How to ACE insanely difficult classes (like physics, chem)
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the creator shares how they overcame challenges in difficult subjects like physics by adopting a growth mindset. They emphasize three key strategies: starting from scratch to build foundational skills, seeking live help for personalized guidance, and iterating through mistakes to improve gradually. The creator highlights their own struggles with physics, how coding sharpened their problem-solving skills, and how these approaches ultimately led to success in even the most challenging subjects.
Takeaways
- π The speaker admits a struggle with physics but managed to achieve A's by adopting a growth mindset and applying specific strategies.
- π§ The improvement in understanding complex subjects is likened to navigating a maze, where progress is incremental and requires persistence.
- π Starting from scratch and building up foundational knowledge is crucial, even revisiting basics can enhance understanding.
- π The speaker recommends learning coding as a way to improve problem-solving skills, which is beneficial across various subjects.
- π» Digi Cafe is introduced as a resource for learning programming, emphasizing its focus on problem-solving and offering live help.
- π€ Live help, such as tutoring or guidance from experts, can prevent learners from getting stuck and expedite understanding.
- π Data suggests that students who receive tutoring score significantly higher than those in traditional classrooms alone.
- π The concept of iteration is highlighted as a key to improvement, with the idea that small, repeated improvements can lead to significant gains over time.
- π Keeping a 'mistake journal' is suggested as a method to learn from errors and avoid repeating them, thus fostering growth.
- π The power of compounding interest is drawn as a metaphor for the compounding effect of small, consistent improvements in learning.
- π The speaker shares a personal anecdote of overcoming a challenging physics quiz at Caltech, demonstrating the effectiveness of their strategies.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the video transcript?
-The main theme of the video is how to succeed in challenging subjects, even if they seem difficult at first. The speaker shares personal experiences and offers three key tips: starting from scratch, seeking live help, and iterating to improve over time.
Why does the speaker struggle with physics, and how does it relate to the videoβs advice?
-The speaker struggles with physics because the concepts are difficult to grasp intuitively. This struggle is used as an example to illustrate how the right approachβstarting from scratch, getting help, and iterative learningβcan lead to success in any challenging subject.
What is the first tip the speaker provides for tackling challenging subjects?
-The first tip is to start from scratch. The speaker emphasizes the importance of building a strong foundation by learning or revisiting the basics, which makes it easier to navigate more complex concepts later.
Why does the speaker recommend learning coding, and how does it help with other subjects?
-The speaker recommends learning coding because it enhances problem-solving skills and logical thinking, which are transferable to other subjects like math and science. Coding helps train the mind to approach problems methodically and effectively.
What role does live help play in the learning process, according to the speaker?
-Live help is crucial for overcoming obstacles and dead ends in the learning process. It allows for personalized guidance and feedback, which can significantly speed up understanding and improvement in challenging subjects.
How does the speaker suggest using iteration to improve in difficult subjects?
-The speaker suggests that iteration, or repeated practice with a focus on improving one aspect each time, is key to mastering difficult subjects. By making small, consistent improvements, a learner can gradually overcome challenges and build confidence.
What is the importance of a 'mistake journal' as mentioned in the video?
-A 'mistake journal' is important because it helps learners document and reflect on their mistakes, enabling them to learn from them and avoid repeating the same errors. This practice accelerates the learning process and leads to more significant improvements over time.
How does the speakerβs experience with a physics quiz at Caltech illustrate the effectiveness of the three tips provided?
-The speaker's experience with a physics quiz at Caltech demonstrates the effectiveness of the three tips: despite feeling unprepared, the speaker was able to achieve a high score by relying on the foundation built from starting from scratch, seeking help, and iterative practice.
What does the speaker mean by 'starting from scratch' in the context of learning?
-In the context of learning, 'starting from scratch' means revisiting the fundamental concepts of a subject, even if you think you already know them. This helps ensure a solid understanding and makes it easier to grasp more complex ideas.
Why does the speaker compare the learning process to navigating a maze?
-The speaker compares the learning process to navigating a maze to emphasize that understanding challenging concepts is not a straightforward path. Like a maze, learning involves trial and error, retracing steps, and overcoming obstacles, which requires patience and persistence.
Outlines
π Overcoming Academic Challenges in Physics
The speaker shares their personal struggle with physics, a subject they found particularly challenging. Despite initial difficulties, they managed to achieve A's in all their subjects, including physics. The paragraph outlines the speaker's journey with physics, starting from AP Physics in their junior year, through to their time at Caltech. It emphasizes the importance of the right mindset when approaching difficult concepts and the speaker's strategy of starting from scratch, using resources like Caltech's YouTube channel to build a strong foundation. The speaker also advocates for learning coding as a way to enhance problem-solving skills, which can be applied to various subjects, including physics.
π€ The Value of Live Help and Iterative Learning
This paragraph delves into the speaker's strategy for tackling tough problems and concepts in physics. They highlight the importance of seeking live help to avoid getting stuck in dead ends and the benefits of having a guide to navigate through complex problems. The speaker shares their experience with their mother's assistance in understanding physics concepts and the positive impact of live tutoring on academic performance. They introduce Digi Cafe, a platform offering live classes and feedback to enhance problem-solving skills, and compare it to traditional learning methods. The speaker also emphasizes the power of iteration and learning from mistakes, suggesting that small, incremental improvements can lead to significant progress over time.
π Embracing a Growth Mindset for Academic Success
In the final paragraph, the speaker reflects on their improved understanding and performance in physics, attributing their success to a growth mindset, starting from scratch, seeking live help, and iterative learning. They recount a specific incident during their freshman year at Caltech where they unexpectedly scored well on a physics quiz, demonstrating the effectiveness of their learning strategies. The speaker encourages students to adopt a growth mindset and to utilize resources like Digi Cafe for live support and to build a strong foundation in problem-solving. They conclude by reiterating the importance of fundamentals and the iterative process of learning from mistakes.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Growth Mindset
π‘Iteration
π‘Problem Solving
π‘Starting from Scratch
π‘Live Help
π‘Coding
π‘Transferable Skills
π‘Maze Metaphor
π‘Caltech
π‘Mr. Beast
Highlights
Physics is particularly challenging for the speaker, yet they've managed to earn A's in every subject for the past 8 years, including physics.
Improvement in difficult subjects should be approached as navigating through a maze rather than expecting instant understanding.
Starting from scratch is crucial; the speaker re-learned fundamental physics concepts before diving deeper into more complex topics.
Learning coding is highly recommended, as it enhances problem-solving skills that are transferable to other subjects, especially math and science.
Digi Cafe offers courses that combine coding and problem-solving skills, making it easier for students to grasp challenging subjects.
Live help and tutoring significantly improve understanding and problem-solving speed, as seen in the speaker's experience with their mom's guidance.
Students who receive tutoring perform significantly better than those in traditional classrooms, highlighting the importance of personalized learning.
Digi Cafe provides live classes and mentorship, offering a valuable resource for students to overcome obstacles in their learning journey.
The importance of iteration: continuously trying, learning from mistakes, and improving bit by bit leads to significant progress over time.
Compounding improvement: small, consistent improvements in problem-solving can lead to mastery over time.
The concept of a 'mistake journal' is introduced, where documenting and learning from past mistakes helps in making bigger leaps in understanding.
The speaker recounts a specific experience where they expected to fail a physics quiz but ended up performing much better due to prior preparation and a growth mindset.
The power of a growth mindset is emphasized as a key factor in the speaker's academic success, especially in challenging subjects like physics.
Digi Cafe's courses are presented as a cost-effective option for gaining valuable coding and problem-solving skills, with live support being a significant benefit.
The video encourages viewers to adopt a growth mindset and take advantage of resources like Digi Cafe to improve in challenging subjects.
Transcripts
do you have a class that's so hard
there's no hope for an a maybe you're
just not cut out for the subject and
will have to accept the L's well I have
a confession to make I suck at physics
like there's no other subject where
Concepts just go whoop over my head in
one ear and out the other because it's
just so hard for me to understand
intuitively but guess what I've gotten
A's in every subject for the past 8
years including in physics how today
we'll go over what I did and the three
tips for you to Ace any challenging
subject the last tip is something Mr
Beast can teach you yes you'll have to
see let's go okay so some background to
my physics Journey the first time I
touched physics formally was in AP
Physics my junior year I remember one
night I was working on this problem
about a boat going down a stream and
there was some opposing current
everything I thought about the problem
every direction I guessed the solution
was was wrong this was very
disappointing to me and I imagine to my
two electrical engineering parents let's
see the process I use to still get that
a first we need the right way to think
about challenging Concepts it's
frustrating to read and watch problems
over and over again and still not get it
we expect that with enough effort
suddenly a light switch will just flick
on and we'll understand everything
immediately it will all become clear to
us but that's not the way to think about
improving in challenging Concepts
Improvement is not 0 to 100 it's not a
light switch instead it's a maze you
navigate through this maze hit dead ends
have to trace back and you have to go
through obstacles since each tough
concept is a maze we have to treat it
like one and do my first tip which is
start from scratch it's easier to
approach a maze if before you enter you
have already done easier mazes before or
you have transferable skills from past
experiences at the very least you need
to know what the maze is for example
when doing math or science you you need
those problem solving skills from
fundamentals like I talked about in my
math advice video since I knew physics
was my weakness the summer before I
started at Caltech where we would have
to learn every single stem subject I
watched every single one of Caltech
YouTube's Channel physics videos and
that started from the very beginning the
very first video talked about Newton
with the Apple boom dropping on his head
I already thought I knew the basics of
things like gravity but I still started
from the very beginning and I worked my
way through all this many videos I
didn't remember everything from all of
that content but going through that
experience indirectly helped me at least
my mind was warmed up but Amy if we're
already learning math and science in
school how do we start from scratch how
do we build new problem solving skills
ah good question the answer is that we
must start from learning something new I
recommend that every every every single
person learns coding in their lifetime
as early as possible that's something
that I really missed out on in high
school because for some reason I thought
that when people code they're like those
little computer geeks but that's
computer whoa that's funny that's
completely not the case knowing how to
program is an amazing skill no matter
what you do in the future because it
makes your mind so much more open to
using logic and problem solving and
every other aspect that you'll have to
do in school in your job and so on and
specifically many students find Math and
Science to be the hardest classes coding
helps with all math and science subjects
because of that problem solving Mark and
Matt data scientist and software
engineer created Digi Cafe because they
saw a need students needed an easier
more accessible way to learn programming
from scratch as I said in my top 1%
video I actually took the programming
class myself and I found that the
content was really focused and helps you
even when you have never done coding
before plus it really EMP emphasizes
that problem solving by guiding you
through how to solve problems without
telling you everything so it truly
sharpens your brain with the way that
the course is designed there are so many
options on there right now like python
for data science R for data science and
python for software development Digi
Cafe focuses on coding and learning
while other websites only do one or the
other so you're getting a two for one
deal boom right in one place damn good
deal plus if you're really into coding
and getting that bag in the future then
Digi Cafe also helps prepare you for
lead code with its projects programming
is definitely a transferable skill for
the future after I learned coding at
Caltech I was able to do better problem
solving in general and I actually used
coding at my consulting job which was so
surprising but it really gave me a leg
up compared to the other people on my
team who couldn't solve the problems
like I did learning from somewhere like
Digi Cafe is that first step that
dipping of your toes into the world of
programming and who knows you might find
it so amazing and fascinating and you
can use it for other aspects even if you
start from the data science route that
exposure is really valuable and highly
transferable to software in a maze you
hit dead ends and you have to retrace
your steps and try going again to get
farther and farther the last time if you
had a guide to help you through the maze
wouldn't it be easier of course that's
why you need Live help so going back to
when I struggled in AP Physics often I
would hit dead ends where I just
couldn't get farther in a problem or I
couldn't get farther in my understanding
of a physics concept so I would enlist
the help of my mom working on my own to
try and work through the challenges was
good to some extent but at one point it
just becomes a waste of time and energy
because I didn't have that intuition so
instead of continuing to jam myself into
dead ends working through problems with
someone gets me to understand way better
way faster than struggling on my own
with my mom like on that boat in the
river problem I I would get to a step
ask a question confirm if my thinking is
on the right track then I continue going
down that track ask a question again she
answers and then there's back and forth
which is a really helpful process she
guided me so in those study sessions I
didn't even get to Dead ends and I can
jump through obstacles more easily
reading something everyone else reads
only gets you so far you need live
customized responses to your personal
struggles in fact data yes I did some
research for this video data tells us
that students who get tutoring actually
score on average two whole standard
deviations higher than students who were
only taught in traditional classrooms
and speaking of helpful live classes and
feedback Digi Cafe also offers this on
their courses as well Mark and Matt will
go through the content of three courses
in 5 weeks the content that Mark and
Matt will cover in these Digi Cafe
classes is going to be the same as the
online courses but you would get an
advantage because you can ask questions
to experienced experts live and this is
all in addition to the Discord that's
there as a valuable resource essentially
the digi Cafe courses to improve your
problem solving skills is like a boot
camp but it's even better because you
can actually do all three courses at the
same time at no additional cost there's
no one specific path you can go to as
many classes and sessions and paths that
you want so you can learn data science
in R and Python and software development
oh and the important thing is it's only
$35 a month that's an expensive meal in
New York City no an expensive lunch in
New York City that's such a good deal
compared to the other courses I saw for
example there was this other data
science course that charges around $300
per month and that was without Live help
so definitely a steal I encourage you
guys to check out the link in my
description later to get all the good
information the live classes will begin
on this date so mark your calendars and
more H follow these instructions to sign
up for the live classes like Mr Beast
with YouTube videos is make 100 videos
and improve something every time he
started from the bottom now we here and
is now at 200 million subscribers and
that's why we should improve by
iteration iterate is a fancy word for to
perform repeatedly even with starting
from scratch and getting Live help you
still need to try and hit some dead ends
yourself learn from that and then don't
hit the dead end again so do do the
thing try learn one to two lessons from
your mistake or where you got stuck to
learn you can either use videos reading
Live help then you improve on that one
to two things so you can go one step
further next time basically you want to
improve one thing at a time imagine if
you improve by just 1% every time you do
a certain problem and you try that type
of problem like five times that's a big
Improvement that compounds over time so
we need to remember that math concept
that power of compounding interest for
each time you iterate you have a little
level up and that's going to be so
significant over time that eventually it
seems easy how much you improved you got
to make a bunch of videos and improve
over time to be great you don't just
pick up a baseball and become an MLB
level uh athlete within a year you guys
are amazing a subscriber actually
commented that they use what's called a
mistake journal where they document
their mistakes from the past this is
such a good idea and crucial because if
you don't really internalize and focus
on your mistakes there's no way for you
to improve I know it's really fun and
feels good to focus on the stuff you're
good at I love doing things I'm good at
too but where you feel the most pain and
bad about yourself and try to get better
in those will be the areas of
opportunity such that you will get
better faster than ever often it's
easier to go from 50 to 80 than go from
80 to 85 bigger jumps are made by simply
fixing your mistakes by iteration and
that repetitive nature will really form
those connections between neurons such
that you can understand the challenging
Concepts better of course it's easier to
know what you did wrong if you have live
classes and mentors right then and there
the iteration process will become faster
as well so you might be wondering after
all of this Amy were your physics really
improved did you actually have a better
physics sense well this is what happened
freshman year at Caltech one day we had
a basketball game and to celebrate my
teammate's dad took her and me to get
matcha out of your Mall M delicious
matcha but then I remembered I have to
take my physics quiz so for contacts at
calch all the tests and quizzes are
essentially take home so yeah we were in
good moods High Spirits but then when we
got back and I opened my physics quiz I
was so suddenly distraught and sad moo
just plummeted all the way down I was
like you know what I was never good at
physics I tried my best I'm just going
to probably take some L's so I wrote
down everything I thought I knew and I
just brain dumped Pro tip on math and
science write all of your thinking and
work down because you can still get
points for that I was like okay I'm just
going to try and whatever hand it in
expecting out of 10 I would get two
points but lo and behold I got the
opposite of that I actually got back an8
out of 10 which is really really good
for a phys quiz at Caltech I literally
had to look at that paper several times
cuz I thought there was a mistake in the
grading and that just shows with
starting from scratch Live help and lots
of iteration that you can really
actually improve and suddenly BS some
things and get good grades and that's
why I ended up with an a at Caltech in
physics so folks students my friends
that is the power of a growth mindset
and I hope that you guys really take
that mindset with yourself as well it's
probably the thing
that got me where I am today and I'm
continuing to use it every day on this
journey of growth with you guys make
sure to try dig Cafe with a link in my
description and again these instructions
to join their live classes don't miss
the chance to get awesome Live support
from Mark and Matt these three tips were
great and all but if you don't have the
fundamentals you might still struggle in
things like math so to get those
fundamentals built up again and to make
math easier then check out this video
thanks so much peace
okay but after all of
[Music]
this I have to burp so much today
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