How an Average Student Became Exceptional and Landed at a Top College

When I did not know how to study, I mistakenly defaulted to the same methods for both familiarizing myself with new material and reinforcing knowledge. I used shallow processing for both. The methods we use when we learn things for the first time—through textbooks and lectures by reading and highlighting, watching, and listening—tend not to develop the critical-thinking skills necessary for engaging with complex problems because those activities, after the initial familiarization, are basic tasks that only require shallow processing. 

Yet this form of practice is common among average students; where they think they’re working, they’re doing surface-level studying. High-focus studying, however, doesn’t just help you learn but shows you how to apply the material — this is the crux – the how in being a good student.

When I returned to school for my senior year, I continued to adhere to the principles of avoiding familiarization tasks and focusing on deep-processing tasks no matter what my class assignments were. Sometimes, even my homework was designed for familiarization, so it didn’t necessarily evoke deep processing. I avoided that homework until the last minute to focus on revising rigorously. So, I recommend evaluating whether the teacher’s learning materials — homework, quizzes, interactive lectures — prompt critical-thinking. If not, you can redirect yourself to more rigorous studying.

A rigorous tool that prompts deep processing is practice exams. What better way to prepare than practicing that for which you are ultimately preparing? I found practice exams were most useful after I finished familiarizing myself with a specific topic or concept. For example, after I finished learning about kinetics for Chemistry, I sifted through past exam papers — which were available free online — and did the kinetics questions and checked my work. This let me diagnose how well I learned the concept, informing me where to go back and revise. (In this final step, referring to the lectures and readings is fine to fill your knowledge gaps. But they alone cannot tell you where the fissures in your knowledge exist.)

If you cannot access exam questions, create your own. Ask yourself about the details of the causes and effects of various phenomena you learned. Modify the typically easier textbook or homework questions with more difficult numbers or by expanding their scope — if the question asks What, tack on a Why, Who, Where, When, or How whenever pertinent. It also helps to ask yourself why the textbook or lecturer is using a particular example to explain a concept. Why does that example fit? Can you think of another one?

I know these approaches work because when I did not use them, I fared poorly. For instance, that summer I spent two hours a day studying the material from my biology course by handwriting notes from the textbook. But this was shallow work and failed to reinforce the material, nor did I learn how to apply it by assessing myself. So, when I returned to school and prepared for the unit tests, I had to study the same stuff all over again and then do practice exams. 

My enthusiasm— stemming from studying properly for the first time—drove me to leave no stone unturned, not even the biggest boulders. The boulders were my struggles, which I had during the practice exams, despite rigorous preparation. So, I began to ask myself questions: 

• Why was I struggling? 
• What about the question tripped me up? 
• Why was I unsure about the answer? 

This reflection, which I now do during actual exams, let me diagnose my flaws in my methods of thinking and thus engage in deeper processing. 

This practice also made me more confident about what I learned, which meant I less frequently confused similar concepts or vacillated between answers during multiple-choice questions. And such a comprehensive self-evaluation prompted deeper thinking during studying — not only about the answer but about how I arrived at the answer, whether efficiently or not. The deeper you go, the better you’re using your time.

Finally, while it seems counterintuitive, you can excel by ignoring the pace of the classroom. Ignoring the set pace lets you go faster, return to material you want to reinforce, and maximize your interactions with teachers. I found that working two classes ahead of my teachers’ instruction helped a lot.