Honestly, aren't you tired of the saying, "All you have to do is work hard"?

However, I proved the terrifying power of that cliché.

I am sharing the 'ruthless' strategy I employed to get into Korea's top prestigious university, having graduated from a rural elementary school and received a disastrous report card of 48 points in math in the cram school district of a big city.

1. A Boy from the Backwoods Hits the Wall of 'Gangnam Level'

The elementary school I attended was like a rural branch school with only a few students in total.

Having never even seen a cram school, let alone participated in after-school activities, I took my first math level test before entering middle school. The result was 48 points.

At the time, the class average was 80 points, and the top student scored 98 points.

That is when I realized: "I wasn't a frog in a well; I was trapped in a dry well."

2. The Terrifying Power of 'Immersion': A Short-Term Rampage of 3 Months

Chewing on my sense of defeat, I harbored a fierce determination.

For the next three months, I clung solely to mathematics until 1 AM every day.

I solved 4 to 5 sets of past exam questions a day. The truth of life I gained then is this:

"Dabbling in various subjects half-heartedly is not studying.

Only 'overwhelming immersion,' where you finish one thing to the very end, changes the game."

If you are weak in a specific subject, do not disperse your energy.

You need the experience of focusing on one thing to produce 'real results.'

3. "Don't memorize the solution process, draw a blueprint."

You've probably had the experience where you felt like you knew everything during academy class, but couldn't solve the problem once you got home, right?

That is because you only looked at the answer key without knowing the 'solution algorithm.'

To fix this habit, I focused on two things.

The Power of "Shepherd": It may look ignorant, but I pushed through with sheer volume until I 'internalized' various types.

Reconstructing Incorrect Answers: Instead of simply correcting what was wrong, I pondered, "Why did this question setter use this concept?" and summarized the logic of the solution into a single sentence.

4. Strategic Abandonment: "The good student who does all the homework fails."

When I entered high school, the amount of homework was brutal.

I was practically illiterate when it came to memorization subjects like Social Studies or Korean History.

At that time, my father called the school teacher directly and said, "Please understand if my child cannot complete all the homework, as he will focus only on studying the areas where he is lacking."

While everyone else was trying to get a perfect score, I started by filling in the gaps in my knowledge.

I focused on studying to enrich myself, not studying to show off to others.

5. Vacation is not a 'day to play' but a 'day to launder one'

I admitted that my intelligence was average. So, I designated the school holidays, when everyone else was resting, as my 'golden time.' Even on family trips, I played hard during the day, but when I returned to the accommodation, I stayed up all night solving workbooks. Those grueling summers and winters combined to transform math and physics, which used to be my weaknesses, into my top strategic subjects.