About to attend Battle Staff NCO course at Schofield Barracks, HI. Anybody have any pointers to help me be successful?

The course was highly disappointing and easy, given I had high expectations of the course prior to attending. 90% of the course is control F, which eliminates the need to understand and retain the information being taught. Most of what was taught in the course I learned through Engineer ALC and SLC... In fact, even the homework they give us was the exact same as the homework I got in ALC and SLC. So there is a potential you have covered a lot of this material in the past. At the end you'll be placed in a group and given different roles and will have to do a "brief". All your products are already built and you just have to put the novelty size puzzle piece together to formulate a brief that is graded on your ability to speak. It's only as difficult as your in class instructors care to make it. I attend in 2015, and there was an endless array of PowerPoints that tended to cover older doctrine and where read by a SFC on VTC that could't hold a discussion or answer in-depth questions about the course material. You'll breeze over OPORDS, but spend a day or so on overlays and symbols. Given you're a J2 guy this course will be easy for you. Don't psych yourself out, MRT and SHARP (if you have attended one or the other) were more difficult courses.

A photographic memory is a bonus, but knowledge on using the search tools to find the answers expeditiously is key

I recently graduated (Honor grad) BSNCO in January. I really didn’t find it to be terribly hard, others in the class struggled. I would imagine it all has to do with individual experience. The biggest parts of the course was IPB, MDMP, and overlays and graphics. Course of Actions Sketch and Narratice was also focused on. As far as advice: Pay attention in class, take good notes, get with people in the class because as I said before, individual experiences. Some may be stronger in one area while you are in another. Stay organized when taking exams that include OPORDS, we used division level OP Orders and I can see where people could easily overlook pertinent information by scattering pages around and rushing. Overall, just stay focused in class and participate in group PEs and you should be just fine.