I remember that sinking feeling in my heart when I received my report card during grade 8 and let me tell you, my grades were so bad.
I've always been a student who was able to get by without studying, and that was the first time I've ever received a really bad grade.
Like, at that point, I felt like a total piece of shit.
I felt so bad that I literally told myself I'm going to make the biggest academic comeback of my life.
And fast forward to senior high school, I sure did.
From almost failing a subject in grade eight to literally getting a 98 average for my entire senior high school.
Yes, I'm not exaggerating.
I'm not here to shit on everyone else's grade, This is literally my report card to prove it.
And somehow, you know, I hit it.
I somehow cracked the code to getting an academic comeback.
And it's not about coming smarter or not really about, you know, working harder, but it's about having the right study system and habits.
And I noticed that with the top students that I personally know as well.
They're not necessarily smarter than others, but they just apply better and they just have a better study system.
So I'm not going to waste any more time.
Here is my four-point checklist that you guys can follow.
If you have all four, I can guarantee you you're going to have the best academic comeback of your life.
So let's not waste any more time.
Let's just get straight into the checklist.
All right, so when it comes to your academics, your academics can be divided into four pillars.
Your study consistency, your study efficiency, your study adaptability, and your study system.
And in this video I want to share with you guys, or I want you to identify where you're lacking among those four pillars and I want you to fix that problem.
I'm not saying you're a problem.
You're doing great, okay?
You know, the fact that you're watching this video, good job.
Because if you want to have an academic comeback, it's not about studying harder or just doing more.
It's not necessarily about you know doing the better study method, although it's.
It kind of is, but not really.
It's really mainly fixing what's wrong with you.
Again, nothing wrong with you.
You're perfect.
I love you.
So I recommend grabbing a journal or at least a notebook or paper.
And I want you to list the things that I'll be talking about in this video, because I also want you to reflect on what's holding you back.
So welcome to step number one, which is our evaluation step.
Again, like I mentioned, I want you to grab a pen and paper.
I don't know, write anything down, write it on your phone or whatever, because we are going deep on this one.
Starting with the first study pillar, which is study consistency.
I always present this first and this is probably the first question that I ask a lot of students who ask me how to get an academic comeback.
The thing is, how can I tell you to get an academic comeback if you don't study consistently in the first place?
Unless you're someone who's diligent with your studies, you have no right to fix the other pillars or even watch the rest of this video.
I'm just kidding.
Please watch the rest of the video because, you know, a lot of helpful information here.
But if you don't study consistently for the first...
I'm losing my words.
I'm losing my words.
I'm telling you, if you simply take the time off to study every day, like just study consistently you're going to have a much easier time in school.
I would argue that this will help you in a long shot.
I would argue that this is probably the most important step among the four pillars.
A study done on the top medical students found that the common practice among them was that they dedicated four to five hours a day to deep studying.
They would literally shut off their phones and any communication with any family members and friends.
They would lock their room and, you know, lock in their man cave.
I'm just kidding and they would just focus for a couple hours a day, mainly studying every day.
So ask yourself the question and don't be honest with me are you truly consistent with your study habits every day?
Do you really take the time in your day to, you know study, or do you just lounge around and only study till the end of the semester?
I mean, come on like i think everyone was there at that point where you just didn't care about studying until the very last week till your exams.
So those lacking this pillar, i would highly recommend building a daily study habit.
The first step is to build a daily study habit.
Rather than doing a long study session a few times per week, i recommend going slow first.
You know, making it easier for you by doing these study sessions consistently.
And you know you could make it a lot easier by just simply shortening your study period.
You don't have to study like three hours, four hours, like you know.
If you're not someone who studies every day, that could be a little bit too much.
You could start small.
I recommend scheduling a time as well in your day to set aside for extra studying.
Now, I would highly recommend doing it after a non-negotiable in your day.
So for example, maybe a dinner or perhaps after waking up.
Now, personally for me, I do pretty much my extra studying right after I wake up.
I made a video about this already.
If you guys haven't watched this already, you can go check it out.
It's my dopamine-based morning routine.
I don't know why it blew up, but thank you.
If you're from this video and you're subscribed to this channel, Please stay.
You know, I have so much more helpful videos coming.
But yeah, as soon as I wake up, I go straight to study.
So that's pretty much my morning routine.
This guy's like taking forever to get to his point.
Like I swear to God, he's going to stall for a couple of minutes and he's going to do a freaking ad read.
Well, this video is sponsored by Brilliant.
All right.
So, as you guys know, I've always been busy with dental school YouTube, working out so many things going on in my life.
But I've always been interested in learning, especially stuff like math and science.
I've always been wanting to learn those things.
But the thing is, as you guys know, I am very, very lazy.
Like, I don't like learning things.
Like, just because I have a productivity channel doesn't mean that I like studying content.
Which is why this video is sponsored by Brilliant.
If you guys don't know, Brilliant is a fun learning platform where you could learn math and science or computer science or whatnot in a very fun learning way.
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So it's literally a very fun way to learn all those things.
I'm actually taking a different course right now.
So I used to take this course about how AI works, but lately I've been going through their scientific reasoning course because I just wanted to kind of learn how to really think objectively and scientifically.
So if you guys want to check out Brilliant for free, then head down to the link in the description and you can get 30 days.
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Again, you can head down to the link in the description below, or you can even scan the QR code on the screen.
It's a new year.
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Why not add some fun learning into the mix?
Anyway, again, link is in the description.
Back to the video.
So that's pretty much my morning routine for that.
All right, moving on to the next study pillar we have is what we call the study efficiency pillar.
Now, basically, are you using efficient study methods?
Now, this is probably the most difficult pillar to tackle, because Number one, study methods are very subjective.
Not everyone benefits from the same study method.
And while there are evidence-based study techniques that are objective and they are shown to literally improve information retention, because some people genuinely learn better with different methods
However, based on actual studies, one factor remains true.
The best way to retain information is to just test yourself practice retrieving in your head or just practice retrieval in general.
In other words, always prioritize active learning study methods.
Now, not only are they more efficient, but they're also more effective because active study methods actively engage your brain to retrieve information, causing the information to be retained longer in your head.
Whether that be flashcards, practice tests or even reading, you could retrieve information while reading the passage.
And the way you know if a study method is efficient is if it's uncomfortable to do.
I know no one wants to hear this, but if you really want to retain information faster and much more efficiently, you will have to actively use your brain.
And it's going to be very uncomfortable.
Trust me, you're going to feel like a piece of shit.
Just kidding.
You're going to feel like a dumbass.
So you're going to feel like you don't know anything at all, when really you're just trying to retrieve information.
That's all.
But the thing is, trust me, that's part of the process.
You're supposed to feel uncomfortable when you're trying to actively recall information because you're engaging your brain.
It's just like hypertrophy training for your muscles.
You know, you will never grow your muscles unless you push yourself beyond your limit.
That's why a lot of weightlifters increase their weights outside their normal range.
That is because if you push yourself beyond your limits and you know as much as it's uncomfortable and painful not really painful, but just uncomfortable you will see a lot of progress.
And that goes the same with studying.
So whatever study method that you have, I want you to try and incorporate some active studying.
So, for example, testing yourself, making some tests for yourself, you know actively retrieving information, asking yourself a bunch of questions, or you know making flashcards, in your own words or just general retrieval practice.
There must be some sense of retrieval for your study technique to be efficient and effective.
So, reviewing this pillar, at least examine how you study right now and try to at least see if there's any active retrieval and if there isn't, incorporate active retrieval.
It's just that simple.
All right, moving on to the third pillar, we have and this is probably the most underrated, if not the most underrated, you know, pillar that no one talks about.
And I haven't seen most study tubers talk about this.
It is to essentially increase your study adaptability.
Now, basically, what is study adaptability?
How adaptable are you to your class or to your professor?
Because as much as you have the best study methods, the best study habits, if you don't know your class well enough, if you don't know your professor, your teacher, you will not go that far.
Especially in college, you will realize that different professors have different ways of quizzing or teaching you.
For example, in my last semester, one professor really took every question from the book.
Like, you had to read a specific reference to get the questions right.
Another professor.
She put a mixture of questions coming from her lectures and coming from her literal word of mouth, and you had to write everything down for her quizzes.
And if you don't account for the specific style of the teacher who teaches, about how they teach or how they structure their exam, you're missing out on a lot of points here.
So how can you be better at adapting to your class?
Now, there are two ways you can increase your study adaptability.
Number one is to research.
And number two is basically experience.
Prior to taking a specific class or a specific teacher, you can ask your peers or even your seniors how the class goes and pretty much what the teacher generally expects from you.
For example, in my medicine class or in my pharmacology subject, my teacher is very, very concept heavy, meaning that I should practically focus more on the conceptual side of the subject rather than just plain memorizing facts.
You know, kind of ironic because it's a pharmacology class.
You know a lot of it is memorization, but you know I really like my prof.
She really focused on the concepts.
Now, another professor, on the other hand, focused more on the memorization of the questions.
And, you know, a lot of the questions she gave on the test were from previous tests.
So, on the other hand, one professor, I had to literally change my study technique just because I have to account for her questions.
And another professor.
I had to shift my mindset because you know she asks different questions in her tests.
Now, on the other hand, by experience, by going through their classes, you'll start to realize that you will see pretty much structure their class and what they expect from you.
So therefore, because of that experience, you can pretty much modify how you study and what kind of studying that you will be focusing on.
Now I highly recommend creating a Notion page for your university or anything to track information about your different subjects, so that you can jot down notes or whatever information that your teacher really likes, or pretty much how they expect from you.
So I have this Notion University page template that I've been using for almost so many years now.
I've been always linking it in the description below.
So if you want to check them out, then you can check it out in the link in the description.
But basically in each subject page I always jot down what I expect from the teacher, or what the teacher pretty much expects for me, and what kind of questions that they always have in the exam, so that I can always prepare for it.
And finally, the last pillar that you need to check is your study system.
Now, what is your study system?
What apps are you using to track your studying or your school life?
Where do you track your assignments?
Where do you track your exams or quizzes?
Where do you track those dates?
Where do you put your notes for your subjects?
Where can you put the notes on this style of teaching that your teacher does in a specific subject?
Your size system is essentially your ecosystem of how you tackle school.
And if you're lacking in this pillar, your school will be a lot more disorganized and therefore it will take a lot more effort from you and it will add unnecessary stress which will affect your studies and other pillars.
So, at least, I highly recommend having a straightforward system for how you pretty much organize and track everything related to your school.
Now personally, i would highly recommend having at least a base app for tracking everything.
Personally for me again, i have my notion university template.
I pretty much use that page, that single page, for my entire university career.
So it has pretty much everything i need, so subjects for my notes assignments deadlines exams, um.
It even has a revision tracker.
So again, if you guys want the template, you can head down to the description to check it out at kinetbookcom.
It does have a revision tracker again, which i don't see in any other.
You know know, notion templates, but of course it doesn't have to be a notion.
If you're using another app, then by all means use that all right.
So now that you know the four pillars of studying, it's time for you to evaluate what you're weak at and what you need to do to really fix that.
And, trust me, you're just gonna have to really make sure that these four pillars are checked and if they are, then you're most likely gonna have the best academic comeback in your life.
I'm not even kidding, The more I think about studying.
It's really multifactorial.
Like you really cannot pinpoint one factor that can cause your academic downfall.
You know, there's so many factors to keep in mind.
That's why I boiled it down to at least four major pillars for you guys to at least take into account and at least for you guys to evaluate what can be improved and what you need to fix.
With that being said, with that paper you are writing, I hope you pretty much evaluated what you need to fix.
And from that point on you can start taking action from this video to fix what you're lacking and have a better year academically.
Wishing you a lot of Anyway, guys, I hope you guys enjoyed today's video.
It is a little bit of a longer video because I wanted to go more in depth with this.
So hopefully you guys... Oh my God, my face is so itchy.
I don't know.
Can someone in the comments write down how many times I scratched my face?
Like, I don't know why my nose and eyebrows are so itchy.
But anyway...
It is a new school year, a new school semester.
I hope you guys will have a wonderful academic year.
Again, I don't want to pressure everyone to get top grades or whatever, because what really matters is your journey and improvement, you know, in your academics.
You know you don't have to pressure yourself into.
You know achieving like 98, 99 grades 95 90, 85.
Like, just do better.
Like, if you do better, that's already great.
And, you know, I'm already proud of you for watching this video.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed today's video.
Good luck for your academic year of 2056.
Wishing you the best.
Don't forget to drink your water, and I'll see you in the next one.
