how to make the *ultimate* academic comeback

thanks to Surf shark for sponsoring this video you rush to the mailbox right after school and there it is your report card you bring it home tear it open and realize your grades aren't where you want them to be but you know you have it in you you know you could do better you know you could get straight A if you just lock in for the rest of the semester look if you're trying to go from an F to an A in one week or even one semester this video is not going to help you but if you're trying to go from a b to an A or from a c to a b and you genuinely commit to the advice in this video you will succeed but before I dive into all my different techniques and ways that you can improve your grade you have to ask yourself one important question why are your grades not where you want them to be and I want you to answer this honestly I think most students have one of these four answers you're overwhelmed you're struggling you're distracted or you're lazy and look I don't mean that in a rude way I have been all four of these things at one point or another but if you genuinely want to improve your grades as quickly as possible you need to evaluate your situation honestly if you're overwhelmed it means your grades aren't where you want them to be because you have way too much on your plate maybe you're taking a bunch of AP classes maybe you're in a bunch of extracurriculars and because of these commitments you can't fully devote yourself to your academics if you're struggling it means you might have the time and you're actually putting in the work but you simply can't grasp the content in other words it's hard to get that information to stick inside your brain if you're distracted it means you're struggling to focus and complete your work maybe because you're going on your phone you're playing video games you're watching Netflix or something else and if you're lazy well it just means you're lazy that doesn't mean you don't do the work it simply means you don't give it your all for example maybe you finish 80% of your homework and call it a day or maybe you spend 30 minutes studying for an exam and think that's enough you might just be one of these things or you might be all four so let's dive into Concrete Solutions for each scenario so you can turn your grades around as quickly as possible scenario number one you're overwhelmed my junior year of high school I made a huge mistake I enrolled into five AP classes now mind you junior year is one of the hardest years of high school it's the year you have to start thinking about college apps prepping for standardized tests it's the year some of your extracurriculars might get really serious but for some reason I wanted to push myself to the absolute Max so I went up to my guidance counselor and asked her to put me into AP chem AP Cal AP Lang APUSH and AP Euro now you might be saying goart two history APS well not for long a week into the school year I realized there was no way I was going to be able to handle all those courses so I ended up dropping AP Euro I swapped it out for a study hall and I don't regret that decision at all doing so gave me more time to study for the ACT to devote to newspaper Club to have a life outside of school so if you're in a similar situation if you're overwhelmed I want you to step back and seriously consider which commitments you can drop whether it's an elective you don't need or a club you're not excited about cut down to make time for the stuff that matters but let's say you watch this video towards the end of the school year obviously you can't just drop your commitments in that case I have another tip make special requests if you have too much on your plate and can't complete an assignment on time email your teacher not a day before but several days before and I promise you they'll be willing to accommodate if you're part of a club and can't make it to a weekly meeting because you have to study for the SAT tell tell them in advance and I promise you they'll find a way to keep you involved I think the mistake most students make is that they'll either never ask for these accommodations or they'll ask for them way too late I promise if you plan ahead and ask the right people weeks or even days in advance you'll find a way to balance everything all right scenario number two you're struggling and before I continue yes I know that you're struggling could technically also mean you're overwhelmed but in the context of this video it means you're putting in the work but struggling to grasp the information the first step here and this might hit hard for the overachievers watching this is to let go of your ego if you've always been the smart kid or if things have always come easy to you you have to realize that struggle is okay and that it's an inevitable part of the learning process this is a lesson that hit so hard for me my freshman year of college so the highest level of physics I had taken before entering MIT was honors physics because my school didn't offer AP Physics and let me tell you the the jump from honors physics at my small public high school to introductory physics at MIT was astounding it felt like going from a light jog to a fullon Sprint but what I did and what I recommend you do is leverage every resource at your disposal this might not be super relevant if you're in high school but if you're in college you probably have office hours your school might have a tutoring center I want you to make the most of these resources I loved office hours because sometimes they would just give you the answers to really different ult homework problems but more importantly they give you a step-by-step explanation and really help you understand the fundamentals now if you're in high school and don't have access to office hours or a tutoring center I want you to leverage study partners and even ai ai is changing the studying game and I'm sorry I've been meaning to make a video about Ai and studying for a while now but very quickly let me tell you a couple ways that you can use it you can have it explain Concepts to you like you're 5 years old you can have it generate practice questions and you can even have it gener at study schedules like the possibilities are wild okay and I also recommend that you find a study partner but I don't recommend that you work with them always but if there's a concept or unit you don't understand and you have a huge exam coming up meet up with them try to tackle it together and explain the concept to one another if you've been following the channel for a while now you know we love the strategy which is also known as definement technique and you know what else we love browsing the internet safely which is where the sponsor of this video comes in Surf shark surf surf shark is a VPN a tool that will keep your identity and data safe as you browse the internet now this is important if you're studying at a cafe using public Wi-Fi studying at your College campus's library or even if you're 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getting harder and harder to sit down and do work so look I could easily just sit here and tell you to put your phone away while working and go about my day but you know that's easier said than done I know that's easier said than done so let me give you a couple practical Solutions if you're decent at staying focused and only sometimes get distracted by your phone I recommend silencing notifications placing your phone face down and simply doing your work if it's a bit hard harder for you to stay off your phone I recommend setting time limits and placing your phone in a different room while working but if you really struggle you'll need an external Force to hold you accountable so in that case I recommend having a family member or a roommate keep your phone away from you while you're working oh and here's a bonus tip use grayscale mode it'll make your phone less fun to use and help you stay off of it I'll be honest I tried doing this a while ago and although it worked it was really hard but I've heard of people having pretty decent success with this strategy okay so you've taken care of your phone but maybe you're still struggling to focus the next step is to declutter your mind and your space when it comes to decluttering your space just get rid of any objects or garbage that might distract you I'm a fan of keeping your study space relatively minimal and when it comes to decluttering your mind try using ambient sounds like white pink or even Brown noise some people use these sounds to help them with sleep some people use them to help them with stress but a lot of students use them to help with Focus personally I like brown noise the most pink and white seem just a bit too harsh all right and scenario number four you're lazy okay so in this situation the issue might not be that you're overwhelmed or that you're struggling is that you're simply not motivated to do the work for example maybe you start your assignments late and only do 50% of them maybe you start studying for an exam at the very last minute or maybe you are finishing your assignment and you are putting in the time but maybe you're just studying in a lazy way let me explain you have two kinds of studying you have passive studying and you have active active studying passive studying includes rereading the textbook re-watching lectures highlighting your notes active studying on the other hand is when you're engaging with the content and assessing your knowledge for example doing practice questions pretending to teach others not just rereading your notes but rewriting key Concepts and diagrams in your own words now here's the dangerous part passive studying feels just as effective as active studying it feels like you're putting in the work but it's nowhere near as effective as active studying it's like eating a bunch of junk food versus a nutritious meal in the moment you're going to feel full after both but in the long run that garbage meal is not going to give you the nutrients that you need so if you've been passively studying for most of your exams and want to actually make a quick and effective comeback you have to switch over to more active modes all right and my next piece of advice if you're lazy visualize the outcome how will you feel if you get the grades you want how will you feel if you get that a end up on the honor roll or end up in the top 10% of your class I want you to actually close your eyes as you're imagining this as corny as that sounds try to legitimately feel that sense of catharsis and relief that achieving your goals is going to bring now channel that feeling and use it to get rid of that laziness find that spark you need to give your work your all and you can also Imagine things Beyond school for example Career Success the amount of money that you're make the things that you're going to own try to picture whatever it is that's going to motivate you but let's say unfortunately that doesn't work what then now I'm not as big a fan of this method but imagine the opposite how would you feel if you continue being lazy if you don't put in the work I think positive reinforcement is a much healthier and more effective way of gaining motivation but sometimes a pinch of negative reinforcement especially when you really don't feel like working can kind of go a long way guys I believe in you and I know you have what it takes to make the academic comeback you need if you need more support feel free to check out my Discord server huge thank you again to Surf Truck for sponsoring this video and I'll see you again next week

Channel: Gohar Khan

Views: 260,596

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Id: c5IgeEVkmhI

Length: 11min 3sec (663 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2024