✩ 預備步驟 Preliminary Steps
1. 選擇你喜歡的課程，這樣你的學習就不會像服苦役一樣。如果你不想學，那我也幫不了你。
Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you.
2. 交一些朋友，詳見步驟12、13、23、24。
Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24.
✩ 總則 General Principles
3. 少學，但學得高效。
Study less, but study better.
4. 千萬不要讓你的大腦天馬行空「自動駕駛」。
Avoid "autopilot" brain at all costs.
5. 含糊不明是不好的，含糊不明浪費時間。
Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time.
6. 該寫的寫下來。
Write it down.
7. 咬牙挺住，全力以赴，完成學業。
Suck it up, buckle down, get it done.
✩ 學習攻略，第一階段：課堂
Plan of Attack Phase I: Class
8. 請去上課。這樣的話很多事情都會容易很多，到頭來你會發現自己其實節省了時間。
Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run.
9. 手寫記筆記。我不知道其中的科學奧秘，但是手寫記錄是讓知識刻進大腦的一種方式。而且如果你學煩了，就會自己在紙上亂畫，這也比你學著學著就開始刷社交網絡要強很多。
Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on Stumbleupon or something.
✩ 第二部分：學習時間
Phase II: Study Time
10. 別迷信圖書館。赤裸裸的現實就是如果你不想學，呆在圖書館裡你也不會學的。在圖書館刷了八小時臉書還是刷了八小時臉書。而且那些在考試周把食物和毯子帶去圖書館過夜的人，結果只會讓自己聞起來怪怪的。回家洗個澡，你可以在洗澡的時候自己考自己。
Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair.
11. 每天完成一個小任務，但是別讓這個任務佔滿你的一天。「今天下午，我只讀一個章節，然後完成半頁問題。然後我去看一集《南方公園》，再去健身房。」這永遠比下面這種情況高效：「從現在開始，我要使勁學習，能學多少學多少…哦我的天已經深夜了，我才看到第五頁，我的房間裡都是泡麵的怪味兒。」
Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. 「This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym」 always beats 「Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.」
12. 給自己一些激勵。沒有啥比落入苦學的無底深淵更糟糕了，如果你知道6個小時後就能出去玩，你就有可能更快完成功課。
Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done.
13. 如果被朋友撞見你在玩遊戲，允許他們沒收你的手機。對了，如果你覺得需要歇會兒了，其實你並不需要。
Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t.
✩ 第三階段：作業
Phase III: Assignments
14. 別用馬克筆劃重點了。把重點畫下來也許是為了讓自己更專注，但這有時候是縱容大腦開啟自動駕駛模式。你在那裡畫啊畫啊，然後你發現你畫綠了5頁書，什麼也沒看進腦子裡。不如在書的空白處記筆記吧。
Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead.
15. 所有功課自己完成。抄作業什麼用也沒有，還挺不光彩的。
Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady.
16. 儘量去看書，沒有捷徑。別再用文學指南網站來假裝自己看過書了。
Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes.
17. 做一個聰明的讀者，而不是機器人。問問自己：作者究竟想要證明什麼？他論證的邏輯脈絡是什麼？你可以從每章的開篇介紹及結論部分找到答案。然後找一兩個例子記下來（寫下來），日後它們會幫你重新構建作者的觀點。
Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol). Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on.
18. 不要想著讀遍所有的書，但是要理解你讀的每一本書。深刻理解有限的資料比模糊理解所有資料要好得多。再說一遍， 模稜兩可是很不好的，模稜兩可就是浪費時間。
Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time.
19. 列出要點。用這種方式去寫論文，寫總結，做任何事情。
Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything.
✩ 第四階段：閱讀（複習周）
Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week)
20. 再說一遍，別住進圖書館。要吃，要睡，要洗澡。
Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe.
21. 如果這個知識點你不會，那它就一定會被考到。解決辦法就是，回去看教材， 上網查資料。
If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet.
22. 一道練習題都不要放過，這是虎媽教的。
Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom.
23. 人們總是輕視死記硬背。 但是你知道嗎，即便在哈佛這種聰明人云集的地方，你還是會被要求背誦公式、人名、日期。怎樣背誦才能更有效呢？別把你要背的東西反覆看來看去了，沒用的。要大聲念出來，寫下來。還記得你交的朋友嗎？讓他們考考你，你也考考他們。
People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor.
24. 還是和朋友有關的建議，你可以讓他們聽你解釋一個很難的概念，這會逼著你清楚表達你所理解的知識。記得我說的嗎，模稜兩可是很不好的。
Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad.
25. 掌握宏觀的知識脈絡。弄明白一個具體概念是在你所學的知識的哪一部分，這會幫你掌握一個大理論，而每一門課都會有一個大理論，它會幫你串起所有的知識點。你會學到無數個知識點，但是只有當你把知識點都串起來了，你才不會錯過要點。
Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point.
✩ 第五階段：考試
Phase V: Exam Day
26. Crush exam. Get A.
完爆試卷，考個A！