1. THEY GOOGLE EVERYTHING
Google has everything you need. It’s like an automatic reaction. You heard a new concept = go to Google for a quick explanation. Don’t think just because your teacher gives you a textbook and some examples on the blackboard that you’re limited to that information. You have a massive free search engine at your fingertips, so make use of it.
2. THEY TEST THEMSELVES
Testing yourself strengthens your brain’s connections to new material, and gives you immediate and clear feedback on whether you know something or not. Bottom line, repeated self-testing significantly improves long-term retention of new materials.
3. THEY STUDY BIT BY BIT, NOT LONG MARATHONS
Studying bit by bit tends to help you focus intensely because you know there is at least a short break coming. This also fits in nicely with the natural activity/rest cycle of our bodies, which makes studying continuously for multiple hours a productive one.
4. THEY SLEEP A LOT
The daily routines of top performers, in any field, are characterized by periods of intense work (4-6 hours per day) followed by significant quantity of high quality sleep (9 hours per night). The idea is to alternate periods of intense work with rest, so that you create tons of new connections in your nervous system, and then allow adequate time to assimilate those gains.
5. THEY ENGAGE THEMSELVES BY ASKING QUESTIONS
Interactive sessions help a lot in achieving success, asking questions among your peers gives you the opportunity to have different views/knowledge about what is asked.
6. THEY MAKE THE BEST OUT OF LECTURE
Ask questions, bring the textbook and look stuff up, focus on the important practice problems to copy down in your notes, try to anticipate what the teacher is going to say, make note of anything they put emphasis on as a potential exam topic. All of these things make the time you have to spend in lecture more productive and engaging. And helps you spend less time when next you want to study.
7. THEY OVER-LEARN/READ AHEAD
Reading ahead gives you a picture of what is about to come, it prepares you for the future. When you “over-learn” past what is presented in class, you build a better framework for the subject.
8. THEY IMMEDIATELY STUDY THEIR EXAM MISTAKES
Most students get their exam grade back, flip through to see if the teacher made any mistakes they can argue about, and then promptly shove it into their notebook, never to be seen again until the mad scramble at the end of the semester to study for the final. Instead, top students ignore what they got right, and use their mistakes as an indicator of what to improve on.
9. THEY ARE BUSY WITH WORK AND SIDE PROJECTS
Yes, to do well in a course, you need to focus and put in the hours. But like many geniuses throughout history have shown, involvement in a diverse set of subjects, activities, and skill keeps you active, and provides you with a rich and diverse set of mental models to pull from.
Also, as they say, “If you need to get something done, give it to the busy person.” If you stay active in multiple areas, you don’t have time to procrastinate, and are forced to be efficient with your study time. This generally translates into quicker learning and better performance throughout the term.
10. THEY PRACTICE UNDER TEST CONDITIONS
The old adage “practice makes perfect” isn’t totally true. Deliberate practice under the right conditions, with the correct mindset, is more like it. Instead of reading through all of the lecture notes and redoing old homework problems, top students make themselves practice exams, and rehearse their exam performance, under time pressure and in similar conditions (no notes, uncomfortable chair, quiet room, etc.) to what they’ll see on test day.
Original post can be found here
