20 Study Hacks To Improve Your Memory

20 Study Hacks to Improve Your Memory Posted on January 24, 2014 by Andrea Leyden We’ve scoured our brains and the internet for the best study hacks to help your brain remember information quicker and easier and ultimately help you do better in your exams. 1. Walk Before An Exam It’s been proven that exercise can boost your memory and brain power. Research conducted by Dr. Chuck Hillman of the University of Illinois provides evidence that about 20 minutes exercise before an exam can improve performance. 2. Speak Out Loud Instead of Simply Reading Although this may make you look a little crazy, give it a go! You will be surprised how much more you can remember when you’ve said it out loud. Warning: Don’t try this in a crowded library! 3. Reward Yourself With A Treat There are many ways to integrate a reward system into your study habits. Here’s a simple way to motivate yourself to study with Gummy Bears: 4. Teach What You Have Learned The best way to test if you really understand something is to try to teach it to someone else. If you can’t get anyone to listen to you explain the Pythagorean Theorem, why not teach a class of stuffed animals! 5. Create Mental Associations The ability to make connections is not only an easier way to remember information, but it’s the fuel of creativity and intelligence. Steve Jobs famously said “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something”.Mind Maps are an easy way to connect ideas by creating a visual overview of different connections. Read more about the benefits of using Mind Maps to learn here. 6. Draw Diagrams Drawing diagrams will help you to visualise information which would be hard to describe. This creates a visual memory in your mind which can be recalled in an exam. You may even be asked to draw or label diagrams such as the human heart in your exam so get practicing! 7. Times New Roman is the Fastest Font to Read Simply put – there’s a reason why Times New Roman is the default font on most applications! 8. Use Apps to Block Distracting Sites The SelfControl app helps you to avoid distractions by blocking websites for a certain amount of time. Discover more student apps to make student life easier in our blog post “12 Student Apps You Don’t Want to Miss!”. 9. Watch a Documentary on the Topic Documentaries are an entertaining way of compacting an entire story into a short timeframe. This will help you remember key details from a story plus you may even get extra credit for mentioning that you took the initiative and watched a film about the topic!Check out the infographic in this blog post which helps you decide which documentary to watch. 10. Search Google Like a Pro Save time when researching sources online by mastering the biggest search engine in the world; Google. Follow the tips in this image to find what you need at your fingertips: 11. Create Flashcards for Quick Memory Buzz Quickly test your knowledge of key concepts, definitions, quotes and formulas with flashcards. Sign up to ExamTime now to create your first Flashcard deck like the one below now! 12. Take Regular Study Breaks When your brain is working, you need to take regular study breaks to help your brain absorb more information but also to keep you motivated and focused when you are working. Take a short break after 45-50 minutes study as your focus and concentration will become impaired after this period, anything new after 1 hour 30 minutes does not get assimilated. 13. Listen to the Correct Type of Music In our blog post “Music for Studying: 10 Tips to Pick the Best Study Music” we looked into the area of how the correct types of music can lead to more productive studying by elevating your mood. Have you made your Mozart Spotify playlist yet? 14. Make Your Study Space Portable We may be creatures of habit with favourite seats in the library but information retention actually improves when you vary the places where you study. Check out this Buzzfeed video for more study hacks: 15. Practice, Practice, Practice… Practicing sample answers to past exam questions can help train your brain to retrieve information. Create realistic, exam-like condition and test your understanding by using our new Quiz tool. Try our general Knowledge Quiz below: 16. Don’t Stay Up All Night Before an Exam Make sure to get adequate rest the nights leading up to your exams. When you sleep, your brain assimilates the information you have learned when studying so getting a good night’s sleep will help you remember those pesky maths formulas you need for your exam!Don’t make this your sleep schedule: 17. Discover News Ways to Learn Trying new methods of studying can help you find what really works for you. Use technology to your advantage by watching educational TED Talks or downloading useful dictionary apps for example. Read more about the benefits of using technology to study. 18. Use Scents or Gum to Jog Your Memory This may seem a bit random but spraying an unfamiliar scent while you’re studying can help jog your memory when you spray it again just before an exam. Chewing a strange kind of gum will work the same way. 19. Study in a Group Studying in a group can help you collect new insights to enhance your learning experience. The ExamTime Groups tool is an innovative spin on the traditional study group formula. Our Groups tool helps you share resources, discuss ideas and interact with members of your team or group project. Sign up here to get started! 20. Meditate Studies say that meditation can help students stay focused when studying. Not only will meditation help you concentrate when studying but it will help reduce pre-exam stress as it improves both mental and physical health.Check out this Meditation Education infographic on Edutopia which details the educational benefits of meditating: Our final piece of advice for those of you sitting exams is to stay positive. It’s amazing how a positive attitude can impact on your exam results or motivate you to complete that assignment when all you want to do is go to bed!Got any other study hacks? Let us know if any other study hacks have worked for you in the comments section below.

12 Apps For Students You Don’t Want to Miss! Posted on September 24, 2013 by patrick Today, thanks to new technology, student life is much easier as there are hundreds of apps for students that help you cope with everyday tasks. Thus, when using them, students can focus more on their studies.Here we bring you a selection of 12 of the best apps for students which will help you cut through the clutter and see which apps are the best for students and studying! This list includes Android and Apple iOS apps and most importantly almost all are free!  12 Apps for Students   App #1: SelfControl Imagine you are studying, you sit at your desk and start to create a mind map to organize your ideas. When you’ve just created your first node on your Mind Map, you get a notification on Facebook. It’s almost impossible to ignore! So you check it out and waste another few minutes instead of studying!To avoid distractions like this, SelfControl allows you to block certain websites for a set amount of time. This enables you to concentrate fully on your studies and avoid sporadically checking social networks or your email. Best of all is that once you put these blocks in place, it’s impossible for you to access them until the time you’ve previously specified runs out. You can’t just flick a switch and check them. Even if you get desperate and delete the application, you won’t be able to access them before the time you specified. Happy studying!     App#2: Maths Alarm Clock Maths Alarm Clock is another tool for self-control. This time, however, for your dreams! If you are a student who suffers from continuously hitting the snooze button in the morning, then this is the app for you. Maths Alarm Clock makes you solve a simple math problem in order to turn your alarm off.The benefits of this are twofold:1. No more snoozing and being late for class2. Having to solve a math problem in the morning gets your brain working quicker. This puts you in a better position when it comes to learning throughout the day     App #3: Sleep If U Can If mathematical problems are not enough to get you out of bed, we bring you an even more extreme solution. With Sleep If U Can, you’ll have to get out of bed and take a picture of your sink (or any other area you define) to turn off the alarm!Watch this video to see how Sleep If U Can will make you get out of your bed:     App #4: The Oxford Dictionary Your lecturer smugly says a word they assume you all know the meaning of. You don’t. That is why the Oxford Dictionary app is a must for students, no matter what subject you are studying. If you can’t find a word in there then your lecturer is making them up…which happens quite often actually.          App #5: Babylon Finding a good app to help you learn a new language can be hard. This app is a serious contender though. Babylon is an excellent online translator for more than 75 languages. Using this app you can solve any problems you are having with key vocabulary for your exams. Check out our Flashcard tool which is perfect for keeping track of all the vocabulary you need to know to master a new language.         App #6: RealCalc Scientific Calculator Have you left your calculator at home? How can you solve all those tricky equations and cube roots now? RealCalc Scientific Calculator is the answer. This app is perfect for students who need all the functionality of a scientific calculator. This student app is ideal for mathematical or scientific problems so if this is your area, then this is the app for you!     App #7: JumpCut Yes, we know that you use the copy and paste buttons more than you should when writing class essays. Still, we all know that this can save a whole bunch of time. Simply tweak the text a little, add some of your own work and the job is done! If this modus operandi sounds familiar to you then JumpCut will save you a lot of time! Jumpcat gives you access to text you’ve copied and pasted before, even if you copied new text to your clipboard since then. This is a handy time saver and is ideal for students with a looming deadline!     App #8: TED The people we surround ourselves with have a great influence on how we think and behave. So why not surround yourself with some of the world’s most fascinating people? Educators, radical technology geniuses, medical mavericks, business experts and legends of music, TED has it all. Enjoy the best conferences in the world with this educational app that will open your mind.         App #9: Sworkit Classes and study occupy most of a student’s day so it may be the case that you’re neglecting exercise. Sworkit allows you to create training plans in 5 minutes. So now you have no excuse for your lack of exercise, five minutes is all you need!         App #10: Circle of 6 Safety is important. No one should ever have to alter the lifestyle they want to lead because they fear for their safety. There are some simple things you can do that can go a long way to ensuring you’re safety. If you’re coming home alone or walking around campus, the Circle of 6 app will make you feel safer. Circle of 6 does this by continuously connecting you with 6 contacts of your choice. The app has a default message ready to be sent along with your location at any time. It’s direct, fast and secure. Hopefully, you will never have to use it but there might be a time when it could keep you safe!         App #11: Angry words A classic. This app has become one of the most popular apps worldwide. Angry words is a multi-player Scrabble-type game that allows you to exercise your mind while having a good time. This app is a great way to kill time when you’re waiting for your bus (or you could check your study notes on ExamTime!).         App #12: ExamTime We saved the most important for last! Throughout this list of apps for students we’ve talked about apps for self-control, translating and learning languages, exercise, and play…but what about studying?ExamTime allows you to create online Mind Maps, Flashcards, Online Notes and Quizzes. All of these online study tools are designed to help you improve your learning and prepare for exams. Never before has it been easier to create your online study resources and share them with your classmates. Plus all your notes are stored in one place.ExamTime also has a whole bunch of other tools such Study Groups, Private Messaging, Online Calendar and Study Planner. If you’ve not tried it yet, what are you waiting for? ExamTime is a web-app, that means you can access it via the browser on your phone or mobile device. It is optimized for all types of touch devices and easy and quick to you. There is no excuse for not using the best technology available when it comes to you studies!

20 Study Hacks To Improve Your Memory

12 Apps For Students