Shadowing Practice: I failed all my exams, then I figured it out || Failed to Summa Cum Laude - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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So I got an E not just once but a lot of times
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So I got an E not just once but a lot of times
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and honestly I started thinking maybe I'm just not caught up for this whole studying thing.
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Maybe some people were just naturally smart and I just wasn't one of them.
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I studied.
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It's not like I didn't try.
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I tried hard but something still didn't click for me
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and unfortunately when that happens it really does mess with your head
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because then you start thinking oh it's never gonna happen for me blah blah blah.
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You start losing a lot of confidence in yourself
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and you start asking what's the point in trying hard if I still fail anyways.
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But here's the thing, this shift doesn't come from suddenly becoming smart all of a sudden.
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It's not even about finding the perfect study hack because there is no perfect study hack.
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It came from slowly changing how I thought about learning and how I thought about studying.
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Notice how I mentioned the two things separately.
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That's because learning and studying is completely different in my books.
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Now, I do want to preface that this is not a glow up story.
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This is more of a figure it out story.
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So it's not like a very glorified, romanticized thing.
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It's literally like a gruesome process that took me from start to finish.
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I want to walk you through everything, every thought process that I had that helped me to go from failing to finally making progress.
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Real steady progress.
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When I first got my E, I obviously freaked out because let's face it, I'm Asian.
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You can see that I'm Asian.
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And with this comes a lot of things as in my parents doesn't want me to fail anything.
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And I failed.
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That's it like just with that itself I think you can see what the rest of the story is gonna be.
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This is classic overdrive mode.
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I downloaded new productivity apps, started watching those aesthetic study vlogs, started doing so much more than I used to before
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when I was already studying 10 hours a day and that was every single day.
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It wasn't just a cram before the exam either.
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I was studying 10 hours every single day, sometimes maybe 15 hours.
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Like I was going crazy with this.
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And surprise, surprise, my grades still didn't improve.
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Eventually, I had to stop and be honest with myself.
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Like, what am I even doing when I study?
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Is it am I actually studying or am I just saying I'm studying
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because I'm holding my highlighter and coloring my entire textbook?
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When I realized that I wasn't actually studying and just basically turning my 500 pound textbook into a coloring book,
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I realized then and there that something had to change.
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To make it cute and memorable, I derived this name from my initials, which is PCFG.
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And hence, you can see my YouTube name is PCFG Study.
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So PCFG in my term stands for presence, clarity, foundations, and growth.
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These four things are my four pillars and they changed my entire outlook to studying.
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P for presence.
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I stopped fake studying.
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If I was going to study, I would actually study.
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It doesn't matter if I studied for five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, 10 hours, I will do it in presence.
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I will do it there.
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I wouldn't let my mind wander, which is a very difficult thing to do.
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But once you start training yourself to do it, you will get there eventually.
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Trust me.
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But I won't have the textbook open while watching an anime in the background.
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I would have 20 to 30 minutes of real focus.
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That was way more productive than doing hours and hours of multitasking.
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C for clarity.
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I realized that I was kind of understanding stuff, which is basically the same thing as saying that I don't understand it at all.
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So I started breaking things down in my own words.
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I'd explain stuff out loud.
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I tried to link it to things that are happening in my day-to-day lives.
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I would simplify my notes.
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I would draw diagrams.
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I would explain it to somebody when it's really just my doll or like a water ball.
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And then with that, it started to click in my head.
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And that's where the next part comes in.
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F for foundations.
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This one was big.
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I realized that I didn't have the foundations to a lot of the subjects that I was learning.
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I was struggling in maths because I didn't know how to do mental maths.
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I didn't know the proper way to add, multiply, subtract, divide.
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It seems so simple, it seems so easy, but I just completely missed it.
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I took it so lightly before that I didn't have the mastery of it.
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There is a difference between you knowing how to add, multiply, use fractions and whatever and comparing that to mastering it.
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You need to get to a point where you can literally multiply stuff in your head really easily.
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Obviously, I can't do like 10-digit numbers, but simple ones like two to three-digit numbers, I can multiply that easily in my head.
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And that is the moment when I actually understood what maths is.
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Because I built up on my foundations all over again, it made the harder stuff so much more achievable.
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Because now I'm like, oh my god, I understand maths.
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I understand the core of maths, what maths is trying to do.
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And that's the same with every other subject.
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If you want to understand, for example, you don't even have to go that far.
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Imagine you're talking to your friend and your friend is going all over the place
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because something happened and let's say they broke up with their boyfriend or whatever, and they're trying to tell you this entire story of what happened, but they're panicking and they're going all over the place.
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What you want to know is the core of the story, isn't it?
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In order to help your friend, you want to know what's happening.
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What is the core of the problem?
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Why did they start fighting?
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What caused their breakup?
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And that's the same with your studying.
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Have the same approach to it.
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Why is chemistry, chemistry?
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Why is physics, physics?
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Why is history, history?
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Understand the why and it will help you to understand everything else on top of that.
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That is where you will make it will be
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so much easier as well in the exam when you do this
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because you will then start to spot patterns in the questions as well.
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If you know the foundations you should be able to get
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to a point where you'll be able to predict the question
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just by looking at a picture in the exam paper or a diagram or data that they give you.
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You should be able to predict exactly what they're going to ask
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because you've asked yourself that question so many times before as well.
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MG for growth.
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I stopped taking my bad grades personally and I'm so lucky that my parents did the same as well eventually.
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They weren't proof that I was dumb.
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They were signs that something needed to change.
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So instead of doing the same things over and over again when it wasn't working before, I started experimenting.
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I spent an entire month trying out multiple different study techniques and seeing which ones stick.
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Now the problem was I was expecting
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that it was going to be one study technique that was perfect for all the other subjects.
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That's not true.
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You can't use the same techniques for maths as you do for chemistry.
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You can't use the same techniques for physics as you do with biology.
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You can't use the same techniques in English as you do with geography.
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So with that, you have to try it out for every single subject
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that you're doing until you find the one that sticks for each one of them.
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Now for me, for chemistry, for example, I have four study techniques that works really well for me, which is mnemonics, Feynman technique, blurting, and the Pomodoro technique.
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Biology, on the other hand, the method of loci or method of loci works best for me, which is basically just using your mind palace.
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And then blurting also works for me, Pomodoro works for me, and then Feynman technique also works for me for that one.
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While math is literally just grinding out the past papers.
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So I wouldn't have realized this if I didn't spend so much time literally just try out all the study techniques.
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If I could go back to the version of me that got an E every single exam, I wouldn't say work harder because that's what everyone told me to do.
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I would instead say you're not broken, you're just learning.
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You see the difference between studying and learning.
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Learning is understanding the why behind it.
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Studying is the act of doing the learning.
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Without learning, you will not be able to go forwards with the contents because you just don't have the foundations of it.
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Trust me, you are not behind.
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You are just at the beginning.
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You don't have to do it in a way that everybody else does either.
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Every study technique, even all the ones that I said to you just now, it might not even work for you because you have a very different style of learning to how I do.
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That's why you have to try it out for yourself and find which one works for you and which ones don't.
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You just need to be curious, honest, and willing to figure things out.
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Even if it feels slow, trust me, it is still progress.
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Some people may pick things up quickly and you feel jealous of them, but they can also forget just as quickly as well.
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Others, like us, take longer to really understand something and that's completely fine.
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You can use the summer in order to catch up or even be ahead.
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That's what I do.
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I use the summer to be ahead of all of my peers.
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But once we get it, we get it for good and it sticks in our mind forever.
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That is not a weakness.
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That is a completely different type of strength.
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So if you're staring at a bad grade right now and thinking, oh my god, I'm not smart enough, don't even go there.
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A lot of people would look at me and see my videos and see my content and say, I am smart.
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They wouldn't, they would, I have had comments before where they literally said are you just lying about getting E's
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or is it actually true?
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Unfortunately it is true and I feel like a lot of people don't even realize
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that you can go from an E to an A
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or an A plus or incredible grades that you want whatever the grade is.
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You can do whatever you put your mind into.
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What you're doing isn't wrong there's just some parts that you have to tweak.
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Grades don't define your intellectual capability it just tells you how well you did during
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that time and what your circumstances were when you are doing your exams.
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Maybe you were feeling ill.
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Maybe something happened in your personal life that made you made the exam so much more difficult basically.
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And that's life.
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That's what happens.
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It doesn't mean that you're an idiot.
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And the good news is you can always switch up your strategy if it doesn't work again. Be adaptable.
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I'm going to add another name to my name in order
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for me to be able to have an A in it so that I can add adaptability in my pillar as well.
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If this video helped you even a little bit, then please send it to someone that you think it would help as well.
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Or drop a comment below if you've been through some similar things as well.
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I've got more videos on how I basically change my study process, so definitely stick around.
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No pressure though, and hopefully I'll see you in the next one.
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All the best guys, bye!
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This video titled "I failed all my exams, then I figured it out || Failed to Summa Cum Laude" offers a unique perspective on overcoming academic challenges. As you watch and listen, you can immerse yourself in the speaker’s journey, which involves a lot of self-reflection and discovery. By practicing speaking with this video, you not only get to grasp the emotions and nuances conveyed but also improve your English pronunciation. Engaging with personal narratives like this one enhances your ability to express your thoughts and feelings in English, making your English speaking practice more relatable and practical.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
Throughout the video, the speaker uses a variety of expressions and grammatical structures that can enrich your English vocabulary. Here are some key examples:
- Conditional structures: "If I was going to study, I would actually study." This sentence illustrates the conditional tense, which can help you discuss hypothetical situations in English.
- Adverbial phrases: "I started thinking maybe..." The use of adverbs like "maybe" helps to express uncertainty, which is important for conversational English.
- Past continuous tense: "I was studying 10 hours every single day." This is useful when recounting past experiences and can be employed in various discussions.
- Comparative phrases: "It's not even about finding the perfect study hack." This highlights the use of "not only... but also" constructions, which can be effective in emphasizing your points.
- Metaphorical language: "Turned my 500-pound textbook into a coloring book." This creative expression demonstrates how to articulate frustration constructively.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you practice speaking along with the video, you may encounter some tricky pronunciation challenges. Pay particular attention to:
- The word "study": Often pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable, it can be tricky to ensure clarity.
- "Presence": The blend of sounds in this word may cause confusion, especially for non-native speakers.
- "Actually": This word can be a mouthful—practice saying it slowly before speeding up to ensure accuracy.
- The phrase "what's the point": The reduction of sounds can make it difficult to catch in fast speech; try shadowing this phrase to grasp the rhythm.
Utilizing this video not only enhances your understanding of personal experiences but also provides excellent learning opportunities to improve your speaking skills and English pronunciation effectively. Dive into the lessons each section teaches and practice regularly, especially with tools that focus on improving English pronunciation and shadowspeaks.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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