The Overnight Student

"The book Dr. Robinson refers to, The Overnight Student, is a truly inspiring little book.

The author was a slightly above-average student in high school: mostly C's and B's. At college, his first semester grade point average was 1.9 -- low C's. Then he hit a brick wall: straight F's. He was put on probation. He did it again: straight F's. They expelled him for two years.

Two years later, he got permission to re-enter, but only if he got a B-average in correspondence courses, which he did, barely. But he feared that he would hit the brick wall again when he re-entered as a full-time student.

In college one more time, he struggled. Then he met a girl who told him she rarely cracked a book , but she got good grades. She said she took good notes.

He became a great note-taker. I will cover note-taking in a tomorrow's lesson. But, in reviewing his notes, he stumbled onto the technique that turned him into a straight-A student.

He found that he could not remember all of his detailed class notes. His grades improved, but he was still not an A student. Then he adopted a new technique. He would read his notes silently to himself. Then he would turn his notes face-down, stand up, and begin lecturing. There was no one in the room except him. But he would give a lecture, putting the notes in his own words. He found that he did better while walking or pacing.

He did not parrot the notes. He pretended that he was explaining his notes to a class. When he forgot his point, he knew where the gap in his knowledge was. He could review his notes, find the missing piece, and start over.

Wouldn't you like to be able to identify whatever you don't know and then learn it before you take an exam? You can. Lecture to the wall.

From that day on, he never received any grade lower than an A. He graduated from college, went to graduate school, and earned a Ph.D. He never stopped using this technique. Simply by putting his class notes into his own words, and speaking these words out loud as if there were an audience, the author transformed his academic career. His book has transformed other people's academic careers."-http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/members/105.cfm