anyone including you can become an academic Weapon by the end of this video you will have all the tools you need to Ace every single class and be known as that student I say this very confidently as a private tutor and 4.0 calch graduate the first step to becoming a star student is believing you will because if I did not think that all my work would pay off it would be 10 times harder to give it my all and eventually become valedictorian it is not our ability that show what we truly are it is our choices if you're actually serious about becoming an academic weapon then the first choice you can make is by watching the entirety of this video because I'm not going to lie to you I'm not going to sugarcoat it it takes true dedication to make it to the top you can't just wave a magic wand and suddenly all your dreams can come true actually listening to all my advice and internalizing the tips shows your true dedication now that you're fired up and have the right mindset let's get started here are the chapters we're going over today imagine a decision tree made up of many winding roads with the different paths representing different decisions you make at any point in time at Big destinations in this decision tree that might be becoming a star student getting into a top university or on the flip side the other potential destinations in your decision tree might be much lesser results in my high school years when I was getting straight A's in the hardest classes and seeing my peers I found that what separates the star students from the mediocre ones is simply their choices at these important moments of Truth in the decision tree I call these Crossroads to live an extraordinary life and to be an extraordinary student friend family member anything that is you cannot expect to live in an ordinary way and especially at your young age that's a great opportunity for you because the earlier you start making the right decisions in this decision tree the more those results will compound greater and greater such that you will become so much more successful so much richer if that's what you care about and just happier overall before we get into the critical Crossroads in this decision tree to pay attention to we need to reframe our mind and truly understand why this is so so important to your success here's a nice analogy that my high school teacher taught me so imagine hitting a golf ball right there are two golf balls in the same spot so one golf ball gets hit here and the other golf ball gets hit in just 2° to the right so whoop you hit that golf ball at the beginning the distance between them is really really small Right But as time goes on that distance gets wider and wider and wider until you would not even know that those those two golf balls came from the same spot that's the power of the decisions you can make today that will continually increase the distance between you and that mediocre student over time and even farther down the road how much greater of a job you'll have compared to someone who perhaps didn't try enough in school ever since I heard this from my teacher like 8 years ago getting old guys ever since I heard that golf ball analogy from my teacher I haven't forgotten it and that's what really helped me pick the better choice for myself when I'm tempted to open up Netflix or watch another YouTube video remembering this is what gets me to keep paying attention to those little decisions in that decision tree I'm preaching a lot so early on in the video but I just think it's so so important because I personally have seen this difference in my life and I'm living in a great life in New York City right now and I just really don't want want you to have any regrets and I guarantee you will regret it if you do not pay attention to these little decisions in the trajectory of your life right now my aam community is about acing life not only school so even though this video is about academic weaponness this concept of the decision tree will help you in academics in sports and literally anything you want to pursue to live your best life all right good job Pat yourself on the back now that you've gotten the hard part done this killer mindset it's time to go over the three most important Crossroads to pay attention in your daily Student Life One when you get any work passed back in class this is a critical moment because you can either a put it away in your backpack and scroll on your phone until class is over or B review what you got wrong the questions you got right such that you are doing that spaced repetition practice right then and there which will make you so much better and study Less in in the long run so literally anytime your work gets passed back this should be a cue for you to begin that habit of reviewing and studying that work as soon as possible the second Crossroads is downtime in class this is separate from the first one because it's independent on if you get work pass back or not I remember in Spanish class the teacher would finish teaching and whoop everyone around me would be whipping out their phones playing Candy Crush browsing social media and I'd be the only one there working on my homework and people wonder why I could handle all my hard classes and still maintain 8 hours of sleep it's because I'm using my time better this actually also includes when a movie is playing in class A lot of people will chill and it's great to relax every once in a while but those were opportunities for me to study my notes from the previous class and do some chill work while I can still enjoy the movie a little a little bit do you see how simply with this downtime in class and by being a little different from everyone else can make such a big difference in the long run it's all about your choices and being okay with being different from everyone else it's being okay with standing out and not caring that you're standing out because they're not the ones becoming the academic weapon star student reaching their potential you are so you only need to focus on what you do at these critical Crossroads the third critical Crossroads and I probably argue this is the hardest it's every time after an event at home so this includes right when you get home after school right after dinner right after a chat with your sibling because the time at home is not structured so only the truly determined disciplined students will be able to leverage that point of the decision tree to Launch them further when students get home from school yeah it's natural to go grab a snack pull out your phone but the moment you do that in that transition time between school and homework you've lost because 1 minute turns into 5 minutes which turns into 15 minutes and that's just so much lost time that wasn't even necessary right you have to think about inertia a body in motion stays in motion until something happens to it so after you get home from school you've already been learning in school so that momentum can make it easier to do homework right when you get home however if you do something too leisurely like video games or going on your phone you've pulled yourself out of that momentum and you've now taken a much slower Lane and it's harder for you to get back on that Highway and be productive again this transition time at home is any time between two big things like between dinner and homework that is transition time you want to make that trans transition time as little as possible and to do this at that moment of truth right after you finish dinner or right after you get home from basketball practice just do something that's good for you the easiest thing the easiest one problem even write your name on your homework if that's the easiest thing just don't do anything distracting because if you do then it's game over okay and that's literally the only three things you need to pay attention to in your daily life those three cues the critical Crossroads that will Propel you farther and farther into the star student route in the decision tree wow but where are all those super exciting big tips like active recall or always read the textbook before class yes I'm not denying that all those hundreds of tips out there also help you become a star student if you keep it simple and just focus on those three moments you will automatically be getting ahead in what ever you do this is because you're pushing ahead by simply magicking more time you will be amazed at how after you consistently choose the right path in those three Crossroads how much extra time you will have and how much extra heads space you'll have and how calm and not stressed you'll be then you can easily think about and start applying the study tips that work for you that's working smarter not harder add those three critical Crossroads your mind will be tempted my mind gets tempted all the time but that's exactly why I emphasized so much about the mindset toward the beginning of this video your discipline will be constantly tested and you'll want to get on to that mediocre student path because it's just so much more comfortable it is critical to believe in just two things that you have the potential to become a star student and two the impact hitting a golf ball just a couple degrees differently can make and you need to be aware that it's going to be hard because this awareness makes you not shy away from the difficulty when it happens because you're like oh well I expected it to be hard anyway but I'm going to keep pushing on because this hard path is what I want since you want to become the top 1% the other 99% will give you some peer pressure sometimes so how I like to keep myself fired up is like continuing to consume healthy things for my mind it's just like eating junk food versus healthy food right what you consume with your eyes and with your ears is just as important when I do go on social media I try to follow inspiring people I unfollow anyone who makes me feel bad about myself and I also try to actively learn stories of successful people read books watch their Vlogs even their everyday Monday lives can tell a lot about why someone could be successful you can't be number one if you're not odd so it's okay if you feel like you're doing things differently from your peers try and cut that out and again just unfollow people who don't give you value when you hit one of these Crossroads or any other moments of Truth outside the ones I listed here's what will make your right decision easier ask yourself in my one life what do I want my destination to be the path you choose should be the one that leads to that destination it's the one that gives you the most value and helps you reach your potential you can't just play by the book and say your situation to someone and ask what should I do you should be able to make that decision yourself if you don't choose to spend your time in ways that benefit you that would be doing a disservice to your potential you have to want it enough you can say you want it all you want but when it comes time to do your homework and if you say oh but it's so hard to I can't get myself to do it well guess what you clearly don't want it enough because you are literally the only person who can control what your body does right like no one your your parents as much as they try to they cannot control what your body does if you can't get yourself to study and you're like I literally can't bring myself to study yeah it's hard but if you can't do it then no one can you know what I'm sure that if someone gave you $100 every time you did your homework right after school you would sure as heck do it well guess what by having good habits you are indirectly earning that $100 and more it's just that money you'll get in the future when you're in your dream house your dream destination the one that you worked for time is the great equalizer imagine again once more that decision tree of winding roads someone might be ahead of you on a certain path but if they keep choosing worse paths and you keep choosing the right one then you're going to get there way faster and be way ahead of them in no time in school even when I felt like things were going absolutely horribly for me I just remembered that no matter how naturally smart or how many resources you may have you will be accelerating yourself if you focus on those little decisions day by day bonus extra credit while doing the actual work after you've already picked the right path in that decision tree then check in with yourself is this the most efficient way to do this I consistently asked myself this when I was doing homework studying honestly anything and that's how I developed hacks that literally no one else has talked about and I share my secrets in videos like this one check out my secrets you'll be learning something new in every single video I post I promise you and for all the A Team fam out there just a little personal thing toward the end of this video but look you notice anything different with my makeup today so I would never wear eyeliner before because one eye was double eyelid and the other was monolid so the eyeliner would disappear on this one but miraculously after I moved to New York they're both Double Island now so I realized I can do lighter now so I got the cat eye maybe it's not that noticeable but I like it a lot all right thanks guys good job today take it in it's a lot of information but you got this okay I believe in you so believe in yourself peace it's a cookbook I don't got no textbooks anymore I can't get myself to do it what accent is that