101 Ways to Get Straight A's

by Robin Dellabough

Suggests ways in which students can achieve good grades and do well on tests and exams

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Robin Dellabough is a poet, editor, and writer with a master’s degree from UC Berkeley School of Journalism. DOUBLE HELIX is her full-length poetry collection. Her poems have appeared in Stoneboat, Fifth Estate, Lines + Stars, Halfway Down the Stairs, The Gentian Journal, Tiny Spoon, Maryland Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, Negative Capability, Gargoyle, Westchester Review, Friends Journal, and other publications and anthologies. A founding partner at Lark Productions: A Book Company, she has written, edited and contributed to more than sixty books, including The Poets’ Corner by John Lithgow. Her current position is Projects Director, Publishers Marketplace/Publishers Lunch.

Reviews

[Nav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid advice for organization and note-taking tricks. It makes a lot of common sense points: keep track of your assignments and how they fit into the big picture, know your learning style and cater to that, have goals with specific motivations, etc. I'm glad it says you shouldn't only learn for the classroom (even if the premise of the book emphasizes the importance of grades versus overall self-improvement) and prompts you to use under-utilized people like the student guidance counselor, college adviser, and librarian. It is fairly dated considering it up-talks computers as a learning resource and mentions encyclopedias.
It's advice about available human resources (teachers, friends, classmates, tutors, etc) isn't as solid. Not completely wrong (your teacher probably does notice who whines about homework in class), but somewhat iffy. For example, the book tells you to copy the habits of the more successful students in your class - rather undercutting it's own point about knowing your own learning strengths/weakness - and that you should befriend the smart kids because they're more useful to you without quite coming out and saying you should ditch less productive friends. It's too bad because teaching someone else (your parents would apparently be both enthusiastic and useful for practice) is mentioned as a good way to retain information and it would've been cool to be able to help your old friend and yourself. It's also sure your teacher would be happy to change your spot in the seating arrangement (even so much planning goes into those; you have no idea). It's especially weird because later on it makes the much more useful observation that different teachers want different things and you should tailor your essays accordingly. Why not extend that more generally? Know the expectations of each teacher and the abilities of yourself and you shall win a hundred A's (Extra credit for anyone who gets my clumsy reference!).

[Raf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was going through the bookshelf while visiting my mother the other day and I ran across this amazing piece of history in my life. I struggled a lot in the 6th grade primarily because whoever put me from an ESL (English as a Second Language) class from 5th grade to to one of the smartest classes in 6th grade made a grave and stupid mistake. I was extremely overwhelmed academically and struggled a lot. I was constantly frustrated that my grades were not up to par with the rest of my classmates and was heavily ridiculed for it (what can you say, junior high kids are merciless). I got this book from the scholastic catalog that we occasionally got at school. I read this book at least 5 times that year. The techniques in this book were extremely helpful for me. Unfortunately I bought it too late and was placed in a less performing class the following year, which was probably a good thing. But the overall tips and methods helped me for years beyond. Now that I reflect on this almost 20 years later, I am proud to say that I have successfully completed my bachelor's and master's degrees with a GPA of 3.77 for both.

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

hints clues and ideas to improve educational skills written simply and easy to understand. a good resources for children

[Endira77 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, this is cracking me up!!! It's time to pass this one on to Raymend.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how some of this is funny! It is good to have a humorous twist! The illustrations make it a lot less boring and the tips are super helpful!!!:)