The SECRET to Straight A's NO MATTER WHAT
Summary
TLDRIn this candid video, Amy shares her journey to achieving straight A's despite challenges like poor teaching and physical migraines. She emphasizes the importance of mindset, discipline, and consistent effort over relying on resources or excuses. From her experience at Caltech and high school, Amy provides practical tips on studying effectively, seeking extra credit, and adapting strategies when initial efforts fail. Her story serves as an inspiration that with determination and the right approach, anyone can excel academically.
Takeaways
- 😀 Consistency is key to academic success, but it doesn't have to be 100% of the time; most of the time is enough.
- 📚 Understanding the material as you go is crucial, and generic advice like minimizing phone distractions can help to some extent.
- 🏫 Even at top schools with challenging teachers, achieving straight A's is possible with the right mindset and effort.
- 📚 Prioritize your efforts where they provide the most value, focusing on high-impact tasks and assignments.
- 📚 For subjects like AP Environmental Science, self-study with resources like the Princeton Review textbook can compensate for poor teaching.
- 🏆 Persistence and determination are essential; don't let setbacks like a bad teacher or personal challenges deter you from your goals.
- 📝 Rewrites and extra credit can significantly improve your grades, so always look for opportunities to improve your work.
- 📚 Surround yourself with supportive friends who can provide examples of good work and help you understand what teachers are looking for.
- 💪 Overcoming physical challenges like migraines can be a strength, pushing you to develop better study habits and resilience.
- 📚 Over-preparation can be a lifesaver, ensuring that even when you're not at your best, you can still meet your goals.
- 💪 No excuses, take accountability, and believe in your ability to control your outcomes. This mindset is crucial for both academic and real-world success.
Q & A
What is the main message of the video?
-The main message of the video is that achieving straight A's requires a combination of mindset, discipline, hard work, and effective study strategies, even in the face of challenges such as poor teaching or personal difficulties.
What is Amy's educational background mentioned in the video?
-Amy graduated with a 4.0 from Caltech and was the valedictorian of her high school, achieving straight A's pluses with the exception of two A's while taking 11 AP classes.
How did Amy approach her AP Environmental Science class when the teacher was not helpful?
-Amy took the initiative to purchase the Princeton Review AP Environmental Science textbook, studied consistently for 20 minutes each night, and supplemented her learning with YouTube videos when needed.
What is the significance of the 'implementation question' mentioned by Amy?
-The 'implementation question' is a strategy to define the specific actions and habits needed to achieve a goal. For Amy, it meant setting a consistent study routine of reading her textbook for 20 minutes before bed each night.
How did Amy handle the situation when her first essay in French Cinema class received a poor grade?
-Amy sought feedback from the professor, asked questions to understand the requirements better, and rewrote the essay to improve her grade.
What is the importance of surrounding oneself with supportive peers as illustrated in Amy's story about her friend's essay?
-Surrounding oneself with supportive peers can provide valuable insights and examples of success, as Amy learned from her friend's well-received essay, which helped her improve her own writing and grade.
How did Amy manage to achieve a five on the AP Physics exam despite suffering from a migraine on the day of the exam?
-Amy's over-preparation for the exam allowed her to perform well even in a compromised state. She had a deep understanding of the material, which enabled her to achieve the required score despite her migraine.
What is the key takeaway from Amy's story about her migraines and how they influenced her study habits?
-Amy's migraines taught her the importance of consistent and efficient study habits, as well as the necessity to complete assignments ahead of time to account for potential disruptions to her schedule.
What advice does Amy give regarding the common belief that getting A's is only about being 'book smart' and not applicable to the real world?
-Amy argues that the mindset, discipline, and work ethic required to achieve straight A's are transferable skills that can also lead to success in the real world.
How does Amy feel about the format of this video and her approach to sharing ideas?
-Amy feels that improvising in this video made it sound more natural, which she liked. She hopes to continue this candid style to share more of her ideas and experiences.
What is Amy's perspective on making excuses and taking accountability for one's academic success?
-Amy believes that making excuses is a habit that can extend to larger aspects of life. She emphasizes the importance of taking accountability, having self-efficacy, and recognizing that one is in control of many aspects of their success.
Outlines
📚 Overcoming Challenges for Straight A's
The speaker, Amy, introduces her academic achievements and sets the stage for a discussion on how she consistently achieved straight A's despite various challenges, including poor teaching and personal difficulties. She emphasizes the importance of mindset and the application of generic advice to real-life academic scenarios. Amy shares her experience with AP Environmental Science, where she had to self-study using the Princeton Review textbook due to an unhelpful teacher, and highlights the value of consistency and self-motivation in her study routine.
🎓 Prioritizing Effort for Maximum Academic Return
Amy discusses the strategy of focusing effort on tasks that contribute most to grades, rather than spreading effort evenly across all assignments. She recounts her experience with a French Cinema class where she initially struggled with essay writing. Through meeting with the professor and understanding the feedback, Amy managed to improve her grades by rewriting essays and seeking additional credit. The summary underlines the importance of persistence, seeking clarification, and leveraging available resources to improve academic performance.
🤯 Navigating Academic Pressure with Determination
In this paragraph, Amy shares her struggle with migraines and how they affected her academic life, including missing classes and having less time to study. Despite these physical challenges, she managed to excel in her AP Physics exam by over-preparing and ensuring a deep understanding of the material. The summary illustrates Amy's resilience and the effectiveness of thorough preparation as a strategy to overcome potential setbacks during exams.
🚀 The Power of Mindset and Accountability in Achieving Excellence
Amy concludes by reflecting on the mindset required to achieve straight A's, emphasizing the importance of discipline, hard work, and accountability. She argues that the habits and attitudes developed for academic success are transferable to real-world scenarios. Amy also addresses the misconception that academic success is solely about being 'book smart' and encourages viewers to take action, believe in their ability to succeed, and avoid making excuses. The summary encapsulates the broader life lessons and personal growth that can be derived from the pursuit of academic excellence.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Straight A's
💡Mindset
💡Consistency
💡Effort
💡AP Classes
💡Resources
💡Procrastination
💡Extra Credit
💡Self-efficacy
💡Migraines
💡Accountability
Highlights
The speaker emphasizes the importance of mindset and personal responsibility in achieving straight A's, despite external challenges.
Amy, a 4.0 graduate from Caltech and high school valedictorian, shares her personal experiences and strategies for academic success.
The video offers a no-nonsense approach to getting good grades, even with poor teaching or personal disadvantages.
Amy discusses the challenge of taking AP Environmental Science with an unhelpful teacher and how she self-studied to achieve a high score.
Consistency in studying, even if not every day, is highlighted as a key factor in academic success.
The importance of setting realistic goals for consistent study habits is underlined to avoid overwhelming oneself.
Amy shares her method of allocating effort to tasks that provide the most value in terms of grades.
She explains how to prioritize tasks based on their impact on the final grade, rather than equally distributing effort.
The video emphasizes the power of self-motivation and not relying on others for academic achievement.
Amy's experience with rewriting essays to improve her grade is shared, demonstrating the value of persistence and seeking feedback.
The benefits of learning from peers and understanding different approaches to assignments are discussed.
The video stresses the importance of over-preparation to compensate for potential disadvantages or obstacles.
Amy's personal struggle with migraines and how she adapted her study habits to manage this challenge is shared.
The video concludes with a message about the applicability of academic discipline and mindset to real-world success.
Amy encourages viewers to take accountability for their learning and not to make excuses for poor performance.
The importance of showing up for oneself and developing good habits is highlighted as crucial for success.
The video ends with a call to action for viewers to apply the mindset and strategies discussed to their own academic pursuits.
Transcripts
if you clicked on this video hoping to
find some magical tip that you haven't
already heard from those hundreds of
other videos how to get straight A's how
I effortlessly get A's you come to the
right place because this is a no BS far
truth how I always got straight A's even
at one of the hardest engineering
schools in the world even when I had
really terrible teachers even when I was
actually doing terrible in my classes
and I thought I would fail this video is
unlike any other straight a video you've
ever seen before and if by the end you
don't think that's true then I'll
personally do your homework for you hey
it's Amy I got a 4.0 from Caltech and I
was valedictorian in my high school I
got straight a pluses except for I think
two A's and that was when taking 11 AP
classes I did three Sports and I slept
eight hours a day a lot of you guys ask
me how do you get good grades even while
doing so many activities so many other
things and sometimes I'm like bro I
don't know I've been thinking long and
hard about it and watching other YouTube
videos for inspiration and yeah I mean I
do agree with most of the things in
those generic videos we do need to
understand the material as we go maybe
we should put our phone away like that
generic advice is only helpful to some
extent we know deep down inside what we
need to do to get straight A's I've
already made several YouTube videos like
how to max your GPA blah blah blah right
so if you follow the tips I give you you
will get A's but that's a big if the
problem is that mindset and converting
the tips I'm actually no different from
you guys I've had terrible teachers and
teachers who I felt like they had a
personal Vendetta against me so it gave
me bad grades and I even had a physical
disadvantage that I'll reveal at the end
of the video in my last story so what
made me get straight A's over the other
people who have the same information
from the internet so the thing I'm going
to do differently in this video is make
the tips and stories come to life a
little bit of tough love here but
nowadays people are always like I don't
have resources to do this maybe I didn't
go to a good school well my school
wasn't that good either and for the ACT
SAT I use purely free Resources with
that attitude of I didn't have good
resources I should have failed the AP
environmental science exam because my
teacher sucked and with that story one
is Apes AP environmental science so this
was supposed to be a throwaway AP class
basically just one that I would take to
say I have another AP but it was
supposed to be so easy that it wouldn't
really add to my workload that's what
all the upperclassmen told me they were
like you need another AP just take apes
and I was like okay cool I like that
another way to GPA not much work another
five on the exam brilliant idea for my
junior year unfortunately the first day
of class I felt something was wrong and
you know that first class when they're
supposed to talk about the syllabus and
how they're planning to help you get
that five on the AP exam well he didn't
cover any of that and then when the
students asked him hey like how are we
preparing he's like oh you know learn
what we can throughout the year do a few
projects and yeah that's exactly what he
did in the first month we were doing
this project where I had to film a rock
in different nature settings how does
that help me get better or understand
environmental science at all my
classmates were chatting with me one day
they're all like man we're not taking
the AP exam we're gonna fail we were
getting closer and closer to the exam
date and on top of that we were doing
these very meaningless projects which I
was also scoring badly in because the
scoring is so objective so I felt like I
wasn't going to get an A let alone a
five on the AP exam but then one day
after coming back from school I was like
no what do I want I want an a I want a
five on the exam that's what I signed up
for and even though I didn't sign up for
the teacher I signed up for a result I
can still make that result happen it's
not like getting an unexpected teacher
forces me to get a different result if I
really wanted to get a five there are
ways to do that so I went on to Amazon I
did some quick research found I think
the Princeton Review AP environmental
science textbook and I asked my mom to
buy it easy to convince the Asian
parents to buy something for academics
you know once I got the book the next
problem was how am I going to study this
when I already have other schoolwork I
already had my regular classes plus
homework and I still had homework for AP
environmental science class
basically every night before going to
bed I took that book from my bedside
table I sat under my covers and I read
that for 20 minutes it felt so strange
you know starting from page one reading
the intro doing those practice problems
but I did it and keep in mind that this
wasn't every night I think something
that students struggle with is that they
think consistency means a hundred
percent of the time but consistency just
means most of the time and for this
maybe it means six out of seven days a
week you need to realize what
consistency means to you because if you
set your goal too high you're not gonna
do it at all and that's worse and if you
set a more attainable goal and you at
least were able to do something better I
continue to do the projects but I
stopped putting as much effort into them
just good enough because the grades the
teacher gave us were gonna be that kind
of grade anyway so why put more effort
there that's something I learned as well
to get A's you want to figure out where
you want to put your effort that
provides the most value for you if the
textbook isn't helpful and it's not
going to be on the test Don't force
yourself to read it if a project isn't a
big percentage of your grade then don't
spend a huge chunk of time making
everything very pretty the prettiness
often is not what gets you the grade
anyway with being a straight A student
and trying to be a straight A student
sometimes you know you feel a little
different I mean I was the only one in
that class who was going to take the AP
environmental science exam and when I
was chatting with my classmates again
they were like Amy you're insane how are
you going to take the exam I was like oh
I just bought the book and I'm reading
it and they're like wow that's
commitment but they didn't change and
that didn't really Inspire them to do
anything which I thought was interesting
as human nature for me to be like why am
I doing this extra work every night
before I go to sleep at the end of the
day after homework like yeah I just want
to collapse into my pillow but it's the
knowledge of every single day counts
that kept me going so yeah it was insane
I read that thick book thick with two
C's from cover to cover I tested myself
with the practice problems I
supplemented with YouTube videos when I
didn't understand something my story is
inspiration that in your case especially
if you're able to watch this YouTube
video you have a wealth of knowledge
right at your fingertips that you gotta
tap into there are no excuses if you
don't have access to a book like I did
it costs money then you can borrow from
a library there are so many ways to get
the results you want if you want an a
ask how am I gonna get that a that's
also a tip that I learned from this book
and this book is called an
implementation question you need to ask
yourself how are you going to get to
what you want and then when there's a
habit that you want to do like for me
reading the book it's filling in the
blanks here at this time at this
location I will do this so for me every
night before I go to bed I'm gonna read
for 20 minutes and guess what exam time
rolled around I ended up with a five yay
that was so exciting and I think it felt
even better than the other fives I had
gotten on my other AP exams that five
was self-made I showed to myself that
there there's no one standing in the way
of a certain goal of a five on a test as
far as the actual letter grade because I
started focusing on the more high value
things like assignments and even
proactively asking for extra credit I
also ended up with an A plus so in this
whole story the biggest thing was I
didn't take no for an answer I didn't
accept that maybe I was going to end up
with a b no I asked is there a
possibility for extra credit and I
pushed for it and for the AP test two I
was like no I'm not gonna accept that
everyone else is not gonna take it I'm
still going to take it because that's
what I came here for and I'm gonna make
me be able to get a five all right at
Caltech there were many hard classes but
I don't think I ever struggled as much
and felt so distraught and bad about
myself and had my ego crushed so hard as
this French Cinema class this was also
supposed to be a relatively fun class
because we could watch movies in class
and then write essays about them so like
whoa why not you know we have these
Humanities requirements I have all these
chemical engineering classes let's take
this one when I got my first essay back
I still remember that pit in my stomach
like my stomach and heart had just
dropped to the floor it was probably one
of the worst grades I've ever gone on an
essay probably the worst grade I've ever
gotten in an essay it was a c plus man I
was like what did I do wrong in all my
classes before I thought I was a good
writer and like I got decent grades in
them
foreign
teacher like like what can I do she gave
us a rewrite but she said that that
could only bump it up one letter grade
so it would go to a B minus and I was
like okay I'll take it I'll rewrite it
because I need to do everything I can
right that tip there is even if you
think is an insignificant Improvement or
bump in points or anything like you
gotta take anything you can get because
all those little points will add up plus
the practice of redoing an essay that
was bad or redoing a problem that you
did wrong that's just gonna make you
more able to get it right in the first
place next time so to do that first
rewrite I set up a meeting with the
French Cinema professor she talked to me
about what was bad about my essay and I
like chatted back asking questions so I
thought I had a good understanding once
I sent in that rewrite and I got that
bump that B minus essay number two we
had three essays total in this class
once I got the second essay back it was
just like bro I suck this one I got a B
minus or a B I had already put in so
much effort and met with a professor and
I thought I understood what she wanted
but here she gives me another bad grade
what was I doing wrong like what more
could I do I know I'm talking very
passionately about Ace but if you want
A's gotta be passionate about it you
gotta care I uh met with her again and I
did another rewrite so bumped it up from
you know if it was a B minus to a b b to
B Plus either way going into that third
essay I was like man I am not ending up
with an A and I will just have to accept
that so uh for the third essay the final
essay The Final Countdown so I asked my
friend to show me her essay in a sudden
spark of realization I was like bro you
got a good grade how did you write it my
friend was amazing you know that's
another good tip surround yourself with
good friends who are generous who are
not competitive with you and that's the
good thing about Caltech everyone was
really nice we're all in this together
you know we're all in this together and
she emailed me the exact essay I read
and I was like day this is what the
professor wanted why didn't she tell me
that sometimes the professor gives
obscure answers or the teacher tells you
things that in theory it's what she
wants but then when put into practice
it's just so much easier to see an
example of what they really want this
essay was just written in a different
style different structure different
approach than I did I've never written
an essay that way but I was like okay
I'm gonna try this I wrote an essay
similar to my friends well not like
plagiarizing of course it's just like
following the you know approach I ended
up with N A minus overall but an A plus
on that essay if I didn't get those
little points from the rewrites I would
not have gotten an a the email that said
what grade I got Professor was like
standing piece of work and the best
essay you've ever written well obviously
because I got a better grade the lesson
there is if something doesn't work out
like you talking to the teacher try a
different way if you try and go down One
path and it shuts down don't keep trying
to jam yourself into that wall try going
down a different path and see if that
works so my different path was asking my
friend alright last one story time what
is my physical
disadvantage per se if you've heard of
um migraines migraines are some of the
worst pain I've ever experienced how it
starts is half of my vision goes blind
it's like blurry but also like moves
around like a flowy water on the side if
I could see your face right now and I
had a migraine I would only be able to
see half your face or I could not
recognize who you are once that aura
stops and your head just starts pounding
so hard and I cannot describe that pain
it's not oops I forgot to plug this in I
would typically go to the nurse's office
in the middle of class whenever it
happened and asked to be sent home so I
went back home and then I just try and
sleep for like two to three hours once I
was able to function as a person again
so as you can imagine that really made
getting good grades hard sometimes
because I would miss class and then that
would take time away from being able to
do the amount of school work I had so
one specific story it was a day of my AP
Physics Exam one hour before it was
going to start I suddenly felt my hand
go numb I put my hand out
blurry I was like oh my God are you
kidding me right now I'll get a migraine
and I was debating like man should I
skip this one and then do the makeup
exam but then if I take the makeup exam
that would be the same day as my other
makeup exam so very like stressed I
called my parents I was like oh what
should I do my mom's like it's okay try
your best I said with conviction I'm
still gonna take it I can do it so I
went to the exam my head's still hurting
I think my vision's still not so good I
was like oh how am I gonna even read the
numbers on the page I took it and
throughout the exam I had got a little
better once I finished I was like oh my
gosh one of the hardest experience in my
life and I went home and crashed the
result was I miraculously surprisingly
still ended up with a five the lesson
here is I prepared so much more I think
I made sure to really understand how
each problem how each formula how the
math worked so such that almost like
over preparing for that five where I
think it's just a 60 or higher to get a
five or something like that so even when
I was not in my best state a horrible
State actually I was still able to meet
that threshold because I over prepared
right if you think you have
disadvantages or you think like
something could come up you never want
to procrastinate like you always want to
kind of give yourself Insurance to make
it okay in whatever situation suddenly
happens life is hard and we get dealt
these different cards in life but it's
all about how you play your hand and you
want to remember and realize that
everyone has difficulties in their lives
maybe to different levels but you can't
just take someone at face value and be
like wow they get A's all the time it
must be easy for them that's the first
mistake if you think it's easy for
someone to get A's it's going to be hard
for you to get Ace because you're like
studying and then you get a b and you're
like why is this hard for me and so you
try less or you don't think of how to
actually get that a because because I
had migraines in a way I take that as a
strength where I would make sure to do
those good habits of a straight A
student but even more consistently and
to do my homework even more efficiently
and ahead of time just in case something
happens procrastination was not an
option for me we see in all those basic
general advice don't procrastinate don't
cram the night before an exam this third
story is an example of applying that and
why you want to do that so that's kind
of the purpose I wanted to show today
like this video might not have been do
one two three four all these tips you
know that you see in those other video
formats but it's how I applied these in
a way even when I felt pretty hopeless
pretty helpless and honestly pretty
negative about the results that I could
have but there's only one thing you can
do regardless of if you think you can
get it or not and it's a try you just
want to try and it helps to believe that
by trying you're more likely to get the
result you want people people say all
the time that oh you're just book smart
academic you know that's not how the
real world works but I think that the
way I approach to getting straight A's
is a way of how I can do well in the
real world as well these kinds of
mindsets discipline that work ethic and
most of all no excuses taking
accountability and having self-efficacy
that you know I'm in control of many
things so I'm going to do well in what I
can control not making excuses becomes a
habit think about all the things that
are already a habit brush your teeth
take notes you do your homework you show
up you show up for yourself if you don't
show up for yourself no one's going to
show up for you No One's Gonna Save you
and give you straight A's and no video
is going to give you straight A's unless
you take that mindset just like why I
think this video is probably more
valuable than the other general advice
you see out there it brings all the tips
you already know to life if you make
excuses in the little things then you're
gonna make excuses in the big things too
yeah really excited for you guys to let
me know what you think in the comments
and give me a like if you like this
format of video sometimes I get pretty
paralyzed per se to make a video I have
a list of like probably over a thousand
ideas no joke but it's really hard for
me to get through them because I'm a
little bit of a perfectionist to get the
intro exactly right to you know say
everything perfectly but this video I
improvised a little more hopefully it
sounded more natural which I actually
liked so let me know if you like that
too and I'm hoping that I can do more
videos like this where I'm talking to
you a little bit more candidly and
therefore get more of my ideas out
because I do have a lot to share and a
lot of stories like this anyway if you
want to know healthy habits I have for
being able to do it all being healthy
being strong getting good grades well
check out this video thank you for
watching peace
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