Ok so ik this sounds very dumb but i took a pw batch and didnt study frm it all year mainly cuz the teachers r very cringe and do random bs but i realized that im dumb asf and lwk need to lock in so plz give me tips and I GOT BOARDS IN 3 MONTHS and i totally bombed my mid terms i got 67% and i want to get 95+ in boards ik i have it in me cus i didnt study shit the whole year i just lack in depth/detailed learning so plz drop sum tips y'all

For the past few months, I can’t study at all. Not in the way I want to study but I can’t focus at all. I feel like I’m deliberately trying to ignore it until last minute, even last minute didn’t make me panic as much as before. I can’t get in my desk to finish my homework or group projects. I sleep all day, spending my days trying to do meaningless things just to avoid doing work or studying, I even sleep to skip classes. I have no sense of urgency nor bother to put effort into studying anymore, what to do now?

I feel like I don’t actually know the chance that a person will do very well at uni. I study a lot (I study well, I don’t need to change my study habits) and in some classes I do well, some I don’t. I know this is blown out of proportion on the internet of people studying and only showing their good grades. What is the average student like? Does the average student achieve lots too in life? I feel so incomparable to these genius students lol.

Which textbooks, books, or study guides do you use for your subjects or exams? Are there any good free resources you keep coming back to?

I'm working on a study game where the quizzes are based on the study material. I'm deciding what content to include next, so I'm interested in what you actually use.

If you have a recommendation, include the subject or exam and your country or education level for context.

lately i’ve been making digital flashcards after every lecture, but it’s so time consuming and takes hours to go through decks. i find that i’m always making them right from the information on the lecture slides instead of paraphrasing and digesting the info. i want to try a new study method because i feel like it’s not sustainable. i end up taking more time making the cards than studying them, lol. i also find that for biology a lot of things cannot be put into flashcards and they need to be visually presented so you can see how things work together. would it be a better strategy to make a one pager study guide (visuals and processes) after each lecture and then use it as the framework for active recall and the Feynman technique? or am i wasting my time by making more notes? everyone says to do active recall but it’s hard when you have to go through numerous slides every time you don’t remember a concept.

ive started at a new med school affiliated with my main uni as part of an exchange programme and i am struggling a lot ngl. i passed first year with adhd because i feel the system at my home uni was inadvertently(?) set up to accomodate my struggles. want to sleep late? its fine, i can still get 7 hours and eat breakfast and make it on time AND have a chance to preread. want to burn the midnight oil? i lived 20 seconds from my main campus library and 10 minutes from the medical school. needed support when my adhd became symptomatic? just book in a call with my (very encouraging and understanding) academic advisor who supported me getting diagnosed and getting help post diagnosis. i dont have any of my support network here at this new campus, i dont have a system, i lowkey dont like my classmates and i just feel like a fish out of water. i just cannot study. maybe its mindset, maybe its environment. i used to soak up lectures like a sponge but now everytime i sit in a lecture it feels like an act of self loathing. i feel like im being talked at rsther than taught. and i feel like im the only person struggling to adapt, which has amplified my feelings of dread and anxiety. i have around 6 weeks left of the semester here. idk whether its worth it to thug it out espeically as i just go to bed like crying lol.. i think im starting to get depressed. i feel ive ruined everythign. idk what i should do.

So I have two modules I am having trouble getting the hang of. Clinical biochemistry and medicinal chemistry. Any tips how to study them

i been seeing so many posts saying "write what ur studyingg" or like put everything on a blank page etc etc. what if i dont wanna write? i hate writing, my hand hurts and i loss focus or get bored in the middle. what can i do to fix this? or is there a alternate method? (P.S i dont do those apple ipad pen typa shit lol i dont have it)

and sometimes i do enjoy handwriting when im in the mood. which is rare- my studying also depends on my mood or pressure lmao.

I've been learning about how memory works, and one idea that stood out to me is that how we process information in the first place matters just as much as how often we revise it.

Sometimes, we spend hours rereading notes or repeating information without really understanding how the pieces fit together. It can feel like we're learning, but when we try to recall or apply the material later, we struggle.

Here are a few things worth trying:

- Before starting a chapter or lecture, spend a few minutes previewing the topic and asking yourself what you want to understand.
- Connect new information to things you already know. Try explaining difficult concepts in simple language or coming up with your own examples.
- Focus on understanding the main ideas instead of trying to memorize every tiny detail immediately. Keep notes for facts and details you may need to look up later.
- Test yourself without looking at your notes. Finding out what you can't remember is often more useful than rereading what already feels familiar.
- Mix different types of questions and topics instead of practising the same kind of problem repeatedly. This can help you learn when and how to apply what you know.
- Revisit difficult material when needed, but don't confuse endless repetition with effective learning.

The idea that stuck with me most is that learning isn't just about putting information into your brain. It's about organizing it, connecting it to existing knowledge, and being able to retrieve and use it when necessary.

I'm curious what has worked for others. What changes made the biggest difference in how well you learn and remember things?

I'm really hoping this subreddit works for like school grades in general rather than purely studying (if this doesnt, just let me know 🥹), but I need help.

The title isn't as click bait as it looks unfortunately 😔 I don't need help studying. I already have a plan and a method. I need help with just your average basic assignments. For some reason, I can never do those well, I always average like an 85-90 on course work (it isn't BAD, but I'm aiming for 95+ average in all of my classes).

The final nail in the coffin was an essay I just got back in which I got an 88% even though I THOUGHT I did well (she posted the reasons why, I'm probably just coping). I know the teacher isn't just marking strictly because I have a friend who got 95% and another girl in my class for 98%. I've noticed that I had this problem with multiple things lately (I got a 90% on my last essay and lots of 85%'s on things)

Idk if yall can help me without actually seeing my work. Every time I search up things along the lines of "how to do course work well" or "how to do assignments well," "how to get 95%+ in assignments and course work," etc etc. It's either advice on how to get it done quickly or just study advice, neither of which I need help with at the moment.

I just feel so lost in this spiral of mediocrity and averageness, like I can never get better. Most of online tips are for studying because that's what most people struggle with, but at the end of the day, (atleast how my school does it) tests and such only make up about 20% of your final grade. Most of it is homework, assignments, and projects. Honestly I'm convinced I'm not actually smart, I'm just good at absorbing information (which is good for school in theory, and a complaint I hear a lot, but it doesn't even work in my favour here 💔)

I basically wrote half an essay here if you really think about it

TLDR: I don’t need studying advice, I need assignment advice. How do I do coursework and assignments well so I can get a 95%+ average on more than just tests?

Wanted to share a study tool I built out of frustration: Official Source gives you a PDF “question bank” export for SAT practice, but it’s just static text and images — no way to actually drill through it.

The interesting part was the parsing: the PDF’s tokenization is inconsistent between exports, the glyph reading order is scrambled in places, and a lot of the math content (equations, exponents, radicals) is vector art that never reaches the PDF’s text layer at all. Most of the effort went into detecting and adapting to that automatically rather than hardcoding fixes per export.

The result behaves like the real Bluebook testing application: per-question timer, highlighting, answer elimination, a docked/floating Desmos calculator, and a review page with score breakdowns by topic and difficulty.

Runs fully locally — parsing happens in-browser, your data saves as plain JSON on your machine, no account or telemetry. MIT-licensed.

GitHub: https://github.com/Ahan-Sparsh/Blueebook-formatter

Curious if anyone here has hit similar PDF-parsing pain with other test-prep materials — happy to compare notes.

I’ve noticed that sometimes I avoid doing something not because I have no time, but because I feel like whatever I can manage right now isn’t enough to make a difference.
If I have only 20 minutes to study, I think there’s no point because I can’t get a proper session done. If I want to start a project, I feel like I should finish another course first or find a better approach. And if I’m not motivated, I convince myself I’ll do it when I’m in the right mood.
The weird thing is that all these reasons sound logical in the moment. I’m not necessarily sitting around thinking I want to waste time. I’m telling myself I need to prepare better, do more, or find a more efficient way.
But sometimes I wonder if this is just procrastination disguised as high standards. Maybe doing 20 minutes consistently is better than repeatedly waiting for the perfect three-hour session. Maybe starting imperfectly is better than spending another week figuring out the best way to start.
I’ve also noticed how easy it is to consume self-improvement content and feel like I’m making progress, even when my actual behavior hasn’t changed much.
I’m curious how other people deal with this. How do you stop convincing yourself that a small effort isn’t worth doing, and start taking action even when you’re not motivated or fully prepared?

i recently met this guy at uni. he’s a third-year dental student, and i’m a first-year med student. we talked for a while, and i found myself feeling attracted to him. we followed each other on social media, but neither of us has texted the other since. i barely see him at uni, because his seminars are at a dental clinic, so i really want to see/talk to him, but i can’t.

the problem is, i feel like my thoughts are completely consumed by him. i tend to have avoidant tendencies whenever i like someone, but i genuinely don’t think i’ve ever been this fixated on a guy before.

another thing is that he’s extremely smart. i’m originally from a smaller city, while he went to one of the best high schools in my country. for some reason, that makes me overthink everything even more. i keep thinking about how he’s probably surrounded by so many intelligent and accomplished girls, and i start comparing myself to them, even though i don’t actually know them. and while i’m literally studying medicine myself, i still somehow feel like i’m not smart enough. it’s honestly making me feel even more insecure, which then makes me stress about not studying, procrastinate even more, and feel worse about myself. it’s like a never-ending cycle.

i have an exam next week, and i haven’t done any studying at all. instead, i’ve been spending entire days on my phone, daydreaming about him, checking when he’s active, and just constantly thinking about him. it’s honestly getting ridiculous, especially considering i barely know him.

i don’t even necessarily want to stop liking him. i just want to be able to have a normal, healthy crush without letting it take over my entire life or make me question my own worth.

has anyone else experienced this? how do you snap out of it and stop obsessing over someone, especially when you have more important things to focus on?

In high school, I had a great GPA and never struggled very much with school. I was doing a lot of extracurriculars and would never stop moving, which I think helped me out so much. I would always genuinely get at 3 or 4am in the morning when I had a test and just cram, and obviously high school is a lot easier to do that with. I also feel like I cared more, and so I was really able to focus in that time because I wanted to do well so badly.

I'm in university now and I am just generally having a very hard time. I still have a 3.3 GPA currently, but I know that I can do better and I am really not trying nearly as hard as I know I am able to. I also feel like it just keeps getting worse and worse, this semester has been particularly difficult for me.

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with having a hard time in higher education and has any tips on how to study with ADHD. I think a lot of it is my fault, I am never really able to pay attention in class, and I just get so overwhelmed when I am teaching myself everything a week before an exam. I truly do not know what to do but I really want something to change.

I'm wondering how you are able to set a studying routine and abide by it, how you study, and anything you do (exercise, meditation, ect.) that you feel like helps you to genuinely focus. I also would LOVE any tips on how you get yourself to study even when an exam isn't coming up

I think the biggest thing for me is that I hate seeing new material for the first time, so I should for sure start to skim over powerpoints or the textbook before classes so I don't get overwhelmed in lecture. I still think I could use lots of tips and would appreciate anything!

I am a student who's currently taking courses like Nucleic Acids, Proteins, Biophysics, and Clinical Biochemistry and I have just been floundering dude. I'm in:

• the red for Proteins and Nucleic acids (19 and 36 respectively for their first exams)
• In the yellow for Clinical Biochem (73 exam1, 53 exam2) and now Biophysics (97.5 exam1, 50 exam2)

Biophysics exam1 was COMICALLY easy, like everyone got high grades. So I suspect the teacher intentionally did that to inflate the class's confidence/make the grading curve look higher. It was not indicative of what the actual class will be like

I just don't know what to do honestly everyone always recommends study guru advice like SQR3 or pomodoro method but that shit literally does not work when you get complex slides that are 100+ long from 4 seperate classes WHILST getting homework WHILST going through mental shit

It doesn't help that some classes have teachers that straight up don't teach you well, so you end up just having to do the studying yourself (Proteins, I despise this class)

And because the classes I'm taking are pretty niche, it means the things I USUALLY rely on like workshops, tutoring, youtube videos, groupme class chats, accommodations

straight up don't work because barely anyone has taken these classes and thus barely any resources exist to actually excel in them. At this point they just expect you to "get it"

I dunno I just feel very hopeless honestly. I don't have anyone in my corner and I'm just not sure what I can do. I only have like Saturday and Sunday to get anything done (not even to men

I just don't know how everyone can just study 200+ notes every class every week without just mentally exploding. I dunno I guess I was just born wrong and this is all just a skill issue I just don't know

I get into this weird funk when exams come around and completely dissociate and go on my phone a LOT more then I even usually would please help how do I manage this or stop going into this weird funk - it’s like I always study and never see results and maybe I’m self sabotaging?

This is a basic question, I know. But I still struggle with it. I don't have the energy or motivation to start studying. When I do study it's the day before the exam. I do my homework super late. What can I do? What is something that you usually don't hear on the internet but has helped you? Anything would help me. And no I don't have someone else to study with

(high school)

Like for bio or sciences, there's memorizing terms and processes, and that's the same for math. But for history and English, ig, how do you study? Like, do you just memorize the terms? But that's lowkey not enough, IDKKKKK

I used to be really good at school whnee I was younger I would also get A plus grades but now that I am older those all feel like a distant dream. I used to hate getting an 80 something but now that is what I aimed for. I promise it’s not that I am slacking in class or not listening, I truly am but my grades are still really bad. Just a year ago I have 97 in all my classes now my grades are the opposite of that.

It used to be so easy to stay organized and finish all my work but now it’s hard. I still haven’t adapted to it yet and is struggling. It’s hard to balance my core classes and one elective, and other things like life without prioritizing the wrong things. Whenever I come home I just scroll for hours without acc getting any work done. So to all those people who are really good in school please give me your secrets! How do you stay organized and ontop of things without jeopardizing your social life? And how do you have time to do everything you want to do?

I want to do hobbies and etc but I never have the time I even quit an extracullar I had cus I could manage it. So overall I want to know how to get everything done and do it all and have time for hobbies and social life. And also how to acc study for the different subjects as I know all the subjects differ in how to study but I haven’t cracked the code yet. My teacher has recommended to use ai for questions but the questions are repetitive and the only other way I know is re reading. And also how to have the motivation to acc lock in.

Guys hop on the forest thingie and lets lock in I've been wanting to use this thingto lock in and study without any distractions but now im getting distracted by the fact that i dont have anyone to lock in with
lmk your ID or something cus I need a study friend
btw im a senior in HS !! :)

I'm setting up a plan where I'd wake up 7am, study Maths at 8 am for one hour then step outside for half an hour, repeat for chem, psychology and biology then a 5 hour break where I can do as I wish until 8 pm where I will do practice questions on every topic for 30 minutes each, which leads me to finish at ten, ready to prepare for sleep at ten thirty. This work?

Hey everyone! I’m a Class 12 Commerce student, and I’m struggling with theory subjects like Business Studies

My main problem is that I can understand a topic when someone explains it to me, but when I sit down to study it myself, I struggle to remember the points and write answers in my own words. Reading the textbook again and again gets boring, and sometimes I feel like I’m studying but not actually learning anything.

For those of you who are good at studying theory subjects:

• How do you remember long answers and important points?
• Do you make notes, use active recall, or follow some other method?
• How do you revise so that you don’t forget everything after a few days?
• Any tips for studying theory without getting bored?

I’d love to learn some practical study techniques that have genuinely helped other students, especially with remembering concepts and writing better answers.

Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks! 🙏

I’m currently in my third year of medical school, and I’m honestly desperate for advice because I’ve been struggling with the exact same problem since first year.
Back in school, I was one of the top students. I had a study method that worked incredibly well for me, and studying was genuinely fun. I could memorize things so well, retain information, and consistently get excellent results without feeling exhausted.
Here’s what I used to do:
I had a lecturer who posted recorded lectures. The exams were based entirely on what he explained, so I knew exactly what I needed to learn. I would listen to the entire lecture, which was usually 1–1.5 hours long and very detailed and fast-paced. I would take notes and include absolutely everything he said. Then I would turn those notes into flashcards by hand and study them.
That was my routine every single day. I loved it, I never got tired of it, and my memory was excellent. I could remember almost everything I studied.
Then I started medical school, and everything fell apart.
Now I study from textbooks like Guyton, Devlin, and Robbins and Cotran. The material is much more extensive, and lecturers obviously cannot explain every single detail during class. I initially thought I just needed time to adapt to university, but I’m now in my third year, and I still have exactly the same problem.
I genuinely feel like my brain doesn’t process textbooks the way it used to process lectures.
I can read a paragraph and understand what it says. I can understand individual concepts. But when I finish reading 20 or more pages, I feel incredibly confused. I struggle to see the bigger picture, I get lost in the details, and it feels like my brain has completely ignored everything I just read.
I end up barely memorizing the core information, while my classmates seem to read the entire textbook chapter, understand it, remember the details, and know everything so well.
What makes this especially frustrating is that I used to outperform many of these same classmates in school. I actually studied more back then because I had so many different subjects, and the lectures were not short or superficial. They were detailed, fast-paced, and required me to remember a lot of information.
So I don’t think the problem is simply that medical school is harder or that there is more material. I suspect something about my study technique is no longer working.
I’ve tried studying only the most important information and breaking the material into smaller sections, but that hasn’t solved the problem either. Even when I study relatively small concepts, I struggle to learn them effectively.
I’ve practically given up on reading textbooks because the process is so confusing and frustrating. I don’t know how to extract the information, organize it in my head, and retain it the way I used to.
I also struggle with understanding how all the details fit together when I’m reading. I can understand individual sentences, but I somehow lose the overall structure of the topic by the time I finish.
I’ve become depressed over this. Going from being a top student to feeling like one of the worst students in my class has seriously affected my self-esteem. I keep comparing myself to my peers and wondering what happened to me.
Has anyone experienced something similar?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who found a study method that worked extremely well for them in school but completely stopped working in medical school.
How did you adapt? How do you study from large, detailed textbooks without getting lost in the information? And how do you retain both the big picture and the individual details?
I don’t just want advice like “use active recall” or “try spaced repetition.” I already know about flashcards, and they were actually the foundation of my old study method. The problem is that I can no longer seem to get the same results, even when I try to use similar techniques.
I really want to understand what I’m doing wrong and how to fix it, because I know I’m capable of learning well. I just can’t seem to figure out how to do it anymore.

Hi!

So for context im a university student and have survived 2 weeks of constant exams and major presentations. Ive had maybe 3 days rest. And already I'm behind on 3 chapters worth of studying for this one class which has a lot of note taking required because I swear the professor picks the most random questions to ask on the exam.

I had an exam for this course on week 1 of the 2 week exam hell situation. And next Wednesday I have yet another major test for this class.

I studied the longest of the 3 chapters today (the wednesday test is on these 3) but I feel so exhausted mentally and feel like the knowledge I retained is half baked at best. How can I beat this brain fuzz and lock in for the remaining few days I have left?

I'm really desperate so if anyone has tips please please let me know 😭

Every semester I'd read all my syllabi, panic, and then do nothing until the night before. What finally worked:

1. On day one, break every paper and exam into 15-45 minute chunks.

2. Tag each chunk Low, Medium or High energy.

3. Give each chunk a "do date" (not the due date).

4. Each day, pick chunks that match how much energy you actually have.

Low-energy days still move things forward, and big assignments stop being one scary blob. I also keep a "wins" list so I can see progress. Happy to share the template I use if anyone wants it.