book over spring break right after midterms. Before I read the book, I had horrible grades in two of my classes. One of them was math. My professor gave me two test and I got an F on one test and a D on the second. After I applied Cal's techniques, I made an A+ on the third test (my score was the highest in the class) and an A on the fourth test. On the final, I made another A! My final grade jumped from a D/C- to an A. The next class was social science which consisted of two test - midterm and final. On my midterm, I studied and got a C on the test! I went home crying because I studied so hard and it didn't pay off. I applied the Cal's Question, Evidence, Conclusion technique to my study guide and his tips for helping with remembering definitions. On my final, I got an 89 on the test and a B+ in the entire class!! WOW!

I highly recommend that you read this book if you are a freshman in college. Even though you might have been a straight A student in high school, remember that college is a whole different ball game. Professors want you to memorize concepts NOT facts, If you don't know how to apply the concepts to real life situations, then you will do poorly on the test - no matter how long you studied. My unweighted cumulative GPA is a 3.9 and I think this book was the biggest key to my success.

With that being said, I don't think you should read this book if you already get good grades because many of the concepts will seem like common sense to you. I totally skipped the essay writing section because I am a very good writer and the lowest grade I have ever gotten on a paper is a A-. Most of the sections do apply to liberal arts courses but many sections like the quiz and recall section and creating good study habits can be applied to any major.

I know that this may sound like i'm one of those people who say oh it really works or something like that but before buying this book I was in a real predicament. I took the advice of one of my friends and stupidly set up my college schedule so that i would be going to school for only two days taking four classes each day and what a bummer that turned out to be, my semester G.P.A was a 2.5 i felt like i just wanted to quit after doing something so reckless and i have myself to blame but i thought there must be a way to make my Fall 2009 semester better and while searching Barnes and Noble stumbled across this book. I religiously followed the techniques and to my surprise when my college released the grades for fall 2009 i stared in shock at my report card as I actually saw for the first time in my academic career straight A's now I feel like I'm a chosen one and i'm looking forward to applying the same methods for spring 2010 semester Kudo's to Cal Newport for this book. When I followed it as well as adding in my own techniques the results were amazing u don't have to be a grind after all:) by the time i'm a senior i should be well on my way to the grad school of my dreams THANKS Cal Newport.

The book is for students who wants to get high GPA but also don't wanna give up their party life and etc. It gives a lot of easily appliable methods to help you really keep up with the classes you have a hard time with. It brought up my semester GPA to 4.0.
However, one thing you needs to pay attention to is don't try to copy the methods all the time. You may want to adjust them until they fit your life style. For me, I am not used to plan every morning, so I changed it to nights. The daily plan can not be done within 5 minutes as mentioned in the book, but 15 minutes should be enough.

Bought this book along with some others for my daughter in high school she goes to a private art school with a very college style of teaching and grading so felt it might work for her. I decided to review the books so that I just sent her one that would be easiest for her to get pick up techniques from.
This book had the best ideas, but I have to be honest they are buried among a great deal of "garbage" that is going to frustrate a student looking for some quick ideas. As has been stated in other review the first chapter is spent bashing the other books that are out there.
Other chapters spend the first section selling you on why this tip is going to be good. Then a tiny bit of the technique maybe a case study on how it works and you are done, maybe five techniques in total.
Tends to assume that all teachers have the same teaching style for a type of course, which we all know is not true, I have had the professor/teacher who did put the information from antidotes on the test, or tiny details that were not reviewed in class just to make sure you did the reading.
This book is better that a lot of books out there, but honestly feel like much of the readers time is wasted, the book could have been put down in half as many pages and been much easier for a student to understand and apply.
Again the techniques in this book are good but realize this is not going to work for every class but I would say most, and you are going to have to shuffle through a lot of extra material to get the gems out of this book.

I was a decent student, getting mostly B's, when my friend, a Presidential Scholar and straight A student needed some help. His need for an ordinary student's perspective on this book led to me, and I decided to give the suggestions Newport gives a try. I immediately saw an improvement both in the amount of work I was able to achieve, and the quality of the work I was able to produce. I found that I had more time than ever, which led me to throw myself into college hard. The semester before I read this book, I managed to get B's in all of my classes, except for one gen ed. The semester after I read this book, I got A's in all but one class, differential equations, where I received a B. This semester, I am happy to report, for the first time in my life, I have successfully achieved a 4.0 GPA for a semester. I recommend this book highly, and plan to continue following its advice.

My younger son spent a semester at a US university with a partial scholarship. We live in Hungary, and the rest of his bills almost made us bankrupt, so it was important that he perform. I bought Cal Newport's book for him. He read it and made copious notes which he then took with him to the US. He signed up for 5 courses, and guess what he has become? A "Straight A Student" : ))

I read Cal Newport's other book, 'How to Win the College', a year ago.
It helped me a lot when I went through my freshman and sophomore time.
I understand some of people complain about how not special some of the tips in this book are. If you start to read without too much ambition to find out superpower and magical secret for getting good grade, however, this book is worth reading.
It is true that reading these tip such as changing places when you are studying might sounds too typical.
But if you are college student, don't hesitate giving it a try. It is different just reading it from experiencing in your real life.
Then, you can easily notice many of tips in this book could help you save time and effort.

Cal Newport has done it again with this smart, serious, streamlined little volume that cuts straight to straight As. All the other 5-star reviews are right on. This book is invaluable and different from anything else out there. All the other books on getting great grades are dated and not very appealing or useful. And all the other books about college success (except Cal's How To Win At College) are written by well-meaning adults who nevertheless dumb things down or miss the point. "Straight-A Student" is awesome! The strategies are carefully researched and developed, and they are sometimes things you wouldn't think of...or at least that are a lot simpler than you'd imagine. They are preapproved by straight-A students around the country and best of all are designed to give you lots of extra time for having a life.

In high school, I was one of those kids who really skated by. Naturally, once I started college this year that no longer cut it. Throughout the semester, I started to incorporate strategies from Cal Newport's book. Not only was it overall one of my best academic semesters to date, but it also helped me relax and gain a sense of perspective about my academic future. I also read both of Newport's other books, and recommend them highly. This book is the absolute best thing you could give a student about to go into college, or one who is struggling and needs a little guidance, but not to feel pressured and hopeless. My copy is now tattered and torn for how often I've referenced it and lent it out to my friends!

I am only half way done through this book but I whole heartedly agree with many of the principals laid out here. Even if you don't use all the advice in here it still is good to hear the opinions of straight a students if you wish to learn from them! Studying smarter is better than brute force studying. It's more effective use of your time and will lead to a happier work life balance

Every book says that it's The Answer to your problems as a student. There's a lot of authors out there with some good ideas that should probably work. Absolutely none of them can match a book that is filled with techniques that actual straight-A students use.

And not just this one straight-A student, but SEVERAL straight-A students from SEVERAL schools. It starts with the question, "What are these academically successful students doing differently, and why do they have so much time for a social life?" and then goes into detail to show how any student should be able to pull it off as well.

Sadly, this book didn't come out until after I got my degree, but I'll be applying to law school this year and am now less afraid of what it will take to do well when I get in!

This is book is must for any student, at any level of education. I read this book before my last term, and using Newport's advise, I received my first ever 4.0 GPA is college. If you combine his tactics with honest hard work and motivation, you should see some results.

I am a financial consultant that works with parents (with a high school student) to reduce their college expenses and assist them with helping their student create the best college experience possible. I found a recommendation for this book on an education blog and ordered it to see if it might serve as an appropriate gift for the students I work with.

I have a son who is starting his sophomore year in college. He was home this summer so I thought he could serve as the perfect reviewer. (Just to give you a little background, my son is a very strong student that is very organized and feels he has developed good study skills. Yet he admitted that he found the coursework at college to be very different than in high school and that he was caught off guard during his first freshman semester.)

I asked him to read the book and let me know if the author's tips would be helpful to him or other students. As he read, he made various marks in the book to indicate where various pieces of advice given is relevant and helpful. Once he had finished reading the book I went through it and boy did it have lots of marks noted throughout! He highly recommends the book and believes it will greatly assist him with his studies in the coming year. He feels the book would be most helpful to students once they complete their first semester in college. He believes this because until students have experienced classwork at the college level, they will not be able to relate to the material nearly as well since the author shares so much about his personal academic experiences. Having already completed his freshman year, my son said he could totally relate to many of the examples the author cited, which helped make the author's suggestions more credible to him. My son is typically a tough reviewer, so his enthusiastic endorsement of this book confirms for me that it will serve to be a great gift for the students I work with.

Deborah Fox
[....]

I'm not a student anymore, so I don't know if this would help anyone become a straight A student. But I can say that I wish I had had this in college. The tips are really great and I've applied them to my general lifelong learning projects. Highly recommended.

I LOVE this book! I am heading off for my first year in college in about two weeks, and I know without a doubt that this book has saved me from much pain and meaningless hours of unprofitable study time. My plan was to just jump on the boat of tradition of how the normal student studies and prepares for class. I am so thankful that Cal has showed us a better, more effective way!! His book makes sense and is very practical. I love how he gives examples of how students can apply step by step the ideas he presents.

I desire to do well in college and now that I've read this book I believe I can. Now that I know how to study effectively and use my time wisely, I am confident of my journey ahead. Thank you so much, Cal, for your excellent book!!

This book is wonderful and very useful! I am a graduate student in Computer Engineering. And I have a very crowded schedule. So, I badly needed something like this.
I recently bought this book from the store and I did not expect to see the results so soon. But, the techniques outlined in Cal's book are very easy to understand and implement. In fact, they are so simple, one would think why didn't that come in his/her mind before. And the results that have shown up in last 3 weeks are more than amazing. I am much more productive, attentive in class and the test went really well! I wish I knew this 4 years ago. My undergrad would have been much more productive. Also, I will strongly recommend the students to visit Cal's blog for more motivation.

Cal Newport has mastered the art of being a Straight-A student.Cal's book and blog will teach any student dedicated to academic success to become a straight A student.The book will help in Computer Science,Math,Physics,English,Finance,or any discipline that you are pursuing.I scored the top grades in the toughest Computer Science classes at my college UMUC.Cal's book and blog will help you.I recommended it to all my classmates at UMUC and I recommend it to anyone interested in being the best and getting straight As.

I love this book and it has really helped me to do more work with the time I had! I was already an A student but this book helped me to spend less time getting the As. I believe that it could easily help any student raise their grades and it is full of helpful advice and tips. I've read it four times now and learn more every time I read it.

I've been a C student my whole life. I liked learning... but hated school.

After this book, I've been on the Dean's List for the past 3 semesters. This book will actually show you how to study less and get better results. I wished I read this book early on in life. I highly recommend picking up a copy.

This book is one of the best I have read in regards to university education. It eliminates all the guru ideas, and only gives advice that truly works. I have attempted to follow this advice for the past few months, and I can honestly say that I have learnt more through less studying, and I now have a lot more free time than before.

I recommend this book to any university students, however it is aimed more towards non-technical courses (eg. arts, law...). This would really benefit you if you have to write long essays and reports at short notice.

I picked up this book out of curiousity, and was impressed. I never thought reading about studying would be fun! This book is smart, practical, authentic, and realistic. I was surprised how often the studying advice Newport uncovered matched the research I have been exposed to as an education grad student. I don't agree with every single point Newport makes (for example, his importance hierarchy for reading assignments is not going to work for all majors), however I would definately reccommend this book to any college student who is serious about succeeding.

Just read through the entire book yesterday. To put it bluntly, this is a must read for any student. How to be a straight A student is both a how-to and a manifesto. Cal informs us that we don't have to set ourselves up for pain to be at the top of the class. Instead, we can set ourselves up for academic success. The strategies outlined and examined in this thin little red book will help us do just that. Well worth the purchase.

The advice in Cal Newport's first book helped me get through some tough times in college and eventually win acceptance to the law school of my dreams. I passed down my copy to my younger brother, who is now himself a college sophomore. He seemed to enjoy it, and his grades did pick up some this year, so when I saw that Newport had come out with another book, I picked up a copy of this one for him as well. Looks like more stellar stuff, and I really believe it will help my brother to perform well in college and to achieve many of his goals.

I bought this book because I had a schedule jam-packed with hard classes and labs that ate up a lot of my time. I got through my freshman and sophomore years in college fine without cutting into my social life, but based on the reviews this seemed like the perfect solution.

So what's good about this book? The time management skills are great and will prove to be helpfull beyond your college career, but many motivational books contain many of the same ideas. That's fine, these are proven techniques that will surely help most students. The studying techniques (ie. How, When, and Where to study) are good, and not things you will read in your average "Get Good Grades" book. The quotes from real students make the book personal and relative to your average college student which is a huge plus.

The problem is promise of becoming a straight A student by studying less. The answer from the book is; study harder in less time. The examples include writing papers for history and problem sets for basic math. These skills just aren't applicable for pre-med, engineering, or any kind of technical course in which doing well is directly related to time spent on the material.

This book is made for freshman college students, and could help even sophomores and junior students, but beyond your gen-eds, this books will provide mediocre help at best.

And I know what you're thinking, "Dude, you're pre-med, you're and idiot for thinking that a book could help you get better grades by studying less."

Yes, I was. Please, take the other reviews with consideration. Reading this book wasn't a waste of time, but it was a HUGE dissapointment.

This book offers proven, practical advice for succeeding in college. Newport has done a great of job culling strategies from "the pros" that will teach any motivated student how to study smarter. The strategies are presented in a clear, concise, and easy to read manner, and can be implemented on day one of classes or at any point during one's college career. Earning higher grades without spinning your wheels is one of college's great challenges. This book is the guide on how to do it.

I read this before I went back to school. Three times. I couldn't suck in enough of this guy's advice. I then subscribed to his RSS feed, and still don't feel like I have truly hacked the system. This book has helped me so much.

Cal Newport is the only author who gets it -- that college isn't about being a grind or a party animal (or something into which you get in and pay for, and then authors forget about you). It's so nice to see in an ocean of weak admissions guides and "survival guides" an actual explanation of how to apply and develop one's mental and social faculties.

I'm currently a student at Tufts University, and before reading this book I was a real "grinder" when it came to trying to get a good GPA. I really didn't have a stellar social life because, due to my previous study methods, I needed to study for hours on end in order to excel academically. I did well, but not insanely well, and it always felt like I was under a time crunch to finish my work.

But the most frustrating aspect of my early college career was the sacrifices I had to make to my social life to get an above-average GPA. Every time I tried to make time to go out and have fun, my grades suffered.

Enter Cal's book. After reading this book and applying his techniques, I was able to take the hardest course load I ever took (5 science/engineering courses), play rugby, and go out, on average, 3 times a week while pulling off a 3.8 GPA for the semester.

The techniques in this book will vastly improve your quality of life in college. His time management techniques are worth the price of admission alone. I HIGHLY recommend it, Two thumbs up.

This book is smartly entertaining and informative without adopting a gimmicky, motivational tone. It provides relvant, strong advice derrived from surveying real straight A students at top schools. Each of the organizational and study strategies are modifiable for personal application. A good buy along with Cal Newport's How to Win at College.

There's no substitute for hard work, that's for sure. The harder you work, the luckier you get, so they say. But sometimes hard work alone will only get you so far in achieving your academic goals, and there may be other "tricks to the trade" useful in reaching that elusive goal of making straight A's and getting the most out of your college experience.

Cal Newport's delightfully pragmatic and handy new book explores some of these other methods which an ambitious student should know in order to excel in college.

This is the best book on student academic success that I have ever read! It is so many leagues beyond other books in this field that I don't know where to begin. I just can't imagine that any student reading the first few pages could stop themselves from continuing! To all college students out there all I can say is - the earlier you read this, the better!

This book is great if you are an undergrad. The information is helpful for both technical and non-technical courses. Part 1 is about time management; procrastination; and when, where, and how long to study. Part 2 is about taking quizzes and exams. Part 3 is about writing essays and papers.

As a graduate student in a science field, this book is still helpful, but to a limited degree. The techniques he teaches for taking notes doesn't apply to my teachers as they just teach differently from undergrad teachers. Also, part 3 of writing papers doesn't help much because I rarely write essays for my classes. Part 1 is most helpful because it teaches an efficient way of managing time.

Overall, this book is great if you are an undergrad. If you are a grad student, some parts will be more helpful and some not so helpful.

I read the previous book by this author and it helped me at NYU. I purchased this one over the holidays and I'll be referring to it all semester. The book has great tips on studying that seem obvious once you live by them but I never considered before. You can improve your GPA by reading this.

Honestly, reading this book was the single most effective thing i have ever done in order to increase my productivity in school. This book,along with his blog [...], have helped me live a happier life.

This book has pointed out all the reasons I haven't been so successful, it's already helped me learn how to be more organized and manage my time. I am so excited to try it's techniques on my first test. Great, great book.

As a reader of Cal's previous book, I immediately grabbed this book and have not been disappointed. Cal follows his practical, no-BS style and brings you the most effective and usable strategies for becoming a straight-A student.

In the end, what separates this book is that it dispels the myth that you either have to be a nerd or extremely smart to get straight-A's. Pulling from the experiences of people who've been there and done that, Cal provides a strategy that ANYONE can use.

When I initially read this book, I thought about how great the techniques seemed in theory. However, in application it works like a disaster. I understand the point of NO rote memorization. But you'd be better off doing rote memorization or looking at the "How to ace your finals without studying" post on ScottHYoung.com or even better Learn More, Study Less as these can actually be applied.

Maybe these study habits worked for the author. But one thing that must be remembered, is that everyone learns differently. And simply because they worked for him doesn't mean they'll work for everyone.

I found this book to have good advice and strategies for getting better grades. I've tried some of them, some I didn't continue to use, but I am sure it has helped my grade, worth a read! I've had people ask to borrow it.

The book has some good common sense strategies about time management and note taking. In my view, it is geared towards non-science majors. The study tips don't work for science or math heavy courses where a lot of memorization is required.

The glib title is enough of a tipoff, and the author takes pains to pat himself on the back for offering few insights that any self-respecting college sophomore wouldn't consider platitudinous. Tips like "take smart notes" (a chapter heading)-- without bothering to show us how, exactly, to take smart notes -- or what to do with them once we take them, abound. If you're a first semester freshman this book might help, but if you haven't learned the "surprising" strategies in this book by the end of your freshman year, you've been comatose.

I thought I was just naturally a "B" student, but after reading this book I have been more organized than ever before and I have more time for my family. My GPA since reading this book has turned from 2.5-3.5 to straight 3.9-4.00 each quarter. If you are a college student who stays up all night studying only to get a B on the final, this book will change your life! College is the time of your life, enjoy it!

I bought this book for my son who is a freshman in college. He's lazy, but brilliant. I decided to read it before I gave it to him. Glad I did. It is a USELESS book. Don't buy the book. This is what it says: Go to class, eat/sleep well, study as you go along, break your homework/assignments into small chunks, don't cram (WTF??), don't study a subject for a straight 6 to 8 hours.

There. That is the book in a nutshell. Now you know what to do...

This book is a waste of time and money.

Some of the tips in this book are completely asinine. For example, for "technical" courses he tells you not to read your textbooks, which is the biggest load of BS I've ever read in my life. Many of the courses he considers "technical" come with textbooks where the chapters are 40 pages long. You can bet your sweet a** that your professor is going to pull minutia from the textbook. Technical or not. Besides, the way he attempts to classify classes as technical and non-technical is incredibly stupid. The only course that should only be classified is technical is a straight up math class like calculus because classes like those are the only classes where his BS "don't even read the textbook" advice applies.

Most of the other tips are common sense and stuff that most of us actually have heard of before. I'm sure most students who want to do well already use a planner and try to plan out their day. It's also obvious that we need to take care of our bodies and not burn ourselves out from studying.

If you want to get straight A's, study your ass off, cheat, suck up to your professors, sleep with your professors. Whatever you do don't rely on this book. It's a scam just like those speed reading books.

When I was taking 4 classes at my local community college, I tried to follow the part of the book that said just to learn math by examples. I ended having to drop the class because at first I was actually ahead of the professor. Then I tried this stupid book's technique of learning by examples and I ended up falling behind. The same can be said of "What smart students know" it's actually a good technique (smart students), but you end up spending hours thinking up questions. Questions can be a part of the process, but it can't be the whole process. I just bought an online course than is way better than both of these combined. It's so good. The point I'm at in the course you can memorize up to 50 items in reverse and forward. You can also tell which place in the list. An example could be

The order of my hallway:

Dog = front door
Cat = wall
Duck = light switch
Printer = holder
Hitler = chair
MAO = rug
Goku = ceiling light
Kurrin = mirror
Gohan = heater
Frieza = painting

You would then connect / visualize each word / picture with a part of your house. The rule is to visualize each for only 6 seconds while recalling can only take 6 seconds. If you miss one you have to do the six second process again until you make no mistakes.

P.S. I'm not telling anyone the name of the course or where to buy it. I want to be ahead of all other students.

Edit: I'm back in college taking two college level courses. While I don't agree with everything in this book (I have to re-read it) I agree with 80-85% of the methods used in this book that I remember. Such as not doing the reading he was right. I haven't done the reading in my psychology 101 class and have only focused on taking / memorizing / learning the notes and while I haven't gotten a grade yet, I actually feel I'm learning enough and today in class I note notes from a documentary we watched. The professor said to do the reading for chapter 2 of the textbook. I'm not even going to do it. I'm going to just take notes in class then go over the reading. I did this for my 1st set of notes and I didn't understand something in the lecture notes. I ended up re-reading that / part / example [it was on the scientific method].

I remember from taking my developmental math class that the professor was actually doing examples (even though I couldn't figure out from what part of the book they were from and / or I couldn't write every example like he said) If I had just asked questions and either watched videos on Youtube I would've probably remembered the material from that class.

I'll do another edit once I'm done with classes. I'm also going to write / provide a list of books that I think are good for learning and have good advice for college.

Edit: I ended up trying to do the advice from this book and if I didn't look up the answers for the test for my psychology class I wouldn't be in college today. I'm not saying that all of this book is bad but I went from thinking that 85% of it is good to now thinking that 50% of this book is good. The other half is crap. Such as the technique for Q/E/C he doesn't give any examples or enough examples. The other advice like making your own problem sets I wouldn't have thought of. Even though this is an all right technique your wasting time because you can just practice doing other peoples problems (like those online or from a professor) or do Bullet point concept from another book I read (I'm going to provide a list once I'm done with this review). The one technique that is very good is the lecture technique he mentions in the book. For some reason, this technique helps with putting material into memory. His section on writing papers is also very good. His explanation on how to prepare for and take exams is also good. Also, he should have made the book more visual and put actual writing from actual students other than that it's an all right book.

Here's the list of books I've read (so far) that will most likely get you A's

College Rules

https://www.the store.com/College-Rules-4th-Survive-Succeed/dp/1607748525/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530133408&sr=1-1&keywords=college+rules

Guaranteed 4.0

https://www.the store.com/Guaranteed-Follow-3-Step-Plan-Dont/dp/0974264806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530134451&sr=1-1&keywords=guranteed+4.0

How to study in college

https://www.the store.com/How-Study-College-Walter-Pauk/dp/1133960782/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530134633&sr=1-4&keywords=how+to+study+in+college

The only book I've read from cover to cover is GT 4.0 it's probably the best in my opinion because the system in this book will get you A's. The only reason last semester I didn't get A's was because I didn't follow the system to the t. If you follow the GT 4.0 system to a t and don't get all A's she'll give you $100.

Hope this helps.