Straight talk and tips from top students to help make academic excellence a lifestyle. Getting a passing grade is one thing—cramming to memorize facts, knowing what's on the test, finishing a paper just before the deadline—but being a top student is something else entirely. So what makes the difference between a good student and a top student? Being a top student is a lifestyle, not just an A on your transcript. The Secrets of Top Students: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Acing High School and College offers advice from lifelong top student, Stefanie Weisman, to help you learn the keys to studying smart, staying motivated, and making academic excellence a part of your life. Tips from 45 Top Students Learn strategies on making the grade with first-hand advice from valedictorians, Rhodes scholars, Fulbright scholars, Intel Science Fair finalists, a National Spelling bee champion, and more! Lifestyle Tips and Techniques Discover tips and mantras that will keep you on the road to academic success. Helpful Exercises Practice makes perfect. Put what you've learned to the test with easy exercises on taking notes, staying motivated, and more.

Offers strategies for studying, learning, and staying motivated in high school and college, featuring advice on managing time, writing essays, taking tests, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

The author of the best-selling What the Best College Teachers Do is back with more humane, doable, and inspiring help, this time for students who want to get the most out of college—and every other educational enterprise, too. The first thing they should do? Think beyond the transcript. The creative, successful people profiled in this book—college graduates who went on to change the world we live in—aimed higher than straight A’s. They used their four years to cultivate habits of thought that would enable them to grow and adapt throughout their lives. Combining academic research on learning and motivation with insights drawn from interviews with people who have won Nobel Prizes, Emmys, fame, or the admiration of people in their field, Ken Bain identifies the key attitudes that distinguished the best college students from their peers. These individuals started out with the belief that intelligence and ability are expandable, not fixed. This led them to make connections across disciplines, to develop a “meta-cognitive” understanding of their own ways of thinking, and to find ways to negotiate ill-structured problems rather than simply looking for right answers. Intrinsically motivated by their own sense of purpose, they were not demoralized by failure nor overly impressed with conventional notions of success. These movers and shakers didn’t achieve success by making success their goal. For them, it was a byproduct of following their intellectual curiosity, solving useful problems, and taking risks in order to learn and grow.

If you’re currently a college student, or plan on being one, you need to check out this book. Written by award-winning professors Lynn Jacobs and Jeremy Hyman, it’s loaded with insider information that only professors know--but few are willing to reveal. The over 600 tips in this book will show you: How to pick good courses and avoid bad professors How to develop “college-level” skills and habits that’ll put you ahead of the pack How to get through the freshman comp, math, language, and lab science requirements--in one try How to figure out what’s going to be on the tests, and what professors are looking for in papers and presentations How to pick a major you’ll really like--and be good at How to get the edge for graduate school--or the inside track to a really good job And much more. The tips are quick and easy-to-use, and the advice is friendly and supportive. It’s as if you had your own personal professor guiding you on the path to college success.

The future is in your hands—not Harvard’s TO: All students wondering “Can I get into my dream college?” CC: All parents wondering “Can we afford it?” FROM: Educational consultant Kristin M. White MEMO: COLLEGE RANKINGS DON’T MATTER. This claim might sound crazy, but it’s true: Research shows that where you go to school makes little difference to future financial success or quality of life—personal qualities such as ambition, perseverance, and a sense of purpose are all more important. Kristin M. White has helped hundreds of parents and students look beyond the dream-school hype and focus on what’s most important. Now, in It’s the Student, Not the College, she shows how to avoid unrepayable debt and set yourself up to grow, excel, and enjoy yourself at any school. Instead of obsessing over GPA cutoffs and SAT scores, students will learn how to build a personal “Success Profile”—by adopting the traits that help stellar students make the grade in school and life. Plus . . . Why what you do in school counts more than where you go 14 surefire ways to develop your Success Profile as a student and beyond Criteria to consider when choosing a college How to find a good fit for your family’s finances And tips for graduating career-ready and landing a great first job. Expensive, elite colleges have too much sway over the minds and bank accounts of students and parents. It’s the Student, Not the College breaks that stranglehold—and reveals the real secrets of success.