Padhega To Badhega: Improving memory for exam

Memorizing all day and not able to recall same when it is most needed, would be the last thing you would want happening to you. It is very important for us humans and specially students to have a memory of grandmaster to excel in our lives. We are here with 10 simple yet strong tips to help you improve your memory and trick your brain to memorize more and recall information quickly.

Do Some Exercise

Our brain is like a machine, the better maintenance we do, the less wear and tear we see. For the well functional brain and better maintenance of the machinery, it is very important to exercise. Studies have revealed that a 20mins exercise can dramatically improve your brain power and memory. You know now, the best thing to do before your examination start – walk atleast 20mins and you’ll see improvement in your performance.

Have Proper Sleep on the Night Before Exams

Sleeping is very important for your brain functionalities. For a better memory, it is highly advisable to atleast take a power nap of 40-45mins. The nap offers enough time for the brain to assimilate all the learning and move it to brain’s long-term memory storage – hippocampus. Sleeping also improves retrieval of information stored in your brain and thus you don’t have to put that extra effort to recall the difficult-to-remember history dates or irky mathematics formulae

Take Regular Breaks

Taking short breaks during your study hours is always advisable – it helps you concentrate and retain the learning for a longer time. While we say take breaks, we literally mean breaks and not distraction. SMSs, emails, and checking your social accounts are complete distraction. Instead, we would suggest you to lie down, listen to your favorite music and relax for a while.

Read Aloud to Yourself

What we have learned from our elders is to read and doing it again and again is the key to memorize something. We just want to add our five cents – reading out aloud to yourself fetches you far great results than just reading it repeatedly. When we read, we use only visual pathway to make the memory, but when we read aloud, we add the auditory pathway as well. Thus, reading aloud has reinforced pathways to our memory and help us retain the learning for a longer duration.

Practice & Practice Some More

Try solving as many problems you can before exams and don’t forget to keep a tap on your timings – this prepares your brain to search for relevant information & retrieve them in no time when needed. Try solving previous year question papers and create exam-like situations – This will help your brain to understand your abilities to respond to the stress and retrieve the information quickly.

Use Flashcards to Aid Your Memory

Flashcards are small cards with information to be memorized written on them. These cards are especially useful in memorizing names, dates, definitions, equations, formulas and vocabulary words. Flashcards work on improving your memory via quick and regular review of the information shared on them.

Create Mental Maps and Brain Dumps

A mental map is a visual representation of all the thoughts related to a main idea, preferably drawn by hands for organizing and understanding information. This works very well in enhancing your memory as the idea to be memorized is correlated to various well-memorized stuffs, it includes thorough understanding of the concepts, involves creativity and has visual pathway to your memory. Mental maps make it easier for your brain to create connections between the information and recall it quickly.

Teach What You Have Learned

When you try to teach what you have learned, you need thorough understanding of the concepts, when you understand something thoroughly, it becomes easy for your brain to recall it. Teaching is thus considered as one of the best tools for cementing our learning and memory.

Revise for Better Output

Re-reading the concepts just a couple of hours before you head for the examinations, recapitulate it and helps your brain retrieve it from the hippocampus. This re-reading is also stored afresh in your brain’s prefrontal cortex and makes it easier to recall during the examination.

Meditate

Practicing meditation has been called the best way to de-stress and concentrate. Studies have also found that meditation changes the functions and physical structures of your brain positively – it helps in increasing the attention span, improved memory and sharpen the focus.

We know it for sure, these 10 tips, when followed religiously, will help you overcome the concerns with bad memory, forgetfulness and lack of attention and will give you a Grandmaster`s Memory.