Q&A: Daniel Willingham on How to Fix Your Study Strategies

TikTok approved GCSE exam tips teachers never tell you

After five years of high school education and countless pieces of coursework, the end is in sight for GSCE students. But one last hurdle before moving on to college, sixth form or your chosen career is your exams – something not all of us excel at.

There can be a lot of information you're expected to retain ahead of your exams, and if you're anything like me, you can find your memory starts to fail you no matter how hard you study. But cramming in hours of uninterrupted reading through your notes isn't always the best strategy.

In fact, if you find yourself getting distracted with TikTok, then why not try some brilliant tips and tricks to make the approaching GCSE exam season easier? We've stumbled across some brilliant advice on TikTok that your teachers wouldn't necessarily tell you…

First things first, you need to motivate yourself to actually sit down and begin studying. According to @HUMZ, who has been helping instruct others after taking his own grades from 10 C's to 10 A*'s, he said he was prompted to work hard to make his parents proud and to prove his teachers wrong after they laughed at his mum on parents' evening.

"You need to find your why," he began. "You remember this why, and you remind yourself who and what you're doing this for. Just the thought of this why creates an emotion so strong that now you drag yourself out of bed, you sit at that desk, you do whatever it takes because you know that it is way bigger than just the grades, it's the greatness that comes with it," he said on one of his videos.

You should be fully rested before trying to revise or take your exams – late nights and early mornings are not conducive to healthy or productive studying. 

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Get the recommended eight hours of sleep in order to make sure your brain is ready to concentrate.

Once awake, the TikTok star suggests drinking lots of water and doing 10 minutes of exercise or stretches to increase your blood flow. 

He then takes a cold shower, which is said to increase alertness and energy levels and release endorphins, which causes feelings of optimism.

Drinking lots of water is encouraged throughout the entire day. It not only clears out toxins and waste that impair brain function, but it also creates better cognition and improved memory.

One long study session with no breaks is a recipe for disaster – you're going to get tired, bored and distracted. @HUMZ swears by the Pomodora technique, which suggests two 50-minute revision sessions, each followed by a 10-minute break. 

In his case, he uses the break time to take a walk, listen to music and "most importantly avoid checking my phone."

After the third and final 50-minute morning session, he has a full hour for his lunch break which he combines with cold water therapy (which is, of course, completely optional!)

"When you're feeling re-energised after lunch repeat the process and before you know it you've done five hours of revision. Now you've got the rest of the day to do whatever you like."

Reading through your old class notes isn't necessarily enough to commit them to memory. However, if you write them out repeatedly in words or phrases that are short, simple and bite-sized, they're easier to digest.

"Even the morning of the exams I'd be writing them out again, and the muscle memory meant that in the real thing, my hand was answering questions automatically," he joked before adding on a more serious note that the best subjects to do this are: Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, History and Economics.

Happy studying!

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Are you considering studying abroad? Here are 5 tips to help you prepare financially

Each year, American undergraduate students flock across the globe to study abroad. During the 2019/2020 academic year, 162,633 students did so, reflecting a 53% decrease due to the Covid-19 pandemic — in the before times, that number had hovered around the 341,000 mark and was slowly increasing every year.

Traveling can be expensive, though — excursions to different countries with your classmates during your semester abroad are no exception. You'll need to foot the bill not only for tuition, but meals, housing, flights, activities and everything else as well. Even with the many scholarships and grants that are available, those costs can certainly add up and become a financial burden for students and their families.

Below, Select shares some tips to help students financially prepare to study abroad so they can make the most of their experience in a new country. 

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Studying abroad can wind up being an enormous expense. The University of Louisville estimates that, on average, the cost of a semester-long study abroad program can range from $7,000 to $15,000 per student. It's important to discuss this upcoming expense with your family so you can determine whether or not this is something they could reasonably assist you with.

You should also speak to the study abroad coordinator at your school to help you figure out where you'd like to go, what you would be able to study there, which programs are available and how much it will be. That way, you can bring a more precise representation of the associated costs to your family.

Keep in mind that the type of program you decide to do can affect the cost, too. A one-month program will likely be significantly less expensive than a program that lasts the entire semester. There are also certain programs that allow you to study solo and live with a host family or study as part of a group with other students from your university. Your school's study abroad coordinator will be able to break it all down for you and help you select the option that's best for your financial and academic goals.

Now would also be a good time to find out if there are any scholarships or grants available that would cover some or all of the cost, and to do some research about which ones you can apply for. Unlike student loans, scholarships and grants don't need to be repaid — you'll just need to go through an application process in order to qualify for them. These funding options can significantly reduce the financial responsibility that comes along with studying abroad, and are definitely worth looking into.

If scholarships and grants are not available and your family can't afford to contribute to the cost of your trip, it might be worth devising a financial plan to pay for your study abroad program if it's something you're still really interested in.

You can make a decent amount of money by partaking in on-campus jobs, getting a job at a nearby store or restaurant, doing research, babysitting or tutoring in your college town, among other jobs. There are many ways for college students to take on a side hustle or part-time gig to earn extra money. Apps such as Wag! or TaskRabbit can be helpful for finding flexible-hour jobs like dog walking or assembling furniture if you're unable to commit to more structured working hours.

Another popular way to earn money is by selling stuff you no longer need on apps such as Depop or Mercari. Select recently interviewed a 22-year-old seller on Depop who earns between $1,500 and $2,500 per month. Typically, all you need to get started selling is a phone and a PayPal account.

Once you start earning some money, it's a good idea to keep it in a high-yield savings account, which will pay you more in interest for your balance compared to a traditional savings account. That means your savings can grow just a little bit faster and as a result, get you to your goal quicker. While you likely won't earn hundreds of dollars per month in interest unless you deposit a really large sum of money, it's still better than earning just the amount of interest that's typically paid by traditional savings accounts.

Select ranks Marcus by Goldman Sachs High Yield Online Savings as one of the best accounts since it has no monthly fees, no excessive transaction fees and no overdraft fees. Synchrony Bank High Yield Savings is another strong contender that also offers an ATM card to make withdrawing cash easier, which could be helpful when you're abroad.

Goldman Sachs Bank USA is a Member FDIC.

Synchrony Bank is a Member FDIC.

While traveling abroad during a destination's off-peak season has many perks — you'll save money on activities, encounter fewer tourists and have shorter wait times for most attractions and museums, for instance — the biggest draw for avoiding peak season travel is it lets you save money on flights. If you're able to save money on your flights, it can bring down your total cost of studying abroad and make the whole thing feel a bit more affordable.

Do your research so you know when the peak season for your desired destination is. According to GoOverseas.com, some off-peak season times of the year in popular study abroad destinations are October–January for Western Europe, May–March for Greece, June–October for New Zealand, October–April for Indonesia and May–September for Brazil.

As you near the start of your study abroad experience, consider signing up for a credit card that offers travel rewards so you can get more of a bang for your buck, especially when it's time to book flights and pay for meals while you're abroad. There are a number of credit cards aimed at helping students build their credit, as well as others that offer simpler reward systems. Plus, you'll want a card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees when swiping abroad (most debit cards charge foreign transaction fees).

Select named the Bank of America® Travel Rewards for Students credit card as one of the best for students who travel thanks to the fact that cardholders earn 1.5 points per dollar for all purchases. You can redeem rewards such as a statement credit to help cover the cost of qualifying travel purchases, which works as a simple way to reduce your out-of-pocket costs for traveling abroad.

Be sure to spend cautiously whenever you're using a credit card — this is not free money after all — and your balance needs to be paid back in full or else you'll be charged interest. When you're not paying upfront with cash, it can be easy to lose sight of that. Plus, credit card rewards are most valuable when you pay off your balance each month to avoid accruing interest charges.

Remember to notify your bank and credit card company about your upcoming trip so they don't suspect fraud when you make a purchase abroad and freeze your account. 

Figuring out how you and your family will pay for your study abroad experience can be a difficult challenge, but by planning ahead, making and saving some money and using the right financial products, the costs will become less daunting and you'll be able to enjoy your travels even more. 

Information about the Synchrony Bank High Yield Savings Account has been collected independently by CNBC and has not been reviewed or provided by the bank prior to publication.

Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.