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  Some A+ Tips From the Book  
  Tab.jpg Start when it feels uncomfortably early.  This is the signal that you are starting at the right time.  
       
  Tab.jpg Ask your instructor to name three main trade journals in his field.  Skim the table of contents of these journals.  Read at least one article a week.  Incorporate what you learn from these readings into your homework and test answers.  This will show that you are up-to-date (sometimes even more so than the instructors).  
       
  Tab.jpg Contact "gurus" in the field, subject or topic.  Ask them about what is taking place on the topic's cutting edge and about future trends.  Incorporate this information into your homework, test answers, and  class discussions.  
       
  Tab.jpg Make use of all five of your senses.  Make a mental note of what you see, hear, smell, touch, and/or taste at the time that you learn something.  Think of where you see it on the page, what (or who) is in your immediate environment, and what actions or movements are taking place.  Note the temperature, mood, and/or time.  If you get stuck on a test, these will help you to remember.  
       
  Tab.jpg Make use of all five of your senses.  Make a mental note of what you see, hear, smell, touch, and/or taste at the time that you learn something.  Think of where you see it on the page, what (or who) is in your immediate environment, and what actions or movements are taking place.  Note the temperature, mood, and/or time.  If you get stuck on a test, these will help you to remember.  
       
  Tab.jpg Think about how you would reconstruct the difficult parts if you were stuck on a test.  This may facilitate your future use of this information.  
       
  Tab.jpg Try to do the three most difficult “unassigned” problems in the back of the chapter, each week, "before" you start the assigned homework.  Take this to your instructor, and ask him/her to show you how to do the rest of these three most difficult problems to their correct answers.  This information will increase the chance of your getting the “assigned” homework problems right and of getting the most difficult questions on the tests right.  
       
  Tab.jpg Get through boring reading by predicting what comes next, and then
comparing it to what you find.  Get through boring lectures by anticipating what the instructor will say next.		  
       
  Tab.jpg Don’t limit yourself to definite answers or solutions.  Consider the
circumstances in which an answer is true and in which it is false.  At
what point does it stop being true and why?  What are the assumptions?  What are the challenges, complexities, and dynamics?  Does the mathematical answer match physical intuition?  One extra sentence about one or more of these can result in a more accurate and thorough answer.		  
       
  Tab.jpg Read the chapter that covers each classroom session one day before each class.  
       
  Tab.jpg As you read, don't be intimidated by the author's credentials.  Pretend that it is your job to catch the author's shortfalls and to highlight them.  Pretend that you are an investigator trying to see if this person and his writing really checks out.  Act as if you are the most curious person in the world about this.  What assumptions, biases, or speculations does this author exhibit?  Are there points that the author has de-emphasized, concealed, or forgotten?  Did the author adequately achieve the objectives described in his introduction?  Did he present adequate evidence to support his claims?  What do you want to know about the subject?  Is he giving you the information that you need?  What question did the author really address?  What did the author really accomplish?  In what ways could he have done a better job in research, interpretation, or presentation?  In what ways could the author have related this to other relevant information?  At each step, ask yourself if you are really convinced.  
       
  Tab.jpg Give yourself instructions during assignments and examinations.  
       
  Tab.jpg Make sure that you target the right question, and the intention of the assignment before beginning.  
       
  Tab.jpg Cite sources even when it's not needed (to increase credibility).  
       
  Tab.jpg Relate the topic of study to industry.  
       
  Tab.jpg Scrutinize your work through the eyes of the teacher.  How would the teacher respond to each element?  What assessment of quality would he or she make for each of these elements and steps?  What things would he or she find refreshing, new, exciting, or just average?  What things would he or she want to see?  What questions would he or she have?  
       
  Tab.jpg Take every assignment seriously.  
       
  Tab.jpg Constantly outdo yourself, and reach new standards of excellence.  
       
  Tab.jpg Question yourself to the answer.  Ask yourself why it is that you are having trouble.  What characteristics of the parts of this issue are a
problem for you?  What parts of it are not a problem?  Which components are true and which are not true?  Why are they true or not true?  The right questions can get the student moving in the right direction and sometimes all of the way to the answer.		  
       
  Tab.jpg Before taking a break, write down what you will do next.  This will make it easier to come back because you will have a plan to follow.  
       
  Tab.jpg Develop/Identify a step-by-step method for each main type of word problem.  This will guide you through the chaos in word problems.  
       
  Tab.jpg Start from where you are, and move in an upward direction.  Don't worry about past failures.  The greatest leaders in the world were down but got up ...to the top of their fields.  The road to success is not a straight line (for anyone).  
       
  Tab.jpg Several times a day, ask yourself the following question: What is the smartest thing for me to do at this "specific" time, not five minutes ago? If you find a good idea, ask yourself if you can come up with an even better idea in this moment.