how to become a straight-a student

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Book Summary: How To Become A Straight-A Student

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One sentence Summary: How To Become A Straight-A Student gives you actionable strategies and tips from Straight-A students to study better and get better grades.

Cal Newport lays out the strategies directly from Straight-A students to become better students in college. The book is split into three parts: Study Basics, Quizzes & Exams, and Essays and Papers. Counterintuitively, the Straight-A students do not pull all-nighters or cram around the exams. The book builds on responses from Straight-A students on their study habits. Strategies laid out in the book are actionable and can be followed by anyone, not just college students, to study better and internalize learning.

How To Become A Straight-A Student: Quick Look

Who is this Book for?

If you haven't heard much about How To Become A Straight-A Student and to make sure you don't waste your time, let's see if this book is something that you can find value in.

How To Become A Straight-A Student is an easy and quick read for any learner who just wants to be more efficient.

Even though the book is primarily aimed at college students, the book provides just as much value to people who are older and want to learn better. If you are a learning enthusiast and learn through online courses at home or any other avenue, you would find the book incredibly helpful.

Actionable Strategies from Actual Students

Many books on learning cite research after research without considering their practical usage. How To Become A Straight-A Student is based on responses from Straight-A students to interview and survey questions. This is what makes the book digestible and easy to read. It does not go on for pages about research groups but just builds on what Straight-A students actually do which makes the strategies more actionable. The Straight-A students interviewed and surveyed in this book are from prestigious universities like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, etc.

Daily Workflow

Cramming never leads to long-term learning and most of what you study is forgotten after your exams. Time management is crucial to studying better. It is especially important to manage your time well if you want to see the benefits of spacing, retrieval, and interleaving. Well, everybody knows that! How do you follow through? Let's look at each of the steps in the How To Become A Straight-A Student to manage your workflow accompanied by examples. All you need is a calendar and a note-taking app or a notebook.

Schedule only in the First 5 Minutes

Instead of constantly fiddling with your schedule throughout the day, Cal Newport suggests using only the first 5 minutes in the day to schedule your day. In this step, you add tasks to your calendar every morning based on what needs to be done that day. Schedule tasks in your calendar with specific start and end times for each task. This activity is really useful when you are studying at home.

Jot Down New Information

As the day progresses you will come across new tasks that would have to be completed at some time. These could be newly announced test dates, meetings, parties, etc. Instead of going to your calendar, jot down these tasks/events in your note-taking app or notebook. Keep jotting these down while following what is on your calendar.

Schedule Today's Items Tomorrow

Refer to the notes you jotted down yesterday while scheduling your day in the first 5 minutes. Besides scheduling the new information from yesterday, you might also have unfinished tasks that were supposed to be done yesterday. Make sure to add them to the day's schedule while prioritizing your tasks correctly based on due dates.

Be Realistic (Pessimistic)

It is important to assign specific start and end times to tasks you schedule in your calendar.

We tend to overestimate when it comes to our ability to stick to a schedule. It is better to add some buffer time to make sure your start and end times are closer to reality.

This is one place where being a little pessimistic about the start and end times might be beneficial. Your first few days or weeks might help you understand how long it takes for you to do certain tasks. This should help you in scheduling future tasks with the start and end times estimated much closer to reality.

Taking breaks is also essential to not burn out or feel overwhelmed. Factor in lunch breaks and rest periods in the day when scheduling your day.

Things will come up in the day that needs your immediate attention. So you might have to push tasks to a later date. The goal of this exercise is not to do everything in a day but to find out how much you can do in a day. Many things can interrupt your workflow which can feel discouraging but it is a normal part of the process and it is important to get back to this exercise. Additionally, using the Eisenhower Matrix can help you prioritize your tasks better.

Batch Errands

Things like doing laundry can be coupled with other smaller tasks like cleaning your apartment. Batching tasks in this way help you finish more in the same amount of time. Meal-prep is also another great way of batching your cooking in the week.

Procrastination is Inevitable

Pretty much everyone is well-versed with procrastination. Other less demanding and frivolous tasks tend to take the place of what you are actually supposed to be doing. According to the students interviewed in How To Become A Straight-A Student, there is no set solution to completely ward off procrastination. However, there are some tips you could follow to sidestep it.

Keep a Journal

Diligently keeping a journal of what you do in the day can keep you accountable to yourself. It is tough to write in your journal that you wasted a chunk of time in the day.

Don't Skip Meals

Procrastination stems from low energy so it is important to make sure you eat at the right times and stay hydrated.

Switch Locations

If you don't feel too motivated to do something or feel the subject is boring, go to a new location like a café to finish your task. The change of location and being in public will keep you accountable to not look like a person staring into the distance for no reason at a coffee shop.

Schedule Boring Tasks

There will be times when you have to work on something boring or a subject that you don't like. Create a schedule to do these things at set times in the week. For example, having Tuesday and Thursday evenings to finish your reading assignments.

When, Where, and How Long To Study?

How To Become A Straight-A Student lays out tips for when, where, and how long you should study. Let's look at each of these in detail

When?

The book suggests avoiding studying at night and studying early in the day instead.

The book suggests utilizing the time between when you wake up and have dinner to study.

Even though nighttime can seem like an uninterrupted time, it is pretty short. Once you have had dinner and sit down to study, you start feeling sleepy pretty quickly which affects your concentration. Nighttime is also when people decide to go out and you wouldn't want to miss out.

Where?

It is better to have multiple isolated study spots and rotate through them when you study.

Studying in isolation helps avoid distractions and procrastination. Studying in bed or while lying down is never a good idea.

Changing locations helps you stay stimulated and also helps to avoid burnout.

How Long?

Cal Newport suggests studying continuously for not more than an hour with a 5-10 minute break. You might have to experiment to find your optimum study to break ratio. The Pomodoro Technique is a good starting point to figure out this ratio.

Taking Notes

Taking notes is important to capture big ideas. Let's take a quick look at the note-taking methods as mentioned in How To Become A Straight-A Student.

Question, Evidence, Conclusion Format

Noting down everything your professor says might be next to impossible and counterproductive. Cal Newport suggests capturing the big ideas by using the Question/Evidence/Conclusion format.

Question: The main idea covered in the form of a question: "Was there really a big 'fall' of the Roman Empire?"

Evidence: This part of your notes should include arguments or research studies that answer your question. The evidence you write down helps you follow up on your questions with more information.

Conclusion: Based on the evidence above, you can answer the question you asked in a few sentences.

Cal Newport suggests following this approach during a lecture. Sometimes it might not be entirely clear what information each of the above sections must contain. It is also possible that your professor might skip either the Question or Conclusion. At this point, it becomes your responsibility to fill in the gaps. Talking to your professor might help you fill in the gaps.

Taking Notes for Technical and Non-Technical Courses

The way you take notes might be different depending on, say if you are in a literature class or programming/math class. There are different approaches to taking notes for technical and non-technical courses.

Non-Technical Courses

• For non-technical courses capture all the major ideas instead of everything
• Make notes based on the Question/Evidence/Conclusion format
• You can fill in the question or the conclusion after the evidence has been presented
• During a class discussion, write other students' points that seem interesting. If the professor adds something double underline the point

For Technical Courses

• Note down the problems in class
• Record the problem statement and answer
• Question the confusing
• Record the steps of the sample problem: this might usually be the first problem that the professor solves fully
• Annotate steps when you get time

If you have things to be memorized in any subject, it helps to use flashcards or a flashcard app.

Using Question Marks

There would be parts of a topic you don't understand. Adding a question mark in front of those sections can help you make a quick note of revisiting those parts to understand them better. If you don't understand them after trying a few times, ask a friend or your professor. It is your goal to eliminate all these question marks before well before your exam.

Exams

In order to study for exams, you need to first organize your study material. Gather and create piles (or digital folders) based on a topic. If you are studying for a math-based course, organize your pile based on problem sets. Make sure to have flashcards for things that you have to memorize.

Studying For Exams

Leading up to your exams, you are only brushing up on what you already know. The majority of your learning should happen throughout the semester through assignments and other small tests. Your Question Marks from earlier should also be solved during the semester and not around the exams.

Never passively review your study material. It creates the illusion of knowing without actually resulting in constructive learning.

To learn the ideas better use the Feynman Technique. Cal Newport suggests explaining the topic in your own words to thoroughly understand what you know and what you don't. If you realize that there are parts you couldn't explain coherently, go back to those parts.

The best way, by far, for long-term learning is by using Retrieval Practice combined with Elaboration. Your goal is to retrieve what you know from memory by testing yourself in spaced intervals. This helps you to not forget your material. Testing yourself gives you a clear picture of what you need to work on more. Go through your study material and put checkmarks in front of sections you were able to recall correctly. Revisit the sections without the checkmarks and test yourself over and over until all the sections have checkmarks.

If you are a medical student, you would have a lot to memorize. Make sure to not try to memorize for 8 hours straight to not drain yourself. Do it for about an hour or two and then take a break.

During the Exam

To efficiently answer questions in your exam, review all the questions before starting. This would give you an idea of the parts you know really well.

Exams can be stressful. Answering easy questions while moving towards the hard ones can help build momentum and reduce stress. If you are done early, make sure to take the time to double-check all your answers.

Essays and Theses

Writing Essays and Theses are a big part of college courses. How To Become A Straight-A Student also lays out actionable tips to efficiently complete these.

Targeting a Topic

Start looking for a topic early. Some Straight-A students also suggest talking to your professor about the few ideas that you have in order to get more information and resources. This should help you narrow down your ideas and choose a topic that interests you. Your thesis should revolve around a compelling argument concerning this topic.

Start General, Then Move One Layer Deeper

Find a recently published paper on your topic. These would be your general sources. You can also refer to books or talk to your professor to get general sources. To find your thesis, you will have to delve deeper into your general sources, particularly, the bibliographies. The bibliographies in your general sources would contain more focused sources that will help you come up with a thesis idea.

At times, students start writing a thesis only to find out halfway through that their idea is not as strong as it seemed. To be sure your thesis idea would live up to your expectations, talk to your professor and friends to make sure you are on the right path.

Research Like A Machine

Simply put, the research for a paper has four steps:

1. Find Sources
2. Make copies of all sources
3. Annotate the material
4. Decide if you are done

1. Find Sources

Finding additional sources is the same as before. You find a general source, look at the bibliographies, and find more targeted and focused sources. Keep in mind that it is not a good idea to cite websites.

2. Make Copies Of All Sources

To make sure you have quick access to all the relevant sources, make copies of the relevant sections or pages. This helps you organize your material better and not waste time navigating to the relevant page.

3. Annotate The Material

To further organize all your sources, you annotate each source with a short and relevant description. In order to not waste a lot of time reading everything, it is better to skim these sources and look for important ideas and definitions. Cal Newport talks about Pseudo Skimming on his blog which is a technique you can use for Active Reading.

4. Decide If You Are Done

After following the steps above ask yourself if you are done. If you think the answer is "no", then go back to Step 1. If yes, make a list of all the topics that might help you support your thesis. Even if you decide that you are done, you might decide to go back and get more sources a little later.

Writing Your Arguments

Decide on the overall structure of the paper. Organize your thoughts and construct an outline. The outline is basically a list of all the points you will mention in your paper. This should help you visualize the flow of the paper. Talk to your professor and friends about the points you will be covering in your paper to be sure that you are proceeding in the right direction.

Now that you have the basic skeleton ready, you need to start writing. The approach here is to keep writing without any interruptions to cover every point. Writing should be relatively easier now with all the work you have put in until now.

Once you have written everything you can possibly write, you need to edit your paper. Read your paper the first time to check the presentation of your arguments and grammatical errors. Cut out redundant sections to have a coherent paper. Go through the paper a second time but read it out loud this time. This helps you catch typos and strange wording better than reviewing it on your laptop screen. Read your paper one last time for a sanity check and your paper should be good to submit.

Final Thoughts

How To Become A Straight-A Student is probably one of the best investments you can make to help yourself learn better and get better grades. The book delves deeper into the major aspects of studying in college. These tips can also be used in your life after college to learn anything better. A must-read for all learning enthusiasts.

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