Prologue | 'Ah, I should have studied more when I was younger...'

PART 1: The #1 Has Habits That Help Them Overcome Crisis [Habits]
Motivation | Do you do well because you enjoy it, or do you enjoy it because you do well?
“You say studying was the easiest thing? Does that make sense?”
If you do it well, it becomes fun on its own.
The reason I wore the SKY University badge on my chest in advance
No matter how well you do, you have to have a reason to do it.
'Why should I study?'
You're going to Gangnam with your friends? I'm studying with them.
# Motivation that makes you want to study on your own

The Habit-Building Formula | Time Invested Never Betrays
“If you want to do well, why don’t you do it?”
Achievements are proportional to the time invested, not to innate talent.
Reading never betrays you
Study your own routine, study what your body remembers.
Don't let your front seat be taken away
Find the best spot in the classroom
Don't avoid specialized high schools because of your grades.
If you trust and leave it to others, you will study well.
#Study Habits That Make Studying a Fun Part of Your Daily Life

Elements of Habit | What Trains Concentration?
The key is the quality of your studies.
Instead of spending 3 hours napping, sleep for 1 hour and finish in 2 hours.
When can I focus the most?
There is a cutoff line for concentration too.
Social media is a 'truly' waste of life.
As your grades improve, your slump will disappear.
Everyone is anxious, and when they get frustrated, they lose.
When you really don't want to study, forget about it.
Special attitudes to deal with stress
Things to remember when you feel like giving up
#The Power of Habit: Perfecting Your Study Skills

PART 2: Studying: Context and Detail Make the Difference [Practical]
Perfect Score Study Method｜It Definitely Works in Real Life!
The top 0.001% don't just study textbooks.
Prior learning is not optional, it's mandatory.
If I do it, it becomes mine.
The core of studying: the power to build comprehension.
How to easily memorize difficult formulas and words
Perfect Memorization Techniques You Can Use Right Now
Plan by quantity, not time.
Throw away your 'duck' and 'sticky' error notes.
Don't take notes in class.
The golden ratio of preview, practice, and review
The surest way to increase your score in a short period of time
#Special study tips from a perfect scorer

Exam Strategy | Understanding the Context Leads to Higher Scores
The answers to your school grades are in class, and the answers to your college entrance exam questions are in past exam questions.
Test time management that produces the most reliable results
D-DAY 100-Day, 30-Day, and 1-Week Strategies
The day before the exam, check for mistakes you might make.
On the day of the test, wake up as usual and eat as usual.
How to relieve tension
Make the most of your break time on test day.
#Preparing for the exam D-DAY

Epilogue | For those of us who are anxious between passing and failing
Appendix 1 | Subject-Specific Study Methods Only I Know
Appendix 2 | A Word That Will Lead You to the Top

How did perfect scorers get their hands on 'different' report cards?

Despite being evaluated as an 'impossible test', nine test takers received 'perfect scores' on the 2019 CSAT.
Having received perfect report cards, they all emphasized 'self-study'.
No matter how long you spend listening to lectures, attending academy classes, or concentrating in school classes, it is only a self-consolation that you are 'studying'. In the end, the answer to studying is a battle over whether it becomes 'mine' or not.

So, what exactly accounts for the difference between a student with a perfect report card and one with a less-than-perfect one? As the media often suggests, is it simply a matter of diligently following textbook-focused school classes? Or is it simply a matter of investing countless hours in studying? Why do grades differ when the amount of study is the same?

This book is a project that began with this simple question.
After much searching, we finally met with 30 of the top 201 students who achieved perfect scores on the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) from 1994 to 2018.
"What exactly is the difference between the studies of those who achieved perfect scores on the CSAT and the studies we have done?" This book contains the results of a year of research into this question.

“Among those who scored perfect scores on the CSAT, 83.3% said school was the place where they could concentrate the most, 63.3% fell asleep before midnight, 80% slept for more than six hours, 96.7% considered advance study essential, 53.3% used feature phones instead of smartphones, and over 70% did not take notes during class….”


Q1.
Is it true that studying has to be fun to be good at it?
A1.
“If I hadn’t done well, I wouldn’t have been able to continue having fun.”

When someone says they got a perfect score on the CSAT, it's easy to assume that they were born with a talent for studying.
Since you were good to begin with, wouldn't you be better with just a little studying? Maybe it was because studying was fun from the start? But anyone who's ever studied knows that.
I'm saying that studying isn't all fun.
The saying that you can't study well if you don't enjoy it leaves many people in despair.
Of course, more than 50% of those who got perfect scores answered that studying was fun.
But the interesting thing is that there were very few people who liked studying from the beginning.
So how could studying become fun?

“I studied hard for the middle school placement exam during winter break in my sixth grade year of elementary school because I felt like it was a stage where I could be objectively evaluated on my position.
When I got first place in my first midterm exam, the way people around me looked at me changed, and I felt like I had found something I was good at, so my self-esteem gradually increased.
As a result, studying became fun, and I worked hard because I wanted to maintain the top spot I had earned through hard work.
“Honestly, if I hadn’t had the prerequisite that I was good at it, I don’t think I would have felt like I liked it.”_Seo Jun-ho, Department of Business Administration, Yonsei University (pp. 18-19)

Those who got perfect scores worked hard and achieved the result of 'good grades'.
Thanks to that, I became interested in studying, and the energy of doing well became the driving force, allowing me to continue studying.
It doesn't matter which comes first: 'being good at it' or 'having fun at it'.
However, you can only enjoy studying well if you are satisfied with the results you achieve while studying.



Q2.
How on earth can I study well?
A2.
“You need to start by developing good study habits.”

So how exactly can we study well? The common thread among perfect scorers was study habits.
Among those who say they want to study well and do it properly, most of them say that their grades don't improve because they 'don't study.'
Especially because it wasn't done 'properly'.
I feel like I have to study because other people are doing it, but I feel miserable because I have no reason of my own as to why I should do it.
The moment you sit down in a classroom, study room, or reading room, it becomes painful to just sit there with your butt pressed against the wall.
Then, I take out my smartphone and use social media, rationalizing that I need to take a break to study better.
I take notes in class without missing a single word, so I don't even know what the teacher said, but it's satisfying to see my colorful notes.
I console myself by thinking that I studied for hours while listening to lectures or academy classes.
Can we really say that we are studying properly?

“It’s kind of funny when I think about it now, but when I was in high school, I bought a SKY university badge and put it on my uniform.
And I kept imagining myself going to that school.
Whenever I felt stressed while studying, that kind of imagination gave me the strength to continue.
“My mood also improves.”_Lee Seung-gyu, 2013 College Scholastic Ability Test perfect scorer (pp. 21-22)

“In my case, I used a feature phone, not a smartphone, in high school.
I don't think I'll study if I have a smartphone.
“Because of that, in high school, I had a habit of sitting down and studying, but these days, I study for 10 minutes, then look at my phone, then look at the internet, and then study for 10 minutes, so it interferes with my studying.”_Choi Gyu-won, who scored a perfect score on the 2014 College Scholastic Ability Test (page 85)

“Especially in math or science, it is more important to understand what the teacher teaches. However, because there is a lot to write down, many students end up just following along and not understanding what is truly important, and end up just copying the notes the teacher wrote on the board into their notebooks.
What does that mean?
My math teacher told me never to take notes.
“It’s more important to see and remember things during class so that you can understand and solve them next time.”_Dongman Kim, who scored a perfect score on the 2016 College Scholastic Ability Test (p. 169)

“No matter how expensive the academy classes and online lectures are, they are useless if you don’t study on your own.
There are many friends who watch lectures as if they were watching a drama.
But don't think that you've studied just by watching the lecture.
That's something I listened to in class, not something I studied.
“At that moment, I felt like I understood, but in reality, I didn’t understand it properly.” _Lee Young-rae, 2017 College Scholastic Ability Test perfect scorer (page 136)

Students who scored perfect scores always kept in mind why this was important in their lives when studying.
And he constantly created reasons to study by drawing a concrete picture of his future.
Also, I focused most on the 'main lesson', which is the given class time, rather than previewing, reviewing, or taking notes, and even when I was attending lectures, I made sure to have self-study time to focus more on internalizing the knowledge.
Also, I break the unwritten rule that the 'duck' and 'stick' answer notebooks are essential for the CSAT, and if they eat up study time, I strongly advise you to throw them away.
They studied knowing how to study efficiently at every moment.
This is possible because we clearly know the purpose and direction.


Q3.
No matter how much of a habit you have, sometimes you lose focus and fall into a slump…
A3.
“There is also a cutoff line for concentration.
“Find a time when you can focus better.”

Of course, even if you develop good study habits through effort and absolute time, sometimes you will lose concentration while studying.
When you say you study for 10 hours, there is not a single person who concentrates for all 10 hours.
In times like these, many people force themselves to sit down and try to fill the study time they promised themselves.
However, those who got perfect scores all point out that this study method is ineffective.
Rather than focusing on the 'time', you should plan your study based on the 'amount' that needs to be completed within that time, and it is also considered studying and skill to take good rest during spare time such as sleeping time, break time, or commuting time.
He also says that rather than trying to focus all the time, you should figure out when you are most focused, that is, your circadian rhythm, and figure out how to prepare for times when your concentration wanders.

“When setting a goal for how much I will study today, I don’t say how many hours I will study, but rather how many units and problems I will finish today.
If you set your goals in units of time, people will get tired.
“Because I’m just trying to hold on for that time.”_Seo Jun-ho, Class of 2013 (Page 154)

“It’s a good idea to use a stopwatch to measure your time.
In my case, I can concentrate for up to 20 minutes, but my concentration drops between 20 and 40 minutes, and if I go beyond that, I can concentrate for up to an hour and a half.
This way, you first understand your own biological rhythm, and when you feel like your concentration is waning, you relax or change the atmosphere to another subject.
It's okay to change your posture.
Or, you can force yourself to solve math problems so that you can focus quickly again.”_Ha Hyeong-cheol, 2014 College Scholastic Ability Test perfect scorer (pp. 80-81)


Q4.
How can I effectively prepare for the CSAT and manage my grades?
A4.
“Exams are all about strategy.
“For the CSAT, focus on past exam questions, and for your internal exams, focus on your schoolwork.”

Perfect scorers emphasize one more thing at this point.
This means that the college entrance exam and internal exam scores are separate things, and the strategies for preparing for them are also completely separate.
Generally, for the CSAT, students prepare by analyzing the types of questions from past years, and for the internal exam, students focus on the direction of the teacher's class instead of taking notes during class by understanding the characteristics of each teacher.
The key here is to efficiently distribute online lectures, academy classes, school classes, and self-study according to your purpose, and to boldly choose to give up unnecessary things.

“For math, I solved all the problems that were given over the past 16 years, starting from 2002, and for Korean, I solved all the problems that were given over the past 4 years, starting from 2014.
If you look at past exam questions, you can see which parts are considered important.
In the case of over-examination, the problems that come out in a specific unit are almost fixed.
Then, when you study normally, you look at more content related to that topic.
And when solving past exam questions, you must solve them according to the solution intended by the National Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation so that you can solve similar types of questions in the future.”_Taehyun Kim, who scored perfect on the 2018 CSAT (p. 191)

“In my case, my final exam grades were always much higher than my midterm grades.
If you look at the midterm exam, you can see the types of questions.
You'll find out if your teacher is making the exams tricky or if they're focusing more on the material emphasized in class.
By figuring out the type of questions the teacher asked during the midterm and preparing for the final based on that, I was able to get better grades.”_Kim Seung-deok, who scored a perfect score on the 2012 College Scholastic Ability Test (page 192)

If you don't work hard, neither context nor technique will be of any use.
However, if you are frustrated because your grades are not improving despite your hard work, you need to take a look at the studies you are currently doing.
Are you determined to do it right? If so, approach your studies with context, then find a detailed and efficient method within that context.
Remind yourself of the purpose of your studies, create a reason why you can never give up even when you hit a slump, and ask yourself and answer the questions about how you can do well.
What this book shows may not be the answer, but rather a hint.
But it's up to you to make that hint the answer.
Let's take a look at the unique study philosophies, thorough study habits, and effective study methods of those who achieved perfect scores, and then create your own study roadmap.