Study Hacks

From the reader mailbag:

A history class I have this semester separates its grading as 35% to each the midterm and final exam and 10% each to the weekly 2-3 page position papers, weekly multiple choice quizzes, and attendance. I continually get less than perfect grades on the position papers. Should I work harder on these to gain the perfect score in the class, or are these worth so little that I should not worry about the individual grades on these?

Cal responds:

There are two types of academic problems: major and minor. Major problems represent poor performance on important assignments. If you don’t fix the situation your grade will likely drop a full letter or more. Minor problems are less important. Typically, a failure to address a minor problem might add a “-” or take away a “+”.

Major problems have to be addressed. This might require an overhaul of your study habits and a significant investment of additional time.

Minor problems are less urgent. Your situation with the position papers is a minor problem. So don’t lose any sleep over these.

What should you do? My general rule for minor problems: don’t increase the amount of time you are working on the assignments causing the trouble. (Life is short, don’t take away free time when you can avoid it). Instead, look for simple ways to improve the outcome of the time you already spend on these assignments.

For the specific case of your position papers, I recommend talking with your professor. Don’t ask directly how to improve your grade. This smacks of grade-grubbing. Instead, ask what the better position papers in class do right. He may even give you a few examples to review. This one meeting will only eat up 20 minutes. It will, however, probably give you enough tweaks and tips to your writing process to produce a grade bump on future papers.

From the reader mailbag:

I have read your book, How to Become a Straight-A Student, which helps me a lot. I wonder, however, when did you and other straight-A students go to sleep when you were university students?

Cal responds:

The hours of sleep needed to be rested depends on the person. Some require 8 to 9. Others are fine on 6 to 7. Some claim to only need just 4 or 5, but they’re delusional. Figure out what works for you. Once you have this number fixed, the key is consistency.

During the work week, go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning. A consistent schedule with the right number of hours will prevent fatigue during the day. If you want to go to bed at 3 and get up at 11, that’s fine. Just do that every day. Ditto if you want to go to bed at 8 and get up at 4. (Though, in this case, you might want pencil in some time on your calendar to think about being less of a loser).

On the weekends, your sleep schedule will, of course, be different. The key here is to not oversleep. If you know you need 8 hours to be rested, then, whenever it is you stumble back in your dorm room Friday night, set your alarm for 8 hours later. If you crash at 3, get up at 11. Don’t let yourself sleep until 1 or 2. You don’t need those extra hours. They waste time. They will make you groggy. And they will screw up your schedule.

If you’re handling your sleep right, and getting the same number of hours every night, and going to sleep at the same time during the work week, you should find that you have enough energy to make it through the day without needing a nap, or without needing a few hours of vegging to Culinary Cherub we commoners deem to call Rachel Ray.

If you’re still having trouble staying alert, check out the following four trouble spots:

1. Nutrition. Make sure you are eating to promote energy.
2. Exercise. Make sure your body is getting worked out on a regular basis.
3. Schedule. Make sure your work is broken down into little chunks spread out earlier in the day.
4. Balance. Make sure you’re having enough good ‘ole fashioned debacherous fun.

From the reader mailbag:

You gave the advice, “Drop classes every semester,” to avoid bad classes. How do you decide what is an ambitious schedule versus what an insane schedule is? What is the difference between dropping a class because you are being a pussy or because you honestly can’t (don’t have time, or whatever) complete the class satisfactorily?

Cal responds:

Unless there are extenuating circumstances, take the normal number of courses for your college. Don’t fall into the trap of taking on extra courses just to look impressive. In reality, this simply makes you look like a robot. A boring robot. Similarly, don’t take less than a normal course load, even if you have the extra credits to get away with it. This does make you look like a wuss.

The key to the “Drop a Class Every Semester” advice (which is from How to Win at College), is to start each term by signing up for one or two extra courses beyond the normal load for your school. You can then drop the courses you like least to bring you back down to a normal course load. Nothing about this makes you a “pussy,” you’re still taking a reasonable amount of credit hours — you’ve just ensured that time you do spend in the classroom will be as non-horrible as possible.

What happens if even after you drop some courses there are still some you hate? Suck it up. Deploy every study skill in your arsenal to make it more reasonable, and look forward to summer.