The SECRET to Straight A's NO MATTER WHAT

Summary

In 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

00:00

📚 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.

05:01

🎓 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.

10:01

🤯 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.

15:03

🚀 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.

Keywords

💡Straight A's

Straight A's refers to achieving the highest possible grades in all subjects, typically represented by the letter 'A'. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of this academic achievement by sharing her own experiences of maintaining a 4.0 GPA and achieving top grades despite challenges. The concept is central to the video's theme of academic success.

💡Mindset

Mindset in this context refers to a person's attitude and approach towards achieving their goals. The speaker discusses how having the right mindset is crucial for academic success, as it influences one's motivation and persistence. The video emphasizes that a positive mindset can help overcome obstacles and achieve straight A's.

💡Consistency

Consistency in the video is used to describe the regular and persistent effort required to achieve academic goals. The speaker shares her strategy of studying a little bit every night, highlighting that consistency does not mean 100% of the time but rather most of the time. This concept is key to her success in maintaining high grades.

💡Effort

Effort is the amount of work or energy put into achieving a goal. The video discusses the importance of understanding where to put effort for maximum value, such as focusing on high-impact assignments and not over-investing in projects that carry less weight in the grade. The speaker's approach to effort management is a critical part of her academic strategy.

💡AP Classes

AP Classes, or Advanced Placement classes, are college-level courses offered in high school that can earn students college credit if they pass a corresponding exam. The speaker mentions taking 11 AP classes and achieving high scores on the exams, demonstrating her dedication to rigorous academic pursuits.

💡Resources

Resources in the video refer to the materials and tools available to students for learning and studying. The speaker mentions using free resources for the ACT, SAT, and AP exams, emphasizing that success is possible even without expensive or exclusive materials. This underscores the importance of resourcefulness in achieving academic goals.

💡Procrastination

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks. The video warns against procrastination, suggesting that it can lead to poor academic performance. The speaker shares her personal strategy of completing tasks ahead of time to avoid the stress and potential consequences of last-minute work.

💡Extra Credit

Extra credit in the academic context refers to additional work that can be completed to earn extra points beyond the regular coursework. The speaker discusses her proactive approach to asking for and completing extra credit assignments, which helped her secure higher grades and demonstrate her commitment to academic excellence.

💡Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is the belief in one's own ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task. The video emphasizes the importance of self-efficacy in achieving academic goals, as it motivates individuals to take control of their learning and persist in the face of challenges.

💡Migraines

Migraines are a type of severe headache that can cause intense pain and other symptoms, such as visual disturbances. The speaker shares her personal experience with migraines and how they posed a physical challenge to her academic performance. Despite this, she used her condition as motivation to develop strong study habits and over-prepare for exams.

💡Accountability

Accountability in the video is the responsibility one takes for their actions and outcomes. The speaker stresses the importance of being accountable for one's own learning and academic performance, suggesting that success is not achieved by relying on others but by taking control and making the necessary efforts.

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