The Shrewd Student: How to Study Smarter and Get Great Grades in College

By Rick and Becky Kraemer

Inexperienced college students waste hours re-reading the same material, chasing the wrong research, and hopelessly trying to cram information into their heads the night before an exam. But shrewd students know how to get organized and use their time efficiently, getting great grades without the waste. In The Shrewd Student, professional educators share their secrets to being a shrewd, effective, and successful student.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rick and Becky Kraemer
• Release date: Jul 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476137155

Rick and Becky Kraemer

Rick and Becky Kraemer have been married since 1989, and are the parents of three teenage children, one girl and two boys, who they’ve raised from scratch. Rick is an information technologies architect, and Becky is a substitute teacher in middle and high school. They live in northern California, where they enjoy water sports, many forms of exercise, animated conversations while walking by the lake, facilitating their kid’s social events, volunteering with community organizations, and picking up after Becky’s dog.

Book preview

The Shrewd Student: How to Study Smarter and Get Great Grades in College

J. Mark Van Ness, Ph. D.

Jill Van Ness, Ed. D.

Rick Kraemer, MBA

Becky Kraemer, BA

Published by Rick & Becky Kraemer at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 Rick & Becky Kraemer

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Quick Start Guide

Chapter 3: Invest the Necessary Time

Chapter 4: Read the Book before the Lecture, Taking Notes

Chapter 5: Re-write Your Notes

Chapter 6: Re-work the Information

Chapter 7: Write It Down and Memorize It

Chapter 8: Study with a Group

Chapter 9: Quiz Yourself

Chapter 10: Get a Tutor Early

Chapter 11: Do It Again for the Test

Chapter 12: Papers and Projects

Chapter 13: Use Your Calendar

Chapter 14: Don’t Skip Classes

Chapter 15: Meet with the Professor

Chapter 16: Reduce Your Stress

Chapter 17: Take Care of Your Health

Chapter 18: Care for Your Spirit

Conclusion

Appendix A: Review This List Every Day

Appendix B: Other Resources

Chapter 1: Introduction

Rick asked a friend named Tom to tutor him in a mechanical engineering class. If we told you Tom was smart, it would be an insult to his intelligence, as demonstrated by Tom’s own experience with this class. On the first day of class, Tom learned that only the open book midterm and final would be graded. The next time he showed up in the classroom was the day of the midterm exam, where he opened his book for the first time, and flipped through it to find examples similar to the test questions. The second and only other time Tom attended class was to take the final, where the professor saw his name on the top of the exam that he handed in, and returned his midterm test, with an A+ on the top!

But unless you’re a super genius like Tom, you’ll need to be a shrewd student; you’ll want to apply the strategies in this booklet. The material covered in college isn’t necessarily tougher than what you learned in High School, especially if you took advanced or honors classes. However, the pace of instruction is unwavering, the volume of material covered is copious, the expectation for personal organization and discipline is elevated, and the competition for grades is much steeper. So you’ll need to be shrewd if you want to excel in college.

Chapter 2: Quick Start Guide

Most new technology comes with quick start guides, so why not start a book the same way? If you’re not sure whether you want to read this whole book, or you’re just looking for a couple of new ideas, then you can check out this Quick Start Guide.

Make the time commitment. Plan to invest enough time, and start early. You can’t get good grades by wasting your time and them trying to make up for your foolishness.

Read the book before the lecture, and take notes. As you read the chapter, write notes on a separate piece of paper; it’s way more effective than highlighting or just reading.

Re-write your lecture notes. You’ll learn the material faster