How to make the *ultimate* academic comeback

Thanks to Surfshark for sponsoring this video. You rush to the mailbox right after school and there it is, your report card. You bring it home, tear it open, and realize your grades aren't where you want them to be. But you know you have it in you. You know you could do better. You know you could get straight A's if you just lock in for the rest of the semester. Look, if you're trying to go from an F to an A in one week or even one semester, this video is not going to help you. But if you're trying to go from a B to an A, or from a C to a B, and you genuinely commit to the advice in this video, you will succeed. But before I dive into all my different techniques and ways that you can improve your grade, you have to ask yourself one important question. Why are your grades not where you want them to be? And I want you to answer this honestly. I think most students have one of these four answers. You're overwhelmed, you're struggling, you're distracted, or you're lazy. And look, I don't mean that in a rude way. I have been all four of these things at one point or another. But if you genuinely want to improve your grades as quickly as possible, you need to evaluate your situation honestly. If you're overwhelmed, it means your grades aren't where you want them to be because you have way too much on your plate. Maybe you're taking a bunch of AP classes. Maybe you're in a bunch of extracurriculars. And because of these commitments, you can't fully devote yourself to your academics. If you're struggling, it means you might have the time and you're actually putting in the work, but you simply can't grasp the content. In other words, it's hard to get that information to stick inside your brain. If you're distracted, it means you're struggling to focus and complete your work. Maybe because you're going on your phone, you're playing video games, you're watching Netflix or something else. And if you're lazy, well, it just means you're lazy. That doesn't mean you don't do the work. It simply means you don't give it your all. For example, maybe you finish 80% of your homework and call it a day. Or maybe you spend 30 minutes studying for an exam and think that's enough. You might just be one of these things or you might be all four. So let's dive into concrete solutions for each scenario so you can turn your grades around as quickly as possible. Scenario number one, you're overwhelmed. My junior year of high school, I made a huge mistake. I enrolled into five AP classes. Now mind you, junior year is one of the hardest years of high school. It's the year you have to start thinking about college apps, prepping for standardized tests. It's the year some of your extracurriculars might get really serious. But for some reason, I wanted to push myself to the absolute max. So I went up to my guidance counselor and asked her to put me into AP Chem, AP Calc, AP Lang, APush, and AP Euro. Now you might be saying, Gohar, two history APs? Well, not for long. A week into the school year, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to handle all those courses. So I ended up dropping AP Euro. I swapped it out for a study hall and I don't regret that decision at all. Doing so gave me more time to study for the ACT, to devote to newspaper club, to have a life outside of school. So if you're in a similar situation, if you're overwhelmed, I want you to step back and seriously consider which commitments you can drop. Whether it's an elective you don't need or a club you're not excited about, cut down to make time for the stuff that matters. But let's say you watch this video towards the end of the school year. Obviously, you can't just drop your commitments. In that case, I have another tip. Make special requests. If you have too much on your plate and can't complete an assignment on time, email your teacher not a day before but several days before and I promise you they'll be willing to accommodate. If you're part of a club and can't make it to a weekly meeting because you have to study for the SAT, tell them in advance and I promise you they'll find a way to keep you involved. I think the mistake most students make is that they'll either never ask for these accommodations or they'll ask for them way too late. I promise if you plan ahead and ask the right people weeks or even days in advance, you'll find a way to balance everything. All right, scenario number two, you're struggling. And before I continue, yes, I know that you're struggling could technically also mean you're overwhelmed but in the context of this video, it means you're putting in the work but struggling to grasp the information. The first step here and this might hit hard for the overachievers watching this is to let go of your ego. If you've always been the smart kid or if things have always come easy to you, you have to realize that struggle is okay and that it's an inevitable part of the learning process. This is a lesson that hit so hard for me my freshman year of college. So the highest level of physics I had taken before entering MIT was honors physics because my school didn't offer AP physics. And let me tell you the jump from honors physics at my small public high school to introductory physics at MIT was astounding. It felt like going from a light jog to a full-on sprint. But what I did and what I recommend you do is leverage every resource at your disposal. This might not be super relevant if you're in high school but if you're in college, you probably have office hours. Your school might have a tutoring center. I want you to make the most of these resources. I loved office hours because sometimes they would just give you the answers to really difficult homework problems but more importantly, they give you a step-by-step explanation and really help you understand the fundamentals. Now, if you're in high school and don't have access to office hours or a tutoring center, I want you to leverage study partners and even AI. AI is changing the studying game. And I'm sorry, I've been meaning to make a video about AI and studying for a while now but very quickly, let me tell you a couple ways that you can use it. You can have it explain concepts to you like you're five years old. You can have it generate practice questions and you can even have it generate study schedules. Like, the possibilities are wild. Okay, and I also recommend that you find a study partner but I don't recommend that you work with them always. But if there's a concept or unit you don't understand and you have a huge exam coming up, meet up with them, try to tackle it together and explain the concept to one another. If you've been following the channel for a while now, you know we love this strategy which is also known as the Feynman technique. And you know what else we love? Browsing the internet safely which is where the sponsor of this video comes in, Surfshark. Surfshark is a VPN, a tool that'll keep your identity and data safe as you browse the internet. Now, this is important if you're studying at a cafe using public Wi-Fi, studying at your college campus's library or even if you're just working from home. All you have to do is load up Surfshark, change your IP address to anywhere in the world and you're good to go. Surfshark will then mask your identity and encrypt the data sent between your device and the internet meaning that no third parties can track your information. Surfshark's clean web feature also does a great job blocking ads and trackers on websites which can give you a more seamless browsing experience. To get started, you can download Surfshark on your computer, tablet or even your phone using the link in the description and you can use code GOHARD to get three months free. Best of all, Surfshark offers a 30-day money-back guarantee so there's very little risk in trying it out. It's time to start surfing the internet safely and securely with Surfshark. All right, and moving on to scenario number three, you're distracted. All right, this is a big one that I'm sure affects us all especially in this era when we're all just glued to our phones. It feels like it's just getting harder and harder to sit down and do work. So look, I could easily just sit here and tell you to put your phone away while working and go about my day but you know that's easier said than done. I know that's easier said than done. So let me give you a couple of practical solutions. If you're decent at staying focused and only sometimes get distracted by your phone, I recommend silencing notifications, placing your phone face down and simply doing your work. If it's a bit harder for you to stay off your phone, I recommend setting time limits and placing your phone in a different room while working. But if you really struggle, you'll need an external force to hold you accountable. So in that case, I recommend having a family member or a roommate keep your phone away from you while you're working. Oh, and here's a bonus tip. Use grayscale mode. It'll make your phone less fun to use and help you stay off of it. I'll be honest, I tried doing this a while ago and although it worked, it was really hard. But I've heard of people having pretty decent success with this strategy. Okay, so you've taken care of your phone, but maybe you're still struggling to focus. The next step is to declutter your mind and your space. When it comes to decluttering your space, just get rid of any objects or garbage that might distract you. I'm a fan of keeping your study space relatively minimal. And when it comes to decluttering your mind, try using ambient sounds like white, pink, or even brown noise. Some people use these sounds to help them with sleep, some people use them to help them with stress, but a lot of students use them to help with focus. Personally, I like brown noise the most. Pink and white seem just a bit too harsh. All right, and scenario number four, you're lazy. Okay, so in this situation, the issue might not be that you're overwhelmed or that you're struggling, it's that you're simply not motivated to do the work. For example, maybe you start your assignments late and only do 50% of them. Maybe you start studying for an exam at the very last minute. Or maybe you are finishing your assignments and you are putting in the time, but maybe you're just studying in a lazy way. Let me explain. You have two kinds of studying. You have passive studying and you have active studying. Passive studying includes rereading the textbook, re-watching lectures, highlighting your notes. Active studying, on the other hand, is when you're engaging with the content and assessing your knowledge. For example, doing practice questions, pretending to teach others, not just rereading your notes, but rewriting key concepts and diagrams in your own words. Now, here's the dangerous part. Passive studying feels just as effective as active studying. It feels like you're putting in the work, but it's nowhere near as effective as active studying. It's like eating a bunch of junk food versus a nutritious meal. In the moment, you're going to feel full after both. But in the long run, that garbage meal is not going to give you the nutrients that you need. So if you've been passively studying for most of your exams and want to actually make a quick and effective comeback, you have to switch over to more active modes. Alright, and my next piece of advice if you're lazy. Visualize the outcome. How will you feel if you get the grades you want? How will you feel if you get that A, end up on the honor roll, or end up in the top 10% of your class? I want you to actually close your eyes as you're imagining this, as corny as that sounds. Try to legitimately feel that sense of catharsis and relief that achieving your goals is going to bring. Now channel that feeling and use it to get rid of that laziness. Find that spark you need to give your work your all. And you can also imagine things beyond school. For example, career success, the amount of money that you make, the things that you're going to own. Try to picture whatever it is that's going to motivate you. But let's say unfortunately that doesn't work. What then? Now I'm not as big a fan of this method, but imagine the opposite. How would you feel if you continue being lazy, if you don't put in the work? I think positive reinforcement is a much healthier and more effective way of gaining motivation, but sometimes a pinch of negative reinforcement, especially when you really don't feel like working, can kind of go a long way. Guys, I believe in you, and I know you have what it takes to make the academic comeback you need. If you need more support, feel free to check out my Discord server. Huge thank you again to Surfshark for sponsoring this video, and I'll see you again next week.