Welcome undergrad Monkeys to the first part of the four part series: “Four Steps to Your First College 4.0”. Even if you’ve gotten a 4.0 in the past, you should still read this series, as you may not currently use the studying techniques located within this guide, and they can only help you.
When I started my freshman year, I had something happen to me which I’m sure many can relate to. My classes got a lot harder than I was used to. I didn’t adapt my studying techniques from high school to the more difficult university-level curriculum, and as a result my grades suffered. The summer after freshman year I purchased a book off Amazon titled “How to Become a Straight-A Student”. I read it cover-to-cover and applied the techniques, and as a result finished both semesters of my sophomore year with 4.0s.
There will be no sugarcoating here, getting a 4.0 in college is hard, it's supposed to be. I can’t tell you how to cut your study time in half while getting higher grades. But I can promise you that this formula, applied correctly, will put you in the best position possible to get your first 4.0.
Step I: Fundamentally Shift Your View on How Studying Should Take Place
In order to truly become successful in your classes you need to change the way you study.
What many of you likely do, and what I did for years is what’s called the brute-force method of studying. It’s just reading textbook chapters over and over again until things stick in your mind. And for practice problems, just glancing over the solutions repeatedly until you think you understand it.. This method worked for many of us in our early years of schooling when the material was much easier. However, in college you cannot reasonably expect to achieve success carrying on in this manner.
What you must switch to if you want to enjoy success is the quiz and recall method. The quiz and recall method is all about simulating an exam environment whenever you are studying. This means that you must provide yourself with some form of prompt, and then answer using only what you have memorized in your head, getting no help from notes. This method ensures that you know exactly what you have learned, as if you cannot effectively answer the prompt, that means you clearly do not have the necessary understanding of the concepts.
In the next part we will go over how to actually apply the quiz and recall method to your studying. Thanks for reading.
Great stuff! Keep these coming
4.0s in college, you say? We need some input from my name is goldstein
Yeah, thought for sure this was going to be a Goldstein post based on the title.
As a student who graduated with a 3.95 the hardest part for me was to be engaged in classes that I could not give 2 thoughts about. For me I knew finance was the way I wanted to go so I buckled down and sucked it up since I was able to correlate the class to my future professional career. Now 18th century English literature/poetry and studying how the Age of Enlightenment moved towards Romanticism was another ball game.
Keep the posts coming.
My #1 ADVICE to students who want a 4.0: Only do COKE on the WEEKENDS. Never, under any CIRCUMSTANCES, should you SNORT the stuff in class (with the exception of ENGLISH class, which is BORING as FUCK and needs to be UPENDED and DISRUPTED!)
Subtle reference to Think and Grow Rich?
Newport's books were extremely helpful when I first started college. Highly recommend them for anyone struggling to get the grades they desire.
Keep these coming.
I think if you have the wherewithal to read these books -- or any books in your free time at 17, 18, 19yo -- you're already a gunner destined for a super solid GPA. Most teens don't read anything, let alone books on how to get a higher GPA.
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