I would recommend that this book be read when one's course load in high school or college is lighter or while on vacation from school, if you plan on really carrying out some of the exercises and absorbing the information. Picking this up as a last-minute resort when you have an exam coming up is probably not going to help you much because you won't have a chance to be methodical about implementing its strategies.
I was interested in reading this book not so much because I needed help in becoming a "smart student" but because I was curious about whether this book suggested some of the techniques that I have already been using for quite some time. I had been an independent study student (using a hybrid at-home / meet-with-teacher-once-a-week model) from 2nd grade until I graduated early as a junior. I think being a successful independent study student helped prepare me for college in that I had to learn how to do some of the very things the book repeatedly recommends as essential, particularly critical thinking and teaching yourself about a topic (including seeking out supplemental materials) when a textbook or even the teacher is not enough.
The most important parts of the book are as follows, if you're planning on skipping to the "good stuff".
The Smart Student's Credo lists 12 principles that prepare one's mind-set for being a self-sufficient student and for changing your outlook on learning, such as "Not everything you are assigned to read or asked to do is equally important" and "Few things are as potentially difficult, frustrating, or frightening as genuine learning, yet nothing is so rewarding and empowering."
Reading CyberLearning: The Twelve Questions and all of the accompanying chapters that detail these questions is the most essential part of the book. When you first look at this list, you might think to yourself "wow, I have to go through all of that every time I sit down to read a textbook or complete an assignment? It really doesn't work that way, and the author will tell you at some point that not all of the questions always apply. Think of them as tools to get your mind going in more exciting directions than rote memorization and slogging through a boring text. Strategies like "how can I organize this information?" and "what's my hook for remembering this information?" are particularly invaluable for doing well on tests. Taking smarter notes, in particular, comprises a large part of this book, so if this is something you were struggling with, I really recommend polishing up your notes as the author suggests.
There are some examples throughout the book of a fictitious student named Johnny and his notes and assignments compared with how a smart student would handle them for the subject of geology, along with some accompanying exercises. If you are reading this book during a school semester, rather than on vacation, I would recommend skimming through these and taking note of the obvious differences between the two and then incorporating the suggestions into the work you are doing in your classes rather than doing the exercises separately.
Also, I felt the author fell short on the How Smart Students Approach Different Subjects section. Some major subjects are grouped into like categories: Type I (information, ex: anthropology, astronomy), Type II (interpretation techniques: art history, English), Type III (problem-solving techniques: economics, mathematics), Type IV (create, perform, or communicate: creative writing, foreign languages). Please note that the author does not cover Type IV topics and techniques at all. His section on interpretation techniques, which goes over literature using the example of Romeo and Juliet is very involved and excellent - if you previously felt lacking when it came to engaging with literature critically, I don't see how that could continue after digesting this section when you have these great questions and models to engage you with the material. The mathematics section is grossly over-simplified and uses a very easy word problem model to play around with, along with the Pythagorean Theorem. I felt like I gained nothing from this section and would be better off consulting a dedicated book about mathematics to develop this area.
The test-taking section is rather solid and includes plenty of hints for scenarios like what to do when you're running out of time, as well as how to select what questions to answer first or how to integrate knowledge from other class areas when you can't answer the exact question in front of you. How Smart Students Write Papers is also helpful for the most part, with a step-by-step process on drafting and finishing clearly detailed, although I think they could have used a much better paper as an example. The writing of this sample paper is too casual and uses too many similar sentence patterns.
Lastly, I think the time management system could have been fleshed out better. Some of the ideas are actually just awful, suggesting a total of three calendars (one for classes, one for assignments and general affairs,and one for major papers and tests) in addition to a daily to-do list. I think ONE calendar and a to-do list should suffice.
Another distressing point is how, in the vocabulary section, there are two glaring errors: "By the way, he computer uses the same keyboard as a typewriter." and "I you the words you are most likely to encounter in high school and college." Of all the places to have obvious mistakes...
Also, this book was published in 1993 and sometimes it really shows, although word processors are mentioned. If it was published today, it would definitely have practical as well as cautionary tips about the Internet. Still, I think that's no excuse for suggesting that an already harried student use three separate physical calendars to manage their academic and personal life!
As someone who has already gotten typically good grades, rarely less than an A in most classes except for mathematics, I have been very selective about what techniques in this book that I think will be helpful and which ones I can throw out. Some of his suggestions on improved note-taking, exams, and essay layout will be of use. Everything else either I already knew or doesn't really work for me.
Remember, if you try something in this book repeatedly and it still isn't working for you, you should probably discard it and try something else. For example, his tips about drawing diagrams and picturing material don't work for me, and absolutely never have. It is much easier for me to learn by logically thinking through or writing out the information. If diagrams work for you, great - go for it. But if you know they don't and you give it a try again and the results are still the same, don't feel tied to these tips just because they are supposedly what "smart students" do. The author is encouraging you to think critically anyway - pick and choose what works.