Ladies and gentlemen, if you clicked on this video, chances are you have a test or exam coming up and you want to get an A+. Well, you've come to the right spot. My name is Colin and I'm a student at Yale University studying computer science.
And in this video, I'll teach you how to ace all your exams with ease. Whether you have an exam in two weeks, in seven days, or you don't want even tomorrow, this video is for you. Listen, I've probably taken more than 100 exams throughout high school and college. And what I can tell you is that acing all your exams...
It doesn't have to be so complicated. All you need is the right mindset and the right strategy. So the first thing you want to do is rewire your mindset.
And there are three key things you must do. The first thing is to stop panicking like a little nerd. Relax. You need to almost like trick yourself into thinking that any test you do is doable, that any test is aceable, as long as you put in the work.
Now, the second thing you need to do is to start gamify studying. You need to make studying fun. not boring. So the way I like to do this is by creating a quizlet and treating it like a game, where I'm basically creating flashcards for myself. And my objective is to get 100% as fast as possible.
And in order to reach that goal of getting 100%, it's like playing a game, right? You just keep playing the game. And through that feedback loop and active recall, you're actually studying for your test effectively.
So guys, try to make your study sessions fun. Treat it like a game where you're just trying to max out the scoreboard as fast as possible. Now, the third key thing you want to do is implement Parkinson's.
law. And this law is about setting goals and deadlines for yourself. So let me give you an example.
If you want to study for your math exam, don't just give yourself an entire Saturday to study for that math exam. That's highly like unspecific and it's really broad of a timeline. Give yourself two hours maximum during that Saturday to study.
Because if you give yourself an entire day to study, you're just going to end up wasting so much time. So what you want to do is implement Parkinson's law, where you're scheduling in much more shorter study sessions. And that way...
you're going to be much more productive and much more focused. With that said, the next thing you need to do is to organize what you need to study. Guys, this is very important when it comes to acing your exam, because in order to ace your exam, you need to know what's being tested on your exam in the first place. Stop trying to read all the chapters on a textbook and go memorize the chapters that you don't even need. It's wasting time.
I mean, you can probably do that if you have a lot of free time. But I'm assuming that you're trying to ace your exam in the shortest amount of time possible. So Colin, how do you do this?
How do you organize your study notes? It's actually very simple. So let's say you have a psychology exam coming up and you know that chapters one to six will be tested on the exam. So what I want you to do is create a Google Doc and type in all the key terms in each chapter.
And then literally just dump all that information, your class notes, pictures, etc. And then organize it later. Try to make it look aesthetic. I'm talking about aesthetic where it's sort of like a cheat sheet where all your study notes... are organized and that's literally everything you need to know for the exam.
Now once you have all your notes organized, what you want to do is create a separate google doc to create an exam for yourself. And there are three cool ways you can do this. The first way is by coming up with your own questions based on your notes.
And this one is probably the most straightforward one where you're basically just creating multiple choice questions for yourself and open-ended questions based on your study notes. Now the second way you can do this is by leveraging AI. So simply paste all your class notes and all your study guide. from the Google Doc into ChatGPT and ask it to create flashcards, ask it to create questions, and then simply copy paste those questions into a new Google Doc and maybe even print it.
Now the third way to test yourself is by taking past practice exam papers online or from your teacher. This method is probably the one that I've used most in the past and it's probably the most effective as well because you have a sense of what's going to come up in your test. Now once you have these practice questions, what you want to do is put them all on a Quizlet. And again, you want to treat those Quizlets like you're playing a video game.
Personally, I really like doing those Quizlets whenever I have like five minutes of free time. Maybe that's in the car, maybe that's waiting for a class, or maybe that's just before I sleep. And using Quizlet is a very easy way to study, and the active recall is also really effective.
How do you know you're studying well with your Quizlets? So the moment you stop focusing on whether you're getting the question right or wrong, and you start focusing on how fast can I get 100% on the Quizlet, that's when you know. you're ready. Now another thing you can do that's really effective is to read your study notes five to ten minutes before you sleep.
And ideally you want to do this for three days in a row before your exam day. So let's say your exam is on a Monday. You want to do this on Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night. Because when you read your notes before you sleep, it just enhances your memory and helps you remember those things when you wake up.
Also, when you're reading your notes at night, don't think of it like studying. Think of it like you're reading your favorite book. It's not so much of I need to study, but it's more I get to study. I have this privilege of studying in my bed and reading these notes to increase my knowledge.
And when you frame it that way, studying just becomes much more fun and easy. So what should you do the day of your exam? First things first, don't eat too much. So if you have an exam at 2 p.m., don't eat too big of a lunch because you're just going to end up being sleepy and your brain is not going to function.
as fast. Just eat as much as you need and don't overload your body because your brain needs some energy to process that food. For me personally, I do intermittent fasting so I don't eat for the first four to six hours of my day but do whatever works for you. The next thing you want to do is to relax your brain.
So for me personally, I have this ritual of listening to lo-fi beats and jazz piano before I take an exam and it just keeps me calm and peaceful and ready to ace that exam. Also make sure you're drinking water and you're hydrated to keep your mind sharp and if you can Get some sunlight. Guys, it's probably one of the most underrated things you can do to increase your energy levels and focus when you're taking the exam.
And if you follow all these steps and tips from this video, I have no doubt that you guys are going to ace your exams. But that's going to be it for this video. I hope you guys got lots of value from it. If you did, make sure to smash that like button and subscribe to be part of the family. God bless the hustle.
We're all going to win one day and I'll see you in the next one.