How to Become a Straight a Student

Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Introduction

Part 1. Study Basics
Step 1 Manage Your Time in Five Minutes a Day
Step 2 Declare War on Procrastination
Step 3 Choose When, Where, and How Long

Part One Cheat Sheet

Part 2. Quizzes and Exams
Step 1 Take Smart Notes
Step 2 Demote Your Assignments
Step 3 Marshal Your Resources
Step 4 Conquer the Material
Step 5 Invest in “Academic Disaster Insurance”
Step 6 Provide “A+” Answers
The Plan in Action
Part Two Cheat Sheet

Part 3. Essays and Papers
Step 1 Target a Titillating Topic
Step 2 Conduct a Thesis-Hunting Expedition
Step 3 Seek a Second Opinion
Step 4 Research like a Machine
Step 5 Craft a Powerful Story
Step 6 Consult Your Expert Panel
Step 7 Write Without the Agony
Step 8 Fix, Don’t Fixate
The Plan in Action
Part Three Cheat Sheet
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Getting in is just the beginning
Copyright Page

Introduction
“My friends always wondered why I was never in the library, but instead in the student center socializing, or at a party, or at an event. They said I made it ‘all look so easy.’”
Anna, a straight-A college student

This is not your average college study guide. Unlike the titles next to it on the shelf, none of the advice presented here was devised by professors or self-proclaimed academic skills experts. I promise that you won’t find any mention of the Cornell note-taking method, mental map diagrams, or any other “optimal learning technique” crafted in an office or laboratory—environments far removed from the realities of typical college life.

Instead, this book reveals—for the first time—the study habits used by real straight-A college

students. All of the advice that follows was distilled from a series of interviews I conducted with a large group of top-scoring undergraduates. These participants were drawn predominantly from the Phi Beta Kappa rolls of some of the country’s most rigorous colleges and universities—including Harvard, Princeton,