5 Things I Wish School Taught You

An introduction to important concepts you need to start learning.

Let’s start with a quick update on the guide to academic success (I’m so excited):

• Filed for legal entity

• Updated website

• Finishing up last section

• Preorders in the coming two weeks

• Still on track for end of June release!

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After having spoken with many of you and reflecting on my own secondary education, I’ve created a list of 5 things I wish that school taught you. Now I first began by actually going into full depth on each topic, but quickly recognized I was looking at 10+ pages. Therefore, I will elect to simply introduce to you basic concepts for you to further read about or watch videos on if you are interested! So let’s get started.

Basic financial literacy

Personal finance is essentially spending less than you make and then taking the difference to save for emergencies and put into investments. 

Some of the topics I would encourage you to research:

• ROTH IRA

  • Understanding the power of compounding

• Mutual funds

  • Risk averse option compared to individual stocks that you see in media all the time

• Debt management

  • University is so expensive so you should really understand the financial implications. Seek scholarships, get a job, identify affordable options, etc.

• Understanding credit

  • Credit cards should only be feared when you don’t understand how to use them

• Budgeting

Career exploration

I always found it odd that the education system is so obsessed with titles rather than actually exploring the day to day tasks that those occupations would require. For example, when I ask you if you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, I assume you imagine the prestige and lifestyle that come with those titles. However, I bet most of you wouldn’t even know what their actual working days look like, and considering they require 40 hour work weeks, that seems to be a BIG oversight.

I really do think schools should be better at this, because imagine the other incredible career options out there that students are simply not aware of. Moreover, having an understanding of what jobs really require on a daily basis will allow students to better prepare in regards to certain classes they should be taking, out of school experience they should be seeking, and other high value skills they should be learning.

I would recommend you do research on a ton of various career opportunities that interest you early on. Then speak to your advisors, mentors, or even reach out to professionals with that position or students on the track to that position. There are great resources available out there like LinkedIn that can connect you to these individuals!

Not only what to learn, but HOW to learn

After going through years of reading books, publications, and also experimenting with techniques, I’ve been able to completely transform the way I learn. I went from thinking that good grades could only be achieved by those that were naturally smart to truly believing that anyone can be trained to learn effectively. 

I’ll take it a step further, I truly believe that if trained properly, anyone can drastically reduce the number of hours they put into studying and have more time to do other things they enjoy. It shocks me with all the research out there at this point supporting certain techniques that they aren’t further emphasized in the classroom.

Here are some guiding principles that will serve as good foundations for you. 

• Encoding vs retrieval practice

• Active recall

• Spaced repetition

• Interleaving 

• Retrospective revision timetables

There are some incredible publications out there, but I understand the desire to want all this information in one location that’s easy to understand and geared towards students so I promise you it’ll all be in the guide!

Public speaking

A few months back we had an end-of-term presentation for my junior biomed design class where we were tasked with discussing findings from our verification testings. Now in the grand scheme of things, this presentation didn’t really matter as our grades were solidified for the most part and the design classes only get serious during senior year. 

However, it was so INTENSE. Why? Because even incredibly smart and capable biomedical engineering students fear public speaking and are simply not that good at it. Why? Well that’s the more important “why” and the answer is that we don’t practice enough. We do presentations once a term and barely did any in our secondary education, so it makes sense that we get tense when we have to stand up in front of our peers and speak under such unfamiliar conditions.

The crazy part is that public speaking is one of the MOST IMPORTANT skills to develop in any discipline because it does not matter how smart or capable you are if you cannot communicate that to other individuals effectively. I don’t care if you are a scientist, gym trainer, or makeup artist, this applies to you.

How do we fix this? You get more practice. It’s really a numbers game here. If you have practiced a thousand times, you are bound to get more comfortable and better at communicating effectively. There’s a barrage of resources out there available to you, but if you want a suggestion based on my own experience, I would recommend starting a video diary.

Get in the habit of spending just five minutes each day recording yourself speaking on any topic that you recently came across. Listen to those back each time and build on the things you did well and improve the things you didn’t do so well. You do this enough times, you’ll get really good at speaking coherently in a confined period of time which will transfer over well when speaking in public. 

How to Have Balance

Everyone wants to do other things aside from school too and students should be taught how to balance those various endeavors with practical tips. Currently, school’s method of teaching this is giving students a ton of responsibilities like homework, clubs, sports, and other extracurriculars, and relying on their natural intuition to figure out how to balance all of those obligations over time with more experience.

Now, does this work for some? Yes. However, sometimes students don’t ever figure out effective methods to manage their time, and just brute force their way through which can lead to burn outs and other mental health issues. 

A great place to start would be learning how to time block effectively meaning not only blocking out your time for work but also blocking out time for rest and play. If executed correctly, this method allows you to fully immerse yourself in the moment without guilt of not working or spending enough time with loved ones.

Another great method to start with is “second brain” which utilizes an external source where you encode information regarding every aspect of your life so that the retrieval process is much more efficient. This is helpful because our brains are great at coming up with new ideas, but can run into difficulties when storing too much information simultaneously! 

These productivity tips will also be included in the guide as well :)

- Jun Yuh