About me

Im an idiot. Why am I telling you that? Because if an idiot can do well in school, so can you. At first, everything was going fine. I put in good effort, and I got good grades. Then, I hit high school. I put in good effort, and I got less good grades. Damn! Looks like Im not as smart as I thought.

But what can I do to get good grades again? I cant work any harder, Im already putting in my best effort. I guess Ill have to work smarter. But wait a minute. What the hell does that even mean? You hear it all the time, but exactly what does that consist of? Read the rest of the book, and youll find out.

But theres a level beyond working smarter. As I discovered in university, sometimes, both working hard and smart just dont get you the grades you want. For instance, you know the material, and have it down cold. You can recite it forwards and backwards. Unfortunately, your professor (that tricky bastard) phrases his questions in a way that doesnt test your knowledge of the material. It tests how well you understand the phrasing of his question. Is it fair? Nope. Does it happen? You bet!

What do you do in cases like that? This is really where this book really distinguished itself from other books on success in school. In this book, Ill teach you ways to talk to your teacher or professor in a way that will make him want to give you marks. Perhaps even more powerfully, Ill show you what to say to the teacher or professor that will make them give you marks higher than you deserve.

Take out your pen and paper, and prepare to take notes. Youre going to learn a lot.

What You Will Not Find in This BookJust to be fair, I want you to know what you can expect not to find in this book. One thing you wont find in this book is how to study for math, or any subject heavily relying on math (like physics). I hate both those subjects, and didnt pursue them beyond the high school level, so I never got a chance to find helpful study methods and backdoor ways. I apologize in advance if this is what you were expecting to find in this book.

Another thing you wont find in this book is the painfully obvious. When I was dead set on finding any information I could about study methods and success in school, Id find a useful tip here and there, but for the most part, every single book I read had painfully common-sense advice. They talked about how to organize the study area, not to pull all-nighters, how to write papers, how to research, and how to organize your time. Now Im no psychic, but I think that just about every student will be able to tell you all these things without reading a single book.

I want my book to have value. I am a student as Im writing this. I understand what a student wants. I also understand that I dont want to waste your time by giving you advice you already knew before you stated reading. The material you find in this book has not been written about anywhere else, to my knowledge.

What to Expect in This Book

In this book, there will be a minimum discussion of theory. Ive read other books on studying that sound either like neurophysiology textbooks (that means unnecessarily detailed), or like some sort of esoteric pseudoscience. I dont care to know the very deep reasons as to why something works. I only want to know the basic reason why something works, and nothing more. I like to know what Im doing, and why Im doing it. Thats it. So the discussion of theory in this book will be the bare minimum to show you the value of different methods.

Besides this, there is a lot of unique information in this book. As a student, I have a bottom line. Thats grades. Im not too concerned with retention of material beyond the course. Im not too concerned with establishing good study habits, and Im not too concerned about getting the big picture. These will definitely be there, but they are just side effects (although you couldnt have asked for better side effects). I only care about one thing: high grades.

Another thing is I dont like to study very much. Id rather be doing other things. I like to streamline my approach to studying as much as possible. I like to really cut down on the inessential. If it isnt on the test, I dont want to know it. If it doesnt contribute to me getting higher marks, Im not going to study it. I show you precisely how to get as much information as possible about the course, the tests, the questions and the teacher, so you can have a much more focused, precise approach to studying.

Now, some people may say how bad it is to study only the necessary, and nothing else, but heres my take on it. There are many subjects that you take that you have no interest in whatsoever. Is the extra information that you learn about that subject really going to make a difference for you? On the other hand, if you are studying a subject that is relevant to your future profession, you had better bust your butt to learn every aspect of it. The problem is that over your entire academic career, very few courses will be relevant to your profession. Use the methods from this book when thats he case.

What I will teach you in this book is a more integrated approach. I teach you some study methods that come in very handy, and ones that you are very unlikely to find in other books on school success. But this book goes one step beyond that. I realize that despite all the studying in the world, you may not get the mark you want. This is why I also include a section on how to get a grade that is higher than you deserve. It wont work all the time, but it works in enough cases that you should use it if you so choose.

Before the Course Starts

All right, now that we got the introductions and expectations out of the way, lets get on t the really good stuff. In this chapter, I am going to discuss things that you should do before the course starts.

There are certain things that you should find out before beginning a new class, or at the very beginning of a new class. This prepares you in terms of what to expect out of the course, what you can exclude from your studying, and how you should present yourself to the teacher.

So, how do you gather information? Find students who previously took the course that you are taking now. How do you do this? If youre in high school, thats easy. Ask some of the students in the grade above you. If youre in grade 12, your job is a little harder, but you can look at the group who graduate the year before you, and find their phone numbers online, or find those people on facebook, or other social networking sites.

But what if these people dont know you? Heres a very simple way to get around that. Introduce yourself. Tell them your name. Then explain why you want to talk to them. Now, to seal the deal, offer to buy that person lunch in exchange for picking his or her brain on the course that youre taking. Very few people will turn down a free lunch, and the wealth of knowledge you can potentially get from this person will be very valuable to you.

If youre in university or college, your job gets a little bit tougher. A good first resources to find people who have taken the course you are about to take is facebook. Another way to find people whove taken that course is to talk to your classmates on the first day of class, and find out if they know anyone who has taken that course before. If you find someone who knows someone else who did in fact take that course before, explain why you are asking, and then ask your new friend to give you the contact information of his or her contact. Once you contact that student who previously took the course before, use the same approach that is taught to the high school student.

What now?

By now, youve found a past student, and youre buying him or her lunch. What do you talk about? Here are some great questions to ask:

How difficult is the course?

How is the teacher? What is the teachers bias? What can you do to get on the teachers good side?

Do you have any past tests? If not, what do you remember about the tests? Do you remember any particular questions?

Did you notice any patterns about the tests? Is there some particular way that the teacher asks questions that try to trick you?

Do you have any past assignment?

What was the most difficult part of the course?

What was the easiest part of the course?

What are the top 3 things to do in this teachers class?

What are the top 3 things to avoid doing in this teachers class?

Knowing what you know now, if you could go back, and redo everything in this course, what would you do differently?

So whatcha doin Saturday night? It helps to say this with a wink and a smile.

Any other questions that interest you.

Ask these questions, and you will get a wealth of information.

I scored a past test! How can I milk this for all its worth?

Congratulations on gaining access to a past test. Youve just run into a gold mine of information. Now what should you do with it, to get as much information out of it as possible? The most important thing is to look for patterns. A pattern is a commonality amount a group of questions. Dont expect to find something common to all questions (this can happen, but extremely rarely), but expect to find something common to a group of questions. A group may be as small as 3 questions.

Now, specifically what patterns are you looking for? Here are some that Ive found:

Definition questions. These are questions where just knowing the definition will get you the mark. No further knowledge is necessary. But be careful. Not every definition question will be so straight forward as to ask you define _____. There are many different ways to ask a definition question. When youre going through the test, ask yourself would I get the answer to this question if the only thing I knew was the definition? If the answer is yes, you have a definition question.

List questions. In many subjects, youll learn lists. Ill give you some examples. In anatomy, there are 4 muscles that make up the rotator cuff. These 4 muscles are a list. In marketing there are 7 factors that influence buying behavior. Thats a list. You can find lists in almost any subject, and youll find that lists tend to make up a very large part of the content. I should remind you again, that list questions are unlikely to appear on the test as list the 4 factors that make up ________ (although this can happen). There are many different ways to ask a list question. To find out if a question is a list question, think to yourself if I could list these 4 factors, without knowing anything else, would I get the mark for this question?

Reason questions. These are questions that basically ask you why. Why did the French Revolution happen? Why is the sky blue? It bears repeating that these questions may not be asked precisely in that form. The same test you used in the previous 2 questions apply here. Ask yourself if I knew the reason why this happens, and nothing else, would I get the mark? If the answer is yes, thats a reason question.

Function questions. Reason questions ask why? Function questions ask how? How does adenosine triphosphate (ATP) fuel anaerobic metabolism? How does photosynthesis work? I should note that sometimes there is overlap between reason questions and function questions, but not always. It is best to look for both types.

Chronology questions. Chronology questions ask when? You may be thinking this applies only to history (and it certainly does), but there are many other case where that applies. An example from physiology: at what point in the Krebs cycle does ______ happen? This would require your knowledge of the step that precedes the step in question, and the step that follows the step in question.

Miscellaneous. The above questions will cover a good portion of the test. But many questions wont fit into any one of the above categories. Continue looking for patterns. Are there other ways you can group the remaining questions? It may be that you cant. there arent any patterns.

Youve gone through the test thoroughly. Youve found that the test has 50 questions. Of those 50, 8 are definition questions, 6 are list questions, 9 are reason questions, 3 more are function questions, 3 are chronology questions, and the rest are miscellaneous. Are you starting to see how knowing this information would really help your studying?

Id be willing to sit for hours to find this information, but you know what? Finding this information only takes 30-60 minutes, or less.

This way of looking for questions works great for multiple choice, true or false, and short answer type tests, but what do you do when you have case studies, paragraph (long) answers, and essay-types tests?

The concept is the same. Look for patterns. Look at checkmarks: where did the teacher give marks? What is common to all the places where marks were given? Where did the teacher take away marks? What is common to all the places where marks were taken away? As you can see, the analysis for these types of tests is much shorter, but no less important.

It helps to physically write down (or type) the patterns that you find.

If you didnt get a past test, dont despair, theres still a lot of things you can do to get that A.

I scored a past assignment. What do I look for?

Past assignments are very similar to past tests. Look at where marks were given, where marks were taken away, and what is common to them. Of course, some teachers dont comment on an assignment, and just leave a final mark at the end. What do you do in these cases?

Simple. Look at where you think marks were given, where you think marks were taken away, and what is common to them. Now this may sound like common sense advice, and it is, but there is a very good benefit to thinking in this way. When you do this, you start to think like a teacher. You start to think like the person marking the assignment. Where would you give marks, and where would you take away marks? This is basically like getting inside a teachers head. When you know what and how a teacher thinks, it helps to tailor your writing to that.

To be able to think where marks are given and taken away, you have certain implicit criteria. In other words, you may give or take away a mark for something, but you may not think why. Changing that is very simple. Just think why you gave or took away a mark there. Make the implicit criteria explicit. And by the way, guess what criteria are? They are patterns. Once you identify these criteria and make them explicit, you no longer have to guess what the teacher wants to see in your paper. You can systematically apply that criteria, and judge your own assignments by that.

Cool, huh?

Social Dynamics

How to Make the Teacher WANT To Give You Good Grades

Some teachers, it seems, are just out to get you. They want you to do badly. Lucky for us that this type of teacher is in the minority. The majority of teachers would describe themselves as tough but fair. The reality is that theyre people, and people, try as they might cant be fair. They have their own biases, preferences, experiences, memories, etc. And much of what goes into their decision is beyond the level of consciousness. Sure, if you ask them why they made a certain decision, they will give you a perfectly rational explanation, and that may be part of it, but certainly far from all of it.

In social psychology, time and time again, it was proven that people suck at introspection. They dont know why they do the things they do. But the interesting thing is that they think they know why they behave in a particular way. The reality is that they dont. Neither do you. Neither do I. Now whats the point of this little lesson in social psychology?

Simple: if teachers do not know why they give the grades they do (on subjects that are subjective), they are open to influence. One of the keys to influence is liking (just ask Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice). Simply liking the other person will predispose the teacher to want to give you good grades. Now for the good stuff: what makes a teacher like you?

1. Be polite. Seems obvious, doesnt it? Just dont take it for granted. It is very important.

2. Ask questions during and after class. This shows that you are interested in the content. Even if its just to clarify a misunderstanding, or ask the teacher to give an example or a paraphrase. It all gets you points. But notice that I didnt tell you to ask questions before class. Dont do that. Teachers like to take their time to get into a classroom, get settled, get their mind on the course without being bombarded by angry, upset (and even interested) students.

3. Make sure the teacher knows your name. This is not a big issue in high school and elementary school. But when youre sitting in a lecture with 300 people, it becomes a big deal. How do you get the teacher to know your name? Either go ask a question after class, and introduce yourself before asking the question. Or visit the professor during his/her office hours and introduce yourself there. This gives you more one-on-one time with the professor, and you have his/her undivided attention. Dont forget though, it is often the teachers assistant (TA) marking your tests and assignments. If thats the case, make sure they know your name real well. If the professor knows your name, but not the TA, that does not do much good. If they know your name, when they are marking your tests and papers, they can associate your name to your face and personality.

4. Show up early to class. If you show up late, you draw the teachers attention to you. And not the type of attention youd like. When you show up late, the teacher labels you troublemaking, selfish little brat who will fail my course. You dont want that. If you absolutely, positively cant make it on time, heres what you do: walk up to the teacher at the end of class, and sincerely apologize for coming in late (but dont give reasons). To a teacher, this is completely unheard of, and scores you some major points. When you do that, the teacher labels you what a polite young man/woman. S/he must have been helping a slow-walking old lady across the street, and thats why s/hes late.

5. Ask the teacher about him/her self. The most interesting topic for anyone to talk about is themselves. You just cant be bored talking about that. But use common sense. Dont ask questions that are too personal, and dont ask these questions in front of the whole class. Some things to ask about the teacher are his/her interests, academic background, personal opinions of some topic relevant to class, etc.

This is pretty obvious, but it should be mentioned nonetheless. Social dynamics are really only applicable in courses that have a degree of subjectivity to them. In subjects like mathematics, physics, and any subject that has a multiple choice component, no matter how polite and likable you are, the mark you get is the mark you get. Just dont take that to mean that you should be rude and impolite. In any case, good social skills cant hurt.

The Course Has Started, and You Just Had Your First Class. What do you do?

So far, we have covered what you can do before the course starts to maximize your chances of success. This should have given you a nice, hefty dose of good ideas. But now, the course has started, and you want to do really well in it.

Usually, on the first day of class, the teacher or professor will hand out a syllabus. This is your first clue into what methods to use to do well.

What do you do once you get your syllabus?

Locate Free Marks

The first thing you should immediately do is locate what I call free marks. What are free marks? Free marks are anything where its basically a checkmark. You either get it or you dont. Now that sounds vague, so lets make it more concrete. Free marks are things like attendance, participation and homework. A lot of classes will give marks for attendance. Just show up, and you get a mark. You dont have to listen, you dont have to talk, you just have to be there. It cant possibly be any easier to get marks.

Participation is another possible free mark. You just have to talk. Thats it. A lot of teachers will give you marks just for talking. Not necessarily saying anything smart (although it helps), but also asking questions, asking clarifications, giving your opinion, and if youre actually thinking, giving some answers. The key is just to talk. But make sure to raise your hand and wait your turn. Be a polite little boy or girl.

Homework is another freebie. You dont have to have all the right answers, you just have to have it completed. Thats it. Many times, the teacher will not even read what you wrote, and just look onto your page to make sure that there is at least some writing there. You had better bust your butt to have something on the page, or youre throwing away marks.

Of course, sometimes giving up free marks is just inevitable, but the idea is to do everything in your power to get those marks.

Not all courses have free marks, and that is why you have to locate them. Make a mental note of them, and always do them.

Locate Semi-Free Marks

You may be wondering what semi-free marks are. Some marks, you have full control over. These are your free marks. Some marks you have absolutely no control over. These are quizzes, tests, and final exams. You can control how thoroughly you study, but you cant control which questions will be on tests, how those questions will be structured, etc. Semi-free marks are in-between. You have partial control, but not full control. These are your projects and assignments (which include essays, reports, presentations, etc.).

Why are assignments and projects semi-free marks? Because you get to consult with the teacher or professor on your project. Throughout the project, you get to ask them what their criteria are, you get to ask for examples of particular good work, you get to ask what you should avoid doing, you get to ask plenty of questions that allow you to tailor your approach to the teacher. More on this later.

Locate the Rest

The rest is just tests, quizzes and exams. Like I said earlier, you have no control about what questions are on the test, how they are asked, and other factors. But you should be prepared nonetheless.

What does all this mean?

How do you locate? What in the world does locating mean? Simply find these different ways to get marks, and you have an idea of how hard you need to try, what study methods you should use, and it just gives you a clearer picture of the course thats coming up ahead of you, and the feasibility of high marks. This process takes all of 1-2 minutes. A syllabus will often have the mark breakdown for the course, and it will look something like this:

Test 1:

15%

Assignment 1:

20%

Participation:

10%

Homework:

10%

Assignment 2:

20%

Final Exam:

25%

Introduce yourself to the teacher

This does not apply as much to high school students (although it can help), but rather to professors in large lecture halls, or the teaching assistants. Immediately after the first class, come up to the professor (or teaching assistant), make sure to shake his/her hand, say your name, and make some small talk. This creates a positive impression in his/her mind, and predisposes that person to mark you more favorably. More on this later on (in the section on social dynamics).

Methods of Preparation

Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to talk about study methods. There are many different study methods, and each one has its own applications. It is not wise to use one single study method to the exclusion of all others, because you do not get the benefits of the other study methods. In this section, I will discuss the different study methods, and how to correctly apply them.

But before we get to that, lets discuss why you need to use different study methods. Why not just open the book, and read the text 3 or 4 times? Heres why. I want you to do a quick little experiment. Look around at the room you are currently sitting in. Take a note of everything that is the colour brown. Try to remember as many brown items as you can. Now, close your eyes, and tell me all the items in the room that are white. Couldnt think of very many, could you? You just looked very well around the room, and you definitely saw everything that was white, but you didnt pay attention to it. You didnt make a note of it.

The same applies to studying. Using the same method all the time focuses your attention on a few select things, while missing out on other things. To use history as an example, just reading the text, you may pay attention to names and events, but miss out on the dates. To complicate things, different people will look at the same text, and pick out different things. Whereas one student noticed names and events, another student noticed dates and events, and missed out on the names. And yet another student may have noticed names, events, dates, places, and even the paragraph structure. This is why using varying methods is necessary. It shifts your attention to details you may not have otherwise paid attention to.

Now that Ive introduced them, what are the different study methods? The following is by no means an exhaustive list, but it will be enough to get you in the right frame of mind.

Basic summary

This one is quite basic. Simply summarize all the content that will be on the test. The more you remember from class and readings, the less detailed your summarizing has to be. The less you remember, the more detailed your summarizing needs to be. Use your judgment.

This method is effective because it refreshes your mind as to what you covered in class. It gives you a global overview, and gives you an idea of where you should focus your attention.

Definitions

In this method, you pay attention only to definitions and nothing else. You have other methods to focus on other things (as I will discuss later). In this method, write out every single buzz term, every single word (or phrase or group of words) you dont know that was discussed in class. An example from biology and physiology is the Krebs cycle. Write down that word. But use common sense. If this is a word that you dont know, but is not really relevant to the course, look it up for your own reference (just to understand the sentence) and move on. You dont have to study it. An example is this sentence the conflict among people was almost ubiquitous. Im pretty sure you dont know what ubiquitous means, but Im also pretty sure it wont be on the test.

Back on track. Just write out a list of all the key terms. Dont write out their definitions yet. Now that you have written out all the key terms, just look at the term, and try to define it. Dont go into definition. Simply answer the question what is it? Do not get into how does it work or why did it happen?

An example from physiology: creatine kinase. Definition: creatine kinase is an enzyme involved in the breakdown of ATP.

An example from literature: Brutus. Definition: Brutus is the protagonist of Shakespeares history, Julius Caesar.

Do this verbally for each key term. You dont have to write anything down yet. Invariably, you will come across many terms that are familiar, but you just cant define them. Place some mark next to them (dot, checkmark, asterisk, etc.), and move on to the next term.

So far you went through your list of words, and of your list, there are some key terms with a mark next to them. The words with the mark next to them are the ones you could not give a complete definition for. Now, physically write down the definition for each one of these terms. You dont have to write the definitions for the terms you knew. Writing something down reinforces it in your mind. You spend more time focused on a definition of a word that you dont know, and you end up remembering it. Since you already know the definitions of the words without a mark, you dont need to do this.

This method is effective because in many test questions, you are not completely sure what the definition of a certain key word is. Once you are crystal clear, you will not lose any marks because of your lack of understanding of key terms. Additionally, as I noted earlier, many questions on multiple choice exams (and a few on short answer exams) are straight up definition questions. You better know the definition very precisely.

Summary questions

Summary questions are similar to a basic summary, except for one important difference: you pose the questions to yourself. The benefit of this is that it puts you into the mindset of the teacher. Besides that, just leafing through your notes and asking which questions to ask is a very strong reinforcer.

Ask any question you like from list questions to process questions. The questions can be as detailed or as general as you feel you need to make it. The less confident you are with the material, the more specific your questions should be. An example of a question is what are the four food groups? Another example is describe the events that led up to the French Revolution.

The format for this is similar to definition questions. Simply write out every question you can think of (while having you notes beside you, so youre basing your questions on your notes). Then, without writing anything, try to answer each question in your head. Again, you will probably have a number of questions that you could not answer. Put a mark next to them, and physically write out the answer to those.

Things that were said in class but are not in the notes

This is your secret weapon, and particularly applicable to university students. In university, many students will skip class. Some professors want to make sure that those students do not do well. How do they do that? By deliberately saying things in class that are not in your book, and not in any handouts.

Hopefully, you attended class, and made a note that the teachers just said something that is neither in the book nor in handouts. Then do a basic (or detailed, depending on your needs) summary of just that content. Why not just study that particular content using other methods? Why devote special attention to it? The reason is that often, it is a disproportionate amount of the test. For instance, the content that was said in class but isnt in the book or handouts may only have been 10% of the entire course, but it may be 20-30% of your test. Not a bad reason to devote special attention to it.

Numbers

Like I said in the beginning, this is not a book on studying for math or physics, but numbers are important nonetheless. For instance: in what year was the Russian Revolution? How many molecules of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) does 1 molecule of glucose produce? How many people are there in the senate? These are all numbers, and they are all liable test questions. Chances are that you dont even realize how many numbers your subject involves.

You study it with the same process you did in the previous 2 methods. Look through your notes, and write down all the points associated with numbers. In other words, dont just go through your piece of paper writing down 2, 38, 15. Write down the question that asks about the particular number (what year was or how many etc.). After you have finished writing out all the questions, answer them in your head. The questions to which you did not know the answer, make a mark next to them, and physically write out the answer.

Mind maps

If you read some books, they make it sound like mind maps are the only study tool you will ever need to use. Having tried this, I can tell you from experience they should not be used to the exclusion of everything else, but as an adjunct to the other methods. There are a few rules to mind maps:

1. Use key words. Not full sentences.

2. Make connections between concepts.

3. Go by memory. Do not consult your notes.

4. Use colour and pictures.

Why use key words instead of full sentences? The key words are used as a way to trigger concepts. Your brain remembers concepts much better than it does scripts (what happens when you memorize word for word). If you write in a key word, it will trigger a good amount of related information. What is surprising is that very often, you will remember more information from mind maps than you will from pages and pages of full sentences. This is one of the claims of books that really promote mind maps, and to a certain extent, this is true. But I find that this trigger effect only works for up to 7 days, and the closer you are to the test, the stronger the trigger effect. A little beyond 7 days, and you will look at the mind map, and think what was I talking about?

Memory works through associations. The more connections you make, the more connections you have the potential to make. Read that sentence again. If you remember a concept in isolation, it may fade from memory fairly quickly. But if you link a concept to 1 or 2 other concepts, you stand a much greater chance of remembering it. The more connections one concept has, the easier it is recalled, along with any relevant information.

Do the mind map from memory, without consulting your notes. You have to think globally (big picture) in order to do that. Often times, you get bogged down in details without seeing the big picture. But you need both. The cool thing is that once you see the big picture, it is much easier to make connections between the smaller details, and they are remembered better. This is why you should use mind maps only after your basic summary, definitions, and summary questions.

You may not be very artistic or expressive. I definitely am not, but nonetheless, colours and pictures strongly enhance mind maps. Why? There are several different types of intelligence (logical, linguistic, kinesthetic, etc.), and one of them is spatial (from the word space). The spatial intelligence is your ability to picture space. People with high spatial intelligence think in pictures and locations. Often, when you are sitting in a test, thinking about a question, one of the easiest things to bring to memory is pictures. The more colours and vivid the picture, the easier it is to bring to mind. Words written in your notebook are not very memorable, and dont utilize the spatial intelligence. Mind maps do. If you can recall the mind map, you can trigger a staggering amount of information with a simple picture in your mind.

Weak point strengthening

Even if you used all of the methods I previously mentioned, you might still have some aspects of the material where you are not entirely confident. This is the time to get confident about it. After writing out the definitions you didnt know, or the questions/answers, and numbers you didnt know from the previous methods, those should be reinforced, and you should be feeling a lot more confident about most of them. But some pieces of information from those methods just wont stick in your mind. This is the time to go over them one more time.

These are all just clues about what you should focus on. Another clue is to simply leaf through your notes, and think to yourself how do I feel about this information? If there is any doubt whatsoever, add it to the material you have to review.

Once you have compiled a list of questions, numbers, definitions, or anything else that you are still not so confident about, write it all out physically. Sometimes, this will be a lot, but most times, not so much. It is this material that needs to be reinforced even more than the material that you are confident about. Writing it out is a great way to reinforce it. Later on, I will discuss yet another very powerful way of reinforcing material.

Nitpicking

Both the big picture and the small details are important. They both give you valuable information. But nitpicking is not equivalent to small details. Small details can still be important details. This is not what you are looking for when nitpicking. What you are looking for is things that seemed insignificant or inconsequential. Things mentioned in passing, that the teacher did not make a big deal of. You study those by themselves, using the same method as for definitions, summary questions, numbers, etc.

In many fields, there is something called the 80/20 rule. This rule states that you get 80% of your results with 20% of your effort. By extension, the reverse is also true. You get 20% of your results with 80% of your effort. Not very economical. For this reason, nitpicking should not be a major method in your studying. However, if you really need those grades, every little bit helps.

Making the most of group studying

If used correctly, group studying can be a tremendously helpful tool. There is a belief that you remember a small amount of what you hear, a slightly larger amount of what you see, an even larger amount of what you do, and the largest amount of what you teach. Herein lies the greatest strength of group studying. You teach your peers the content. You put it in your own words, and you represent it not just in a way that makes sense to you, but you need to tailor your message to your listener, which forces you to think about the content in a different way. And doing that strongly reinforces that content.

But be careful, because this method needs to be applied correctly. How do you do that? Firstly, you must have a good amount of individual study time that precedes group studying. And all people in the group must have this bit of studying. Otherwise, you are sitting in the group, looking at other people, while they are looking at you, and no one says anything about the content. It gets easy to get off track, and waste a lot of time, without getting anywhere. So the first rule of group studying is that it must follow a foundation of individual studying.

The second rule is to know what you want to discuss. A very good thing to bring up at the beginning of the group study session is anything that you dont understand. Somebody will explain it to you in a way that makes sense. If you are in a group of more than 2 people, there will be more than 1 person to explain it to you. The reverse is true as well. If somebody brings up something that they do not understand, it is your turn to explain it to them (assuming that you do understand it). Just by explaining it to them, you are learning it more thoroughly yourself.

Remember those lists of definitions and summary questions you made? Now is a good time to go through them. You already know the definitions and summary questions. Test your group members knowledge of them. But just because you are not the one being tested does not mean that you are not learning. Yes, your group members are the one being tested, but your mind as to constantly confirm what your group members are saying against what you know. So the benefit is that your knowledge is being reinforced. An additional benefit is that you get to hear those definitions and those answers in different words, which is yet another excellent way to reinforce your knowledge.

During your time in the group session, write down anything that your group members brought up that you were not so sure or confident about, or that you flat out did not know. You might have missed that in your own studying. Then, after the group study session, study that segment on your own. It will help you.

Lastly, a discussion of optimal group size is warranted. There are no hard and fast rules about the best size for a group, as long as the objectives are accomplished. What are the objectives? Adding to your understanding, and review. As long as you can get that done, that is a good size. In my experience, learning in groups of 2-4 people is best, but experiment for yourself, and see what is best.

Essay tests

Essay tests require a different approach. In my opinion, it is much easier to prepare for essay tests than any other type of test. Why? It is subjective. You do not have to remember minute details. If you forget one detail, you can make up for it with a good writing style, or some other detail that is impressive to the teacher, or any other way that would be of interest to the teacher.

So how do you prepare for essay tests? Quite simple. Write out a list of possible questions. This forces you to think like a teacher. This forces you to think about what makes a good essay question. Identify those criteria, and just write out the essay questions. Write it in a way as similar as you can to the teachers style of writing the question. For example:

Describe the events that led up to World War II. Who were the key personalities? What roles did they play? What is the significance?

After you have finished compiling a list of essay questions, write out the answer in bullet points. You do not have to write out the essay word for word in your studying. Just write it point by point. Like I mentioned earlier, your brain remembers best when you go idea by idea. Concept by concept. Not entire scripts. Writing out a full essay during your studying in hopes of recreating that perfectly on the test is a futile exercise. Remembering concepts on the other hand is much easier, and the result is virtually the same. Write 3 major ideas (or however many you deem necessary), a few sub-points for each major point, and sprinkle in some buzzword to make it very impressive. Buzzwords are words that the teacher uses in class that have special meaning in the context of the course. Alternately, they could be small details that the teacher does not expect you to memorize, but you did anyway. You do not have to put any special effort into memorizing these (although if you want, you certainly may). Different students will naturally remember different things about the course.

An example using the essay question I posed earlier:

Treaty of Versailles

End of World War I: Germany put to shame

Reparation payments

Weimar republic

Anschlus (buzz word): Austria is annexed.

Lebensraum (buzz word again): living space

Responses (or lack thereof) of major world power

Invasion of Poland

September 1, 1939 (impressive)

Declaration of war

Responses of major world powers (Soviet Union, Britain, France, USA, Italy, Spain)

Key personalities

Soviet Union: Stalin

USA: Roosevelt

Britain: Eisenhower

Etc.

This gives you an idea of how you should write out your outline. Significance is something rarely talked about in class. Teachers often ask you about it to see what you perceive to be significant about the events. This is your chance to make connections. Think about significance hard during your studying so that you dont have to spend precious time during the test coming up with something on the spot.

Broken Record

This next method is called broken record for a reason. You will be listening to an audio clip. Many times over. Have you ever noticed how you hear a new song 3 or 4 times, and without even paying attention to that song, without putting any effort whatsoever into learning the lyrics, you know all the words perfectly? Now imagine the ramifications of this for your studying. How much easier would your studying be if you did the same thing?

Am I suggesting that you record your lectures or classes? No, not at all. In university, the majority of my lectures were anywhere from one to three hours. What I realized after using this method is that a huge chunk of a lecture is what I call fluff. Fluff is information that the teacher says that is either not new, not relevant, wont be tested, or a repeat. So listen to the lecture, take notes, and then record all your notes into an audio recorder, MP3 player, or any other device. When I did that, I was repeatedly able to condense 3-hour lectures into clips of 8-15 minutes. I wasnt speaking quickly, and I was getting almost all of the information covered in class. There are multiple ways to use this method, so it warrants going into greater detail.

So weve established that one way to use this method is to summarize a lecture in your own words, and record it on an audio recorder.

Remember all those other methods of studying I talked about earlier? The basic summary, the definitions, summary questions, numbers, and son on. Record that both on paper and into some sort of audio player. This way, instead of reviewing it only once (by writing), you can review it twice (or three time, or four, or five, depending on how many times you listen to the same recording).

Perhaps the biggest benefit of this method is that you do not have to dedicate any time to this. Riding on the bus to school? Instead of staring into space, listen to your recording. Driving to school or work? Listen to your recording. Waiting in line for something? Listen to your recording.

Of course, it is not as easy to memorize plain speaking as it is to memorize a song with a melody, so there are a number of ways you can make your speech very easily remembered.

First, you can speak to a melody. Remember a tune that is catchy and memorable. Then say whatever you need to say to that tune. If you can actually have that tune playing (without the actual words. So find a karaoke version of your song) in the background while youre singing your notes, all the better.

Second, you can repeat important sentences 2-4 times. Repetition works. Repetition works.

Third, you can use a question and answer format. Simply ask the question, and then immediately give the answer. The reason this works is that by asking the question, you immediately search for the answer. If you can find the answer, that point was reinforced. If you cant find the answer, its coming up anyway on your tape.

Fourth, you can construct a sentence, but instead of saying the whole sentence into your audio recorder, replace the important parts of the sentence with a blank (a pause), so that you can fill it in. Repeat this sentence twice with the pause, and then the third time around, say the complete sentence. Ill give you an example.

Lets say I want to know the event that immediately preceded World War I. Heres how I would say it:

First repetition: World War I was caused by the assassination of _________.

Second repetition: World War I was caused by the assassination of _________.

Third repetition: World War I was caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Capisce?

The 5-minute review

The 5-minute review is a little gem. No, wait. Its a big gem. Here is how you do it. You know how you break up your studying into study periods (one hour, two hours, etc.) and breaks? Well, during the 5-minute review, just glance over your notes from the previous study block. Thats it. Just glance it over. Dont study it, dont try to memorize it, just scan through those pages very quickly. You do not have to read every single sentence. Start reading each sentence, and as soon as you remember what its talking about move on to the next. In most cases, just 2-5 words into a sentence will be all you need. If there are pictures or diagrams that go along with a large block of text, you may only need to look at the picture for a few brief seconds, and skip several paragraphs of reading, because the picture says it all. So you will process a large volume of information very quickly.

Now, why does this method work so well? Youve already done the studying. You do not need to re-study the material. However, the more exposures you have to something, the better you remember it. The first exposure (when you study it for the first time) is long, because you are studying for understanding. After that, after you understand the content, any exposure after that simply reinforces the content. It does not increase understanding. That is not its function. Its primary focus is to prevent forgetting. The more exposures you have to something, the longer you remember it. The first few exposures increase retention exponentially. In other words, after one exposure, you may remember something for 1-2 days. After 2 exposures, you may remember something for 4-7 days. After 3 exposures, you will remember something for 2-3 weeks, and so on (Im just making up these numbers for illustration purposes). Obviously, the more exposures, the better. Of course, eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns. There is no significant difference between reviewing something 15 times and reviewing something 16 times.

How Can I get Through Heavy Readings Very Quickly?

Sometimes (or many times) you will have to read huge volumes of information. Lucky for you that the great majority of all you will ever have to read is fluff. Information either that you already know, or a repeat of previous information, or information that you will not be tested on. So there are a lot of pages to read, but very little of that material (relatively) will be on the test. So how can you find the bits and pieces that are really relevant?

The first thing you should read is the summary. The summary often contains 50-90% of all the content that will be on the exam. Yet, the summary is often 1-2 pages, out of what may often be a 30-50 page chapter. So youre getting 50-90% of the content on the exam in only 2-8% of the pages. An extremely good return on investment in my opinion. Why does it happen to be this way? Think about what you would summarize. Would you summarize little details, examples and stories, or would you summarize the major points of the chapter?

After reading the chapter summary first, you can go back and read in more detail. But remember, examples of concepts are usually not tested. If you come across fluff, skip it. It does not add to your understanding and it will not be examined.

Another way to get through heavy readings very quickly is to just read the first sentence of every paragraph. The first sentence introduces the topic of the paragraph. If you understand the content of the first sentence, you do not need to read over the entire paragraph. Skip it. If, however, you feel like the first sentence requires some elaboration, read the entire paragraph. Using this approach, you will be able to cut out a lot of unnecessary information, and save a lot of time.

Golden Information: Analyze Your Tests

By now you have already picked up a few strategies for preparing for the course, social dynamics, and methods of preparation. After the course has gone of for a little while, and you have had your first test, you have even more information about what it will take to succeed in the rest of the course. This is what this chapter is about: how do you use your first test to extract as much information as possible to help you prepare for future tests?

Why is this such an effective method? Because you are learning both about the teacher and about yourself. Teachers tend to use the same testing style throughout a course. So although the questions will not be the same, the way the teacher chooses to use the questions, what content he decides to focus on, and even the tricks he uses to mess people up are consistent. Additionally, you begin to find patterns (theres that word again) in which areas you lack. Now lets get on to the good stuff. How do you go about analyzing your tests?

When you are still in the testing room, and youve finished the test, but there is still time remaining, there are a few things to look for. Note all of these things: how many questions were definition questions? How many questions were function questions? How many questions were reason questions? Do this for the different types of questions you had in the methods of preparation section. How do you use this information? If you find that in a test of 100 questions, you had 14 definition questions, 22 function questions, and 18 reason questions (there could be others, of course, but lets keep it simple), for the next test, you will spend the most time studying function questions.

I should note however that even though function questions may be the greatest part of the test, if they were your strongest part (if you answered 22 of the 22 function questions correctly), you will not need to spend that much time studying function questions. Focus on your greatest weaknesses. At the same time, do not focus on your weaknesses so much if they are only 2 questions of a 100-questions test. Of course, if function questions are your greatest weakness, spend time on those. As a general rule, spend the most time on the material that will give you the greatest return on your time investment. Throughout your studying, that material will change. If in the first couple days of your studying, you spend the majority of your time studying function questions, you are probably fairly familiar with them. Studying them further will not give you a large return on investment. However, during the first 2 days you studied them did give you a good return on investment. After you are very familiar with function questions, move on to the next area that will give you the largest return on investment.

Thats all well and good, but what if you did not get enough time at the end of the test to look back and gather the information? The solution is simple. Immediately after the test, as soon as you walk out of the room, write down every question that you remember. Here are some ways to help you recall as many questions as possible:

Sit by yourself and try to come up with questions

Have people around you who help you come up with questions

Listen to peoples conversation right after the test: theyre bound to be talking about the test.

Flip through your notes and textbook. This will trigger more questions.

If you combine these methods, you will remember a tremendous amount of information from the test. Sometimes as much as 100% of it.

Now that you have a lot of the information from the test, another revealing piece of information you should look for is questions you were not certain about. Examine if there is something common t all the questions you werent sure about. What is the pattern? There may even be multiple patterns. If lets say there were 15 questions that you were not sure about, maybe 3 of them had the pattern that they were all asked in a certain way, 5 of them were definition questions, 3 more were numbers questions, and the other 4 had no pattern.

Now that you know where your weaknesses are, and where you tend to lose marks, you can use that information in studying for future tests. But dont put these methods at the forefront of your studying. Remember the 80/20 rule? Well, this information is not among the 20 percent that gives you 80 percent of your marks. This information is among the 80 percent that gives you 20 percent of the marks. This is powerful information, and will give you a few marks, but the big basics (definitions, basic summary and summary questions) are the methods that will give you the majority of your marks.

In some courses, you get your tests back, and in other courses you dont. If you do get your tests back, that is yet another additional resource that can give you valuable information. If you were able to use the previous steps to gather everything from memory, this will not give you much more information. However, if you werent, go through the same process as above to gather all the information needed.

If the test was an essay, short answer or paragraph answer-type test, it is not as clear where you lost marks. But getting this information is fairly simple. Simply ask the person marking the test what you needed to answer to get full marks. This is golden information. Write down this information so that you can use it on future tests. Another useful piece of information to ask the marker is what were the most common mistakes that they saw while marking? Try to remember whether you made those same mistakes.

Thats that for this chapter. You will not get many marks from using this method, just because this is really focusing on the minutiae. However, if you are the type of student is obsessed with high grades, or you need those high grades to move on to higher education (from high school to university, or from university to law school, medical school, etc.), every little bit helps. And the method covered in this chapter may just be the little bit that gets you those grades.

I dont get it! How to understand difficult concepts and principles

Associations are a key component of memory. New knowledge must be associated to existing knowledge in some way (whether logical or illogical) in order to be remembered. If no associations are made, no information is remembered. Using this idea, it is easy to see how some concepts can go over your head.

Sometimes you study a concept that is so foreign to you that it is difficult to make associations to existing knowledge. What do you do in those cases? There are a couple of options.

The first option is to read various sources or ask various sources (students, teachers, other teachers, parents, etc.) regarding the topic. Different sources will explain it in different ways, and eventually one of them will click with you.

The second option is to ask the person explaining a new concept for an analogy. A comparison to something mundane and simple that you already understand how it works. When you can see the parallels between the tough-to-understand concept and something you already know, it is remembered much easier. I will give you an example from my own field: kinesiology.

First, I will explain the stretch shortening cycle (SSC) in a way that is commonly explained in university settings. Then, I will explain it in a way that builds parallels to something you already know. Ready?

The stretching shortening cycle is a central nervous system phenomenon that employs the neurophysiological myotatic stretch reflex in combination with stored elastic energy to amplify the force of the subsequent concentric muscle action. After a rapid eccentric contraction, the elastic energy stored in the series and parallel elastic components and released in the subsequent concentric contraction, amplifying its force output.

Confused? Good. This serves to make you appreciate the following explanation even more. Here is the analogy:

Think of your muscle as an elastic band. If you stretch the elastic band, and immediately release it, it will fly fairly far. The eccentric component of the muscle is equivalent to stretching the band. The concentric component of the muscle is equivalent to the shortening and flying of the band. Now imagine stretching the elastic band, and leaving it stretched for a period of time. Long enough for the elasticity to disappear from the band. Then you release it. How far is that rubber band going to fly? Not very far. Same thing happens with the muscle. If there is too much time between the eccentric (lengthening) and concentric (shortening) actions of the muscle, the concentric action will not be amplified.

Did you understand the stretch shortening cycle the second time around? This serves to illustrate the power of analogies.

I need more marks! Methods of articificially inflating your grade. How do I get a mark higher than I deserve?

Will you approve my outline?

So youve studied your butt off, put forth your best effort, and even so, you dont have quite the mark that you would like. What do you do? Teachers are inherently good people. Some of them can be downright rotten, but for the most part, they are kind and helpful. There are a few methods you can use.

The first method has to be done before you know your mark. It works for essays and assignments. Whenever you get an essay or assignment, ask the teacher if you can write a brief outline of your essay or assignment, and get the teachers comments. Emphasize that you understand the teacher is busy, and you will not take up very much of his/her time. Not many teachers will say no to that. However, do not write the full essay ahead of time, and ask the teacher to give you feedback. Teachers do not appreciate it, and it makes you look very audacious.

Why does this work? There are a few reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that you get feedback from the teacher. If you were about to go wrong with something, the teacher will correct it. If you were thinking of taking the essay in one direction, but the teacher had a different direction in mind, s/he will steer you on course.

The second reason why this works is that it shows your initiative, your effort and your desire to do well. Teachers appreciate a hard worker, and the teachers who are more concerned that you learn life lessons than minutiae (this is more common in high school and middle school than university) will often reward effort more than a good essay.

The third reason why this works is less obvious. By having the teacher approve your outline, s/he now feels partially responsible for the content of your essay. After all, s/he is the one who gave you advice on how to write it, and youre just writing in accordance with your teacher-given, teacher/approved instructions. Giving you a bad mark would make the teacher feel guilty that s/he misled you. Not a lot of teachers can live with that guilt. This alone will elevated your mark by quite a few points.

If you are a university student, make sure that the person marking your essay or assignment knows your name very well. A lot of them do not know their students names, and it is up to you to get them to know your name. Firstly, before asking your professor or TA to approve your paper, introduce yourself with a handshake. If you get the impression that the TA did not or will not remember your name, find some ways to sneak it into a conversation with them. Tell a brief story about how your previous teachers told you Jessica, you should. Sneaky, isnt it? This is just an example of ways to sneak your name in there very stealthily. If you have a common name, and you may not be the only person with that name in your class, find some ways to sneak in your last name as well. If you have a difficult-to-remember name, find a way to sneak in the spelling of your name, or some other way for the teacher to remember it.

The Weasel

The weasel approach is an approach that you use after you get a mark lower than you want. If is very time-consuming, but it is not difficult. This approach is simple.

Most teachers and professors have designated office hours, where they are required to be in their office to answer students questions. This can range from 1-3 hours. Many of those times, they are just twiddling their thumbs, because no one comes in. If they do not have office hours, request an appointment. Most teachers will accommodate.

Now comes the fun part. Show up at your teachers office 5 minutes before the office opens. If the teacher sees you waiting at his/her door, all the better. Now go into the office, and do not come out until the teachers office hours are up. What do you do during that time? The first little while should be genuinely productive. Discuss why you did not get the mark you want, how you can improve, some common mistakes, request to go over your test, and anything else you need to do. This may take 10-30 minutes. What do you do with the rest of the time? Keep asking questions. Lots of them. Go into minutiae, ask many follow-up questions, just do whatever you have to do to stay in there for the entire time. The only reasons for you to leave are the ending of office hours, the teacher requesting that you leave, and the teacher bribing you with grades just to get you to leave. Even upon the teachers first request for you to leave, insist that you just have one more question and then youll go. After the teacher answers this question (or while s/he is answering the question), ask a few follow-ups. Stretch the time between the teacher asking you to leave and you leaving for as long as possible. Running out of questions is no reason for you to leave.

If there are other students outside the teachers office with questions, thats also not a reason for you to leave.

Why is this method so effective? Because during those office hours, you are a weasel. You are annoying, youre a leech, and you just wont leave. Next time that teacher wants to give you a mark that is lower than the one you want, s/he will think twice. And since essays and assignments are so subjective, a teacher will have no problem giving you that grade, because s/he will be able to justify the mark they gave you in ways that sound reasonable like he made some good points or she had a very flowing writing style. Even though the real reason may be I dont want that student returning to my office for another 2 hours and draining the life out of me.

To be effective, this must be done extremely carefully. There is a certain art to it. You should not go in to your teachers office with attack on your mind. You should go in as polite as can be. One of the first sentences when you walk into the teachers office should be Im not here to beg for grades. I understand that I got what I deserved, and I take full responsibility for it. This is very disarming for the teacher. Of course, at this point, the teacher does not know that you plan on staying in his/her office for quite a while, and being a little parasite. After the teacher has gotten annoyed by you (and remember, you should not try to be annoying), s/he may actually offer to raise your grade despite your having told him/her at the beginning of the conversation that you are not there to beg for grades.

So you must be asking how do I annoy the teacher if Im supposed to be polite? The answer to that is through sheer volume. Just answering all those questions that you bring will make you annoying, and make the entire experience for the teacher annoying. But s/he cant blame you, because youre just a little angel (i.e. youre polite) who is asking a few questions.

The other factor necessary for this to be effective is that you avoid converstion topics that teachers enjoy. Stick to talking about your grades, about the test, about the course, about the assignment, etc. Do not talk about topics like the teachers hobbies outside of school, or his opinions about anything, because that is pleasant. You do not want to walk out of the teachers office with him/her thinking, that was a pleasant conversation. I think Ill give him a lower mark again just so that he can come and talk to me again. You want the teacher thinking that was very annoying, drawn out, and I never want this student in my office again for longer than 10 minutes. I think Ill just give him the mark s/he wants just to avoid seeing him/her again.

Of course, this does not always apply. On tests that are objective, like multiple choice and where there is a clear-cut answer, this simply will not work. However, in some courses, teachers do not return your test to you. In those cases, even if the test is objective, and only the teacher knows your true grade, s/he just might raise your grade (although this does not always happen) to avoid having you come to his/her office again.

Email the teacher

Emailing the teacher and getting the right results is a very intricate mix o wording. Below I will post one of the emails I personally sent to one of my professors, and then dissect it. The professors name and the course code have been changed to protect his or her identity.

Hi Dr. Smith,

This is Igor from your KINE101 class. I was wondering if there are any opportunities for extra credit assignments. I never ask for any way to boost my grade, but I plan to apply to physical therapy at Fake University [name of university changed] next year, and I need every mark I can get. I need an A, but having just completed the final exam, I doubt it will happen (its possible, but unlikely), so if you are able to offer me any extra credit assignment or way to get a few more marks so that I can improve my chances of getting into physiotherapy school, I would greatly appreciate it.

Oh, and thank you for a very informative, and entertaining semester.

Igor.

Did you catch everything that was going on between the lines? Ill dissect it for you.

Hi Dr. Smith notice it says hi. It does not say yo or hey bro. Other appropriate introductions are hello and hey.

This is Igor from your KINE101 class tell the teacher who you are. If you are in a university, the professor may have several thousand students. Tell them which of his classes you are from. If the professor knows you personally, all the better. If you are in high school, this part is not necessary.

I was wondering if there are any opportunities for extra credit assignments you are stating outright that you want to increase your grade. No secrets there.

I plan to apply to physical therapy have a reason, a really good reason why you are asking for extra grades.

I need an A tell the teacher which grade you need, or s/he does not know where to raise it.

(its possible, but unlikely) In my case, it was not possible for me to ge4t an A. I knew it wasnt possible. And yet, I got that A. However, if I told the professor that there is no way I got an A, and s/he give me that A, theres something fishy there. However, if I tell the professor that there is an outside chance that I got an A, s/he might give it to me, knowing that I will not see my exam.

if you are able to offer me any extra credit assignment you have to show that you are willing to work hard for the grades. You can not ask for grades just because. This sounds obvious, but many students simply ask for grades, without giving the teacher a solid reason for it. You have to earn those grades. I didnt actually want to do an extra credit assignment, I just did not want to ask for grades without deserving them. Having said that, if the professor had given me an extra credit assignment, I was absolutely prepared to do it with all of my effort.

Do you know the response I got to my email?

Igor,

Out of respect for your peers who have also asked for extra credit assignments (and did not get them), I will not be able to grant you that request.

Dr. Smith

Having gotten this response, I was quite disappointed and saw my dreams for good grades go down the drain. And then, my grade report was out. I got an A. thats when I understood the professors message. My professor did a bit of his/her own read-between-the-line writing. Heres what it said: Igor, an extra credit assignment for you is extra work for me. I dont feel like marking it, especially since Im not required to. But you have a good reason for asking for higher grades, and Ill give them to you.

This is not a manipulative email. I was not at all trying to outsmart the teacher. The teacher was a very clever (kind, as well) professor, who understood what was going on between the lines. The reason for all this between the lines writing is plausible deniability: pretending everything was done according to the rules. But hey, it could have been (This method will not work on objective and multiple choice tests. However, if you dont get to see your tests (as was the case with me, and as is the case with the majority of university courses, and some high school courses), the teacher will give you those marks, even on objective and multiple choice tests. This is not foolproof, but what have you got to lose?

Conclusion

There you have it. You now have many tools in your arsenal to get some extremely good grades. Figure out your own style of how to apply each strategy. Not each strategy is necessary for each test. Experiment and figure out what works for you, for which subjects, with which teachers, and when.

If this book helped you, and you have friends or siblings who this might help, get them a copy too. They will thank you for it. So will I (.