Study strategies, university advice, and academic guides written by educators — for Canadian students.
Most students study by re-reading notes and hoping something sticks. Here is what the research actually says about how memory works — and the five techniques that consistently separate A students from the rest.
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Ontario university admissions is more competitive than ever. Understanding exactly how averages are calculated — and which courses matter most — can give you a real edge.
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Getting into medical school in Canada requires careful planning from early in your undergraduate years. Here is what pre-med students need to know about building a competitive profile and navigating the application process.
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Group tutoring feels economical. But the research on how students learn — and the experiences of thousands of Canadian students — consistently points in one direction.
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Grade 11 is where most students either pull ahead or fall behind. Here is what makes this year so pivotal — and how to make sure you finish it with the averages and course selections you need.
Read ArticleMost students study the same way: re-read the chapter, highlight things that look important, maybe re-copy some notes. Then they sit the test and wonder why the mark does not reflect all those hours they put in.
The problem is not effort. It is method. Cognitive science has spent decades studying how memory actually works — and the findings are clear. Some study techniques are dramatically more effective than others. Here are the five strategies that consistently separate students who improve from those who stay stuck.
Re-reading feels productive because the material looks familiar as your eyes pass over it. But familiarity is not the same as knowing. When you close your notes and try to recall what you just studied, you force your brain to actually retrieve the information — and retrieval is what builds lasting memory.
In practice, this looks like: after reading a section, close the book and write down everything you can remember. Use flashcards (physical or digital via Anki). Answer practice questions before reviewing the answers. Cover your notes and try to reproduce key concepts from scratch.
"Testing yourself is not a way to measure what you know. It is a way to build what you know."
Studies consistently show that students who use active recall outperform those who re-read by margins of 50% or more on follow-up tests.
Cramming works short-term. The problem is that everything learned in a cram session tends to evaporate within 48 hours. The brain consolidates memory during sleep and rest — so a single marathon session is far less effective than several shorter sessions spread across days.
The practical approach: when you learn something new, review it the next day, then three days after that, then a week later, then two weeks later. This spacing pattern exploits something called the "spacing effect" — memories reviewed just before they would naturally fade become significantly stronger.
Even reviewing notes for 15 minutes the day after class beats spending two hours the night before a test. Build short daily review sessions into your routine rather than saving everything for the weekend.
Named after physicist Richard Feynman, this technique is simple: take a concept and explain it out loud as if you were teaching it to a 12-year-old. No jargon. Plain language. Start to finish.
Where you struggle to explain clearly, you have found a gap in your understanding — not just in your notes. Go back, figure out what is actually happening, then try again. If you can explain it simply, you understand it. If you cannot, you have been fooling yourself with terms you have memorized but not understood.
This is especially powerful for chemistry, biology, and physics where students often memorize the "what" without grasping the "why."
Most students practice one type of problem until they feel confident, then move to the next type. This feels efficient because you improve quickly on each block. But research shows this creates an illusion of mastery. When the exam mixes up problem types — as all exams do — students struggle to figure out which approach to apply.
Interleaved practice means deliberately mixing different problem types in a single session. Do a quadratic equation, then a word problem on rates, then a geometry question, then back to a different type of algebra. It feels harder and slower. That is exactly the point. The difficulty of figuring out which strategy to apply is itself what builds real flexibility.
Abstract concepts stick when anchored to concrete examples. When studying something like osmosis, do not just define it — find a real example (why cucumbers shrink in salt water), explain how the definition applies to that example, then find a second, unrelated example and explain it again.
This forces you to separate the underlying principle from any single case and build a mental model flexible enough to handle questions you have never seen before — which is exactly what exam questions are designed to test.
You do not need to use all five strategies at once. Start with active recall — it is the single highest-return change most students can make immediately. Add spaced repetition by building a short daily review habit. Apply the Feynman technique when you hit material that refuses to stick.
These methods are not secrets. They are backed by decades of research. The only reason most students do not use them is that they feel harder than re-reading — and they are. But that difficulty is the whole point. Hard retrieval builds strong memory. Easy re-reading builds the feeling of knowing without the knowing itself.
Need help applying these strategies to a specific subject? Our tutors work one-on-one with students to build study plans that actually stick.
Book a Free Trial SessionOntario university admissions has changed significantly over the last decade. Competition for spots in programs like engineering, health sciences, nursing, and business at Toronto, Western, Queen's, Waterloo, and McMaster has intensified every year. Understanding exactly how the system works — and where students lose points they do not realize they are losing — is the first step to protecting your admission average.
Most Ontario universities calculate your admission average using your six best Grade 12 U or M-level courses, with specific required courses depending on the program. A common mistake students make is not knowing exactly which six courses their target program will count.
For example, Engineering programs at Waterloo and Toronto require English (ENG4U), Advanced Functions (MHF4U), Calculus (MCV4U), and Chemistry (SCH4U) as mandatory prerequisites. The remaining two spots in your top-six are filled with your best optional courses. A student who takes an easy optional course hoping to boost their average — but gets a 78 — when they could have gotten an 88 in a course they enjoyed, has actually hurt their own application.
"The best strategic move is usually the one that matches your genuine strengths — not the one that looks easiest on paper."
For most Ontario universities, the admission offer is based on your Grade 12 midterm grades (usually released in February) for the current school year. Your final Grade 12 marks then confirm the offer. Some universities will also look at your Grade 11 grades for early consideration — particularly if you are applying to competitive programs.
This means your Grade 11 performance matters more than most students think. A strong Grade 11 record can result in early conditional offers and fewer headaches during the high-stakes second semester of Grade 12.
Most Ontario university programs are primarily marks-based — but the gap between programs that use only grades and those that also weigh a supplementary application is significant. Waterloo's AIF, Queen's personal statement, and McMaster's supplementary form all ask you to demonstrate leadership, sustained commitment, and genuine interest in the field.
Students who join ten clubs in Grade 12 for the sole purpose of having something to write about tend to come across exactly like that. Admissions readers see thousands of applications. What stands out is depth: a student who spent three years coaching a youth soccer team, or who built a real software project, or who tutored peers consistently — not a laundry list of surface-level involvements.
Know your target programs' requirements inside out — required courses, minimum averages, supplementary application deadlines — before the end of Grade 11. Students who are informed early make better course selections, plan their optional courses strategically, and have time to improve before midterm grades are submitted.
If your grades in any required course are not where they need to be, Grade 11 or early Grade 12 is the time to close the gap — not the week before applications are submitted.
Worried about your Grade 12 average? Our tutors specialize in the exact courses that determine Ontario university admissions. Start with a free trial session.
Book a Free Trial SessionGetting into medical school in Canada is one of the most competitive academic journeys a student can undertake. It requires not just strong grades, but strategic planning, the right course selection, meaningful experiences, and a compelling application. Most students navigate this alone — and that is where mentorship makes the biggest difference.
This guide is written for students at every stage: those just starting to consider medicine, those already in their undergraduate years building a pre-med profile, and those ready to begin applying.
The path to medical school begins earlier than most students realize — often in high school. Choosing the right undergraduate program, understanding prerequisite courses, and building a strong academic foundation from the start all contribute significantly to your long-term competitiveness.
Key questions at this stage: Which university programs offer the best pre-med pathway? What science courses should you prioritize? How do you balance a high GPA with meaningful extracurricular involvement? A mentor who has navigated this journey can help you answer these questions with clarity and confidence.
Once in university, the goal is to build a profile that medical schools will find compelling — academically and personally. This means maintaining a competitive GPA, completing required prerequisite courses (biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics), gaining research or clinical experience, and developing the leadership and communication skills that medicine demands.
Common challenges at this stage include managing a heavy course load, knowing when to take difficult courses, understanding how GPA is calculated differently by different schools, and making meaningful use of summers and extracurricular time.
Pre-med mentorship provides guidance on all of these decisions — tailored to your specific school, program, and goals.
Canadian medical schools differ significantly in their admission criteria, processes, and what they look for in applicants. Some weight GPA heavily; others use holistic review. Some require specific prerequisite courses; others do not. Understanding these differences — and how your profile aligns with each school — is essential to building a strong application list.
A good mentor helps you research your options, understand the criteria at each school you are considering, and develop a realistic and strategic list of programs to apply to.
The application itself is a major undertaking. Most Canadian medical schools require a personal statement or autobiographical sketch, reference letters, and evidence of extracurricular involvement. Many also require the CASPer test and a formal interview (including MMI — Multiple Mini Interview format).
Application support includes: helping you articulate your story and motivations clearly, guiding your personal statement and essay writing, reviewing your activity descriptions, preparing you for CASPer scenarios, and practicing interview responses through mock sessions.
Every component of the application is an opportunity to present yourself compellingly. Mentorship ensures you approach each one strategically and with intention.
The students who succeed in gaining medical school admission are rarely those who simply had the highest GPA. They are the students who understood the process, made informed decisions at each stage, and presented themselves authentically and strategically. Mentorship is what makes that possible — especially for first-generation students and those without a physician in the family to guide them.
At UniTutor, our mentors have lived this journey. Dr. Nagina Amir brings 20+ years of academic experience and a PhD-level background in the sciences. Areena Amir is an incoming medical student who has successfully navigated every stage of this process. Together, they provide the kind of guidance that is honest, current, and genuinely effective.
Dr. Nagina Amir (PhD, Chemistry) and Areena Amir (BMSc Honors, Incoming Medical Student) lead medical school mentorship at UniTutor. Sessions are tailored to your specific stage and goals.
Book a Mentorship SessionWhen parents and students compare tutoring options, group sessions often appear to offer better value. A few students per tutor, a lower hourly cost, some peer interaction — it sounds reasonable. But the research on learning outcomes, and the practical experience of thousands of students, consistently tells a different story.
In any group of five students studying the same topic, there are likely five different points of confusion. One student does not understand how to set up the equation. Another gets the setup but makes consistent arithmetic errors. A third understands the mechanics but cannot recognize when to apply the technique to an unfamiliar problem.
In a group setting, the tutor has to pace for all five students simultaneously. The student who is confused at step one gets left behind when the tutor moves to step two. The student who already understands the basics sits through explanations they do not need. Neither is learning at their maximum rate.
"The student who moves at the pace of a group almost never moves at their own optimal pace."
Education researcher Benjamin Bloom published a landmark study in 1984 showing that students who received one-on-one tutoring performed, on average, two standard deviations better than those in conventional classroom instruction. That means the average tutored student outperformed 98% of students in a traditional setting.
Bloom called this the "2-sigma problem" — the challenge of achieving one-on-one results at scale. Group tutoring is closer to classroom instruction than to genuine one-on-one work. It narrows the gap somewhat, but it does not close it.
In a one-on-one session, a skilled tutor can do things that are impossible with even two students in the room:
Many students who struggle academically also struggle to ask questions. In a group setting — even a small one — asking a question means admitting you do not understand in front of peers. Many students simply do not ask. They go home still confused, copy someone else's homework, and fall further behind.
In a one-on-one environment, there is no social cost to asking. Students ask the questions they have been too embarrassed to raise for weeks. That single change in environment is often enough to break a cycle of confusion that group settings perpetuate.
One-on-one tutoring costs more per hour. But it is worth comparing the cost relative to outcomes, not relative to the cheaper option. A student who spends six months in group tutoring and improves modestly has spent money and time. A student who spends the same amount of time in effective one-on-one sessions and improves significantly has spent slightly more money — and achieved something that actually changes their grades, their confidence, and often their university options.
The free trial model at UniTutor exists precisely for this reason: you should be able to experience what one-on-one looks like before committing. One session is usually enough for a student to feel the difference.
Ready to try the one-on-one difference? Your first 30-minute session with UniTutor is completely free — no commitment required.
Book Your Free TrialGrade 9 is an adjustment. Grade 10 is consolidation. But Grade 11 is where the stakes get real — and where most students are caught off guard by how quickly the difficulty increases.
Grade 11 is where the courses that universities care most about — Functions (MCR3U), Chemistry (SCH3U), Physics (SPH3U), and Biology (SBI3U) — are encountered for the first time at U-level. And it is where students who coasted through Grades 9 and 10 often get their first serious academic shock.
The jump from Grade 10 to Grade 11 U-level courses is steeper than any previous transition. In Grade 10, most academic courses are either academic or applied stream, with manageable content loads. Grade 11 U-level courses are explicitly designed to prepare students for university-level thinking — which means more abstract reasoning, more multi-step problems, and less hand-holding in how material is presented.
Functions (MCR3U) is the most common shock. Students who did well in Grade 10 Academic Math frequently find that MCR3U involves a fundamentally different type of mathematical thinking — one that requires genuine understanding of how relationships between variables work, not just pattern recognition and formula application.
The courses you complete in Grade 11 determine which Grade 12 courses are available to you. And Grade 12 courses determine university program eligibility. This means a decision made in Grade 11 can close doors that cannot easily be reopened in Grade 12.
Specifically:
The students who do best in Grade 11 share a few consistent habits:
A common pattern: a student gets 68% on the first test in Functions. They tell themselves they will study harder for the next one. They get 64% on the second test. By the third test, they are panicking and the semester is half over.
A single mark below what you expected is not a crisis. Two marks trending downward in a course that builds on itself is a signal that something in your understanding needs to be addressed — not studied harder with the same approach, but understood differently.
One-on-one tutoring during Grade 11 is almost always more effective and less expensive than trying to rescue a Grade 12 average that was damaged by a shaky Grade 11 foundation. Address gaps when they are small.
Struggling with Grade 11 Functions, Chemistry, or Physics? Our tutors specialize in exactly these courses. Start with a free 30-minute session.
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