How to Cram for Exams the SMART WAY
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Amy from Valoran shares her expertise on efficient cramming, having achieved high scores on AP exams while balancing sports and sleep. She emphasizes the importance of focus, efficiency, and a stoic mindset to maximize study output. Amy outlines a strategy that includes getting the big picture, prioritizing concepts, targeting practice problems, addressing weaknesses, and maintaining sleep to ensure optimal performance. Her tips aim to help students prepare effectively for exams, even under time pressure.
Takeaways
- 📚 Embrace Efficiency: The key to successful cramming is to maximize output while minimizing input, focusing on the most important concepts first.
- 🧘 Stay Stoic: Maintain control over your reactions to stress, as external events cannot be controlled but your focus can be directed towards studying.
- 🎯 Prioritize Focus: Focus is essential for intensive studying, allowing you to absorb more information in less time compared to a less focused approach.
- 📉 Get the Big Picture: Start by understanding the overarching concepts and connections between topics, which helps in remembering and applying knowledge.
- 📝 Prioritize Concepts: Use resources to determine the weight of each concept and create a list in order of importance to guide your study plan.
- 🔍 Target Practice Problems: Engage with practice problems rather than general summaries, as they provide a targeted review of necessary information.
- 🔄 Active Recall: Use active recall techniques by reviewing or redoing questions to reinforce memory and understanding.
- 🚫 Eliminate Distractions: Remove distractions such as phones and music to concentrate fully on the study material.
- 🔄 Target Weaknesses: Identify and address areas of difficulty from past work to improve understanding and boost scores.
- 💤 Preserve Sleep: Avoid sacrificing sleep, as it is crucial for cognitive function and overall performance on the test.
- 🌟 Health First: Remember that health is more important than grades, and maintaining well-being is essential for effective studying and test performance.
Q & A
What is the main theme of Amy's video?
-The main theme of Amy's video is to provide effective and efficient cramming strategies for exam preparation.
How did Amy manage to balance her academic and extracurricular activities while getting good sleep?
-Amy managed her time efficiently, using her experience and learnings from cramming to achieve high scores in her AP exams, playing Varsity Sports, and getting into a top 10 University while maintaining an average of 8 hours of sleep a night.
What is the key to successful cramming according to Amy?
-The key to successful cramming, according to Amy, is efficiency, which involves maximizing output while minimizing input.
What mindset is critical for efficiency during cramming?
-A stoic mindset is critical for efficiency during cramming, focusing on control over one's reactions to high-stress situations rather than external events.
How can one increase the intensity of studying according to the script?
-One can increase the intensity of studying by focusing on the task at hand, which allows for the absorption of more information in a shorter amount of time.
What is the first step Amy suggests to take when cramming?
-The first step Amy suggests is to get the big picture by using a syllabus or notes to skim all concepts at a high level, understanding the story and connections between different concepts.
Why is it important to understand the 'story' behind a subject when cramming?
-Understanding the 'story' behind a subject helps in connecting different concepts and remembering them better, as humans tend to connect and remember stories more effectively.
What is the second step in Amy's cramming strategy?
-The second step is to prioritize concepts based on their weight in the exam, using resources to determine the importance of each concept and creating a list in order of priority.
How can practice problems be used effectively in the cramming process?
-Practice problems act as a cheat sheet, highlighting the essential information minus the details. They should be used to target the most important concepts first, working down the priority list.
What is the purpose of targeting weaknesses during the cramming process?
-Targeting weaknesses helps to address areas where one has previously made mistakes or struggled, which can have a significant impact on improving the score and boosting confidence.
Why is it important not to sacrifice sleep during the cramming process?
-Sacrificing sleep can negatively affect performance and memory retention, making it crucial to strike a balance between studying and getting enough rest.
What advice does Amy give about health and grades in relation to cramming for exams?
-Amy advises that health is more important than grades and should be prioritized, even during the stress of exam preparation.
Outlines
📚 Mastering the Art of Cramming for Exams
The script introduces Amy, a successful student who shares her insights on effective cramming techniques. She emphasizes the importance of staying focused and efficient, especially when time is limited. Amy suggests starting with a broad overview of the material to understand the 'big picture' and then prioritizing study topics based on their weight in the exam. She also highlights the significance of active recall and targeted practice problems over passive reading, as well as addressing weaknesses to boost confidence and performance.
🏆 Prioritizing and Targeting for Maximum Points
In this paragraph, the focus shifts to the practical steps for cramming. Amy advises starting with the most important concepts and working through practice problems to reinforce understanding. She introduces the concept of 'parallel recall' and suggests using answer keys for efficiency. Amy also stresses the importance of targeting weaknesses to improve scores and confidence. She warns against sacrificing sleep, emphasizing the need for a balance between study time and rest to maintain cognitive sharpness, especially for memory-based tests. The paragraph concludes with a reminder to stay focused and the offer of further support in the comments section.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cramming
💡Efficiency
💡Stoicism
💡Focus
💡Big Picture
💡Prioritize
💡Practice Problems
💡Active Recall
💡Weaknesses
💡Sleep
💡Test-Taking Strategies
Highlights
The importance of efficiency in cramming for exams, especially when time is limited.
Amy's personal experience with high school success while balancing academics, sports, and sleep.
The concept of staying stoic and in control during high-stress situations to maintain focus.
Maximizing study intensity by focusing deeply to absorb more information in less time.
The strategy of eliminating distractions such as phones and music to lock in for studying.
Understanding the big picture by skimming notes and syllabi to grasp the overall story of the course material.
The advantage of connecting information through stories to improve memory retention.
Drawing connections between concepts to understand the 'why' behind each operation or step in subjects like science and math.
Prioritizing study topics based on their weight in the exam to maximize points.
Target practice problems as an effective way to focus on key areas that will yield the most points.
Using active recall to improve study efficiency by reviewing and redoing questions covering important topics.
The method of parallel recall and directly reviewing answer keys to speed up the study process.
Addressing weaknesses by reviewing past work and practice problems to identify and resolve errors.
The psychological benefits of targeting weaknesses to boost confidence and improve scores.
The importance of not sacrificing sleep, even when cramming, to maintain cognitive performance.
Balancing the need to study with the necessity of rest to ensure the brain is sharp for the exam.
The emphasis on health being more important than grades and the need to prioritize it during exam preparation.
Amy's encouragement to stay focused on studying and to seek support from the community if needed.
Transcripts
oh no not again no matter how hard you
try to stay on track sometimes the test
just sneaks up on you I've had this
happen many times we have so many
classes and extracurriculars that we
can't help but cram sometimes since we
cannot completely avoid cramming might
as well know the best way to cram hey
team it's Amy I was valoran and I got
fives on all 11 of my AP exams I also
played Varsity Sports and got into a top
10 University while sleeping an average
of 8 hours a night I'm hoping that my
experience and learnings from cramming
will make it easier for you take a deep
breath don't stress and have faith that
by the end of this video you will know
the most effective and efficient ways to
prepare for your exam no matter how
close it might be time to get focused
let's go when you're cramming the key
is efficiency someone called me the
queen of efficiency the other day so
thank you I love that title efficiency
is maximizing your output while
minimizing your input before we get into
the study actions the following mindset
is critical to your efficiency it's
important to stay stoic in situations of
high stress as a famous stoic said we
cannot control the external events
around us but we can control our
reactions to them so know you are in
control and the most important thing for
you to control right now and in the
hours leading up to your exam is focus
focus is essential to increasing your
intensity of studying this allows you to
absorb more information within 2 hours
than someone who who is not focused and
studying for 5 hours you know your own
situation so do what you got to do okay
just do it Nike throw away your phone no
music unless it's classical time to lock
in let's get ready to rumble let's get
ready to rumble now that you have the
right mindset it's time for the actions
the goal is to maximize the number of
points you get and these steps will do
just that number one get the big picture
it's really natural for students to
panic and try to study everything at
once so take a step back use your
syllabus if you have one and do a
shallow skim of all your Concepts at a
high level this is where I'll do a quick
flip through of my notes to remind
myself of where things are this will
come in very handy you'll see you later
always think about things you can take
advantage of to make things easier I
really like to take advantage of the
chapter summaries and again just skim
them at the start of my study basically
with this step of getting the big
picture you want to understand the story
as humans we connect to stories and
therefore will remember them better you
might be wondering but where's the story
behind biology or math the idea is to
draw connections between different
concepts and see how things all come
together the point of a test is not just
so you know these little bits of
disperate information when you grasp the
story similarities between things and
connections then it's easier to BS
things on the test you can scrape points
even if you didn't review every little
detail for example in in chemistry I
remember how I wouldn't know every
little thing about the gold foil
experiments but I understood the story
of how the model of the atom came to be
thus I knew the point of the Thompson
model In Rutherford's gold foil
experiments especially in those
explanation questions it was much easier
for me to overd deliver on my answers
and scrape up extra points for classes
like science and math the story is
really understanding the reason behind
each operation or step you're doing you
have to know why you're even doing it
when you do a step you have to tell
yourself I'm doing this because this
this way you can solve problems on the
test you never even seen before overall
if you want the easiest way to get the
big picture as you're studying something
always be asking so what what is the
point of this and make sure to answer it
of course to cram most efficiently and
effectively we must study what we'll pay
off the most to maximize our points
therefore step two is prioritize use any
and all of these resources to determine
how much weight each of the concepts
will have for example one concept might
be emphasized a lot more and there will
be five questions on it while another
concept only has one multiple choice
question on it write your list of
Concepts in priority order starting from
the highest weight down to the lowest
weight this list will be important for
you to do your subsequent steps of
studying you will be working down your
priority list of Concepts starting with
the first one you will study that
concept using actions 3 and four after
that you'll go to the second concept on
your list and go through actions 3 and
four then you'll repeat as you go down
your concept priority list so what is
action number three it is target
practice problems going deep into all of
your class nodes and your textbook and
writing summaries isn't very effective
but practice
problems these are basically like a
cheat sheet of all the things you need
to know minus the little details in the
textbook and notes this also helps you
not waste time studying every little
thing so just like I mentioned earlier
with action two start with the most
important concept on your priority list
review or even redo questions covering
that topic these practice problems can
be from your homework quizzes the back
of the book even question Banks online
if you're really short on time and can
explicitly do active recall here are two
things you can do to speed up your study
one use parallel recall or number two
Direct ly review the answer keys
remember how you skip your notes earlier
from action one instead of studying
everything that's because now you have
an overall idea of where things are
located in your notes or chapter
summaries while I'm targeting practice
problems and I want more details or I
want further explanations now I can flip
back into my notes and review them as
needed the questions lead my studying
while I use the notes as a supplement
not the other way around Action Four if
you want to improve move be content to
be thought foolish and stupid weaknesses
are huge opportunities because working
on them can make a lot more impact than
being a perfectionist on things that
you're already strong on thus Action
Four is Target weaknesses use any and
all of your past work and practice
problems to see what you missed go
through each of these missed points
errors mistakes one by one if you're
having way too much difficulty and get
stuck on a problem then move on to the
next weakness to be efficient you don't
want any bottlenecks disrupting your
flow of studying and you also don't want
that to be decreasing your confidence
the goal is to address as many
weaknesses as you can so resolve the lwh
hanging fruit first corporate lingo not
only does targeting your weaknesses
boost your score but psychologically it
has a positive impact too you will feel
better and more confident because
otherwise it's one of the worst feelings
to know that there are problems you've
missed before and you still haven't
resolved them those steps SL actions 3
and four make sure to be repeating those
for each of those Concepts in your
priority list number five please please
please listen to me okay do not
sacrifice your sleep I don't care how
much you feel like you need to study
okay the more you sacrifice your sleep
the more you're canceling out your
ability to perform well anyway you are
working down your priority list of
Concepts but depending on how much time
you have before your test you may not
get through all the concepts and that is
okay that's why you cover the high
priority ones first when it's getting
late you have to make a decision based
on your body and its needs the way to
think about it is you want to strike a
balance between staying up a little more
than you usually do to make up for your
lost time and giving your brain enough
rest to stay sharp especially if your
test is memory based please get some z's
I've never said that word before don't
take a hit on your health okay your
health heal is a number one thing and I
feel like people don't prioritize that
enough remember that your health is more
important than anything else in this
world including your grades okay no
matter what your parents say just
kidding your parents also want you to be
healthy prioritizing my health is also
why I could holistically accomplish so
many things have a social life and play
sports if I don't sleep enough I could
get a migraine and that would ruin my
chances of taking the test well anyway
good job take another deep breath and
remember it's just one test also remind
yourself that preparation leads to
confidence even so test taking is really
hard I understand the time pressure the
stress so even if you study well
sometimes it's really hard to get a good
score if you're not a good test taker
that's why I made this video where I
cover how to deal with stress how to
guess on the test and strategies to
maximize points while you're taking the
test itself keep it in mind if you need
it if you want to improve your test
taking but right now go to your studying
close YouTube and stay stay focused okay
lock in I'll see you a team if you have
any questions ask in the comments and
your lovely a team members will support
you and help answer good luck but
hopefully you don't need it bye
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