Even Though What We Do Is Wrong

It's the time of year when many people return to their studies and go back to school. To quote Common "I went to school for 14 years and experience was my best teacher". The only things I ever learned is to how to get by and beat the system. I can honestly say that I've never studied a single day in my life. Now for the sake of discussion I'm gonna completely ignore that I do have a borderline genius intelligence. If you spend hours studying every night then you my friend are probably a sucker.

There are a ton of was to get through school, even get good grades, with out all the effort. Now I'm not talking about looking at you neighbor's test page, but still some might considering it cheating. I ask you this, is it really cheating if everyone else is doing it? Here are some suggestions on how to get through the school year and still enjoy the better things in life. Life is short, you can't spend all your time living in the future for a day that may never come. With the extra time from the reduced studying and school work you will have plenty of time to enjoy life.

1. Instead Of Reading The Book Find An Alternative.
Now not all of us can read 1000 words per minute (but I can, hahaha sucks to be you), in fact the average reading speed for a university student is about 250 words per minute while the average book has 350 words per page. For most people reading is a daunting and time consuming task, it takes the average person 7 hours to read a 300 page book. Try to find a movie adaptation of the book, it'll save you 5 hours. Now you can't always rely on the movie because some things maybe changed or there may not even be a movie(not very likely) so I suggest picking up a study guide, you can find them at any bookstore or websites like Sparksnotes. Not only does it have chapter by chapter summaries but it also has review questions to better your understanding.

2. Don't Take Notes Copy Everyone Else's
You can make the choice of actually paying attention in class or you can do other things such as socialize with your classmates. Asking to copy notes gives you and icebreaker for meeting classmates that you don't already know. It also gives you a broader range of notes to study from when you actually do spend some time doing so. Spend a little bit of time organizing them every day, I recommend typing them. Copy homework while your at it, it saves you from doing it yourself.

3. Join Or Start A Study Group
Let's face it if your listening to me you'll probably be freaking out the night before a test about how you don't actually know any of this shit. Get together with(or assemble) a group of people that actually do. You will make friends faster and be able to get help with anything that your stuck on. Studying with others is often more productive than studying alone assuming that you are actually studying that is. Perfect reason to invite that hot girl that sits in front of you over.

4. Study Old Tests
I actually had teachers that handed out old copies of exams that they had given years prior, take advantage of this or just find someone that has taken the class before and get a copy of theirs. You will walk into the test knowing what to expect and what to study.

5. Take Performance Enhancers
Whatever works really, take coffee, red bull, caffeine tabs or Ritalin(which is illegal without a prescription) before studying or taking a test. Ritalin works the best and will run you something like $10 a pill, but you didn't hear that from me. I'm in no way encouraging the use drugs but you are gonna do what your gonna do, its your future. If you mess up now its gonna affect the rest of your life, that's the lies that they are feeding kids now right? Your just trying to get a competitive edge in today's difficult work place. If you think Barry Bonds hit all those home runs without steroids then your an idiot, if you think he's the only one doing it then your a bigger idiot. I guarantee that you have classmates popping Ritalin to do better in school. Understand there is a huge risk involved with this and that it can even kill you.

Life isn't about what you know, its about who you know so stop wasting your time trying to learn things that you never actually need to know and spending it meeting new people. You never know where your classmates might end up. Keep in touch with them, one day they might be the person interviewing you for a job or they might work for one of your company's clients. They could be the person approving your loan. Relationships go much further than the crap they try to teach you in school. Shortcut your studies while trying to maintain decent grades and socialize with your classmates.

Ask yourself, what would Barry do?