foreign if you clicked on this video because you want to learn how to get straight A's effortlessly you're in the right spot 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 effectively so throughout my life I've always had pretty good grades in primary school I was a valedictorian in high school I had a 4.0 GPA while studying Max 2 hours a day and now I'm a student at Yale University studying computer science and over the years I've built enough knowledge that you can call me like an academic weapon and I'm not gonna lie with you I am that guy in school I'm that Asian boy who just happens to Ace all his tests that Asian kid who just happens to have like 100 different interests 100 different Hobbies projects programming debate music piano you name it and I'm not trying to show off or sound cocky but I probably spent the least amount of time studying in my class but that's because I learned how to study effectively and now being at Yale University and Ivy League institution studying computer science I'm surrounded by so many academic weapons but guys I'm no different to you I'm a student you're a student and we're both trying to make it out I've tried it all I've tried highlighting the Pomodoro Technique making pretty notes flash cards studying with friends you name it and in my journey in being an academic weapon I have learned a lot and what I've realized is that you can actually make studying simple and fun so whether you're 13 years old or whether you're in high school studying APS the IB or a levels or whether you're a university student this video will be valuable for you because learning is something that's extremely important for every single one of us so you might as well become an academic weapon now to make your life more enjoyable so the first thing you need to do is change your broken monkey mindset I often hear a lot of people saying stuff like oh I studied for 10 hours a day or I studied until 3 A.M yesterday and they think it's a flex but honestly I don't think it's a flex at all I don't know about you but for me I would much rather study two hours a day and still get the same results if not better than the student who studied like 12 hours a day because what you need to realize is that the time you spend studying does not equal knowledge gained and it's the same way like if you want to get shredded in a gym you don't want to do like 20 sets of 100 push-ups because your arm's gonna die right you want to do three to four sets of reps that are reasonable or say you're trying to practice a piano it is much better to practice 30 minutes a day consistently rather than just like clip out 12 hours in a single day because you're going to burn out guys what's most important is that you study effectively the smartest students that I personally know they understand the principles of deep work so for example one of my roommates Cody he took 20 APS back in high school which is a crazy amount if you know the American education system and what I've learned from him is the value of having deep work sessions like study sessions where you're completely focused on a task and so your goal should be to become that student who only needs one hour to finish an Economics chapter whereas most students would need a week so now you might be thinking Colin how do I study like what's the best way to study the first law that I want you guys to be familiar with is called Parkinson's law and Parkinson's law is about setting goals for yourself and deadlines so let me give you an example let's say you had math homework due next week and you gave yourself one Saturday to finish that entire math homework because you gave yourself the entire day to do your homework what ends up happening is that you just waste so much time during that day you're probably going to end up working on your math homework for like six hours when in reality you only probably need like 30 minutes the point here is that if you give yourself too broad or too long of a lifespan to do something you're gonna waste so much time so Colin what should I do instead the next time you get an assignment or the next time you decide you want to study for a class try to set deadlines for yourself in hours in very specific hours let's say two hours to complete this math preset and if you write that down on your whiteboard or if you write it on Google Calendar for example You're Gonna Save so much more time and now you will feel that when you give yourself that time I'm constrained you're like 10 times ultimately more productive and worst case scenario if you're not done with your map problem sets by the end of two hours you can always add more time but you cannot take back time that you procrastinated with you cannot take back time that you wasted and that is the key difference here also one thing to note is guys don't be like overly unrealistic right don't tell yourself I'm gonna finish 30 000 word essay in 15 minutes that's just a complete BS but still give yourself a little bit of a challenge and I promise you that by the end of the deep work session you will be happy and really proud of yourself so the second important part of this video is answering the question how do I study what techniques should I use most students what they do is passive studying so this looks like for example just reading the textbook just rewriting notes and trying to make it look aesthetic and pretty and then at the end of the day you're like I'm done 10 pages of beautiful notes I'm totally being productive nah in reality you're really just like procrastinating it may seem like you're doing a lot of stuff but in reality you're really not and guys I was once guilty of this too now it's not to say that writing notes are completely useless no it's not but if your primary method of studying is just rewriting notes from a textbook then you're doing something wrong so what should you do now what if the best study techniques in my opinion is active recall active recall looks like doing past paper questions it looks like searching for practice exam papers online and just going through all the questions one by one this in my opinion is the most effective way to study and do well for your exams because if you're actively trying to take that information from your head to answer questions soon enough that knowledge is going to be ingrained in your brain and most likely your professor or your teacher is probably going to repeat some of the past exam questions maybe it's going to be worded differently maybe the numbers are slightly changed but the main concepts are going to be the same and I truly believe guys that if you study by answering questions you will become an academic weapon so that is active recall but there's actually a way to make active recall even more powerful and that is by combining active recall with space repetition and so basically how space repetition works is that you're doing active recall for a long period of time so say for instance you're going to have like a biology exam next month what you want to do is for every week for four weeks before the exam you want to take as many practice exam questions as you can and that way you're chipping in your studying and it's almost going to be like muscle memory by the time you take your exam so this is probably the best study method that I personally use to get good grades now I want to talk about Focus because studying without Focus will bring you nowhere nowadays there's like so many distractions around us you have Instagram Tick Tock Twitter Netflix you name it and what most students do is that they study while scrolling their Instagram like every five minutes me personally I like to separate my study time from my fun time so this looks like for example committing to study for 30 minutes without any distractions and then afterwards I can check Instagram or something like that guys you don't have to go like complete monk mode and delete other social media and things like that but what you can do is instead tell yourself okay after I'm done with my math homework then I can watch that Netflix show and so now you're shifting your mindset into changing these distractions into rewards for studying hard and this is really good for you because you're training the brain to do hard things and to remove distractions now another thing that I love to do is waking up earlier so me personally I really like waking up in between 5 30 a.m to 6 30 a.m but it's going to be different for every person so say for instance you normally wake up at 8am maybe try to wake up at 7am and from 7 to 8 get some deep work sessions and I personally find that in the mornings it's usually very peaceful and quiet and you can get that deep work pretty easily also if you wake up earlier you're normally not going to get your phone buzzing all the time so you're more free from distractions personally speaking I would much rather get my work done before dinner time as opposed to having to study from like 10 pm until 2 A.M and I'm a huge believer in balance and I think that balance is very important balance to academics health and to your personal life and having fun so try to get rid of distractions because two hours of deep focus work is much better than six hours of mid Focus work the final thing I want to talk about is setting goals for yourself I'm a huge believer in setting goals for yourself not just for grades but also in your personal life also in your health also in your ability to make money and learn new skills so if you want to get straight A's in school if you want to get a 4.0 GPA make it clear to yourself make it crystal clear that that is one goal that you're trying to accomplish because if you don't have goals clear set in your mind then it's going to be hard for you to do like intentional deep study work sessions to become an academic weapon and if you don't know what your goals are or if you're trying to make new goals for yourself the easy way to do this is try to imagine yourself in the next 10 years try to visualize yourself and see who you want to become so maybe for me in 10 years I see myself completely jacked with a six-pack so I reverse engineer that goal and I create activities centered around achieving that goal and I promise you guys if you have clear goals you're going to level up in life so that's gonna be it for this video I hope you guys got lots of value from it I have full confidence that if you follow the steps in this guide and you work hard you will become an academic weapon and you'll get good grades effortlessly my name is Colin and I make videos on college self-development and high performance so if you want to be part of my journey stay tuned make sure to like this video and smash that subscribe button down below God bless the hustle we're all going to win one day and I'll see you in the next one foreign