https://fourminutebooks.com/how-to-become-a-straight‑a-student-summary/
1-Sentence-Summary: How To Become A Straight A Student gives you the techniques A+ students have used to pass college with flying colors and summa cum laude degrees, without compromising their entire lives and spending every minute in the library, ranging from time management and note-taking tactics all the way to how you can write a great thesis.
Read in: 4 minutes
Favorite quote from the author:
Cal Newport’s message to the world has increased in gravity as he’s traversed his own career path. *How To Become A Straight A Student* is the second book he wrote and it focuses on how students can ace college.
His fourth and fifth book, for example now deal with how to find and do great work, much later stages of your career. If you’re still in the early stages, then this summary is for you.
Cal’s blog is called Study Hacks, its original purpose being to help students – and it still is, but has expanded a lot to other topics as well. Of course, these lessons will help you more if you’re in college, but I find they provide a good system for learning in general.
Here are 3 lessons to help you become a straight A student:
Do you have what it takes to be a straight A student? Let’s get your equipment ready with these hacks!
I’m 99% sure you already know this and you’ve heard it tons of times, but I’m also 99% sure that you’re still not doing it, so here it goes again: Study for less time, but be really focused when you study.
Last minute cramming, pulling all nighters and 14-hour workday may feel productive, but really just amount to a lot of what Cal calls pseudo-working, because your concentration takes massive hits from all the interruptions and constant energy drain.
The studies Cal looked at agreed on roughly 50 minutes being the ideal study session length. As long as you spend those 50 minutes on nothing but one task (e.g. studying flash cards or writing a paper), three of these level 10 focus sessions per day will get you just as far as ten hours spent with an average focus level of 3 (just making these up to compare).
The first part of the equation to make this happen is to ruthlessly prioritize and manage your time with a calendar that’s always available for you to update and that you strictly follow.
Part two comes down to eliminating distractions. No phones, Facebook feeds, web surfing or snacking!
Note: One of my longest blog posts ever shows you exactly how to eliminate 32 of the worst distractions you face every day.