Too often, students spend an inordinate amount of time working on the most difficult material they can find, such as probability and advanced combinations and permutations. This study happens at the expense of other crucial, more fundamental material. Don’t adopt this inverted strategy. Instead, take the necessary time to build a strong foundation. Learn the basics. Master the integral ideas. Then, once you have a solid foundation, invest any remaining time into working on the difficult stuff.

The added benefit of mastering the fundamentals is that once you’re ready to attack the more difficult material, you’ll be more efficient because you’ll have a solid foundation. Instead of rushing to the challenging concepts, first ensure you have the basics down cold.