My Frustrating Journey Begins
I kept bombing finals semester after semester. Watching classmates score top ranks made me wonder – what are they doing that I’m not? Last December, after failing Calculus again, I decided enough was enough. No more winging it or cramming last minute.
Building the Battle Plan
Started chatting with students who consistently nailed finals week. They didn’t talk about studying harder – they mentioned these things:
- Redoing every single practice test professors gave out
- Teaching concepts to their pet dog (yes really!)
- Making tiny cheat sheets even if allowed zero notes
I created this ugly spreadsheet blocking every single hour during finals week – meals, naps, even bathroom breaks. Looked like a prison schedule.
The Grueling Execution
This sucked more than expected. First, I tried studying 14 hours straight like Mark did. Crashed by day 3. Revised to 90-minute sprints with mandatory walks. Here’s what changed:
- Rewrite every lecture note by hand twice before practicing
- Group sessions where we purposely gave each other wrong answers to correct
- Explaining quantum physics to my annoyed goldfish
Panicked when I caught flu days before finals. Instead of quitting, I recorded audio notes and played them while sweating under blankets.
Results That Shocked Me
Results came last Tuesday. Passed every course – but actually got perfect scores in Bio and Stats. Three professors emailed asking what I’d changed. My ranking jumped from bottom 30% to top 5.
The trick wasn’t intelligence – it was refusing to fail the same way twice. Now I’ll always teach concepts to my goldfish first. That weirdo saved my GPA.
