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Key Wellness / Self-Care / Productivity Strategies (from the subtitles)

Avoid “studying like crazy” (burnout triggers)

“Studying like crazy” refers to unsustainable behaviors that pull you away from passing, such as:

• Cutting off sleep to study
• Relying on stimulants during long exam periods (e.g., coffee, alcohol-like substances)
• Forcing yourself into routines that don’t fit (e.g., trying to be a “morning person”)
• Studying intensely without a sustainable pace (burning out and then crashing)
• Skipping exercise because you think it wastes time
• Spending time in passive “immersion” (only reading/recording, not building exam-solving ability)
• Believing that “just spending lots of time” automatically leads to results

Use a steadier cadence to prevent burnout

• Prioritize consistent study over long stretches—especially for 6 months to 1–3 years of preparation.
• Avoid repeatedly “flaring up and burning out.”
• If you tend to have big study-time swings or have experienced burnout, change your approach because:
  • You “run hard for a few days,” then your energy drops.
  • What you did during that high-energy burst becomes wasted if the pattern repeats.

Build a structured plan to reduce anxiety/slumps

To reduce anxiety or nervousness during a slump, set a plan with three requirements:

• Method
• Planning
• Pure study time

The speaker says this combination significantly lowers anxiety (though they note a detailed planning video wasn’t uploaded yet).

Pure study time matters (time targets)

The speaker emphasizes:

• 6 hours of pure study time (and at least 4 hours)

If you can’t reach that level consistently:

• They suggest not taking the exam seriously (or reassessing whether it’s the right commitment right now), because you need to “pour water into it” (consistent practice + input).

“Hard and painful” studying = the right method (not constant misery)

The message is that “painful/hard” doesn’t mean you’re fully immersed in misery the entire time.

• Studying should be uncomfortable in design to force skill-building and performance under difficulty.
• Studying that feels easy/comfortable is “absolutely unacceptable” for exam success.

They explicitly warn against “easy” methods that don’t build passing skills, including:

• Over-focusing on repetition of basic textbooks only
• Repeatedly watching only basic lectures
• Following a “trending curriculum” passively (just listening through stages)
• Avoiding problem-solving due to fear of getting things wrong
• Skimming past exam questions instead of solving them
• “Memorizing by looking only” (without active recall/testing)

Motto presented:

• Would you rather study hard and painfully for 6 hours to pass, or easily and comfortably for 12 hours to fail?

Focus difficulty where you’re weak

Prioritize:

• The parts you don’t know
• What feels difficult / confusing / unclear

Let thoughts come—don’t fight them aggressively

On concentration:

• Don’t try to “eliminate” distraction thoughts completely.
• If daydreaming/anxiety/stress pops up while studying:
  • Acknowledge the thought
  • Return attention to the text / study task

You can still succeed even if concentration isn’t perfect:

• Being fully focused ~30% of the time is excellent.

Studying isn’t about total control—it’s about carrying those mental burdens while still doing the work in the right way.

Don’t treat studying like constant self-punishment

• Don’t push yourself to the limit for the entire 1–3 years.
• Keep the method “painful,” but make the schedule sustainable—compared to using a loose rubber band (flexible, not tight and snapping).

Presenters / Sources

• So Min-kyu (speaker of the video)