10 STEPS TO EARNING AWESOME GRADES (series) (LOG-3)

(WHILE STUDYING LESS)
  

Step 1 - Pay Better Attention in Class  

Since your Class Time is a constant rather than a variable, I think it makes sense to prioritize Learning Quality first. The more you can learn while you’re part of  your professor’s captive audience, the less work your Study Efficiency will have to do later when you’d rather be hanging with friends and playing Pub-G.  

"Pay better attention in CLASS!"

This is one of those “easier said than done” pieces of advice; semesters are long and  classes  constantly  wage  a  war  of  attrition  against  your  motivation  levels. These strategies will help you weather the storm.  

Don’t Overload the System  

How our System Overloads?

The system I am referring to is our brain, but I’m going to take it a step further and define the system as your body.  

Our Body Is Our Mind, Our mind does all the work involved in earning awesome  grades, and the performance of the mind is dependent on the state of your body.   

“The most important part of the game is your game piece!” -Your Body

Visualization is one of the Steps to get your goals whether it be through real world or imagination. It can be through real experience or keeping yourself in the place of who you want to be. All deals with something common that we have to find out... 

....but some things always bears repeating (LIKE HEALTH). Why?  

Moreover, all the little mind hacks and study tricks in the world won’t help me if I'm constantly suffering from bad health due to poor nutrition, lack of sleep, and inadequate exercise.  

The truth is that most of us are like the kid who goes to karate class and wants to learn flying tornado kicks before mastering proper balance. We want little tricks, hacks, and tactics that promise to make our lives better.  

Picture two ninjas: One keeps his body in top form and practices every day, but his master’s a hard-ass and only lets him fight with his bare hands. The other one actually isn’t a ninja at all - he’s just an unhealthy anime addict yelling quotes from Naruto and holding a $5,000 katana bought for him by his rich dad.  

Who's going to win the fight?  

All this is an elaborate way of trying to convince me to make my health priority #1. Be deliberate about:  

1. Eat healthy at least 90% of time 
2. Work out regularly - this can be fun exercise; join an intramural sport 
3. Get enough sleep -at least 6 hours a night  

Sit Up Front and Be Present  

Sitting up front and making a deliberate effort to  be  present  actually  does  help  your  focus, attention,  and  energy  levels. And it all starts with choosing that row the moment you walk into the classroom.  

Come Prepared  

Be Prepared for Anything that comes in like...

Every teacher I ever had had always told you to come prepared to class. What I do want to mention here is that We can become better at doing this, because none of us is perfect at it. We all forget things -and when we forget things, we create friction that impedes our willpower to remain fully engaged in class. So, to make sure you’re prepared in class as much as possible, create a  habit for being  considering things regularly like my life, and my goals, depending on -especially those that lie outside the current moment and taking care of everyday goals.  

A mindful student plans for the next day each night, and thinks about what needs to be in her bag for that day. She makes sure her laptop is charged if it needs to be, and checks to see that the right notebooks are in her bag.  

If I find that I'm not as mindful as I’d like to be, an easy solution is to create a reminder, such as:  

• A Note on my door or on my desk 
• A recurring daily task in your to-do list 
• An remainder on your phone 

Get Help from Your Professor (The Right Way) 

STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIP

A professor is always (in most cases) wants to help us, so we should definitely take advantage of their office hours if we ever have problems in understanding the material in class or problems associated with it.   

Not only will you get the help you need, but you’ll also start building a relationship with that professor. This can be incredibly useful down the line, in addition to just being a generally cool thing to do.  

When it comes to getting academic help, however, you should use the Corson Technique. Dale Corson, the 8th  dean of Cornell University (the birthplace of the famous Cornell note-taking system), once remarked that students in engineering and science programs often have to work through a complex idea one sentence at a time in order to “crack” it. 

If comprehension doesn’t come even at this granular level of study, it’s time to ask the professor for help. However, Corson advises, “Before you do, "Ask yourself this question: What is it that I don’t understand?". This means if you ever go for help, you should be able to show the professor all that you do understand up to an exact point – and even show what you understand afterwards.  

By doing this, you show the professor that you’ve really wrestled  with  the problem. Doing this has several benefits:  

• You save  professors time and help them understand the exact context of your problem. 
• The professor knows that I actually give a damn and will have a much better impression of me. 
• By really going to intellectual combat on the problem,  I can very well might solve it Myself before I need to ask.  

“First you must try; then you must ask.” 

There is a very similar technique to the Corson Technique, and gives some more specific guidance on how to act when you’re stuck on a tough problem. It's often told as “15 Minute Rule.”:  

1. When you get stuck, push yourself to solve the problem for 15 more minutes. 
2. During that 15 minutes, document everything you do, keeping in mind that someone else will need those details if they’re going to help you. 
3. After that time, if you’re still stuck, you must ask for help. 

Eventually following these steps will create you a solution finder than one who struggles or who is not given any specific importance.  

Keep Those Hands Moving  

Move Forward -Never Stop...

This last tip stems from an observation that I made early on in past days: Being an active participant is almost better rather than being passive observer. We’re more easily able to remember things that we actively participated in than things we were merely exposed to. When it comes to lecture-style classes, the best ways to be active are to speak up in class discussions and to take lots of notes.  

Forcing yourself to take notes can be hard, though - so you’ve got to turn it into a habit. To do that, you could:  

• Form a study group and compare notes on a regular basis 
• Use a habit-tracking tool like Habitica or Lift to track your habits 
• Elevate the importance of your notes...  

...which I did in my first Management Information Technology class. How? ...I made them public.

Continue to read the study guide, new blogs are added everyday.
Keep up! the Grade Line && Best of Luck!