Secondary School Regrets of Cambridge Students

hey friends and welcome back to another video so this one is going to be more of a sit down casual speaking video uh i'm here with my friend miguel who is also a second year physics student here at cambridge and we're going to be speaking about some of our secondary skill regrets because uh i think that might be entertaining for a few of you and hopefully you can learn some lessons from uh some of our mistakes over the years so this video will be split up into both a academic segment and a personal segment and uh you can like skip to whichever one you want to use in timestamps below okay so

do you want to go first yeah sure so one of the big regrets i had um from secondary school is being content with road learning and not really revising too effectively because um if you uh well from my school anyway we were just taught how to remember the textbook and not really absorbing or really getting to grips with the content and this meant that i could regurgitate the textbook but not really understand what's going on and i think at the universal level that's incredibly uh incredibly bad habit to have um especially uh for um for a you know a concept-driven subject like physics um and also you know but with road learning anyway you don't really get the enjoyment or of really um you know delving into your subject more and appreciating you know the nuances uh and just the knowledge anyway yeah um i mean i think we're wrote learning to an extent for subjects you don't like too much and you don't really want to do much reading around i mean for me personally i would be quite happy with wrote learning but i think for subjects which i'm a bit more interested in where i feel like i could be more interested in uh yeah i would want to explore a bit deeper um i'm not sure if you agree with that uh i mean i think there's an enjoyment in i mean almost also yeah i mean yes i mean i think especially if i have a good teacher like my really bad teachers made the subjects i enjoyed so like hellish really um but yes it's there's just a bit of lottery you know in that sense whether you have a good teacher that's enthusiastic and brings out the um brings out the enthusiasm in you as

well uh yeah so i mean i guess that sort of links um link's kind of on to one of the regrets i had which was um like not realizing sooner that if you're good at something then you should try to get better at it so i mean like i have two examples here so one during uh secondary school and stuff people you say i was well spoken in the sense that i knew how to say it i knew what i wanted to say and exactly how to say it and then i was just i don't know i felt quite chuffed about myself with that and rather than actually trying to get better at speaking i just sort of like said oh well i'm already good i don't need to get better and the same thing sort of went with maths as well so i mean uh with maths like you'd be pr i'd be praised by my teachers and uh people would be like oh wow you're so good at maps or whatever and it's so easy to just feel chuffed and be like ah yeah i'm like best and um not really think that hey i'm good at this thing maybe i should focus on getting even better at it so by the time you go to sixth form or go to university or something then you're still on a i suppose good enough level or like if you're in year seven or year eight um we had plenty of people in my school who were like really good at that like just generally academically in year seven and year right and then by the time they it got to gsc's and a levels they just became um like quite bad at the subject well not bad other people caught up to them because they became so content and happy with being good at the subjects in year 17 year 8 that they didn't really try anymore um so yeah and especially for maps i think uh if you're already quite good at maps um one of the best ways you can try to improve is to go ahead and try um improving your problem-solving abilities uh because i mean um when it comes to practicing you people tend to have this misconception in school that if you're practicing something more uh then it's just like you're not good at it uh but no you can be practicing more to get even better at the thing itself right and you don't realize it's like the um big fish in a small pond when you go to even bigger ponds then uh you're just small fish in a big pond then um when it goes to going to sixth form or even to university um well another academic

regret i had was not really reading about around the subjects i enjoyed and thought i'd do at university so at sixth form i was really quite content with um i was reading a couple books really um on the subject of physics um sorry in my personal statement um and yeah playing the ucas game i suppose and not really pushing my understanding further than what's covered in the textbook and i think that's so um like such a bad mindset to have especially if you um if you want to take your subject seriously at university um i think a good example of this is i have a really good friend who uh he did some really cool stuff in sixth form so he had his own project which uh where he built his own neon detector um from scratch which i thought was so incredibly cool and he did things like um bring it up into a plane to measure um how many millions um he could catch in a plane or like deep on the ground or like at sea level and i thought wow that's so cool because um you know having these projects pushes you so much more than just like rereading the textbook right because well first you have to go away and learn it yourself and secondly applying what you know is i think a really good indicator of how intelligent you are and you know being adaptable in using your knowledge because you know anyone can regurgitate a textbook or a handout but not very many people can do uh can like take their knowledge what they've learned and apply it to you know a project like you know building immune detector yeah i think as well with that it gives you something really good to like explore and writes about in your personal statement and it gives you a chance to see if you would actually enjoy doing that much later in the future um like after your degree and uh why not and i don't know it's just a good way to spend your time rob and uh playing dotaro or like league or something yeah um i mean

yeah so this i suppose is uh slightly linked to one of the points i had uh which was i wish i had realized sooner that most things i mean i suppose it goes for most things in life in fact most things are just sort of designed for the average person and that includes a school system in the sense that's designed for the average student so i use this example like let's say you're an art lesson and you're already like really quite good at art um your teacher isn't may not necessarily push you to get even better because they're devoting most of their time to spend on the average student who is like quite mediocre at art um so you won't really have someone there to make sure that you're getting better and really pushing and refining your own abilities so then you have to go away and make sure that happens yourself and like the same thing happens and happened in my maths lessons your teacher would spend more time making sure that people actually like pass the subject uh in their over like uh classes um and get to grips with like some of the more fundamental ideas that you would just be left alone to do your own thing really if you're quite good at that subject um and just finding ways and time to spend it rather than just sitting back and chilling um would have been very useful and like just helping you take more of an interest in the subject and helping you enjoy it more as well as making sure you're like getting even better so like by this time you come to university you're already like pretty good and you don't have to spend as much time like studying for your degree and you can do a few other things and get involved in um a few more societies and whatnot but

yeah i think that's it for the academic regrets uh so we have a few personal regrets from secondary school and sixth form okay uh okay i think i'll start this one um one of my really big personal regrets is not well neglecting um interpersonal skills until quite late because i thought uh well i'll develop those at university and um an example of this is um is something i still find quite difficult to do actually but i found myself to be too proud or found it i find it too quite difficult to um to apologize when i've done something wrong and yes i think if i had learned to deal with that earlier on i would have um had a much easier life than oh well it's not it's not like it's not like a very difficult one but it's like i think my problems would have been a lot would have been sold a lot easier if i had um taken that seriously rather than putting it off and another thing is you know i wish i got better at being good at conversation earlier because um yeah being able to converse with you know very different types of people is so incredibly useful in that it broadens your horizons it makes you know personable it makes you like uh likable and that's something i noticed in a lot of my friends um if you're good at conversation take a genuine interest in what other people are doing saying then you know you not only connect with them more but you know you learn you know so much from it um but yeah i think there are a couple more but um

yeah i feel like with a conversation um it comes back to one of the things i had was uh i think in secondary school and six home i didn't really make any meaningful friendships in the sense that most of my friendships like i had friends and they felt like very surface level friendships in the sense that um i didn't really have like one group of people um or one group of friends who i'd hang out with i'd have like a few different groups and like every dinner and break time or like go to a different group and like chat with them for a bit and then like go to another group the following day and stuff like that and um well while that was probably like quite fun at the time because you have a lot of people to catch up with and tell about whatever fun stuff has done fun stuff happened over the weekend or last night or something it wasn't great in the sunset i never really connected with uh many of those friends in this way that i'd like carry on speaking to him after secondary school after sixth form and i think now like there are only about two or three people i speak to uh if i went to secondary school with and almost no people from sixth form um so like just trying to i don't know uh make more meaningful friendships or like try and try to uh take more interest in what they're doing and saying and um like hang out more often and stuff like that what i think would have been really beneficial um i think another one would

have been uh caring too much whatever people thought uh yes i agree with this wholeheartedly yeah i mean like it's quite easy to say and i don't know like most people end up saying that you're in this sort of um like weird teenage phase of your life and like everyone cares whatever people think as well um but it is two different levels um like you can care so much whatever people think and like get almost nothing done and based like almost all your decisions on what other people would end up thinking about like that particular decision that i don't know you just i don't know become a slave to like the fourth end of other people and uh i suppose it goes back to spotlight effect in the sense that um people have a tendency to think that others think of them more often than they actually do like as everyone's walking around with a spotlight fixated on them in their entire lives and the reality is that most people don't think about you as much as you probably think they do um and those people who sort of do and like judging every move or something like i mean they clearly have nothing better to do so i think one of the ways that sort of stopped me um just in secondary school and sex film is that i didn't ask as many questions in class because i would worry that if i asked a certain question then eva would look stupid in front of everyone else or um that people would be like oh what a nick or something he's taking too much of interest in the subject or uh yeah um it it wasn't great because i mean i i don't know what else i would have learnt or um like how much easier or how much more of an understanding and i have different subjects or how much more of an interest i would have taken if i had actually asked some of the questions i had in my mind during the lessons um and i don't know i think asking questions i would have just enjoyed being a lesson more and stuff like that yeah um yeah it's really not worth i guess saving face and not asking the seemingly basic questions because generally if you have a question um put your hand up and ask it because yeah more often than not other people are going to have that same question as well yes except that they're not going to happen yeah except ask it as well because they're also worried about looking stupid um you know i think if you do ask very many questions you're doing everyone a public good in that i think you can also get some very interesting discussions out of you know these questions even if it's not like completely related to you or to your to what's happening um if you can uh sort of link it uh continuously then yeah it's definitely worth it i think especially in sixth form when you're sort of considering uh what to be writing on your personal statement yeah show your exploration on the subjects a bit more and a question can lead you down like some um a pathway like you find some genuinely interesting stuff online and then you have that talk about in your personal statement and it shows like you taking the initiative and be more pro proactive in your subjects uh which is good for um which university admissions tutors like to see um from people writing personal statements yeah they love that stuff yeah okay um yeah another one i have is

um yeah uh linking back to what you said not being myself more and taking a genuine interest in what i enjoy because um i thought it was uh i guess i was too fixated on what other people might think and from my own experiences now looking back at it i think well the people who were able to um be themselves not really conformed to what uh everyone else was pressuring them to do in that um i guess liking you know quite nerdy stuff um were the people who um i guess were the most true to themselves i suppose yeah and you know really enjoyed themselves more than the people who i guess were like carbon copies of each other in that they all like you know quite the same thing but just because it was you know trendy or popular time yeah now yeah looking back at it people don't really enjoy that stuff as much as you think they do um and yeah it's it is more of a you know personal enjoyment from you know from exploring things on your own i suppose yeah i think it goes back to academic regrets as well like um i mean like if you genuinely enjoy auditory if you generally enjoy science or maths or whatever like there's you don't have to like hide it from everyone else like it's completely fine to ask more questions or like go to a lunchtime or dinner time session or um after school um like club up for it or something because like yeah i mean who's gonna care about you you going and doing this thing most people like they don't send the people who do can't are probably going to like make fun of you for going to a lunchtime match club or something are the ones who don't really have much else to do with their lives so um uh yeah yeah i totally agree with that um i think

you know aside from that um i was quite hesitant oh well i was not very good at looking after myself more um because generally what i found out in at university is that um having generally you know good well-being is incredibly beneficial i think it's probably one of the most productive things you can do yeah one of the most insanely productive things you can do rather because yeah whether it be socially personally or academically having you know being in good frame of mind uh and generally healthy or keeping yourself um in good shape um just makes you much more effective in it and everything um so yeah you learn a lot easier you um you have fewer um you know uh you're less anxious um yeah i've noticed that especially like uh coming to university going and doing exercise more like even going to the gym before like um before uh going to bed or something well i mean in the evening uh because of course like you have a shower after you go to gym and stuff like that um yeah just going doing that more it just like freshens you up and like freeze like if your mind feels cloudy then doing exercise for like 10 20 minutes like it's so beneficial and if like i mean it's a lot of diminishing returns if you're revising for such a long period of time then like the the returns you're getting from your like revision for by staying focused too long you just become less and less productive as it goes along and then like you can sort of regain that productivity by like going out and doing something else especially exercise um and i've i found generally that um like when i felt tired or something um especially during secondary school or six and i wanted to take a nap even doing like five minutes of exercise like i just feel so much more awake and so much more refreshed uh and then i could like get back to work rather than uh taking a nap and then 90 minutes passing later and uh realizing that i kind of screwed up my sleep cycle by taking too many naps or something like that um yeah so yeah and an exercise mental health yeah looking after yourself generally yeah and then yeah eating healthy diet um especially because i well in first year i know i didn't really learn how to cook and i still don't think i'm very good at it but um this meant that i had a lot of instant noodles and it generally makes you feel like death after i guess a couple weeks of um not you know eating that and not having a very good diet so i think that's something i had to give up uh earlier this year just because i realized wow it's really not making me feel good bear in mind this is universe and this is second week and six from regrets so like i mean if your parents are sort of cooking up when you're home and stuff like that uh then um it's quite easy to take from granted yeah definitely yeah and yeah

you know aside from that i think looking back i wish i had appreciated the arts and humanities more than i do because i guess when i was in school i had i this arrogant attitude that um you know anything that wasn't you know science and just stem in general wasn't really worth doing because it's not like productive um like furthering society but yeah it couldn't be further from the truth and i think once you get to university uh you know appreciating you know literature and art um to at least a little extent um makes you give you some sort of satisfaction or gratification or uh um just so an enjoyment that um i guess no not hard but like science subjects don't provide yeah um i think especially when it comes to like i don't know personal experiences and stuff like that because i mean um in the case of like doing poetry at like age 15 or 16 for g7c is like i really i just really didn't enjoy it and now it's and now i don't know if you just get older and you start enjoying some of these things more and i didn't really enjoy reading much in secondary school um or especially reading fiction but now i'm enjoying it much more as a result and i think if i if you sort of like um say to yourself oh you don't solely have to be like a stem guy you can be um a bit more well-rounded or you can you are allowed to enjoy yeah enjoy uh some like english as well if you if you're like everyone knows you for being um assigned to math sky or something like that um yeah okay like another story from this actually so when i was um when i was in i think late year nine early at ten i remember my former tutor saying oh by the way guys i'm starting a latin class um and we're gonna do that for gcse if anyone wants to come i told him so why are you doing while you think latin if it's dead language and no one speaks it but uh eventually he persuaded me to come and you know having this quite arrogant attitude um going to it i quickly realized that wow it's a lot it's really quite fun and really appreciating um uh latin and the humanities um yeah just provides um just so like so much enjoyment and such that it was one of the like most enjoyable subjects for me at gcse actually um probably even more than science uh although i don't know how much of that is attributed to you know him being a fabulous teacher um yeah i enjoyed it so much that i considered considering it for a level actually um but yeah i decided not to and i really wish i did then now well just even to as level yeah even to his level yeah um

but yeah i mean that's basically it i hope uh hope some of you found us rambling on about yeah uh some things we did wrong or not wrong i mean missed opportunities and stuff like that in secondary school useful and maybe you will have realized that um some some similar things are happening in your own life and you can probably think about them more or think about ways to address them or uh something like that um but yeah you do you want to plug anything yes can i plug my channel so my channel is miko kadasho um should be yeah it should be linked down below in the description um but yes i had a wonderful time here um yeah but yeah that's basically it guys i'll see you next video or something like that bye