You don’t suck at school, you just don’t have a structured “recipe” for studying. Here are the 5 questions I ask myself to ensure I’m studying as efficiently as possible (based on psychology)👇
1) What are you learning about?
Knowing the context will make it much easier to remember the content because your brain aims attention on meaningful and “relevant” things. If you’ve already seen something because, that item become “relevant” and if much more likely to be stored in short-term memory.
2) What are the subcomponents?
Treat this like the evidence of a paper. This is the evidence you’re going to use to base your arguments on.
3) What are the vocabulary terms?
Don’t know a word? Write it down and look it up. Complication only learns to memory failure, it doesn’t make you look cool. So just drop the jargon and explain and learn things in simple language.
4) How do these terms link together?
Here is where you put your arguments together. Start with the large headers, then subheaders, then link the vocab to those topics to use as evidence in your arguments.
5) If somebody asked me about it, would I be able to teach it to them?
If you can teach it to someone, and make them understand it, you know it. Period.
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Visit https://uoftearless.com for more resources to make school suck less!
My name is Simon Katkov, and I’m the founder of UofTearless. I post educational videos to help students transition from high school to University. In the past 6 months, I’ve grown my Instagram page (@uoftearless) from less than 100 followers to 30K+, totalling over 15M views.
A little about me:
I’m 21 years old.
2014: I made my first YouTube video.
2022: I started at University. My first two majors were Biology and Physiology. My second two majors were Biochemistry and Human Molecular Genetics. My third program of study is now the Psychology Specialist, a double major in the same area of focus, and deceivingly challenging.
2023: I joined the Varsity rowing team.
January 2023: I first conceived the idea of UofTearless—a platform where I can impact the most students’ lives by giving them the knowledge I wish I had when starting University.
August 2024: I wrote and recorded my first ebook/audiobook (“Flow-State Secrets”).
September 2024: I made my first video under the UofTearless name.
October 2024: I personally onboarded 25 students, teaching them everything I knew—(now I know more, but I’ll teach that too).
December 2024: I received proof that my method changed their lives in the form of testimonials (which will be posted once the UofTearless.com website is updated so you can see for yourself).
January 2025: I started planning and scripting the “2-Hour Method” course.
March 2025: I launched the “2-Hour Method” course.
And 1000+ hours later, here we are!
To every student fighting to be more, I’m here to tell you that no matter how hard things get, you can always improve your best. And not only will I tell you, but I’ll SHOW YOU HOW!
“When you’re so locked in, you start enjoying the work—despite a seemingly receding finish line—you’ll know you not only have enough to make it, but even go around again.
Learn fast, live slow.”
– Simon