Sleep well to study well

Sleep also plays a role in test performance, but in two unexpected ways. Review the toughest material right before going to bed the night before the test.

That approach makes it easier to recall the material later, says Dan Taylor, director of a sleep-and-health-research lab at the University of North Texas in Denton.

“And don’t wake up earlier than usual to study; this could interfere with the rapid-eye-movement sleep that aids memory,” he says.

Test yourself

Testing yourself repeatedly before an exam teaches the brain to retrieve and apply knowledge from memory. The method is more effective than re-reading a textbook.

If you are facing a test on the digestive system, practice explaining how it works from start to finish, rather than studying a list of its parts.

The right way

to learnOur brains evolved to learn by doing things, not by hearing about them. This is one of the reasons that, for a lot of skills, it’s much better to spend about two thirds of your time testing yourself on it rather than absorbing it. There’s a rule of two thirds. If you want to, say, memorise a passage, it’s better to spend 30 per cent of your time reading it, and the other 70 per cent of your time testing yourself on that knowledge.

Plan for future and be happy

By making plans for your future you improve your happiness even if you don’t accomplish the goals you set. A study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life showed that the highest spike in happiness occurred, for example, during the planning stage of a vacation as people enjoy the anticipation.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 23rd, 2015