Life Hack: Three study hacks every Junior and Leaving Cert student should know

State Exams are on the horizon and for those last-minute crammers, here are some tips and tricks to help you study

It may seen counter-intuitive, but stepping away from your books can help you study better.

Get moving 

You might think spending long hours at your desk studying is the key to exam success but getting some exercise can actually boost the impact of your study session. Exercise has lots of positive effects on our memory, both long- and short-term. Your body’s physical response to the stress of exercise triggers your sympathetic nervous system and floods your brain with oxygen and nutrient-rich blood, similar to a fight-or-flight biological response, meaning your brain can make decisions - and take in information - much faster.

Your brain’s hippocampus, which plays a major role in reasoning and memory, is also stimulated when you exercise and regular exercise can even slow down age-related shrinkage of the hippocampus as well.

A well-known benefit of exercise is its ability to reduce stress. Stress impacts our focus and the stress hormone cortisol affects our ability to form memories, so exercise can help you better retain new information from this angle too.

Moderate exercise like walking, cycling, or swimming for 20 minutes should do the trick to help you get the most out of your studying.

Take a break (or two) 

Another tip that involves spending less time actually staring at a page or a screen is to take regular breaks so you’re taking in information in shorter bursts. Have you ever felt your mind wandering while you spend lots of time focused on just one task? Researchers from the University of Illinois found that even brief diversions can dramatically improve your ability to focus on a task like studying for a prolonged period.

#Life Hacks

Life is hard enough without being aware of these simple life hacks. Read on.

“You start performing poorly on a task because you've stopped paying attention to it,” says psychology professor Alejandro Lleras, who led the study.

“We propose that deactivating and reactivating your goals allows you to stay focused. From a practical standpoint, our research suggests that, when faced with long tasks (such as studying before a final exam or doing your taxes), it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stay focused on your task.” 

So take small breaks often and you will notice you are retaining more information than if you went without those distractions.

Read at bedtime 

If you learn something new just before you fall asleep, you are more likely to retain that information compared to learning it during the daytime, according to a study from Notre Dame and Harvard.

“We found that memory was superior when sleep occurred shortly after learning rather than following a full day of wakefulness,” the study’s authors note.

Sleep has long been touted as a benefit for exam students, usually for its effect on stress, but this research shows reading or studying right before you get your beauty sleep is much more beneficial than staying up all night to cram.