We have a dopamine pandemic because access to dopamine is higher than at any point in history.
In the past, dopamine boosts came from effort-based activities such as exercise, face-to-face conversation, or solving a challenging problem.
Today, social-media feeds and short-form entertainment deliver the same chemical reward in seconds, with no exertion.
The result is a concentrated, single-source supply of dopamine which is extremely unhealthy (I know that you know the feeling of scrolling through your phone till you get a headache).
When we rely almost exclusively on our phones for dopamine, our brain gradually adapts and over time we find less pleasure in other tasks.
This is also a key reason for declining attention span, which makes sustained studying or concentration feel difficult.
I really feel it’s super important to build multiple dopamine streams.
For secondary students, I will recommend 1) physical 2) social and 3) academic.
I know many parents/students may choose the least demanding CCA to “save time” or optimize their lifestyles to remove other activities that may not directly impact acads.
But this line of thinking is extremely flawed.
My seniors who excelled the most were able to handle both academics and sports at the same time.
It’s not a flex to DSA into a JC with straight Cs. It’s also not a flex to have straight As but have no control over your physical health/lack social skills.
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Guaranteed “A” For English in 12-24 Weeks with 'Scholar Structures'
WA period - I know everyone is stressed and overloaded
Take deep breaths, focus on inputs not outputs.
Focus on what you need to do and execute.
What should you focus on? Theory of constraints. What are 1-2 actions to take or topics to revise which will have the biggest impact on your next test?
Keep knocking it down piece by piece instead of scrambling to handle everything.
Success is rented daily. You pay your rent through the effort you put in. There will never be a finishing line - not even after your EOY or Os. You just have to learn to keep showing up, day after day.
Your ability to ask the right questions and problem-solve is the most important skill you can learn
Many students might ask
- how do I improve in compre? / What's wrong with my essay?
I understand where these questions come from. But they are bad and lazy questions.
General questions get general replies.
General questions is the symptom of a mind that is unwilling to think deeper.
Instead of asking 'how do i improve my essay?'
You start with the premise:
1. what is the end goal with my essay? where am I now?
Then you can think about other helping questions:
A. What is the objective marking requirement for this essay?
B. What do I can do so that my essay is undeniably and objectively better so the marker has to give me more marks?
C. How can I create systematic plan so that I can exceute requirements in B?
D. What are problems that have been recurring in my previous 5 essays that I need to fix?
Stop obessing about this 1 essay - start obsessing about your ability to create a system to handle 10 different essays
i will definitely use ChatGPT to study if I were in secondary today
examples of how I would use ChatGPT
1. im learning about cellular structure in biology for O levels Singapore
how is this relevant to my daily life as a 16 year old student in 3 ways - give me super specific examples which mirrors the biological processes of what im studying for the exam
2. scan all the other chapters of biology for O levels singapore
how is this chapter on cellular structure related to 2-3 other topics which might be combined together in the exam?
3. give me test questions for this topic at bloom's taxonomy revised lvl 4/5
Studying is essentially a low dopamine activity
When you do it in an environment that has many other distracting/high dopamine factors - snacks/computer/bed/gaming consoles, obviously you will never study.
It's simple biology. Which human will go for a low dopamine activity when there are relatively more rewarding activities that are easier to access around you?
Change the the ranking of how high/low dopamine-inducing studying is, relative to your environment by just studying outside your home
Studying Tip
if youre revising for a content heavy subject, many people try to get through as much content as they can as quickly as possible because they want to memorise it
You think memorising is the most important step before you feel ready to attempt questions and practice papers
But that is super backwards
if you don't apply you won't remember something
So when you consume a piece of information, learn how to digest it immediately
Don't even think of memorising it
Immediately create a fake test question for the information you have consumed
Then ask yourself - how do I apply this piece of information?
If you do that, I promise your results will improve
The problem with the current way of prepping for exams is that it's too specialised
There's a weird obsession to focus on how to answer this ONE essay perfectly
Stressing over definitions for one particular question
Worrying why your teacher didn't agree with your expression/grammar rules in one sentence
Many students ask me, "Will I get penalised for _?"
This is the wrong question
English is about relative rights and wrongs, not absolute rights and wrongs
I get it - this practice comes from a place of good intent (maybe from math and science to worry about details/keywords or you won't fit the answer key)
But it's tiring
You'll feel like you did a lot of work to improve on one essay but the next essay just destroys you
Move away from hyper-specialisation to hyper-transferability
Always ask yourself - how is what I'm learning relevant to my future 5 pieces of work?
find a way to increase your Learning Efficiency Ratio (LER)
whenever you study new information, you need to immediately ask yourself how you can apply it in 3-5 other scenarios
especially for bigger idea content, regardless of subject (language/humanities/or science)
this is how you can achieve an LER of 1:3 or 1:5
most students study 1:1 and wonder why they spend so much time but get so little done
many methods that are used to teach are not applicable in the exam they work when a teacher already has a clear idea of the answer (backward-looking)but they don’t work for the student because the student doesn’t have the end picture in mind (forward-looking)
for example, a teacher might have a nice sentence for an essay hook because he/she has natural language talent
He/she then said oh this belongs under the category of rhetorical questions so you should use rhetorical questions when you write a hook for your essay
But when you do it, it sounds weird
That’s because your teacher didn’t get the fancy hook as a byproduct of the technique
Rather, the technique is a byproduct of their natural language
So teaching such techniques to students is worthless
There is no statistical evidence that it works when you teach that technique to 100 students
But many of the these techniques are being pushed in schools
There are 20 different elaboration pathways that 99% of your PEEL paragraphs will run into.
Here are 10 you can work on during the holidays.
Describing restrictive effects
Describing entrenchment of problem in society
Describing intensity of debate/controversy/polarization
Describing criticism
Describing innovation/development/revolution /advancements
Describing stagnant situations/inertia
Describe obsession
Describing wavering beliefs
Describing illusion/delusion
Describing fame/notoriety
I created this by reverse-engineering hundreds of essays from our students.
You can actually study for English.
Advice: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should”
Just cos you can eat dog poopoo doesn’t mean you should (negative consequences = diarrhea)
Many essays ask whether you SHOULD do something.
Many students reason you should because you can.
Example: Should schools do more to improve the mental healh of students?
Point: Schools should do more because they have the financial resources.
Doesn’t work. This point is arguing > since you can > therefore you should.
‘Should-ness’ depends on consequences/natural responsibility.
Not the ability.
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