Hi op, i empathise with you as i went through something similar before. Studying notes repeatedly, doing papers and constantly revising does not seem to get me anywhere, my marks for exams were stagnant, if not slightly worse; i was extremely disappointed in myself and thought i could perform way better.

I was definitely feeling it and all the negative thoughts bombarded my mind like “what if i can’t pull my grades up, will i fail this subject in As; what if i can’t up no matter how much i study”. All the “what if’s” inundated my mind and compromised my ability to concentrate. Just as i was about to give up, a thought of a book that i read awhile ago appeared vividly in my mind; Atomic habits. The main takeaway from this book this that we expect results to be linear alongside our hard work. For example, if you study for x hours, you would expect your grades to improve my x amount. However, as much as i hate it, i doesn’t work like that—instead—all your hard work and effort will only be displayed some time later ranging from a few weeks to a few months. This concept is called the plateau of latent potential—or what people like to refer to as “overnight success”—where in reality, all your hard work and effort culminated in an exponential increase in performance.

I myself experienced this, after making notes and revising for months, one of my subject jumped 2 grades. Some of my classmates thought i was very smart or lucky, but in actual fact, this phenomenon took place and boosted my grades exponentially.

As for studying, always remember to take breaks, meditate and maybe take up a sport, and always have enough sleep. Always take care of your mental health, take breaks and relax at times to help calm yourself down. Talk to someone when you are stress, to keep everyday to yourself. Whenever you feel burnout, take a break, go out with friends or watch a movie, it really helps. Lastly, please take care of yourself, don’t let jc take too much of a toll on your mental health, trust me, it’s not worth it. Atb and good luck for your upcoming exams!