There’s a difference between being the smartest students and getting the top grades in the program. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are unless you can demonstrate that intelligence on tests, assignments and exams, unless you can juggle all the work of university, and get it all done. This may seem anticlimactic, but the difference between just being smart and being successful as a student is organization and time and task management. It has to do with habits.
To hack the system, and to get the most out of your intelligence, you need the best habits:
Go after your goals by being a smart student, and not just an intelligent person.
To hack the system, and to get the most out of your intelligence, you need the best habits:
- You have to be organized. You’ll have a myriad of tasks to complete, in many courses. The workload gets overwhelming, fast. You need to keep track of tasks, what they’ll entail, and how long they’ll take.
- You have to manage your time. You need to schedule your time, daily, to make sure that you don’t fall behind. It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are; you need to hand in the assignments to get the grades. University will bombard you with tests, assignments, lectures, labs, so make sure that you manage your time wisely.
- You have to learn by doing. Smart students don’t study passively; they don’t wait for information to come to them. To be a high achieving student, you need to constantly work at the subjects to see what you understand and don’t understand.
- You have to study smart. There’s a difference between studying for a math exam and studying for an organic chemistry exam. You need to learn these differences, and find techniques and strategies tailored to each individual task.
- You have to learn from mistakes and ask for help. Smart students take the time to read through all marked assignments and exams, to determine what went wrong and what went right, to learn from mistakes, and to understand which areas need improvement. Make sure that you get in the habit of looking up all the solutions right away. They will absolutely help you in the future, even when the course is over. Smart students also question themselves as they do the readings and attend lectures. They make sure that they understand all the material. They ask questions if they don’t. Make sure that you get in the habit of getting all questions answered, immediately.
- You have to learn about yourself. To achieve the highest grades, find out what kind of student you are. Do you study best in the night or the morning? Do you thrive in study groups, or do you prefer to work alone? Which note taking techniques work best for you? Find out what works for you, and run with it.
Go after your goals by being a smart student, and not just an intelligent person.
