How can a student not known for their academic prowess perform seemingly miraculous feats of success in college? In this monsterously in-depth interview Peter Jay tells it all. How do I make the most of my time at school? How can I shift my thinking ever so slightly to see that even I can achieve great things? What’s at the heart of scholastic success? Join us now to get the answers to these vital questions!

Peter: Did you finish UVSC yet?
me: ha!

will I EVER finish UVSC?
we’ll see.
no, I’m slated to graduate Fall 2008
and I’ve also started some premed classes.
it’s a lot.

Peter: Studying for the MCAT?
me: not yet.

just trying to learn the ropes of keeping up in my classes.
haven’t learned how yet [smile]

Peter: Yea, I didn’t figure out until my fifth year at BYU and then I went from getting a C average to getting an A average

me: how’d ya do it pete? what was the difference?

Peter: There were several things. I decided to treat it like a game, trying to get points, because that made it more interesting to me.

I also decided to make sure I did my homework every day before I did anything else, and I realized I still had as much time to have fun and hang out with people, before I was just being lazy and then hanging out with people

me: keep going…

this is good stuff…

Peter: Then I made sure that I was above the 90 percentile on every assignment and test, and then in the end it all adds up to an A

me: I’m going to quote you on my blog…

Peter: Alright [note: by this one word Peter Jay hereby relinquishes any and all claims to financial compensation or ongoing royalties from the profits of this blog post. That includes anything from AdSense too Pete, though I’d feel cool buying you and Kira a lunch when you come out in December.]

me: [smile]

so, those were the three keys to beating the college game?

Peter: Yea, you just have to make sure you really study and know the stuff. I started spending about ten hours studying for each final where I would go over everything and make sure I understood it from the beginning of the semester to the end

And I would try to memorize everything
But, yea, that’s about it

me: how did you organize all your assignments and make sure you were studying for everything/doing everything?

Peter: I usually tried to take good notes in class and then I just followed that. For the tests I would read through and memorize my notes and I would also quickly review the chapters of the book, if there was something I didn’t understand I would spend more time on it until I did

I really put in a lot of time for the first semester I got A’s, after that I kind of figured things out and it got easie
In Calculus I memorized three pages of calculus formulas and after that it was as easy as algebra, and I got an A

me: Did you work too those semesters?

Peter: That semester I didn’t, but later semesters when I got A’s I did
me: was that any harder?

Peter: It is kind of just a distraction, one more thing to think about. My grades went down a bit that semester I was working on the PlayCroquet.com site because I spent my time doing that instead of studying, I think I let that consume more time than I should have though, since I could sit in front of the computer for hours playing around with websites
me: Right.
Peter: I still get distracted easily by that.

Thank you Peter for opening up so freely about how to succeed in college. Your study strategies, tips and aids are sure to help even the down and out college student.

If you’d like to have Peter as your own personal study buddy, forget it, he’s in law school and doesn’t have time, because he’s using the above mentioned study strategies. However, feel free to post any comments you may have for Peter here. And, if you’re looking for some help getting into college, remember Zinch.com is helping high school students stand out in the college admissions process . There college search feature is reason enough to join the Zinch revolution.