What teens get wrong about studying (and the #1 thing they should know)

I had a call with a Grade 12 student last week. He’s in a rigorous curriculum taking advanced classes, and has exams coming up.

I was prepared for an intensive study session, and nerves or anxiety about the upcoming tests.

Instead, he walked me through what he had done so far:

✅ Mapped out all the material he needed to know for every subject

✅ Plugged in work sessions for each subject into his calendar, starting last week and into the next couple of weeks

✅ Made sure each work session was dedicated to a specific bucket of the material (e.g. “Bio: Read + Do Practice Q’s Chapters 1-2” > “Study Bio”)

✅ Scheduled time to take mini, timed practice tests for each class (which he’ll then assess and identify what he still needs to work on - whether that’s knowing the content better or more strategy practice on particular type of question, like short answer)

He had taken all the steps we worked on last year, and implemented them on his own.

He said it felt weird to be this prepared so far in advance, that he still had trouble wrapping his head around studying this way - early, thoroughly and methodically. And, importantly, absent the stress and overwhelm that comes with cramming or not knowing what to do.

If your teen has exams coming up, feel free to swipe the steps above.

If your teen is in a fresh semester, here’s the #1 thing they need to know about studying:

Studying is not something you do right before a test.

Studying is something you do each week, for each class, starting Week 1.

How do you do this? Simple - your teen takes a few minutes at the end of each week to summarize what they learned in class that week. They build their understanding of the material one week at a time. By the time a quiz or test comes around, they’re so familiar with the material and any “studying” right before test time feels way easier and more manageable.

The specific steps are detailed in my last email, on the “Studying” card (you can also see that email here).

Some other ways this improves your teen’s confidence, well-being and grades:

• Reduces or removes test anxiety. When students are confident that they know the material, and that they can translate their knowledge to the test (courtesy doing mini-practice tests), anxiety melts away.

• Instead of thinking they’ve studied and thinking they’re ready because they read over the material ( = ineffective), they know they’re ready because they’ve strategically engaged with and already tested themselves on that material.

• It’s a great way to practice one of my favorite mindset shifts - not just applicable to studying but to pretty much anything we need to do in school (and life). We don’t ask:

“What’s the latest I can get started on this and be OK?”

We ask:

“What’s the earliest I can get started on this and feel good?”

Early, consistent effort channeled into simple, proven strategies is transformative. If your teen is ready to ditch study struggles and gain a whole lot of confidence over their abilities to succeed, they’re invited to try this out and see for themselves🚀 

A quick tip and some very cool summer internships are below.

Speak soon,

Kelsey

Quick Tip 💌 

I was practicing note-taking skills with a student the other day. We were watching a video about hockey and talking about how to take notes more easily (and even have some fun with exploring our note-taking style🤓).

He was writing his bullet points in full sentences - which is totally fine as a preference - but I wanted to make sure he knew he could use things like arrows to define the relationship between different pieces of information.

So I showed him we could go from this:

• Summer 1996, Gretzy became a free agent, didn’t want to resign with Blues because his Dad was sick, and the idea of becoming a Leaf really appealed to him

To this:

• Summer 1996 → free agent → Dad sick, Leafs appealed

Way faster and easier, both for taking the notes and reviewing them later.

To make an arrow in a Google doc, simply press the hyphen button twice then the ‘greater than’ symbol (>).

There are 7 awesome opportunities that might be a fit for your teen below, but first - highlighting a special offer that ends this month:

Resources & Opportunities

• NVIDIA Internship. If your child is in college or grad school for Engineering or Computer Science, this is a super cool opportunity. Not only is NVIDIA a (the?) world-leader for AI and deep learning, their internships pay up to $71/hour and come with benefits usually reserved for full-time employees (like health care and stock options and vacation 🤩).

• Clark Scholars Program. If your kid is a Junior or Senior, at least 17, and academically competitive, check out this summer research program hosted at Texas Tech. There are no fees to participate, room and board are provided, and research areas span Physics to History. It is highly selective - they take only 12 participants - and the application process is similar to applying for college (short essays, standardized test scores, teacher/counselor recommendations). For a particular type of student, this will be the experience of a lifetime. Now is the time to get started, applications are due February 24 🤓 

• If your child is a Junior involved in leadership activities, see if they want to apply to this summer program at the University of Notre Dame. Tuition, housing and meals are all provided and there’s the possibility of earning a college credit upon completion (the program is only 10 days, so that’s pretty sweet). Deadline is January 22. Tight but do-able.

• Is your kid into science? This summer program is an “immersion in hands-on experimental science,” where students work in teams on fascinating (IMHO) real-world research projects. Room and board is covered and they provide “financial aid to cover 100% of demonstrated need for all admitted students, including round-trip airfare and/or financial support for other travel expenses.” I LOVE this one.

• If getting paid to do research at Northwestern University sounds good, check out their 6-8 week summer research program for “rising high school seniors and university students interested in biological sciences.” Note: families have to cover the cost of housing. Deadline is January 26.

• The MET is one of the world’s biggest and most renowned museums, and they have paid summer internships for high school students living in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut. If your kid is the creative type - not just as far as art goes but if they might be interested in marketing, social media, or conservation - check it out. Applications open February 23rd.

• Microsoft currently has 13 (very well) paid internships for university students. I like this one for first year university students and this one for neurodiverse students interested in software engineering. Applications close January 31st.

• Shifting gears - if you have a pet who you love anywhere near as much as I love my White Shepherd Rousseau, and if you’re horrified by vet bills, you might want to consider pet insurance (below). When I first got Rousseau, I decided not to get pet insurance - I figured it wasn’t worth it - he’s healthy, I take amazing care of him, what could go wrong? Then one night he came to me barely able to breathe. We rushed him to the vet, turns out he had a pneumothorax (collapsed lung). In all, it was $13,000 to save his life. I never once regretted this decision - he is my original baby - but I did regret not getting pet insurance 🐕️ 

Veterinary costs are up 60% over the past decade

Unexpected vet bills can be a financial burden, with some procedures costing $10,000+. Without coverage, you’d have to cover these expenses out of pocket.

Pet insurance could provide up to 90% reimbursement.

View Money’s top pet insurance picks here.

VIEW PET INSURERS