How to Become a Straight-A Student by Cal Newport

• Study Basics
  • Work for 4 hours a day maximum, in 1-hour bursts
  • Manage time using an online calendar like Google Calendar or iCal and a daily to-do list on a piece of scrap paper
    • The list should be migrated from the Calendar
    • The Calendar holds the canonical copy of one’s life
  • Fight procrastination
    • One shall journal one’s work progress
      • Planned tasks in the morning
      • Completed tasks in the evening
      • Excuses for the uncompleted tasks in the evening
    • Protect the golden goose (one’s body)
      • Drink water
      • Monitor caffeine intake
      • Treat food as a source of energy
      • Do not skip meals
    • Make an event out of the worst tasks
    • Build a routine
      
    • Choose your hard days
    • Study early, in isolation, for bursts no longer than 1 hour
• Quizzes and Exams
  • Take smart notes
    • Always attend class!
    • For humanitarian courses, take notes with a laptop for improved readability and search.
    • For technical, graphics-heavy courses, take notes with a pen/pencil and paper
    • Identify the big ideas
  • Demote your assignments
    • Work constantly
    • Don’t read every assignment
    • Do not work on problem sets alone
    • Solve problems on the go
    • Do not reformat solutions; write them right the first time
  • Marshal your resources
    • Define the challenge
    • Build a study guide
    • Construct a mega-problem set
    • Prepare memorisation aids
  • Conquer the material
    • The Quiz-and-Recall method works.
  • Insure against disasters
    • Eliminate questions
      • Develop the habit of briefly talking to the professor after class
      • Ask questions during class
      • Come prepared to exam review sessions
  • Provide A* Answers. Potential strategies:
    1. Review the test, than answer the questions.
    2. Build a time budget
    3. Proceed from easy to hard problems
    4. Outline essays
    5. Check your work
    • These strategies can and should work side-by-side.
• Essays and Papers
  • Paper writing can be broken down into:
    1. Sifting through existing arguments
    2. Forming one’s own argument
    3. Communicating one’s argument clearly
  • Target a titillating topic
    • Discern between topic and thesis
      • Topic: the early work of Faulkner
      • Thesis: Faulkner’s early style was influenced by the European modernists
  • Construct a thesis
    • Move one layer deeper than the general
      • Look at the bibliographies of the general sources
  • Seek a second opinion
    • Is my idea appropriate for the assignment
    • Does it cover too much?
    • Is it too simple?
  • Research methodically
    • Find sources
      • General sources’ bibliographies
      • Use the Library of Congress Classification Outline
      • Search tactics:
        1. Break up the query into general chunks
        2. Use journal databases
        3. Google
        4. Ask librarians
    • Make personal copies of the sources
    • Annotate the material
    • Repeat.
    • Decide on research termination:
      • List the crucial topics to support the thesis (need at least 2)
      • List the topics that might support the thesis (need at least 1)
  • Craft a powerful story
    • Formulate the argument
      • Put yourself into the right mindset
      • Dive into the relevant information
      • Take a break
    • Construct an outline
  • Consult experts
  • Write without the agony
    • Separate your writing from the “before” and “after” steps
    • Write in quiet isolation
    • Follow the outline
    • Move slowly
  • Fix, but do not fixate
    1. Argument adjustment
       • Focus on the presentation of the arguments
       • Clarify sentences
       • Cut out unneeded sentences
    2. Out loud
       • Print the paper out, and read it out loud.
       • Root out small mistakes
    3. Sanity
       • Final, quick pass through a printed copy