This video provides a comprehensive guide to excelling academically, focusing on overcoming common obstacles like poor productivity, time management, and self-deception, and then detailing effective study strategies and test-taking techniques.
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it is time to get on your academic grind
because in this video I will be sharing
with you all my best secrets and tips to
becoming an academic weapon and
take hello and welcome back to my
channel as someone who has a 4.6 GPA of
1580 on the SAT perfect scores on all
the AP exams I took and is a US national
chemistry Olympiad finalist I have
discovered some amazing study methods
and tips throughout the years and I'm
about to share all of them with you
however this video just can't possibly
be enough for me to include everything
so if you want the Ultimate Guide to
Becoming an academic weapon I created a
study guide with over 55 pages of
helpful information that took me
hundreds of hours and several months to
put together in this guide I will share
with you 10 of the most helpful study
methods and tips that I used and tips to
Ace every single test study Secret for
every possible subject out there
productivity tips mindset and motivation
and just so much more so if you would
like this study guide it is available in
the top Link in the description box
below in my beacon AI page I'll also put
the link right here it will be at the
very top and you can scroll through the
images to see the table of contents and
some sample Pages it is everything that
you need to know and I mean truly
everything everything that helped me
succeed in school is there in the most
detailed but also easy and simple to
understand format as possible if you are
a student or anyone trying to learn
something trust me it will be useful but
without further Ado let's get into this
video okay first what is stopping you
weapon I am going to point out three of
the most common problems that are
hindering your studies number one is
productivity you are not being
productive enough and you are simply
wasting your precious time away which is
why you are failing your classes okay so
how are you wasting time it could be
scrolling through social media hanging
out with friends and even studying Yes
you heard me right studying if you are
studying the wrong way you are simply
wasting time which is why I'll be going
over the best study methods later on in
this video or other people may be
wasting your time for example if someone
bothers you on tasks that aren't your
responsibility or if they share their
life stories with you for hours straight
yes you are wasting your time okay so
the first thing you must do is to stop
wasting time value your time a tip is to
put a price tag on your time and I would
recommend putting an extremely and kind
of unreasonably high price tag on your
time at first for example you can do
like $1,000 per hour or even $10,000 per
hour this way it would even hurt you to
waste even a minute instead of thinking
of time as time think of it as money if
you are wasting an hour scrolling on Tik
Tok you are wasting $10,000 but even if
you just choose to think of time as time
why are you wasting the thing that is
most precious to you start studying
smarter not harder stop scrolling
through your phone mindlessly and
remembering nothing after you finish you
are wasting your life away the next
problem that is preventing you from
becoming an academic weapon is thinking
that you don't have enough time but in
reality you have enough time to do
anything you want it is only a matter of
whether you prioritize it or not and let
me tell you you should very well
prioritize your studies studying is so
important to build good habits early on
like discipline an open mind and so much
more and they can very well be the
foundation for your future so stop
saying that you don't have enough time
to study and quit going on your phone
binging TV shows or even just wake up
half an hour earlier to study you will
find the time to do anything that you
set your mind to okay the next problem
that can be standing in your way is
laziness you simply just don't want to
study you tell yourself that you are
tired after school and you lay around on
your bed for the rest of the afternoon
if that is the case I will have a second
on mindset and motivation later on in
this video that will likely help you but
it is only up to you to get over this
laziness good study habits are so
important to build early on they will
carry on into your job in the workforce
and in so many other aspects of Life
Learning to study well isn't only just
going to help you in school but also
throughout life and I'm sorry but who
are you to be lazy about learning there
are people in the world begging for the
opportunity to go to school to be doing
homework to learn new things and you are
giving up this opportunity because
you're tired sure that may be a valid
excuse but are you actually tired or are
you simply lazy and finding excuses for
yourself this leads me to my third
reason which is lying to yourself you
are lying to yourself and saying that
you understand the content when in fact
you do not you think you learn what the
teacher taught you but when the test
comes around you don't know how to solve
even a single problem that is the first
and most common way of lying to yourself
or another way is you pretend to work
hard you say that you're going out to go
study for your friends but in reality
you're spending more than half of the
time gossiping you tell yourself that
you're going to study everything in this
unit the night before the exam because
that is the most productive but in
reality you do not and you end up
getting more stressed and failing the
exam you are your worst enemy so stop
lying to yourself although it may be
much harder to actually ask the
questions and learn the content instead
of just tricking yourself into believing
that you already know it trust me it
will be worth it so if you have overcome
those three struggles now it is time to
study but you will only be wasting time
if you study the wrong way which is
studying hard instead of studying smart
so here are the best study methods you
way number one is active recall this is
an overall study mindset but it has so
many uses that have helped me in all of
the classes that I have taken there are
some specific ways that I personally use
use active recall and I will share them
with you but first what is active recall
it is basically when you test yourself
the information and force yourself to
draw the information from memory this is
different from reading through the
textbook or reading through your notes
hoping that they will stick instead you
try to remember your notes from memory
or test yourself with practice problems
the most helpful way of using active
recall for me was creating my own study
guides so let me show you what I
mean okay so here is my hand study guide
that I made for AP stats it is five
pages and as you can see every single
page is handwritten with formulas graphs
facts and information that I need to
remember and this is not just for stem
classes I also did this for apgov apus
history and so much more I like to make
them pretty and color coordinated
because that just makes me more
motivated and I include vocabulary
transformation graphs like these and so
much more this is so helpful when
studying because you have to learn how
to be concise and find the most
important information
that is certain to show up and that you
must remember and then you write those
down like for example what everyone
knows about stats is socks shape outlier
Center and spread here I have shape Left
Right skewed symmetric normal uniform
and Etc and I just wrote them as simple
words so that they're easy to look at
and once I look at it I know that I will
remember okay so this is helpful in two
ways because first you get to use active
recall and test your knowledge when you
were first creating this study guide
then during tests and finals you have
all the information you need in one
place so you don't have to go back and
dig through your textbook or your notes
to try and find all the important
information that you need to memorize
and if you want this study guide for AP
stats and many more for other subjects
like AP Physics APUSH AP Computer
Science Etc you can also find them on my
Beacon's AI page next to my study guide
okay another very helpful way to use
active recall is to use flash cards I
think this is the best only for
memorization for example if you need to
memorize the periodic table for
chemistry or new vocabulary for a
foreign language flashcards are the best
and the trick in using flashcards is
that you have to make them on your own I
like to handr write my flashcards
because they help you memorize while you
write them but Quizlet is also a very
great and convenient tool and finally is
to teach the content to someone else
teaching the content ensures that you
have a complete understanding of the
material and the concepts because in
order to teach it and explain it you
have to be able to know everything
inside and out I don't like to waste and
use up someone else's time so instead I
like to pretend that I'm teaching myself
and lecture myself the content I will
pretend that I'm giving a lesson to
myself and review the content out loud
for history I would even write out
stories from memory as a way to study
and review the content okay the next
study method is to ask questions it is
not embarrassing to ask questions you
must ask questions if you want to learn
if there is something that you don't
understand ask ask the teacher ask your
classmate ask the internet you will
hinder your learning so much if you
never ask and just either assume that it
won't show up on tests or never bother
to figure it out for most subjects the
knowledge actually Builds on top of each
other so you have to figure out previous
units if you want to succeed in the
future also you should ask questions
because other students are likely to
have similar questions too so you are
helping yourself and others when you
choose to ask the question okay the next
study method and one of my favorites is
to do practice exams this was the most
helpful to me when I was doing APS the
SAT the US national chemistry Olympiad
exam and so much more practice exams is
where you learn how to manage your time
also where you learn the test writer's
way of thinking and where you learn the
question format if you never do practice
exams you are basically walking into the
test blind get used to the test format
so you know what you are expecting also
practice exams is where you get a feel
of how much time you have so you won't
be rushing in the early questions and
having too much time or also rushing in
the end and not having enough time do as
many practice exams as you can for the
SAT I know there are a lot on Con
Academy which is what I used for AP
exams they have passed frq questions on
college board and you can also get
practice books like Princeton Review or
Baron and of course there are also lots
of free materials online for you to use
so on the topic of exams let's move on
not to brag but I am a test taking Pro I
scored in like the mid 1500s on all my
SAT practice exams and in my first try
for the actual exam I got a 1580 without
much studying I somehow made it to the
finals national round of the US national
chemistry Olympiad exam in one try
whether it was the SAT AP exams or
school finals I always performed better
on the actual exam than in my practice
and mock exams so why because I am a
test taker and I know exactly what it
takes to perform well on exams even when
you are stressed or not fully prepared
so how do you do it first know what will
show up on the exam and more importantly
what won't not everything will show up
on the exam you have to focus on what
the teacher emphasizes and what they
don't to know what will show up on exams
also make sure you use the internet to
help you figure out what will show up on
standardized exams like APS and the SAT
the first step to doing well on exams is
to know what you are facing and to focus
your studying you don't want to study
for things that won't show up on the
exam but you also don't want to miss
studying for things that will end up
showing up everything you need to know
is available for you and you just have
to know how to look for it I have more
specifics in figuring out exactly what
will and won't be tested in my study
guide in chapter six on how to Ace every
single test okay the next test taking
strategy is how to guess effectively
guessing takes some strategy so first
let's look at the last resort if you
really have no idea and don't know what
to choose then pick a letter of the day
before the test and stick to it don't
guess randomly and pick a new letter for
every question that you don't know it is
so much more likely to get the right
answer if for example let's say you pick
a as the letter of your day then for
every question you don't know you stick
to a and consistently pick a however
even if you have the slightest idea on
the question you should not guess
blindly so first use the process of
elimination what answer is definitely
wrong eliminate that and then pick from
the rest also if you have multiple
choice and the answers are something
like yes yes yes no with explanations
after you can immediately eliminate the
no because that is usually wrong and
this is the same for math problems if
you have several answer choices and one
of them is an outlier then you can
usually eliminate that one try to always
avoid blindly guessing if you can but if
you must be smart about it okay so now
it's the night before the big exam what
should you do first is to get a good
night's rest do not not underestimate
the importance of sleep sleep is so
important and I do not mean just getting
enough hours I also mean sleeping early
and waking up early your brain needs
time to repair and the best time to do
that is early in the night to midnight
so go to sleep early even if that means
waking up a little earlier to study some
more you need good rest to stay alert
and awake during the exam and you likely
won't retain any more information that
you don't already know the night before
the exam so put away the study materi
material and sleep well next is to
review but not just any review stop
trying to do practice problems and
remember nitty-gritty facts instead you
should review the big picture get big
ideas and memorize important facts right
now is not the time to Jumble your brain
so study important ideas watch recap
videos on YouTube look through your
study guide and then get some rest now
it's a few hours before your exam and
you need to eat a breakfast or lunch so
what should you eat and this may not
seem important to you but trust me it
makes a difference don't eat too much
sugar or carbs because that will make
you feel sluggish and tired during the
exam I never like to eat too much before
a test I like to eat something light and
maybe some protein also make sure that
you drink some water but not too much so
you're not thirsty during the exam but
you also don't want to use the restroom
okay and finally let's finish off this
video with what may be the most
mindset your thoughts and mentality
deter your success so here are some
important mindset shifts that you should
make first is to believe that you can be
an academic weapon you can be anything
that you want if you keep thinking that
you're dumb and you just can't learn it
guess what it's going to be true stop
using yourself as an excuse and start
believing in yourself you must believe
that you are an academic weapon and that
you can learn anything that you set your
mind to not only will this also make you
more motivated to actually figure it out
but with time you will actually believe
yourself and and it will become true
when you create this new identity for
yourself you will also start to take
actions that align with this identity so
you will feel more motivated to study
and also study more productively and
motivation you might need motivation to
get started and keep going from time to
time so save this video and watch this
part for when you don't feel like
studying because now is the best time to
learn you are young and your brain is at
the most powerful it will ever be in
your life later on if you want to learn
something new it will likely be a lot
harder than trying to learn it now and
your grades do matter I once thought
that they don't matter as well I thought
that my grades don't Define me and I
don't care about them but guess what
they do Define a part of you they can
show your perseverance your intelligence
your discipline your open-mindedness and
so much more but on the other hand they
can also reflect your laziness your
unwillingness to learn or your bad time
management skills but it's never too
late to fix that in the end no one can
motivate you but yourself no one can
change you but yourself so frankly I
have no way to inherently motivate you
and just by watching this video to the
end I know that you are motivated and
you want change and I am so proud of you
for that there are so many beautiful
possibilities in life and now is the
time to go after them so start now and
that is the end of today's video if you
have watched all the way here comment
study gu in the comments down below so I
know that you are still here and that
you are well on your way to becoming an
academic weapon there are so many more
Amazing tips and tricks and details that
I have but there's just too much for me
to put all into this one video and they
are all available in the ultimate
academic weapon study guide in the
beacon AI page linked in the description
below it literally took me several
hundred hours to think of outline and
put together and I really hope that it
will be helpful to you my goal is to
motivate more students to study and also
show them that studying does not have to
be painful or hard instead it is a
beautiful thing that opens so many doors
for you and can be so easy and enjoyable
so if that sounds appealing to you
definitely check out my study guide and
don't forget to subscribe for more
videos like this weekly and also follow
me on Tik Tok and Instagram for more
content daily thank you so much for
watching I love you so much and I'll see
you in the next video bye [Music]
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