The author of the best-selling book "What the Best College Teachers Do" is back with more humane, doable, and inspiring help, this time for students who want to get the most out of college--and every other educational enterprise, too.

The first thing they should do? Think beyond the transcript. The creative, successful people profiled in this book--college graduates who went on to change the world we live in--aimed higher than straight A's. They used their four years to cultivate habits of thought that would enable them to grow and adapt throughout their lives.

Combining academic research on learning and motivation with insights drawn from interviews with people who have won Nobel Prizes, Emmys, fame, or the admiration of people in their field, Ken Bain identifies the key attitudes that distinguished the best college students from their peers. These individuals started out with the belief that intelligence and ability are expandable, not fixed. This led them to make connections across disciplines, to develop a "meta-cognitive" understanding of their own ways of thinking, and to find ways to negotiate ill-structured problems rather than simply looking for right answers. Intrinsically motivated by their own sense of purpose, they were not demoralized by failure nor overly impressed with conventional notions of success. These movers and shakers didn't achieve success by making success their goal. For them, it was a byproduct of following their intellectual curiosity, solving useful problems, and taking risks in order to learn and grow.

What the Best College Students Do is a great book to read if you are entering college. The concept behind this book is that in order to get the most out of your education and your life, you must become a deep learner. It challenges many aspects of society and education that are considered normal, and uses many different experiments and surveys to prove their flaws. It is also filled with success stories of people who used a deep learning approach to their education, as well as tips on how to gain a deep understanding not only in your classes, but also in the world around you.

My only critique is that I wish this book had been a little more clear when it came to how to change from one type of learner to another. However, I still feel that I can use all of the information this book provided me with, I just need to do some thinking and interpreting on my own to apply it.

Overall, I think this book is the kind of book that can change your life, or at least your education. I would recommend this book to any high school/college student. This book will challenge the way you think, but it is definitely for the better. I really wish I had found this book earlier on in high school! ( )