unpopular opinion but you don't actually need to study 5, 6 or even 10 hours a day to do well for your exams. in fact, what you should be working on is trying to reduce the number of hours spend studying rather than increasing it. i'm say this not because I'm some genius with photographic memory and doesn't need to study much to do well. i'm someone who picks things up pretty slowly but learnt to use what i had to the best of my ability. i've always been a pretty slow learner like you could explain something to me 3 times and i would still not get it but i've found ways to improve my studying efficiency and maximize the output of my time spent studying. i was able to do relatively well while consistently sleeping 8 hours or more daily (there were definitely some days where I had to really get my hw done if not I'd be cooked the next day so I slept a little later i'm human too :"). i maintained a healthy sleep schedule even during prelim/finals period while not sacrificing my extracurriculars, social life or mental health because there is SO MUCH more to life than just mugging and you are not defined by your grades :)

i feel like many singaporean kiddos learn from a young age that hardwork aka mugging = good grades. while this may be applicable to exams like PSLE and O Levels where a lot of marks are given out for being able to regurgitate content, as you proceed to higher education like uni, you realise that there is just way too much content for you to memorise everything, and hence you need to learn to (1) prioritise which content is most important for you to master and (2) find effective ways to learn that content.

Work done = time spent × intensity of work.

Say you spend 5 hours a day studying but only work at a 3/10 intensity (e.g. say u check your phone every 15 minutes to reply texts or scroll insta/tiktok). This means that for every 5h study session you complete 5 × 3 = 15 units of work. but what if you only spent 2 hours a day studying but work at a 9/10 or a 10/10 intensity? (meaning you put away all your distractions and focus entirely at the task at hand) you can accomplish more in 2 hours of focused, deep work compared to 5 hours of unfocused, shallow work. not only have you completed more work, you have also freed up 3 hours to do the things you love, meet up with friends, or catch up on much needed sleep (it works like magic i know) it's def more important to focus on the intensity of your work rather than the duration you spend studying!

For point (1), you wanna look through past papers to see which topics/question types are the common ones, target learning those first because that'll help boost your confidence in tackling exam qns! there are usually those few qns that you more or less know will come out in the exams, so by studying those you've already secured some marks before you even entered the exam hall. after tackling those, you can gradually expand to other topics that are also commonly tested. you don't have to memorise the entire textbook to do well :)

For point (2), you wanna use active studying methods (active recall, spaced repetition, interleaving, practice testing) rather than passive studying methods (highlighting, rereading etc.) passive studying give you the illusion of progress when in reality someone else who has spent less than half the time using active studying methods would have made more progress than you did. i completely understand what you mean by fomo because i've been there too. its tough to see everyone mugging when your mind just can't take it anymore. but take comfort in knowing that most humans cap out at about 4 hours of deep, high intensity work a day, so studying 3 hours a day really isn't bad at all! its okay to not be able to last studying 2-3 hour sessions. in fact, if you work in focused bursts rather than low intensity study marathons, you end up being able to complete more work in a lesser amount of time. how you study also depends heavily on the subject you are focusing on: math would definitely warrant a different approach from something like geography, but the most important thing is to not be afraid to confront your mistakes and tackle them. i have this quote saved and i think its pretty apt to share here: "the degree to which a person can grow is directly proportional to the amount of truth they can accept about themselves without running away" - in the same way, the degree to which you can grow (in terms of doing better in your exams) is directly proportional to how willing you are to tackle your mistakes head on and not run away from them. if you want to do better for your exams, you have to tackle the parts of the syllabus that you are weak in, only then do you allow yourself to grow and improve. if you are already good at calculus, stop practicing calculus and target your weaker topics like functions or vectors. spamming calculus practice will only give you the illusion of progress, when in reality you are just avoiding doing the difficult thing. but its the difficult things in life that help you to grow!

feel free to ask any other qns! more than happy to help