Study Hacks

From the reader mailbag:

As a high schooler — a freshman actually — I was wondering if your radical simplicity philosophy applies to me? I attend a very good high school that is competitive for grades. I always feel the need to take the hardest courses and take as many as possible. I want to try the radical simplicity method but somehow I feel that if I do so, I’m working under my level and it won’t make me competitive for college. Can radical simplicity work for me?

Cal responds:

Here’s my advice for high school students:

1. Improve your study habits. Most of your peers are terrible at studying. Having a decent set of habits can make a big difference in the simplicity of your schedule. Work some place that’s not your house. Don’t write papers with the internet on. Follow a schedule. You’re a Study Hacks reader, you know the drill…
2. Refuse to be overloaded. High school students sometimes ask me how to choose a course schedule. My advice: choose the most challenging schedule that you can handle without having to work late at night on a regular basis. Make this non-negotiable. If the schedule you want forces you to stay up late then it’s too hard for you.
3. Slash and burn your activities. There is a lot of weird lore circulating through high schools about what sort of activities you need to get into a good college. Let me make this simple: it’s almost all entirely wrong. The whole laundry-list, I need to have many different activities to show off different aspects of my “personality” approach is dead. It doesn’t work. Here is who Harvard wants to admit: Bob Dylan with good SAT scores. In other words, they want a really interesting, original, innovative person whom they have no doubt can handle the academic challenge of the school. So take a reasonable course load. Do well. Then in your extracurricular life, cut out that stupid internship at the local science lab and the volunteering trip to teach good nutrition to crippled orphan nuns with speech impediments, and, instead, focus on becoming an interesting person. Talk to other interesting people. Go to interesting things. Try interesting things. Surprise people. You’ll be happier and the admissions officers will be pleased — finally! — to see real.
4. Start studying for your SATs very early. If you want to maximize the schools you get into while minimizing stress, then the most time-efficient formula: be a really interesting person, that everyone likes, and that gets involved in weird, interesting things, and who did fine in his classes — but certainly not valedictorian material — and who, by the way, has an outstanding SAT score. Bonus points if you hit the score on your first try (they see how many times you took the test.) This fits an admission officer’s preferred storyline that you’re this fascinating, brilliant young person whose too busy living life to obsess over every last test in class, but, when faced with the SAT, blew it away no problem.

My final advice is to ignore your friends’ (and their parents’) theories about getting into college. If they’re anything like me at that age: they’re idiots.

From the reader mailbag:

What time management advice do you have for a student who’s heavily involved in research?

Cal responds:

From my experiences I can identify two big ideas for how best to integrate undergraduate research into your schedule. The first: stop making research compete with your classes. For example: I did a lot of my undergraduate research during two summers. (I dug up some departmental support to hang around on campus.) In addition, during two semesters of my senior year I arranged for my research to take the place of a regular class. One semester I got credit through the auspices of a “thesis writing” course offered by my department, the other semester I just took a reduced course load (I had some AP credits burning a hole in my scholastic pocket). This avoided me having to pit research against a full slate of classes.

There were some times, of course, in which I was taking a full course load and still had some research to complete. In these occasions I dialed back my obligation to my main extracurricular (writing) to free up some more time and then — this is key — integrated regular research time into my autopilot schedule.

This technique of reduce then regularize is the only way I’ve seen students make good progress on research during a normal full term.

From the reader mailbag:

I’m enjoying your book How to Win at College and I am intrigued by your chapter “Do One Thing Better than Anyone Else.” I’m having a difficult time thinking of what I do or could do better than any own I know. How should I go about finding a hidden talent of mine?

Cal responds:

Don’t get caught up on talents. Just focus on one activity that seems interesting and go above and beyond. For example, let’s say you like writing for the school paper. Make it your only activity. Go after better stories. Get more quotes. Don’t write the shit filler that a lot of young student writers do when they’re short on time and bored. Try to become an editor. Try to get articles picked up on college news wire. In short, become known for being really good at being a journalist.

The same logic applies to just about any activity that catches your interest.

Grad School Without Ulcers

I recently received an insightful collection of questions from a Study Hacks reader. In short, he was trying to reconcile my philosophy of radical simplicity with the ambitious goal of getting accepted to a good graduate program. I address his main points below…

You recommend that students not kill themselves doing obscenely hard work loads and working their butts off for straight-A’s. On the other hand you say that grades are important for graduate school admissions. Would you please write about how someone who wants to go to grad school can best apply your radical simplicity ideas?

This is an excellent question. I like it because it highlights a common misconception.

I’ll start by clarifying my position. Grades are important. You should get good grades. (This should come as no surprise considering that I wrote a book titled How to Become a Straight-A Student.)

If you review my recent radical simplicity manifesto or my open letter to new college students you’ll notice that getting good grades is a core motivation. The logic proceeds as follows: If you focus on one major, and a reasonable course load, and not too many activities, you will be able to really engage your courses and avoid the typical student assignment shuffle; i.e., spasmodically flailing from one deadline to the next.

The results of this engagement:

1. You get good grades. It’s crazy how easy it is to get an ‘A’ when you like and understand the material.
2. You do so without a lot of stress. This is especially true if you couple this reduced schedule with the type of efficient study habits preached here every week.
3. You get really good at the material. Your professors will notice that you really understand and care about what they’re teaching. They end up writing great recommendations and offer interesting opportunities to you. (It’s these “department stars” that have the easiest time getting into graduate school. It’s somewhat ironic that the way to become a star is to do less. Ironic but awesome. )

This brings up, I think, a more important point. Why did this reader interpret the radical simplicity manifesto to say “don’t sweat grades?” The answer: students are deeply committed to the false belief that grades must be the result of a sacrifice requiring hard, stressful work.

This belief is so strong, that when this reader saw the idea that you shouldn’t work your butt off, he made the immediate, intuitive leap that this also means you shouldn’t worry about grades.

One of the key messages of this blog and my books is to dispel this myth. To get good grades with a reasonable schedule and reasonable study habits is not a hard task. To get good grades with a crazy schedule and a triple major and two thousand activities is near impossible.

Let’s move on to his next interesting question…

Other than research, what else does someone interested in grad school need to be doing — and not doing — and how do we free ourselves up to live a great life while not jeopardizing our chances of getting accepted?

I’ll share my understanding of graduate school admissions, which applies mainly to the sciences. (I invite feedback from those who know more than me on these topics). From my experience, to get into a good graduate school, you need:

1. To get good grades in the relevant subjects.
2. Be known as one of the best students in your major.
3. Demonstrate, unequivocally, that you can handle the demands of research.

Notice that becoming president of 10 clubs and volunteering on the weekends does not make this list. In the few casual conversations I’ve had with professors who served on graduate admission committees, I’ve never once heard a mention of something outside of a student’s grades or research experience.

Practically speaking, this means the following advice applies to the aspiring grad student:

• You should slash and burn your schedule to the point that you have more than enough time to really focus and engage with the courses in your major. Don’t double major. Don’t pile multiple hard courses into the same semester. You need to live and breath the core material. No one cares if your schedule was hardcore. Get over it.
  
• Get started in research. Don’t be lazy. A common tale here at MIT: a hardcore (read: over-scheduled) student signs up to do undergraduate research because he heard it was important for graduate school. Because the student is so hardcore, this involvement soon becomes seen as an annoyance — one more thing among dozens eating away at his limited, stress-saturated time. The student does the bare minimum. Makes excuses. And, eventually, the professor forgets about him. Don’t do this! Instead, go beyond the bare minimum. Do good work fast. After a year or so of proving yourself you’ll be rewarded with the type of responsibilities that will, down the line, impress the professors reviewing your file.
• Time permitting you can add back at most one serious extracurricular activity. This provides some non-academic balance to your life. But this all about you. So don’t do it unless it’s something you find meaningful. Also, don’t add more than one thing. It’s key that you leave a sufficient buffer of free time to relax, and decompress, and pursue random opportunities.

Take this all with a grain of thought. But I think these basic concepts are sound. To summarize, the key to getting into graduate school: focus on your major; be a good researcher; don’t do too much else.

The good news is that this lifestyle is quite reasonable. You like your classes, become an expert in your subject, don’t feel overwhelmed, and have plenty of time left over to relax. Not a bad way to spend your four years on campus.

So to answer the question that titles this post: Yes. And you’d be a fool to try it any other way.

From the reader mailbag:

I want to know about your studying strategies, beyond just quiz and recall. While I do find the quiz and recall method to be VERY helpful it doesn’t offer much structure in comparison with say the SQ4R or 4S=M methods. Is there a way to reconcile these methods with your quiz and recall method? Perhaps you can describe your blow by blow study sessions including what you do with the notes you take in class.

Cal responds:

I’ve never met a high-scoring student who used a system like SQ4R. The reason: they’re too time-consuming! What these students do instead is discover simple, streamlined and devastatingly effective heuristics that can be easily adapted to specific classes. The three biggies described in How to Become a Straight-A Student are:

• Quiz-and-Recall: Review by explaining the idea or demonstrating the problem out loud, as if lecturing a class.
• Question/Evidence/Conclusion Note-Taking: Gather the information in lecture and reading assignments into big ideas — described by a question, a conclusion, and the bullet-point notes that connect the two.
• Sample Problem Gathering: In technical courses, attempt to gather as many sample problems as possible. If you don’t understand the example or technique being explained ask a question right away.

All of my studying follows from some combination of these simple techniques…

From the reader mailbag:

I don’t know if you address this in your books or not, but what kind of software do you recommend for keeping productive?

Cal responds:

None. Or, equivalently: whatever. Here’s my thought: If you follow the first two pillars of the Straight-A Method — (1) capture and regularly review everything you need to do, and (2) plan the hours of the day — you’ll be as productive as you need to be. Whether this means a cheap paper calendar on your desk or a ridiculously sophisticated piece of tricked-out GTD goodness, so be it. Just make sure it’s simple enough that you actually use it.

In case your curious, here’s what I do: I use Google calendar to keep track of day-specific things. I store my tasks in Gmail. Most of my obligations show up as e-mail so the easiest possible way to process them is to slap on a label and then hit “archive.”

When I was an undergraduate, by comparison, I used some freebie calendar program on my iMac and tracked my tasks on a legal pad. They key was always to use whatever seemed easiest at the time.

From the reader mailbag:

I’ve noticed recently that you’ve been emphasizing the idea of focusing on a single activity/goal/project in order to accomplish something significant. I have a question on the exception to the rule: Polymaths. Do you think your philosophy applies to individuals such as Ben Franklin or Da Vinci.

Cal responds:

Here’s the problem. People think they can become a polymath by keeping a brand in several different fires. In the end, however, they become competent, but not unequivocally successful in each of the endeavors. The real reward-generating, stand out achievements tend to come from really focusing on one thing. Reflecting on people I’ve encountered who have are known for several grand accomplishments, it typically turns out that their first big score came from obsessive focus. (Franklin, for example, first became a successful printer, then turned to his science experiments, which made him famous, then turned more attention to political activities.) My point: it’s harder than you think to become really good at just one thing, so why make things even harder by gunning for more at the same time?

From the reader mailbag:

You’ve mentioned in your book and on your blog that “energy level” is important when it comes to studying. This is certainly true. Can you give more details about how different things affect energy level? I am really curious. My own main observation is that alcohol is bad. I like to “have fun,” and that’s what I did last night. But today I have to pay the price: I’m sitting in the library, unable to get started on a paper I need to write.

Cal responds:

Alcohol is bad? Blasphemy! But you’re on to something about the drinking. You have to be strategic. If you need to work the next day, don’t rage. If you need to rage, get your hard work done first. Eating habits, of course, also play a big role in maintaining high energy levels. I’m no expert here, but here are a few simple things that work for me:

1. Don’t skip meals.
2. Eat only real food (i.e., things your great grandmother would recognize).
3. Avoid processed food (i.e., white flour, sugar, anything with more than five ingredients).
4. For lunch and dinner try to fill half the plate with plants.
5. Drink lots of water.
6. Exercise. Even if only briefly and in your room.

And of course, at least one day a week, ignore all of this so you don’t go crazy with nacho-lust. (Note: much of this advice came from two influential books: In Defense of Eating and The Power of Full Engagement. Check them out.)

From the reader mailbag:

My econometrics class has a reputation for being the one undergraduate econ course you simply “grin and bear”: the problem sets are rarely helpful and the grading on tests is all or nothing (no partial credit). What are your suggestions on succeeding in a seemingly impossible course?

Cal responds:

Hard is relative. To a math major, econometrics would seem like any other upper-level math course. Because of the subject matter, however, it sounds like many non-math types take the course. They are not used to the study style that works in this context and, instead, attempt the standard cram strategy — which will fail. Soon it develops the reputation of being “impossible.”

So how do you study for tricky math-style courses? Your need to be able to reproduce, from scratch, the proofs (or solutions) to basically every major sample problem reviewed in class and on the problem sets. Not just reproduce, but really understand what you’re doing. You can’t do this the night before. You have to attempt to keep up with the material as it’s presented, using office hours and asking questions to fill in gaps in your knowledge. That’s the hard part about math. Unlike an English essay, remembering a little bit from a frantic night before skim-job doesn’t help. You either really understand how something works or you don’t. So make sure you are understanding as the course proceeds.

If possible, befriend a math nerd in the class. He’ll know what’s up.

From the reader mailbag:

Have you ever encountered a student who had a rough start in his first year, but later on in his final three years became better: earning good grades, for example, or getting involved in interesting research opportunities?

Cal responds:

Absolutely. One of the Rhodes Scholars I know best, for example, did poorly in freshman year calculus. By the time she graduated, however, she had published some interesting mathematics research and — talk about poetic justice — even co-authored a chapter with her professor for a calculus textbook.

Another example: I had a non-exceptional first year. I had good grades but not the type that would turn heads. All of my free time was devoted to crew. Either training or partying with my teammates. By my sophomore year, I had to leave the crew team due to a heart condition. With a lot of free time to fill I began to clean-up my study habits and take on some more interesting extra-extracurriculars, including, notably, writing and undergraduate research. The rest is history.

In other words: now is a perfect time to start planning some big moves.

From the reader mailbag:

I registered for a class that sounded completely awesome. I didn’t have the pre-requisites, but I thought it would be okay. It’s not. I can’t drop it. And I’d like to wrench at least a B out of this bastard. Aside from hounding the TA, what other actions can I take?

Cal responds:

I’ve definitely been there before. First, as a current TA, I highly recommend that you don’t hound your teaching assistant. It will make him cranky. Which doesn’t help your cause. What you can do, however, is the following:

1. Meet with the professor. Explain you are really interested in the material but are worried about its difficulty. Ask for advice on how best to keep up.
2. You’ll probably have to spend more time on assignments than normal. That’s the price you pay for taking the course. So man up and just schedule the extra time. This means, among other things, re-reading portions of articles and doing background research on readings. (See here for some guidance.)
3. Go to office hours regularly to get crash courses on the most confusing subjects.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions when confused in class. Use the following format: <this is my interpretation> + <this is what confused me> + <this is what I want to be clarified>

The course might still suck. But these systems will prevent you from stressing about this suckyness. You are confident that you’re doing the best you can with what you have. No need to worry about it any more.

From the reader mailbag:

I was wondering if you had any tips about how to process information given in a classes with note packets. My accounting professor gives us his (extremely elaborate) notes for each chapter we’re covering. So far I’ve been using them to jot down notes in the margins next to the applicable topics. Is this optimal?

Cal responds:

No. Random margin notes are not enough. It’s too easy for you to zone out during lecture. And this means you’ll have to learn the material from scratch come studying time. Something to avoid.

Instead: pretend like you don’t have the note packets. Take notes from scratch. Later you can use the packets to fill in holes in the occasional spot where you missed something important. But by taking detailed notes you are learning the material on the fly. This is the single most important activity you can do to reduce the hours needed to review later.

From the reader mailbag:

I have many friends who sit at their table in the library, from 8:00 am until lunch, then take a 1 hour break, then return to work until 9:00 pm. These people are all toppers of their class. I understand it may not be needed for other subject areas but I think it’s essential in medicine to be studying for 16 hours a day. I usually manage sitting for only 20 minutes at a time after which I become restless. What should I do?

Cal responds:

You assume they are the top students in your class. But they’re probably not. If there’s one thing I learned from studying straight-A students in the real world is that they often are not who you expect, and they often study a lot less consecutive hours than you think is necessary for high performance.

Here’s my advice: Forget the grinds. All they’re demonstrating is that: (a) they have a high tolerance for boredom; and (b) they have terrible study habits.

Instead: Focus on your situation in the absence of all the emotional baggage and guilt that surrounds schoolwork and how much of it you should be doing. Ask these questions: What exactly do you have to learn? What is the most efficient method to accomplish this? Lay out a system that answers these questions in a way that seems tolerable, then trust it. From my experience, you’ll probably find that the best answers don’t involve sitting like a zombie for 16 hour stretches.

From the reader mailbag:

I read a lot about improving study habits, but I have never come across anything that deals with the emotional aspect. Sometimes when studying I feel despair about whether I can learn the material, other times I feel guilty for putting work off. What are some techniques for taming emotions while studying?

Cal responds:

There are few words I hate more than “study.” (Among them: “ebullient.”) It’s ambiguous, and for most students it’s entangled in all sorts of emotional baggage. They feel guilty if they haven’t suffered enough in the library. Student life, for them, becomes a constant struggle — always trying to “study” more, yet always falling a bit short. It’s a lot like dieting. But with less involvement from Kirstie Alley.

The key to kicking the emotions out of the classroom is to focus on the specifics of the process, not the big, scary, abstract idea of “studying.” My suggestions:

1. Never again use the verb “study.” Don’t say “I’m going to study.” Definitely don’t say: “I’ve been slacking off lately, tonight I’m going to make up for it by doing a lot of ebullient studying.” The word is meaningless. Banish it from your vocabulary.
2. Always talk in terms of specific actions. Instead of heading to the library to study, try heading to the library to do something obnoxiously specific. For example: “I am going to go review the notes from lecture 1 to 5 and then type up a study guide chapter for each.” When you finish the specific action, you’re done. Even if you’re friends are just getting warmed up in their “woe is me,” I’m going to spend all night in the library routine.
3. Focus on the process, not results. Don’t worry too much about your test grades. Use them mainly to gauge how well your study process worked. When you get your results, go back and review what actions you did to prepare. Ask yourself what you could have changed to have done better. Follow this new plan the next time around. The key is to focus on the process. Not you. And definitely not Kirstie Alley.

From the reader mailbag:

Perhaps you can write a post about the quarter system versus the semester system? UCLA and other schools are on a quarter system, and it’s very different from a semester system.

Cal responds:

Dartmouth was also on the quarter system, so I understand where you’re coming from. For the uninitiated: a term in the quarter system is short, meaning you only take around three classes. This means less assignments. Damn straight! On the other hand, the assignments are larger and the time between test and paper due dates is shorter. Oh…

To handle the compressed quarter system workload, keep in mind the following two tips:

1. Break up big assignments. Some quarter-system assignments are too huge to be completed in one sitting. Be careful to review your assignments well in advance so you’ll know which ones need to be started early.
2. Be very, very aware of all test and due dates. Time flies fast in a quarter system. It’s easy to lose track of the date and then suddenly realize that you have two forgotten term papers due in the next twelve minutes. Definitely put all major test and due dates on a calendar that you see every day. In general: Always be aware of where you are and what is coming down the line. This is also, of course, good advice for crossing railroad tracks. So keep that in mind.

From the reader mailbag:

What would you do if you had to take this one class that started at 8 in the morning? How would you get some studying done?

Cal responds:

First, I would question the morality of any college sadistic enough to offer a class at 8 in the morning. Second, I would investigate the feasibility of using a cardiothorasic syringe to inject coffee directly into my heart.

Actually, I get up at 7 — by choice — so I’m familar with this schedule. Here’s the thing: that block of free morning hours after your first terrible class is actually a great time to get some work done. You’re focused, things are still quiet, your idiot friends haven’t yet woken up and decided to dedicate their day to getting you to do idiot things. Get some good coffee. Find a quiet spot near that classroom. And knock off a big chunk of your daily workload.

Have a happy Thanksgiving! Because of the holiday, I’ll be skipping the usual Friday post to aid my postprandial recovery. I’ll be back in action on Monday.

From the reader mailbag:

What are your thoughts on recording lectures?

Cal responds:

A waste of time. The motivating principle of the Straight-A method is to minimize the time spent studying. Reviewing tape would egregiously violate this philosophy. Instead, upgrade your note-taking skills until they can keep up with the professor. Here are some tips to help in this effort:

1. Take notes on a laptop. You type faster than you write.
2. Don’t transcribe. Instead, attempt to capture the big ideas with lists of evidence to support the ideas. You don’t have to capture everything (see here for more detail).
3. Take advantage of lulls. When the professor digresses, or answers a question, dump the backlog from your short-term memory onto the page.
4. Ask questions when lost. Forcing the professor to clarify gives you room to catch up.
5. Spend five minutes after class cleaning things up. This is the instant-replay strategy from last week’s Monday Master Class.

The same reader also asks:

In Straight-A you say note cards are best for things like dates, artists, and formulas. I was wondering if this holds true for definitions? Or should the definitions be handled in your regular notes?

Cal responds:

Definitions are a perfect fit for flash cards. As with all flash card based studying, isolate this work from the rest of your review. Do it in little chunks spread over a long period of time. A personal favorite of mine is taking advantage of commercial breaks in TV shows to get up to speed.

Another reader writes:

I am a huge fan, and I have implemented your techniques in my academic life. This does, however, come with several consequences: I’m kicking ass in my environmental science class (for my major) and other people are beginning to notice this. The average grade is a C, C- in the class, and I have a solid A; so with the midterm coming up, how do I teach the Straight-A method to my classmates? In other words, if I’m sharing the Straight-A gospel, what do I start with?

Cal responds:

Your best bet is to buy each of your friends a copy of my book. In fact, why stop at one copy? I suggest buying them, and, perhaps, also their extended families, a new copy every day for a few months — just to get the acclimatized.

If this fails, you might try sending them to this blog. The key is to describe it as “advice to reduce study time,” and not as “advice to increase your grades.” Students tend to associate getting better grades with doing more work, and this will lead them to get defensive and name a million reasons why their schedule sucks. Reducing work, however, sounds quite appealing. Once they see their stress begin to fall and their grades begin to rise, they’ll be hooked. At this point, they can move on to Straight-A and How to Win to get more serious about revamping their habits.

Probing the Straight-A Method

A reader recently sent me a collection of thoughtful questions about applying the Straight-A Method in practice. For those of you who read How to Become a Straight-A Student (i.e., “the red book”), these questions should help clarify its advice. For those who have not yet read it, I’ve been careful to word my answers so the tactics are clear.

On the question “Where should you study?” your answer is “In isolation”, but this seems to contradict your talk about studying in public, off-campus places, such as cafes, as suggested in Procrastination Battle Plan 3.

In my chapter on defeating procrastination, I describe the strategy of heading to an off-campus location with the express intent of studying. For example, I used to head to the cafe at a Borders 15 minutes down the road. The idea was that once there you have nothing to do but work. All of your distractions are a car ride (or long walk) away, so you’ll have no choice but to break the procrastination seal and get down to it.

In some ways this does contradict my advice to study in isolation. So let me provide a caveat: when on campus, study in isolation. When you are off campus, just make sure the place is sufficiently quiet that you can concentrate. You don’t have to worry as much about isolation because you aren’t tempted by the same distractions: friends, dining hall, your dorm, checking e-mail.

You advise not to read certain non-critical assignments but keep them handy in class. If I didn’t take a look to them previously, however, won’t it be difficult to read the book while I’m following the lesson?

Once you’ve judged an assignment to be non-critical — and therefore decided not to read it — it’s still important to bring it to class in case the professor starts talking about it (proving your judgment wrong). It’s useful to have the assignment with you if he mentions a specific passage, figure, or page, as you can turn to that page and look at what he’s talking about. You’re not going to be able to do more than that.

Isn’t your concept of “work hard, play hard” in contrast with your other concept that “if you’re studying hard, then you’ve done something wrong”?

The “work hard, play hard” comment ties back to our discussion of pseudo-work. “Hard” in this instance refers to intensity. When you work in short, intense bursts, you accomplish more work than what you would in long, low-intensity grinds.

Later, when I talk about “studying hard” being wrong, in the chapter on study techniques, I am referring to “hard” in the sense of number of hours. If you’re spending days studying, then your techniques are probably inefficient. You should try something more efficient, like the quiz-and-recall method, which makes things much easier. Most straight-A students don’t see studying as a hard activity because they finish it in a small number of intense, efficient bursts — not all-nighters.

About using the Quiz-and-Recall Method for Technical Courses: I make a pass, mark problems I have trouble with, then return after a break to try them again. How I could be sure I learned them, and didn’t just remember the answers in my short term memory?

Two important observations about using the quiz-and-recall method. First, narration is key. You can’t just write out the steps to an answer. You have to lecture, as if you are presenting the solution to an imaginary class, about each step and why you are doing it. Second, the technical discussion questions (also discussed here) help make sure you understand the underlying concepts.

In the Case Study from Part 2, Michael first processes his notes, then spends four days using the quiz-and-recall method to review. Where is the study phase?

One of the keys of the straight-A method is filling in gaps in your understanding as the term progresses (asking questions in class, after class, and in office hours). Doing the quiz-and-recall is only the final piece of the studying. By the time Michael gets here, he has a pretty good idea about most of the problems. Those that give him trouble get “studied” when he reviews the corresponding notes in between quiz-and-recall sessions.

Do you have questions about any advice you’ve read on this blog, in my books, or heard from classmates? Send them to me.