Synopsis- A book that claims to have surprising secrets for success in college from the country’s top students

Why- I am a student and thought it would be a useful book to read. I have read Cal Newport’s other book, “How to Become a Straight A Student” and apparently this book is its predecessor so I was curious as to what he wrote.

What I liked- The book was written in an easy to read style with simplistic sentences that were to the point. I also enjoyed the double spacing that the book was set to. It is much easier on the eyes than single spacing. Some of the tips I feel may come in handy such as, create Sunday ritual, ask one question every lecture, get involved with your major department, become a research assistant, relax before going to sleep and more.

Unlike Stephen Covey, Newport does not dwell for 75 pages on some mundane topic that could have been handled in 7 pages.  Every tip has a simple reason why you should consider it and examples of what you could do to implement it. When I first glanced at the table of contents, I thought, Oh boy, this might take a while. There are 75 chapters in the book. Luckily, they are very brief. Even if I find nothing useful, I would not waste much time to discover that.

Of course, 75 secrets to college success is a bit much and Newport recognizes this so in his introduction he tells the reader that they do not have to use every tip, just the ones that they feel will help them. This is extremely important to get across in the self-help industry. Many people read or listen to a program that just sounds impossible to bring into their life. When they try it, they fail miserably and end up believing that it is not the system’s fault, but their own. Surely, if the guy selling this to me can do it, so can I they wonder. What they should believe is that this person probably was not always operating on all 8 cylinders, all the time. So I should do what works best for me and let the results speak for themselves. For this reason alone, Newport should be given a hardy thumbs up!

What I didn’t like- There were many issues that I felt brought this book down from a must buy to a suggested pick up. For one, Newport’s list of 75 seems a little daunting at first glance. It would have been better to lump many into themed parts with chapters separating them. Instead they are scattered all over the place and some rules in later sections referring to others back in the beginning chapters felt unorganized and placed unnecessary work on the reader. For example, one theme that is rampant is standing out from the crowd by going the extra mile. Why not lump all of those chapters together instead of placing them in between unrelated sections of the book? What is the logic behind that type of thinking?

For someone that went to school, Newport sure does forget to include a bibliography. He acknowledges the “students” that he interviewed to write this book, but when he mentions them in the book it leads one to wonder who these students are. In the intro Newport claims that he interviewed “successful” college students and this is where he gets his tips from, yet there are no last names to go with his first names. Not one source in the book can be verified. This takes a lot of momentum out of this book. The primary audience is students. Students are used to checking sources, to ignore this simple fact is to assume your audience is nothing but a bunch of fools that will do nothing, but agree with you. Well, I did not and when I wanted to check a source on a claim, I could not. It would have been better if Newport said, These are the things that I personally did and here are the things that I heard other students say they did. If that were in the book, I would have felt better about trying some of the tips out, because the author was being honest with me about his “findings.”

One final problem I had with the book again is Newport’s assumption level of the audience. To a certain degree one has to assume something when they tell another person what to do, but even then Newport goes overboard in his line of thinking. If you read his Bio, you find out that he graduated from an Ivy League school. That means that he was already an extraordinary student when he got into college. While this is not completely bad, his audience is not Ivy League students. Most of his readers are not in “good” schools because they were not good students in high school. My problem with this is that he gives ordinary students the idea that if they just stand out instead of worry about their GPA, they’ll be successful. That is simply not the case. While getting Bs may not keep someone from being admitted to a certain school, it may keep them from getting a job at a certain company. I have been told from a graduate of UC Berkeley that Google specifically checks GPAs in the recruiting process. So if you don’t care about companies like Google, you can follow Newport’s Advice. As for me, I’ll be trying to get into Google (well maybe not, but you know what I mean).

Final Grade- B-

This book does have some above average advice in it, but the lack of sources and outright snake oil salesman approach really bring it down. Since it is a small read and cost less than a movie ticket, I am recommending this book, but don’t expect it to change your life. There are some good tips in the book that one can implement in their life, even if they don’t go to school. The problem is that we don’t know who already put this in their life and that’s a huge problem (since we are told that many have already done so). Maybe next time Newport can find enough time to stick a Bibliography in using APA format.