how to get better grades on essays

But it is vital that you do the following:

• Develop the mindset and motivation to work hard
• Spend your limited time as effectively as possible to get the best results

That's what this guide is about.

I'm a very straightforward person, and I speak my mind. This means that some advice might rub you the wrong way. If that's the case, try to focus on the bigger picture and on the advice you do like. I don't want you to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because you think I'm a jerk. 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.

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. That said, 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. In fact, the average unweighted self-reported GPA of incoming students at Harvard is 3.95 . Thus, a 4.0 is really not that different from a 3.9 from the eyes of the college.

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 guide to getting into Harvard .

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'll take difficult courses and excel in them. But if you have to make a tradeoff, I'd lean toward the more difficult courses; a letter grade of a B in an AP class is better than an A in a regular class.

Despite the title of this guide, the concepts are widely applicable to GPAs in all ranges. Even if you're not aiming strictly for a 4.0, applying the advice here will get you closer to a 3.8 GPA or a 3.0 GPA or wherever you're aiming. You can use all the strategies here to improve your grades and raise your GPA. This is geared toward high school students, but for readers currently in college, the concepts apply equally to you and often even more so since you don't have as much parental structure over your work.

This guide targets high-achieving students who want to aim for academic success and push themselves to be better. As weird as it sounds, this is not the stance everyone should take. Yes, I know how stressed out students are these days about getting into college. No, I don't think everyone should feel as though they need to get into Stanford. Everyone has different academic goals, and this guide isn't for everyone.

I don't think everyone should aim for the toughest course load and perfect grades. Not enough students and families make decisions for personal happiness and are in a state of constant stress, especially if they always feel as if they're not doing enough. This can have bad long-term consequences. (In fact, applying the advice below should actually make your academic life easier because you're spending your time more effectively.)

That said, I do believe there are huge benefits to academic success. Not only does it lead to obvious benefits like better colleges and more rewarding careers, but it also trains fundamental skills that are applicable to improving the rest of your life.

When I was in high school, I knew I wanted to get into a top school like Harvard, and I knew I was willing to endure the sacrifices and pain to get there. I cared deeply about my academic success and I constantly pushed myself to get better. If this sounds like you and you honestly want to get a 4.0 for good reasons, then you'll vibe strongly with my advice.

Yes, I know there are other things in life that are more important than getting into the best college. But I also know it's a valuable goal for many of you, so I'm orienting this guide toward that. When you hear me say, "Do this to improve your college application," you should read this as, "Do this if college admissions is an important goal to you."

Finally, I co-founded a company called PrepScholar . We create online SAT/ACT prep programs that adapt to you and your strengths and weaknesses . While you do not need to buy a full prep program to get a great score, I believe PrepScholar is the best SAT program available right now, especially if you find it hard to organize your prep and don't know what to study. In any case, the fact that I run a test-prep company doesn't really affect my advice below.

I hope you're still with me and that the above cleared up some concerns you had coming into this article. Now, let's get started.

What Roles Do Coursework and GPA Play in College Admissions?

To understand how colleges think, it's important to put yourself in their shoes. I explain this in more detail in my guide on getting into Harvard and the Ivy League . In short, colleges want to admit students who are going to change the world.

But how do you predict who's going to change the world when applicants are just 17-18 years old? By using their past achievement as a predictor of future achievement.

Admissions offices at colleges do a lot of research on what types of students they admit and how to predict which students are going to be most successful. Often in these studies, high school coursework has one of the strongest correlations with college grades.

The Dean of Admissions at Harvard has stated the following about the admissions process:

"We have found that the best predictors at Harvard are Advanced Placement tests and International Baccalaureate Exams, closely followed by the College Board subject tests. High school grades are next in predictive power, followed by the SAT and ACT."

The Dean of Admissions at Lawrence University , too, has commented on the importance of GPA in college admissions:

"In the majority of studies, high school grades have the strongest correlation with college grades. The SAT and ACT have the next strongest correlation, but this too is not surprising because they have a strong correlation with high school grades."

This isn't very surprising. It takes a lot of skill and effort to excel with a demanding high school course load. The qualities that bring success in high school—curiosity, motivation, hard work, good planning, time management, control of your own psychology—are likely to lead to success in both college and your career. These are all qualities I'm going to cover in this guide.

As you can see, your high school coursework is one of the most important pieces of your college application. In terms of time expenditure, it's by far where you'll be spending the most time: more than 2,000 hours per year at 180 school days * (7 hours/day in school + 4 hours of homework). This is equivalent to a full-time job!

Finally, just to beat a dead horse, here are snippets from admissions offices at top colleges on the importance of coursework in college applications:

"The high school transcript is almost always the most important document in a student's application. But it is hard to conceive of a situation in which the appearance (or absence) of any one particular class on a transcript would determine the applicant's outcome ... When the admissions committee looks at your transcript, it will not focus on whether you have taken any specific course. It will be far more interested to see that you have challenged yourself with difficult coursework, and have done well."

"There is no single academic path we expect all students to follow, but the strongest applicants take the most rigorous secondary school curricula available to them. ... Although schools provide different opportunities, students should pursue the most demanding college-preparatory program available, consistent with each student's readiness for particular fields of study."

"We give the greatest weight to your academic transcript. The rigor of the courses you've taken, the quality of your grades and the consistency with which you've worked over four years give us the clearest indication of how well you will do at Amherst."

Claremont McKenna

"While there is no minimum GPA requirement, competitive candidates for admission pursue the most demanding coursework possible and receive strong grades. We strongly recommend taking advantage of honors and advanced placement coursework when available. Many competitive applicants often go beyond the minimum recommended program."

Once again, don't get the wrong idea. "Most rigorous secondary school curricula" does not mean "take every AP class under the sun, at the expense of sleep and your sanity."

Says Stanford on this subject,

"The students who thrive at Stanford are those who are genuinely excited about learning, not necessarily those who take every single AP or IB, Honors or Accelerated class just because it has that designation."

In essence, colleges by no means want to promote unhealthy obsession over racking up AP courses, especially if you're not interested in the material.

However, if you can ace the most advanced course load available to you and build a strong application, you're at the level that the best colleges are looking for.

What This 4.0 GPA Guide Is All About

As I mentioned at the beginning, this is not a guide in which I teach you actual math or writing content. This is a high-level strategy and planning guide meant to give you the right mindset and practices for achieving academic success.

I see this as the foundation on which you build your high school career. Just like in construction, if you have a weak foundation, your building will crumble, no matter how much effort you put into it. Build on a strong foundation, and you'll find studying far easier and more effective.

I've worked with a lot of students who see academic success purely as a content-mastery-and-brute-force problem—try hard enough to master the content and put in enough hours, and you'll do better. Unfortunately, if they're learning the wrong way or spending time on stuff that's not actually effective, they'll see quickly that their hard work is being wasted.

Here's what we'll cover in broad strokes. Each layer builds on the next and we'll go from high to low level:

Section 1: Mindset and Psychology

Section 2: overall planning and habits.

• Section 3: Individual Class Strategies

Section 4: Subject-by-Subject Strategies

Bonus section: 4 pieces of miscellaneous advice.

The most fundamental thing you need to control is your own psychology. You need to believe that you're capable of improving, and you need to be motivated to work hard. If you lack these two insights, you won't be able to put in the effort to achieve your goals, and you'll be crippled by small setbacks.

Let's look at exactly what you must do to get yourself in the right mindset.

#1: Have a Growth Mindset—Your Goal Is to Improve Constantly

Pop quiz. Tell me if you agree with any of these statements:

• You have a certain amount of intelligence, and you can't really do much to change it.
• You're naturally good at some things and not others, and what you're not good at you can't do much to improve.
• You're afraid of others knowing about your failures because of what your failures say about you.
• You want to hide your flaws so that you're not judged a failure. You're afraid of looking dumb.
• You often get angry when you get negative feedback about your performance.

If you strongly agree with even one of these statements, you have a critical problem with your psychology. You'll find it very hard to improve from your current situation because, deep down, you basically believe that you can't improve what you were born with. Every setback will pound you down, and you'll find it hard to make progress.

You're not alone. A lot of people, students and adults alike, believe intelligence is fixed: "People are just born smarter than others, and however smart you are now is how smart you'll be from here on out."

This is tempting to believe because your observations of the world seem to fit this idea. The smart kid at your school just always seems to ace everything without breaking a sweat, and she's always been that way. In contrast, you might have tried really hard in a class but ended up with a B. Or you might never have been good at math, so improving your math grades seems impossible.

A belief in a fixed intelligence has problems whether you believe you're smart or not. If you don't believe you're intelligent, then you've accepted that you'll never be intelligent. If you're bad at writing, you'll always just be bad at writing. People are "right-brained" or "left-brained," so of course they'll do worse in classes they're not good at!

While people definitely can have different talents, too often this kind of thinking is used to justify poor performance without thinking hard enough about how to actually improve.

Here's the trap—let's say you do poorly on something, like a math test. If you believe your talent is fixed, your excuse will be that you're bad and you'll always be bad. You won't seriously consider the fact that you can actually improve. You won't think hard about how you failed and what you need to change in order to stop failing.

(I'm using "fail" often here and it might sound intense to you. The way I think about it, if you want an A, then a B is a failure. You can't compromise this because you risk sliding into complacency and lowering your goals. So I'll continue using "fail" throughout this guide even though it usually means something far less severe than literally failing a class.)

This trap is easy to fall into because it's easier to blame something out of your control (an idea that you were born with, talent or not) than to admit that you just didn't work hard or effectively enough to meet your goal.

This isn't just relevant for low-performing students—it's a problem for high performers, too. High-achieving students often fall into a trap wherein they take failures too hard as a personal blow to their egos. They've been praised as smart from childhood and academics comes naturally to them. When they first encounter failure, they don't know how to react.

If you believe that classwork is about intelligence, and you believe your intelligence is high but fixed, then a failure in classwork will seem unsolvable. Every mistake and failed test will be a crushing blow to your ego, and you'll doubt yourself constantly and wonder if you're doing things right. I think this is partly why students who excel in high school end up floundering in college where classes are a lot more demanding and they don't have the structure of high school and parenting.

The Solution to a Fixed Mindset

The antidote to both problems is to adopt a growth mindset. This idea was developed by Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford, after decades of studying learners. Here's what she says :

"In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb. In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it."

In short, intelligence can be developed and trained. You can get better and smarter.

No matter how good you think you are now, your job is to get better and improve constantly. Your job is to use your experiences and failures to do better next time—not to accept your failures for what they are.

This idea comes from research. In a 2007 study , Dweck followed students transitioning from elementary school to junior high, when the material gets more challenging and the grading stricter. They wanted to see how the students' mindsets (fixed or growth) affected their math grades.

At the beginning of the project, students were surveyed to gauge their perspectives on learning and mindset. One question asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the idea that your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can't really change (just like I asked you at the beginning of this section).

Students with a growth mindset felt that hard work led to improvement. In response to a bad grade, growth-mindset students wanted to work harder or try different strategies.

In contrast, students with a fixed mindset believed that smart people didn't need to work hard to do well. When confronted with bad grades, students with fixed mindsets said they would study less in the future and attributed it to their own lack of ability.

At the start of junior high, students in both groups showed comparable math test scores. But as the math got harder, a gap appeared— students with a growth mindset showed growth in test scores, while those with a fixed mindset slumped.

Here's a model of how students with strong growth mindsets compare with those with strong fixed mindsets over a span of two years:

Imagine how this difference scales over 20 years of your life, from elementary school to college and eventually your career. The difference in the final result can be astounding.

This is why there's a recent movement for parents and teachers to stop calling kids smart . Adults think they're encouraging children with praise, but really they're promoting a fixed mindset. If you believe your success is due to intelligence and not hard work, then when you encounter failure, you'll blame your intelligence and not your lack of hard work.

Having a growth mindset is important because you will inevitably face challenges in your classwork. You will do much worse on a biology test than you expected. You'll get an essay back with a lot of red marks saying you just didn't get it.

It'll feel terrible. I'd know—despite my perfect grades, I was nowhere close to acing every single assignment and test.

But after you give yourself time to grieve, you need to analyze exactly what you did and figure out what went wrong. Your actions led to this subpar result, and you need to change your actions to improve your result.

This all starts with believing that you're capable of getting better. If you don't accept this, you'll just throw up your hands and resign yourself to your fate, which is basically like treating every class like a lottery. (Below, I'll talk more about how to use feedback to reflect on your study strategy and improve.)

The idea of a growth mindset is important throughout all of life, really. Whether you're learning how to ski or trying to build stronger friendships, the belief that you're capable of improving gives you the fuel to analyze your shortcomings objectively and actually try to improve them.

The alternative is to accept that you are now as good as you will ever be, and that whatever level you're at is how you'll stay for the rest of your life. That sounds pretty lame to me.

What Can You Do to Adopt a Growth Mindset?

If you said yes to any points in the pop quiz above, you're more likely to be operating in a fixed mindset. It's not likely you'll change this immediately since you've believed in a fixed mindset for many years.

Instead, you'll benefit from a mindset change and taking little steps in the right direction.

First, repeat after me:

• However good you are now, you can get better if you work hard and use your time effectively.
• Failures give you valuable feedback on how to improve. Failures are just temporary setbacks, and you'll do better in the future.
• You can learn to be good at anything because your abilities are almost entirely up to you.

Note that this isn't saying everyone can be an Albert Einstein or a Kobe Bryant. But you can get a lot closer than you think.

After you adopt a mindset change, the important steps are to apply the concepts to your work and continue believing in them. We'll spend a lot more time below explaining how to use feedback to improve your studying.

If you'd like to read more about the growth mindset, check out this article by Dweck or her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success .

For some fun examples, here's a video of someone who learns to dance over a year with focused practice:

If a year seems like a lot of time, here's a video of a dude who learns to kickflip in a little more than five hours:

The same thing applies to coursework.

If you don't think you're naturally good at math, you can get better.

If you've never been a natural writer, you can learn to write effectively.

I'm dwelling on this point because it's so critical to breaking free from constraints that you place on yourself now. You can improve from where you are, and you can have a lifetime of growth.

#2: Be Prepared to Work Hard

We've already covered how top colleges consider coursework one of the most important pieces of college applications. These schools expect you to take a challenging course load with some of the hardest courses offered at your school (often AP or IB classes). You'll also have to do this while balancing extracurriculars, test prep, a social life, and your own sanity.

This means that your course load is going to be challenging, and your schedule will be demanding. It will take a serious amount of work to excel in every single class, and sometimes it will feel like you're just putting out new fires as fast as you can.

I probably spent at least an average of four hours a day on homework (including weekends) on projects and studying. This would increase dramatically when finals and AP exams came around.

There's no way around this. The smartest kid at your school might seem to just breeze through life and get straight As without breaking a sweat. (If she enjoys having this reputation, she might even actively foster it.)

The reality, however, is likely that this "perfect student" is busting her ass every day. She might just hide it well or doesn't really treat it like work, and so doesn't seem to be breaking a sweat. If you really enjoy learning, then working hard on schoolwork won't be nearly as painful.

If you're used to a comfortable life and schedule with many hours of free time every day, you'll probably have to start making tradeoffs in other areas of your life. If you care about highly competitive college admissions, you will need to orient your life toward that.

This usually means less personal relaxation or social time and cutting out an extracurricular that isn't adding to your application . (Again, I'm not saying you have to do this. Not every student should aim for top colleges and the most rigorous course load possible. But it's a meaningful goal and one that's important to a lot of you, so I'm just being real about what it takes.)

High school is of course four years, and so it's going to be a marathon.

It will take effective strategies to understand where to spend your limited time to get the maximum result.

It will take discipline to keep yourself focused when there are distractions everywhere.

It will take motivation to power through disappointments and setbacks.

But the rewards are worth it, and if you learn these skills, you'll be stronger in the rest of your life. We're going to talk about each of these aspects below.

#3: Find Something Deep to Drive You

For pretty much all ambitious students, high school coursework is going to be a grind. I'm not saying that learning isn't fun, but inevitably you'll have to do assignments you don't care about, sit in class listening to profoundly dull teachers, and prepare for exams that aren't fun. All of this is going to take time and mental energy to drive through the most painful parts.

Having motivation makes a big difference in how hard you work and how strongly you persist through difficulty.

It turns out that there are actually two types of motivation: extrinsic motivation (coming from outside) and intrinsic motivation (coming from within). One of them is a lot more durable than the other.

A common source of extrinsic motivation is parental pressure. If you fail a test, you're grounded. If you don't clean up your room, you have your phone taken away. More positively, if you get an A, maybe your parents buy you that pair of shoes you always wanted.

This can definitely work— but only in the short term and not reliably. While you might do your homework and stop texting for a night, ultimately it leads to frustration and resentment and won't be reliable for long periods of time.

Just remember the last time you argued with your parents about something they wanted you to do, like chores or homework. Fear of punishment can be an effective motivator, but it wears off, especially as you get older and more independent.

"Fine! Ground me, I don't care!" Sound familiar? If you rely on your parents to keep you motivated and your parents aren't around, you won't work.

In contrast, intrinsic motivation comes from within. It's something you want for yourself—screw what other people think.

You might have a dream college you want to attend.

You might want to prove your haters and doubters wrong.

You might want to compete with your nemesis and come out on top.

You might love learning things just because.

In the darkest of times, this motivation will drive you forward. When you're tired and would rather watch YouTube, the idea of getting a B will get you out of bed and keep you focused. When you get a C on your essay, the idea of failure will be unacceptable and you'll have no choice but to question where you fell short and how you can improve in the future.

Research shows that extrinsic motivation, such as rewards, are weak reinforcers in the short run and negative reinforcers in the long run .

Dig deep, find something internal you care about, and keep adding fuel to that fire.

I want to caution here that you should try to steer away from unhealthy motivations if possible. I was very competitive in high school to the point of being repugnant, and my high school atmosphere overall was pretty toxic. It's better if you can find something positive to encourage you that doesn't make you a jerk.

There's more on intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation here , written for teachers.

Up to this point, we've covered really high-level mindset and psychology. I know parts of this sound like hokey motivational speech, but trust me: way more students suffer from these problems than I would like.

Even though schools rarely cover these topics, I think they're the most critical of all. If you don't believe you have the capacity to improve, each failure will cripple you mentally. If you have nothing to drive you, your work every day will be painful. You need a super solid foundation on which to build your actual learning and study habits.

With this in mind, we'll talk about about the next level: good academic practices and habits.

In order to get a 4.0 GPA, you need more than just the right mindset— you need to cultivate effective study habits. This section goes over how to plan out your study schedule so that you're on track to getting a 4.0.

#1: Plan Out Your Specific Course Sequence Early

Let's start with the basics. You need to know early on what classes you're going to take your four years in high school. This will help prepare you mentally for what's to come. Once you make sure you have all the requirements in place, you'll be able to start gathering info on classes to come—and also be able to picture the story you're building for your college applications.

You can approach your course sequence in two ways:

• The first way is top down. How many AP classes do you want to have taken by the time you apply to college? Which ones? With this in mind, you can fill in the classes backward based on the requirements for each one.
• The other way is bottom up. What classes have you taken already? What's the logical, ambitious progression from this point forward? This will take you from now into senior year.

Gear your expected course sequence toward your interests. You don't have to take every single hard class available. Remember what Harvard's admissions office says: "[S]tudents should pursue the most demanding college-preparatory program available, consistent with each student's readiness for particular fields of study" (bold emphasis mine).

Roughly speaking, you tend to fit into one of the following categories:

• Math/science
• Social sciences

This is useful for colleges to understand what you lean toward. I was a science guy and made sure to take all the major AP sciences as well as Calc BC and Stats. I still took AP English, History, and Spanish, but I didn't take AP courses for economics, psychology, and others.

If you don't know what you're interested in, you can do a general spread of the usual courses. As I suggest in my guide to getting into Harvard , I recommend thinking about what you want your application story to be and deeply exploring specific interests rather than trying to be too well rounded. (Sorry to keep linking to my Harvard guide, but it contains my best admissions advice and resonates strongly with this guide!)

This also means that you don't have to play the same game as everyone else. You do not need to take exactly as many AP courses as the top student in your school does.

Are you a writer who really wants to showcase this talent in your college application? You don't have to take AP Biology. It might be really difficult and unenjoyable for you, and it will take up hundreds of hours that are far better spent elsewhere that will strengthen your application.

For my business, I interview and hire a lot of Ivy League graduates. When I ask about AP scores, it's actually rare for someone to have taken the full gamut of AP courses, or even close to the 14 AP tests that I took. Most often it's centered around their core interests.

Don't feel pressured to do what your friends are doing or what's generally accepted as right.

Finally, make sure you really understand all the prerequisites for each of the advanced courses and plan ahead. You might have to take summer-school courses—understand how this works and anticipate any issues.

A personal example: I wanted to take AP Biology my freshman year, which meant I had to take biology as a summer course after 8th grade. This was unusual and I was only one of two freshmen to do this.

The next year I wanted to take AP Chemistry as a sophomore, which required me to take chemistry in the summer. My high school only had two available classes for chemistry, and they prioritized older students. I didn't get the placement, which meant I had to register at a high school half an hour away and drive back and forth each day (thanks, Dad).

#2: Start Getting Early Info on Future Courses

Another benefit of planning early is that you can start gathering information on courses you'll be taking in future years. This will prepare you mentally for what's to come and let you structure your life accordingly, like having the right amount of extracurriculars so you can stay afloat.

Different schools have different reputations for how courses are run. At my school, AP Biology was seen as a hazing boot camp, requiring hardcore memorization of tiny details. In contrast, AP Physics was really laid-back, even though conceptually I think it's a lot more difficult.

This might be the opposite at other schools. Being able to predict this will help you prepare your life in advance and make sure you know what you're getting into.

Also, different teachers have different reputations. One AP Biology teacher at my school was known for being excellent—he explained concepts clearly, was enthusiastic, and showed students the bigger picture. The other teacher was unanimously considered one of the worst teachers at our school. I had the latter (fun story on this later).

Even though you might not have control over which teacher you get, you'll be able to gauge how much variation there will be in your future.

How do you start doing this?

• Get to know upperclassmen and talk to them about their experiences with classes. Everyone loves griping about school. If you have older siblings, ask them and their friends, or join a club through which you can meet upperclassmen.
• Talk to teachers in advance. Ask honest questions about how to prepare for their classes, what the weekly workload will look like, and how intense students feel the class is. Most teachers will actually appreciate this, as long as you don't keep neurotically bugging them about it.

If you set your expectations correctly for the future, you'll be prepared to weather the storm.

#3: Be Ruthlessly Efficient With Your Time

This is probably my most important piece of advice in this section.

There is one limitation in every human's life, from Bill Gates' and Mark Zuckerberg's to yours and mine. It's the time you have per day. Everyone has only 24 hours in a day, and it's up to you to get the most out of each day.

If you're aiming for a top college, building a strong application will likely take up almost all your free time. Roughly speaking, out of 24 hours in a weekday, you have eight hours for school and transit (which are mandatory), eight hours for life outside of school, and eight hours for sleep. (And I do recommend you get sleep—more on that later.)

Of the eight hours you have outside of school, you might need four hours every day to get through your homework and another two for your extracurriculars. This gives you just two hours of free time. Weekends remove the eight hours of schooling but likely replace it with more studying, test prep, and extracurriculars.

When charted like this, it's clear that you have a strictly limited amount of time every day to get through what you need to get through.

Therefore, every hour you can spend or use more efficiently is a huge gain.

Furthermore, if you're able to save an hour every day, you'll be able to get an extra 365 hours per year. This is a massive amount of time you can use to improve your grades or make serious progress on an extracurricular.

The most driven applicants you're competing with will be focused and productive 80% or above all the time. They'll be strongly motivated to do well and often passionate about what they're doing. (Remember what we discussed regarding intrinsic motivation.)

If you're productive at only half this—or 40% of the time—you'll lose out on 3,500 hours of productivity over three years of high school. This is a staggering amount.

We'll talk more about time management below, but there are two high-level points I'd like to make now.

Time Spent on Any Activity Usually Has "Diminishing Marginal Returns"

This means that for each unit of time you put in, the extra value you generate shrinks rapidly.

This is an economics concept that applies to a lot of everyday life.

Notice how at the very beginning, a little bit of effort makes a big impact on results. After a while, each additional unit of effort barely moves the needle on output. Thus "diminishing marginal returns."

A common time drain is social time or hanging out. If you haven't seen your friends all day, then the first 10 minutes you see them are going to be super exciting. You'll share the latest news and gossip and find out more about each other's lives.

By the end of the first hour, though, you'll often run out of things to talk about. This is where awkward silences might start settling in and people start focusing on their phones.

By the end of the third hour, you're probably in a zombie-like state in which you're hanging out but not really doing anything in particular. You could have packed things up two and a half hours ago and spent the rest of that time doing something more effective.

The same goes for texting, Snapchat, Netflix, and browsing the internet, as far as your happiness is concerned. The first little bit goes a long way, but the rest of the time doesn't add all that much.

The trap here is that all these activities are pretty pleasant and pain-free compared to running a marathon or studying. Like a warm blanket in winter, they're easy to get lost in and hard to escape from. It takes real discipline and willpower to break out of that trap and do hard things like study for a test.

Surprisingly, diminishing returns applies equally to classwork. There really is a point at which studying more isn't going to raise your score and you're just obsessing for no real reason. There's a point at which spending more time polishing an essay isn't going to get you a higher grade on it.

If you're a perfectionist like I was, you might obsess over every last detail. You have to recognize when good enough is good enough, and extra units of time aren't actually adding to the quality of your work.

Surprisingly, a 4.0 isn't about perfection in every single aspect of coursework. This is really stressful and difficult. It's about doing a good enough job everywhere and getting the most for the least.

Find Opportunities for Wasted Time and Spent It on More Useful Things

With the concept of diminishing returns above in mind, you should examine where you're spending your time and question the value you get out of every extra half hour you spend on it. This really extends to all aspects of your life.

Largely speaking, your life will be include school, homework, extracurriculars, test prep, social time, and family time. Some of these will be really important to your college application, while others won't be.

If a major goal of your high school life is to get into the best college you can, then you need to structure your life around maximizing your chance of success.

There are a couple of common time sinks that don't end up contributing to your college application as much as you think they do.

Time Sink #1: Time-consuming, ineffective extracurriculars. Typically, extracurriculars will take up the most time outside of coursework. Certain activities take up a ton of time but aren't very impressive to the top colleges if you're not performing at an elite level. I'd like to single out a few common ones:

• Playing an instrument and in an orchestra/marching band: A serious musician might practice one to two hours a day. Being in a marching band might add an hour per day on average. Over three years, this will add up to thousands of hours. If you are not a section leader of a well-known group or a national-level performer, this experience does not add significantly to your application. Sorry to be blunt. Imagine the many thousands of orchestras and marching bands in the country, all with concertmasters, drum majors, and section first chairs. If you are rank and file, you will not stand out, but you will spend a lot of time on not standing out.
• Volunteering: Some students think that 1,000 hours of volunteering service is a lot more impressive than 200 hours. It's not—especially if you're doing something straightforward like delivering hospital samples or serving front line at a soup kitchen. You can get "credit" for volunteering with just, say, an hour per week. Again, hundreds of thousands of students volunteer across the country—it's just not that special unless you make it special .
• Athletics: Sports practices and games are grueling and can take up to two hours on average per day. Plus, when you get home at the end of the day, you might be too tired to maintain your willpower and do your schoolwork efficiently. If you're not good enough to be recruited for your sport or earn meaningful distinctions at the state level or above, it's really not that impressive. Once again, imagine how many hundreds of thousands of varsity athletes there are across the country, and imagine how you fit into this crowd.

As you can see, the pattern is that it's easy to spend time on activities that are very common, very time-consuming, and very indistinguishable from what everyone else is doing.

Time Sink #2: Hard classes you don't need to take. As I mentioned above, you really don't need to take AP Biology if it's especially hard for you. It's easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing, but you don't have to play the same game. If you drop AP Biology, you might be able to take two AP courses in other subjects you like more.

If you're participating in one of these activities, dropping it can free up hundreds of hours a year. This is a massive amount of time.

Here's what you can do with this bulk of free time:

• Get your grades up: If you historically find yourself short on time to do homework and test prep of the highest quality, you'll be able to devote more time to doing a better job in school.
• Pursue a deep interest and make notable achievements: This is more impressive to college admissions committees than typical activities and will benefit you personally as you explore developing passions.
• Spend that time doing things that truly make you happier: If you're really stressed out all the time, chances are you're spending time on something that's not making you happy or adding much to your college application. Dropping it will be a breath of fresh air.

A clear exception to the rule above is if you really enjoy your activity. If you really really like volleyball but only play at junior-varsity level, then keep on doing it. Happiness is important, and it's usually better to be happy and un-optimized than miserable and optimized.

In all other cases, it's just silly to do one of these activities at a mediocre level at the expense of schoolwork or other helpful things.

I know this analysis sounds pretty intense, but it's super important, and not enough students actually take a step back and evaluate why they're doing what they're doing.

It's also a really good life skill—you're never going to have more time in the day, and when you get into college and your career, getting the most out of each hour will put you ahead of most people.

So that you're not worried about becoming a robot, I admit that I'm nowhere near perfect 100% efficiency throughout my day. In high school, I spent time every day chatting online with friends and playing computer games. These were my ways of unwinding.

However, I rarely ever let this "wasted" time expand beyond an hour per day, often because I gave it to myself as a reward after finishing all my homework. (Remember diminishing marginal returns.) My parents also were pretty effective moderators of this, sometimes disconnecting our internet at night so I wouldn't stay up til 2 am chatting about stupid stuff.

Again, the most important piece of advice I have in this section is to analyze everything you're doing and decide whether it's worth it. If you spend your time correctly, like what I suggest in my guide on getting into Harvard , this will put you far ahead of most of your classmates.

#4: Know When Every Assignment Is Due and Plan, Plan, Plan

For a sane life, you need to know precisely when major tests and papers are due, and when every homework assignment is due.

You then need to plan ahead and budget enough time for each assignment. You need to notice when you're ahead or behind in your schedule for each of your classes and adjust your time so you can catch up.

This is essentially like having five parallel pipelines going on at any one time:

A Gantt chart , a common project management technique. More hardcore than you need, but used here for illustration.

If you know you need a full week to write a good essay, plan for this. Start a full week ahead of when it's due, and not any later.

If you know you need 15 hours to study for an AP Biology test, budget the time for that every day.

I suggest using Google Calendar or the iCloud Calendar for this. You can color code categories of work like homework, projects, and tests. You can also set alerts for things you tend to forget.

You want to be a machine and aim for full preparation for everything you're responsible for.

You should treat any surprises or last-minute work as a failure of planning. These increase your stress and lower the quality of your work. No last-minute homework crunch of quiz studying should be happening.

I know that all-nighters are, in rare cases, necessary, but they should not be a common occurrence. While it might be fun to bond with friends over pulling an all-nighter for a paper, take a step back and realize what that says: "I didn't plan well enough to budget enough time for this assignment, even though I've already done 20 of them. It was physically and mentally painful, and most likely lowered the quality of my work."

The better thing to do is to have that paper ready a whole day before it's due and have it so rock solid that you're sure it's going to get you an A.

Here are a few effective scheduling tips:

• Do a regular weekly and monthly review of your schedule to plan ahead: Get your parents involved since they can help enforce your planned schedule and deadlines.
• Prioritize your work correctly: Assignments that take up a bigger portion of a class's grade are more important. Classes that you're doing worse in need more critical attention. You should be dynamic and adjust to the circumstances. Do not just focus your attention on assignments you like more or that are easier for you.
• Know when to cut your losses for now and move on: It's easy to get stuck in a rut and spin your wheels without making progress. Move onto something else for now and come back to the assignment later. When you come back, you'll likely have a new perspective and get unstuck.

Again, since you're going to be spending at least 100 hours per month on homework, you might as well spend an hour a month guiding where that time will be spent.

#5: Don't Prioritize Other Things Over Sleep

Now, sleep. There seems to be an epidemic of high school students regularly sleeping very late at night—say, past midnight—and having to wake up at 7 am or earlier. They then need to get triple shot espressos every few hours to make it through the day.

This sounds crazy to me.

It's universally accepted that teens should be getting eight to 10 hours of sleep every night . When I was in high school, I regularly slept from 11 pm to 7 am, without fail.

I remember this clearly because in senior year, I had to stay up till 2 am working on a group English project that we'd all procrastinated on. This stood out to me because I'd rarely ever stayed up that late.

And yet, with eight hours of sleep every day, I was still able to pack everything in. (Remember what I said above about being ruthless with effectively using your time.)

Sleep has a huge impact on your performance and happiness.

Worse, it affects you in an insidious way—you'll think more slowly and less creatively. Essentially, a vicious cycle happens: you fall asleep later, making you less efficient and making your homework take longer to do.

If you're not getting enough sleep, you need to examine where you're spending your time and be sure that every hour you're spending on something is really worth it. I would bet something does exist that you can cut out.

There's probably some combination of an intense coursework schedule, a demanding school, and intense extracurriculars that make it extra hard to carve out more time. But I'm sure at least one of two things is happening:

• There's a lot of time spent on an activity that isn't actually worthwhile for college admissions or
• There's ample time being wasted somewhere else (we covered both above)

I can also guess that something dumb is happening: sleeping late is now considered a badge of honor, especially at uber-competitive high schools. If you're around hardworking students, people likely brag often about getting only four hours of sleep. Pounding Red Bulls visibly is something to be proud of. They might even be tempted to share this on Instagram, timed perfectly at 3 am.

This is silly because it incentivizes the opposite of what you want—it rewards you for being inefficient, not efficient. In fact, people who do this probably waste time during the afternoon because they want to sleep late. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

You should aim for the opposite—do really well and make it look easy. (If people don't actually do this, I apologize as I'm an old man now and out of touch with you teens.)

Here are tips to get more sleep:

• Enforce a sleep deadline every day , like 11 pm, so that you can get up by 7 am to get ready for school. Force yourself to lie in bed, not grab your phone and burrow under the covers. If you have to break this deadline, make sure you have a good reason for doing so.
• Cut caffeine six hours before your scheduled bedtime. After that point, drinking caffeine can have serious effects on the quality of your sleep . I see people in Starbucks at 9 pm and have no idea how they sleep at night. If you need caffeine to stay awake from 5 pm to 11 pm, you're probably not getting enough sleep at night!
• Cut the use of electronic screens on phones, tablets, and monitors before sleep. Blue light from screens disrupts your circadian rhythm by tricking your body into thinking it's daylight when it's not. You can also install software that changes the color of your screen to a warmer color. Flux is great for desktops and laptops, and Twilight for Android. iPhones offer a free Night Shift mode you can access through the Settings app.
• If you have a habit of wasting too much time before bed (like me), then strictly enforce your deadline again.

Up to this point, we've discussed high-level strategy. This sounds like general life advice, which is appropriate given that since you're a student, school is a major part of your life.

If you want to get a 4.0 GPA, you'll need to master your life habits and psychology.

I can't repeat enough that you need a solid foundation on top of which to build your studying and classwork. If you don't have this, you'll end up like those unfortunate students who take on heavy course loads and flounder for years, getting five hours of sleep a night, feeling miserable, and not making it into their target schools.

This is a recipe for academic discontent and disillusionment. It's like trying to build a house on quicksand.

Instead, you want to build a fortress on bedrock. After reading this guide, take the time to review all the important notes and reflect on whether you feel like you're executing them well. You might even do this every semester to make sure you're on track to your 4.0.

Section 3: General Class Strategy

With the high-level stuff covered, we'll now get into the thick of it: how to get straight As in your actual classes. This section will cover general class strategies that apply to every single class you take, regardless of subject. Section 4 will then cover strategies for individual subjects like math and English.

#1: Understand How the Class Is Graded

At the beginning of the year, every teacher makes clear how the class will be graded. This varies tremendously from subject to subject and teacher to teacher, and it's important to understand where you should be spending your time to get the best results.

There are two important pieces to this:

How Are Different Components of Your Work Weighted in Your Final Grade?

Commonly, this means a distribution across homework and projects, test scores, and participation. Different teachers have different weightings. Often, science and math classes focus on tests, while English classes focus on essays and projects.

You need to prepare a strategy for each course to do well on whatever is maximized. A simple rule of thumb is that you should spend a proportional amount of time depending on how much it contributes to your grade.

If a class is 50% tests, 40% homework, and 10% participation, you should split your time for that class accordingly. In this case, you could get away with minimal class participation as long as you ace the tests and homework.

Sometimes this can be deceiving—some teachers might give little weight to homework and more to tests, for example (this is almost always the case in college courses).

But it's often difficult to do well on tests without the regular commitment to homework, so you should spend that time on homework even if it doesn't contribute to your grade.

What's the Grading Scale—Is It Curved? Or Is It Based on an Absolute Scale on Test Scores?

Curved scales are rare in high schools, likely because they lead to unwanted competition. But if your class is curved, you need to pay attention to where you're positioned in the class, rank-wise, and you need to give yourself extra wiggle room in case the curve on a test is particularly tough.

If, instead, the class is graded on an absolute scale, like 93%+ is an A and the tests aren't curved, you can focus more on your own performance. This also makes planning more predictable—if you're at an 87% and need to pull yourself up to a 93%, you can figure out what your remaining homework and test scores have to be to get an A.

#2: Learn How to Learn

Learning is a mysterious process. You probably don't remember how you learned to walk or talk. When you memorize something, you can recall that fact some time later, even though you don't really know what is actually happening in your brain.

Even at the frontier of research, the nature of how we learn is still pretty mysterious.

Regardless, there are still a couple of principles of learning that have been provably effective.

Imagine Your Knowledge as a Tree

To build a tree, first you need strong roots and a trunk—these are the foundational concepts of the subject. Then, you build the branches and the leaves—these are the smaller details you're often tested on.

If you don't have a trunk, you won't have anything for your branches to grow on. So when you learn something, really focus on the fundamental core of what you're learning—the core that underlies all the little details. (I got this analogy from Elon Musk , the well-known entrepreneur behind SpaceX and Tesla Motors.)

For an example from calculus, let's take the concept of derivatives. On a test, you'll often get a function and be asked to find the derivative of it. Different functions behave in different ways; the derivative of 2 x 2 is 4 x , but the derivative of sin( x ) is cos( x ). These often require memorization, and the details are the leaves of the tree.

The trunk of the tree is the fundamental idea behind what a derivative is: when you take a derivative of a function, what you're doing is defining the rate of change along the function. At any particular point, the rate of change is equal to the slope of the line tangent to the function at that point.

Derivatives, one of the most important concepts of calculus. If you're nowhere near taking calculus, don't worry about the details just yet.

When you understand this trunk, then every derivative formula afterward makes intuitive sense. You'll be able to absorb new formulas —new branches and leaves—much more easily since you just add them to the trunk.

But if you don't understand this trunk, you'll find yourself struggling to memorize the details piecemeal, as if you're making a shoddy quilt.

This is also true in the humanities. When you learn how to write an essay in English or history, look beyond just following the standard essay template given by your teacher. Here's what you need to understand:

• The thesis-evidence-conclusion structure is an effective way to make an argument because you prepare the reader for what you're going to say, prove it using evidence, and then recap the important takeaway points.
• When you cite textual evidence from a book, you need to relate it back to your thesis to make clear how the evidence supports or proves your point.
• Transitions between paragraphs and within paragraphs help the reader piece together all your disparate points into a cohesive whole.

Once you build this trunk, the details of how to do this with actual words and phrases will come naturally. If you don't build your trunk, you'll become frustrated with following someone else's instructions without knowing why.

When you learn something, really try to ask yourself what the root of what you're learning is. Once you identify this, the details will come more naturally to you. Many teachers don't teach this way, so it's up to you to do it yourself.

Constantly Relate New Things You're Learning to Things You Already Know

When I visualize how knowledge works, I imagine a network of nodes connected to each other. Each node is a unit of information—a math formula, a concept, or a historical fact.

When two nodes are connected, I see them as related to each other. Two linked nodes might be the area of a circle and the perimeter of a circle, for example.

How I visualize my knowledge: each circle is a concept or fact, and lines connect related concepts.

Some nodes are heavily connected to each other. Some nodes hang on only by a thread.

Nodes that are weakly linked and not accessed often tend to be forgotten much more quickly. Intuitively, this makes sense: if a particular concept is related to other concepts, every time you recall one of the related concepts, you'll have a better chance of activating the related concepts. This then cements all the concepts around.

I know this is very abstract, so let's use an example. In US History, you'll learn about three core events: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and slavery abolishment, and women's suffrage.

The brute-force way to learn about these events is to memorize the facts and details for each event, as though each were in its own independent vacuum. After all, you're likely taught and tested unit by unit, so this is the natural way to learn.

But in reality, there are key themes that tie these events together:

• Over time, the subjugated tend to earn their freedom: In the Revolutionary War, American colonists were under the dominion of the British government until they won their independence. In the Civil War, slavery was a contentious issue that eventually led to its abolition and the freedom of slaves. In regard to women's suffrage, women earned the right to vote equally as men. This trend continues to hold true today with gay marriage rights.
• For each event, key leaders spoke for the masses and represented their will: Select examples of these include the founding fathers for the Revolutionary War, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass for the Civil War, and Susan B. Anthony for women's suffrage.
• For each event, there was opposition that tried to maintain the status quo: This would be the British, the South, and society at large, respectively. (Both men and women opposed women's suffrage.)

I'm not a history buff so apologies for this complete simplification.

These unifying themes help you see the patterns among these important events. When you learn about Abraham Lincoln, you can relate his achievements to those of George Washington, strengthening your understanding of both.

Now, these events are clearly tremendously different from each other, but defining contrasts is just as helpful. During the Revolutionary War and the fight for women's suffrage, the main instigators were those being subjugated—the colonists and women. In contrast, in the Civil War, the action was more strongly led by white men in the Union and less so by the slaves themselves.

Defining these contrasts still develops a connection among the events, in turn leading to a stronger understanding of both. It also helps you ask interesting questions about why these events differed from each other.

You can see how altogether you're building this interconnected network of events. When you learn world history, you'll be able to fit the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the end of colonization, and other events into this framework.

This rich, multi-dimensional network-building is a stark contrast to the usual way history is taught—as a one-dimensional timeline. The one-dimensional way was how I was taught history and it made history a pretty boring collection of historical facts, which is a shame because learning could be so much more interesting and effective.

If you can focus on building a strong trunk of knowledge and connecting what you learn to what you already know, you'll be able to learn much more effectively.

#3: Understand How Teachers Think, and Give Them What They Want

If learning is your job, your teacher is your boss. Your responsibility is to follow the teacher's guidelines and give the teacher what she wants. Your performance will then determine whether you get a promotion (an A) or get fired (an F).

This can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. Even though teachers might seem like imposing vanguards of knowledge, in reality they're humans, with ambitions and flaws like everyone else.

By understanding how a teacher thinks, you'll be able to customize your approach to the class to increase your chances of performing well in it. This is especially important in subjective pieces such as essay grading, group projects, and class participation.

There's a huge variation in the types of teachers you'll have. Some teachers are veterans—they've seen it all and won't put up with your whining. Others are new—they're still trying to figure it out, really want to do a good job, and crave approval from students.

Some teachers are passionate, want to connect with students, and achieve carpe diem moments daily. Others are perfunctory and just want kids to keep quiet and cause less trouble in their lives so they can go home and watch The Walking Dead .

Some teachers want lively class discussions and want to see students inspire each other. Others run class like a prison—no outbursts, or you get solitary.

The more you understand how a teacher thinks, the more you can give the teacher what she wants. This might sound sociopathic and calculating, but in reality it's a social skill you already use without thinking much about it. It's also a skill you'll be using throughout your life, from college applications to job applications and work.

Here are some general principles I've found to be true of most teachers.

Most Teachers Do, at Their Core, Care a Lot About Their Job

They chose education as their craft for a reason, usually because they like the idea of inspiring students and contributing to their growth.

They also care about the subject matter—if they teach math, they find math interesting. If they teach history, they find history interesting. Grizzled veteran teachers might be disillusioned by this because maybe their kids have historically sucked, but they're still open to being surprised and inspired by the young people they teach.

What does this suggest?

Most teachers hate students whose sole concern is getting a good grade and who make this desire clear from their questions and behavior.

Most teachers love students who sincerely care about the class material and show curiosity. They love passing on their subject matter knowledge to students, filling the jar of the student's mind.

One place this is clear is in the syllabi that teachers write for classes. You might not know that AP courses at every high school are audited by the College Board for curricular soundness, and teachers are required to submit their syllabi for approval. Here's a real example from a teacher for AP English Language:

This lesson plan is an X-ray into the thinking of the teacher; it clearly describes the meaningful skills students are expected to learn, and the teacher's enthusiasm is palpable. While this is probably an example of an above-average teacher, it illustrates how teachers who care really do understand what they're teaching and what they want students to get out of it.

If you can prove to the teacher you're learning what she wants you to learn, you'll be in amazing shape.

Most Teachers See the Students They Teach as the Future Generation of Society

You are the future, so teachers want to see admirable qualities in their students. You'll be liked if you're honest, take responsibility for your mistakes, contribute positively to the class, and work hard. You'll be disliked if you're sneaky or dishonest, disrupt the classroom, act arrogantly, or blame others for your mistakes.

Be the kind of person teachers would like to entrust the future to.

Most Teachers Already Have a Lot of Work to Do

Teaching requires a huge time commitment. After school ends, teachers have to grade homework at night and plan for the next school day. Some of them supervise extracurriculars. This can mean an effective workday of 7 am to 6 pm.

If you cause more trouble and add to the teacher's load, this will be annoying.

If, instead, you can offer ways to lighten the teacher's load and solve his problems, he'll love you.

Why does all of this actually matter?

Understanding how the teacher thinks is critical to getting good grades on assignments, tests, and participation. On a history test, does the teacher care more about the big picture or about reciting minute historical facts? In an English essay, does the teacher care about executing a standard template well, or about having a novel point of view? What skills and concepts does the teacher really want to see in this essay?

If you approach your classes from the teacher's perspective, you'll be able to customize your work to what the teacher expects. We'll talk more about this later.

Another significant way this will improve your class performance is to communicate with the teacher more reliably. Given the same issue, you can present it in a way that'll make the teacher hate you, or in a different way that'll make the teacher admire your maturity and resolve.

Let's say you didn't do well on a test. An annoying student would say something like this:

"Ms. Robinson, I got a B on this test. I studied really hard and some of the questions were unfair. You didn't tell us they were going to be on the test. Also, I've been really busy with orchestra and volunteering—other students don't have these responsibilities. Is there any way I can get my test regraded? Can I get extra credit?"

Gag. This is nails on a chalkboard for a teacher. You get anti-brownie points. Poop points. I've overheard this often during high school and even in college.

Here's a better way to approach your teacher:

"I got a B on this test, even though I spent a lot of time studying, and I wanted to see if you could help. I'm not here to ask for more points; I just want to improve for the future.

I feel like I have a problem with the way I'm studying. For example, before the test I felt really confident with this kind of question, but on the test I made this mistake and I'm not sure why. Also, I tried to be thorough in my studying, but I missed the sections that were tested in these questions.

Do you have any suggestions?"

Let's contrast the two options. In the first one, you blame the teacher and your schedule, not yourself. You put the focus on the grade rather than the learning. Finally, you try to get an unfair advantage over other students without contributing anything yourself. This type of response is pretty typical because, to be fair, your goals are really important to you and it's tempting to try to get easy points where you can. (Also, you're young and more likely to think the world revolves around you.)

The second option is a 180 on the first. You put the emphasis on improving yourself, not on the grade. You own up to your mistakes rather than blaming other people. Before the meeting, you've done your homework by reflecting on where you might have fallen short rather than expecting the teacher to fix all your problems while you sit back. You also make it an open conversation in which the teacher can use her expertise to ask questions and dig more deeply.

These kinds of interactions make a world of difference in how teachers perceive you. It's unlikely teachers will actually give you an unfair advantage in grading, but it will make your life easier. You'll be treated with more respect and understanding. Teachers will work harder to help you. In cases wherein you need more flexibility, the teacher might be more likely to accommodate you. It'll also ultimately lead to strong letters of recommendation for your college applications .

Now, I'm not talking about sycophantic brown-nosing. You should be sincere and not just act the part. Teachers have seen a lot, and it's easier than you think to detect insincerity. One common way to sniff out a fake is to ask more questions and dig a little more deeply. If you haven't actually analyzed your test, for example, when the teacher asks you how you studied and what you think your mistakes were, you'll come up short. It'll then be clear you're just mouthing words, and the teacher will lose trust in you.

Take some time to think through classes you're struggling in or teachers you don't get along with. Do you understand what the teacher's expectations are? Why aren't you meeting them, and what can you do to improve this?

#4: Develop Strong Study and Homework Habits

Over the course of high school, you'll likely spend more than 3,000 hours on schoolwork and studying.

This is a lot of time. If you can make a 10% improvement on this by spending 20 hours learning really good study strategy, it'll be well worth your time. (This is what's known as "high leverage"—you put in a little to get a lot.)

Here are a few guidelines I think every student should follow.

Study Habit 1: Focus on Effectiveness and Efficiency

When you get into the thick of high school, you start taking a lot of things for granted. Each math homework assignment will take about an hour. Studying for a history test might take eight hours. An essay all included might take 15 hours.

Rather than taking things for granted, you should be continuously evaluating whether you're spending the right amount of time on your work. How long is homework taking? Why?

What is your time distribution across all the activities that go into doing homework? Is anything less effective than you thought it was? Can you experiment with restructuring your time so that you get better results for less time? (This connects to the "being ruthless with your time spent" point above).

As an extreme question, can you cut your total time down by 50% while maintaining the same level of quality? Why or why not? I ask my employees this all the time, and while it's not usually strictly possible, it helps illuminate what things can be cut with little effect on the outcome.

By going through this analysis, you'll be able to partition your time spent into effective and ineffective components. If you can axe the ineffective parts, you'll save a lot of time without affecting the quality of your work.

At the end of this reflection, you might find that there's really nothing better you can do and you just need to keep chugging along. This can be true, but you have to be honest with yourself and give yourself enough time to give this serious consideration. You should also experiment with alternatives or improvements and reflect on whether you've improved or declined.

Remember, there's always a time-quality tradeoff curve. Get the most for the least. Avoid perfectionism. Understand how much you need to do to get a great score, and when each unit of time is no longer returning you sufficient results, spend that time elsewhere.

Study Habit 2: Put Away Your Phone, Turn Off Your Computer, Eliminate Distractions

There's homework time and there's relaxation time. Clearly compartmentalize both. Do not mix the two.

When you're doing homework, do it at 100% effort.

You're nowhere near as good at multitasking as you think you are . Focus on one thing, and then focus on another.

Recently, I went to a coffee shop and watched a college student at the table next to me try to study chemistry while using her phone. It was painful to watch: she'd read a page for two minutes, get a text, respond to it, and then browse Facebook for five minutes. Overall, it took her an hour to get through three pages.

She likely wasn't super motivated to study to begin with (hence why I started this guide with that high-level principle), but the bad study habits guarantee she's wasting her time. Not only was she getting nowhere with her studying, but she also probably wasn't enjoying texting and browsing Facebook all that much either. A lose-lose.

If you really have a problem with this, I suggest timing yourself just to see how much time you're wasting. Get a chess clock and force yourself to time yourself when you're studying and when you're using your phone.

If you need to use the computer while you work, there are browser tools such as RescueTime that track what websites you've visited and for how long. You can see how much time you're spending researching and how much time you're spending just watching YouTube.

You can also block distracting websites for a certain period of time. This way you can ensure that 6-8 pm will stay English-essay work time—not 20% English essay/80% YouTube time.

Study Habit 3: Do Homework in School If Possible

A lot of teachers have spare class time or downtime. Typically students just chat with each other until the bell rings. Use that time to do your homework you would otherwise do at night.

I remember AP Computer Science was an easy class. I'd finish assignments within 10 minutes and then work on homework the rest of the hour. In another history class, the teacher's lectures were unhelpful and I was better off just reading the chapter by myself at home. I took that time to work on other homework. (Note that some teachers get really annoyed when you do this, so be careful.)

There's also lunchtime, which is a little less than an hour. Many students sit at the lunch tables and chat until the bell rings. I banded together with a bunch of other nerd friends in the library and just did homework. Social life + homework = killing two birds with one stone.

Every day, this saved me more than two hours of time. When I got home, I'd only have a few hours of homework and studying left, which freed up room for extracurriculars and a few games of Starcraft. (This is also partly why I was able to go to sleep before 11 pm every night, even with my extracurriculars.)

Now, this isn't the coolest thing to do and you might be afraid of looking like a nerd. But if you think it's a good idea, you generally shouldn't lead your life based on what other people think about you anyway.

Study Habit 4: Learn to Deal With Procrastination

Procrastination affects pretty much everyone in multiple aspects of life. Everyone knows that feeling of how much easier it is to put off studying for a test so that you can get an extra half hour to watch Netflix. Before you know it, though, it's time to sleep and you haven't done anything.

We have an excellent guide on why procrastination happens and how to overcome it , in the context of test prep. I highly recommend reading it.

As a summary, procrastination happens when (1) you feel you're in the wrong mood to finish a task, and (2) you assume your mood will change in the near future. This can lead to a vicious cycle wherein you feel guilty for procrastinating, making it even harder to summon the energy to be productive again.

#5: Learn to Ace Tests by Understanding What's Being Tested and How

Tests typically make up the majority of how you're graded in a class. Teachers need a way to assess your knowledge in a standardized way that's hard to cheat on, and tests are the best way (or the least bad way) to do this. Learning how to prepare for tests and how to get great scores reliably is critical to getting straight As.

The most important piece to this is understanding what's being tested (the "content") and how it'll be tested (the "format"—e.g., multiple choice, essay, open-ended questions, etc.). This will directly determine what you study and how you prepare for the test.

You likely already know this intuitively—how you study for a math test is pretty different from how you study for a Spanish test. For math, you run through a lot of practice problems. For Spanish, you memorize vocab and practice grammar rules.

Once you know what you're being tested on and how, you can build your test-study strategy:

Step 1: Understand the test content and format Step 2: Define your test-prep strategy, integrating reading, practice questions, and review Step 3: Execute your study strategy Step 4: Test yourself Step 5: Improve your method and go back to Step 3

The critical piece here is Step 1: understanding what's actually on the test.

Even within the same subject, different teachers have different styles. You and your friend might be taking the same course—say, AP US History—with different teachers but have entirely different tests. Your teacher might emphasize fact memorization and have mainly multiple-choice questions gridded in through scantrons, whereas your friend's teacher might emphasize big-picture concepts and use tests consisting mainly of essays and free responses. The way you prepare for each test is thus very different.

How do you figure out the best way for you to study? Here are four helpful strategies:

Strategy 1: Ask Your Teacher for a Sample Exam From Last Year

Teachers are usually consistent in how they test from year to year, so chances are this year's tests will look a lot like last year's. In college it's common for professors to give access to previous years' exams as practice tests. Good high school teachers will do this because they don't recycle tests and want to give students fair exposure to what the test will be like.

On the other hand, bad teachers will hide previous years' tests because they are lazy, want to recycle the tests, and don't want to give resourceful students an unfair advantage.

Strategy 2: Get Exams From Last Year's Students

If you have friends or know upperclassmen who took the class with that teacher, ask if they've saved their tests. You can set up an exchange among your friends wherein you share materials from classes that others will take in the future. Lazy teachers really hate this because it forces them to write new exams each year, but that's part of their job.

Note that you should of course be careful and avoid allegations of cheating. If you're worried about this, feel free to ask your teacher how he feels about it before you try to get previous year's tests. And, of course, don't do anything dumb like plagiarizing someone's essay.

Strategy 3: Ask Your Teacher What's Going to Be on the Test and How It'll Be Tested

Don't be annoying about this. Remember what I said about giving teachers what they want. Teachers often hate the question, "Is this going to be on the test?" because they can't win. If they say no, students stop paying attention. If they say yes, students won't appreciate the greater meaning of what they're learning. Most teachers really do care about how their students are learning and get excited when they see students with a genuine love of learning.

A more palatable way of doing this is to be proactive. Prepare a high-level overview of content that you believe is on the test, and the format in which it'll be tested. Go to the teacher and ask her to take a quick look. Make it clear that you're asking because you care about doing well on the test and you want to understand the teacher's expectations.

You might even offer to save the teacher time by circulating this to your classmates so that she won't have to talk to 20 different students about what's on the test. (Remember, if you can make the teacher's life easier, she'll love it.)

If you do this earnestly and not in an obviously groveling way, the teacher will typically be more than happy to help because it's clear you care about your education.

Strategy 4: Use Every Previous Test to Infer What Future Tests Will Look Like

Even if you have zero information about the first test and you go in blind, the second test will likely look a lot like the first one. Halfway through the course, you'll be comfortable with how the teacher thinks and be able to predict the tests with high accuracy.

Story Time: My Least Favorite High School Class

The worst class I've ever taken was AP Biology my freshman year of high school. The teacher was a middle-aged man who was profoundly uninspiring.

Every day he'd turn off the lights, sit in front of the class with an overhead projector, and go line by line through the teacher notes provided by the book ( Campbell's Biology ). He would literally just read each bullet point, add a sentence or two, and move on. He had a monotone voice, and half the students treated this class as nap time (though as I suggest above, the smarter thing would've been to work on other homework during this time). Thinking about his inefficacy as a teacher is infuriating to this day.

The worst part of the class was how the tests were created. They were entirely multiple choice and often tested trivia straight from the book. There wasn't really any high-level thinking involved—the only way to do well on them was to memorize each chapter before the test.

I remember the worst question was a trivial fact from the caption of an image —I think it was the species name of a bird—that was totally irrelevant to what we needed to know for genuine understanding. He'd just decided it was a good way to test whether someone had memorized the chapter.

This struck fear into all of us. After bombing the first test, I had to change my approach. I started reading every chapter six times to memorize all the details. I'd highlight details like a madman to make sure I wasn't missing anything that might be tested. I'd create my own quizzes before reading the chapter so I could assess how well I was memorizing the details.

The key point is that I customized how I prepared to the content and the format of the test. My approach would have been totally inappropriate for another AP Biology class, but it was the right one for this class.

Going into the end of the school year, I had an A and was safe. It took a ton of work but I did it. Unfortunately, the teacher realized that because of how crappy of a job he'd done at teaching, the average grade in his class was going to be a C, and he was probably going to get a lot of hate from parents and the administration. He decided at the end of the year to administer a sample AP test that was entirely extra credit.

I was annoyed because I ended up with something like 130% in the class, which is why you see an A+ in my transcript for freshman-year AP Biology, which meant I'd studied unnecessarily hard.

The upside to this was that the actual AP test was super easy because I had literally memorized the entire textbook.

#6: View Your Job as Constant Improvement and Build Feedback Cycles for Yourself

NOTE: This is one of the most important points in this entire guide. I work with so many students who don't understand this and it's killing their potential to improve.

If something you're trying isn't giving you the results you want after a lot of trials, it's clear that you need to reexamine your strategy. If you're cutting broccoli for dinner and you chop off a piece of your finger every night, it's pretty obvious you need to change how you're using the knife (unless you love adding iron to your family's diet).

For some reason, this isn't as obvious in the context of coursework. If you get a C on a test, you might be tempted to believe that if you use the same study methods but just study twice as hard, you'll raise your grade to an A.

If the cause of your poor performance was truly a lack of time, then this can work. You can use my advice above to carve out more time for studying.

But in many cases, this is wishful thinking. It's as though you need to tunnel through a brick wall, and you're trying to get through by pounding your head against it. You're failing to make a dent, but you believe if you pound three times as hard you'll be able to get through it. There's something wrong with this strategy, and you need to understand why you've failed and how you can improve.

I think the reason this is so difficult in the context of coursework is that students don't understand the root cause of why they've failed. If you get a B on an essay, it seems tempting to think that you just need to spend more time researching and writing your essay, but really your weakness might be that you just don't understand the teacher's standards and are playing a totally different ball game.

This is why I stress the importance of the high-level concepts above. If you understand that academic success is a combination of multiple factors—motivation, time management, effective learning, understanding of class grading, teacher expectations, and the actual content—you'll be able to pinpoint your weaknesses more effectively.

If you don't understand these are important, you'll have no idea where to begin.

You should treat every evaluation as an opportunity for reflection and improvement. Remember the growth mindset we discussed above. Every disappointing homework assignment and test gives you a chance to reflect on how you failed and how you'll avoid these mistakes in the future.

We can call this the iteration cycle:

First, you obtain a measurement. This is often a grade on a homework assignment or test. If it's lower than your standards, something needs to change.

Next, you reflect on what happened. Here's a checklist of questions to ask yourself:

• How was the assignment or test graded? What did the teacher expect?
• What did you produce? What was your method of producing it? Try to break down the major pieces of what you did.
• What is the difference between the expectation and what you produced?
• Why did this discrepancy happen? What flaw in your method most strongly contributed to this failure?
• What are you going to change about your method to prevent it from happening again?
• When is the next time you'll be able to evaluate whether this is an improvement?

This is comprehensive and might sound tedious, but it's critical to improvement. In my experience with test prep, this is often the second-biggest barrier that prevents students from improving their test scores (the first is not putting in enough time, period).

Sometimes this analysis can be quick—you forgot to proofread your essay and your grammar mistakes got you points taken off. Clearly, next time you should dedicate time to spellchecking.

On the other extreme, after a lot of reflection you might not even know where to begin. Then you can ask the teacher for help. (Remember what I said above—if you go to the teacher with clear introspection and questions, this will show you really care about your education.)

Take notes on this reflection, especially on your plan for next time. Write this down as a commitment to yourself. The next time you have a chance for evaluation, such as a test or assignment, review these notes and implement your plan.

In the last stage of the cycle, you get your next measurement. If you improved substantially and met your goal, great work—from here on out, you just need to keep doing what you did. If you didn't improve or receded, treat your next iteration cycle even more seriously since your situation has gotten worse and you'll need to try something new to dig yourself out of the hole.

Do this for every class in every semester throughout high school. After you do it a few times it'll be second nature, and you'll do it without even thinking.

As an analogy, this is how you keep your car on the road when driving your car. You get constant visual feedback on where you are on the road. If you veer to the left, you reflect on this and turn the steering wheel to the right. You do this constantly to stay on the road.

When driving, you run constant iteration cycles to stay on the road.

When people first start learning to drive around age 14-15, they're not very accustomed to this feedback loop. They'll go nearly off the road before jerking the steering wheel back in the other direction. Then, they realize they've gone too far and jerk it too far back.

Practiced drivers make significantly smaller adjustments all the time. The next time your parents drive, watch them. You'll see them constantly make tiny adjustments left and right to stay exactly where they want to on the road. Experienced drivers do this automatically, by habit.

In your academic life, you don't want to drive 60 mph off the road. Use feedback to figure out where you are and what adjustments you need to make if you're off track.

As a side note, here's a video of teens getting distracted by their phones and shooting way off the road:

Complete failure to measure -> reflect -> improve.

I can't repeat this enough: this concept of iteration cycles is vital to your academic success.

Many students don't go through this process because they don't realize they need to or don't feel like it's important enough compared to actual studying.

In contrast, I would say this is the most important thing you should do after a test. Between every test you probably spend 20 hours in school and 20 hours on homework. Don't you think it's worth one hour examining your method and thinking about it if you're not doing well?

Don't drive 60 mph off the road.

We've covered a lot of high-level stuff so far. We've talked about the foundations of motivation and determination. We've discussed figuring out how teachers think and how to understand how you'll be tested. We've also covered good study habits and how to iterate on feedback to improve your results.

Now, let's talk about specific subjects, because how you'll treat calculus is very different from how you'll treat history.

Math and Science Classes

Math and science classes are typically the most straightforward classes because the material is very standardized. If you take AP Chemistry, the tests will most likely look like standard chemistry questions, and the labs will look like standard labs. It's the same with calculus and physics—you have a ton of practice problems to work through in your textbook, online, and in supplementary books. Unlike English-essay grading, teachers can't really get too creative or subjective here.

The good news is that you can typically predict with great accuracy how you're doing well before a test. It's easy to prepare your own practice tests, review your mistakes, and understand where your weaknesses are and how you need to improve.

The hard part about math and science is that the concepts build on each other throughout the year. In short, something you learned earlier will directly affect your ability to grasp future concepts.

In physics, for example, if you don't understand how force diagrams work, you'll struggle every step of the way through mechanics. In chemistry, if you don't understand stoichiometry and how to convert units to each other, every calculation will be difficult for you.

This doesn't apply as strongly in other subjects like history, which tends to be composed more of modular units. Even though I mentioned above that you can connect different concepts to build a strong network of knowledge, at the end of the day they don't build on each other as much. You might have flunked the section on the American Revolution, but this doesn't strongly affect how well you'll do on the Civil War section.

Essentially, what you have is exponential growth of knowledge vs linear growth:

In my experience, math and science teachers don't emphasize this enough. They treat learning linearly, but in math and science it's really exponential. If you don't get it right in the beginning and don't fix it, you're screwed for the year because the teacher has already moved on.

So if you get a bad start to a math or science class, you need to double down and repair the holes immediately. If you don't, it'll only get worse. If you start a class way in over your head, consider dropping to a lower level.

Another issue with math and science is that the material tends to be dry since it involves a lot of abstract topics that don't really affect your everyday life. Good teachers will show you how the concepts apply to everyday life. If you're learning about EM waves in physics, for example, you'll also learn how your FM radio works. If you're learning about exponential functions, a teacher might take you through a simulation of compounded interest to show how much money you can make through savings.

I once heard a story about a physics teacher who was lecturing and tossed a ball at a student. The student caught it instinctively—didn't even have to think about it. The teacher said, "What your brain just did is a kinematics calculation. You knew exactly where the ball started, how it was traveling, and where it would end up. That's exactly the point of what we're learning—to mathematically predict how traveling objects will behave." I bet that teacher is awesome because that sounds a lot more interesting than just writing a formula on a whiteboard.

If you lack inspiration in math and science, try to relate what you're learning to the real world and to what you care about. If you're a news junkie, this will help you understand articles and analyses more deeply. If you're an athlete, think about how physics works in your sport. This won't always work and can sound a bit hokey, but sometimes you might be pleasantly surprised.

English and Writing Classes

In my experience the hardest part about English classes is the essay grading. Year by year, the standards you're graded on change, and the teacher's expectations change. Some teachers want you to follow the same formula essay after essay. Others want you to have a "voice" and write with style.

I had a frustrating experience in Honors English when we had to write essays about themes of books we were reading. Most people would write something like "the theme is abandonment." My teacher would draw a big red circle around this and write, "SO WHAT?" But she never explained articulately what she meant by this, even when we asked her.

Eventually, we figured out that the theme statement was supposed to be a concept that required a sentence to explain, not just a single word. This requires you to dig a level deeper, something like "abandonment is crippling to a child's psyche and ripples throughout adulthood." But she never explained it well, and it sometimes felt as if I were helpless at the hands of a merciless tyrant.

In English classes, you have to understand the expectations of your teacher and how he will be grading essays. As I said above, use every chance you have for reflection and iteration. If the teacher lets you submit drafts for review before the final essay, take this super seriously. Give the draft your best work, and if you're confused about any of the teacher's comments, ask about them outside of class.

If you don't do well on an essay, reflect on it, prepare notes, and approach the teacher and ask earnestly where your shortcomings are and how you can improve. (Measure -> Reflect -> Improve)

There are also solid foundations to effective writing, such as writing a clear thesis, using transitions between sections, employing textual evidence to support your points, and using appropriate and effective vocabulary. How to do this well is outside the scope of this article, but these are concepts you've been taught through much of English and can see every day in writing in publications such as The New York Times , The New Yorker , and The Atlantic .

Memorization-Heavy Classes, Like History and Foreign Languages

Some classes rely more heavily on factual recall than others do. In particular, I'm thinking about history classes, for which you need to memorize historical events and figures, and foreign-language classes, for which you need to build up a wide vocabulary.

Many students use flashcards for memorization, but they'll use them ineffectively. They'll just go through the entire stack from beginning to end and repeat.

This is ineffective because you end up spending the same amount of time reviewing words you already know as you do the words you have problems with. What you need to do is bias your time toward the cards you actually struggle with.

The way I do this is what I call the waterfall method of memorization. I describe this here in the context of memorizing vocab for the SAT . You cycle through the cards you don't know much more often than the cards you already know.

For long-term retention, there's also a concept known as spaced-repetition learning that spaces out your learning optimally to increase your recall of information. The idea is that right after you learn something, you should review it quickly thereafter to secure the memory. The next time you review, it can be spaced out further, and the next one even further still. Doing this regularly will lock in knowledge in the long term.

This is in contrast to the usual method of memorization, which is to cram before a test and then forget it until you need it for the final.

Anki is a good tool that does this for you automatically. Quizlet is another popular online flashcard tool where you can upload your own flashcards or use other people's flashcards.

As I mentioned above, try to find connections between things you're learning, and look for patterns. Connect historical events to each other. See foreign-language grammar rules as fitting a pattern, and notice when rules deviate from that pattern. This will make learning more interesting and help you understand concepts better.

Group Projects

This isn't a specific class, but it's a common enough issue that it's worth discussing. You'll inevitably have group projects, which means your fate is no longer 100% in your hands.

If you have a choice of partners, try to choose people who you know will do a good job. These are people who work hard and care about their grades. Friends might not be the best option if they're dead weight and you have to end up carrying them. Make it clear to the friend that it's not personal—you just don't feel you work well together. If the friend ends up dissolving your friendship because she expects you to lift her up, and it's not because you're being a jerk about it, then the friendship probably wasn't that strong to begin with.

If you don't get a choice of partners and the teacher just assigns you a group, you'll have to make do with what you have. Teachers are rarely sympathetic to complaints about your team, and it's unlikely you'll be able to change your partners. If anything, be flattered if you get paired with weaker students—the teacher might believe you'll be a positive influence on them.

Once your group is set, focus on getting a good job done. Treat it with the same care and planning as you would your own work, and don't be afraid to take charge if there hasn't been any action. Here are some tips for dealing with group projects:

• Write up the tasks that need to be done and split the work among group members. Ideally, you want to pair the tasks with people's natural skills and interests since this will maximize the overall quality of your project.
• Set up a timeline for milestones your group should hit. Make sure the group agrees on the plan and understands the details.
• Be prepared for timelines to be broken and think about what you'll do in those cases.
• Don't be afraid to take charge if there hasn't been any action.

Don't get hung up on inequality. There's sometimes that one dude who is a complete flake and never gets his job done, and you end up having to cover his ass. Don't sweat it. Focus on the big picture: your grade.

Redistribute his work to the rest of the team and revise the plan, and once again make sure the team agrees on the overall plan. Yes, the slacker might end up with a good grade riding on your backs, but he's also probably screwed for his individual assignments and for other classes. Karma works its way.

If there was anything really frustrating about the group project, you might tell the teacher. As I've said repeatedly above, the messaging to the teacher matters a lot. The teacher does not want to hear you whine about not getting a better grade because of your team. The teacher does not want to hear excuses.

The teacher does want to know of any potential problems and ways she can improve the classroom experience.

Here's an example of a bad way to talk to your teacher about a problem with your group project:

"It's unfair we got a B because of Taylor. She was supposed to do her part of the project but dropped out halfway through and we all paid for it. She should get a C and we should get an A. I didn't even want her on our team, but we didn't have a choice. Can I get a better grade?"

And here's a better way to approach your teacher:

"I wanted to let you know how our group project went since this might be helpful for our future projects. First off, I want to say that I'm not arguing for a better grade—as a group, we all share responsibility for how we did, and we deserve our grade.

So here's the story: when we started our project, we clearly divided up the work and everyone agreed on a timeline. Halfway through at our group meeting, though, Taylor said she was busy with tennis and promised to get more work done. We were all done with our parts and trusted her, which was a mistake. We ended up finding out two days before the project was due that she still hadn't done anything. We scrambled and tried to pitch in, but we were all busy so we didn't produce our best work.

I thought I'd share this story with you for future projects in case it's helpful. You should ask for her side of the story if you're interested."

This takes a totally different approach. First, you make clear that you're not arguing for a better grade upfront —this makes the teacher less suspicious of your motives, thereby encouraging her to listen to your story more intently.

Then, you present the facts, without emotional bias, and accept responsibility for your actions. You tell the teacher why this might be useful, and you exude enough maturity to suggest that you yourself might be biased so she should hear from Taylor's perspective, too.

In the worst case, the teacher ignores you. In the best case, the teacher might reconsider giving the team a bad grade if she finds out how negligent or manipulative the disappointing student was.

Don't Ignore the Easy Classes

In middle school, when I was a chubby kid, I got a B in PE.

Yep. I didn't know this was possible at the time, either.

It turns out the PE teacher gave everyone a set of physical exams—push-ups, sit-ups, stretches, and mile-run time—tallied up your points, and then gave you a grade. I did pretty poorly on all of them and ended up with a B.

You can see how many of my above rules I failed:

• I didn't have the motivation to do well since I didn't think I wouldn't get an A.
• I didn't understand early on how the class was actually going to be graded.
• Given chances for iteration cycles, I didn't reflect enough on my shortcomings and thus didn't change my method of preparing for the exams.

I freaked out and made sure I knew how PE would be graded in high school. I ran my little chubby butt off. In high school, they graded mainly on participation and attendance, so I ended up fine.

Don't let yourself miss an easy A. Understand how all of your classes are graded, even the ones that everyone thinks they'll get an A in. If you get on the bad side of your orchestra teacher, you might be surprised with your final grade.

Again, don't be a jerk about this by marching to the teacher and exclaiming, "I want to know how I can get an A in this class." Make it clear that you just want to meet the teacher's expectations and understand what exactly those are.

We've covered a lot already. Here are some last-minute pieces of advice, and then we'll wrap up with some summary points and a checklist for your academic health.

Tip 1: Get Some Objective Assistance

When you get as involved in something as coursework, it can be hard to take a step back and truly understand your shortcomings. An artist might not be the best critic of her own work.

If you have parents who care about your success and are willing to help out, send this guide to them and discuss it with them once they've read it. Talk about what parts you agree with and what skills you want to improve. Give them your goals and action plan for your high school career, each academic year, and each course. Inform them about your iteration cycles so that they can contribute new ideas about where you went wrong and how you can improve.

More importantly, don't get upset at them and accuse them of nagging when they try to help out according to the way you agreed. This just makes everyone miserable.

If your parents aren't interested in helping, find a friend who cares as much as you do about education and college, and hold each other to task. Even if you feel competitive with this friend in regard to getting into college, you'll likely lift each other to greater heights than where you would be individually.

Tip 2: Know the Trouble Signs and Act

High school can be stressful, especially if your goals are high. Not only are you preparing a strong college application, but you're also navigating the high school social scene, figuring out what you want to do in your life, and navigating your relationship with your parents. Sometimes all things come to a head, and it can be overwhelming.

Recognize trouble signs, reflect on whether they're serious problems, and act quickly if they are. Here are some important questions to ask yourself intermittently:

Are you deeply unhappy? Does every day feel like a slog to you and you're not sure why you're doing any of it? Think about the root cause of this feeling. Maybe your parents are pushing you toward a goal you don't identify with. Maybe there are conflicting aspects to your life—being better at school might mean getting ostracized socially, so you're caught in the middle. Try to reflect on this, identify any plausible root causes, and take steps to address them. (Easier said than done, I know, but you have to start somewhere.)

Are you getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night? If not, restructure your life so you get more output in less time. Chart out where your time goes every day and every week, and observe where there are possibilities for large improvements. This might mean cutting current activities and refocusing that time on something more helpful to your application.

Is one class dragging down the others? Are you spending a lot of time trying to stay afloat in one class, at the expense of your other grades? Consider dropping the course. The earlier you can detect this problem, the more easily you can avoid getting a permanent "Withdrawn" mark on your transcript. But even if it's too late to avoid this, dropping it is still preferable to failure across the board.

Finally, don't be too proud to ask for help. More people are willing to help you than you think—you just haven't asked yet. If you lack supportive parents or friends, seek help from your teachers and counselors. It might take some time and multiple tries to find someone to advocate for you, but one likely exists somewhere in your world.

If you suspect even a bit that you might have mental health concerns, seek help immediately. Again, more people are willing to help than you might think.

Tip 3: Prepare for Crunch Periods—Finals and APs

The end of each semester and academic year is typically pretty stressful. Instead of a staggered timeline, you'll get final exams in most classes all at once. Even worse, you might also have to prep separately for AP exams and the SAT / ACT .

The good news is that if you've built a strong foundation throughout the rest of the year, you're already 80% there before you study for finals. You might have forgotten some details, but the foundational tree trunks are still around. Preparing for the final is now simply a matter of loading the info into your short-term memory for recall.

If you're learning a lot of new material for a final, you're too late. Try the best you can, but next time focus on sustained effort throughout the school year.

As for AP Courses, usually getting an A in class will lead to a pretty easy 5, unless your class is really easy and A is the most common grade. Preparing for standardized tests uses the same skills and principles, no matter if it's an AP test or the SAT. I cover these principles in more detail in my guide on how to get a perfect SAT score .

Tip 4: Rinse and Repeat

High school is four years long (duh). Maintaining high performance throughout freshman to junior year requires sustained commitment, motivation, and high quality.

If you do really well on a semester, great job—take time to celebrate, but steel yourself to do it again the next semester.

The good thing is that the earlier you start building good habits, the easier it gets. If you start all of this by freshman year, senior year will be a breeze and you'll be well prepared for college.

The Grand Summary: How to Get a 4.0 GPA in High School

Notice how most of this guide has been about mindset, your personal psychology, and healthy habits. This forms an effective framework you can apply to every class and semester of school. Every important concept that got me a 4.0 GPA is written here.

Now, the hard work is actually adopting these practices and continuing to apply them through your entire high school career.

What's Next?

Looking for more tips for doing well in high school and beyond? Check out my other in-depth guides on how to get a perfect SAT / ACT score and how to get into Harvard and the Ivy League .

Prepping for the SAT or ACT? We've written the highest quality prep guides available anywhere. Browse our separate guides for each major test section:

• SAT Reading | SAT Writing | SAT Math
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5 strategies to unlock your winning college essay.

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CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 29: People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard ... [+] University campus on June 29, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admission policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution, bringing an end to affirmative action in higher education. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

The college application season is upon us, and high school students everywhere are staring down at one of the most daunting tasks: the college essay. As someone who has guided countless applicants through the admissions process and reviewed admissions essays on an undergraduate admissions committee, I've pinpointed the essential ingredient to a differentiated candidacy—the core of your college admissions X-factor .

The essential ingredient to your college admissions X-factor is your intellectual vitality. Intellectual vitality is your passion for learning and curiosity. By demonstrating and conveying this passion, you can transform an average essay into a compelling narrative that boosts your chances of getting accepted to your top schools. Here are five dynamic strategies to achieve that goal.

Unleash Your Authentic Voice

Admissions officers sift through thousands of essays every year. What stops them in their tracks? An authentic voice that leaps off the page. Forget trying to guess what the admissions committee wants to hear. Focus on being true to yourself. Share your unique perspective, your passions, and your values. Authenticity resonates deeply with application reviewers, making your essay memorable and impactful. You need not have experienced trauma or tragedy to create a strong narrative. You can write about what you know—intellectually or personally—to convey your enthusiasm, creativity, and leadership. Intellectual vitality shines through when you write with personalized reflection about what lights you up.

Weave A Captivating Story

Everyone loves a good story, and your essay is the perfect place to tell yours. The Common Application personal statement has seven choices of prompts to ground the structure for your narrative. The most compelling stories are often about the smallest moments in life, whether it’s shopping at Costco or about why you wear socks that have holes. Think of the Common Application personal statement as a window into your soul rather than a dry list of your achievements or your overly broad event-based life story. Use vivid anecdotes to bring your experiences to life. A well-told story can showcase your growth, highlight your character, and illustrate how you've overcome challenges. Intellectual vitality often emerges in these narratives, revealing how your curiosity and proactive approach to learning have driven you to explore and innovate.

Reflect And Reveal Insights

It's not just about what you've done—it's about what you've learned along the way. When you are writing about a specific event, you can use the STAR framework—situation, task, action, and result (your learning). Focus most of your writing space on the “R” part of this framework to dive deeply into your experiences and reflect on how they've shaped your aspirations and identity.

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The most insightful college-specific supplement essays demonstrate depth of thought, and the ability to connect past experiences with your future life in college and beyond. Reflecting on your intellectual journey signals maturity and a readiness to embrace the college experience. It shows admissions officers that you engage deeply with your studies and are eager to contribute to the academic community.

Highlight Your Contributions—But Don’t Brag

Whether it's a special talent, an unusual hobby, or a unique perspective, showcasing what you can bring to the college environment can make a significant impact. Recognize that the hard work behind the accomplishment is what colleges are interested in learning more about—not retelling about the accomplishment itself. (Honors and activities can be conveyed in another section of the application.) Walk us through the journey to your summit; don’t just take us to the peak and expect us know how you earned it.

Intellectual vitality can be demonstrated through your proactive approach to solving problems, starting new projects, or leading initiatives that reflect your passion for learning and growth. These experiences often have a place in the college-specific supplement essays. They ground the reasons why you want to study in your major and at the particular college.

Perfect Your Prose

Great writing is essential. Anyone can use AI or a thesaurus to assist with an essay, but AI cannot write your story in the way that you tell it. Admissions officers don’t give out extra credit for choosing the longest words with the most amount of syllables.

The best essays have clear, coherent language and are free of errors. The story is clearly and specifically told. After drafting, take the time to revise and polish your writing. Seek feedback from teachers, mentors, or trusted friends, but ensure the final piece is unmistakably yours. A well-crafted essay showcases your diligence and attention to detail—qualities that admissions officers highly value. Intellectual vitality is also reflected in your writing process, showing your commitment to excellence and your enthusiasm for presenting your best self.

Crafting a standout college essay is about presenting your true self in an engaging, reflective, and polished manner while showcasing your intellectual vitality. Happy writing.

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• Improving and Maintaining Grades

How to Get Better Grades in High School

Last Updated: February 6, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Ashley Pritchard, MA . Ashley Pritchard is an Academic and School Counselor at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Ashley has over 3 years of high school, college, and career counseling experience. She has an MA in School Counseling with a specialization in Mental Health from Caldwell University and is certified as an Independent Education Consultant through the University of California, Irvine. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 628,351 times.

Getting better grades can seem like a daunting task. It might take some effort, but there are steps you can take to meet your full potential. Start by believing in yourself and developing an optimistic attitude . Take notes in class and study a little every day instead of cramming. If you need extra help, don’t hesitate to ask your teacher or try to find a tutor. Stay organized, keep track of your due dates, and avoid putting things off until the last minute. Maintaining your health is essential to academic success , so eat nutritious meals, get plenty of sleep, exercise daily, and put away any technology that could cause you to procrastinate.

Making the Most of Class Time

• Instead of thinking to yourself, “I’m a failure and I’m just not a good student,” tell yourself, “With a little effort, I can and will do better!”
• You could also try saying your name and "you" instead of "I." Say to yourself, "Sam, you can do this! If you stay focused on your work, you can achieve your goals!" Pumping yourself up like this can be a more powerful motivator. [2] X Research source

• Asking and answering questions instead of dozing off will show your teacher that you care about school. You'll improve your participation grade, and they might be more responsive if you ask for extra help.
• If you're naturally shy, it might be tough to participate in class. Take a breath, relax, and do your best not to worry about what other people think. If it helps you stay on track, try writing down questions you could ask in class in advance.

• For instance, if your history teacher was talking about the House of Lancaster, then moves on to the House of York, start a new section in your notes. Use stars, Roman numerals, or any outline system that works for you.
• Handwriting notes instead of typing will help you absorb information better.
• After class or during a free period, compare notes with a friend to make sure you didn’t miss any key details.

• You could also see if your school offers a peer tutoring program. If all else fails, try talking to your parents about getting a private tutor.

Focusing on Your Homework

• Some people focus better when they listen to music. If it helps you sink into your studies, try putting on some classical or instrumental tunes.

• Try to schedule regular breaks between assignments or sections instead of just getting up in the middle of doing a homework problem.

• Highlighting or underlining as you read isn't a very effective technique. It's one thing to only highlight a section's thesis, or its one major argument. However, coloring a bunch of text throughout the section won't help you retain information. Instead, try flash cards. Studies prove that flash cards are more effective than any other technique of memorizing.

• Ask 3 or 4 classmates to set up a group study time after school, on the weekends, or during a free period.

Staying Organized

• If you have a big game the day after a term paper is due, you can break up the assignment into smaller chunks. Work on outlines and drafts in the weeks prior to the due date. If you don’t use a planner and lose track of time, trying to prepare for the game and finish your paper in the same week might get overwhelming.

• Suppose you have 3 tests on Friday. Cramming on Thursday night would set yourself up for failure. Instead, break up the test material into sections, and give yourself plenty of time during the week to study one section at a time. [13] X Research source

• For instance, your teacher might assign something on Tuesday that’s not due until Friday. Putting it off until the night before will give you a homework-free night on Wednesday. However, you also have a test on Friday, so doubling up your workload Thursday night isn’t worth it.

Taking Care of Yourself

• Breakfast is especially important, so have a bowl of fortified cereal or a cup of Greek yogurt with fruit and nuts before school.

• If necessary, you could catch some extra shuteye on the weekends, but do your best to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.

• Walking and running also help spur creativity. If you’re trying to come up with a good essay topic, mull it over while you go for a walk.

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Community Q&A

Reader Videos

Tips from our Readers

• Don't cheat! It may be tempting, but it's never worth it. I cheated once and I got a high grade, but the next time I had an exam on that same material, I couldn't remember it (because I never actually learned it). I ended up getting a low score.
• Don't ever say you're not smart. If you do that, you'll doubt yourself, which can prevent you from getting good grades. Believe in yourself and just do your best!
• Chew gum while studying, then chew the same flavor gum while taking the test/exam. It sounds strange, but it helps me remember what I studied!

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/improve-underperforming-grades.html
• ↑ http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/10/07/353292408/why-saying-is-believing-the-science-of-self-talk
• ↑ Ashley Pritchard, MA. Academic & School Counselor. Expert Interview. 4 November 2019.
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/effective-note-taking-in-class/
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/focused.html?WT.ac=p-ra
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/test-terror.html?WT.ac=p-ra
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/taking-notes-while-reading/
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/studying-101-study-smarter-not-harder/
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html
• ↑ https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/health_and_academics/pdf/health-academic-achievement.pdf
• ↑ https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/improve-your-childs-school-performance-good-nights-sleep
• ↑ https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/health_and_academics/pdf/pa-pe_paper.pdf

About This Article

To get better grades in high school, make the most of your class time by paying attention, taking good notes, and participating in class discussions. Be sure to stay on top of your homework assignments so you're always ready for the next day, and create a study schedule so you can prepare for upcoming tests and quizzes without cramming at the last minute. If you're still having trouble, consider starting a study group or enlisting the help of a tutor! For tips on making the most of your study time, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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The Ethicist

Can i use a.i. to grade my students’ papers.

The magazine’s Ethicist columnist on artificial intelligence platforms, and whether it’s hypocritical for teachers to use these tools while forbidding students from doing the same.

By Kwame Anthony Appiah

I am a junior-high-school English teacher. In the past school year, there has been a significant increase in students’ cheating on writing assignments by using artificial intelligence. Our department feels that 13-year-old students will only become better writers if they practice and learn from the successes and challenges that come with that.

Recently our department tasked students with writing an argumentative essay, an assignment we supported by breaking down the process into multiple steps. The exercise took several days of class time and homework to complete. All of our students signed a contract agreeing not to use A.I. assistance, and parents promised to support the agreement by monitoring their children when they worked at home. Yet many students still used A.I.

Some of our staff members uploaded their grading rubric into an A.I.-assisted platform, and students uploaded their essays for assessment. The program admittedly has some strengths. Most notable, it gives students writing feedback and the opportunity to edit their work before final submission. The papers are graded within minutes, and the teachers are able to transfer the A.I. grade into their roll book.

I find this to be hypocritical. I spend many hours grading my students’ essays. It’s tedious work, but I feel that it’s my responsibility — if a student makes an effort to complete the task, they should have my undivided attention during the assessment process.

Here’s where I struggle: Should I embrace new technology and use A.I.-assisted grading to save time and my sanity even though I forbid my students from using it? Is it unethical for teachers to ask students not to use A.I. to assist their writing but then allow an A.I. platform to grade their work? — Name Withheld

From the Ethicist:

You have a sound rationale for discouraging your students from using A.I. to draft their essays. As with many other skills, writing well and thinking clearly will improve through practice. By contrast, you already know how to grade papers; you don’t need the practice.

What matters is whether an A.I.-assisted platform can reliably appraise and diagnose your students’ writing, providing the explanation and guidance these students need to improve. In theory, such tools — and I see that there are several on the market, including from major educational publishers — have certain advantages. The hope is that they can grade without inconsistency, without getting tired, without being affected by the expectations that surely affect those of us who hand-grade student work.

I notice you haven’t raised concerns about whether the platform provides reliable assessments; you’ll have to decide if it does. (If it isn’t quite up to snuff, it might become so in a year or two, so your question will persist.) Provided the platform does a decent job of assessment, though, I don’t see why you must do it all yourself. You should review the A.I.-annotated versions of your students’ writing, check that you agree with the output, and make notes of issues to bring up in class. But time saved in evaluating the papers might be better spent on other things — and by “better,” I mean better for the students. There are pedagogical functions, after all, that only you can perform.

In sum: It’s not hypocritical to use A.I. yourself in a way that serves your students well, even as you insist that they don’t use it in a way that serves them badly.

Readers Respond

The previous question was from a reader who asked about professional boundaries. He wrote: “I am a retired, married male psychiatrist. A divorced female former patient of mine contacted me recently, 45 years after her treatment ended. Would it be OK to correspond with her by email? Or is this a case of ‘once a patient, always a patient?’”

In his response, the Ethicist noted: “The relevant professional associations tend to have strictures that are specifically about sexual relationships with former patients. … In light of the potential for exploitation within the therapist-patient relationship, these rules are meant to maintain clear boundaries, protect patient welfare, uphold the integrity of the profession and eliminate any gray areas that could lead to ethical breaches. But though you do mention her marital status, and yours, you’re just asking about emailing her — about establishing friendly relations. The question for you is whether she might be harmed by this, whether whatever knowledge or trust gained from your professional relationship would shadow a personal one. Yes, almost half a century has elapsed since your professional relationship, but you still have to be confident that a correspondence with her clears this bar. If it does, you may email with a clear conscience.” ( Reread the full question and answer here. )

As always, I agree with the Ethicist. I would add that the letter writer’s former patient doesn’t realize that the therapist is actually two different people — the professional and the regular person underneath. Therapists portray their professional selves to their clients. The former client may be disappointed upon meeting the therapist outside of the professional context. Additionally, the feelings she has toward the therapist may be based on transference, and they would need to address that. — Annemarie

I am a clinical psychologist. While the Ethicist’s description of professional ethical boundaries is correct, there is more to the story, and I disagree with his conclusion. A very big question here is why this former patient contacted him after 45 years. That is a question that is best explored and answered within the context of a therapeutic relationship. He would be well- advised to respond in a kind and thoughtful way to convey the clear message that he is not available for ongoing communication, and he should suggest that she consult with another therapist if she feels that would be helpful. — Margaret

In my case, it was the therapist who reached out to me, seeking to establish a friendship several years after our sessions ended. I was surprised, but he shared that he had since experienced a similar personal tragedy to one I had explored with him in sessions. Since it had been several years since we saw each other professionally, I responded. There was never any hint of romantic or sexual interest. Still, as he continued to reach out to me, clearly desiring a friendship, it never felt right to me. It did feel unprofessional, as his knowledge of me was borne out of a relationship meant to be professional, never personal, as warmly as we might have felt during our sessions. I ended up being disappointed in him for seeking out my friendship. — Liam

I am a (semi)retired psychiatrist who has been practicing since 1974. In my opinion, “once a patient, always a patient” is correct. Establishing any type of personal relationship with a former patient could undo progress the patient may have made in treatment, and is a slippery slope toward blatantly unethical behavior. As psychiatrists, our responsibility is to work with patients in confronting and resolving issues that are preventing them from having a reality-based perception of their life. With such an outlook, they are more capable of establishing satisfying relationships with others. An ethical psychiatrist is not in the business of providing such satisfaction to his or her patients. — Roger

I think there is a difference between being friendly and being friends with a former client. As someone who used to attend therapy with a therapist I think dearly of, she made it clear to me that it was OK to send her emails with life updates after our therapeutic relationship ended. But beyond that, I think it would be inappropriate and uncomfortable to pursue a friendship with her, and vice versa, because of the patient-provider relationship that we previously had and the power dynamic that existed between us. The letter writer didn’t share the content of the email his former patient sent to him, but if it’s just a friendly life update, I think it’s fine to write back and thank her for sharing. Beyond that, I feel like it would be unprofessional to meet or pursue a deeper relationship. — Meghan

Kwame Anthony Appiah is The New York Times Magazine’s Ethicist columnist and teaches philosophy at N.Y.U. His books include “Cosmopolitanism,” “The Honor Code” and “The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity.” To submit a query: Send an email to [email protected]. More about Kwame Anthony Appiah

A grade-by-grade guide to college admissions: What to do when (and why not to panic) | An Insider Guide to College Admissions

by Liz Gumbinner | Jun 1, 2024 | Spawned Podcast | 0 comments

I’m so happy to be back with Alyse Levine , one of the foremost college counseling experts in the country, to continue our Insider Guide to the College Application Process . This week, we took a cue from you, our readers and listeners, who wrote in to ask what you should be doing in seventh grade…or tenth grade… or OMG it’s already the summer before senior year, how do we even get started?

No panicking allowed! While there are some benefits to starting the process early, Alyse reminds us that it’s never too late.

Take a listen to Alyse’s super helpful grade-by-grade guide to college admissions, empowering parents to support our students through this crazy journey best we can.

• Why middle school should be about focusing on healthy work habits
• How and when to make the most of clubs and after-school experiences
• Plotting out high school courses like a decision tree
• Why Alyse calls 10th grade “a pivotal year”
• What “demonstrated interest” is, and why it matters
• Different ways to visit colleges and when to start
• How and when to start creating your college list
• How to frame the (dreaded) personal essay to take off pressure
• Why there are no limits to essay topics (contrary to popular belief)
• Free college essay resources from The College Essay Guy and Premium Prep
• How to decide whether to apply Early Decision
• Putting mental health first, always.

Note to parents of rising juniors and seniors:   If you’re panicking even a tiny bit, I think you in particular will find this incredibly helpful and reassuring — whether or not you’ve already stepped foot on a campus with your student. Turns out we often do a lot of things right without even realizing it.

Special Offer: A Free College Counseling Session!

Visit PremiumPrep.com for your free 15-minute consultation and mention Cool Mom Picks or Spawned. Your student will get a free, one-on-one, 30-minute counseling session with a best-fit counselor that they select based on your child’s own needs, interests, and college ambitions.

Premium Prep has helped guide 93% of their students into one of their top three college choices. Each of their 50 counselors has extensive experience in college admissions offices, in private high school college counseling, or both. They work with all kinds of kids, whatever their dreams or GPA. So… take advantage!

If you want to chat about today’s episode, pop into the Spawned Community on Facebook. Or hey, ask Alyse a question right in the comments on this post or on the @Premium_Prep Instagram feed. 

Be sure to subscribe to Spawned wherever you get your podcasts and thank you for listening!

Written by Liz Gumbinner

Liz Gumbinner is the Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Cool Mom Picks network. This makes her very happy. Bio Twitter Instagram

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From honor student to prison, repeat offender begs federal judge in Detroit for mercy

He pleaded for mercy.

Promised he'd never do it again; that it was the booze that made him do it, and his troubled childhood: He had no father figure. Mom struggled and got high. The neighborhood was crime-ridden.

But the judge seemingly wasn't moved, if his sentence is any indication.

In federal court this week, U.S. District Judge David Lawson sentenced 30-year-old Joshua Fordham to 10 years in prison for robbing two men at gunpoint outside a Detroit deli — a crime he committed just three months after being released from parole for another gun crime. Fordham, who pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm for his role in the deli holdup, had asked the judge to give him a more lenient sentence of four years.

His lawyer, Sanford Schulman, urged the judge to take into consideration Fordham's acceptance of responsibility, supportive family and challenging childhood, stating in court documents, "He has been not just deterred, but redirected."

Feds: He hasn't proven himself

The prosecution, however, asked for a lot more, 10 to 12½ years, arguing Fordham hadn't learned his lesson and poses a "significant danger to the community."

"The seriousness of Fordham’s offense cannot be understated — he robbed a man at gunpoint, leading to a shootout in a public parking lot," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ranya Elzein argued in a sentencing memo, stressing Fordham's prior sentences have failed to keep him out of trouble.

"Fordham has proved that when he is in the community, he will have a firearm," the prosecutor wrote. "And he will use it."

Fordham's story is a familiar one in federal court, where repeat offenders show up week after week with criminal histories, supportive family members, scarred childhoods and promises to do better. His case also highlights a troubling and pervasive problem facing at-risk youths whose lives are marred by circumstances out of their control, like poverty, drugs, violence and death.

Fordham saw it all and lived it all.

'I'd rather be dead than in here ... I'm broken'

"I've been through things I have never spoke (of) and promised myself to never come to prison again," Fordham wrote in a letter to the judge.

Yet he's back in prison, for a decade this time, as there's no parole in the federal prison system - only good time behavior credits.

"Sometimes I tell myself I'd rather be dead than in here," Fordham, a father of five, laments in his letter. "I'm broken as a man."

In his own words, this is what broke him:

Smart kid loses his way

"Growing up, I was a very smart kid. Principals list, honor roll," he writes. "I was promoted and went to 9th grade a year early."

But life at home was hard. His mom was a single parent struggling to raise three boys by herself in a rough neighborhood.

"The things I saw my mother do to take care of us are what made me feel I had to do anything to help my family," he writes.

His mom worked two jobs, yet struggled to pay the bills.

When the power was cut off, the family lit candles around the house. When the heat got cut off, they used the stove for warmth.

"There were even times my mother would have to sell her food stamps to pay bills," he writes.

Mom had to 'get high and drink to feel better'

And there was weed and nonstop partying at the house.

"She would be so stressed, she would have to get high and drink to feel better," he writes.

Soon, he said, he did the same.

"Everywhere we lived was like a party house when my mother was home," he writes. "Doing drugs and abusing alcohol became a way to escape from all of life's problems."

Fordham's mother let him drink booze at a very young age, he writes, though "I never blamed her for my addiction to it."

Along with the alcohol and drugs came guns.

"Growing up, I was always smaller than everyone so I felt I had to find anyway to protect myself," he writes.

So he started carrying guns.

And wound up in prison.

Imprisoned at 19 for armed robbery

At 19, Fordham was sentenced to 5-15 years in prison for armed robbery. According to court records, he was in a car with two individuals who were buying heroin when he demanded their cellphones at gunpoint. After receiving the phones, records show, Fordham took the keys out of the ignition, shot one victim in the leg and fled.

Fordham served about six years of his sentence — an experience that still haunts him.

"Seeing guys raped, stabbed and having to protect myself from those things done drove me crazy," he writes.

Months in solitary confinement was perhaps worse. He called it "the hole … and that was mentally breaking me."

He was prescribed medications for depression, anxiety and high blood pressure.

Losing loved ones to violence

By November 2020, he was a free man again after being released on parole, though life would prove difficult. Four months before getting out, his best friend was shot and killed. Fordham would turn to the bottle again, "to make me feel better and forget all that I've been through."

More trauma followed.

Two months after his release, two of his relatives were killed in a triple homicide.

So, he drank even more.

He started to build a relationship with his father, but months into that rebuilding his dad died. Then his brother was murdered.

He got through it all with alcohol — to forget, to feel happy, he said.

In November 2022, he was discharged from parole. Yet,three months later, he wound up back in jail.

The deli holdup

On Feb. 8, 2023, Fordham followed two individuals out of a deli in Detroit and tried to rob them at gunpoint in the parking lot. Surveillance video captured him following the victims to the car, patting one man down as he tried to take his wallet, while also pointing a gun at the victim's head.

The victim, who had a concealed license permit, was armed and shot Fordham. He returned fire as the victims ran away, though his bullets did not strike them.

When police arrived, they found Fordham lying on the ground, shot in the chest. He also had one of the victims' wallets.

"The facts establish, at least by a preponderance of the evidence, that Fordham was the initial aggressor and shot at (the victim) while robbing (him)," prosecutors wrote in court documents, maintaining Fordham had the "intent to kill" that night.

Fordham was indicted on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and pleaded guilty to the charge.

“This defendant’s actions put everyone in that public parking lot in serious danger that day, andwe are fortunate that no one was killed,” U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said in a statement Thursday, stressing Fordham's 121-month sentence "appropriately reflects the seriousness" of his conduct.

'I take full responsibility ... I feel like an embarassment'

"I want to make it clear that I take full responsibility for my actions," Fordham wrote the judge. "This, however, does not define who I am. I am very disappointed in myself and I feel like an embarrassment."

He blamed much of this on alcohol.

"l can honestly say I only get into trouble when I'm intoxicated," he writes, adding he has used his time in prison to "better myself."

"I know my life is worth more than being in prison."

'Writing this kind of letter saddens me ... I'm angry'

His relatives stressed the same to the judge, hoping to spare Fordham a stiff sentence.

"He is not a bad person. He's just been caught up in society, making some bad decisions. I believe he needs some guidance and counseling," his aunt wrote in a letter to the judge, citing Fordham's childhood. "He never had any positive role models to help him along his teenage years and felt like being 'the guy' was his only option out here to survive. ... Joshua just ran with the wrong crowd."

Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected]

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NEWARK, N.J. — UFC 302 winners Sean Strickland , Kevin Holland , and more grade whether the new UFC gloves are an improvement or a step down from the old gloves after giving them the promotion’s first test run during Saturday’s pay-per-view.

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Are electric cars better for the environment than fuel-powered cars? Here's the verdict

Whether you drive an electric car or are considering making the switch, you've probably been drawn into a discussion about whether they are really better for the climate.

Electric cars are key to the world reducing emissions, with transport accounting for almost 20 per cent and rising, so you probably haven't had that debate for the last time.

To save you from your next barbecue encounter, we have turned to the EV Council, which has crunched the numbers for you.

We're comparing an electric car and a traditional petrol one and looking at the life-cycle emissions — that is, all the emissions produced from cradle to grave.

For both types of car, these are the key stages where emissions are produced:

• manufacturing of the car,
• production of the battery, especially for electric cars
• running the cars over their life-cycle, either on petrol or electricity
• disposal and recycling of the vehicle at the end of its life, including batteries

We'll also compare electric cars in different states because each state uses different amounts of fossil fuels for electricity, which affects how "clean" the car is.

To compare cars, we've chosen an average medium SUV, the sort of car you commonly see on Australian roads.

Some examples of a medium SUV are the electric Tesla Model Y, Toyota's RAV4 and the Mazda CX-5 on the petrol side.

So, buckle up and let's go.

Let's start at when the car is made

Manufacturing covers the production of the raw materials in the car's metal body, interiors, tyres, seating, the whole bundle. At this first stage, all these cars come out with similar emissions profiles.

… adding batteries for EVs

Battery production is the stage where we start to see a split between petrol and electric cars.

Electric vehicles (EV) are powered by batteries, so their batteries are significantly larger and heavier, and use more critical minerals. Our electric SUV also needs a bigger battery than a small hatchback.

It's important to note that this is about life-cycle emissions, so we aren't evaluating other environmental or human rights impacts from battery production for EVs, and we're also not critiquing the oil industry in those areas for petrol cars. That barbecue debate is for another day.

Batteries produced in China have higher emissions than those produced in Europe, and as most Australian electric cars currently have Chinese-made batteries, that's what's used here.

Climate experts and even the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expect these figures to drop as more renewable energy is used in the coming years to make the batteries.

"So the energy needed to produce batteries is decarbonised, and therefore has lower emissions," according to University of Technology Sydney transport researcher, Robin Smit.

So at this point, before the cars hit the road, electric cars have more embedded emissions.

But that all changes when you start driving …

Taking our cars on the road

It won't shock you to find out that most of a car's lifetime emissions come from powering it to drive.

"The fuel energy cycle is normally the most important part of the life-cycle assessment [and] that includes on-road driving, the maintenance, and of course, the production of the energy," Professor Smit said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates the average Australian car drives about 12,600 kilometres a year, or 189,000 over its lifetime, so that is what's used in this modelling.

Petrol cars are dirty. That's a fact. Combustion cars are powered by burning petrol, which releases emissions into the atmosphere and is — pardon the pun — a major climate change driver. These are referred to as "tailpipe emissions".

The petrol SUV here is up against an electric SUV charged on the national grid, which has a mix of fossil fuels and renewables.

Our petrol SUV produces almost 46 tonnes of carbon over its lifetime on the road.

These figures also factor in the emissions coming from refining and transporting the fuel.

"When you look at fossil fuels, they need to be extracted, processed, and then transported to service stations, for example, to make them available. So there's a greenhouse gas emission costs associated with that," Professor Smit said.

The estimated petrol used here is 8.3 litres for 100km and comes from the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP). These figures are almost always lower than real-world petrol use.

So, a lot of energy is burnt to move petrol cars, but most of it is wasted.

"They are not efficient, about 70 to 80 per cent of the energy is wasted in heat. So you only use 20 to 30 per cent of the energy into fuels for actually driving around," Professor Smit said.

What's more, Australians typically drive heavier cars than other countries, especially in Europe. Heavier cars require more fuel to move them, resulting in higher emissions.

This all means that petrol cars start producing significantly more emissions during their use, leaving electric cars in the dust.

Let's look at a different view of our two cars as we drive them for 15 years or 189,000km. Petrol cars are displayed in the blue line, and electric cars in red .

Electric cars are powered by electricity (obviously!) but how that electricity is created makes a huge difference to the overall emissions profile of EVs.

You can see emissions for the petrol car   rise while the electric car's life-cycle emissions curve is flattening. That's because the composition of our electricity grid is rapidly changing and more renewables are coming online.

To account for that, this modelling from the EV Council uses the scenario mapped out by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) which predicts the rate of new renewables coming into the grid and fossil fuel plants being decommissioned. That is, by 2030, the same electric car will be producing lower emissions because it will be charged with more renewable power.

So this is for Australia as a whole, but where you live can also have a big impact on how much cleaner an EV is.

Some Australian states already have mostly renewable energy powering their grids, while others still have lots of fossil fuels.

A car that's charged off a grid with lots of fossil fuels produces much higher emissions than a car charged somewhere with mostly renewable energy.

Let's look at our electric SUV in Western Australia, where in 2022 more than 83 per cent of electricity came from fossil fuels, mostly gas.

Now this is what our SUV's emissions look like in Tasmania (shown in the green line) , which powers almost its entire electricity network on hydro.

It's the same in South Australia, which has lots of wind and solar energy in the grid. You can see here that no matter where the EV is, it saves tonnes of emissions overall compared to a petrol SUV.

This highlights the huge opportunity to reduce transport emissions with electric cars.

The cleaner the grid, the cleaner the electric car.

What about cars charged on rooftop solar?

More than 3 million Australian homes have rooftop solar and, according to a 2021 survey, most EV owners plug into their own set-up.

A car that's charged with rooftop solar produces even lower emissions over its lifetime.

"When you use solar panels, they basically have very small-to-negligible emissions," Professor Smit noted.

Less than a tonne of carbon over all those kilometres!

Now, it's time to say goodbye to our cars and send them to the car afterlife …

Getting rid of our cars

According to Professor Smit, the greenhouse gas emissions from taking cars off the road are small compared to the overall driving life of a car.

What's more, most of the materials in a car can be recycled, so this offsets some of the emissions from the production of the car at the start of the cycle.

To complete our emission profile, let's add the emissions for the disposal of our cars.

There's a lot of potential for improvements here too.

It takes a lot of grunt to power a car, and when a battery can no longer do that and comes out of an electric car, it still holds a lot of value and charging potential.

It can be used as a backup household battery, for example. Some car companies like Tesla are already using old car batteries to power their factories.

It's estimated this second life for EV batteries could cut the carbon footprint of battery production by half.

At the finish line

Overall, every electric car will produce fewer emissions than its petrol equivalent, no matter where they are charged.

Even with an electricity grid that still uses some fossil fuels, electric cars have much lower overall carbon emissions, and that will continue to drop as the electricity gets greener.

And remember, this example uses SUVs, so lighter electric cars like hatchbacks have even lower emissions.

Hang on, what about hybrids?

Put simply, hybrids are complicated.

Plug-in hybrids can be run off either petrol or from a battery that's plugged in and charged. Therefore, the life-cycle emissions from a plug-in hybrid depend on the region where it gets charged but also on how diligent the driver is with charging. Remember, it can also run on petrol.

The European Union's Environment Agency recently found that emissions from plug-in hybrids were 3.5 times higher than reported.

It concluded that hybrids "are charged and driven in electric mode much less than how they were expected to be used".

Where we get our figures from

These figures come from the Electric Vehicle Council, which based its life-cycle emissions calculator on modelling from the European organisation Transport & Environment .

We got Professor Smit to look over the EV Council's modelling and he said while it was generous to petrol cars, it provided a good way to compare life-cycle emissions.

The inputs for petrol use are based on the WLTP . As mentioned in the story, this is likely to underestimate real-world petrol usage.

The modelling uses data for a Nickel-Mangenese-Cobalt NMC li-ion battery produced in China, as that's the most common type of battery in the Australian EV market.

It calculates 105kg CO2/KWh  for the carbon produced from battery production .

This same study found that "producing batteries with photovoltaic electricity instead of Chinese coal-based electricity decreases climate impacts of battery production by 69 per cent". Considering this estimate would reduce the emissions calculation in the point we make about battery production.

For a medium electric SUV, the energy used is 17.3 KWh/100km and a battery size of 70.2 KWh average for cars available in that category.

The emissions factors for energy sources are based on data from the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change  here. 

To model the rate of renewables coming into the grid, the EV Council used the step-change scenario from the AEMO .

Statements about the composition of the electricity grids in different states come from 2022 numbers from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

The estimate of recycling emissions comes from a study by Transport & Environment .

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