Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country's Top Students

This is a book about getting more from the college experience.

Suggestions such as write for the school newspaper, volunteer, attend political rallies, advice on summer employment (he advocates getting a job in the field you are interested in working as career), etc.

There are some study tips covered as well.

The author has another book called, "How to Become a Straight A Student" that is very good at discussing ways to improve your grades and live a balanced life too.

There are tips in here that greatly aid the stressful student. I use this book as a reference whenever I feel stressed, and look at the tips "Ignore your G.P.A. and 'Have no Regrets'" As a perfectionist and a stressful worker, I always forget the great philosophical advice in this book. What I've learned is to lose my obsession over grades by facing the true reality that life is short. Demanding such perfection would lose that divine privilege, and youth is even shorter. Having no regrets taught me to live life with a keen eye for possibility and opportunities rather than having an obsession over success. This view makes life exciting and less stressful.

Whenever I forget these tips and end up being so stressed, which I will, I will always have this book in hand to save me.

I will add to the plethora of positive reviews here with my praise for this book. It contains very good tips on how to succeed in college. None of them are groundbreaking, but they all carry a lot of weight and if put into practice, will help you excel in college. I've read numerous books on how to study in college (including the old favorite "how to study in college") and this was the best.

I read this book halfway through college and really regret that I hadn't seen it earlier. It's very important to read the book cover to cover so one gets an idea as to the general behaviors - and not an isolated subset - required to do well in college. My grades absolutely took off and I found myself really enjoying college after reading this book. While all of this cannot be attributed to the book, I must say that at the book played a very important part.

This book was very useful, as far as having a successful college career. There are some very useful studying tips, that were reverberated by many of my teachers. Such as review notes from each day everyday. It is the book to having a overall successful college experience. One of the thoughts was to enroll in a society or program on the first day of school. It also advises to apply for scholarships and awards everyday, it will look good on resume. This is a very useful book and is a great pocket guide. I believe it is the best on the market. But it really depends on what you're looking for.

This book is AMAZING! Cal Newport gives wonderful rules to live by while in college. If you follow his advice (collected from stand-out students around the country) I don't see how you can be anything but successful. His rules are simple and easy to understand. For each one, he explains not only how to implement them, but exactly why they are so important. If you're like me, and you've always envied those students seem to run on all cylinders all the time, excel in all areas, and get more done in a day then you can accomplish in a whole semester, you need this book. If you've had trouble balancing intense academics and a full social life, you need this book. If you want to quickly, and easily, change the way you think about succeeding as a student, you need this book! It will change your life if you let it. I can't stop reading it over and over. It's an easy read, and it will not only inspire you to aim higher, it will tell you how to reach your new goals. After reading it, I feel like the sky is the limit for what I can achieve. Now I see college as the staging ground for all my future successes. This book is directed at normal students who want to do WAY more than survive college, they want to win at it!

Having enjoyed the advice I found at Cal Newport's blog, Study Hacks, I decided to give his book a shot. I am feeling informed and inspired after the quick and easy read through (most of) the 75 blog-post-length chapters.

I must say this book is not quite what I had expected. I have been reading plenty of college advice books lately (in anticipation of starting at a new school this fall) and was expecting the familiar "join campus organizations, go to office hours" spiel. How To Win At College has these things and more, but what makes it a great resource is how they are presented with an infectious attitude of ambition. It is useful to all levels of students, including the high-achievers who can figure out they should make sure not to overlook any graduation requirements without consulting a book. How To Win At College offers tips on how to be an outstanding student and how to do it efficiently and without sacrificing the non-academic college experience. The book is motivational without being self-help fluff; it is inspirational without trying too hard to achieve it. Newport has struck just the right balance between dishing out practical advice and presenting it as an invitation to success.

I would highly recommend this book to students who want to stand out in college. The advise is diverse and, though it overlaps with similar books on the college experience, refreshingly original, particularly in how it is conveyed.

After throughly enjoying How to be a Straight A Student, I picked up another of Cal's books. While Straight A focuses more on specific study and notetaking methods, this book provides more general lifestyle tips for a 1st year uni student (ie. befriend your professor, never pull an all nighter, exercise and attend guest lectures). I like in this book how he emphasizes the importance of health, self worth, good relationships and intrinsic motivation as factors in doing well. However, some tips are pretty obvious (don't binge drink, always go to class, exercise, laugh everyday, find an escape) and others are just random (volunteer quietly, don't network, eat alone, make your bed, empty your inbox).

It's an okay book, there is some genuinely good advice like, ignore classmate's grades and take hard courses early on but there is a bit of fluff and while I have no doubt this stuff is from Yale, Dartmouth and other top notch students, it's vague and generic advice. Not much detail or anecdotes from students.

I finished this book in one day; it was impossible to put down. After it was over, I felt so uplifted and inspired that that I called a friend on the phone to say that "this is the best book I've ever read!"

I know this sounds over the top. However, I have been a poor to mediocre student for most of my life. Now, I'm desperately devouring every publication on the topic out there to get the kind of grades that will get grad schools' attention.

For someone who is really tired of the grind, or really tired of being a slacker, this is the book to point you in the right direction to turn it all around.

Good Luck!

BORING ANNOYING... I had to read this years ago when I just entered school... did not help it was full of common sense... kids who need these tips should still be at home with their parents... I mean showing up to class is not a tip that is obvious...

Why oh why couldn't this book have been around when I was in college! Life would have been so much easier. I've given it to every high schooler and college friend, relation, acquaintance. I'm even trying to donate copies to my alma mater for their entering freshman. By far the best book on what it takes to be a standout in college. Full of practical advice, and all of it is within a student's reach. Highly recommended.

I wish I'd had this book in college. There seem to be a million breezy, humorous books about college life on the shelves, but they're all about cooking, cleaning, reducing stress and buying futons. This one is better than most at breezy humor, but it gets five stars because it's about COLLEGE: the core tasks of getting good grades, an employable resume, and the critical thinking skills necessary for a richer appreciation of life. My little brother is starting Harvard next year, and I've bought him a copy. Hard to believe the college-survival genre has been around so long and this book is just being published now.

my little brother is going to st. andrews next fall. he asked me, a recent nyu graduate, if i had any sage advice on how to do well. i told him 'nope. i did it the hard way. all nighters & pestilence." but there's a better way. this alleged 23 year old 'cal newport' seems to have written precisely the book i should have had back in 2000 when i still had a shot at doing things right. i regret nothing but like i told my bro, read this book and take advantage of the tips you'll learn, cause you won't get them from your professors or your peers. a book for that rare kid willing to seek out advice on how to succeed in college. this book won't disappoint.

Wow, I just graduated from college and this book is full of little tidbits that I wish I'd known 4 years ago. The best part is that it is written by an actual student to students and contains bits of advice you won't get reading an ordinary college "How To" book. And with dozens of two or three page chapters highlighting specific points, it's an enjoyable read that will get anyone thinking critically about how to succeed in college.

This book enlightened me.

Many things I never knew, or just hadn't though of yet are here, plus a few not so important ones, but overal it has enough depth to compensate.

I especially agree with the part about socializing, how it opens so many opportunities. Though some of the other stuff in it did not apply to me personaly, I had already done, or already do, those things, it can be helpful to many people.

I bought many copies of Cal's book for friends, relatives, people I know who are graduating, and, of course, myself. To put it simply: This book is life-changing! Every single person I've given the book to has loved it (even 'unmotivated' students who I thought wouldn't read it). As a gift or for your own reading pleasure, this book will not disappoint!

Any student intimidated by the increased demands of the college curriculum should immediately read this book. The material is well-organized, focused, and always practical in its approach. In addition, many of the book's recommendations are equally relevent to developing a successful approach to life and career in the "real world" after college. Highly recommended for students and non-students alike!

I never thought that a book could possibly teach me anything I needed to know to excel in college. I thought I had to find out everything on my own but this book allowed me to excel greatly in this past semester in college. My grades raised, i had more fun, and I enjoyed college more because of this book!

As a parent, I read the book and returned it. (My daughter, the freshman, insisted I get my money back.

From chapter 18:
"Break the curve once a term... The advantages of blowing the curve on an assignment are obvious." This is college not kindergarten. If your kids are enrolled in a competitive school with an intense curriculum, this advice is borderline asinine. My son, the EE, competes each week with a number of other kids on his senior design project. Each one of them wants to knock it out of the park.

From chapter 19:
"Make sure you that you always ask at least one question at every lecture." -- I seem to remember a proverb about stupid questions. I think Mark Twain once said, "Better to be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

From Chapter 24:
"Dress nicely for class" -- has this author ever been to a college campus ? (!) That was a rhetorical question.

If you want to give your kids some street smarts about college, get them a copy of College 101: The Book Your College Does Not Want You to Read That books isn't perfect. It is even slightly dated. However, it is damn funny, amazingly candid, and brutally honest.

I never thought that a book could possibly teach me anything I needed to know to excel in college. I thought I had to find out everything on my own but this book allowed me to excel greatly in this past semester in college. My grades raised, i had more fun, and I enjoyed college more because of this book!

As a parent, I read the book and returned it. (My daughter, the freshman, insisted I get my money back.

From chapter 18:
"Break the curve once a term... The advantages of blowing the curve on an assignment are obvious." This is college not kindergarten. If your kids are enrolled in a competitive school with an intense curriculum, this advice is borderline asinine. My son, the EE, competes each week with a number of other kids on his senior design project. Each one of them wants to knock it out of the park.

From chapter 19:
"Make sure you that you always ask at least one question at every lecture." -- I seem to remember a proverb about stupid questions. I think Mark Twain once said, "Better to be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

From Chapter 24:
"Dress nicely for class" -- has this author ever been to a college campus ? (!) That was a rhetorical question.

If you want to give your kids some street smarts about college, get them a copy of College 101: The Book Your College Does Not Want You to Read That books isn't perfect. It is even slightly dated. However, it is damn funny, amazingly candid, and brutally honest.

This little gem has been a boon to both my current college students. I now give the book as a HS graduation present. It proveides very wise tips on how to continue that streak of success that the colleges loved enough to admit your student in the first place. A positive road map with both common sense and forward looking ideas to enter the real world.

This book has some key pieces of advice that you likely haven't heard before. If you want to ace your classes and impress your friends, family, and teachers while having a great time READ THIS BOOK! Cal Newport also has a helpful, concise, and funny blog if you want some further words of wisdom.

This books contains lots of good advice on how to score well on exams and other aspects of college life. You should also check out College Life 102 by Dr. Andrew Kadar for additional pointers on how to thrive in college both inside and outside the classroom