How To Accelerate Your Learning And Become An A+ Student

How To Study And Improve Learning

The cognitive techniques described below provide a study plan based on evidence, not myth. Follow this plan and you will improve your study skills, increase your memory and perform better in school and university.

1. Study In Multiple Locations. The brain makes associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time of study. Study at home, in the library, at school. Multiple associations give more neural scaffolding and this boosts memory.

2. Focus On More Than One Topic At A Time. Mix and match your studies, if you narrow your focus of study too much, you will not develop the mental hooks that the brain needs to solve problems.

3. Tests Are Good For Learning. Tests are great learning tools. Libraries, teachers or professors often have copies of past tests in a subject. Find these tests and practice on them. Make sure they are directly related to what you are studying.

4. Explain Difficult Concepts To Yourself Or Someone Else. Explain what you are studying to yourself by writing a summary, or explain it to a fellow student, or simply ask for help. You will find that when you frame your question you will often see the answer.

5. Study Solved Problems. Students completed a three year mathematics course in 2 years by emphasizing worked examples rather than conventional instruction. Use Schaum's Outlines.

6. Exercise Your Body As Well As Your Mind. Physically fit people have fitter brains.

This summary is taken from my book published on Amazon Kindle, where you will find much more detail. [1]

These tips, all based on good research, will enhance your study and improve your learning. If you really want to be an A+ student, though, then use Brainwave Entrainment Technology as well.

Brainwave entrainment technology is simple to use. The student sits and studies while playing the appropriate mp3 track on headphones or speakers.

There is plenty of Scientific Evidence to show that Brainwave Entrainment really does work. Many researchers have demonstrated the efficacy of brainwave entrainment.

Thomas Budzynski, Ph.D is an Affiliate Professor of Psychosocial & Community Health at the University of Washington teaching and doing research in the areas of neurofeedback. Dr. Budzynski is a prolific researcher into neurofeedback with many publications and honors.
In 1999 he received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. In 2002 he received a Career Achievement award from the International Society for Neuronal Research. He was president of the Biofeedback Research Society from 1974 to 1975; and president of the EEG Biofeedback Section of AAPB (1995–1996) Nobody can claim greater authority on neurofeedback than Dr Budzynski.

In a 1999 study Dr Budzynski worked with 8 struggling college students. After undergoing audio-visual brainwave stimulation, the students outperformed a control group and significantly increased their GPA (grade point average). GPA for the students continued to rise even after treatment was discontinued!

Psychologist Michael Joyce used brainwave entrainment with a group of 30 children and observed that children who used brainwave training technology showed ‘vast improvements’ in reading level and a half year advancement in grade level compared to children in a control group.

Science writer Michael Hutchison, author of the influential book Mega Brain says that scientists "have found that peak states are clearly linked to very specific patterns of brain activity. By using precise combinations of pulsating sound waves (brainwave entrainment), they can actually produce those same 'peak state' brain patterns in ordinary people." (2)

Psychologist Michael Tansey reported a 19 point average increase in IQ score after brainwave treatment.

Drs. Siegfried and Susan Othmer found that neurofeedback brainwave training in the 15-18 Hz range produced significant shifts in IQ score, particularly with people who are suffering from ADD/ADHD and other disorders. In cases where the starting IQ value is less than 100, the average IQ increase was 33 points! They also found significant improvements in memory, reading and arithmetic. In a one year follow-up, trainees showed major improvements in self-esteem, concentration and self-expression.

There is abundant evidence that Brainwave entrainment enhances memory and increases focus and mental speed.
To quote Henry Ford: "You say I started out with practically nothing, but that isn't correct. We all start with all there is, it's how we use it that makes things possible."

We all have the brainpower we need to be A+ students, we just need the emotional intelligence, the will to succeed and the knowledge that we can succeed in school plus the right techniques and brainwave entrainment.

(1) Michael Petty, IQ Unlimited, Amazon, Kindle, 2011
(2) Michael Hutchison, Megabrain : New Tools and Techniques for Brain Growth and Mind Expansion, Ballantine, USA, 1996

Copyright © Michael Petty 2012. All rights reserved.
www.NeuroLearnings.com