the lowest grade I've ever gotten at university is a B, and that was on my most severely procrastination-brained, low effort given, under prepared assignment. I have never once gotten lower than a B on any single assignment/exam/class and I don't plan on it happening anytime soon. I mentioned before that I treat academia like a sport. It's something that I literally train for and give it the effort that an athlete would. B's are F's in my mind bc I know that I am capable of getting A's if I put forth A-student effort and training. I have a lot of school related asks to go through when I get some time for them and I'm gonna help y'all out with a nice long 'study like 2pretty' masterpost. we do beauty AND brains around here, I can't have y'all falling behind!
Mindset
If you don't think it's possible to always get A's, to study long hours, to be more dedicated than others around you, then you're probably right. You genuinely have to believe that it's possible and know that you get what you work for. If literally a single person in your class get's an A, then that's proof enough that it's possible. Maybe you'll have to study longer or harder or make more sacrifices, but it is possible. I approach every assignment/exam with the aim to get a 100%. Even if I don't get a 100, I got a lot closer than if I was just looking to "pass".
Discipline and Building the Habit
Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill. You need to prioritize school work and make sure that it gets done no matter what. Not only if you 'feel' like it. Not only if the weather is right or you ate a certain thing or woke up at a certain time. If you oversleep, you still do your work. If you said you'd study at 6 but traffic was backed up and you didn't get home until 7, you still do your work.
It needs to become part of your daily life so that the friction to do it is removed. When you were a little kid, your mom had to remind you all the time to brush your teeth. It might have taken a year or 2 (or more!) before it became something that you automatically did when you woke up. You don't think about it, you don't negotiate it, you just do it. If you study every day (or at whatever frequency), you will be able to get into the study mood faster and stay there longer. And even when they mood doesn't come, you can still study because your body and mind are so used to it. It's become a routine.
Even if you aren't learning new material, review your notes. Even if you don't write the full essay, write a paragraph or edit it. Take practice tests. Build the habit.
Most people have subpar grades, not because they aren't smart enough, but because the don't have the discipline to study often. Showing up every day whether you want to or not is half the battle won.
Training
Make a schedule. Stick to it. Show up every day, sit down, and get to work. Stop making so many lame excuses. Your brain is trying to sabotage you because putting in work is painful and your brain just wants you to be comfortable. The only thing more painful than studying hard is the pain of getting bad grades and feeling stupid or incompetent. Of wondering if you picked the wrong field and maybe you should drop classes and switch majors. Of potentially losing your scholarship. Of spending all that money on tuition just to barely scrape by with your grades, knowing that if you were gonna do so badly you might as well have chosen the more affordable school. That's the real pain.
Train yourself to be a winner. Train yourself to be everyone's biggest competition. Not because you are a natural born genius, but because you are able to make school a priority, get to work early, and put in as many hours as it takes to be excellent. When teachers used to say "your essay is due in 2 weeks but I already have someone who has submitted theirs", everyone would look at me because duhhhh.
Compete with yourself
I know that nowadays no one likes being told that they can and should do better. No one likes being told that they are mediocre by choice. No one likes being told that things are in their hands and they have the power to make better outcomes for themselves. But it's true. You don't become a top student by feeling sorry for yourself and constantly blaming others for why you aren't performing well. Take accountability for your grades and start competing with yourself to be a better student. You got a C on that last quiz? Get a B this time. You got 4 A's in a row? Keep that streak going. No matter how good I do on an assignment, if I didn't get a 100% then I'm competing with the version of myself that did get a 100% previously.
Study motivation
My biggest motivation is my desire to perform well. I hate being asked a question that I should know the answer to and not knowing it. I hate struggling during exams. Those negative feelings are things I don't want to keep experiencing, so I make sure to avoid them. I also am used to being a high achiever since childhood. A's are the expectation, not the exception.
On days where I need some extra motivation, I watch videos from the Motivation2Study channel on youtube and I also watch this documentary about chinese students prepping for the biggest exam of their life. The rigor and dedication is astounding.
My go-to study methods
- I prefer handwritten notes over digital. I used to write with notability on my ipad but honestly I'm a (pink) pen and paper girl at heart
- I read the entire section, paying ample attention, and then come back to the top to take notes. I find it easier to take notes if I already know whats coming next. If I don't, I may end up writing redundant information. Plus, with the second reading and simultaneous note taking, I retain the info better.
- I always use bullet points and headers to separate topics
- If I need to write down an example, I indent it into the page under the corresponding bullet point. I rarely use more than 2 examples though. It can be overkill.
- For large chunks of info, I read it and try to explain it out loud. If I miss something, I'll do it again.
- For small info, like definitions for example, I use digital flashcards
- I use spaced repetition to review, especially for my flashcards but also with physical notes
- If I get something wrong, I don't say "close enough" and move on. I hammer it in until it's right. "Mostly right" isn't good enough. I need to master each question.
- I used to have highly decorated notes but I don't have time for that anymore. I use pink highlighters, pink pens, etc and just write them out plainly.
- I always study at my desk rather than my bed or couch or anything. If I'm not at home, then I'll study at a table or whatever but I honestly prefer my own room over libraries or other places.
- While I'm working I'll listen to that infamous lo-fi hiphop playlist, my favorite k-hiphob/rnb playlist, or the social network soundtrack. Other times I'll play a study with me livestream or an asmr video of someone writing on crinkly paper lol. Depends on my mood.
- For lectures, I try to record the audio so that I can come back to anything that I might have missed. I write very fast, and rarely in complete sentences. For example if my prof says "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after", my notes would be along the lines of, "Jack/Jill up hill for water. Jack fell, crown broke, Jill fell." I only get the most meaningful parts and skip the rest.
- ALWAYS read over your notes asap. Twice, if you can. Make an effort to remember what they say.
Intensive Study Camps
This is not for softies who are like "I studied for 5 minutes now! I'm done for the day bc I don't want to push myself and hurt my wittle mental health! It's okay to be a loser 😊” (I'm just kidding.)
This is for people who want to maximize every hour they can for a specific amount of time and give it all they've got. I like 1 week chunks but sometimes I'll do an entire month. Wake up, freshen up, study, study, study. I try to plan out 12 hours of studying, sometimes more. Key word: plan. You must make a schedule and follow it. Long time followers will remember my computer science barbie schedule that I followed about a year ago. I wrote it on an index card and kept it sitting on my desk to refer to every day.
Basically you decide to spend x amount of time fully immersed in academia and that becomes your number one priority. By the time your camp is over with, you will have put in dozens, maybe hundreds of hours of studying.
I get inspiration from east asian (namely Chinese and South Korean) education, which is notoriously intense and time consuming.
Why do I do this? For 3 reasons. 1) I like it 🤪. 2) If you have a deadline coming up and you need to get more work done, cramming the night before or studying lightly won't cut it. This is 'study like 2pretty', and I like getting A's. I don't know what simple courses you're taking where you can sleep all day and still get a 100% but I've taken some pretty rigorous courses where the biggest indicator of your grade is how much (quality) time you can spend on the material to practice and get better. 3) Let's assume that there's two students, A and B. They have the same memory, same intelligence, and same test-taking abilities. The only difference in their performance is time. It just comes to reason that the student who performs better is the student who spends more quality time with the material. Those who read a lot do better than those who don't read much. Those who write a lot are better writers. Those who practice basketball more do better than other players. Simple math.
I said it twice above but I'll say it again: quality time. Not all time spent is quality time. Just looking at your page or screen isn't quality.
Intensive schedules aren't my daily thing, of course. I use it when I am in a slump, need to zoom to the top of the class, or if other students have lots of prior knowledge and I need to catch up. I've also used it to test out of a class.
