Best personal success books according to Reddit
Reddit mentions of How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less
Sentiment score: 47
Reddit mentions: 73
We found 73 Reddit mentions of How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less. Here are the top ones.
- A good option for a Book Lover
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Color | Red |
Height | 7.97 Inches |
Length | 5.25 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | December 2006 |
Weight | 0.35 Pounds |
Width | 0.51 Inches |
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#2 of 651
How is this the top comment? He offers poor advice on grades and no advice on OP's question.
A 65 and 73 are likely equivalent to a C and C+ in your average curved course. Last time I checked, top companies have strict cut offs of at least a 3.0, and for good reason.
> I don't understand what the problem is.
It's twofold. The problem is he doesn't understand the material enough to apply his knowledge effectively. The problem is also he has shitty grades, which equals less job prospects.
>Nobody grades you in the real world, bud.
Yes, because instead of grades you get a finished product. And a 65 on a work project is the equivalent of screwing up a stress/strain analysis. And when you fuck up people die.
OP-you're likely not studying efficiently and/or effectively. Look at Cal Newport's blog and books. He has some great advice on how to study well. You may also want to look into some relaxation exercises as you seem to get very anxious. At the very least you should be doing practice problems until it's practically second nature.
It sounds like fix #1 is more sleep.
Lame as it may sound, 8 hours of sleep is hugely different than 3 or even 5. Set the alarm for turning off the computer and just do it man. I'm sure there are auto-shutoff functions, but I say turn the computer off yourself. It's a sign of your own commitment to change. You can push one button to start a better life.
I find everything else seems easier if I get enough sleep. Without it, stuff seems difficult and unimportant and I drift back into a bad mindset. It took me a long time to recognize that those thoughts were a lie... just a lack of sleep in disguise.
From there, I'd probably recommend a simple calendar+task list system like Cal Newport recommends in the Straight A Student, though others like David Allen's more detailed Getting Things Done methodology.
But start with getting good sleep. Commit to it for a week and see how it goes.
>Routines can be weirdly helpful.
i recommend this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport
I failed level one, two and three. Now I'm working on a Computer Science degree and have won 2 awards from my uni this year.
NCEA doesn't mean jack in the long run. You can just turn 20 and rock up. People start uni at 28, and they're not looked badly on at all.
Keep in mind there are so many options out there. The idea that college is the only way to success is increasingly becoming a myth. Skills will always come ahead in any field. Loving to learn inside or outside of school is important if you want to go far.
If you are looking at alternatives, look here.
Figure out why you failed. Figure out solutions to these problems, and demonstrate these solutions before you're at uni.
Find ways to discipline yourself to learn before university; a free course on Coursera or edX perhaps. This is a good book on study skills.
If you've done Level 1 and 2 though, you obviously have a fair few study skills.
Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.
I'll share my reading list for the next 12 months as it's how I plan to become a better learner:
 
Learning
Improving Maths
Improving Reading Speed
Algorithmic thinking
Understanding the Mind
Productivity
It's an ambitious reading list for the next 12 months as there is some heavy reading in there but hopefully you can get one or two useful suggestions from it!
https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn helped my sister.
And the book "How to become a straight A Student" is what turned things around for me.
I went from always scrambling last minute, cramming, having 0 free time and still under achieving, to having enough free time to actually be involved in things I wanted to be involved with on and off campus. For the first time I was like "Oh! so this is what college can be like..".
Organization and time management is so important it's nuts.
Edit:
Side note, stuff like depression and anxiety can be SUPER draining mentally and WILL affect the amount of willpower you have available for stuff like time management and staying organized so if you're dealing with anything like that getting it 100% under control is the absolute best thing you can do for your GPA.
It's late, and I kind of skimmed, but here are some thoughts.
This is spaced repetition. What Anki does is optimizing this process to minimize the number of repetitions per item over the long term, which becomes vital as the size of your deck grows.
Nope, no way. You can't keep track of thousands of paper cards. You can't travel with them. You can't search for a card by its content. You can't label them and fish up a set of related cards instantly. You can't reformat them instantly.
Basically, there are good and bad ways to use Anki, and these issues have been discussed to death on the internet. Not only that, but there are probably differences in preferences with things like language learning and SRS, and some things that work well for some people just won't for others. There's enough here to suggest that you are probably causing yourself unnecessary problems with Anki. I can speak from experience that I've had times when Anki worked extremely well for me and times when it didn't, and the distinguishing factor was that in the latter I was over-complicating things or overwhelming myself unnecessarily.
Sidenote: a while back I had a little box from White Rabbit Press with colored dividers. The idea was to use it for simple spaced repetition of small batches of their Kanji flashcards. Another thing some people like are ring-bound mini vocab cards, though those are not good for spaced repetition.
Personally, I'd keep using simple lists if that works for you. In fact, if you create your lists as a spreadsheet, you can print them to learn, and then export as a CSV file to get them into Anki. You can even shuffle and reprint them if you feel like you need an extra "learning" round.
Final thought: I cannot take the paper notes vs laptop thing seriously. This requires a lot of explaining, but the gist of it is:
Cool. Grab a hold of Cal Newport's book called How to Become a Straight-A Student if you haven't read it already. It's a classic. You could find a free copy online but of course I would never ever recommend that.
Don't use your phone to browse, especially while walking.
/u/teaandtalk Gave you good advice for how to behave on campus.
Classroom: Take notes by hand. Once, I started a conversation with someone because she had a gorgeous bujo (bullet journal). Good notes make you appear competent. Competence will encourage others to approach you and form study groups, which are easy ways to create a support network on campus. When you are unique (but not distracting) you stand out. Compliments are easy ice breakers in the classroom because they're quick but let you connect over a shared interest.
Transportation/Packing: This one is a big issue for me because my school has a behemoth of a campus. :) Always wear comfortable shoes. If you need to dress up, put heels in your bag for the meeting/event. Only carry the essentials. Invest in a tablet and download electronic copies of your books. Only bring your laptop when you need to use software that's not on a smaller device. Buy a good USB stick. Carry chapstick and water, and a travel-size deodorant and sunscreen. Baby wipes and bandaids are a good idea if you have space. I love JetPens because they have a lot of organizers and cases that are handy. You don't need more than 2 pens, 2 highlighters, a pencil, an eraser, and spare lead.
General: I don't know what year you are, but I recommend Cal Newport's book How To Become A Straight A Student no matter what point of your education you're at. Learn how to save time, because having leisure time means less stress which makes you appear more feminine to men and approachable in general. Practice good self-care and take care of your appearance. Never wear revealing/provocative, dirty, or weather-inappropriate clothes to school; they make you look unprofessional.
Cal Newport: How to be a Straight A Student
Cal Newport: How to Win at College
I abided by these two books, and had a satisfactory result:
How to be a Straight A Student by Cal Newport. It's not free, so I had to get creative in getting access.
10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (While Studying Less). It's a free book by the productivity/college blogger and YouTuber Thomas Frank.
It's just a shame that I discovered this later in college. They would have helped tone down the anxiety associated with wanting to earn good grades. Now I send this to everyone I know who is starting with college.
I would check out most of Cal Newport's recent writings. He received his PhD in Computer Science from MIT, and is now teaching at Georgetown.
His main thesis is deliberate practice consists of lots of different facets, most of which aren't necessarily thought about. While his work focuses a lot on improving work in "knowledge fields" it is drawn mostly from creative pursuits. He argues that thinking about your habits for practicing and learning (meta-habits) are just as important as sitting down to practice or learn. For example, knowing how to build a clear path of improvement and success in learning the piano is as important as sitting down and working through the hard parts. Sometimes the hardest part is simply figuring out where it is wisest to invest your time.
His article "The Deliberate Creative" I found to be particularly enlightening, among others. He's also been published in the New York Times, The Economist, and has five bestselling books.
On a side note, I originally found him looking for ways to improve my study habits, which is what he originally wrote about as an undergraduate. Any current high school or college students would benefit GREATLY (IMO) from his blog and first three books. Seriously, the guy has some great stuff.
How to Become a Straight-A Student
First off, grade equivalent scores are crap and don't work the way most people think.
>GRADE-EQUIVALENT SCORES
>The Grade-Equivalent score compares your child’s performance on grade-level material against the average performance of students at other grade levels on that same material and is reported in terms of grade level and months. If your 5th-grade child obtains a grade-equivalent of 10.5 on a standardized math or reading test, it does not mean that your child is solving math problems or reading at the mid-10th grade level. It means that she or he can solve 5th grade math problems and read 5th grade material as well as the average 10th grade student can read and solve 5th grade math problems. Your child is performing much better than the average 5th grader but most likely would not perform as well if tested using 10th grade material as they have not yet been exposed to 10th grade material. Caution should always be used when interpreting grade equivalents, especially when attempting to use grade equivalents as the basis for a grade placement discussion.
So don't feel bad about where you are now versus where you thought you were back then.
What can you do to keep from falling behind?
https://childmind.org/article/twice-exceptional-kids-both-gifted-and-challenged/
https://www.davidsongifted.org/Search-Database/topic/105297/entryType/2
This site has some useful links; some of which are aimed at younger children, but if you have never learned to study there might still be useful information there.
I also recommend ”How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767922719/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_I6bzDbZZXP07R
A lot of studying comes down to being organized, efficient, knowing when and where to get help. Remember that forming new habits takes time and you have to remain persistent.
If you have a friend, teacher, or parent who is willing to help, it can be useful to be accountable to another person. Have a once a week check-in on what you have done in the last week and what you need to do in the following week.
I'm sure people in this group could come up with a book full of thoughts on this topic, but hopefully, this gives you some things to think about.
Boy... those are some big, daunting questions.
But one at a time.
For better study habits, it sounds like procrastination is the problem. Make a big event out of studying, bring whatever materials you need to work on to a little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop or library and just get that one thing done while you're there. Don't bring all of your work just the one most important thing. It may seem a bit overdramatic to make a big deal out of studying by isolating yourself in a study bunker but it makes the work you're about to do feel mission critical. Also if you can do it early in the day, because by night you're going to be tired and just want to relax with TV or hanging out with friends, and stop kidding yourself, life's about those moments not the work that you have to get done for school. So respect yourself and let yourself have some fun when everyone else is, by keeping your nights mostly open and keeping your mornings booked with work. Finally, if it's something like an essay that will take a long time, don't you dare work on it for more than an hour without taking a break.
As far as being a better person in general... I don't really know... Have you tried the golden rule? Do to others what you want them to do to you. I hear it's a good one!
If you want a fantastic book all about best study pratices check out Cal Newport's Straight A Student
Yep, Visualization did jack shit for me too. I've read many self-help books, and so far the only ones that have helped me were those written by scientists who have researched their field for a long time, and people recommend them, that also had practical exercises in them. Very specific, but that's the truth. Here's a list:
All the rest, including positive psychology and Tony Robbins and all that jazz, didn't help me none.What area in your life do you want to improve?
https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LL4YEAVGNTVP&keywords=how+to+become+a+straight-a+student+by+cal+newport&qid=1563466968&s=books&sprefix=how+to+become+a+stra%2Caps%2C133&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VIVRORI88FP0&keywords=make+it+stick&qid=1563466981&s=books&sprefix=make+it+st%2Cstripbooks%2C133&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=104N13CQNSD4K&keywords=a+mind+for+numbers&qid=1563466992&s=books&sprefix=mind+for+number%2Cstripbooks%2C142&sr=1-1
I don't think you made a wrong decision. Your GPA is good and computer science is a valuable degree to have this days. If you get a couple of internships on the way you'll be set. Just try not to let your GPA slide.
I can give you some hints I've tried myself to streamline workload. Everyone needs a system. I use Things, which is a Get Things Done software for project and priority management. You deplete time and resources worrying about things, if you empty them somewhere in a way you can visualize it it's way less daunting. There are books on GTD, it works.
I like this book on getting better grades.
Does your college has a counseling service you can go to?
Check out this thread and "How to become a Straight A student" by Cal Newport.
Two books to read are Cal Newport's How to Win at College and How to Become a Straight A-Student.
After reading his books, check out his blog, Study Hacks.
It's a flashcard program structured around spaced repetition. Repetition is the only way to memorize things that aren't traumatic and spaced repetition is the most efficient repetition for us.
You basically pick an area you're very familiar with (your house, your favorite running route, etc), then put stuff you want to remember on different parts of the path. The more senses you can apply, the easier it'll be to remember them.
Check out this TED talk when you can.
Hope it helps man!
Have you considered nursing? I'm not sure on your sex, but if you're male the stigma has greatly gone down. It's not as well paying as a doctor but still pays well and sorta sounds like what you want to do.
For studying check out Cal Newport's book How to Become a Straight A Student. The best book I've read on study habits and learning how to study. It's not one of those books that about "well you need to study 23242 hours in one week to get a C" or some bullshit. It is a quick and fun read and it has helped me out a lot in college.
>when I move onto the next chunk either the next day or the next hour as I'm learning the new content the old fades away
It's important to apply different learning techniques to different types of material. You can't effectively study literature in the same way you study math. Figuring out which strategies work best for different topics, specifically for you, is a trial-and-error process. Others might be able to provide more specific insights, but I would also suggest trying to integrate new material into your existing knowledge. Rote memorization is sometimes necessary, but you'll never retain information learned through that method unless you find a way to add significance to it.
In some subjects, this process might occur almost effortlessly. When studying history, for example, learning new information that (perhaps subtly) changes the way you view the world allows you to apply your knowledge without much conscious effort. Other subjects, like math, may require more deliberate effort (i.e. consistent practice) before new knowledge is fully integrated into your existing understanding of the subject. You'll need to figure out what specific efforts you need to make in order to successfully apply and integrate new knowledge in different subjects.
You won't remember things that aren't significant to you, for the most part, so figuring out how to make information matter, at some level, is helpful. I don't mean that everything you learn has to be life-changing, but you should try to find a way to make new material seem at least mildly interesting (this often occurs naturally as you start to really understand the material). It's even better if you can make it useful in some way. Rote memorization might work for a test the next day, but you won't remember that material in the long run unless you're able to integrate it into your existing knowledge and apply it in some way.
>And on the topic of developing my comfort of less "immediately-rewarding tasks" how would I even do that?
As someone else mentioned, part of the challenge here may be (at least superficially) dopamine-related. I'm not diagnosing you with ADHD - what I'm referring to is our modern (technological) world of instant gratification. Video games, reddit, TV (news channels, commercials, short video clips in general), and even food (fast food + pre-made microwavable meals) help to condition us away from tasks that require sustained effort (like studying) without providing immediate and rewarding feedback.
To become more comfortable performing tasks like those, you have to both make the tasks easier (i.e. take regular breaks, use the most efficient methods for each specific task, etc.) and decrease your need for instant gratification. In regard to the latter recommendation, I would suggest limiting instantly-gratifying activity, in general, and confining it to specific places and times. You need to make instant gratification the exception, not the rule. You don't need to give up video games, but plan time for playing video games like you plan study sessions. A big part of doing that successfully lies in reducing temptation, examples of which could include not studying next to where you game or keeping your phone (and reddit) out of site while studying.
Hope that helps. There's a lot of information on learning strategies out there, but it can be hard to find and dissect. I've heard good things about Cal Newport's book on studying, so that's an additional resource you could check out if it interests you.
No problem! You don't come off as a brat at all. You're asking for help, and that's a step most people won't even do. They just sit in their little, sad situations and struggle for no reason. You're not like that. Chin up.
College is the first time I'm getting a support group offline. My parents refuse to acknowledge any and all kind of "mental illness", as they call it. So I definitely had to deal with a lot of coping growing up.
I started scheduling because I read this book. I know it might not apply to you now, but if you're curious THAT book was the one that changed the course of my college career- mostly because of its explanation of scheduling. If I had never read it I would undoubtedly not have so much work done ahead of time. But anyway, I am currently a college student so everything here is from a college student's perspective:
I understand what it's like to not want to confine to a schedule, really. In fact, I don't think I've ever done everything I schedule in a single day. See: http://i.imgur.com/bHNx0m4.jpg
Boxed in red is my schedule for the day, circled in green is stuff I didn't finish-- and it's okay, because my life deserves some flexibility. Because sometimes, I don't want to do math at that particular moment.
So I don't do it.
ADHD doesn't always let me sit still and do work. However, I make an effort to do something else productive, like some other assignment or drawing or reading. Something that's not Reddit. My rule is that I work 5 days a week, from 8 am to 8 pm. This is how I get ahead. I know 12 hours seems like a lot but I set aside an hour for lunch usually and I try to give myself 15 minute breaks every 45 minutes of work, Pomodoro style.
Sometimes I'm not even able to make myself productive. I Reddit or navel-gaze or sleep for a couple hours. It happens. It's okay. I'm usually ahead anyway. Let myself have a break.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, scheduling doesn't have to be this completely restrictive thing. It is actually very freeing. I am much kinder to myself now than I was before without scheduling-- because back when I didn't schedule, I ended up with a lot of backlog, which meant that I often was forced to work for hours on end. It sucked.
tl;dr: Scheduling, and doing work when I feel like doing work, allows me to make free time later that I can mess around with. It's like karma! Do good now, and you can reap the benefits at a later time. And what I do:
How good are your study skills?
Doing things like...
etc etc.
I think this book really helps to learn better studying skills, where I learned most of what I know.
For actually getting help, check your schools library (if they have one at CC) or just use the internet. Especially with programming classes, there are many tutorials on Youtube and subreddits like /r/learnprogramming
Have you heard of Cal Newport? He talks a lot about what organizational skills and study habits you need to develop (and how to develop them) to succeed in college. Read his book "How to be a straight a student". You should be able to get it free from the library. His blog also contains a lot of the same material. Check out the posts linked at the bottom of this page. I recommend the book, since it's a concise way to absorb all the information.
Treat this as a learning experience. What can you do differently now that'll help you succeed? Does your school has a student success center that focuses on teaching students study skills? What about a tutoring center? A writing center? Make appointments at these places and gather resources to get yourself back on track.
http://amzn.com/0767922719
http://amzn.com/0767917871
Here's a quick synopsis of the first book, although I recommend reading the whole thing: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18512444/How-to-Become-a-StraightA-Student
You'll absolutely be able to turn it around, make sure you take this time to really perfect time management. I overloaded myself one semester and had a pretty subpar semester, but the following semester, I took only two courses (one being an intermediate math course I had failed) in order to really figure out how to manage the coursework. Surprisingly, switching from a part time job to a full time job that had a set schedule made it so much easier to manage my time and I've been getting A's ever since (though I've kept it at 9 units with full time work).
Some tips that helped me:
-YouTube channel: thomas frank
-This book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0767922719/ref=ppx_yo_mob_b_inactive_ship_o0_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
-I started writing down my assignment due dates in my phone calendar as well as the tasks I needed to work on daily. This way if I didnt complete everything I needed to do, it would go on the next days list. This prevented procrastination and kept me consciously thinking about my assignments with less stress. (I.e for my poli sci class I knew I needed to read one chapter by the end of the week, but I'd break it up by reading a few pages a day)
-tutoring, but only once I had tried to work through the problems myself
I turned in my UC applications, and my TAG to Davis has already been accepted. The UC process is holistic and so as long as you improve from now on you'll be able to explain the bad grades and how you improved them. You've recognized you need to make a change and taken accountability and that's the first step in the right direction!
I'd recommend taking a look at Cal Newport's book How to Become a Straight A Student. It offers some really good advice on how to become a better student, particularly in terms of how to schedule and use your time effectively. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767922719?ie=UTF8&tag=stuhac-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0767922719
Great post. After a subpar performance in my first term of engineering, I knew something had to change so I picked up this book the other day to hopefully give me some insight on improving my second term. Some of the OPs points that came up were definitely in the book. The book simply helped some light bulbs switch on in my head and hopefully it can do the same for you.
Anyway if you have some free time, the book is relatively short and I suggest you check it out if you need help with being organized and studying.
The book is called
How To Become a Straight-A Student
The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0767922719/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/186-5706736-8151527
I recommend this book
It's been very helpful for me.
The author ran a great blog over the years with related material, here's the archives. I would search in the category tags for items relevant to you.
Recent ChE graduate here. I made it out alive so you can too. Here's my list:
tl;dr: Seriously? You want a two sentence summary? GTFO! If you are so lazy you can't be bothered to read something this short, drop out now. There are no shortcuts for the things that matter in life.
Don't be certain that things will get better. They might not.
I say the above at the risk of being massively downvoted, of course. But I say it for two good reasons: (1) It's true and (2) Few things are more crushing than believing that things are absolutely bound to get better, only to find that they don't, in fact, get better. Such cases tend to make people feel even more confused, isolated, depressed, and unsure of themselves than if they simply acknowledged the possibility that there is no strange, magical law ensuring that one's circumstances will become happier over time.
Your description of your high school and early college experiences reminds me of my own, in a way. If you're curious, I had a great deal of trouble making friends in college. Throughout my four years at college, despite many genuine attempts, I never did manage to become close to anyone, except maybe for a few professors. But I learned to become more self-sufficient, which was very important. Lacking close friends is sad, but sometimes it's simply the outcome of having an uncommon level of intelligence, maturity, and sincerity.
For whatever it's worth, this was a book that helped me become more efficient at studying. Perhaps it could help you... at the very least, having your academic side more developed would probably make the college experience as a whole be less hellish. Ayway, good luck.
This Reddit post and this book helped me tremendously. Of course, this would be for future semesters in your case.
I recommend you speak with your professors as soon as possible, and tell them about what's going on. The worst that can happen is they'll tell you that you can't make up assignments, which is already going to happen even if you don't talk with them. If you get lucky, some may give you a little leeway. Take this chance to get some work done to the best of your ability by applying some of the steps discussed in the post I linked.
If nothing can be done with assignments, just do your best to finish off strong with finals. Even if you fail, you can use this as a learning opportunity if you retake the classes, so you know what to expect the next time those exams come around.
If shit hits the fan and things don't go well, it's just a semester. The important thing here is not to beat yourself up, and do research on how you can be a better, more disciplined student in the remainder of your schooling. If you're anything like me, this will take a lot of work.
Also, does your school offer counseling/therapy? I know some do, and it's typically included in tuition. Might be worth looking into.
Definitely doable. I would recommend this book by Cal Newport to help you through college career. It helped me substantially.
College is all about how you manage your time. I personally know a guy that got a 4.0 in High School and got a 35 on his ACT's and flunked out of college because he spent all of his time partying and playing video games. I also know a guy where I'm constantly thinking "how is this guy an engineer?"
I personally flunked out of Engineering my first semester, but it's 100% because I didn't try and I focused on beating GTA V when it came out instead of focusing on my classes. I transferred from a community college where I thought all the classes would be like that and boy was I wrong. And while I'm not in engineering anymore, I'm 100% certain that I could do engineering now and this is coming from a guy that graduated high school with a 2.53 GPA and a 26 ACT. There are tons of resources like tutoring, SI, and recitations that help you understand the concept and develop into a better student.
I hope you make the right choice and come to Iowa State. And if you want a job as a bus driver in the future, hit me up!
first of all, you are more than capable of doing well. if you plan well and work hard in a college environment, you will find success.
buy and read this book. take it seriously. it has some great advice.
go to class. no excuses. you will end up spending exponentially more time covering the material on your own than if you just went to class.
about the phone thing: i have trouble with it, too. you need to stay out of your room as much as possible and study in a public place, preferably a place where other students are studying (like a library). i can't stress this enough. every time you go into your room, you're going to end up wasting at least a half an hour on the internet (like i'm doing right now).
if at all possible, don't bring your phone or laptop or any internet-capable device with you to class or to the library. you can't get distracted by the internet if you don't have access to it. i'm twice as productive when i don't have my laptop with me. if you can afford it, buy hard copies of your textbooks.
I never get tired of mentioning these two books:
After you read them both, I'm sure you will be able to start developing your own study method according to your needs.
Try searching for things written in this sub-reddit as well; specially topics about "spaced repetition" and "active recall".
I hope this will help you! : )
Since you can't put more hours into the day, one of those items is going to have to give if you expect to give the friend more time on that day.
You could fit the friend into the same time slots that you do those items, you could just flat out reduce how much time you give those items, or you could get more efficient in doing items.
I've already posted my initial thoughts on squeezing the friend into your time slots (phone calls, study together, eat one of your meals like breakfast/lunch/dinner together) without changing them, and thoughts on reducing the time for the others (exercise, morning routine) that seem like they can be reduced.
So the last thing I can advise is getting more efficient with your studying since that seems to be sucking up a lot of time. And for that, I'll share this book (especially chapter 2) and this book by Cal Newport.
As I mentioned before: pills aren't skills. You still have to put it the work even when you don't feel like it. THIS IS KEY. You won't always feel like following through. But the difference between failing and passing is putting in the work.
Here are a couple guides that I heartedly recommend: A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley. This book will give you the basis for effective learning, and not just for science or math students.
How to Become a Straight A Student by Cal Newport This book defines the genre of what an effective student guide really is. Study tips abound, but the real lesson here is about effective time management and scheduling.
Highly recommend [](How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767922719/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_zYVzyb25CPEJ9)
Just by making this post you have already taken the first step. I wish I could have recognized everything you posted at your age. I was pretty much the same, playing halo 3 and cod 4 and never really studying for tests. I got a decent grade on my SAT and got into an okay state school. But if I had the habits I have now when I was a sophomore I honestly could have gotten into an ivy or a top tier school. It's no use looking to the past in regret, because if I didn't do so poorly early on, I might have never decided to change my life for the better.
So you have this desire to improve yourself but you have to make this a burning desire. You have to really, really want to be the best version of yourself. Otherwise you will dabble in changing your life for a week but end up going back to your old habits. Close your eyes and visualize yourself being ranked in the top ten of your class academically. Visualize your self getting into an ivy, reading the classics, and becoming a great programmer. Really feel how good this things will be. See your parents proud of you and your friends awestruck. It's important to do this as it makes you release those feel good endorphin's. These endorphin's will override your feelings of apathy and laziness.
So now moving on to practical things in no specific order:
*I read this article: read to lead and have devoured books ever since. I usually read a 2:1 nonfiction to fiction ratio. Start with harry potter and work your way up lol.
Keep in mind that all the resources are out there waiting for you to use them. This is actually the easy part. The knowledge has always been out there. Applying this knowledge daily is what will change your life. View your mind as a muscle and every time you don't play videogames, you are strengthening it. Every time you finish and entire book you are strengthening it.
Get off reddit. Read books. My suggestion: How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport. Grab a copy from your library (or buy it--it's only $10) and read it, in addition to helping with your attention span it'll give you good guidance on maintaining a top GPA when you start school. Start things off on a good note, you don't want to have any regrets later.
This.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719
Your brother probably has your best interest in mind. To me, it sounds like you are a bit dependent on him. I might be wrong.
Anyway, here's what you can do:
These are my advices that helped me to replace bad habits (Also I read the book)
1. Solve one habit at time. Don't try to resolver everything in a day. Start small but start.
2. Schedule everything. Example:
5:00 am - Wake up, glass of water, put my running shoes.
5:05 am - Running
5:40 am - Take shower
5:50 am - etc
. Schedule Its going to help you to visualize all your day.
I can recommend you this book: How to become a straight A student..
Don't be hard with yourself. Eliminate a bad habit is hard work, but it's possible.
How to Become a Straight-A Student is
a greatprobably the best resource for learning how to study efficiently.One of the author's key insights is to put an emphasis on studying for real understanding. Here's a blog post by the author about it. It almost feels like this method of studying is tailor-made for INTPs due to our strong Ti being all about proper understanding of concepts. If you do it right you can end up spending less time studying than your peers and getting better grades.
If you experience a similar level of painstaking boredom with other tasks you feel you should do but don't want to do--and if you more often than not don't do them due to this boredom--you might want to do some research in to ADHD. It's one of the key symptoms.
I don't study "hard," I study smart. Get organized and focused, and studying will be a breeze. By using my calendar (on Google) and sticking to my schedule of practice and studying, I have gotten straight As while making time for friends, family, relationships, and personal time. I study about an hour to two hours every day, with about 5-15 other hours through the week for practice. I'm taking 16 units.
Here is a short book with a lot of excellent advice for succeeding academically. I was already a good student when I read it, but it helped me immensely.
What subject? What type of information? Are you talking about using your time and blocking distractions or just how to learn/review material?
If it's math/procedural/engineering material, do problems. Sit down with a blank problem and see if you can do it without looking at your notes. Or go over your homework problems and do them from scratch. The only way you'll know the material is by practicing.
If the material is a lot of memorization, MAKE FLASHCARDS. Use Anki or some other software to make them and study them from scratch. Look up something called 'active recall.' It's the idea of pulling information from your brain from scratch, not just by recognizing the answer in a multiple-choice list of answers.
For time scheduling/blocking distraction or procrastination, go buy Cold Turkey (only $20, will be the best $20 you ever spend) and block off any websites that might keep you from staying focused on studying. (I should be blocking Reddit right, lol) Put all your deadlines into your calendar so you can see what's coming up and which things to prioritize. Personally I use Wunderlist (smart due dates and week view features) and Zapier to copy to my Google Calendar so I can see my deadlines on my calendar too.
Also, choose a good location. Go to the quietest corner of the library and hunker down. It's the best way to focus. You'll never stay focused when you're around other people who are talking all the time.
Hope this helps! These are what have helped me. They're pretty basic, but super powerful. You don't need fancy apps, you just need to manage distraction and procrastination and be organized about when your deadlines are.
I would also highly recommend Cal Newport's book on studying. I got a lot of good ideas from that book.
Get this book and follow it's advice seriously, as it helps you work more efficiently:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight--Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301521795&sr=8-1
Do research every summer.
Don't be afraid to change your major.
Take only GER classes freshman year. Most people change their major and have wasted credits. Some chemistry classes may give GER credits, if so take those your freshman year! You will know for sure whether you will stay a chemistry major or not, after your first year of summer research.
Get some exercise.
Don't get complacent, and go "oh I have plenty of time I'll do this later". It's okay to do that, but write down all your assignments and start them so you know how much work you ACTUALLY have to do.
Take full advantage of office hours.
Make sure you have the number of at least one person in every class. It always comes in handy.
Read this book
If I could give my 17 year old self advice about college, I would say read these books:
Book 1
Book 2
Key to college is knowing what you want to take (not what your parents tell you you should major in) and working smart (i.e. avoid cramming, unnecessary hard-work)
How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less
by Cal Newport
Link: http://amzn.com/0767922719
This booked help me out a lot you should check it out: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0767922719
I would recommend this book: see if your library has it. It's a "how to college" book that talks about time management, study skills, that sort of thing. It's not quite what it advertises itself to be in the title, but I think it would be useful for you.
I would second /u/SmellsLikeDogBuns (interesting name), and encourage you to attend community college. It's cheap, you can easily fund it with Pell Grants and working a part time job, and getting into a four year school as a transfer student is much easier.
> What's the process of applying to a school like? SATs and things like that?
The school's website will list the requirements. There's an application you fill out (either school specific or the common app), and then they sometimes want test scores (SAT, ACT). US News' rankings are the most commonly used for finding the "best" schools, but your local community college would not be a bad place to start.
Here is the mobile version of your link
Here you go:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719
I can fully reccomend this book: https://www.amazon.de/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth/dp/1501111108
It sort of touches on what you're talking about. And it's very popular at the moment, so everybody should read it, anyways.
If you're struggling academically, this book in college after I had never studied for anything in school and thus not built any learning skils or habits: https://www.amazon.de/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/ref=sr_1_1?s=books-intl-de&ie=UTF8&qid=1504637962&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+become+an+a-student
But there really are no easy fixes. I know it's a cliche, but it's true.
one of my family friends recommended this book to me after I shared that I did poorly second semester. I read it start to finish the week after the semester ended and implemented some of the time management and study techniques in the book, and did much much better the following year. I'm in my third year as well, and I sort of relapsed after becoming too comfortable with my classes this semester, so I'm gonna give it another read to motivate myself to finish strong. good luck to you and happy Thanksgiving!
Check out the book "How To Be A Straight A Student" (http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719) it literally saved me in college because all through high school I made straight A's and B's without ever taking notes or studying and developed a lot of bad habits.
The note taking method mentioned in there is great.
Unpaid internships are essentially slave labor, or at least indentured servitude. That's a terrible idea.
I'm not sure what you would describe as your dreams, so I'll give you a possible alternative track for a possible set of goals that may or may not coincide with yours.
Let's say your goal is to get a well paying job and have a reasonably deep understanding of physics. Perhaps you'd also like that job to be intellectually stimulating. Here's a rough outline of what you could do to accomplish that:
-------------------------------------------
Before college
You're in 7th grade. First step, use this collection of links on efficient study habits to destroy and master your school work (check out Anki, too). At minimum, treat school like a day job. (Hopefully you'll have great teachers that teach you a love of learning and a value for a well-rounded educational base that includes the sciences, arts, and humanities.) Do all the exercises from Khan Academy from the beginning to fill any gaps in your knowledge and use sites like PatrickJMT, Paul's Online Math Notes, BetterExplained, and MIT OCW Scholar to supplement school and KA. Also, read these two books.
Once you've got school under control and are getting the most of what's available to you through that avenue, use the Art of Problem Solving Books to get a vastly deeper understanding of precollege mathematics. I'd say it should be a higher priority than learning calculus early in terms of ROI, but you can learn it if you want to.
See if you can find a group near you to train for a Math Olympiad or similar competition (like the ones listed on AoPS). Aim for the gold, but realize that it's unlikely and the real prize is how the training will bring up your mathematical maturity so you can tackle evermore challenging problems, concepts, and subjects.
Also, use sites like Coursera, edx, and Udacity to teach yourself programming. Once you've got a reasonable handle on programming, check out a site like Topcoder and maybe try to compete in the Coding Olympiad. Also, mess around with a Raspberry Pi.
You could also check out any big research universities or even decent state schools in your area. They often have youth outreach like summer camps for kids who love math to come and learn things not usually taught in schools. You could also see if there are any researchers willing to take on a hard working and science-loving high school student for a research project (this is how most of the winners of Intel science competitions get their start).
------------------------------------------------------
College (Undergrad)
If you've done the first paragraph of the previous section alone, you should be able to get into any top 20 program in the country without any trouble. Chances are you'll be competitive for most Ivies and top 10 programs. Do any of the stuff beyond the first paragraph, and you'll be a shoe-in with a huge advantage over the overwhelming majority of college applicants in the country. The link about scholarships in my earlier comment will guarantee that you get a free ride. Also, read this book.
So now you want job security and financial security. Any sort of engineering would do, but I think you'd be more interested in computer science so let's say you do that and double major in physics.
Every summer you do paid internships for CS at various software firms for work experience. This will be the best way to make sure you are extremely hireable after graduation for lucrative positions with interesting work as a software engineer. That's Plan B.
For physics, you find a lab that does interesting work and start doing undergraduate research. You might change labs a few times to find a better fit. You might stick with the first one until graduation. Doesn't really matter as long as you gain real research experience.
You also study your ass of for the Physics GRE from your first semester. A few hours per week you do problems from old tests from subjects as you learn them. As in, do mechanics problems your first semester, do mechanics and E&M problems your second semester, do mechanics and E&M and thermo and optics problems your third semester, etc. (This may be different depending on how your school organizes its physics curriculum.)
You talk to your advisors and grad students and fellow students and professors about applying to grants and graduate school. They'll be able to give you actual advice tailored to your situation.
Either in the spring of your junior year or the fall of your senior year, you take the GREs and apply to graduate programs in areas that interest you and apply to grants to fund you and wait for the offers to return. Assuming you've followed my advice, at least some of them will contain acceptance letters with details of stipends. More than likely all the acceptance letters will include stipends you can live off of.
If you just get rejected, you'll at least have a BS-worth of physics knowledge and have experienced real research and can go off and enjoy your well-paid life solving interesting problems as a software engineer.
Or you can try and get a job at a national lab somewhere putting your physics background and programming chops to work and just apply again another year while saving up more money.
And all of this was debt free because you had the forsight in high school to apply to hundreds of scholarships.
------------------------------
Also, read this thread on what it takes to kick ass at MIT. The post and the ensuing discussion should drive home what you could train yourself to become. (I think the reply by the twin is particularly enlightening.)
You can either shoot for the stars and hit the moon, or you can read magazine articles about gravity on the moon.
I break it down to three types of test, and adapt different strategies to approach them.
General study tips: Planning. I can't get enough of it. I start the reviews two weeks before the exam, allocate the study time into small chunks through out the day, before the exam, I just review the notes and the questions I did wrong during practice and call it a day. One last thing, I don't know if other INTJs can relate to. I always ask myself when studying. What question would the professor ask if I am the professor, and I would ask myself a hypothetical questions, and try to solve it. Sometimes I would contemplate so much on a particular problem and waste a lot of time.
I read a book called How to become a straight A student, and it helped me a lot during undergrad and masters.
Link: https://www.amazon.ca/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719
Hey. I'm Canadian so I can't comment in depth on your SAT/ACT situation, I'm sorry. BUT. I do have some words of advice for you.
Have you heard about fixed vs growth mindsets? People with fixed mindsets believe in things like innate talent and giftedness. They say things like "I'm not a math person, and I never will be." If they fail at something, it's because they aren't good enough and they won't be - so it's time to pack up and go home. On the other hand, people with growth mindsets acknowledge the value of hard work. There is no such thing as innate talent or giftedness, and you can learn anything or become good at anything if you put in enough effort. "I don't have a solid foundation in math right now, but with enough practice I can eventually learn differential equations." Here is a link for you about changing your mindset.
Here is a link I found regarding the ACT/SAT thing. You might not go to Harvard right away, but it might be in your best interests to start at a community college and transfer to a big 4 year uni after a year or two. You'll save money and probably benefit from smaller class sizes, which will help your GPA. As far as I understand, once you have so many college credits under your belt, your high school isn't taken into account anymore. I think, anyways. Do some research on that.
Ok. Look. You are very young. Your life is not over or far from salvageable. You can fix this, and achieve the things you want, but it is going to take some discipline. Pick a date when you are going to write your exams, and create a study schedule going backwards. IE. You want to write in May, you have X amount of topics to cover, figure out how long you can spend on each topic if you start next week and leave time at the end for practice exams.
First, in order to do well, you need a really good foundation. Develop good sleep hygiene, eat well, exercise once in a while, drink enough water. Meditation can help with focus. There are lots of guided meditation videos or apps available.
Other things that really helped me study are Cal Newport's blog and his red book. You want to avoid "pseudo-working" (blankly reading over your notes for long periods of time) and instead focus really, really intensely on solving problems or mapping out concepts for a short amount of time. It's hard to do which is why a lot of students shy away from it. Cal talks about this everywhere, definitely worth a read.
You're gonna be fine! Best of luck!
https://altair.pw/pub/lib/How%20to%20Become%20a%20Straight-A%20Student.pdf
Read this book. How to Become a Straight A Student by Cal Newport. I linked to a PDF of the book, but you can purchase it here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719
I’m guessing you’ll be in the Arts block which means cavernous lecture theatres full of nervous first years. Their biggest fear is the lecturer asking them a question, so they will tend to avoid the first few rows. If you try to initiate a conversation with one of them, even if you just want to ask them what the lecturer said, they are likely to immediately internally combust. Honestly, it’s easier making friends on public transport in London.
Anyway, don’t take your classmates’ paranoia personally. It’s definitely them. People chill out when they get older. In any case, you’ll have smaller classes and tutorials where it’s easier to talk to people. You’ll naturally gravitate towards the people who have more in common with you.
For one of your electives, take a first year course in descriptive statistics. Mean, standard deviation, probability distributions etc. I'm gonna guess that this is not your cup of tea, but the ability to understand basic (but fundamental) statistics is depressingly rare. Statistics is the practice of making inferences where exact knowledge is not possible. It's a life skill. Isn't that what we do every day? It is effectively the maths of philosophy, if that's more palatable.
If you want some practical study / research tips, there’s a good book by Cal Newport that scorns the generic study advice tropes. If you like it, I recommend you read Deep Work too. https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1W2XQBJM81WEZ&keywords=cal+newport&qid=1567548493&s=gateway&sprefix=cal+newport%2Caps%2C751&sr=8-4
Finally, there’s a super (!) blog that attempts to answer your exact question. It’s aimed at finance students, but I think you’ll find it useful :)
https://leveragedcareers.com/home/2017/9/19/how-to-make-the-most-of-university-1
https://leveragedcareers.com/home/2017/9/26/how-to-make-the-most-of-university-2
Aaaaand that's enough for now!
I found this book invaluable:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719
It focuses on time management and general strategies for maximizing the value of your study time.
Get this and obey. It will help you study efficiently and have free time for fun.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719
My first two quarters after transferring to my new school went AWFUL. I took 18 units each quarter and ended up with a 2.01 GPA. I realized I needed a change and was pretty desperate to try anything. I looked up how to do well in school and found this book and it had pretty good reviews: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767922719/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_uBLnxbERDTZPP
I thought it would be a gimmick and waste my money. But a lot of the tips helped a lot. This quarter I'm not struggling as much and my grades are above a 3.0.
I challenge you to also do this...
read.. "How to become a Straight A Student"
I wish I did during my undergrad.
I find a decline in work ethic (at the office) to be highly correlated with boredom at work.
Pomodoro is a useful to help break down larger tasks into smaller blocks that you can get done. Part of the problem with upper level university courses is that they build on previous courses, so sometimes the revision/study work requires pulling previous course texts out. This can sometimes make things seem overwhelming.
http://pomodorotechnique.com/
Also good:
http://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-A-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/
If you are in a field of study where reading academic journals is necessary, I find that I have to keep a journal of what I read. This journal isn't anything more complicated than a spiral notebook. I write on the cover what months and years the book has, the first 2 pages are reserved for an index. Each time I encounter an article or book for my field of study, I write a bibliography (call number if a book) and a summary of what the thing was about. This lets me keep track of what I've found over the years and instead of saying "I think I read something like that last fall", I can dig out last fall's notebook and flip through to find "ahh, the article is called X and here is the doi reference". You could also use software like EndNote or Mandelay to keep track of these things. I found very early on that backwards compatibility of software ended up losing research, so I stick to notebooks.
Yoooo dawg during my time I struggled too but this book helped alot idk if it'll help u but it certainly made it much more easier to go through n I really can't thank this book enough
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719
I came back to school as a mature student. I didn't do well in high school so I had poor study habits and time management. I found this book to be very helpful. https://www.amazon.ca/How-Become-Straight--Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468253911&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+be+a+straight+a+student
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719?th=1&psc=1&source=googleshopping&locale=en-CA&tag=googcana-20&ref=pd_sl_1yhclkjrqs_e
Although it probably won't help you this term, but in the book How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less top students typically study in the mornings when their brain is freshest.