Benedict Carey is an award-winning New York Times science reporter who manages in this one succinct and cogent book to reframe all our most cherished ideas about how we learn. "If the brain is a learning machine, then it's an eccentric one. And it performs best when its quirks are exploited."

When we were in school and were facing a test, we followed the old rituals of cramming, staying up late, and sweating bullets before and during the test. According to Carey, the most updated and relevant studies of learning and the brain recommend other approaches.

• Distractions are good. A little bit of distraction opens the door to re-connecting with the material we are studying. Distractions can be assets in the learning experience.

• Ditch the cramming ritual. It is more important to vary your study environment than to lock yourself into the prison of cramming.

• Test yourself first. Self-examination is much more significant than repeated study.

• Sleeping is part of the learning process. Going to bed at your regular time and rising early solidify your retention abilities.

Here the message is clear: studying smarter trumps studying harder.

Cary concludes:

"Let go of what you feel you should be doing, all that repetitive, overscheduled, driven, focused ritual. Let go, and watch how the presumed enemies of learning — ignorance, distraction, interruption, restlessness, even quitting — can work in your favor. Leaning is, after all, what you do."