How to Study

What You Won’t Find in This Book
I’ve seen so-called study books spend chapters on proper nutrition,
how to dress, how to exercise, and a number of other topics that are
not covered at all in How to Study, except for this briefest of acknowl-
edgments: It is an absolute given that diet, sleep, exercise, and the
use of drugs (including alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine) will affect your
studying, perhaps significantly.
How to Study
xiv

---

Having said that, I see little reason to waste your time detailing what
should be obvious: Anything—including studying—is more difficult if
you’re tired, hungry, unhealthy, drunk, stoned, and so on. So please
use common sense. Eat as healthily as you can, get whatever sleep
your body requires, stay reasonably fit, and avoid alcohol and other
drugs. If your lack of success is in any way due to one of these other
factors and you’re unable to deal with it alone, find a good book or a
professional to help you.
Are You Ready to Learn Something?
The book you are holding in your hands is now in its seventh edition, 
and has been helping students and parents (and even teachers) for 
more than 20 years. (The other books in my How to Study Program—
“Ace” Any Test, Get Organized, Improve Your Memory, Improve Your
Reading, and Improve Your Writing—are also available in new editions.)
Thank you for making these books so successful.
Learning shouldn’t be painful or boring, though it is occasionally both.
I don’t promise that How to Study will make everything easier. It won’t.
It can’t. And it may actually require some work to achieve what you
want. But How to Study will show you the path, give you directions,
and make sure you’re properly provisioned for your journey.
You will not understand everything the first time you read it. Or, per-
haps, even the second or third time. You may have to learn it slowly,
very slowly. But that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with 
you. It may be a subject that everyone learns slowly. (My particular
nemesis was organic chemistry.) A poorly written textbook or 
unmotivated teacher can make any subject a torture.
Parents often ask me, “How can I motivate my teenager?” Well, there
is an answer, but it’s not something parents can do—it’s something
you, the student, have to decide: Are you going to spend the school
day interested and alert or bored and resentful?
How to Use This Book
xv

---

It’s really that simple. Since you have to go to school anyway, 
why not decide that you might as well be active and learn as much as
possible instead of wallowing in misery? The difference between a 
C and an A or B for many students is, I firmly believe, merely a mat-
ter of wanting to do better. When you graduate, you’ll quickly
discover that all anyone cares about is what you know and what 
you can do. Grades won’t count anymore; neither will tests. So you
can learn it all now or regret it later.
You will also inevitably decide that one or more courses couldn’t 
possibly be of any use later in life. “I don’t have a clue why I’m bust-
ing my hump to learn calculus (algebra, physics, chemistry, European
history, fill in the blank)!” you lament. “I will never need it.”
Trust me: You have no idea what you may or may not need, use, or
remember next week, let alone in a decade. I have found in my own
life that a surprising amount of “useless” information and learning has
been vitally important to my career.
So learn it all. Get excited about the process of learning, and I guar-
antee you will not ever worry about what you need to know in the
future.