5 Tips for Improving Concentration When Studying for Exams

March 24th, 2007 | admin | Concentration, Studying

There’s a poll on my How to Concentrate lens at Squidoo that asks, “Where or when do you have the most trouble concentrating?” As of this morning, the most popular answer is “when I’m studying.”

In response to that poll, here’s a few ideas to keep your mind focused while you’re preparing for those upcoming exams.

Plan your study sessions for the same time every day. Being consistent will help to develop a routine and train both your mind and body to know what to expect.
Find a quiet place to do your studying. Go to the library if you have to. It’s much easier to concentrate when there are no distractions. (But if you must have some music while you’re studying, I recommend a little Mozart.)
Take lots of breaks, especially if you’re doing a late night marathon cram session the night before your exam. A good rule of thumb is a ten minute break every hour.
Reading is great, but if you’re an auditory or kinesthetic learner, you will need more than just words on a page to get you through. Try reading your notes aloud and recording them onto your mp3 player. Hearing the material in your own voice helps to reinforce what you’ve been reading, and once you have the mp3 recorded, you can go for a walk while you’re listening.
This goes along with tip #4 and is my personal favorite… Write things down. Take notes with an actual pen and paper. Try writing the material in different ways such as copying exactly what is written, and then rewriting it in your own words.

Developing good habits will go a long way to helping you improve your ability to concentrate while studying for exams. For more study tips, there’s an excellent site at College Study Skills that you can check out.

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Concentrating and Procrastinating

March 24th, 2007 | admin | Concentration

… or perhaps more a more appropriate title for this post would be “I really hate writing the first post!”

I never know what to write for the first post, and “Welcome to my blog” just sounds lame. So I have been procrastinating for hours on this, fooling around with themes and plugins and telling myself the whole time that I’m just concentrating on making this blog the best I can for you.

In reality, I’ve been sitting here wondering what to write, flipping back and forth between the hockey game and my piano. And it strikes me that one of my favourite ways to get back on track when I’m totally unfocused is to sit down and play the piano for awhile… Bach, in particular.

There’s something about the way the total precision of a Bach Prelude demands absolute concentration. It’s the perfect tonic for a frazzled mind because it’s so precise. It’s also a great way to empty your mind of everything but the music, in a way that just listening to it never could. And of course, it’s a great tool for procrastinating when you’re in desperate need of an original idea to write about