Read this article to discover strategies to be an effective student.

How To Be a Straight A Student (7 Best Strategies)

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes

Many people go to school and barely manage to score good results on tests. They wish to know how to be a straight A student, but just don’t know where to start or what to do.

They see popular kids getting all the attention from girls, winning olympiads, being admired by teachers, and wonder: why do I suffer and get scolded by my parents, while he achieves all this stuff so effortlessly?

If you are one of these people, congratulations, you clicked on this article. You want to improve and find out how to make your parents proud. I am a top class student that only studies 2 hours a day, so I have great knowledge and strategies that can help you succeed.

In this article, I want to teach you these strategies, share common mistakes people make when studying, and tell you knowledge that can help you outperform 99% of your peers. I’m not exaggerating: these will be your results after you seriously implement my advice, just straight As.

Let’s get started with finding out the main reasons why most students fail.

Why Most Students Fail

Most students fail for different reasons, the most important one - they don't work enough!

There are various reasons for why kids fail at school. They themselves think that it’s the education system’s fault, their parents’ fault, or that people put too many expectations on them.

I don’t agree with this. Deep down these people know why they’re underperforming, and know that it’s their fault, but they avoid admitting it. They actively try to shift blame to external entities, and do nothing to improve their situation.

So, what are the main reasons most students fail? How do you avoid these mistakes and start to be a straight A student?

The first and biggest mistake is that most students barely spend time on studying. They go out to parties, hang out with friends after school, chat on Discord, play Valorant, jack off to porn, and just waste their time.

Such people rarely dedicate time to achieving actual results, and simply avoid work by taking the easy way. And where does that lead them to? Shitty grades, self-hatred, low self-esteem, even more escapism through hanging out with low-quality people. It is a downward spiral that slowly ruins their chances of succeeding and living a good life.

The second biggest reason is that even if people study, they do it incorrectly. They try to study 8 hours a day and focus solely on it, while neglecting other important factors of becoming a great student. They are busy, but they aren’t productive. And there is a big difference between these things.

How to Become a Straight A Student

So, if the first reason is quite obvious and understandable, how do you deal with the second one? If studying 8 hours a day doesn’t work, then what does?

It’s time for the sweet part you’ve clicked on this article for: 7 actionable strategies that will help you be a straight A student. I’ll start with the most significant one: stop scrolling!

1: Stop Mindless Scrolling

Stop scrolling, and you'll be a better person.

On average, a young person spends up to 5 hours a day on their phone. 5 hours a day wasted on consuming low-quality content that offers no entertainment value, kills attention span, and depletes dopamine that is so necessary for working on your goals.

Listen. People with perfect lives you see on social media are faking it. That motherfucker that posts pictures on Instagram near a mansion or a nice car? They loaned it. Or what about a girl that went out partying, had a great time with her friends, and posted on TikTok about it? She got drunk, sucked a dick, and woke up at 1 PM feeling like shit.

There is no value to scrolling on social media, especially TikTok. If you truly want to be a straight A student, you need to discard low-value activities, and focus on more important things instead.

Delete social media apps, accounts, take a step back from bombarding your brain, and sit in silence for 10 minutes a day. If you get a temptation to get back on your phone and scroll like a zombie, resist it. Train yourself to not crave distraction and be used to boredom. Trust me, you’ll need it later.

2: Focus On Understanding, Not Memorizing

Focus on understanding, not memorizing, and you'll be a straight A student.

Another significant mistake people make when studying is that they spend too much time on an unproductive task. They try to memorize as much information and text from books as possible, and when time for the exam comes, they can’t remember or explain anything.

Your brain, although it is a powerful machine, cannot remember every little detail. To be a straight A student, you need to use your brain’s limited brainpower on understanding information. Why?

When the brain understands how a mechanism works, or how a certain cause creates a certain effect, it automatically remembers the information better. So instead of repeating paragraphs from the text like an idiot, calm down, and try to understand how this thing works.

This will create new neural pathways in your brain, and help you figure out what to answer much more quickly.

3: Meditate to Be a Straight A Student

Meditation will make not only your studies, but life in general much better.

In the modern world full of distractions, more and more people have trouble concentrating on the task. They scroll on their phones all day, check email 50 times a day, bombard their brains with new information every 5 seconds, and then wonder why they can’t focus.

Young people also often suffer from anxiety, rushing thoughts, depression, and overthinking. They try to fight these problems with drugs that the pharmaceutical industry says is “the most effective solution,” but stays silent about all the terrible side effects its drugs have.

Listen. While I haven’t experienced clinical depression, I know how bad negative thoughts and bad mental health are, because I’ve been here. No matter where you currently are in life, you can improve your mental health through the simple habit of meditation.

To be a straight A student, it is vital to know how to focus and concentrate on the task ahead. Meditation directly boosts focus, increases attention span, and eliminates brain fog that prevents you from doing work well.

Just 10 minutes of meditation every morning are enough to help you decrease anxiety, stress, and pay attention to the learning material. Make sure you adopt this habit.

4: Pay Attention in The Classroom

Concentrate well in the classroom, and you'll be a straight A student.

Again, this may seem obvious, but it is true. How can you expect to be a straight A student and achieve high results if you don’t listen to what your teacher is saying? You can’t.

It can be tempting to talk with people nearby, or scroll on your phone to mentally escape the classroom. But all these activities are instant gratification – they give pleasure now, but make your life significantly worse later.

High-achievers and people you look up to focus on doing delayed gratification – activities that feel uncomfortable right now, but bring amazing results later. Paying attention and being active in the classroom is one of these activities you need to do.

During the lesson, listen to what the teacher is saying. Try your best to remember key points, understand the mechanism of how stuff works, and make quality summaries in your copybook.

When you come home, it will be much easier for you to finish homework and other tasks you have.

5: Engage in Deep Work

Do deep work instead of doing distracted studying for 8 hours a day.

A lot of things that modern students and knowledge workers do is shallow work – easy to do activities that require no big effort, concentration, and produce low value.

These are things like checking email, posting on social media, attending meetings, and so on. To be a straight A student, you need to utilize the Pareto principle and focus on the vital few tasks – deep work.

Deep work is work that requires focus, concentration, pushes your cognitive efforts to their limits, and produces maximum value. Tasks such as writing a research paper, brainstorming topic ideas, scanning documents, and reading a paragraph in a school book are deep work.

It is highly uncomfortable, even impossible for most people to do, since they are so used to distraction. Their brains cannot work properly or concentrate because of how badly they’re addicted to shallow work and digital entertainment.

Instead of doing 8 hours of shallow and distracted work, do 2 hours of concentrated work that pushes you to the limits. Yes it’s hard, yes it’s uncomfortable, but it is only like this when you start. After you gain momentum and build this habit, deep work becomes highly enjoyable to do.

Build the habit of deep work, but it is what takes to be a straight A student.

6: Exercise Regularly to Be a Straight A Student

Exercise, care for your mental health, and you'll be a straight A student.

Mental health is on a high decline these days. It is likely that at least 10 people you know in school wish to kill themselves on a daily basis. Yes, it’s dark, but unfortunately, it’s true.

They may look fine and positive on the outside, but don’t be fooled: this is only the facade. When they come home, they feel like shit and want to cease existing through any means available.

“What the fuck? How is this related to becoming a good student?” The main lesson here is that you need to care about your mental health. You need to prioritize having a clear, healthy mind that produces no bullshit thoughts, and isn’t corrupted by degenerate influences of today.

The best cure for any disease is exercise, and thousands of studies prove it. I recommend you do resistance training, such as weightlifting or calisthenics.

Not only do these sports give you classic benefits of exercise, but they also build muscle. You will be more confident, gain more respect, and have a healthy mind that can perform on high levels.

7: Change Your Diet

Good diet will make you a high-performing student.

Finally, another effective thing you can do to be a straight A student is improve your diet. You’ve likely heard the saying: “You are what you eat.”

Let me tell you from experience: it’s absolutely true. If you eat processed foods full of chemicals, salts, fat, and sugar, you will feel like crap. Your mind will be foggy and produce negative thoughts it shouldn’t produce. Furthermore, such food makes you obese and decreases self-esteem.

To be a straight A student and a high performer, you need to eat high-quality food. Get a protein rich diet, eat eggs, red meat, fatty fish, vegetables, and fruits on a daily basis.

This diet will help you build more muscle, boost testosterone (add internal link), and give your brain energy to perform on the highest possible levels. If you can concentrate for 1-2 hours at a time and produce quality work, you will be in a better position than 95% of all people.

Take this advice seriously, and change your diet to pursue your goals.

Additional Tips to Be a Straight A Student

There are some other tips and tricks you can use to be a better student:

  • Find out why you want to be a top tier student. Think of a reward that you can obtain through studying better than most people. Is it your dream job? Money to buy experiences to share with loved ones? Whatever the reason is, find it out, and write it down for motivation.
  • Cut off toxic and unambitious people. If you keep spending time with crabs that don’t want to improve, are content with status quo, and just waste their lives in general, they will influence your brain. You will feel and perform worse because of them. A detailed guide to dealing with toxic people will be made in the future.
  • Set high standards for yourself. While other people waste their lives on things that don’t matter, you should work and achieve more than them. Yes, it sounds brutal, but it is the truth of life: if you want freedom, money, success, and a happy family, you must do things that only a few are willing to do. Make this mindset shift and accept it.

Summary

Implement the strategies, and you'll be a straight A student.

Many young men struggle with their mental health, achievement, and low self-esteem. They want to feel better and be good students, but just can’t figure out how to do it.

To help you become a great student, I want to offer you actionable strategies that will help:

  • Stop mindless scrolling and being a degenerate;
  • Focus on understanding information, not memorizing it;
  • Meditate every morning to decrease stress and boost focus;
  • Be proactive, pay attention, and work hard in the classroom;
  • Engage in deep work to achieve more results and conserve time;
  • Exercise regularly to build muscle, confidence, and a healthy mind;
  • Change your diet and cut out processed foods;
  • Find the reason why you want to be a straight A student;
  • Cut off toxic and lazy people from your social circle;
  • Set high standards, compete, and win.

Now you know exactly what to do to become a high performing student and get better grades than 90% of people. I sincerely hope you use this advice and implement it, for it can change not just your studies, but your whole life for the better.

Work hard, understand, achieve, and be a good person. Good luck on your journey, reader.

If you have any suggestions for future posts, questions about this article, or simply want to share your opinion about it, feel free to do so in the comments below. See you next time.