Being the top student in class takes more than good study habits! Read below for three surefire ways to become the best in class.

• 1. Be Active in Class
• 2. Learning Before Class
• 3. Learning From Your Peers

1. Be Active in Class

Taking the initiative to answer questions in class will not only test if your knowledge is solid, but also develop your written and oral presentation skills. Your teacher is a fountain of knowledge and experience - make good use of that! Learning from the experts is an opportunity that none should pass up.

2. Learning Before Class

Pre-learning is both a scientific learning method and a good learning habit. Some experts say that if you want to achieve excellent academic performance, pre-study accounts for 80% of results while (after-class) review accounts for only 20%. Effective pre-study can reap enormous rewards in terms of effort and time spent, especially when compared to less-efficient and less-meaningful review.

So how can we get started with pre-study? The most important part is not to take too long prepping for each class; 15 minutes or less for each is more than enough. Long pre-study may put a lot of pressure on your child, sapping their focus and concentration and eating up time they might need for completing homework and other tasks. During the pre-study process, you should check your textbook for new information you expect to come up in class. Mark whatever points you didn't understand clearly in your book with a pen so that you can focus on them during class.

3. Learning From Your Peers

Humans are social creatures, and we do some of our best work when we work together. Working with peers can help not only to overcome the problems individual students are encountering, but to better consolidate the information they're picking up in class. Children who already get good grades may not see the value of this at first - 'I'm doing well, so why do I need help?' But helping others to understand a topic they know well reaps its own rewards, enhancing and broadening their own understanding of the topic from perspectives they may not have considered before.

As George Bernard Shaw once said: “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”