Do you plan your course sequence correctly?

Do you know how to learn effectively? Do you plan your course sequence correctly? Do you know how to structure your time so you get an A in the most efficient way possible? Do you understand how your teacher thinks and how to give your teacher what she wants? Do you have good study habits so you’re not wasting hundreds of hours of study time? Do you have self-discipline and motivation to put in all the word required to handle a challenging courseload? Do you know how to use your inevitable failures to adjust course quickly and improve yourself to raise your grade?

Tragically, these strategies are rarely taught in school. Teachers will collectively spend thousands of hours teaching you from their curriculum but rarely show you how to strategize your coursework and get better grades.

Going deeply into these topics is the subject of this guide. I believe these high-level skills are the critical foundation to academic success – without good strategy, you can pound your head against the wall and waste thousands of hours getting nowhere.

This guide contains all the advice I wish I knew but had to figure out myself the hard way. If you earnestly apply most of the concepts here, I am certain that you will have a much higher chance of academic success.

Going deeply into these topics is the subject of this guide. I believe these high-level skills are the critical foundation to academic success – without good strategy, you can pound your head against the wall and waste thousands of hours getting nowhere.

Before we begin, I need to get a few things out of the way. Bear with me because I’m going to anticipate common objections you might have that can affect how you interpret my advice.

If you’re looking for shortcuts or the academic equivalent of a “get rich quick” scheme, you won’t find it here. I won’t sugarcoat it – taking an advanced courseload and getting great grades will take a lot of hard work. I don’t know of any legitimate secrets that are going to get you the same result while reducing your workload by 90%, and I’d be suspicious of anyone who promised these secrets.

But it is vital that 1) you develop the mindset and motivation to work hard, and 2) you spend your limited time as effectively as possible to get the best result. That’s what this guide is about.

If you’re aiming for a 4.0 GPA, I’m guessing you also want to get into top schools in the country, so I’ll orient this guide toward both goals. To set the perspective correctly, I want to stress that a 4.0 is NOT required to get into top schools like Harvard and Princeton. You do NOT need perfect grades and test scores to get into the Ivy League. As an example, the average unweighted self-reported GPA of incoming students at Harvard is a 3.94. Thus, a 4.0 is really not that different from a 3.9 from the eyes of the college.

My focus is on helping you do better, and one of the best ways is to share my experiences honestly, warts and all. I did indeed go through a lot of stress in high school and put in a ton of effort. I think I was obsessive about achievement and have a high capacity for mental pain, and I happen to love working hard. I don’t think it’s optimal for most students to do what I did and feel what I felt, and I’ll explicitly point this out at places. So just because I describe my experience doesn’t mean I always condone it for everyone.

Do NOT freak out if you have high college goals and don’t already have a perfect GPA. It’s nowhere near the end of the world. I explain more about why in my How to Get Into Harvard guide.

The 4.0 number is not all you should aim for – the rigor of your coursework makes a big difference (this is where the concept of the weighted GPA comes in). Ideally you would both take difficult courses and excel in them. But if you have to make a tradeoff, I’d lean toward the more difficult courses. A B in an AP class is better than an A in a regular class.