What the Best College Students Do

Today’s hurry-up society puts pressure on students to attend college, get good grades, and find well-paying jobs. This approach turns higher education into a system that merely accredits people for work, but the real purpose—and the real opportunity—of college is the chance to think deeply and learn widely.

Many students study for the test rather than for understanding. Doing so can bring them high grades, but the knowledge they acquire is superficial and won’t do them much good in the wider world. A better approach is to become curious about the material to be studied, to wonder about it, ask questions, try to prove or disprove its assertions, discuss it with others, write about it, study outside experts’ descriptions of it, and compare it to other fields of study. This process often leads a student to explore related subjects and, sometimes, to discover an area that ignites enthusiasm and passion—a field that may become that student’s concentration. Sometimes it may appear as if the student has wandered away from the material on which she or he will be tested, although Bain promises: “Anyone who concentrates on deep learning, however, can make high marks” (10). Deep learning provides students with a more thorough and better-interconnected understanding of the material, which also helps them at test time.