how to do the bare minimum & still get a 4.0 gpa 🤫

hi zesties!! 🌷

welc to another installation of my acad tips✨ for some context, 10/21 of my mods are A & above (4.0 or 4.3). contrary to what u may think, i didn’t really work that hard for some of those As!!

by bare minimum, i mean about 1-3h/week working on a mod on average outside of class (including projects) 🤭 for most mods, smu recommends 8h/week

it goes without saying that for some rly rly hard mods these tips may not be the most viable 🙃 but with the methods i’m about to ungatekeep u can cut ur per sem mugging by at least 1/4 🤩

p.s. my fave tip is the last one so READ TILL THE END OK!! u can also find ALL my study tips here!!

1️⃣ PICK UR MODS BASED ON UR SKILLS

STOP❌❌❌ thinking of mods as qualitative vs quantitative❌❌❌ imo this is worst mistake u can make when it comes to choosing ur mods. i fell into this trap in y1 & found myself in the most hellish qualitative mod 💀

the main difference between qualitative vs quantitative is just how open-ended the answer is. but none of that matters if u can’t absorb enough to even arrive at a good/correct answer 😵‍💫

instead, what i like to do is pick mods that align with the skills i’m good at!! a (non-exhaustive) list of skills u can think of are: memorisation, application, numeracy, abstract thinking, research, presentation, and so on

EG: i had qualitative mods that were heavy on research (climate history) vs those that were heavy on memorisation & appplication (marketing/strategy). even within ‘math’ mods, i found that finance required more memory work & less numeracy than stats.

within each mod, diff profs also have diff ways they grade u. if you’re bad at memorisation, go for one that lets u bring in cheatsheets. if you’re good at presenting, go for one with higher project/cp %

by selecting mods & profs based on their alignment with my strengths, i gave myself the upper hand in that particular class, versus someone who didn’t take time to do the research 🤭 some may call it playing dirty but i call it working smart~

2️⃣ ACTUALLY LISTEN IN CLASS 😖

please HEAR ME OUT out bc i learnt this the hard way 😭 u will ALWAYS spend more time trying to learn things by urself than if u actively listen in class & just scan through afterwards. strictly in terms of hours spent studying, i think this is the best way to do the BARE minimum.

opening up tele & talking cock with ur friends is always tempting & i do it too. but what i do differently now is that whenever i miss out smthg, i immediately ask my friends to catch me up on what i missed instead of being passive & being like ‘i’ll figure it out later’ 😗 i do the same for them too so even if our attention is dispersed (which will definitely happen), we still get all the content down ✨

if u have other committments, too bad, they can wait. if it’s truly THAT pressing, then ur best bet is to pray for a prof that records their lectures or a kind friend willing to share their class notes with u 😌 bottom line is: ACTIVELY listening & participating for those few hours will save u many more hours of frantically soloing the content 🙂‍↕️

3️⃣ SKIP THE SELF-MADE NOTES ❌

unpopular opinion but making notes *from scratch* imo is a MASSIVE waste of time esp if you’re typing it out. for one, research has shown that connections form faster in ur brains when you’re handwriting the content. for two, what’s the point of typing out 1842847 pages unless ur finals are open-book?

my favourite lazy girl hack is literally just printing out wtv existing study material i have (friends’ notes or prof’s slides) & annotating it from there. u can use an ipad too but i find printed notes easier to study with 😆

everything u can do with ur own handmade notes, u can also do elsewhere. i get that some of us love the idea of a consolidated, easy-to-read document bc that was me too, but think abt it: would it be faster to make ur notes, then learn from ur notes, or just bite the bullet, get used to the notes/slides’ formatting, & start learning right there? 😌 i think the answer’s clear as day.

4️⃣ JOIN STUDENT ACAD GROUPS FOR RESOURCES 📚

i don’t mean CCAs, but rather communities focused on general academic (& career) advice. they are a great source of free notes from A students, free practice papers, and advice from seniors who have been through it all 🤭 (some of them have even higher GPAs than me LOL) to be lazy means to tap on the wisdom of those who have come before u 😇😇😇

the best one i joined imo is the ‘sumo cum laude’ tele channel which was actually started by an smu scholar. recently i rmb seeing them promoting a seminar of sorts about how to score in school and when i saw it and i was like HAIZ why u now then post this when i’m y4 alrd 😖😖😖 but yeah super worth checking them out if you’re in smu!! but i believe their tips will be applicable to other schs too~

5️⃣ ZAIKIA & BLUR SOTONG 😊

halfway through my uni journey i realised i did this UNINTENTIONALLY 🤯 i have never seen this tip posted anywhere but it’s my fave so hear me out…

blur sotong: the BEST question generator ever. sometimes u don’t know what u don’t know until someone raises it up. be it through sheer blurness or curiosity, blur sotongs are great at helping u realise the gaps in ur knowledge by raising the most ridiculous yet smart questions. btw this is not a dig at anyone bc ive been the blur sotong many times before too~

zaikia: idn to explain, they’re the BEST question answerers with a super strong conceptual understanding & can explain the content to even a 5yo kid with ease.

i found that to truly be lazy & do well is to let OTHER PEOPLE work while you listen 😇 it’s super easy, first u identify people within ur class/circle/community that fit these roles *for that specific module*. next, just do ur own thing until these 2 interact, then LOCK IN & LISTEN!! write down whatever they say & it WILL make a difference in ur revision!! it certsinly made a difference in mine

the main pairings u will encounter & what to do:

- prof & student: make sure to listen in class when a qn is raised (common sense) & read ur class discussion forums (somewhat common sense) & join those zoom consult sessions to listen in to everyone, even if u don’t have a question (not common sense BUT i ALWAYS do this‼️)

- friend A & friend B: arrange study sessions with them & reap the rewards of being a bystander~

this tip saves me the effort of having to think too deeply to come up with questions, and also the effort of having to solve my own problems. ofc don’t be a POS & leech off others all the time, but for the times u do use this, u will come to appreciate the art of being a silent observer ✨

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atb my fellow uni grinders🫶 hope these tips helped n may u get ur summa/FCH this sem <3 🤭🤭 lmk if u have other study tips u wanna see from me too!!

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