getting straight A's is easy, actually

Summary

This video offers a no-nonsense guide to achieving straight A's with minimal effort. The speaker, a Yale student, emphasizes efficient studying over long hours, introducing Parkinson's Law for setting tight deadlines. Active recall through practice questions is recommended over passive reading. The video also suggests gamifying study sessions, leveraging AI for question creation, and creating a focused environment to enhance productivity and make studying a rewarding experience.

Takeaways

• 🎓 Aim for efficient studying, not just long hours. The speaker emphasizes that studying 2 hours a day can be more effective than 10 if done right.
• 🧠 Rewire your mindset to value quality over quantity in studying. It's about achieving results, not the time spent studying.
• 📚 Parkinson's Law: Set specific goals and deadlines to avoid wasting time. Limit your study sessions to a maximum of 2 hours to enhance focus and efficiency.
• 📉 Avoid passive studying like just reading or rewriting notes, which can be a form of procrastination rather than effective learning.
• 📝 Active recall is a powerful study technique. Engage in doing practice questions and reviewing past exams to reinforce learning.
• 🤖 Utilize AI tools like Chacha BT to generate study questions from your notes, which can be a time-saving and effective method.
• 🎮 Gamify your studying by using platforms like Quizlet to make learning fun and interactive, enhancing retention and engagement.
• 🚀 Turn studying into a game by setting personal goals, like answering questions quickly and accurately, to increase motivation.
• 📵 Minimize distractions by using strategies like airplane mode or a clean desk environment to create a conducive study space.
• 🌿 Create a pleasant study environment with good smells, like using essential oils, to enhance focus and relaxation.
• 🏆 Use rewards to stay motivated, such as watching a YouTube video or Netflix show after completing a study session.
• 💡 The speaker is confident that following these steps will transform you into an academic 'weapon,' capable of achieving high grades with less time.

Q & A

What is the main point of the video?

The main point of the video is to provide a guide on how to study efficiently and achieve straight A's without spending excessive time on studying.

Why does the speaker believe that studying for long hours is not necessarily a good thing?

The speaker believes that studying for long hours can be inefficient and that it's better to study for shorter periods and achieve the same or better results, allowing time for other activities like building relationships and hobbies.

What is Parkinson's Law as mentioned in the video?

Parkinson's Law, as mentioned in the video, is about setting goals and deadlines for oneself, suggesting that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

How does the speaker suggest one should approach studying for an exam?

The speaker suggests giving oneself a maximum of 2 hours to study for an exam instead of an entire day, to avoid wasting time and to study more efficiently.

What is the speaker's opinion on passive studying?

The speaker considers passive studying, such as just reading textbooks or rewriting notes, as ineffective and a form of procrastination.

What study technique does the speaker recommend for effective learning?

The speaker recommends active recall, which involves doing practice questions and learning from mistakes, as the most effective study technique.

What can one do if there are no practice exams available?

If there are no practice exams available, one can create questions from study guides or class notes, or use AI tools like Chacha BT to generate questions.

How does the speaker suggest making studying fun?

The speaker suggests gamifying studying by creating Quizlet flashcards and treating it like a game, aiming to answer questions quickly and accurately.

What is the speaker's advice on dealing with distractions while studying?

The speaker advises turning distractions into rewards, delaying gratification, and creating a clean and focused study environment.

What does the speaker suggest to improve focus during study sessions?

The speaker suggests putting the phone on airplane mode or do not disturb, having a clean desk and room, and making the room smell good with essential oils.

What is the speaker's final message to the viewers?

The speaker's final message is that by following the steps in the video, viewers can become academically successful and encourages them to share the knowledge to help others.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Mastering Efficient Study Techniques

The speaker introduces the video as a guide to achieving straight A's with minimal effort. They share their academic background, including being a valedictorian in high school and maintaining a 4.0 GPA while studying only 2 hours a day. The speaker emphasizes the importance of efficient studying over long hours and introduces Parkinson's Law as a method to set goals and deadlines to maximize study efficiency. They advise against passive studying, such as merely reading textbooks or rewriting notes, and instead promote active recall through practice questions and leveraging AI to create study questions from class notes. The speaker also suggests gamifying the study process to make it enjoyable and engaging.

05:01

🌟 Enhancing Study Focus and Productivity

In the second paragraph, the speaker discusses strategies to improve focus and productivity during study sessions. They advocate for turning distractions into rewards, such as watching a YouTube video or a Netflix show after completing a task. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of creating a conducive study environment, including having a clean desk and room, and using pleasant scents like lavender and peppermint essential oils. They conclude by expressing confidence that following the steps outlined in the video will transform viewers into academic powerhouses and encourage sharing the video to help others.

Keywords

💡Straight Ace

The term 'Straight Ace' refers to a student who achieves the highest possible grades in all subjects, typically symbolized by an 'A' grade. In the context of the video, it represents the ultimate academic goal that the speaker aims to help viewers achieve effortlessly. The script mentions the speaker's own academic success, which serves as a testament to the effectiveness of the study strategies being shared.

💡Efficient Studying

Efficient studying is the process of learning in a way that maximizes the retention of information while minimizing the time spent. The video's theme revolves around this concept, as the speaker shares personal and practical tips for studying effectively. The speaker emphasizes that studying for long hours is not as commendable as studying smartly, which is a central message of the video.

💡Parkinson's Law

Parkinson's Law is a concept that suggests that 'work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.' In the video, the speaker uses this law to advise viewers to set specific goals and deadlines for their study sessions, which can lead to more focused and efficient studying. The script provides an example of allocating only 2 hours for a study session instead of an entire day to avoid wasting time.

💡Active Recall

Active recall is a learning technique where learners actively attempt to retrieve information from memory, rather than passively rereading or reviewing notes. The video emphasizes this method as the best study technique, as it helps in better retention of information. The speaker suggests using past exam papers to practice active recall and improve study efficiency.

💡Passive Studying

Passive studying involves activities such as rereading textbooks or rewriting notes without actively engaging with the material. The video warns against this approach, as it can lead to a false sense of productivity without substantial learning. The speaker contrasts passive studying with active recall to highlight the importance of the latter.

💡Practice Exams

Practice exams are tests that are not part of the official curriculum but are designed to mimic the format and content of actual exams. The video recommends using these as a study tool for active recall. The speaker suggests that these can be a valuable resource, as they may include questions similar to those on the actual exam.

💡Gamification

Gamification refers to the application of game-design elements and principles in non-game contexts to make activities more engaging and enjoyable. In the video, the speaker recommends gamifying the study process by using tools like Quizlet, which can make studying feel like a game and thus more effortless and fun.

💡Quizlet

Quizlet is an online study tool that allows users to create digital flashcards and quizzes for memorization and learning. The video suggests using Quizlet to gamify studying, treating it like a game where the goal is to answer questions quickly and accurately, enhancing the learning experience.

💡Focus

Focus refers to the state of concentrating attention on a particular object or activity. The video emphasizes the importance of focus for effective studying, suggesting strategies like turning off distractions and creating a conducive environment to improve concentration and study efficiency.

💡Delaying Gratification

Delaying gratification is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward in favor of a later reward of higher value. The speaker in the video advises using this concept by turning distractions into rewards that are earned after completing study tasks, which can motivate and improve study habits.

💡Essential Oils

Essential oils are concentrated liquids containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. In the video, the speaker mentions using essential oils like lavender and peppermint in a diffuser to create a pleasant and conducive study environment, which can aid in focus and relaxation.

Highlights

The video offers a no-nonsense guide on how to study efficiently, based on the speaker's experience as a straight-A student.

The importance of rewiring one's mindset about studying is emphasized, challenging the notion that longer study hours equate to better results.

Parkinson's Law is introduced as a strategy for setting goals and deadlines to improve study efficiency.

The speaker suggests limiting study time to maximize focus and efficiency, contrary to the common practice of extended study sessions.

Active recall is presented as the most effective study technique, involving answering questions to reinforce learning.

The use of past papers for active recall is recommended, as they are likely to contain similar concepts to those that will appear in exams.

Creating questions from study guides or class notes is suggested for those without access to past papers.

The innovative use of AI, such as Chacha BT, to generate study questions from class notes is highlighted.

Gamifying study sessions with tools like Quizlet is proposed to make the learning process more enjoyable and engaging.

The speaker shares personal strategies for using Quizlet, including timing answers and aiming for 100% accuracy.

The importance of focus during study sessions is discussed, with tips on managing distractions and creating a conducive environment.

Turning distractions into rewards is suggested as a method for improving focus and productivity.

Creating a clean and organized study space is recommended to facilitate concentration.

The use of essential oils, such as lavender and peppermint, to create a pleasant study environment is mentioned.

The video concludes with a message of confidence that following the outlined steps will transform viewers into 'academic weapons'.

A call to action is made for viewers to share the video and help others improve their study habits.

Transcripts

[Music]

ladies and gentlemen if you clicked on

this video because you want to learn how

to get straight Ace effortlessly you're

in the right spot throughout my life

I've always had pretty good grades in

primary school I was a valoran in high

school I go to 4.0 GPA while studying

Max 2 hours a day and now I'm a student

at Yale University studying computer

science and music getting perfect grades

doesn't have to be so complicated that's

why in this video I'm going to give you

a no BS guide on how to study

efficiently coming from an IV leak

student so the first thing you want to

do is rewire your mindset I often hear a

lot of people say stuff like I studied

10 hours in a day or I studied until 2:

a.m. yesterday and they think it's a

flex look I don't think it's a flex for

me I would much rather study 2 hours a

day and get the same results if not even

better than the student who studied like

10 hours a day because let's be honest

if you want to become that student you

also want to do other things like build

cool things create meaningful

relationships with people and have fun

hobbies how are you going to do that if

you're studying all day that's why you

need to realize that the time you spend

studying does not equal knowledge gain

guys the smartest people that I

personally know at Yale know how to

study efficiently they know how to study

2 hours a day and yet still Ace all

their classes so you might be thinking

how do I do that the first law that you

need to learn is called Parkinson's law

and this law is about setting goals and

deadlines for yourself so let me give

you an example if you want to study for

a math exam don't give yourself the

entire Saturday to study just give

yourself Max 2 hours to study in that

that Saturday because if you give

yourself too long or too broad of a time

span to study you're just going to end

up wasting so much time so what you want

to do is schedule in shorter study

sessions and what you'll find out is

that you just study 10 times faster give

it a try give yourself less time than

you think you need because worst case

scenario if you're not done studying you

can always just add more time but you

cannot take back time that you wasted

you cannot take back time that you

studied inefficiently also one thing to

note is to make your deadlines tight but

not overly unrealistic like don't tell

yourself I'm going to finish an entire

math syllabus in 30 minutes unless

you're the fastest reader or something

but still give yourself a little bit of

a challenge and I promise you that by

the end of that study session you'll

feel so happy and proud of yourself now

the second important part of this video

is learning how to study now one of the

biggest mistakes you can make is passive

studying and what this looks like is

studying by just reading the textbook

rewriting notes and trying to make it

look aesthetic and pretty and then at

the end of the day you say something

like wow that was really productive I

have 10 pages of notes look let's be

real you're really just procrastinating

by trying to create aesthetic notes it

may seem like you're doing a lot of

stuff but in reality you're not doing

much and I was once guilty of this too

now it's not to say that writing notes

is bad or reading the textbook is bad

but if that's your main study strategy

then you're doing something wrong so by

far the best study technique in my

personal opinion is active recall and

what this looks like is doing P paper

questions what this looks like is going

through all the P paper exams you can

find for your subject guys this is

perhaps the most effective way to study

because our brain learns best by

answering questions when we get a

question wrong and we learn the correct

answer afterwards our brain is more

likely to remember it also there's a

very high chance that your teacher or

your professor is just going to repeat

those questions in the test maybe it's

going to be worded differently but the

basic concepts are going to be the same

now what if you don't have any practice

exams there are two things you can do

the first thing you can do is create as

many questions as you can from your

study guide or class notes so you want

to give yourself some multiple choice

questions as well as some open-ended

ones now the second way you can do this

is by leveraging AI just simply paste

all your class notes into Chacha BT and

ask it to create questions for you guys

this is something that nobody talks

about but it's super powerful you can

even give Chacha BT slideshows and PDFs

it's super simple and effective now

another thing you need to start doing is

gamify your studying you need to make

studying fun because if it's fun it's

effortless so the way I like to do this

is by creating a Quizlet and I treat it

almost like a game I'm trying to answer

as many questions as I can as fast as

possible and my objective is to get 100%

in all the questions without even

needing to look at the choices so you

can simply copy paste the questions that

you made earlier into a Quizlet

personally I really like doing my

quizlets before I sleep when I'm about

to go to the gym or whenever I just have

like 5 minutes of free time in between

classes guys by making your studying fun

you will feel good every time you study

and also become much more productive now

you also want to learn how to focus

because studying without Focus will

bring you nowhere like nowadays we have

so many distractions your phone that

Netflix show and social media in my

opinion you don't have to go like

complete monk mode and delete all apps

and isolate yourself like that but you

want to turn your distractions into

rewards so for example what you can do

is tell yourself okay once I'm done with

this math practice paper then I can go

and watch this YouTube video or I can go

and watch that Netflix show and this is

very good because you're delaying your

gratification you're training your brain

to do hard things and get rewarded for

your hard work also you want to create

an environment where it's easy to focus

so for me I like to put my phone on

airplane mode or do not disturb every

time I'm about to study another thing I

find super useful is having a clean desk

and room guys when your desk looks clean

you create a more calming soothing

environment where your brain can relax

and actually Focus one more thing try to

make your room smell as good as possible

so for example I have a diffuser in my

Yale dorm room and it always smells good

because I'm putting in lavender and

peppermint essential oils but that's

pretty much it I have full confidence

that if you fall all the steps in this

video you will become an academic weapon

so I hope you guys got lots of value

from this video if you did share it and

help a friend out as always God bless

the hustle we're all going to win one

day and I'll see you in the next one