I used to be the type of student who would spend hours reading an entire chapter, highlighting important sentences, and convincing myself I understood everything.

But before one of our major exams, I decided to try something different.

Instead of reading the lessons first, I opened the practice exercises at the end of each chapter and tried answering them completely clueless.

Obviously, I got a lot of them wrong.

But here’s where things got interesting. Every time I couldn’t answer something, I’d go back to the specific section that explained it. I stopped wasting time reviewing things I already understood and focused on the things I actually struggled with.

After going through the chapters, I attempted the exercises again without looking at my notes. I repeated this until I could explain why each answer was correct.

When the exam results came out, I ended up ranking first in our class. I honestly didn’t expect that. What surprised me more was that I didn’t spend nearly as much time studying as I usually did.

I’ve been calling it my reverse study method ever since. Basically, test yourself first, find your weak spots, then study around them. It’s a little uncomfortable at first because you’ll probably get a lot of answers wrong, but that’s kind of the point. 😅

You know that feeling when you look at a massive study checklist and just freeze?

I used to write down twenty tasks every morning, and by noon I was completely burned out from the anxiety of it all.

Then I started using the 1-3-5 method, the rule is simple. You only allow yourself nine tasks for the entire day. One big thing, three medium things, and five small things.

The one big thing is the monster you usually avoid. Writing a heavy essay draft or grinding through a brutal research chapter. You tackle this first while your brain actually has energy.

The three medium things are standard studying. Reviewing a lecture or doing a practice quiz.
The five small things are quick chores: Emailing a professor, organizing your folders, or printing out a worksheet. These are for when you are completely tired.

This works because it stops you from faking productivity. You can no longer cross off ten easy tasks and pretend you did a good job while the heavy lifting gets pushed to tomorrow.

Try doing this tomorrow instead of making an endless list.

.

A classmate of mine would stay behind after class to ask our prof follow-up questions and while the rest of us were packing our things and getting ready to leave, she would bring up a specific point from the lecture and ask for clarification.

so at first, I didn't think much of it. I assumed they were just really curious or hungry for knowledge because well, she’s a smart cookie after all. meanwhile I would sometimes leave class thinking I understood the lesson…but not really.

one day, I stayed behind after class too not necessarily to ask anything myself, but to listen and see what I could learn from her questions. And since then, I've been trying to make asking questions a bigger part of how I study:

- Notice where you get lost: when reviewing, mark the exact part of a concept that doesn't make sense to you.

- Ask what connects or separates ideas: try questions like "how is this different from the previous concept?" or perhaps "why does this apply here but not in another situation?"

- Don't leave a question unresolved: check your notes or examples or ask your professor or a classmate if you're still unsure. don’t be afraid to ask!!!

Ever since I started studying in University, my study methods changed to align with and help me survive studying here. The method is not just about a simple technique, but what it has is full discipline and time management.
Here's my pro-tip to study and survive university like how I am surviving being pre-med student:
• Smart time habits. There are only 168 hours in a week, so in time management, you need to treat it like you are budgeting money. Set a time to study when your brain usually works at peak focus (I set time around 8 PM till 10 PM). When I am doing big tasks or heavy review loads, I use 50/10, but my usual Pomodoro interval is 25/5. Having time management when studying helps to get things organized and stop procrastinating.
• Learn by layers. Do not try learning everything at once. Read the book before class (layer 1), listen to lectures (layer 2), do your homework/tasks (layer 3) and review your notes (layer 4). I've been using this paired with retrieval practice, this helps to enhance your studying instead of just re-reading without doing any active recalling of information.
• If you're lazy to study, do imposter syndrome. This will help grow your mindset toward studying productively. Instead of saying "I can't do this work," try saying "I cannot do this yet", this is a sort of manipulation of your brain that stops you from giving up when things get tough. Our brain will learn and hate it if you can't complete what you're studying.
• Study in groups. I used to study alone, but studying with friends helps me study more effectively. What I mean is we teach each other topics that we studied to know if we actually know them. It is like we are exchanging information on the material. It is a form of active recall, but you use it in a group.
I don't really study for long hours just enough study sessions like 2-3 hours, will do. Another takeaway to survive college is to always prioritize sleep and stop procrastinating. I've been following this guide for about 2 years now.
Being in a pre-med with long hours and classes along with schoolwork might be a reason for me to struggle a lot, but I still manage my time when studying so that I can avoid heavy workloads and burnout coming from procrastination.

That is all.

Feeling overwhelmed by studying will only lead to burnout, and burning out while studying may cause procrastination and poor academic performance.

I got this recommendation from my yale prof that whenever we feel stressed out and overwhelmed when studying, just use the 1-3-5 study method. It's like dividing tasks into three so you don't really feel distress in studying. Here's how I organize them:

1 big task - Know what the most important or hardest task for the day is. Usually, this is the first thing I need to finish, like an entire biology revision report or completing one chapter of chem.

3 medium tasks - This area doesn't really require as much mental energy as the big task. For instance, creating biology diagrams, creating notes in physics, or solving practice questions.

5 small tasks - It's just a quick study session or quick review to keep your brain retaining everything by studying daily in a short time. Mostly, the small tasks that I do are revising formulas, reviewing flashcards, organizing my notes, solving MCQs, and planning what to study the next day.

Ever since I try to organize what I need to study completely saved me from burnout. I shift from studying tons of workloads without being mentally drained by it. How do you guys usually break down your study sessions when things start piling up?

This week I tracked all my study time and ended up at around 70 hours. It sounds a bit insane, but it taught me a few things I didn’t expect.

1- Short sessions worked way better than long ones:

I kept most sessions around 30 minutes with a clear goal. Way easier to start, way easier to stay focused, and I didn’t feel completely drained after.

2- Starting faster made a bigger difference than I thought:

I used to sit there forever just trying to organize everything before even beginning. This time I stopped overthinking it and just got a rough structure first. Sometimes I’d throw my material into Turbo.ai to get a quick overview so I wasn’t starting from zero.

Still had to go back and study properly, but at least I wasn’t stuck at the beginning.

3- Distractions were very damaging:

Even small things like checking my phone for a minute completely broke the flow. Keeping it in another room helped more than any focus trick

4-Testing myself felt harder but worked better:

Instead of rereading, I tried recalling things, solving problems, explaining stuff out loud or creating quizzes on turbo ai. Slower and more frustrating, but I actually remembered things later.

5- Sleep mattered more than motivation:

If I slept badly, the whole day felt off. No amount of caffeine fixed that. When I was rested, everything just worked better.

6- Reviewing a few days later helped a lot:

Going back to material after 3 days made it stick way more compared to cramming everything at once.

7- Tracking time changed how I approached everything:

Once I started measuring hours, it stopped being “I’ll study if I feel like it” and became something more consistent.

8- If things don’t stick, it’s usually the method:

I used to think it was a motivation issue, but most of the time it’s just inefficient ways of studying that no one questions.

I'm trying to write 3000 words by later tonight and I need all the motivation I can get. Send help.

Back then, I just read and reread my textbook whenever I studied without really thinking about using concept maps. But sometimes even after going through a whole chapter, I'd still have trouble seeing how the different concepts connected. And that's when I started finding them helpful:

1st: start with your textbook. read the section and pick out the main ideas and definitions first. you need those details before you can connect them.

2nd: make a simple concept map. put the main topic in the center and branch out to related concepts. add short linking words to show how the ideas relate instead of just listing them.

3rd: check your connections. go back to the textbook and see if your map makes sense and you can now explain why two concepts are connected.