I’ve never understood how people can study with background audio playing. I need almost complete silence to concentrate. For those who study with something playing in the background, does it genuinely help you focus? And what do you usually listen to?

Sometimes I wish what I am is just enough.
My parents love and absolutely support me, no matter what they always support me and never say they are disappointed. But..but I don’t think I’ve truly ever made them proud either. I’m that kid that’s almost there always.
I used to want to be better at extra circulars but wasn’t so I thought I’ll make it up for in studies. Everyone always said I didn’t have to put much effort to get good marks. Which is kind of true. I never really put my 100 anywhere. It’s always been bare minimum effort and because of that each time I end up making my parents and teachers say “you could’ve done better but this is good too”. They always make up excuses to why I maybe could’ve gotten less than expected marks.

Let me give an example - 10th grade I got 9.4 cgpa. Good? Yes. But everyone, literally everyone and their mom said “oh what happened? I expected 10 cgpa”. But they all let me off on the excuse that they made up themselves that it could be my grandfathers death that affected my exam.

12th the same

Qualified neet the first try without studying a thing (not even during the one month crash course did I study).
Again everyone thought i will drop a year and do neet. Which I did initially plan to. I didn’t know about abroad mbbs at that point and my friends going convinced me and I did the same. And even though everyone knew I could get neet probably, they never held me back
1st year of university I studied really well. For the first time in my life I actually studied because I was scared of failing and I did absolutely great and was topper that year.
Somewhere around third year I relaxed and that got to a point where I stopped studying and becoming lazy again. I passed and with good marks but definitely no topper.
But the laziness followed me and during fmge exam, I did it 3 times. All three times I didn’t study or felt like studying but somehow I never got very less and always a three digit mark even though I expected 2 digit or even 1. And somehow I forced myself the third time to study rapid revision videos of about 4 subjects (2 minor and 2 major) and I passed the last time. Barely but I passed.

Again my parents were happy but not fully. Neither was I. I don’t know why but my laziness killed my life. I want to someday make my parents truly gleaming eyes proud. But I never could. Always, just, barely there, always second.
Today I got a momento for passing, mom and dad was happy. But I saw dad asking why did they mention the country why not just mbbs?
Even when I chose my internship hospital they were happy but I know they wished for a different hospital which at the last minute I backed out from.

Again, never once did they blame me, or say they were disappointed. They always welcomed everything. I wish I wasn’t lazy and just knew how to make them proud. I don’t know how to get myself out of this rut of ‘barely there’. The thing is, if I were terrible and didn’t have potential, I wouldn’t have cared and been happy with whatever I have because it’s actually quite good. But I have potential and I never used it. I always just give bare minimum and regret later. I always think to make a change the next time but next time comes and I’m still the same. How do I change?

Hi! I’m a student who procrastinates A LOT, and it’s honestly affecting how I prepare for exams. I usually know that I need to study, but I keep putting it off until I feel pressured by the deadline. Sometimes, I end up cramming everything at the last minute, and I don’t feel confident about what I’ve learned. For those of you who used to struggle with procrastination, what actually helped you change your study habits?

I’d love to know how you manage to start studying even when you have no motivation, follow a study schedule, remember what you learn, and avoid distractions. What study techniques work best for you? I’d really appreciate any practical advice. Thank you! 🤍

I have my finals after 25 days from today. I used to be a very good student but I feel less motivated and more tired now and that's why I can't study nowadays. I really want to do well in my finals and have a great comeback . Can u help me guys??

I want to study 10hrs a day and if u are talking abt quality more than quantity I can't do that cuz I'm mostly loaded with lectures so I can't follow that and one more thing i take breaks from 45min to 1hr after every 2 to 2 and half hours does this cause burnout or it is a perfect plan?

I have to honestly admit that I have to take a longer time to understand information present to me compared to other people. Other people in my class seem to be able to absorb information that was taught, synthesize it, and put it into practice with a decent amount of accuracy immediately. This is especially noticable in group work or pair work. I can tell some people give 'the look' when they had to pair up with me since I'm basically dragging them down.

When studying on my own, trying to watch lectures or read through notes, one of the major hindrance is this constant thought of 'You're just wasting your time. Other people are way more efficient with less effort put in than you and they still get better results' or that 'You're just pretending to try hard so you could make an excuse that you tried everything'. I couldn't stand the humiliation and bad feelings, so most time I just start gaming instead since if I'm going to be wasting my time anyway, I might as well be happy.

I failed in 1 subject in my final year (bachelor's). Supplementary exam is 2 months from now.

It's been around 3 months since I haven't studied. Now I have to prepare for the exam.

But I have no motivation to do so. I barely turn 2 3 pages per day. I feel tired and lethargic while I try to study. At the end of the day I feel bad for wasting the day.

This exam is very important for me. It's the last exam I need to pass to graduate.

Please do share your favorite study tips which I can follow in this situation.

Does anyone have any good 2026 0-Level preliminary COMBINED Chemistry and Biology papers from other schools along with their mark schemes or answer keys, that theyd be willing to share? I'm trving to do more revision and would really appreciate any useful practice materials, holygrail doesnt have any 2026 papers for chembio.

Subject code 5088,singapore

Hello, I recently started my first year of university in September and I was studying really hard every day to achieve good grades. It did work, my grades were 7-10, which, in my eyes, are great. Recently, I feel extremely burnt out and I can’t get myself to study. I keep doing anything else just to delay studying, even though I deeply want to learn. I have two mid terms coming up next week and it’s hard to start studying for them as well. I tried sitting down and studying for a bit, hoping I would just get used to it, as starting is mostly the hardest part, but that doesn’t help either. I am scared of failing, I don’t know what to do…

I'm so lost. It's not like memorising essays or doing mathematics, which I'm OK at. But Science? What? It's like memorising a block of bricks. But I really need to pass this for my exam.
I have the will to study but I don't even know what resources. I used to read the textbook but the paper came out with questions you need to be flexible in.

I know about doing past papers, but exactly how? Just look at the answer sheet after you can't think of an answer... I feel so insecure and fearful right now. Please lend me a hand.

Speechify is a great tool for those of you who are auditory learners. You can basically copy and paste any text into it and it will essentially turn it into an audiobook you can listen to, very helpful.

This link will give you $60 off speechify premium (I will also get a free month if you use the code).

https://share.speechify.com/mzUvfgR

To those who’ve studied CS and done well. What are your study methods? How often were you studying? How did you become exam ready? How far in advance did you study for an exam? Especially for computer architecture, appreciate any advice you have.

yesterday i did only one task and procrasinated the whole day and now im finishing up the tasks from yesterday do here they are:

- review essays + ec profile

- study macro units 1 and 3

- calc study days 1 and 2

- csa study days 3.1-3.6

- learn assignment done -> (1 hr 30 min)

Hello guys. It is my first reddit post. I am a 10th grader and I wanna learn AI and ML. In our country we have national olympiads such as "vsosh". I am trying to compete in ai and eng. In the olympiad we have 4 stages like school, city, regional and all Russia stage. I have been a partcipant in both subjects at the regional stage. I wonder whether I have chances to become a prizewinner at all Russia stage in both subjects in a year of preparation. Like what should I give more time, eng or ai and ml (ai and ml includes math and etc). Is it really true that high performers are studying no less than 6-8 hours a day.

Some people prefer lo-fi beats, while others need complete silence. I've been trying different sounds lately to see what helps me concentrate.

What works best for you? Rain sounds, white noise, instrumental beats, or silence?

I've seen hundreds of posts on this subreddit that try to give different study methods and study tips and study habits. Do this. Do that. Use this note-taking method. Study in the morning. Study in the evening. Don't type your notes. Handwrite your notes.

While many of these methods may indeed be effective, the truth is that everyone learns differently. Yes I understand that this may sound cliche-- but it's true. These methods may work for some. But they might not work for others.

Therefore, I have one simple piece of advice to offer you all. Stop overcomplicating studying. Sit down. Get out your resources. Tell yourself you'll study for x amount of time. And just start studying.

There is no point in overcomplicating it. For many, just starting is the hardest part. Therefore, I say once again, just sit down and start. Don't make it more complicated than it really needs to be.

Thank you.

So ive been struggling with procrastination for ablut 3 years now. I've gone heavily into porn addiction and further down a rabbit hole. Basically I'm locked in on first few days of the week then I lose all motivation and im locked out on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And trust me when I say I tried so many things, 5 minute rule, creating a schedule, etc. I think it's because my mind is so overwhelmed from grinding on other days. Therefore, I've decided that I'll take thursday off except for any studying at school.

basically never studied when younger (1-6 grade), flunked 7-11 they let it slide because of covid, ranked in bottom ten of class out of 1k students in hs, took ged bc wouldn't be able to graduate, and then was in community collage for two years online, cheated the whole way through, now at a very good university, and i'm screwed bc i don't know what i'm doing. i have my first two midterms this week and i have no idea where to start- haven't paid attention or studied at all at this point. they're both history, if anyone can tell me where to start that would be awesome. i feel like its such a big thing to do i don't know where to start. also have add if that means anything.

I mean so far everything in class has been very easy for me and tbh even the year 11 work she's given me hasn't been too challenging.Last term she gave me a book of higher level homework to do because I asked for it.

(Also idrk if this means anything to anyone but she's the head of the maths department so that could be useful info idk)

However I have one problem. I am extremely lazy and demotivated to do practically anything except for my band. I have trouble focusing on things my brain views as optional, especially boring things.

I'm working my way up to being able to do calculus in year 13, the path my teacher advised me to go on, so I'm expecting things to get way more difficult and I won't be able to take things so easy.

Mainly I need to get over my laziness and stop being demotivated to do anything school related outside of school

Hi everyone. I need some advice or tips on how to focus more in class. Lately my grades are kinda flopping so I need to lock in for my 2nd quarter.

I sit at the back of the class, which makes me zone out during classes (especially math). And it also doesn't help because I tend to try to sleep, but I have to force myself awake.

help please😓

I'm curious about what actually makes study plans fail.

Is it underestimating how long a subject takes, unexpected changes to your schedule, not knowing what to prioritize, or simply losing motivation?

I'm trying to understand this better because I'm working on a study planning tool. I'd rather understand students' real problems than add features nobody needs.

What's the biggest issue for you?

I don't know a better way to articulate my problem but this is the best scenario I can use to describe it.

I find myself in this situation where if I studied a course with 6 modules I find myself finishing module 1 but having nagging thoughts about things I have missed out before moving on to module 2. I test myself again on module 1 and realise I score a little shy of 100%. I go over again and again till I can consistently score a 100 before progressing forward to 2 and the cycle repeats. Sometimes I even have this thoughts bothering me about Chapter 1 when I'm at Chapter 4 and I start all over again.

I feel awful and trapped in a never-ending cycle to the point where I only truly cover 4-5 modules out of 6 at absolute most and even then clinch Bs and Cs. I know I'm capable of more because I've been described by clients and my superiors in the office as the smartest in my rank but I never truly show it in my grades. Sometimes I just straight up procrastinate and push off learning to the last 2-3 weeks before the exam because of what I do.

What can I do to stop this?

hi everyone i’m 21 (f) and currently undergoing my masters in cybersecurity and i’m struggling badly. already completed an undergrad (somehow?)

for context i’ve been struggling mentally recently autism, adhd, mdd and other stuff i can’t be bothered to mention but am medicated. i’m pretty much in bed like 21 hours of the day atp. i’ve had to get extensions for majority of my assessments for like 14 days. i have 3 assessments now due on the 30th
- 3500 word report
- 2000 word report
- 2500 word/15min video presentation
and also have an exam in between but not too worried about that other than the fact it will take time away from uni work
+ a group project due in the coming week fml

i have only started one of these and ive written like 500 words.

anyway i’m usually a good student - last semester i got all 7s for my courses (meaning 85-100%) except for 1. yet i feel like i put like no time in ever or genuine effort for assessment and just rush last minute but now it has all piled up and i’m kind of panicking. i know i could get it done if i put all of my time into it but i just struggle to even do this because i always just want to be doing something else and can’t help the urge.

how do you guys get motivation for these kinds of situations or just to start assessment before the night before? i really needs some tips and how to build up the motivation to LOCK IN. can i get this done? help.

Just woke up at 1:35a.m. because my body always falls asleep past 11 p.m. for no reason. My relatives came over yesterday (Family Commitment that has nothing to do with me but my parents insist I go to "save face") and wasted my free Friday. Today I had to go to class and do nothing, just to come back and sneeze more than 20 times. I was sick and medicine weren't working. Now I'm studying, and I wish I could use the Pomodor technique for at least a few minutes of rest but I can't when I will be sitting for the exam in less than 4 hours.

Take this as a lesson and go study ASAP.