How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Countrys Top Students by Cal Newport

How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Countrys Top Students Reviews

• 
  Ilib4kids

  378.198 NEW
  75 rules how to do it.
  
  1 Don't Do All of Your Reading
  2 Create a Sunday Ritual (Party to until to Saturday, not Sunday. Study on Sunday, set the momentum for the rest of days. )
  3 Drop Classes Every Semester. (Register extra classes, drop the least favorite)
  4 Start Long-Term Projects the Day They Are Assigned. (Start small and start immediately) see rule #52
  5 Make Your Bed. (a clear room create a focus mind, if has messy roommate, take care of whole room cleanup, such as dump basket, small price for a large reward)
  6 Apply to Ten Scholarships a Year. (contact dean's office, Career service, and department, for information on scholarships, fellowships, awards. or
  www.fast-web.com; FinAids
  www.findaid.org (for scholarship from companies or organization. Choose 10 to fits your abilities, passions, and accomplishments, and apply them, do it every year. because it is time consuming, not so many eligible students to apply.)
  7 Build Study Systems (this will break a formidable task into accomplish-able chunks, see rule #26, #70)
  8 Befriend a Professor
  9 Become a Club President (not just content with just joining)
  10 Read a Newspaper Every Day. (New York Times; Wall Street Journal, or USA Today, reading every article on the front page, 2 or 3 articles on each interior sections)
  11 Do One Thing Better Than Anyone Else You Know (self-confidence that become a peg for other things)
  12 Avoid Daily To-Do Lists. (Because it never works. Instead try time-blocking, then assignment tasks to these block.
  13 Learn to Give Up
  14 Never Nap. (keep your normal sleeping pattern)
  15 Sign Up for Something Your First Week
  16 Always Be Working on a "Grand Project"
  17 Take Art History and Astronomy (art history will cultivate to visit art museum later in your life)
  18 Blow the Curve Once a Term (will boost self-confidence)
  19 Ask One Question at Every Lecture (prepare questions ahead, modify along, asking questions will keep you from drifting away)
  20 Jump into Research as Soon as Possible (note: undergraduate research grants)
  21 Pay Your Dues (hold your tongue, observe and learn)
  22 Study in Fifty-Minute Chunks
  23 Schedule Your Free Time (Most people think free time to be any time when they are not explicitly working , flip this notion, as work time is any time when you are not explicitly relaxing. When create schedule, first, choose an end point for the day. Second. decide exactly when you going to relax, and how.)
  24 Dress Nicely for Class (feel good and also make days official)
  25 Decorate Your Room (a place you could feel belong to, a place to relax, having lamp with incandescent glow not fluorescent light)
  26 Start Studying Two Weeks in Advance
  27 Write Outside of Class (write is critical skill, so practice often by writing outside)
  28 Eat Alone Twice a Day. (group meals is time wasting, so do not spend every meal with friends)
  29 Find an Escape ( gain relax and feel refresh)
  30 Take Hard Courses Early On
  31 Don't Study in Your Room ( too distractive, best study location: Library)
  32 Don't Study in Groups (too much time spending in gossip, joking around)
  33 Join an Honors Program
  34 Do Schoolwork Every Day (prevent slumps)
  35 Attend Guest Lectures (ignite the passions, at least 2 guest lectures every month)
  36 Exercise Five Days a Week
  37 Stay in Touch
  38 Tack on an Extra Major or Minor (not quite agree, study is mainly for enlightenment.)
  39 Meet Often with Your Adviser
  40 Don't Get a Normal Job(careful with job, with $7 pay, job should be asset not burden)
  41 Use Three Days to Write a Paper(3 steps; first draft; second editing; third polishing)
  42 Don't Undersleep, Don't Oversleep (one figure out your needed sleep time, stick it)
  43 Relax Before Exams
  44 Make Friends Your #1 Priority
  45 Don't Binge Drink (hangover is bad for later high quality study)
  46 Ignore Your Classmates' Grades
  47 Seek Out Phenomenal Achievers (you can become inspired)
  48 Learn to Listen (never be the fist person to give opinion; ask constructive questions)
  49 Never Pull an All-Nighter
  50 Laugh Every Day (actively look for fun, author like David Barry or David Sedaris or homestarRunner (Flash-animated Internet cartoon)
  51 Use High-Quality Notebooks
  52 Keep a Work-Progress Journal (so you can constantly check up for yourself, if you meet the goal)
  53 Seek Out Fun
  54 Inflate Your Ambition
  55 Get Involved with Your Major Department
  56 Care About Your Grades, Ignore Your G.P.A.
  57 Always Go to Class
  58 Set Arbitrary Deadlines ( so you can break large projects into small chunk.)
  59 Eat Healthy (Try eat healthy on weekday, reward yourself on weekend)
  60 Volunteer Quietly
  61 Write as if Going for a Pulitzer (Writing in college kind of boring, so set this mind-set to produce high quality writing)
  62 Attend Political Rallies
  63 Maximize Your Summers : summer vacation is not really a vacation. Start planning in Jan, Summer time deadline in Feb or March.
  64 Choose Goals, Explore Routes
  65 Don't Take Breaks Between Classes (will break momentum you build up, if too short, is not for hard homeworks, but maybe for running some errand, light reading, etc)
  66 Don't Network (hear means network with people who can offer your job)
  67 Publish Op-Eds (Op-Eds pages are most entertaining section of students newspaper)
  68 Use a Filing Cabinet (or simple plastic boxes with hanging file folder with plenty labels to maximum documents origination) - I like it.
  69 Find a Secret Study Space (for absolutely concentration, but use it sparingly)
  70 Study with the Quiz-and-Recall Method (2 steps, First review, write down recall questions, second step: quiz)
  71 Empty Your In-Box (Categories email for organized mind state)
  72 Relax Before Sleep : relax at least half hour before sleep, develop he ability to shut down.
  73 Start Fast, End Slow (as opposed start slow, end fast, cramming style. Other study method: #4, #26, #41)
  74 Spend a Semester Studying Abroad (beware fluffy (Bad quality) vs. serious program. Talk to students to find out, usually sophomore year , may require prerequisite courses)
  75 "Don't Have No Regrets"
• 
  Veronica

  This may be the most unwittingly cynical book I've ever read.
  
  

  "Some students have modest ambitions. They would be happy to just land a decent job after graduation...other students pursue phenomenal dreams. They want to be a senator, start a major company, or get accepted into a world-class graduate program. As a student interested in becoming a standout, you should follow the example of this latter group, and define your notion of success to be as ambitious."

  
  
  Listen here, ye aspirers of a mere decent job! It may suffice for the most complacent among you, but the real Odyssean heroes seek more in life. Like a career in the hallowed halls of the Senate! Do not dare to spurn the cobalt carpets across which seniors wobble in their dutiful contribution to bureaucratic ossification.
  
  

  
  "After four years you can approach the job market (or grad school admissions committee) with quite a few honors listed on your résumé. This is unusual, this is impressive, and it is a great way to gain access to elite opportunities."
  
  "Write as if going for a Pulitzer...be it a history paper...or a long email to a professor."

  
  
  I have yet to conjure up a Pulitzer Prize winning email to a professor. I'll add this to the ever-growing list of reasons I am not, nor will I ever be, a standout success. (The disappointment might wreck me. Fortunately, I have some new basil plants who can therapeutically absorb my tears and listen to my tales of woe and of abject failure.)
  
  I am sure Cal Newport has noble intentions. But this is the most somber unintentional capitalist hymn to the road to nowhere that I've ever stumbled upon.
  
  The best advice was to take art history and astronomy before you graduate. It's impractical, and I would never suggest all students take those courses. But yes, generally, study art and the stars. That would be my recommendation to students. Not to students who want to be standout successes or some contrived nonsense. Just regular people.
  
  
• 
  Thomas

  Great advice split into well-written chapters. Cal Newport made a wise choice with his concision - How to Win at College will appeal to busy college students who feel that they barely have any time to read. I appreciate how his tips ranged from social life to schoolwork to mental health; even if some topics could have been fleshed out more, students will acquire a ton of great tricks from reading this book.
  
  Though I already considered and carry out some of his advice, I'm jotting down a list of ones I will pay more attention to as I continue through my college years:
  - Find An Escape
  - Meet Often with Your Adviser
  - Laugh Every Day
  - Ignore Your Classmates' Grades
  - Care About Your Grades, Ignore Your G.P.A.
  - Write as if Going for a Pulitzer
  - Maximize Your Summers
  
  I recommend this to all high school seniors preparing for college, as well as to college students, no matter their undergraduate year. I'm looking forward to reading more from Cal Newport.
• 
  Melissa Jetzt

  This book will be useful to any student... But certainly a lot more useful to some than others. As a pre-medical student there are just certain suggestions of his that I can't follow due to the nature of my trajectory. For example, I can't ignore my GPA just to save some sanity because it has to be within a specific range for me to be considered for interviews. I also can't "just" skim my books. Not my science ones, anyway. Even if I can absorb the content fine during lecture for the test, I need to put in the time with the book to be sure I can remember that material up to the MCAT and beyond. I didn't expect it to be perfect, especially not for a pre-med student, but let the 4 stars be a reminder that this book will only be so useful.
• 
  Ana-Maria Petre

  Feeding the culture of competitivity and overachievement.
• 
  Thomas

  Really enjoyed this one, Cal Newport really knows what he is talking about.
  Even though this book was kind of oriented for America's school system, as a foreigner I could still use most of the tips he gave to us.
  Would highly recommend this book to any students who wants to become a better version of themselves.
• 
  Rita

  "If you want to succed because you love the excitement of pushing your potential and exploring your world and new experiences, if you want to succeed because life is short and why not fill it with as much activity as possible, then you will win. If you approach life with an attitude of having no regrets and always having a hopeful smile on your face, you can find a measure of success in all your endeavors. Don't have no regrets, but have plenty of fun along the way. In the end, that is what is to really win."
• 
  Keertana

  When it comes to non-fiction novels espousing advice, I am usually prone to skepticism. Newport's publication, though, is far more a list of tips than a long thesis on tasks college-bound students must tick off of a to-do list. Needless to say, I flew through this and thoroughly enjoyed the sparse prose, readily available to read even during the busiest of times. Recommended.
• 
  Stuart

  Me reading Newport's How to Win at College may shock and upset many of my loyal Goodreads followers. It is shamelessly a self-help book - its straight to the point, eye-catching title, minimalist but not too minimalist cover (a lone cap; a black speck in a sea of yellow), and, once you begin reading, Newport's unmistakable mix of the formal and informal to foster a sense of intimacy between him and the reader. What could push me to take the time out of my busy week to read such a book? Is it the first valuable self-help book, containing the secrets to become a "standout student?" Unfortunately, no. I was lent this at the start of my school year by a promising young adolescent and the glowing recommendation he gave the book naturally compelled me to read it. This review is merely an attempt to justify its presence on my Goodreads account.
  
  Surprisingly, Newport's 75 secrets for student success at some points do offer valuable advice (See: #38, Tack on an extra major or minor). Even more frequently he reinforces common tips about school, like how to study effectively and getting enough sleep, but in a way that makes them resonate with you. However, inevitably with its nearly 200 page length, a fair chunk of this book is either weak or just filler - sometimes giving arguably poor advice, sometimes just impractical advice, and often being over-prescriptive. Especially with the last point, Newport has a tendency to emphasize how to do something too much and neglect what actually makes it effective and how it can be fitted for an individual's own preferences. Because of this, the most I got out of Cal's book, asides from a couple bits of useful advice, was an overwhelming sense of despair.
• 
  Igor Putina

  Very helpful, wish I read this before college but also happy to have practiced many some of the principles described by Cal Newport.
• 
  Laurent

  3.5. The author and I differ in our organisational approach; useful tips though.
• 
  Mary Grace

  I'm halfway through college and I'm feeling lost and unmotivated. I feel deprived of college experiences due to the abrupt changes brought by the pandemic.
  
  Most of the tips from this book are nothing new to me. But I guess it feels nice to be reminded of the things that I have forgotten to do. This was written by Cal Newport years ago, but most of it are still applicable today, although needing a bit of tweaking for online classes.
• 
  ada

  𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘:
  1 year into uni, i realized that i have failed to do every single thing on this list other than:
  

  34 Do Schoolwork Every Day

  
  guess I'm not winning at college lol :')
  
  *****************************************************************
  
  i need a howler to keep myself up with this sophistication lol:
  
  1 Don't Do All of Your Reading
  2 Create a Sunday Ritual
  3 Drop Classes Every Semester
  4 Start Long-Term Projects the Day They Are Assigned
  5 Make Your Bed
  6 Apply to Ten Scholarships a Year
  7 Build Study Systems
  8 Befriend a Professor
  9 Become a Club President
  10 Read a Newspaper Every Day.
  11 Do One Thing Better Than Anyone Else You Know
  12 Avoid Daily To-Do Lists
  13 Learn to Give Up
  14 Never Nap
  15 Sign Up for Something Your First Week
  16 Always Be Working on a "Grand Project"
  17 Take Art History and Astronomy
  18 Blow the Curve Once a Term
  19 Ask One Question at Every Lecture
  20 Jump into Research as Soon as Possible
  21 Pay Your Dues (hold your tongue, observe and learn)
  22 Study in Fifty-Minute Chunks
  23 Schedule Your Free Time
  24 Dress Nicely for Class
  25 Decorate Your Room
  26 Start Studying Two Weeks in Advance
  27 Write Outside of Class
  28 Eat Alone Twice a Day
  29 Find an Escape
  30 Take Hard Courses Early On
  31 Don't Study in Your Room
  32 Don't Study in Groups
  33 Join an Honors Program
  34 Do Schoolwork Every Day
  35 Attend Guest Lectures
  36 Exercise Five Days a Week
  37 Stay in Touch
  38 Tack on an Extra Major or Minor
  39 Meet Often with Your Adviser
  40 Don't Get a Normal Job
  41 Use Three Days to Write a Paper (first draft; second editing; third polishing)
  42 Don't Undersleep, Don't Oversleep
  43 Relax Before Exams
  44 Make Friends Your #1 Priority
  45 Don't Binge Drink
  46 Ignore Your Classmates' Grades
  47 Seek Out Phenomenal Achievers
  48 Learn to Listen
  49 Never Pull an All-Nighter
  50 Laugh Every Day
  51 Use High-Quality Notebooks
  52 Keep a Work-Progress Journal
  53 Seek Out Fun
  54 Inflate Your Ambition
  55 Get Involved with Your Major Department
  56 Care About Your Grades, Ignore Your G.P.A.
  57 Always Go to Class
  58 Set Arbitrary Deadlines
  59 Eat Healthy
  60 Volunteer Quietly
  61 Write as if Going for a Pulitzer
  62 Attend Political Rallies
  63 Maximize Your Summers
  64 Choose Goals, Explore Routes
  65 Don't Take Breaks Between Classes
  66 Don't Network
  67 Publish Op-Eds
  68 Use a Filing Cabinet
  69 Find a Secret Study Space
  70 Study with the Quiz-and-Recall Method
  71 Empty Your In-Box
  72 Relax Before Sleep
  73 Start Fast, End Slow
  74 Spend a Semester Studying Abroad
  75 "Don't Have No Regrets"
• 
  Russell Romney

  Vague, boringly positive take on surviving at college. Despite this, it does have some great suggestions for things to do to help a student succeed. While many are good, there are several that seem to be a bit on the extreme side. As a college student, I have been trying some of them out and they've done well. There are 75 suggestions, and I narrowed them down to 32 that I could actually try to use. Of these, I've tried 9 so far and have found success with 6 of those. It's a great book if it is taken in an experimental perspective, not just a back-patting self-congratulatory fling.
• 
  sachi

  Decent. Some tips were good, others were obvious/had been mentioned before. Many tips didn't always indicate practical ways of actually accomplishing the tip (like scholarships: how should you explain yourself? what should be things you highlight? these weren't included and could've made the book more helpful). A bit dated because it came out in 2005. However, it was inspirational because of the many suggestions to be ambitious, and a number of new ways to improve efficiency.
• 
  Jiaying

  This book gave me quite a decent head start as the second semester of my first year in college was approaching. I appreciated that Newport was able to point out what we may lose track of should we only focus on the small picture which most of us will have the tendency to do so, amidst a frenzied schedule. Overall, it's a pleasant read for me with 75 concise actionable (small) habits you can possibly incorporate during your years in college.
  
  During my first semester, as a design student, sometimes it can be hard to follow on plans. it can be also to difficult to maintain self-discipline with frenzied schedules or distracting surroundings. Reading this book helps to get myself together whenever I needed a push, brace myself ahead for the rest of my time in college.
  
  It's also great that he brought in alternative perspectives such that it allows for discernment, for instance this chapter on "learning to give up". Ambitious as we may be, to be able to give up and forego to make time for other aspects of your life is in fact a tactical skill to acquire instead of being viewed as a weakness.
• 
  Henry Fitzgerald

  Cal Newport shares useful insights into making the most of university life in this easily digestible book. Its flow is poor at times and not all of the 75 tips within are winners. Nonetheless one emerges from its pages a more confident student.
  
  While half a dozen points are not relevant for students in Commonwealth countries, most of the advice bears fruit regardless of the location of one's university.
  
  Dr Newport's most profound insight concerns attitude. If one's aim is merely to win the adulation of others, one is doomed to reside in a pit seething with anxiety; the fear of failure preventing the taking on of risk and thus eventual success. It is those students who are committed to pushing the bounds of knowledge while retaining a humble and friendly character who will become stand outs.
• 
  Nancy

  This book's amazing, and I wish I had known about it back when I was in college. Picked it up as I'm taking a few more college-level classes before applying to grad schools, and still came away with a lot of tips. It's an extremely fast read, and doesn't sacrifice humor in its brevity. I'm already taking note to buy this (the future updated version of course) for my nephew when he goes to college. In 16 years haha.
• 
  Heriberto M. Torres

  I will be a graduate student soon, but a lot of this material—although primarily directed at undergrads—still applies! I wish I had read this valuable information earlier, luckily I’m not to late to apply it as a graduate psychology student
• 
  Brandon Charlton II

  Such a great book giving advice for being a successful college student. He gives insightful stories and funny dad jokes to keep you engaged in the material. I wish I would’ve read this my freshman year! I took away some amazing advice that I’m going to try out this semester!!
• 
  Afreen Khalid

  Read this book to prepare for graduate school which starts in a week. This book is written with undergraduates in mind, but has helpful tips for students at any level. Highly recommended for anyone starting school.
• 
  Quang Huy

  Một cuốn sách mà mọi sinh viên đại học nên đọc. Cung cấp cho bạn những kiến thức về việc làm sao để có khoảng thời gian học đại học tuyệt vời nhất, nhiều trải nghiệm nhất mà không phải chịu áp lực từ deadline, môn chuyên ngành, những bài kiểm tra,...
• 
  Erik

  This book could not be more practical. It is not a "great read," but a great resource. While it seems anecdotal, these tips are apparently collated from thousands of responses from successful students in good universities across the country. With tips for studying, organizing, writing, eating, sleeping, exercising, having fun, etc., this book covers almost every facet of college life. While one probably could not put all 75 into practice at once, nothing conflicts and all make eminent sense. I wish I saw college in this way. Don't make college a grind for grades; instead, expand your world and make the most of the most opportunities you are likely ever to see in one place.