 That's your undergrad mindset. In grad school, it's a little different because you're more worried about learning and becoming a provider. But in undergrad, it's all about those grades. I'm sorry to break it to you, but it's all about the grades. Morning, guys. This is day three out of three that I'm recording. I said that I want to make a video every morning on my way to work this week of Christmas. And I want to post every single day for one week in a row. And then in the new year, I really want to make two videos a week. If I get really crazy busy, I might make it down to like one video a week. But I really, really want to shoot for two videos a week and get really consistent with it. So again, please get your questions in if you have anything you want me to talk about. But otherwise, I'm just going to talk about my topic from yesterday, which is getting good grades. I made the video yesterday, mostly talking about my post-bac experience and not really giving you anything specific, but mostly talking about the attitude shift that I had in going from kind of a 3.0 student to going to much more of a 4.0 student. And there is a pretty massive attitude shift required. So if you didn't see that, go ahead and take a look at yesterday's video, How to Get Good Grades Part 1. This is going to be How to Get Good Grades Part 2, where I want to get a little bit more specific. So if you're not someone who's just been a great student all their life, maybe your parents taught you, maybe you're just naturally a good student. I don't know why some people just tend to get good grades, and some people tend not to care as much, and then some people just don't care at all. I guess I was in that middle category where I cared. I wanted to get good grades, but I just didn't really put in the effort that was required. And I honestly didn't really even know how. I didn't have the strategies. So it didn't have the strategies or the motivation. And then learning the strategies and learning the motivation is the reason I can talk to you about this today, because I did go from that second category of kind of caring, but not really to really, really caring and getting the results, getting almost a 4.0, and a very intense post-baccalaureate pre-medical program, and then finally getting into PA school and doing quite well in PA school. So I think there's really three things, three mindsets, and just kind of three ways of thinking that you really need in order to really get really, really good grades and become a really good student. The first thing is that learning is a process. I know it sounds super cliche, but just go with me for a second. A lot of people who study and end up getting frustrated and giving up and just not studying up to their potential, they might do things like make no cards, make study guides, read the book, highlight the book, go to lecture, go to office hours, all the things that they're like supposed to do. But what they don't do is really appreciate the whole process of learning, and especially the process of learning when it comes to their particular brain, whether they're a visual learner, whether they're an auditory learner, whether they prefer to read, like what works best. So they don't really keep an open mind and notice, okay, I learned best in this way. This is how I get information into my brain better. They don't really do that. They just kind of do things that everybody else does and hope that it works for them. That might work for you, it might not, but it's not the optimal way to study. The optimal way to study is to learn what works for you and to not be too lazy to do that over and over and over again, and also be comfortable with yourself as a beginner every single time you study new material. Because every time you get to new material, which is like every single day in class, that stuff's brand new to you. So you basically have to start the process all over again. You never really become an expert. That's like the most frustrating thing about being a student and why it takes so much energy and why it's so difficult is that you're never really good at anything, you're just constantly new. So you're constantly learning new stuff, which some people really love, but some people like me just get really frustrated by. So just having that attitude of every day I'm a beginner, I'm going to trust the process, I'm going to learn the process, I'm going to figure out how I learned best and I'm just going to do that every single time and understand that when I get new material, I'm not going to know it. So when I quiz myself, I'm not going to know anything and I'm going to feel like I don't know anything because I don't. And just being comfortable with that over and over and over again, that that's just going to happen every time you get new material. So that's one, just kind of trusting the process and being comfortable with the process. Number two, and kind of what I talked about yesterday in my video is really understanding that this school work is now your first, second and third priority. This is all you do now. If you really want really good grades and unless you're just some genius who never has to study and most of us, let's be real, most of us are not, unless you're some kind of genius, you're going to have to study, you're going to have to put in the hours, you're going to have to put in the work. And if you want a very, very good GPA, you're going to have to put in a lot of hours and that might take away from things like the gym, from watching TV, from hanging out, from going to parties, from hanging out with friends, from being on the phone with friends and family, whatever it is you spend your free time doing that's not in school. You're just not going to have a whole lot of time if you are taking a full load, you know, 16, 20, 21 credits of hard courses. You're just straight up not going to have time. You're going to be studying all the time. A couple of doctors that I've talked to call it tushy time, which I think is adorable, but it's so true. Tushy time is basically you're sitting on your tush on your butt, unless you got a standing desk like I do, but you're basically sitting on your butt study, getting material into your head, just going through the process over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, making your note cards, reviewing them, making study guides, watching videos, listening to lectures, re-listening to lectures, however you do it, however you study, you're just putting in the hours necessary to do that. So that's number two. You just have to understand that that is your priority now. Your first, second, and third priority. This is what you do. You're a student. This is who you are. You are a good student. That is what you do. And that's what you have to do to reach your goals of getting a 4.0 or damn close to a 4.0. And that kind of ties me into number three. And number three is you are that guy or that girl now, the one that everybody made fun of in high school, the one that like stayed after class, who the teacher just loved because they were always prepared. The teacher always called on that person because they were always prepared. They always read the chapters ahead of time, and they can explain things in a way that maybe the teacher couldn't. The teacher's pet, I guess, is like an old way of saying it. Not sure if people still say it that way, but basically the nerdy, like teacher's pet kind of person that no one really likes in high school, that's the person you got to be. I don't care what your opinions, your preconceived notions about that person are, but those are the people that get successful at least in school. They're the people that get those high GPAs and get into those prestigious and competitive programs like med school and PA school. So that is the person at least temporarily that you have to become and you have to be okay, knowing that I'm that guy now. I'm that girl. I'm the one reading the chapter ahead of time because I want to at least have some idea of what the professor is going to talk about that day. I'm the one going straight home or straight to the coffee shop or straight to the library after class and putting in like two or three hours reviewing what I just learned in class. I'm that guy or that girl that stays home on Friday night because now I finally get a chance to study and I don't have class tomorrow morning so I can actually spend a few hours and study at my own pace and study the way I want to without worrying about reviewing material for the very next day. Okay, so you're that guy or that girl now if you want a 4.0. You just, you have to be that guy or that girl and all the stuff that comes with being that guy or that girl and since last time I didn't really give you anything specific and this time I guess I didn't really give you anything too specific, let me just real quick give you a couple of things that I specifically think are important if possible. Now, this is the ideal. You're not going to do this every single time because you'll just run out of time. Some days you'll have more stuff to do. Some days you'll just be busy but this is the ideal and this is what you should just shoot for and stick to as much as possible and you'll be successful. One, pre-read the material. Every course in college and grad school gives you a syllabus. You should generally at least know what material is going to be presented that day in lecture so you should read the chapter. You should maybe do some of your own research on YouTube or wherever you get your information. Now make sure you use credible sources, make sure you don't use wrong information but you should kind of pre-read and pre-study the material for that day because that's your first rep with that material, your first repetition. You see it that first time. Sorry, someone's walking into the office and they're like, why are you talking to your phone? Because I'm at the parking lot already and I'm talking to the phone, which is to you guys. Anyway, so that's your first repetition and studying and learning and getting things into your brain is all about repetitions. It's just like lifting at the gym. If you lift something 12 times, you'll get more benefit out of it than if you lifted it three times, assuming it's the same weight. You know what I mean? So this is the same thing with studying. You're just getting your repetitions. So pre-reading, pre-studying that material before lecture is going to be your first repetition. Then in lecture, you can really focus on how the professor sees the material and maybe how they're going to test you on it and maybe which things to focus on and also which things not to focus on. I feel like in PA school, people didn't even go to lecture to learn the material. They literally just went there for those few moments where the professor would say like, oh, and by the way, this is going to be on the test. You should learn this. Oh, and by the way, this is not going to be on the test. You should not learn this. That's like literally all anybody paid attention to is just writing down the things that they really should study and the things that they should not. So pre-reading, pre-studying the material will help you get in that first rep and also then you can focus on those important things in the lecture of how the professor sees the material and then how you're going to be tested on it, which will help you learn, but also help you get those good grades. Remember, think from the end. You don't just want to learn the material. You want those good grades. You want to learn the right material, right? That's your undergrad mindset. In grad school, it's a little different because you're more worried about learning and becoming a provider, but in undergrad, it's all about those grades. I'm sorry to break it to you, but it's all about the grades, not necessarily learning the material. So you want to get in that first rep and then you want to go to class with the mentality of, okay, how do I figure out how the professor sees this material and what is going to be on the test and what is not going to be on the test? And then finally afterwards, as soon as possible, so right after class or maybe take a quick break with dinner, whatever, and then right after class, make your study guides, make your note cards, make whatever study materials you need from that material from that day. So basically in 24 hours, you're putting in three reps with the same material. And then when it comes to test day, which is later that week or in a week or whatever, like in PA school, it's probably going to be later that week because we get tested so much. It might be the next week, but it's not going to be like a month in the future. It's going to be pretty quick. So you're going to be tested pretty quick on it, at least in PA school and undergrad, maybe it's going to be a few weeks until your exam. But regardless, you've already put in those three reps. So that stuff is really solid in your brain. So all you have to do from then on is just review your study material, your note cards, your study guides, however you study. So just putting in those three reps, pre reading, being very engaged in lecture and writing down what is going to be and what is not going to be going to be on the exam. And then post lecture, really making your study materials within, you know, 24 hours of that lecture really solidifies that material and makes it so you don't have to cram. You don't have to study. You don't have to freak out. All you can have to do is review and solidify the knowledge and then maybe fill in any gaps and holes of things that you don't understand using tutoring, office hours, your own research, whatever you want to do. Okay. So if you want the grades and you're okay putting in the time to do so, that's how you do it. All right, guys, I'll see you tomorrow.