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.

hi, 17f, i have a VERY important exam in A DAY. AND I STILL CAN'T STUDY. someone told me if you study with someone or if someone just stays there, it helps? also i'm hyper independent so i've never tried all this but atp i'll do anything to be able to study. we can call on discord and just stay or wtv but somehow STUDY AHHHHH.

picked up extra weekend shifts at target and now my coffee chain paper is due tomorrow afternoon. brain feels completely fried rn.

every google thread just pushes sponsored trash so cant tell if hiring a case study writer actually works or if its all bots.

sitting on like $40 before next payday, just want something simple that wont sound like generic ai junk. anyone tried this?

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.

i love classical music a lot and wanted more people to get that moment where a piece just pulls u in, so i vibe coded a free site for studying with it. i made it, to be clear, link is here: https://classican.vercel.app/

its one screen of public domain recordings on shuffle (bach, vivaldi, mozart, beethoven, chopin, debussy, satie, rachmaninoff and more) and it plays every piece once before repeating. each piece has a pixel painting drawn in code, and every 40 sec or so a short history fact pops up and the painting dims around what the fact is about. space bar pauses, no signup, no ads

for me the facts are the lowkey useful part, a quick glance and then back to work. what about u, does classical help u focus or does it distract u after a while? and what pieces would u want in there?

I see students turn to Google all the time when they need references for their papers, class presentations, examinations, and research work.

Google is good but depending on the subject area there are much better places to look.

Here are some resources I keep coming back to:

• Google Scholar — research papers and citations
• Semantic Scholar — good for finding related papers and exploring a topic quickly
• arXiv — especially useful for computer science, AI, mathematics, physics, etc.
• OpenAlex — papers, authors, institutions, citations, and research connections
• CORE — a huge collection of open-access research papers
• BASE — academic documents from universities and repositories around the world
• MIT OpenCourseWare — free university lectures, notes, assignments, and course material
• OpenStax — free college-level textbooks
• Khan Academy — useful when you need to understand the fundamentals before reading harder material
• PubMed — medicine, biology, and health sciences
• Cochrane Library — evidence-based medical reviews
• Our World in Data — charts, datasets, and research-backed explanations
• FRED — economic and financial data
• NASA / NASA EarthData — space, climate, engineering, and Earth-science material
• Project Gutenberg — free books and classic literature
• Internet Archive — books, historical documents, papers, and older material

I’ve also been maintaining a free directory of research resources and it currently has 230+ sources organized across different research areas:

https://www.sourclip.com/resources/research-sources

Sharing it here because the list itself is free and might save someone time when they don’t know where to start.

What are some websites/resources you use for studying that most students don’t seem to know about?

I’m always looking for good ones to add to my own list.

Notice: Four months ago, in r/notebooklm, I published a list like this one because many students were asking for sources of research information. That list appeared to be useful, so here’s another updated version of that list, just in case it might be useful for other students as well.

So ive been able to get by in college up until now, like in my last 3 semesters ive been able to maintain decent grades via a sense of urgency, with that sense of urgency I've been able to do well, but this semester I cannot bring myself to do it. I tried going to class and I usually end up spacing out no matter how much I try and focus, when studying I just think "man I really don't feel like doing this" and then I just go blank(I said the same stuff during prior semesters but still forced myself to study) for example the other day I started studying then caught myself staring at my wall for 30ish minutes, anybody have any advice on how I can get myself out of this rut?

Apparently, passing clinical exams is easier than writing a nursing resume that gets noticed. Who knew?

I found Ruby&Cole, a boutique resume writing service with only two writers who personally handle the writing. No automated builders or endless templates.

Their approach seems worth considering if you're struggling with a nurse resume, medical assistant resume, or turning clinical experience into actual achievements.

Most nursing resume examples feel painfully generic, and copying another nurse resume example rarely solves that.

Would you trust a small writing team with your nursing resume? Share your experiences with professional resume writers below!

I study law. And I am wondering if I can get a script of a law text book made by AI.

Could you recommend a AI and a prompt?

I heard that they hallucinate and add false information to it a lot.

I want it to actually summarise the text book in a brief script I can use to repeat the topics.

But how can I use AI the smart way for it?

Any ideas and recommendations?

Thank you 🙏 ☺️