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I guess it works some places and not others.

Good luck at MIT getting through your PSETs in an hour a week- I don't care how smart you are.

Yet, I didn't go to MIT and I was definitely able to get by in some classes with good grades putting in significantly less effort that is generally said is needed in college.

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I'm sure this is true of other schools too, but I can confirm that some psets at MIT can take upwards of 12 hours. It's not even a matter of organization at that point - the amount of thinking and planning to just come up with the idea can take a long time.

But of course, there are also classes in which I spend way more time than I should, simply from procrastinating or not paying attention in class. So I guess the original advice is sound ("be organized", "study early") but the reality is much more difficult than the article makes it out to be.

Cal (the author) got his PhD at MIT.

Which is not undergrad and has a significantly smaller emphasis on grades.

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