this next one is the number one thing that I wish I had told myself in high school hey everyone it's tonyan welcome or welcome back to my channel I hate long intros so I'm going to jump straight into this starting with a short little summary of my back background SL credentials so you kind of know who you're taking tips from also throughout this video if I'm looking down it's because I have my laptop I am very type A this is all my notes so I'm going to go through all of this start with again quick little background in high school I maintained around a 92 to 95% average every year and this was taking all of the heavier courses so all the maths all the Sciences physics bioch chemistry I graduated with 36 credits and most people graduate with 30 so of those 36 credits I would say 95% of my grades were in the '90s I had one or two grades in the ' 80s but either way I did very well in high school and I was also juggling a part-time job and many many many extracurriculars and I'm not going to go list them this isn't a job interview but I was very involved while also maintaining my grades so that's kind of my high school background fast forward to now I'm in my second year of uni last last year I was in the top 10% of my program and I also was placed on the Deans List so that's kind of my academic background did I just basically brag for 1 minute straight kind of sort of this is just so you know why you should even maybe take tips take tips from me Tonia and then throughout this video I'm going to go over my top 18 tips personal tips that I did not find off of Google these are my things that I personally use because if you go on Google and you look up like how to get straight A's it's all going to tell you the same things and so this is just things that I have developed and figured out from my 20 years of life that I'm going to share that you can also start implementing today these are actionable things that aren't just generic also I promise that this video is not going to waste your time like it is going to be a long video cuz I said 18 tips but these are going to save you time in the long run from hours of studying that is not necessary so if you want to put this on two time speed go ahead I understand that we all have a short attention span these days and disclaimer this is if you want to get good grades this is not necessarily tips if you want to retain and get a a really good education because I'm going to be honest I got good grades but I don't necessarily remember everything that I learned in all these classes sometimes you just need good grades like if you're going to apply to a certain University or college this is how to do that okay first up is to find your productive environment so until this year I used to do so much work from my bed back in high school I would work in my bed and like last year in uni because I didn't have like a big apartment or anything I only had my desk my bed I would often actually choose my bed over my desk because it's comfortable however there are a few issues with this number one your brain will start to associate your bed with work and so I wasn't able to fall asleep easily at night because I created this stressful environment in my bed so this is mostly a note for if you're currently working from your bed because comfortable this is your sign to oh my God too stop doing that okay so we've established not to work from your bed however if you also find that you're not productive from your desk because often times your desk is in your bedroom then find where you work most productively so for me personally I actually work great in cafes I know so cliche but whenever I'm in there like I am in my zone and I will get probably three times the amount of work done if I were in my bedroom however the thing about going to cafes is that it can get expensive I found out quickly so I stopped doing that I only do it maybe like twice a month if you don't want to go to a cafe and spend money all the time then find somewhere else if you're in University like somewhere else on campus maybe go to your Public Library just maybe a public space it really does help be most productive number two is listen don't copy during lectures so basically if your teacher or Professor provides the slides afterwards the lecture slides then don't waste your time copying them down into your notebook I know it's so nice to have all of your notes in one place have them handwritten there is such a myth that like okay maybe it's not a myth but people always say like handwriting it helps you keep it in your head longer or whatever personally I think that's kind of yes maybe a little bit true but it is so much more valuable in my opinion to be like completely present during that lecture and just listen to your professor because if those slides and notes are accessible afterwards you can access that anytime but having what your professor or teacher is saying live is so valuable and you can ask questions because if you're copying down your notes then you're not really listening to them and you miss the chance to ask questions because you don't really know what to ask questions for afterwards you can of course always write them out into your notebook when you're looking on them online however I recommend if they're always accessible there and they're going to be accessible up until your exam then there's really no point in copying them down like download them so you can have them future years this next one is kind of building on top of my last one and it's to practice active recall over rewriting or rereading your notes couple of notes here so number one rewriting your notes I used to do this when I was in the younger grades maybe like grade 8 9 10 when I wanted my notes to look really pretty and like yeah they did I did the whole calligraphy and everything waste of time and I know other girls around you are probably pulling out all their Muji highlighters pens I was one of them but just because they have pretty notes does not mean they are going to do well okay so not only rewriting your notes but also rereading your notes it's important to reread them once or twice just so that you can kind of like understand the concept but then after that you should start practicing practice questions or doing quizlets like make flashcards anything to do pra or active recall so you can actually figure out like what you know and what you need to work on this next one is for all of my fellow uni students not really so much for high school students but to figure out which classes are skippable now I know it's probably not great to be advising you to skip classes however I often find it's more beneficial to skip classes than to be in the class especially if the professor is useless for example my current math class I went to the very first class realized I'm not going to learn anything from him so I have not been to a single one since then like yeah it's probably a big waste of money but it's a huge saving on time because if I were to sit there every week in that 3-hour lecture it would be a waste of 3 hours I was not learning a single thing and then also sometimes a lot of class classes that have all the lecture slides provided afterwards with all the content that they would have said in person anyways I find those ones are skippable so if I'm very packed on time that week and I don't think it's going to be that beneficial for me to be there I I'll skip it like any day of the week quick little side note if you're enjoying this video and you find helpful please do give it a thumbs up it just shows me that you like this kind of content and I know to make more educational school content like this in the future and also hit the Subscribe and Bell button okay let's continue number five is one of my favorites and I feel like this is something that a lot of people don't really do because whenever I do it I don't see other people around me doing it but it's basically to figure out exactly what you'll be assessed on so for example during lectures make note of things that you don't need to memorize because often times your teacher or Professor they'll quickly say while they're going through a slide like oh but you don't really need to know this or don't worry too much about this you don't need to memorize this make a note in your notes because in a week from now when you're looking at these you won't remember which things that your professor said you need to focus on which ones you don't need to so sometimes like yeah I'll put a star beside the really important things but also I will put like an abbreviation for example D ntk don't need to know or DM don't memorize or you could do like a symbol of your own just put that beside the section of notes that you don't need to memorize and don't memorize it that's a waste of time memorizing can take a really long time and then also in terms of knowing what exactly you'll be assessed on in University the majority of the time I don't do the assigned textbook readings and I do just fine because so many classes there are textbooks that your professor would give you readings or even in high school too like I had readings and often times I didn't do them because if your professor or teacher is good enough they will go over the the most important things in class and they'll say like the textbook readings will be on the test but maybe one or two questions you won't get because you didn't read the textbook but the majority of the stuff they probably cover in class so you'll be just fine not reading it and maybe if you have a little bit of time just read the end summary at the end of each chapter there normally a summary paragraph read that and you should should be a okay this next one is kind of simar to like what I said about making note of what your professor says you should memorize but also listen to what your professor or teacher says on how to be successful so more often than not especially on like the first day of courses or your first day of class they'll tell you like this is what you need to do in order to do well in this class or right before the exam they'll tell you in order to do well in this exam you should do blank so for example they'll tell you this exam is going to have a lot of questions so in order to do well you just need to make sure that you know the concepts really well and you've done a lot of practice questions so when you get a question you know exactly how to do it then don't spend your time you know rereading the textbook but instead doing the practice questions that they recommend because they're the ones who wrote the assessment this is kind of a given but if you have a rubric actually read it I know we always get rubrics especially like in high school you know the four different categories going to be marked on actually read them because that tells you a lot of how to do well I always go straight to the level four column and I'll see okay okay I need to be excellent in these four things and then I make sure before I submit it that these four things in order to do well are covered number seven might sound counterproductive and maybe debatable but I am huge on taking naps and you might be thinking okay girl are you really that busy if you can take naps yes because naps actually save me time in the long run so I probably take one about every other day probably maybe 3 or four a week and I do a full sleep cycle so an hour and a half I know a lot of people that when they say I'm going to go take a nap they nap for 20 minutes girl no when I take a nap I need to like get into my PJs set my alarm for an hour 45 minutes so I can get the full sleep cycle and when I wake up I always am so much more productive than when I went to bed and I normally go to like take these naps right after classes when I'm just feeling drained and most people when they get back from class they'll tell you as soon as you get back from class you should be rereading them when they're fresh in your mind girl when after class I am so tired I'll take a nap I wake up and I'm rejuvenated so that is one of my secrets to doing well and basically the way it saves me time is because if I were to have not taken that nap I would have gotten probably a third of the amount of work done if I didn't take it just because whenever you're working you're like tired you'll reread the same paragraph like four times or you'll be writing you just like completely blank off or you get distracted easily maybe you'll just like fall asleep at your desk been there done that too so taking that nap is saving you time in my opinion number eight is very straightforward very simple but it's to ask questions now this might be obvious and I know that a lot of people don't like to ask questions because social anxiety and they're afraid of what other people are thinking of them but honestly people really aren't judging people aren't really listening in class half the time I am personally very notorious for asking a lot of questions because I want to understand first of all like the content that I'm learning or number two I want to understand what I'm being assessed on for example if you're just assigned an assignment I will ask a lot of questions to understand how to do well on it next is to use available outside resources so this one's in particular if you're a professor or teacher kind of sucks because I've been there multiple times and I'm still able to do well in that class for example there's so many YouTube tutorials websites talk to your classmates your peers uper years get a mentor if you can especially you're you're in University there are a lot of mentorship programs you can sign up for and having someone who's already been through this class they know all the inside scoop the secret the tips all of that also you can access other teachers and professors so for example in grade 12 my physics teacher was abolute to keep it light he wasn't good so I went to my grade 11 physics teacher and I asked him like is it possible I could get like any of your notes or anything and I'm pretty sure that I was able to get like his notes for grade 12 physics if your professor sucks don't just sit around there and complain like do something about it I have not been back to my math lecture ever since the first one and instead I'm just using our math textbook and I learn completely from that I'm doing just fine so just figuring out your outside resources that you have access to and actually using them this next one is the number one thing that I wish I had told myself in high school and it's to set reasonable goals so if your goals are unattainable or near impossible to achieve with all of your other extracurriculars and commitments then either lower your standards or commit to less things because in high school I told myself I'm going to get either 90% or higher in every single one of my classes and so I did that for grade all of Grade 9 and 10 and grade 11 I had a lot going on and I got my first grade in the ' 80s and I was literally devastated but having that such of a high expectation for myself was ridiculous as soon as I got that first grade in the 80s I literally thought I was such a failure and it made me burn out because I thought I'm failing like I'm doing so bad if my expectations were a bit lower maybe even like 85% or higher that would have been fine too know what really is important to you do you really need to have these grades that badly is there a program that needs this high of grades and if there is then maybe commit to less things number 11 is to try out and find a time management strategy that works for you because there are so many online I'm going to go over just a couple that I have tried personally that you can look into number one is eat the frog that one is to do the thing that you're dreading the most first first and foremost get of the way and then after that you are on a productivity grind like it is easy to do the rest number two time blocking you've probably heard of that Pomerado studying technique where you study for 25 minutes and take a break for five and just continue that cycle the Eisenhower priority Matrix where you split your priorities into four different boxes so this is just a few that you can look into you can also look up time management strategies online and figuring out which one works for you personally next up another one that I think a lot of people fail to do and it could save them a lot of um not necessarily a lot of time but just help them a lot with their grades and it's basically to know the waiting of each assessment this applies to both high school and University but become very aware of what assignments are worth how much percent of your total grade so this is very accessible in University and your course outline your syllabus but also in high school I know a lot of my teachers also told us how heavy each assessment was going to be waited and then put a lot more time into things that weigh more this might seem obvious but a lot of people don't do this if you have a midterm that's in one class that's worth 30% and an assignment in another class that's worth 10% then put a lot more time into studying than writing that essay for example because you could spend equal amount of times 3 hours you know studying 3 hours writing this essay personally probably takes me like 6 hours to write an essay 6 hours for an essay 6 hours studying but maybe instead spend only 4 hours writing an essay and 8 hours studying for this test if it's worth a lot more in another class A lot of people just see each assessment as the same amount of weight weight like heaviness I don't know but really figure out what things are worth the most and spend the most time doing those number 13 is to figure out how you personally actually enjoy spending your time so this might take again some self assessment but figure out like what's worth your time because we all have the same 24 hours in a day right sometimes people say I don't have the time but we all have the same amount of time it's just how you choose to prioritize it so for example would you rather go to a house party or spend that time doing extracurricular personally I'm not a big party person I don't grow out a lot I would have more fun doing my extracurricular doing my sport doing my hobby than going out to a party personally sometimes you can't do everything that you want to do so make a list of your priorities something sometimes has to give and also don't subscribe to other people's versions of fun just because everyone else is doing this thing maybe it's your friend group and they're all going to do this activity that you personally don't really want to do it's okay to not do it and spend time instead on something else that is more important to you or more fun to you I feel like this next one has been kind of a bigger Trend over the past few years but it's to make studying fun SL romanticize it and this actually does help me from time to time not always here are some ways that I make study more fun number one if it's a thing that doesn't take too much like mental Focus you can study with other friends especially if you guys are in the same class and it's like a memorization thing you guys can make a lot of fun games out of it one of my favorite games is where if it's like a definition class you have to memorize definitions is write definitions on cards and then put them all faed down someone will pick one up they'll read it to themselves and then they'll describe it without actually using that word so for example it's a biology word it's um like mitochondria you could say Powerhouse of the cell and then whoever guesses it first they get the card and they have like one point so that's a really fun game that I like playing with my friends when I had like more content heavy courses you can also do this if you don't have friends and you want to study alone Quizlet is great it's a lot of fun spend time making quizlets they now have a new AI feature where you can like scan your notes and they'll make flash cards for you you can also romanticize studying by making it ambient so I like putting my Sunset lamp shining over my desk lighting a candle making it pretty or go somewhere pretty like maybe study in a park if it's nice weather go to a nice Library just make it more fun more entertaining this next one is not going to be fun to hear but it's basically to spend time on the things that you're not good at so for example if you have two tests and you only have time to really study for one then focus on the one that you're not good at if you have an English exam and a math exam and I know a lot of people say like I'm not good at math then don't spend so much time studying for your English exam spend time studying on the topic that you're not good at and I know it's not fun cuz we all like doing things that we're good at but in order to do equally as well in these classes you're probably going to have to put in a lot more time into the class that you're not as good at number 16 is kind of obvious but it's to stay on top of your due dates so figure out maybe an organization system that allows you to see all your due dates ahead of time I know people use notion personally I just use Google Calendars use a physical agenda if you need to and having them all listed in front of you or like on a calendar you can plan ahead like oh this presentation is going to be you know here I should probably start working on that that now obvious I know but most people do leave things to last minute and guys it's actually such a good feeling if you get things done ahead of time like I finished an assignment that's due today like a week ago and it's like out of my mind like I saw my calendar like oh yeah like ready finish that feels great try it number 17 is to do constant self assessments so for example whenever you get feedback from an assessment read it or ask for it if it don't give it to you and then reflect on that and then the next time you do an assignment you know improve from there because that's the only way you're going to improve that's the only way you're going to grow really so this applies to all kind of Assessments you know presentations Labs whatever one thing that I personally had an issue with and still am constantly trying to improve is time management on tests I'm a perfectionist so whenever I'm writing tests I want to make sure that all my questions I'm answering are you know the right answers but then near the end of the last questions those are the ones where I'm always either rushing or literally guessing like sometimes it'll be like 3 minutes left and it's like multiple choice or something or or like it's a short answer and I have like three short answers left I'm like like oh crap like I don't have time I'll just like Scribble something down so just constantly figuring out what you are weak in and trying to improve on that last but not least is to have the right proper mindset I know a lot of times the thing that really does hold us back from being the best version of ourselves as cliche and corny as it sounds is because of the way we perceive ourselves so for example if you think that you're not good at a certain class or course don't continue to feed your delusions and saying to yourself oh I'm not good at math start honestly telling yourself affirmations I'm getting so good at math or I'm becoming a morning person so I can get up early and study things like that shift your perspective of how you see yourself and it will seriously help you be successful not only in school but in life in general life advice with tonyan okay guys so I basically just spilled all of the industry secrets of how to do well in school without burning out I do want to actually end on a quick little note and reminder that your grades are not worth your mental health that's so big and important to remember and something that helps me stay in perspective is that tomorrow isn't guaranteed as morbid as that sounds so basically my point is don't just try to get really good grades for your future your future isn't guaranteed sounds so morbid I know but instead focus on getting good grades but also having a life so that means some of your grades will suffer a little bit that's okay as long as you are also enjoying the present by hanging with people and just having a good time outside of your academic life as well editing tonyan here I just want to say thank you so much for staying till the end of the video for getting through this comment down below what year or grade you're in so I know if I should make more University or High School kider content I love you guys so much and I will see you in the next one [Music] bye what what