Thoughts on Earning Higher Grades

Thoughts on Earning High Grades
1) Test taking begins at the beginning of a course when a student should find out the type of test the professor will use. Multiple choice is different than essay tests and math tests are different than history tests because they require you improve your problem solving ability by doing assigned homework.
2) Then find out the material being tested. Are the test on the lecture notes and are the notes from the book? If from the notes, you had better have good notes. In 1963 My U.S. History 101 tests were all from the notes which were not from the book. I actually new the miles of railroad track laid by decade in the 19th century. Prof switched in 102 to questions from the book and buried all but the history majors. I didn't know how to build an adobe hut which was described under a picture in the book! Both questions were a waste, although I still remember that much of the friction that caused the Civil War was economic.
3) Many teachers emphasize important material throughout the course. I can remember many students starring material they thought I was emphasizing. Two very good students used to meet at 7AM before class and guess the questions I might ask and possible answers.
4) Are the test generic-basic history, sociology, economics, statistics, chemistry? If so, there are many free notes at my Student Internet Library. My free material is in the Internet Libraries I have written and I have been adding other free course notes for over 5 years.
5) While maximizing grades seems the practical approach, you will be better off in the long run working most on what you do well. An accounting major is better of with an A in accounting and a C in Literature than a B in both. I want my CPA to save me money and really don't care if they read Eliot's The Waste Land.

I used to quote the late Peter Druker on the subject.
"Delivering literacy--even on the high level appropriate to a knowledge society--will be an easier task than giving students the capacity and the knowledge to keep on learning, and the desire to do it."... "All it requires is to make learners achieve. All it requires is to focus on the strengths and talents of learners so that they excel in whatever it is they do well." ..." But schools do not do it. They focus instead on a learner's weaknesses."From pages 236 and 237 of The New Realities (ISBN 0060916990) by Peter F. Drucker, Clark Professor of Social Science at Claremont Graduate School, California and considered by some “the founding father of the science of management (LA Times)”