How to be disgustingly educated (tips from a 4.0 liberal arts student)
These are not typical study tips where I will teach you some sort of techniques or methods. Studying isn't about highlighting all your notes and memorizing flashcards until midnight.
I am a 3rd year liberal arts student. In my first year, I was getting overwhelmed and drowning trying to pull myself together while studying my majors. I followed a lot of study techniques online, but only a few of them worked for me.
However, I eventually found a way to study effectively with the help of my profs, colleagues and seniors while studying here. It brought a big help to my GPA up to a 4.0 and landed me on the dean's list.
• Stop reading to finish, start reading to argue- I realized that reading is not just about reading the whole text, it's about testing your real understanding. I don't just underline and memorize quotes but try to build my own ideas and opinions out of them.
• Learn the art of intellectual synthesis- Stop treating your classes like isolated boxes. Be a student who has cross-disciplinary thinking. For instance, I take a theory from history class and apply it to a literary analysis essay in English.
• Listen to people smarter than you- The world's best thinkers are giving out free knowledge. Take it. I usually watch educational podcasts or TED talks. This really helps in getting a real idea of how to get smarter and it serves as motivation for you to study well.
• Create. Talk. Teach.- I learned that well-educated people do something with what they know. Write, talk, and connect ideas across time. You don’t just absorb knowledge; you remix it.
Getting a 4.0 isn't about having fancy study sessions in a cafe or grinding harder, it's about shifting from a passive recipient of information to an active thinker.