Notes on 'How to Become a Straight-A Student'

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Pseudo-work - looks like working, isn’t effective

Work = time * focus

Time management:

• Carry list to write down todos
• Every morning:
  • Move todos to some day on calendar
  • Schedule time for all of todays todos

Procrastination:

• Every evening, write down any failed todos and reasons
• Hydrate, eat well, don’t abuse caffeine
• Make an event out of worst tasks
  • Tell people in advance
  • Isolated location
  • No distractions
• Habit - find a one hour slot per day that is always distraction-free, always use it for the same task
• If overtime is likely, schedule in advance and make an event

Study early, in isolation, with hourly breaks

Notes:

• Keep every handout, in one place
• Nontechnical notes:
  • Identify main ideas - question, evidence, conclusion
• Technical notes:
  • Record as many sample problems as possible
  • In priority order:
    • Problem statement and answer
    • Ask questions for anything confusing
    • Record solution steps
    • Annotate steps with explanation
• Discussion notes:
  • No main ideas, so just record anything insightful
• Eliminate question marks
  • Ask questions in class
  • Talk to teacher after class
  • Ask classmates
  • Ask the internet

Assignments:

• Work constantly - any free time during working hours should be used to stay ahead
• Don’t read everything - prioritize favored sources
• Learn to read
• Prime problems
• Collect stuck problems for TA, office hours, group sessions

Retaining:

• Collect questions and problems from notes
• Answer out loud or on paper
• Remove easy questions
• Repeat until no questions left

Memorizing:

• Use flash cards
• Train in odd moments eg bus journeys, queues, between classes

Papers:

• Pick a topic
• Get a second opinion eg prof - is this a reasonable plan
• Skim and annotate sources, follow citations
• Create argument outline
• Annotate outline with citations
• If not enough support, goto 3
• Fill in text
• One pass to clean up argument structure
• One pass out loud to clean up awkward/wrong grammar
• One pass for sanity checking