To get through a set amount of information, knowing that you are going to be tested on it, is not a fun way to spend time. However, by improving your speed reading skills you will find that you can get through text quicker while maintaining the same level of comprehension – or better!

It is a common misconception that fast reading leads to lower concentration levels and retention of information. In fact, it is the opposite that is true – by reading slowly, you encourage your brain to slow down and comprehend less. It has been proven that the faster we read, the higher the motivation of the reader; words seem more important as they pass by, and our brains donate more resources to concentration. Every reader already uses one speed reading skill or another to different degrees. The brain wants to get through information quickly – the way we’ve been taught to read each syllable at a time slows us down. Once you have learnt and mastered the following skills, you’ll find that reading faster feels even more natural than how you’ve been doing it your whole life!

The first step is to calculate your current reading speed. Select a book, preferably one you’ve not read before. Set a timer for two minutes and begin reading. Don’t try to read quickly, just go at your normal pace. Once the timer sounds, mark your beginning and end points, then count how many words are found on a single given line. Multiple this by however many lines you have read, and divide by two to get the total of words you read per minute. Set this number aside for later comparison. For reference, the average reader takes in 200 – 240 words per minute. Let’s see if we can improve that!

1. Get Friendly With Your Text

Flick through the text you’ll be studying and get accustomed to its layout, colors, font size, and paragraphing. Stop every now and then to read a few lines that interest you, and pay attention to any diagrams. This prepares your brain for study, and spikes your interest in the material, even if you’ve read the text before.

2. Skimming

Regular users of the Internet have naturally improved their skimming abilities, and instinctively flick their eyes over large amounts of information to scan for relevant or interesting content. This skill can be applied to study texts and is the first step in Speed Reading.

Before you begin, identify what it is you want to learn from the text. Then glance over the pages and look for it. By allowing yourself to skim content, you will generally be reading headings, subheadings, the first lines of each paragraph, and the bottom of the page. This is ideal, as these places are where the more useful information is generally found, compacted into easily understood statements. Once you’ve identified where the answers to your questions might be, skim over those areas in greater detail!

This method results in better retention, as the brain isn’t overloaded with useless facts or boredom. Connections are quickly made between new information and known information, which activates the memory banks and makes recall quicker in the future.

3. Following

When reading, the eye does not move in a straight line across the page. It takes jumps, wanders around, and regularly stops on words or phrases that the brain considers “difficult”. An average person spends 30% of reading time backtracking and re-reading words, or even entire lines. This does not increase comprehension, but wastes a good deal of time.

Meta Guiding is an easy way to quickly improve your reading speed. This is a process of placing the tip of a pen or finger on the page or screen and following along with the eyes. You will stop backtracking, stay focused, and subliminally tell your brain that this information is so important that it must remember it.

After a lifetime of slowing down and re-reading statements in an effort to comprehend them more, it may feel counter-intuitive to refuse to do so. Don’t worry – you can trust your brain to pick up on these signals! After you’ve read through the relevant text, assess how many of your answers to your original questions you have found – you’ll be surprised how much you learnt, reading so fast!

4. Silent Mind

Instead of reading each letter and syllable of each word, most adult readers take an impression of the word, quickly sound it out, and affix a meaning to it. This mostly happens automatically, but still takes longer than needs be.

By skimming large chunks of text and using Meta Guiding, the brain doesn’t have time to sound out every single word. Instead, it skips the middle step and goes straight from the impression through to the meaning. This does not reduce comprehension – in fact, the meaning of a passage of text is more deeply understood and readily recalled in the future.

Encourage your mind to remain silent while you speed read by studying in quiet, comfortable setting, sitting up straight, in good light. If your mind wants something to do, remind it of what answers you’re looking for in the text you’re reading.

5. Test!

Once you have been practicing speed reading for a week, test yourself again and see how many words per minute you can comprehend After only one week, you could be reading over double the amount in half the time!

Retaining information given in lectures is an essential part of improving grades. It’s also one of the hardest things to do! Studies have shown that, on average, students can only recall 30% of the information presented. Don’t be disheartened – by learning how to keep both hemispheres of your brain engaged and repeating information at key times after the lecture, your retention and recall of essential information can remain at 100%!

Engage Your Brain

First, understand that lectures can be boring. When the brain is bored, you aren’t really listening. However, there are ways to activate the brain and keep it interested in what is being said without over-concentrating and burning yourself out.

1. Enter a lecture with questions in mind : What is it you already know about the subject, and what do you want to learn about it? Before the lecture starts, write down these questions and outline your expectations. This will prepare your brain to concentrate, prick your ears for relevant answers, and associate new information with what you already know, thus beginning the process of long-term memory storage.

2. Resist Distractions : Alternatively, this could be called “keeping yourself engaged”. This doesn’t mean listening intently to every syllable the lecturer utters, but it is important to keep your brain engaged on the subject. If you find yourself drifting, take more notes or draw an illustration of what is being said and how it associates with what you already know. This appeals to both hemispheres of your brain which will keep you alert.

Notes & Cues

It is important to take lecture notes that you can study on. Following a simplified version of the Cornell Note method can greatly improve the quality of the your notes and ability to study off them before exams.

Divide your pages into three sections: a narrow column for Cues on the left, and the rest of the page for Notes on the right, and a section at the bottom for Summary that takes up ¼ of the page, spanning across both columns.

ñ  During the lecture, write into the Notes section. Use short sentences, bullet points, short hand, and abbreviation. Leave plenty of space between main points to fill in later.

ñ  Shortly after the lecture, review your notes and fill in the Cues section. This is where you’ll want to put any questions, connecting points about the information, and things to jog your memory.

ñ  During this review, write a Summary or outline of all of the information on that page. The summary should be only two or three sentences long, and any key words should be printed in bold or a different color. This will make it easy to skim your information when studying later.

Repetition & Recall

It’s a commonly known fact that recall of information dramatically decreases five days after a lecture. However, most people aren’t aware that recall actually increases shortly after it has been learned. This is when your mind compiles the information you just gained and combines it with all of the stuff you already knew, thereby making it easier to associate and recall at will. To improve your retention of lecture information, it is absolutely essential to take advantage of this increase in recall by reviewing what was taught at key moments.

New information is initially held in the short term memory banks of the brain. This is not a safe place for it to be. Short term memory is routinely wiped out to make room for new stimulus. The only place that useful information can go is to the long term memory, and the best way to keep in there is through repetition. This can be done by reading lecture notes and filling in the “Cues” as described above, expanding on them, using flash-cards, talking to others about the information, or a combination of these methods.

By using repetition at key moments of increased recall, your mind will assign your lecture information to long-term memory and keep it there. The best times to study your lecture notes are shortly after you’ve taken them, one day later, one week after that, and then one month after you attended the lecture. From then on, check in with your information every three to six months to remind your brain to keep it in storage!

Tests bring out the anxiety in the calmest of students. Pre-exam jitters, last-minute cramming, blanking out, and epically failing are all legitimate fears to have. However, by using these simple techniques, you can approach any test feeling well-prepared and confident – exactly the mood your brain needs in order to quickly recall information!

Time Line
First, know what you need to know. When is the test? Get as much information from lecturers and past students as you can about the test content and what text books to study. Find out the format of the test – is it true/false, essay-style, or multiple choice? Some teachers may even provide you with last year’s exam, or a sample version, to give you an idea of what you’ll be tested on. It’s essential to know what to focus your attention on, lest you get caught up in studying too much of the wrong stuff!

Once you know what to study, it’s important to outline a regular schedule in which to do the study. This will stop you from procrastinating and then cramming. Make sure you set aside a good amount of time to go over the material on a regular basis. Memory recall depends on two main things: regular repetition, and association. Repetition can be done in the form of re-reading and analyzing study notes and text books, using flash cards, or talking with a study partner about the information you’ve learned. To commit information to long-term memory and keep recall at 100%, it’s essential to do repetition directly after the information is first learned, then at least one week, and then one month after.

Associations & Mind Maps
Traditional learning techniques imply that to remember information, all you have to do is go over it again, and again, and again. This certainly pleases the left hemisphere of the brain. However, in order to activate your entire brain and boost memory recall, you need to employ the right hemisphere, too. Associating the information with the senses (taste, sight, sound and smell), imagination, color, humor, and creativity are all essential to quick recall during tests. There are many ways to apply these techniques:

1. Mind Maps: a colorful, hand-drawn illustration that ‘maps’ all of the things you associate
with a central subject and how they are linked to one-another. It can be as simple or as
complex as you like.

2. Word Games: Rhymes, rhythm, mnemonics, acronyms, exaggeration and number-rhymes (where “one” is “bun”, three is “tree”, etc). These are excellent ways to keep information in short-term memory for a couple of days, which is what you’ll be accessing during exams.

3. Really Think About It: Rather than just taking in the information presented to you, take time out from reading and think about how the information relates to everything else you know.

Prepare Your Body

By staying calm, healthy, and happy, you’ll approach the test with an advantage.  Do not spend the days leading up to study by cramming! Not only will this distort the information you already know, it will stress you out. Stress hormones reduce the effectiveness of memory, so you’ll be doing more harm than good. Continue with your regular study schedule, but allow extra time to go over the material specific to the test.

Eat regular, healthy meals to keep your whole body stress-free and functioning at its best. Try to maintain a healthy diet that includes lots of “brain food” in the form of amino acids (the building blocks of protein), Omega-3 (a fatty acid that is essential for building brain cells), and plenty of fresh vegetables. Drinking herbal teas such as ginkgo biloba can increase memory, but should be taken regularly and not as a last-minute resort!
Get good rest during the week leading up to the test, and be sure to be in bed by 10pm. Your brain uses the night time to assimilate information, create neural pathways, and associate memories – all the things you need to improve your test scores. It can’t do all this if you aren’t asleep!

Directly before the test, try doing some breathing exercises. As cliché as it sounds, taking 10 deep breathes causes your brain to release calming chemicals, quickly turning an otherwise stressful situation into a pleasant one. The more positive the test experience is, the better you’ll do!

As you probably know, your brain is made of two main parts – the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere. Each person is predominately ruled by one side or the other, at different times in their lives. Most of the western world is left-brained – focused on logic, attention to detail, verbal reasoning, and mathematics. Right-brainers are intuitive, creative, with a gift for the arts.

Everybody has a mix of both, but finding out where your predominant brain activity lies can
help you to achieve better grades. The memory is also divided between these two hemispheres. Short-term memory lives in the left-hemisphere, while long-term memory (the most useful type for students) is stored in the right. The problem is that most schools and methods of learning cater towards left-brain oriented people by teaching with repitition, black and white distinctions between facts, and verbally delivered information, making it very difficult for students to move this information into the long-term memory of the right brain.

Right or Left?
There are plenty of online tests to determine which side of your brain is most active, but you probably don’t even need to take one. If you’re a creative type who enjoys art, writing, singing, fashion, expressing yourself , then it’s safe to assume that the right hemisphere is your more dominant side. If you would rather take mathematics, write lists, keep a neat house, and learn things in sequential order, then your left brain hemisphere is more active. If you are a combination of both, then your hemispheres are probably quite balanced, but you can still boost your grades by learning how to stimulate both sides.

Right-brain oriented people are generally drawn to activities and exercises that stimulate the right brain, and visa versa for the left-brain oriented. Not all subjects of your study are going to cater for your predominant side. However, by activating both sides of the cerebral cortex, you can boost your memory and recall power, thereby improving your test scores, no matter what you’re studying!

By employing learning methods that satisfy your dominant hemisphere, you will stay engaged with the subject you’re studying. Adding methods that stimulate the other side will increase your learning and recall, and make it easy for your brain to move information from short-term memory of the left-hemisphere, to the long-term memory of the right, and back again. The key is to have a healthy mix.

Learning Methods
If you’re predominantly left-brained, you will find it easier to remember steps and sequences, and recall verbal information without having to “picture” it in your head. Right-brained students require visual stimulation in order to remember things. Emotion, color and illustrations are needed to appease the right brain – by attributing something more “holistic” to the information learnt, the right brain will make it easy to recall later.

You can harness the powers of your right brain to help you succeed in tests. While studying, listen to a particular piece of music (classical pieces are good) and smell your favorite essential oil.  Before you sit your test, stimulate your right brain by listening to the same piece of music, and wear the essential oil. Your senses will activate your subconscious and you’ll easily recall information you studied.

Left brainers are better off hearing information than having to read it. By attending lectures and even recording your notes and playing them back, you will quickly store the facts in your short-term memory. To push them to your long-term, revisit the information a week after you’ve learnt it and make as many right-brain associations as you can. This can be in the form of music, word games, mnemonics, illustration, emotional connections, or sense association.

Mind maps are a fantastic way of stimulating both the left and right hemispheres. They are self-drawn illustrations that map out everything you know about a central subject, and how all of the points relate to one another. By using color and drawing to create an organised map, you will be using both sides of your brain at once, helping your mind to form connections between information that it will be able to quickly recall.

Use The Whole Brain
It’s a good idea to practice using both hemispheres of your brain in daily life. This will improve the relationship between the two sides and help you feel “refreshed” between study sessions. There are plenty of fun activities that use both the left brain and the right brain. Juggling, for example, is first learned by breaking down the process into steps, which pleases the left brain. Once the basics have been mastered, intuition, movement, and reflex come into play, which are all ruled by the right brain. The act of juggling activates both hemispheres and strengthens the connections between them – a great trick to do before a test!

Intelligence is not just based on genetics. Like all parts of the human body, the more you exercise the brain, the stronger it becomes. You can improve your intelligence by undertaking regular mental exercises that are designed to boost your brain power. These activities will help to build new neural pathways, leading you to quicker thinking, greater logic, and the ability to solve complex problems and understand abstract ideas.

There are simple, day to day routines you can employ to boost your brain power and keep your mind alert and focused. For example, wear your watch on the opposite wrist – once it becomes habit to check it there, switch it again.  Something silly like walking through your house while wearing a blindfold can be a fun, quick way of stimulating unused parts of your brain. Adding some of these brain-stimulating hobbies to your day will quickly boost your intelligence:

Sudoku is a Japanese number puzzle that has recently become very popular in the West and is now found in most major newspapers worldwide. The game exercises the puzzlers’ patience, pattern recognition, logic, and the ability to reflect on incorrect answers. Studies have shown that working on a Sudoku puzzle fires nerves in the brain that aren’t often triggered. This results in a slowing of the aging process and can help to maintain or improve intelligence!

While sitting on the couch and watching sport on television is a mildly good way to keep the brain active, the best thing you can do is get up, get out, and play it! Participating in a team sport is a great way to get your heart-rate up while using strategy and logic. The increased circulation will feed more oxygen to your brain, which is essential in creating and maintaining brain cells. The benefits of team sports such as social interaction, adrenaline, and stress-relief, all improve cognitive ability and logical thinking.

For those are better at one-on-one activities, chess is a perfect way to flex your logic muscles. Computerized chess players are fine but for the maximum benefit to your intelligence, try to play with a fellow human. You’ll exercise your intuition and learn to pick up on body language, too.

Additionally, logic games such as riddles and thought experiments are a fun way to challenge your creative thinking (despite their name, they require quite a bit of effort from the left hemisphere of your brain)! To take it further, research more “abstract” concepts like philosophy and get your brain stuck into the meaning of life. The most important thing is to keep your learning curve high. The moment something becomes a dull, unchallenged routine, it’s time to move on to something new!

Strangely, the silencing of the mind experienced in meditation can actually improve reasoning and logical thinking. Studies have shown that those who take up daily meditation benefit from at least a few points of increased intelligence after a month, and even more in the long-run. To begin meditation, find a quiet, private spot where you can sit and lay down comfortably (don’t do it in bed, or you’ll probably fall asleep!). Begin by becoming aware of your body and how it feels. Start to focus on your breath and count each inhalation and exhalation up to 9. Begin again at 1. It’s harder than it sounds! As well as being relaxing and a great stress reliever, meditation is the ultimate workout in concentration, focus, and patience.

We all know that exercise boosts endorphins and reduces stress, but did you know that it can improve your test scores? By getting regular, physical activity, your brain will be more alert while you study, thereby boosting memory, learning, and recall.

Many scientific studies throughout the world have shown that an increase in vigorous exercise can lead to an increase in grades. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind, and a healthy mind will more readily store and recall information. Like all organs of the body, the brain needs oxygen to function.  By engaging in regular aerobic exercise, you will be boosting the flow of blood to your brain, thereby increasing the amount of oxygen it receives. This improves your cognition and general productivity, which will show in the results of your studies.

The stress-reducing and mood-boosting effects of exercise also help students to retain more information during lectures. By feeling alert and not overwhelmed, students find it easier to pay attention, take better notes, and don’t suffer from distraction as often as those who don’t exercise.

When it comes to choosing what type of exercise to do for your studies, simply pick one that seems fun. Most empirical studies on the subject have been conducted using aerobic exercise, such as jogging. In particular, running has been shown to greatly stimulate neurogenesis – the process by which new brain cells are created. Team sports are particularly effective at boosting study skills -  not only will you enjoy the benefits of aerobic exercise, but your mind will be exercised with strategy and social interaction. No matter what style of sport or exercise you choose, make sure it’s something you’ll enjoy doing on a regular basis – consistency is key.

As well as a blood-pumping work out, it’s important to engage in activity that is a little less fast-paced. The cortisol released during intense exercise can add to general study stress if it isn’t combined with stretching and relaxing. In order to keep yourself calm and in balance, try to attend a yoga class at least once a week. By improving your flexibility, you’ll find yourself able to sit comfortably for longer, thereby lengthening how long you can study for without distraction. Yoga has also been shown in scientific studies to improve mood, clarity of mind, and memory!

There are many other biological advantages that exercise gives the brain that we are just beginning to understand. Another interesting fact is that regular exercise improves eye health. Those with healthy eyes find study easier and it takes them longer to grow tired.

Additionally, listening to music during your work-out can give you an extra study advantage. According to a recent study, those who listen to music while exercising experience a mental boost. When listening to any piece of music, the frontal lobe of the brain is activated – this is the place where higher mental function occurs. Try exercising with your headphones before study or a test, and see how much your concentration improves.

As well as regular, organised work-out sessions, try to include exercise in your daily schedule. Make it a habit to get up from your studies and go for a quick jog . This is the perfect way to reset your brain and give it a chance to commit what you learnt to memory. When you return to your work, you’ll find yourself feel fresh, alert, and full of endorphins – a perfect mood to study in.

Test anxiety can take hold of even the most well-prepared students. However, there are plenty of ways to combat exam stress and improve your grades. Keep calm and follow these simple steps:

Recognize Your Anxiety

A lot of the time, students are so wrapped up in study and focused on getting through the test that they don’t recognise the stress they’re feeling. Ignoring it won’t make it go away – in fact, left unchecked, stress affects memory and could make you “blank out” during the test. Be aware of your moods and how impending exams effect them. Everyone’s experience of anxiety is different. You might feel it as anger, annoyance and frustration, or a need to be quiet, to shut down, to sleep deeply. You may find yourself thinking negatively about yourself or your “inevitable” grades, or find yourself avoiding study and procrastinating.

It’s important to identify why you’re stressed. Most likely, it’s because you feel unprepared for the test. You may have put a lot of expectation on yourself to perform well, or perceive that others have put this expectation on you. Once you recognize what belief you’re holding onto, you can start to use positive self-talk to unravel its hold.

Be Prepared

As soon as you are notified that there is going to be a test, begin studying. Do your absolute best to prepare well in advance and try your hardest to avoid cramming – not only does it not work, but the very act of cramming will boost stress hormones, which leads to worse anxiety. If this ship has already sailed, don’t worry – there are still things you can do to feel confident walking into your test.

Study the essentials first. Once you have the basics completely understood, move onto the more specific aspects of the subject. This will help you build up momentum and keep you confident as you study.

Self tests are an effective tool to assessing just how prepared you are. Some teachers may provide you with the previous year’s test as an example of the types of questions found on the exam. Alternatively, you can draw up your own test using the information you know. Use flash cards, or get a study buddy to quiz you. Find out what parts of your subject you aren’t familiar with and focus on filling in those blanks!

Reduce Your Stress

Studies are important, but so is your well-being. Your grades will improve if you approach your exams with a balanced, calm mind. It may be new, but it’s not difficult to learn how to deal with your stress and how to relax. By using a combination of organisational mind maps and lists (to activate and relax the left brain), and creative outlets like singing, sport, and drawing (to calm down the right brain), you will keep your whole mind calm and steady.

Take a break. There is such a thing as too much study. Give your brain time to assimilate the information you’ve taught it. Try not to watch stressful, scary movies – do something that will calm your whole system. If you feel you have too much nervous energy to enjoy a relaxing walking in nature, then run! Exercise is a great stress-reliever and it boosts your memory.  Studies indicate that we take in the most information when we are studying in blocks.  Researchers recommend studying in 50 minute blocks followed by a 10 minute break.

Aromatherapy has been shown to be very useful for students who are stressed. Rosemary and peppermint are great study aides as they activate beta brain rhythms which boost memory, energy, and recall. Lavender is a traditional calming scent that can help fight test anxiety. There’s evidence that test scores can be boosted by using an essential oil during study and then sniffing it on a handkerchief during the exam!

Stay Calm During The Test

Momentum is important. By reading the test before you begin, you will familiarize yourself with what is expected – this will start working on a subconscious level and set the gears of memory in motion.

Boost your confidence by first answering the questions you’re certain of. Not only will this continue to build your momentum, but it will get your brain working on the right order and not stuck wrestling with something it can’t quite remember.

If you feel yourself starting to stress out or freeze up, allow yourself a short break. Put down your pencil, look away from the test, and practice deep breathing. Imagine yourself in your usual study space, or somewhere comfortable. Use positive thinking to lift your spirits (eg. “I am smart, I can do this!” or “I prepared for this and I can do my best!”), and begin again.

There’s no avoiding it. Throughout your education, you will have to sit exams and undertake tests. For most students, an impending test can cause anxiety, procrastination, last-minute cramming, and the poor test scores that come as a result. Proper study preparation can ease the anxiety and procrastination, but cramming can be a hard habit to break.

The first step is to accept the obvious: cramming doesn’t work. Last-minute revision is fine, but trying to learn the entire text book the night before a test will lead to (almost certain failure) certain failure and almost zero percent retention after the test. You might scrape by with a passing grade when you could have excelled had you studied properly. Why doesn’t cramming work?

When we learn information, it is first stored in our short-term memory bank. This is a place that is active when we are “working” – it’s where the brain stores information it believes you will need to know in the immediate future. Small snippits of facts and figured can be stored here for a very short period of time. After that, they are completely dismissed. It’s essential to step in and stop the “deletion” of information from the “working” memory by moving them into a more secure location – long term memory. This is where A+ students store what they have learned.

By cramming, you are filling up your short term memory. The more you fill it, the more information will be deleted. There is no way of holding an entire subject’s worth of study in your short-term memory. Long-term memory has a much greater capacity, and an even faster recall rate. Not only does cramming fail to store facts in long-term memory, but it runs the risk of confusing the brain and “over-riding” important information you’ve already learned.

All-nighters go hand-in-hand with cramming, and it’s this sleep deprivation that causes memory loss, stress, and brain-fog that can severly ruin your test scores. During restful sleep at night, your brain processes the information you have recently taken in and builds new neuro-pathways to associate it with content already stored in your memory. It’s this process that you need in order to store things in long-term memory!

To avoid the “need” for cramming and the dreaded all-nighters, set yourself a regular study schedule. As soon as you learn that there is going to be a test, start preparing yourself (even if the teacher or lecturer doesn’t tell you to do so directly!). Find out what is going to be in the test, how and how long you’ve got until. To lock information into your long-term memory, spend around 30 minutes a day going over the course content. By the time the test arrives, you will have mastered the information and have no need to cram!

The amount of time you should spend on content the night before a test is three hours at the most. Even if you have properly studied leading up to this point, you may still feel stressed and unprepared. Don’t panic. Use self-talk to boost your confidence and allay your fears. Saying statements like, “I have prepared for this test, and I’m going to do well!” can help to ease anxiety and remind you to keep things in perspective. Resist the temptation for a final cramming session by distracting yourself with a movie or dinner with friends!