<ul><li>Sleep: The ideal amount of sleep is eight hours. Sleeping less can affect your success and your ability to focus.</li><li>Food: be sure to eat regular meals throughout the day, drink enough water, limit sugary drinks, and have plenty of fruits and vegetables.</li><li>Exercise: Research has found that physical activity improves your thinking skills and memory.</li><li>Hydrate, eat well, don’t abuse caffeine.</li></ul>

Take Care Of Your Physical Health

These 3 magical P’s — planning, proceeding, and proofreading are key when it comes to passing exams successfully.<ol><li>Planning means skimming through questions to see what’s ahead of you.</li><li>Proceeding means starting with the questions you can answer easily.</li><li>Proofreading includes leaving yourself time at the end to go over everything.</li></ol>

Use The Three P’s To Move Through Exams Smoothly

Every morning when you wake up, make a list of the most important work that needs to get done for that day. At the end of the day, write down any failed to dos and reasons. Seeing the same excuses over and over might tell you something and help you become more self-aware.

Keep A Work Progress Journal To Uncover Your Excuses

<ul><li>Pseudo-work - looks like working, isn’t effective</li><li>Work Accomplished = Time Spent * Intensity Of Focus</li><li>Don’t read everything - prioritize favored sources</li><li>Ask yourself the right questions to learn what you need to know without digging much deeper.</li></ul>

Pseudo Work 

<ul><li>Isolated location</li><li>No distractions</li><li>Habit - find a one hour slot per day that is always distraction-free, always use it for the same task.</li><li>If overtime is likely, schedule in advance.</li><li>Study early, in isolation, with hourly breaks</li></ul>

Study Place

<ul><li>Work a little bit each day on your assignments; avoid suffering from day-before syndrome.</li><li>Read only the favored sources on the syllabus in detail.</li><li>Work in groups on problem sets, solve problems on the go.</li><li>Write up your answers formally the first time.</li></ul>

Demote Your Assignments

“The more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish. They elaborate that execution should be aimed at a small number of “wildly important goals.”

<ul><li>The work you accomplish equals the amount of time spent times how intense your focus was on what you were doing.</li><li>Studies show that the optimal learning period is roughly 50 minutes so you should give yourself a break (don’t use phone on break) after working for one hour.</li></ul>

Manage Your Time And Work In Short, Intensive Bursts

<ol><li>Collect questions and problems from notes</li><li>Answer out loud or on paper</li><li>Remove easy questions</li><li>Repeat until no questions left</li></ol>

Retaining

<ul><li>Record as many sample problems as possible</li></ul>In priority order:<ol><li>Problem statement and answer</li><li>Ask questions for anything confusing</li><li>Record solution steps</li><li>Annotate steps with explanation</li></ol>

For Technical Notes

<ul><li>Ask questions in class</li><li>Talk to teacher after class</li><li>Ask classmates</li><li>Ask the internet</li></ul>Clarify your doubts immediately!!

Eliminate Question Marks

By reviewing the course material on a regular basis, it is more likely to really stick with you and you will actually understand the material. Periodic review is also a lot less stressful than cramming at the last minute.

Don’t Cram — Instead, Use A Periodic Review System

<ul><li>Priority setters: If they’ve scheduled a study session, no matter what comes their way, they will stick to their commitment.</li><li>Organized: A clear mind helps to focus better when studying and be less distracted,</li><li>Reading faster !</li><li>Schedule your time: If you’ve been assigned a huge project, don’t stress! Break it up into small parts and decide when you will get those parts done.</li><li>Use your notes.</li><li>Participate in conversations.</li></ul>

What Straight A Students Do

“The A+ students understood the role intensity plays in productivity and therefore went out of their way to maximize their concentration – radically reducing the time required to prepare for tests or write papers, without diminishing the quality of their results.”

<ul><li>Always go to class and try to take the best notes possible.</li><li> For nontechnical courses, capture the big ideas by taking notes in the question/evidence/conclusion format.</li><li> For technical courses, record as many sample problems and answers as possible.</li></ul>

Take Smart Notes

How To Become a Straight A Student<ol><li>Streamline your study habits to learn more in less time.</li><li>Take smarter notes (Less is more).</li><li>Manage your time in 5 minutes each day.</li><li>Always have a plan.</li><li>Be organized. </li><li>Take care of your physical health. </li><li>Don't cram — instead, use a periodic review system. </li><li>Form a homework group. </li><li>Set up a distraction-free study area. </li><li>Clarify your doubts immediately.</li></ol>

Short Summary 

<ul><li>Make sure to always have a plan ahead of time, and to always be on top of important dates for tests and deadlines.</li><li>Always carry a list with you so that you can write down anything new that comes up during the day. Spend five minutes each morning putting those items into your planner.</li></ul>

Always Have A Plan

<ol><li>Look over the whole test first.</li><li>Figure out how much time you have to spend on each question (leaving a ten-minute cushion at the end).</li><li>Answer the questions in order of increasing difficulty.</li><li>Use any and all leftover time to check and recheck your work.</li></ol>

Exam Strategy

Strategies and tips to ace your next exam

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How To Study Effectively For Exams

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”
-Michael Jordan

Offers time-management strategies, tips on taking tests, techniques for writing essays better and faster, and self-assessment tests to help students analyze their study skills.

Looking to jumpstart your GPA? Most college students believe that straight A’s can be achieved only through cramming and painful all-nighters at the library. But Cal Newport knows that real straight-A students don’t study harder—they study smarter. A breakthrough approach to acing academic assignments, from quizzes and exams to essays and papers, How to Become a Straight-A Student reveals for the first time the proven study secrets of real straight-A students across the country and weaves them into a simple, practical system that anyone can master. You will learn how to:  • Streamline and maximize your study time  • Conquer procrastination  • Absorb the material quickly and effectively  • Know which reading assignments are critical—and which are not  • Target the paper topics that wow professors  • Provide A+ answers on exams  • Write stellar prose without the agony A strategic blueprint for success that promises more free time, more fun, and top-tier results, How to Become a Straight-A Student is the only study guide written by students for students—with the insider knowledge and real-world methods to help you master the college system and rise to the top of the class.

Cal Newport is Provost’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University, and the author of seven books. His ideas and writing are frequently featured in major publications and on TV and radio.From his website: "I write about the intersection of digital technology and culture. I’m particularly interested in our struggle to deploy these tools in ways that support instead of subvert the things we care about in both our personal and professional lives."

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Get organized

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