How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country's Top Students

All too often, students try to combine all three days into one. This is a horrible idea.

When faced with a difficult problem or demanding commitment, try to handle it in a reasonable manner—keeping in mind that important tasks often require important amounts of time. However, if a problem seems unsolvable no matter how hard you try, or a commitment begins taking up a destructively large amount of your schedule no matter how much you de

Stay in touch with your friends from back home.

The key to making the most out of your secret study space is to use it sparingly. Over time, it becomes depressing to study in such isolation. If you insist on completing every reading assignment, problem set, and short paper in this seclusion, you will soon feel quite lonely.

write guest opinion pieces, offer to tackle proposal writing for clubs you are involved with, or send well-crafted letters to local politicians and newspapers.

Worry about your performance and progress; let your classmates worry about their own.

More important, learning the central theories behind modern art will give you an overview of the general development of intellectualism in the twentieth century.

” If you can pass your quizzes in two hours, then you are done studying in two hours. If it takes you three days, then you are done studying in three days—but at least at the end you will know you are ready.

Bad courses, with incompatible professors and unreasonable requirements, are the key to developing an ulcer. You must avoid bad courses at all costs. They will make you unhappy, they will upset your academic momentum, they will sap your will to achieve, and they will hurt your grades.

When you have a long-term project to work on, establish from the outset several nonnegotiable intermediate deadlines. Nothing is actually due on these deadlines, but they will exist as a nearby landmark to help you focus on near-term goals.