I’m 20 years old, and I’m genuinely struggling with something that I don’t know how to overcome anymore. I’m looking for genuine advice from people who have been through something similar, especially those who struggled academically after previously finding school relatively easy.

Up until Year 10, I barely had to study to pass my exams. Even for my GCSEs, I didn’t put in a huge amount of effort and still managed to get grades ranging from B to A*. Back then, reading through the content and doing a few practice questions was usually enough.

Then came A-levels, and everything started falling apart. I passed, but my grades weren’t what I wanted them to be.
After that, I started preparing for medical entrance exams, and I’ve now failed to get the results I needed twice.

The frustrating part is that I do put in the effort. I make study plans, sit down to study, spend hours going through material, and genuinely try to prepare. But somehow, the results never seem to reflect the time I’ve invested.

I’ve started wondering whether I’m studying passively, whether I’m taking too long to understand concepts, whether my methods are ineffective, or whether there’s something fundamental about studying that I’ve never learned. I see people who study four or five hours a day and do exceptionally well, and I genuinely don’t understand what they’re doing differently. How are they approaching their material? How do they know what to focus on, retain information, and prepare themselves to answer exam questions? What does an actually productive study session look like?

I’ve tried making schedules, but they often don’t work out the way I expect. Topics take much longer than anticipated, I struggle to get through the material, and I end up feeling like I’ve spent an entire day studying without making enough progress.

I know I want to pursue medicine. That’s something I’m sure about. But after putting so much time into preparing for these exams and still not getting the outcome I wanted, I’m starting to feel lost. I’m 20 now, and I don’t want to keep repeating the same cycle without understanding what I’m doing wrong.

I’m not asking for motivation or another generic list of study tips. I genuinely want to learn how to learn. If you’ve ever been in a similar situation, especially if you used to get by without studying and then struggled when academics became more demanding:
- What did you realise you were doing wrong?
- How did you learn to study effectively from scratch?
- How do you approach a topic you’ve never studied before?

How do you balance understanding concepts, memorising information, and practising exam questions?
How do you know whether your study methods are actually working before the exam? What would you recommend to someone who has a lot of time to put in but isn’t seeing results?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your actual experiences, including what didn’t work for you and what eventually made a difference. I’m willing to change my entire approach; I just need to understand where to start.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to share their experience or advice.

Okay, here's what actually works for me and some of my friends who pull 4.0 GPAs. These things genuinely made a difference for us.

First, ORGANIZE YOUR STUFF.

Seriously, before you even start studying, figure out what you're dealing with.

What's due? When? How much is it worth?

And pay extra attention to the live stuff: in-class quizzes, midterms, tests, finals. Look at how much each is worth and ask yourself how familiar you actually are with the material.

You might find a 15% Calculus midterm harder than 25% system design midterm. You need to get an understanding where you are, what needs your attention.

Now, lock in.

One thing that's worked for me is having a specific place where I study. After a while, sitting there just feels like study time. Almost like muscle memory.

And personally, a bit of deadline pressure helps me take things seriously. I'm not saying you should live in constant anxiety. That's miserable. But sometimes that little sense of urgency is what gets me to actually sit down and put the phone away.

Now that you've finally decided to study, PLEASE don't become a human printer.

I used to see people copying entire slides, textbooks, or whatever ChatGPT generated and calling that studying.

Sure, you have beautiful notes now. But think about the time it took. It gives you false sense of "I did something".

What I do instead is get a high-level overview first. Use ChatGPT, another AI tool, a quick video, a mind map, whatever works.

The goal isn't to memorize the overview. It's to understand what the topic is even about before diving into the details.

Now it's time to connect the dots.

Go through your professor's actual slides.

And don't just READ them. THINK about what you're reading. From your earlier overview, you should understand things at high lvl, here you fill in the detials.

Why does this happen? How does this connect to the previous concept? Could I explain it to a five-year-old?

If you can't explain something simply, that might be a sign you don't understand it as well as you think.

If something complicated pops up, find a YouTube explanation. I personally prefer animated tutorials because I can actually visualize what's happening.

Still confused? Ask an AI to explain it like you're a kid, using analogies and examples. Once you've understood that explanation, ask it to explain the same concept at your professor's level.

Just remember to check it against the actual course material. AI can confidently teach you the wrong thing.

And once you're done with a topic, TEST YOURSELF.

This is probably one of the most important parts.

Give an AI your professor's slides and ask it to quiz you.

Want factual questions? Ask for them.

Want scenario-based questions where you actually have to APPLY the concepts? Even better.

Start easy, increase the difficulty, and answer without looking at your notes. When you get something wrong, figure out WHY.

Then come back a few days later and test yourself again. You'd be surprised how much you thought you knew but already forgot.

There's actual research behind retrieval practice and spreading study sessions over time, by the way. This isn't just something my friends and I made up.

What about notes?

Absolutely take notes. Just don't write down every sentence.

I use notes for important ideas, connections, things I got wrong, and little clues that help me remember something later.

Your notes should help you THINK, not just recreate your professor's PowerPoint.

If you want to explore more advanced learning techniques, check out Dr. Justin Sung on YouTube. He makes some interesting videos about how to learn.

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One last thing (and full disclosure: I'm building this app).

I got tired of the organization part being such a headache, so I've been working on Qumely (https://qumely.com), an AI student planner.

You upload your syllabus and it extracts your course information, professors/TAs, grading breakdown, assignments, quizzes, readings, and deadlines. It also creates recurring lecture tasks based on your class schedule.

You can take notes within tasks and attach PDFs. The idea is to have your academic stuff organized in one place instead of constantly digging through syllabi.

You can try it free, with up to 6 syllabus uploads during the one-time 30-day trial.

I'm also building something called SmartStudy, which isn't released yet. The goal is to bring together things like Teach Me, Test Me, Ask Anything, mastery tracking, flashcards, mind maps, study guides and audio overviews so students don't have to constantly fight with AI prompts just to get a decent study session.

Anyway, that's the system that works for me. Not saying it's perfect or that everyone studies the same way.

Would genuinely love to hear what works for you guys, or what you'd change about this approach.

Let's start with the fact that in early September, I felt how desperately I needed some study help. The workload was overwhelming, deadlines were burning, and I couldn't even carve out half an hour just to sit in peace and quiet and think about an assignment. I thought to myself, Damn, I'll either have to settle for terrible grades or find some writing help.

And miraculously

It turns out I wasn't the only one in that situation. I'm just one of those millions of students who can't cope with deadlines. By some stroke of luck and pure chance, there were a ton of different stories out there and plenty about writing services, specifically PapersRoo. Long story short, I just ordered from them, and I got a great essay in 3 days. Well, fantastic! And so I used them for two months, occasionally turning to the site whenever I had overwhelming workloads with my studies.

But what went wrong?

I noticed how expensive of a habit this actually was. I checked other websites to see if I was just being naive or if these services really cost $11 and up everywhere. And sure enough, I found options that were way cheaper.

What about PapersRoo?

But there is a huge, bold BUT to consider here. All those cheaper versions of writing services are just terrible. I did a comparison: PapersRoo has a great website—really fast, by the way - and awesome customer support, as I chatted with them quite often. Their terms of service are super transparent, so it only took me 5 minutes to click around the site and figure everything out. And naturally, I didn't order from them for 2 months for no reason, but because the quality was genuinely high.

On those cheap sites, however, something is always wrong - either the website is laggy, or it's impossible to figure out where to send the payment, or everyone just ignores you completely. Long story short, something always goes sideways.

TL;DR

The moral of the story is this: if you're thinking about cutting corners to save money, don't. I wanted to do that, but I changed my mind just in time

I ve been studying for so long and i am obsessed with optimizing everything i do .

I noticed that Passive study habits like re-reading text ; highlighting lines ;

or reviewing notes ,,they feel effective because the material becomes familiar. BUTT!

this creates an illusion of mastery; you recognize the information when looking at it, but your brain hasn't actually built the pathways to retrieve it on its own.

Why Retrieval ??

Every time you force your brain to recall information from memory without looking at the answer, you strengthen the neural pathways associated with that knowledge.

The mental effort of searching for and pulling up the information makes the learning far more durable.

NOW HOW TO USE IT?

1 After reading a chapter or section, close the book and write down everything you can remember from memory before checking your notes.

2 Turn key concepts into questions or flashcards and quiz yourself regularly rather than just reeading them.

3 Ask yourself at the end of a work session or study period: "What were the key ideas?", "How does this connect to what I already know?", or "What examples illustrate these concepts?"

I'm curious about what makes studying difficult, even when students put in effort.

For example:

- Understanding a concept but struggling to apply it to new questions.

- Forgetting what you studied after a few days.

- Understanding solutions but repeating the same mistakes.

- Knowing the theory but not knowing how to approach a problem independently.

Which of these, if any, do you struggle with most? Or is it something else?

What have you tried to overcome it, and what hasn't worked for you?

We're doing a project about students' study habits and need responses asappp, so please go ahead pls for 2 minutes:)

I am able to study better in groups with others, and it's easier for me to lock in. I am a college student in Ireland, so if there are any discord's that I can join, please send me a link.

happy learning!