The following articles should prove invaluable to
increasing your ability to learn and concentrate.

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Brainwaves and Concentration

“The most important task of your body is to carry your brain”
-Edison-

The human brain weighs about 1350 grams which is only about 1.5% of your total weight, but it uses 30% of all the energy and oxygen in your body. In order to get plenty of oxygen to your brain it will be important to study in an upright position.

Brainwaves; the alpha status

In your brain there are electrical currents. When you are sleeping they have a low frequency and when you are active a high one.
While you are studying there is an optimal frequency that is giving you the highest level of efficiency. This is what we call the alpha status: 7 Hertz = 7 waves per second.
During the alpha status you feel relaxed and alert. When you are relaxed you have control of your full brain capacity and when you are also alert you will be very concentrated.
In order to enter the alpha status it is important to do one thing at a time and not to be disturbed. The minute your mind is drifting away you are no longer in the alpha status.

Keep your brain in good shape

The brain is an interesting part of your body. The left side we use for learning mathematics, words, reasoning, languages, details and other analytical things. The right side is more specialized in colours, images, music, rhythm, patterns and intuition.
If we use both sides well together the functioning of the entire brain can increase up to 5 times! Being involved in music, drama, art, and dance etc. is therefore highly recommended.

There are a few other things that can help your brain to be in good shape:

Nutrition

Nutrition has an important effect on studying, concentration, memory, energy, mood and behaviour. Variation of food is very important. Unhealthy foods for your brain are:

• Fatty ingredients such as mayonnaise, French fries, chips etc
• Sugar, candies and most sodas (Coke, Fanta etc)
• Junk food (hamburgers, frankfurters, cheese burgers etc)
• White bread
• Artificial products

Sports

The better in shape you are the better your brain functions. When you are playing sports, running, cycling or using your muscles in another way your heart and your lungs will pump much blood and oxygen to your brain. Fresh air is equally important. It all contributes to making your studies go easier and increasing your results.

Some additional tips for studying

• Appropriate light and fresh air.
• Proper filing of your information.
• Good temperature (between 19 and 21 degrees).
• Only music with a rhythm of 60 counts/minute like Baroque music; it goes with the beat of your heart. The music should be instrumental.
• Bottle of water.
• Turn off your mobile phone.
• Do not study behind the computer.
• Make sure that all your materials are within hands reach.
• Make sure that you feel comfortable in the room that you are studying in.

GuideLight 2006

Calendars for Scheduling

Week Calendar

		MONDAY			TUESDAY			WEDNESDAY
		urgent	not urgent		urgent	not urgent		urgent	not urgent
important
not important

		THURSDAY			FRIDAY			SATURDAY/SUNDAY
		urgent	not urgent		urgent	not urgent		urgent	not urgent
important
not important

Month Calendar

1		11		21
2		12		22
3		13		23
4		14		24
5		15		25
6		16		26
7		17		27
8		18		28
9		19		29
10		20		30
				31

Memorising

We have a short term and a long-term memory. The short-term memory has a smaller capacity than the long term memory. It saves you from storing everything in your long-term memory. When you are taking an exam you will find your answers in your long-term memory. Your short term memory is only your filter.
We all start using our short-term memory. You can expand your short term memory by concentration and motivation.

What do you remember best during class or when you are studying at home?

• Information at the beginning and at the end
• Information that has been repeated
• Personal subjects
• Information that we can connect to things we already know
• Things that are awkward, funny, bizarre, stupid etc.

After one day at school most students remember up to 20% of the information in the long-term memory. 80% has not yet been stored. Parts of this will not be important to us any longer and therefore can be forgotten. But also parts of the information has been wasted.

Memory techniques

1. You can improve your memory by repeating!
2. Use your fantasy and make things bizarre, funny etc.
3. Use your senses (talk, visualize, smell)
4. Try to associate information with what you already know
5. Make yourself part of the information
6. Structure your information (mind mapping for example)
7. Use memory aids (for example combining the first letters into a new word)
8. Make sure you are not tired
9. Try to avoid stress
10. Positive thinking: I can do this

Use markers. Above all, people remember colours!

Please note that alcohol and drugs paralyze your memory!

GuideLight 2006

Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is a simple way of storing information in your brain and taking it out when you need it. It has proven to be very useful when you are taking notes or when you want to make an excerpt or an out line from books or articles.
Mind mapping suits people who are very visual most of all.
If you look at Leonardo da Vinci’s notes you will see that he used this technique extensively. In 1974 it was further developed by the British psychologist Tony Buzan.

By means of mind mapping you are keeping both parts of the brain in balance: the left part is selecting the information, the right part decides what colours, patterns or drawings we will use. By using them both you increase the capacity of your brain.

How do you make a mind map or spider web?

Your brain prefers to work with bended lines because a mind map should resemble the dendrites in your brain: the connections between the neurons (brain cells). These are not straight and therefore you should work with slightly bent lines. In nature we only know of one straight line: the crystal.
Look at Mind Map 1. It has all the important information about reading, listening and concentration on one page.

• Take an A3 as formatted paper, landscape and start in the middle.
• Use about 3 or 4 colours
• Make little drawings
• Use keywords and/or pictures
• Use fluent lines and connect them
• Use proper handwriting or write in capitals
• Use your own style.

Some students prefer to work from top to bottom which is also fine.

Mind mapping helps you with:

• Revising information
• Presentations
• Action plans
• Excerpts or outlines
• Essay writing
• Creative thinking

Advantages:

1. you are using both parts of the brain
2. it goes faster than taking notes
3. revising is much easier
4. you can easily see what is important and what the details are
5. you can incorporate new information
6. it is less boring.

Disadvantages:

1. in the beginning it is not easy and it might take a lot of time
2. it is very personal and difficult to work together on your notes
3. you might be an exception.

Mind Map 1

GuideLight 2006

Positive Thinking

Increase successful learning by working on your mental attitude

“There is no passion to be found playing small; in settling for a life that is less than what you are capable of living”
-Nelson Mandela-

In order to increase effective learning you can prepare yourself mentally in a positive way by applying the following.

A) Goal setting
Once you have some direction of what you want to do after school or maybe
even after you have completed your entire education you might start looking
at your school as a tool to reach your goal. Like Stephen Covey, a guru in
management once said: “Start with the end in mind”.

B) Positive self talk
Everyone has dialogs with him or herself so why not you? The way you are talking to yourself determines your mood. If you would ask yourself: ‘Why is it going to be an awful day?’ your brain will come up with answers such as: ‘because I have to go to school, or because it is raining, or because my favorite shirt has not been washed or my best friend has just moved’.
When you would ask yourself: ‘Why is it going to be a fantastic day?’ your brain will come up with solutions such as: ‘because it is almost the weekend’, or ‘there is sports practice after school’ or ‘I will be seeing my best friend this evening’.
You can reduce or increase motivation by asking different kinds of questions.

C) Positive thinking
Write down short realistic statements of things you want to achieve within a certain period of time. You should repeat them to yourself on a regular basis and after a while you will start to believe that this is not only what you want but also what you can achieve.
‘We often overestimate what we can achieve in the short term and we underestimate what we can achieve in the long term’.

D) Self image
‘What you think is what you are’.
How you think about yourself determines to a large extent what you feel, how you perform and what you radiate. You rise or fail by the image you hold in your own mind.
If you want to change something about yourself it has to come from inside. Therefore it is important to have a positive self image.

E) Be focused
Try to visualize what you want to achieve. You can do this by finding a role model, cutting out pictures of future goals, keeping a diary etc.
‘Winners see what they want; losers see what they do not want’.

GuideLight 2006

Reading, Listening and Concentration

“I love to learn but I hate to be taught”
-Churchill-

Reading

Often people think that when they read slowly they get a better understanding of the meaning of the words. This is not true. Slow reading encourages people to drift away while people who are fast readers stay better concentrated. Concentration is very important for proper reading!

Difficulties with FAST reading

• You are reading to yourself without making noise (as if you are reading to someone else). Speaking goes less fast than reading so you are losing time. One speaks between 200-250 words/minute and ideally one reads 3 times as fast
• You often read a word 2 or 3 times because you are not sure if you have read the word or part of a sentence, correctly. Therefore you are going back in the text. Students tend to reread about 15% of the words.
• You read one word at a time instead of covering a larger part of a sentence with one look.

Techniques

• Sit straight up and do not keep your head slanting because this activates a signal from your organ of balance to your brain. The brain can turn off its functioning because your pose simulates your sleeping state. If your body is in an alert position your brain will be alert as well.
• Use something to point to the words - probably a marker - and move this in a regular rhythm just under each line. When your eye has to follow the marker it is closely focused on the text. Your marker is only slightly ahead of the word you are reading. By moving your marker quicker you can increase your speed. Ideally you should read 600-800 words/minute. That is about 12 words per second (one line). This corresponds more or less with your pace of thinking and therefore is probably the most ideal speed. With your marker you can underline keywords at the same time.
• Scanning and Skimming
  You use this technique for general reading or for reading a considerable amount of pages. With a fluent movement of the eye you are looking for information – scanning - or you want to have a general idea of what is important in the text - skimming.
  When you read from a paper you absorb about 25% more of the text than when you are reading from a screen!

Reading a study book; what could help you?

1. Question yourself
   a) Do I have to read it and do I have to read every chapter? Be selective.
   b) What do I already know and what do I need to learn in addition? This increases critical thinking.
   c) To what extent do I need to know the details?
2. Adapt your pace
   The use of flexible speed is one of the secrets of quick reading. In general we read
   things that are easy to understand faster than more complicated texts.
3. Make a frame
   When you pick up a book start to read the back side and the contents. Thump through the book. Look at the pictures, the graphs, summaries and conclusions. Now you will have a general idea of what the book is about. Start with the easier parts.

Listening

Listening to a good story or something that has your interest is not difficult. But how do you cope with subjects that do not have your keen interest? The difficulty is that your mind goes 3 times faster than the voice you are listening to. You can use this time to build up concentration. But how?

Suggestions to increase your attention in class

• Ask yourself questions that will help you focus on the subject. This prevents you from ‘listening but not hearing’ what the teacher is saying. For example:
     - what does the speaker mean with ……………..?
     - what can s/he possibly ask about this subject on an exam?
     - how can I combine this information with what I already know?
     - is there any proof of what the teacher is saying?
• Adapt a good physical posture.
• Take notes, underline or start mind mapping.
• Pretend that you have to explain the subject to someone else. This will
  make you more attentive, sharper and more keen to understand the
  subject.
• Ask questions in class. Stupid questions do not exist, only stupid answers do.
• Find some additional information on the Internet or in books. This can make a subject much more interesting.
• Do not prejudice. Go to class with an open mind and a positive attitude.

Concentration

Concentration means being disciplined to focus entirely on one selected subject and not to be distracted by any other things or thoughts. It is considered to be the most important skill to success.
Concentration is not easy these days because we are offered much more information and distraction than there used to be: television, radio, mp3 players, computer games, mobile phones, Internet, advertisements etc. About 1000 new books are published each day! The total amount of information on our globe doubles each 2 or 3 years. This makes it all much harder to concentrate on the things that we have to complete.

Concentration requires energy. Motivation and interest are the fuel for this type of energy.

How to improve your concentration

• Make sure that before you start studying you do not have anything else on your mind. If so, deal with this first. When you cannot deal with it immediately, write it down so that it will not trouble you any longer.
• Work with an action plan or make a schedule. Cross out what you have completed.
• Make sure that your environment suits you. An unorganized room and a messy desk are often distracting a student. Throw away what you do not need any longer. Research has proven that working at a clean desk increases your productivity by 15%.
• Organize your information using proper dividers.
  Fake concentration when you are not concentrated yet.
• Study according to a pattern taking regular breaks. Students can concentrate between 20 to 45 minutes in a row. In between it is important to take short breaks, no longer than 10 minutes.
• Alternate studying with music or art. (see brainwaves and concentration)
• Switch off your mobile phone, radio and television. If you want to listen to music, make sure it is instrumental or baroque. (see brainwaves and concentration) Do not combine studying and MSN.
• Study at times that suit you best. For example not when you are very hungry or feeling tired. Often after a meal we have difficulties to use our brain productively.
• Doodle, mind map and underline when you are studying. (see mind mapping)
• Make sure that everything you will need is within arm distance.
• Tell yourself that you are studying because this is your decision and not because someone else tells you to do so.
• Drink water or green tea and no soda’s while you are studying.

GuideLight 2006

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