[Music] [Applause] college is an immersive life experience that opens our eyes expands our horizons and challenges us to grow it's a flat out culture shock and a healthy one call is college isn't just about academic growth though it also creates the opportunity for us to develop greater maturity and social skills the biggest challenge i found was to learn how to balance everything that i wanted to do without sacrificing academic success in effect college is almost a trial by fire are you ready to start living your life on your own terms newsflash on first arrival i don't think i was my first semester of college went somewhat well things were a little bumpy here and there everything was new and i mostly kept up as my second semester approached i was about to put myself under even more pressure because i had committed to yshu's baseball team and baseball season was coming i originally thought i would have no problem keeping my grades high however college baseball demanded more of my free time than i expected it was just like adding a strenuous part-time job that takes a rough toll on your body this led to less time less energy and a poor social life i quickly realized that i was no longer in fully control of my time this rude awakening came to a head while i sat on a bus for eight hours heading home from our first college baseball trip of the season knowing that i had two tests the next day that i barely prepared for a pit began to form in my stomach that uneasiness intensified and my heart started pounding self-doubt started creeping my mind i asked myself how can i study for two tests while i'm uncomfortable and exhausted and to make matters worse i was also getting cars sick but i didn't give up i read as many class notes and textbook chapters as i possibly could for all eight hours of that trip meanwhile my teammates were laughing and talking and playing games all around me make me wish i didn't have to study and still i tried my best to power through i took the test the next day brutally exhausted and when the disappointing results came back i was frustrated i frantically studied for eight hours missed out on all the fun my teammates were having and i didn't even ace my tests i wanted to be able to do it all yet i was over committed that goal was slipping away and i didn't know how to turn things around in short i was at my wit's end sometimes though necessity or was it desperation breeds innovation one way or another i had to conquer that problem regain control of my time because the stress of wanting to do it all was becoming unbearable something needed to change turns out i was in good company a recent nationwide survey conducted by filemaker demonstrates that roughly 50 percent of college students say that they don't have enough time for coursework and a whopping 87 percent of students say that better time management would help them get better grades reflecting on my past experiences i identified that most of my free time was devoted to studying then i looked deeper i started looking at where i was least effective in my time you probably heard of the 80 20 pareto principle applying that here we often should focus on our efficiencies the 20 of our studying efforts that get us 80 percent of our results flipping that script i needed to look more closely at my inefficiencies the 80 of my studying efforts that was only getting me 20 of my results in my case i found i was least effective with reading and gathering information primarily from textbooks i knew i had to get better about how i studied collected and organized information and how i spent my time and i did this deep dive in improving my studying habits reaped big rewards and soon friends started asking me how did you learn to manage at all how did you make it look so easy and eventually so many people had asked me that i decided to write a book about how i did it borrowing from my book i like to share with you the key takeaways of my five step process to study more effectively and efficiently in college so we can live more extraordinary and balanced college lives because efficiency breeds freedom and opportunity these steps evolved throughout my college experience they've been battle tested student tested and parent approved they're easy and the results speak for themselves to make it even more memorable for this talk i decided to name this process go ace the more i used go ace the better i became at studying i sped up my studying hours wasted less energy and achieved more success from it it became its own self-motivating loop and wanting to maintain the habit was automatic flexibility is key here adopt what works people are varied and everyone's wired a little differently start with the core ideas then develop your own blend feel free to add and adjust your own twist to them that best suits you the truth is everyone should know these things but how many students are actually actively taught how to study more effectively seems like some schools teach it passively i'm here to offer a better approach the first step is go to class in my freshman year whenever i missed class due to baseball i felt the consequences immediately i would have to triple my studying hours just so i wouldn't fall behind in addition to the extra time commitment my stress and anxiety levels skyrocketed i knew if i could physically attend class i would every time in my senior year i started helping others with their studying habits test preparation and understanding class material the first question i would ask them was do you attend class you would be amazed by the number of students who've missed significant class time then hope a few tutoring sessions would magically catch them up and while i still offer to help there's no magical spell that will recover from this class time attending classes pivotal to success in the first step of our process however just showing up only gets us half the results we need to actively participate and invest our energy and focus professors generally aim to teach most of the information that they test us on so we need to actively listen and write down what they're teaching us they're giving us the answers make it a priority go with the intention to process and absorb what's being offered other concerns can be dealt with later regardless of anything else we do attending class so we can take notes is the most important process it doesn't matter what we else we do to improve our studying habits if we aren't present in the classroom so go to class the second step is outline your textbooks when i first started opening my textbooks i experienced a wave of unpleasantness i was overwhelmed and angry imagining wasting huge amounts of time on them obviously not the most useful mindset textbooks are a critical source of information and knowledge and i clearly needed an attitude adjustment it wasn't easy or instant but by thinking outside the box i eventually developed a more positive approach i began to respect my textbooks to help you feel similarly let's begin that's become so efficient with our textbooks that you begin to value them more highly here's how to save more time most students tend to read their textbooks start to finish like they would read a novel and that's how i originally thought you're supposed to use a textbook but my results skyrocketed when i shifted more to an outline driven methodology i kid you not this was the game changer reading textbooks word for word and hoping to memorize it all both hurts retention and waste time our goal with textbooks need to be to extract and organize key content strategically in order to do this efficiently we should just skim our textbooks now i do acknowledge that skimming textbooks isn't ideal for learning in every field or profession yet i found it works beautifully especially in liberal arts and general education courses and as we skim we need to organize real time turn that flow of content into a handwritten outline document you can skip over any of that unnecessary content research or examples because a lot of that filler isn't critical to summarize scan each chapter pull out the relevant information and outline it using your own form or shorthand doing so will save the most amount of time in the long run it did for me it also gives you gives you the highest retention rates better future access when studying and sets you up for success the third step is align and combine when i was studying i found it challenging to bounce back and forth to my class notes and my textbook outline doing so was very inefficient sometimes confusing and often stressful when my frustration reaches peak i just thought why not just combine them as college students we have access to two main sources of information our professors and our textbooks knowledge from both distinct sources can be aligned and combined into one clear and distinct brain trust that answers all of our questions and covers all of our studying needs i'm suggesting that we rewrite our textbook outline from step two while inserting our class notes in relevant spots from step one doing so will create a synergistic easy to use document that gives us far more valuable results than just from studying from our two separate sources the fourth step is condense i have to admit i learned this step by complete accident you see i consider myself somewhat a perfectionist and while that trait usually gives me more trouble than benefits this was one of the few fabulous exceptions i simply just wanted my outline to look and flow better so i rewrote and condensed it multiple times i have to share the unexpected benefits here were unbelievably valuable when we rewrite and condense our outline the analysis and simplification of our document both maximizes retention and reviews what's most important we'll be polishing our outline into the best possible study in reference tools for tests in class assignments this may seem repetitive because it is embrace the repetition repetition is a powerful tool to be used for our greatest advantage i can say that once i started rewriting and condensing my outline my performance on test improved will my overall test preparation time decreased the fifth step is explain the content to others i love helping people so whenever someone asked me to help them study i would lend a hand whenever possible to better prepare myself for this i would read my outline multiple times while trying to figure out how best to explain this content as if i was the one teaching it after doing this multiple times i realized that whenever i help someone study my performance on test improved drastically surprise teaching improved my own learning teaching forces our brains to integrate material more deeply this not only leads to faster mastery but also being thoroughly ready for acing our tests this step became so valuable to me that i eventually formed my own study group that i called my a team having a study group of friends or colleagues provides studying support and accountability both are which are enormously valuable if you don't have your own a-team then connect with a classmate discuss information to gain clarity and to get on the same page together summarize what could be on the upcoming tests if you can't connect with a classmate then teach your pet or your favorite tree or record a video of you teaching yourself the material however you go about this read your outline enough times that you practically start to memorize it then become able to teach the material to others once you accomplish this step you are ready for kicking butt on any test and that's it in a nutshell my five-step process to help us study more effectively and efficiently in college i challenge you to take control of your time and soon you'll find yourself automatically more successful again here are the steps to improve success measurably go to class don't rely on second hand notes absorb what the professor is teaching in person outline your textbook extract key information from this valuable resource effectively and also quickly align and combine these two sources set yourself up for far better studying later condense it all together this repetition streamlines future access and recall to key information explain the content to others teaching others content leads a deeper understanding and that leads to acing your tests you'll find that these steps fit nicely into the phrase go ace go to class and take notes outline your textbook align and combine these two sources condense it all together and explain it to others that's it i promise these simple steps will help save hours of precious time that's often overspent on academics while simplifying studying and greatly improving learning quality and that's the first benefit the secondary benefits are even better you can use that free time to recover build relationships network enjoy hobbies join athletics and ultimately have the fun in college you deserve it doesn't have to be a trade-off you can have it all the extraordinary opportunity college presents won't last forever so go ace have fun and make it all memorable thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you