KPier comments on Welcome to LessWrong (For highschoolers) - Less Wrong
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Seconded. I'm worried I'm one of the posters who seemed to be giving this advice, so, to clarify:
In some classes you care about remembering the material, internalizing it, and understanding it. In these classes, use spaced repetition, don't cram for tests, do reading outside of class, go in for help when you need it, and pay attention in class.
In other classes, you care about getting an A. Turn in all the homework, cram for tests, pay attention in class if necessary and make sure you understand the material well enough to succeed on tests. I recommend studying a lot for the first test, and then, depending on your grade, deciding how much studying will be necessary in future. In a lot of high schools, it is possible for very bright kids to get As while doing nothing. If and only if this is the case, you should consider whether doing the work is worthwhile.
And note that if you intend to pursue any kind of more challenging studies (anything involving heavy math, for instance), you should probably get into the habit of doing the work even if you could get As by doing nothing. Otherwise there's a high probability that you'll suffer from the curse of the gifted:
It's very easy to fall into the trap of always getting As done with zero effort, and then becoming incapable of actually putting in effort when you get to the stage where simply being bright isn't enough anymore. I have suffered from that problem myself, which is one of the reasons I've decided not to pursue math-heavy paths. I'm simply not cut out for putting in that much work in those fields, but things might have been different if I had slacked off less earlier.
It cost me quite a bit of time and effort to overcome this. First two years of uni basically wasted for that purpose (did do a lot of cool stuff though, some of it even useful).
I may relapse in the future, so readers please don't take this as a success story, until I'm back here with a PhD or a successful start up. :)