How I Ranked 1st at Monash University: 4-step Framework 

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1. Aim High: Shoot for the moon, fall on the stars. 2. Cram early: Cram the right way. Focus on the structure initially. Focus on the fine details later. a. Structure Focused: create anchor points of relevance. build prior knowledge. b. Detail Focused: "There is a time for learning everything." 3. Build Prior Knowledge: Get general knowledge. Increase in complexity every iteration. "Choose the path of most relevance." 4. Be strategic with your resources. "Never compromise with the non-negotiables."

the full saying is actually "shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars", which makes sense:)

Great points. As a 60yr old beginner, I find what works best for me in addition to building a framework, is to find some aspect of the subject that you really love (ex. When learning a language - can you love writing the script or translating a poem). This can give relevance and the brain some nourishment, so when you get distracted, you can go for a quick snack and then return with more energy. I excelled in engineering by learning body language, and then by selective questioning the profs, I predicted 70% of the paper. It's a hack, i know, but it worked

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 03:28 🎯 First strategy is to "Aim High," as setting higher goals makes you think and act differently, pushing you to excel. 05:18 📚 Second strategy is "Cram Early," which involves studying all content at the beginning of the semester, allowing more time for other activities and reducing stress. 07:22 🧠 Effective learning involves adapting to the "timeline of learning," focusing on structure in early stages and details in later stages. 08:44 🧩 To retain information, create connections between new knowledge and what you already know, making it more relevant and memorable. 08:58 🧠 Prior knowledge helps connect new information more effectively, creating "Anchor points of relevance." 09:41 🔄 Learning should be incremental and flexible, often requiring out-of-order approaches to understand materials effectively. 10:22 🕰️ Learning and consolidation should happen simultaneously to be efficient. Doing them separately is less effective due to memory decay. 11:18 🗓️ Being strategic about what to learn at each stage is crucial, especially when time constraints exist. 11:59 🔄 Adopting a non-linear mapping technique for learning is highly effective, with more details in another video. 13:51 🎓 Leveraging university resources like staff should go beyond asking basic questions; aim for self-regulated learning skills. 15:00 🙋‍♀️ Use questions to test hypotheses and validate your synthesized understanding, rather than seeking basic information. 16:56 🏆 Effort in understanding and synthesizing material can be validated through expert review and even be a contribution to others' learning. 17:10 🧠 Use expertise strategically. The speaker emphasizes the value of leveraging the expertise of lecturers or mentors only for complex issues, not for basics. 17:52 🚫 Don't compromise on non-negotiables. The speaker did not compromise on essential habits and approaches needed for success, even when other students were struggling. 18:37 📚 Work ahead, even without full information. The speaker suggests studying in advance, even if all course material isn't available yet, to get a head start. 19:19 ⏱️ Effective time management. The speaker was able to work full-time while pursuing a full-time education program by optimizing his study techniques. 20:01 🛤️ Solutions-oriented mindset. The speaker avoided looking for reasons why he couldn’t succeed and instead focused on finding ways to achieve his goals.

1. Aim high -> What would a high achieving student do? 2. Cram early w the right way -> Create a structure of knowledge connects to what you already know - How can you make the information relevant? Consolidate at the time of learning in the order of most relevance 3. Synthesis mental model of content and present it to an expert 4. Solutions Mentality = stop trying to find reasons that it's hard for you

“Are you really wanting help ?” “Or are you just wanting validation for why it’s hard for you ?” Wow !!! Great questions ❤️❤️❤️

My hypothesis of the non-negotiables was: sleep, nutrition, exercise. But it was better than I expected, no more Victim mentality! I can't afford the course yet, nevertheless I've applying the videos techniques and advice, and will continue. Splendid work Justin!

Justin Sung is honestly extremely inspiring.... He's the kind of person that you'd do a "What would Justin Sung do in this situation?"

Synopsis: 1. Create high goals and emulate the qualities you think someone who achieves those would have, eliminate the qualities that wouldn’t work. 2. Do an intense general overview at the beginning of the course, and build knowledge from there. 3. Use resources wisely after doing the mental work. 4. Choose: success or excuses, and be open to trying something new. This all makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the content. I’m giving it a shot.

Lol I am glad that Justin released this gem right before the new academic year is about to start so we have to get to work now and cram early!

Your great! just the theory of not wanting your own mistakes repeated and even the idea of contributing the knowledge from your years of experimentation to everyone and putting it out for free. You really are an idol to look up to for me, we need more people like you making everyone's life easier.

Thank you for making videos like this, I am 100% sure videos like this would be valuable for all.🙏

The ending questions were absolutely mind opening. It explained a lot of my mistakes and mentality towards my studies. The previous points you made also changed my perspective completely on studying. I hope to follow your methods.

Justin I did not liked studying before or i can say I was average in studying but after following your instructions for 8 months (because it intrigued me) it's like I like to study, now way more than before because it's enjoyable as well as result yielding and studying is easier than it used to be so 🤣🤣

You're really underrated. If i say out loud what you are trying to teach us it seems obvious and just logic but as a third year college student who is really behind on the material that's just what i needed to hear: trying to speedread a chapter and then repeat it until i memorize it it's madness. I kept forgetting past topics after studying a new one and i was so discouraged because that method worked in highschool and i couldn't figure out what changed. I figured i just became stupid but i didn't. It worked just because i was constantly cramming. Basically in italian highschool you have a very detailed test every month on few chapters for every subject. That was good for me because i have a good memory but bad for my future self because focusing so much on few topics doesn't allow to create connections and so i forgot everything i learned in highschool and i had to study it again. I wish textbooks implemented your method by covering all the basics first because if you're a beginner in the subject it's not easy to recognize important or useless detail. Actually now i wanna write textbooks that work like that. Also lectures have the same problems and i hate them cause i am constantly screaming internally "why do i have to know that? Just tell me how does it fit in the big picture!" i know it's something us student are supposed to figure out but it's frustrating listening to someone who just skips from a topic to another. Also, i study chemistry in college, in some cases the big picture is created after 3 years and various courses, so you just have to blindly study what they say to finish college in the correct amount of time (3 years in my case, it will take me 4)

The reason I know and trust Justin Sungs techniques is because they are all linked to chunking as the inherent technique. Associations and chunking is the best way for the brain to learn. The prior knowledge technique to create chunks is absolutely genius. I was first introduced to the idea of chunking from the books 'The Art Of Learning' and 'Mastery'. Josh Waitzken describes the art of chunking as 'Making Smaller Circles'.

Your 2 questions at the end were so profound that the light couldn't even fathom them Well Done Justin 😁🤣 Really Grateful to you for pushing out content like this. I'm in my 11th year of schooling at South Africa and earlier this year, I struggled to figure out "What would be the right way to study?". Thankfully, I stumbled across your channel. Now I find myself watching at least one of your videos and putting it into practice daily

This is a good revision of what Justin teaches in his course thank you for the update to my brain to change stuff up with learning journey. I'm aiming to top my grades this year thank you for inspiring me to do it Justin.

Dude this guy is so practical and it breaks it down in a way I can understand. You’re videos are helping me. For my freshmen year I didn’t study at all. I was way too chill and just didn’t really care. I still got A’s thou but now I’m a sophomore and it’s a little harder. So I’ve actually been learning to study and using different ways to learn. So far it’s been successful and I’ve gotten A’s but some things I struggle with. I’m going to experiment with what I use to study and put it to good use. Good luck to y’all and I hope the year goes great.

This video was amazing in so many ways. I appreciated that your approach was more leveled to the individuals, such as myself, who are looking for answers in a more simplified fashion.

Love the videos as always Justin. Would love a video about micro decisions when making mindmaps or practicing higher-order learning to facilitate deep processing. A long tutorial on that would be a deal breaker of a video I believe.

I would like to see someone do something similar with a concept like math or computer science. In my own experience having jumped around between psychology, economics to mathematic’s and now working in software development I’ve found the more stem subjects to just have thousands of more concepts one needs to learn and much more procedural practice being required. Proof that these technique’s work in those areas would be awesome to see.

It's: "Shoot for the stars and land on the moon" Your critical thinking is on point haha!

Thank you so much Justin!! Your videos have really helped me .keep up the good work🥺❤️

Great job! It's good to know someone takes an education major seriously. I walked past dorms & frat houses that had a lot of education majors to get to the comp sci quad and it was a non-stop party. Those places and the people in them were drinking, dancing and banging 24/7.

Thanks for the advice, you´re a pioneer in the field of learning, enabling the next generation of learners.

Make an Atomic Habits reaction video! What concepts do you relate to, agree, and/or what techniques would you tweak/add to the book!

So excited!!

Loved the presentation! Even I struggled with the part of not knowing what will be covered so I couldn't cram earlier but now I am going to have that solution mentality! Thanks Justin for helping out so many students!🙂

that last point was crazy, honestly the best point over the 4 points mentioned. a lot of conversations these days and type of communicating happening at almost any level, you find someone asking for help when they really want validation on how hard it is.

Waiting with a lot of hope

That final section was scary like someone was breaking in. I remember your videos really helped me to get through Art History by making big ideas and using a lot of comparison, connections, and imagery (since I like to doodle a lot) to consolidate information in order for me to maintain those points in my mind and make it easy to review and recall at the end of the week. Finding concise ways that work best for you to digest information is the way to go IF there isn’t already a guide out there which there usually is. I still read slower than my dad with dyslexia cuz I need to refresh on how to skim pages effectively for key words, and it is hard to stay motivated and care when the subjects we go over aren’t interesting. But then you can mix this channel and the Cajun Koi Academy channel with working when your mind works at its best (for me in the morning) and then less difficult and thought provoking tasks later in the day. And lastly to put more effort into the subject that matter most to you whether that be grades, potential jobs, or your own interest, and put less emphasis and effort into the subjects that are less risk and care. And of course, take time to stretch, drink water, eat well, exercise, breathwork, walks, go see friends, sleep over always going to your phone and coping with something -> Dr.K. Allow yourself to emotionally process things by being okay with being bored. Then you can think in the background about what you just studied and whatever trauma or problems you have naturally, allowing yourself to feel refreshed so you can go through this whole process clearer and with more energy. Overall, focus, time to recalibrate and process stuff emotionally/mentally/physically, and a purpose greater than your feelings currently are what I feel drive a person to do good. I write all of this to try and digest what I just wrote and what thoughts I had before during and after of what connected ideas go with schoolwork and being a student. I find with depression and lack of purpose I have a lot of low energy. So these time saving and energy saving ideas in all of these channels help to figure out what the hell I am doing with this life and how I can detach from expectation to do what I may actually want to do in a way that works for me. Thank you to all these online mentors. You don’t have to have a two way relationship to have a mentor, just someone that guides you by their wills and advice.

Thank you so much for this. I believe I really needed to hear this for my current study and for future also. Though I already wasted a lot of time but I think I can still incorporate these.

One of the most essential RU-vid videos I have ever watched, thank you man

Thank you Justin for all this AMAZING CONTENT 💖💖💖💖

I learnt this lesson the hard way: I wasn’t paying any effort during the first 4 weeks; I didn’t study the basics until they don’t seem basic; all my assignments were left right before the midterms; I put myself under immense pressure and stress, nothing seeps into my brain. Week8 and I’m just getting started. Thanks for the advice, and hope this valuable lesson taught me something.

This is the best video where it's explained in a simple way how the brain consolidates learning. From the basic to the complex. I don't think many take the dimension of how difficult it's to convey this type of information in a simple way as you do. His work is extraordinary and contributes to building a better human being through education. Greetings from Argentina.

And a perfect ending for this video! Love it.

Good job man. Congratulations. Just make sure that you are adaptable and not rigid in your approach. Career, social life will have different challenges and "there is no one size fit all solution to all things in life".

One of my favorite videos of yours. Thank you so much!

⁠​​⁠@justinsung Your comment at 07:17 really resonated with me that having structure at the initial stages of learning is crucial. I started a new role in a new company that is high demand and high stress. There was no formal training yet I was receiving very specific assignments. I stared to question my abilities (despite having years of experience in this industry) and I didn’t know why. Your insight helped me understand that there was a huge blind spot that I had no control over. I’m four months into the role and final putting the pieces together and now things are making sense. Thank you!

Very slick course ad there I liked that one especially because it‘s actually a very good point.

Love it! I've rarely heard these tips before, so I'm thankful for you to share them. I think cramming early is a fantastic idea - getting that pre-class knowledge is exceptionally powerful because you then learn the topic twice ... once by yourself and once during lecture. Most people learn the topic once during lecture and then try to remember the lecture / homework when studying and cramming before an exam - but if you cram early, when the courseload is a little bit lighter in those first two weeks, you can learn the topics the first time by yourself - do your best, and when they're presented again in the lecture, they'll make a LOT more sense! SOLID KNOWLEDGE!

What a useful video! One of my favorite videos of yours.

You are a inspiration for all ❤️❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Bro.. you’re the best man than you for al this free information and knowledge it really helps a lot

Hey Justin, the saying actually goes like this: Shoot for the moon, if you miss you'll lend among the stars. Not land on a star. so it makes a bit of sense now

having a tutor saved me oodles of time doing self-regulated learning.

Congratulations Justin! ❤

The last point was a very important one. Thank you for including it. It kind of indirectly point to the importance of an open, willing mindset in life and for students and learners more specifically towards shaping their won learning processes. I would love to see the points you made being presented for people doing graduate or higher level research. I think this translates quite effectively to those who are in the early stages [ even later stages of developing their own personal processes for scientific inquiry and analysis for a career in research and academia] graduate students who are in the process of shaping their own research process and would benefit from using these guiding points to shape the repetitive, arduous process of literature reviews and defining research questions and designing theoretical, computational or experimental research workflow.

sir you have gotten even better at simplifying complex topic in a insteresting way

Keep hustlin big dawg💪💪💪🔥🔥🔥

Wherever possible, as a student who was working 25-45 hours per week , I found it beneficial to work 7 days per week and to study 📖 5 days per week. My study 📖 hours also varied between 25-40 hours per week ! This gave me the flexibility that I needed. Seek the support of family and friends so that you’re not stressed about covering basic housing, food, phone, transportation, and other expenses. It’s rewarding to keep education costs low and to manage to save money for emergencies. God Bless 🧑🏻‍💻

Hey Mr. Sung, I love your content and have been starting to implement some of your strategies in my learning. I am a first year medical student and the transition is difficult. I was wondering if you would consider doing a video specifically on how you would tackle succeeding in medical school if you were to do it again, or just how you would advise someone who has never really studied more than a day’s worth of cramming before. Thanks for all that you do. You have already helped me.

Great video justin! Very informative. I had a habit of cramming late as you mentioned 😅but one thing that made it easy for me was i did apply your 2nd and 3rd strategy: Reading the courseplan, the course requirment, structuring + using the resources wisely.

The last piece of advice regarding the "Learning Enablers" was great Justin!! All the methods taught here won't do us any justice if we don't develop the right "mindset" first.

Bro...teachers should teach this way. The cramming time line was spot on. If the first week the teacher conceptually went over the general material of the entire syllabus, then spent the later weeks going over the details the curve would be squed in a favorable direction for the whole class

7:20 this is unheard of to me. Never heard it from another youtuber. Tysm ❤

Honestly, thank you so much for what you do. This is incredibly, incredibly awesome. I hope someone sculpts a statue of you in the future haha

I'm gonna binge watch your account now since I'll begin my studies in October!

Waiting justin , actually I can't wait please post it asap😅. Thanks for your help. ❤

Well produced video. Great content, filming, editing, music and very subtle selling!

Working within that zone of proximal development! Thanks for the video

thanks justin you just taught me the roadmap of every roadmap in life

40 hours, wow...sir, you're truly awesome!

I'm starting to study at Monash Online in TP 6. Thanks for your study tips, it was helpful and informative .

I LOVE that you linked videos ! :)

this is gonna be epic!!

For me the key phrase that was revolutionary to me was Knowing the right time to learn everything i only learned how to start to use this in my 2 half of university, i failed a whole subject because of this, i still struggle with this because i have an obsessive personality , so when i come across an information i want to really dig deep in it before i feel comfortable going on to the next one .

You are such an inspiration...Thank you for your tips!

Hi Justin. Thank you for your videos. I am learning a lot from them.

Thank you sir you are the the best ..........

thanks Justin. I will definitely try this.

Great video as always.

5:02 I've never heard that saying in that formulation, I've only ever heard 'Shoot for the stars, and if you fail you'll still get the moon,' which makes the same point, but is actually correct.

Great points! A surefire way to get good grades is to write good papers. High grades on assignments will really boost your overall performance.

I remember you mention craming early in a video i watched before my 2nd semester last year, i was like "i got nothing to lose, let's try it" i had so much free time while being able to study very effeciently in the later times of the semester lol, also i aced it:) the first time in my life placing 1st in something related to acedemics and i can say it craming early was a huge part of it, thanks alot

Wow. That's really a new point of view

Simply WOW. thanks very much

Someone part of his course here! It is really life-changing so If you have considered joining it but aren’t confident enough to make the last step, I highly advise you to do it!

I feel like in some cases, saving time by asking a professor is better because you save yourself all of the time of trying to find stuff and you have a better understanding of where to find it in the future. Sometimes you are stuck on an issue, for example in my algorithms class, prof had went over an algorithm Edit Distance, and she had said "We aren't going over the full details, you can go over this yourself" but when it came to the assignment I was confused on what exactly to use. I did have an understanding of what edit distance was but I could not wrap my head around some of the details when trying to put it into practice via pseudocode before implementation. There are a million other examples, but it's very easy to not understand something, especially in a topic like physics 2 or calculus 2 where there are SO MANY special cases. You cannot expect a new learner to just connect everything so easily when they are taking so many classes. I would say the video is true, but it also takes years of you creating your own work ethic and what works for you in your situation, and sometimes that involves asking more questions. Giving people an idea of what could be used to create a good study ethic or work ethic is good such as "aim high", "cram early" and "Be strategic", but at the end of the day that isn't what actually 'works'.

I'm not in school, but this is a really helpful strategy for me as someone who is learning software developement.

I am speaking from my personal experience, a master student that graduated at the top of his class. If you are not interested and have a strong desire to learn what you are studying then you probably are not going to learn it well. Likewise, if you take a job that you can not stomach and really don't have a desire to put up with the work, like I did; then you probably won't want to succeed. Today, I work at something entirely different. Learning how to learn and strong discipline are two of the most important skills I acquired from universities. Good luck at getting the right job.

Thanks Justin. I'm using this in my next semester.

Can you please create an in depth video on how to create a prior knowledge with mindmaps? I really thank you a lot. ❤❤❤❤❤

The best study tips 💖

I really love your content. It's too helpful

These are great tips, thank you.

Cram early sounds really useful. Before lecture I read the book so it's kind of an extension of that idea.

Wow..congrats. 🎉🎉

Thanks so much this is great

Thank for the tips and you have activated the battery in my back to be the best student

Thank you for this precious informations

Hey Justin! Congratulations for your dean award🎉, and awesome video!! I’ve been loving your videos and applying what you are teaching. Studying is going great, and I have one question that has really been bugging me during studying. How can we mindmap whole subjects rather than topics within a subject in isolation? For example, mindmapping the subject ‘Anatomy and Physiology’ as a whole rather than creating a single mindmap each for each body system? I’ve seen in your videos you created a single mindmap for your entire masters! And I think that’s so amazing. I would really appreciate your feedback and advice :)

I love this video format

Mate, that (13:10) was the best ad I've ever seen

early "cramming" by going over the curriculim early is a fucking super power

daaamn that last line was fire 🔥

Hey Justin! I hope you make a video covering the basics of using obsedian as you always tell us to use it as an infinite canvas so i hope you make a tutorial since I found it as a complex app! Thanks in advance