Jacobs is professor of Art History at the University of Arkansas and taught at Vanderbilt, Cal State, Redlands, and NYU.
Hyman is founder and chief Architect of Professors' Guide projects. He has taught at UA, UCLA, MIT, and Princeton.
Have a Schedule
Having a schedule seems like a pretty basic organization skill, but it's amazing how many students don't exhibit the self-discipline they should have to be successful. It might have something to do with the proliferation of instant gratification. I don't know. Regardless of the cause, top students have self-discipline.
They also have a great date book, and every single deadline, appointment, class time, and test is in it.
Jacobs and Hyman suggest that having a bird's eye view of the entire semester helps students stay balanced and avoid surprises. They also report that top students divide up the tasks on their schedule, studying for tests over a period of weeks rather than in one crash sitting.
Hang Out with Smart Friends
I really love this one, and it's something you don't usually see in books. Peer pressure is incredibly powerful. If you're hanging with people who don't support your desire to be successful in school, you're swimming upstream. You don't have dump these friends necessarily, but you do have to limit your exposure to them during the school year.
Hang with friends who have goals similar to yours, and watch your spirit soar and your grades go up, up, up.
Even better, study with them. Study groups can be extremely helpful.
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