Secret Syllabus

Jay Phelan received his PhD in biology from Harvard University and is on the life sciences faculty at UCLA. He is the author of What Is Life? A Guide to Biology and (with Terry Burnham) the international bestseller Mean Genes. Terry Burnham received his PhD in business economics from Harvard and is a finance professor at Chapman University. His books include Mean Markets and Lizard Brains. Twitter @TerenceBurnham

• Preface1. The Big Picture: Every Culture Has Rules and Norms. Some Are Written, But Many Are NotSetting Goals: It’s Not the Plan, But the Planning2. Not Having a Career Plan on Day 1 Usually Is Better than Having One3. Planning Your Schedule This Term, This Year, and Through Graduation4. Planning Semester and Life Goals5. Planning Daily and Weekly GoalsAchieving Goals: How to Interact Effectively and Get Stuff That You Need6. In Choosing Your Courses Seek Great Teachers7. Office Hours: How to Get the Most from Your Instructors When You Control the Agenda8. Classroom Behavior: How to Master Content and Make a Positive Impression on Your Instructor9. Nurturing Your Relationships with Instructors: The Path to Recommendations, a Mentor, Jobs, and MoreThe Nuts and Bolts of Learning and Performing10. How to Study (The Lessons You Need but Never Got)11. Exams: How to Perform When It Counts Most12. Papers and Other Writing Assignments: Say It Better13. How to Study a LanguageOvercoming Barriers to Success14. Resilience: Everyone Falls; Only Some Get Back Up15. Exam Postmortem: How to Learn from the ExperienceCareer Planning16. Getting into the Graduate School of Your Choice: The Process (and the Secret)17. What Makes You an Appealing Job Candidate? It’s Not What You ThinkConclusion18. The Big Picture, Revisited: If You Remember Just One Lesson Five Years from Now, It’s This . . .AcknowledgmentsAppendixIndex