Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

[donkmagic]

wtf this is college not small stakes poker. no great effort is required to get a's

[BDaws]

It's significantly easier than small stakes poker. Devote time to the class and you will get an A. There is very little variance because there's almost no luck at all (except for getting a couple tough questions on the test or whatever).

[O Fen�meno]

that advise is available for free from any guidance counselor

[Karak567]

did you seriously have to read a book to figure this stuff out?

[catalyst]

[ QUOTE ]
that advise is available for free from anyone

[/ QUOTE ]

[filsteal]

Here's the thing that helped me the most by far: Selective slacking. A few weeks into the semester, you'll be able to tell which classes are going to be hard and which ones are going to be easy. Don't waste time worrying about the easy ones. (And sometimes it's not what you expect. Coaching Offensive Football ended up being more work than Quantum Mechanics 2. Srsly.)

Also, it's very hard to continually get straight A's for any prolonged period of time, no matter how smart/competent you are, simply because chances are too good that you'll run into a jackass professor, or get sick and bomb a test, or whatever.

[HedonismBot]

LOL why is everyone bashing the OP for giving some potentially helpful advice? If its so obvious how to get A's why even read the thread? Thanks for the post, this will remind me to sit in the front row.

[vdomalip]

[ QUOTE ]
i hope you didn't pay a lot for this book. were these steps really unknown to you until you read them? you never made the connection between going to class and grades yourself?

[/ QUOTE ]

The way students are these days it wouldn't suprise me if they didnt know!

[T50_Omaha8]

OP and anyone who follows this plan must be a robot.

I got a 4.0 cumulative the easy way--here's my advice:

1) When you have to option, pick the easy professor. When you start out the semester you might be all pumped to challenge yourself and do great work. That is the idiot speaking up in you, and you must learn to supress that.

2) Don't follow the advisors' advice and take all your electives at the beginning and all your major classes at the end. That's a recipie for disaster. Learn to handle junior level classes your freshman year and you will have no problem with them by your junior year; plus you get to spread out your hardest classes over 4 years.

3) Read. Not necessarily for class...just read a lot of random stuff like the WSJ and the Economist, and fiction and nonfiction as well. It'll make your mind sharp and focused. You'll have a very clear understanding of the world and you'll be able to apply your writing ability and real-world knowledge in lots of situations.

4) Learn to write decently. It will pay dividends beyond your wildest dreams. It can literally turn a C idea into a B+ paper if you can pitch it correctly.

5) Don't ever study on a Friday or Saturday night. Don't burn yourself out--you need stamina to get through college.

6) Don't read everything teachers assign. Figure out early if reading is really necessary, and quicky taper down reading for classes where reading isn't that important. Look up online summaries of literature if you don't like it, then look up more summaries and analysis. You need to have enough time with the material to have it sink in so you can write about it on the test, and often reading analysis and background info about works will make you more prepared than people who actually read the thing. If reading is actually very important for a class, use it as a method of review.

7) Go to class, at least until you determine it isn't important. Then you should at least go to 70% of classes.

8) Plan schedule gaps. You won't always use them (and when you don't you can screw around and gamble online), but studying in multiple short sessions is much more effective than one marathon session.

9) Use effective time management. Don't waste time on things you're bound to get an A in. If you try to stay a week ahead in every class you'll burn out by the midpoint. Put work into the important ones and let the others slide.

10) Don't suck at math.

11) Understand your grades and keep very close watch on them. Know exactly what you have to make on any assignment in order to keep or make your desired grade.

12) Study hard at the beginning of the semester. That's when it's easiest to study (before you get lazy), so make your first round of tests A's. Then slack off in the right places.

[Stackology]

Honestly, nice post. Solid advice.