Make exams easy. Better brain links for Better School Marks

During tests your brain needs to work quickly and efficiently. Experts tell us that our brain works best when it is uncluttered, relaxed and when the channels we need to use to solve the particular problems in front of us are well ingrained in our brain.

Let's deal with the last of these. It seems to be the most difficult. In practice, you can ensure that you are always at this vital stage. The channels you use to solve particular problems are just like channels used to carry water. With a regular flow of water and maintenance of the edges, these channels are efficient and do their job well. Treat learning any new skill or theory at school just like an athlete trains a skill. How many times do pros swing a bat, kick a ball, pass, punt, run, jump, swim lengths? They may be among the best in the world but they still must work on the most basic of skills, as well as those that most of us will never master. That's why they are the best.

As kids they probably spent hours on a new trick, throw or stroke that most of us would have given up on. They would definitely have made many mistakes. Nobody gets better by staying safe and making no mistakes. Learn from them and steadily improve. Do a couple extra practise sessions. You won't need as much effort or repetition as our world class athletes but you will be well rewarded.

So back to those channels. Imagine when you first come across something you have to learn that you have to dig a channel to join up the right parts in your brain so you can absorb it into your mental capability. On the first go, the message goes over unfamiliar ground looking for the right links. On the second it may recognise that it has seen this before and remember most of where to go, starting to dig out a channel for future information of this sort to go through. The next time the channel is dug out further and information begins to flow quickly and freely. The more you repeat the better the information flows, the more quickly and readily problems are solved.

Just like the water carrying channels that will fall into disrepair if they are not used and well maintained so too these mental channels will become less efficient with lack of use. The good news is that if you set up good channels at the beginning with a lot of early practise, your small bits of revision and review is all that is needed for maintenance to keep them in first class condition.

During exams you will have a network of open channels that link together in many ways and are ready to pump information that will be retrieved, assembled and laid out as a solution. And good job to you for making that happen.

Study zone: comfortable, not too comfortable

At your place? Let's look at where you are going to study this year. Go to where you study most. Is there a television there? Is it usually on? Is there loud music? Are there usually other people in the room? Is it hard to look outside? Is the fresh air flow minimal? Is the light dim? Do you lie on your bed and get too comfortable for your thoughts to be electric and clear? Do you jam ipod buds in your ears and blast music into your head? Do you cram all night before exams? Are your study sessions one long, boring sitting? Do you study without giving yourself some kind of reward? OK there are a lot of things to consider for an ideal study spot. And you can see what we're getting at.

To give yourself the best use of valuable time when you can get to study.

That's what you want. Maximum benefit for the limited time allocated to study. How will you turn all the answers to the above questions into "No."? Seriously, put a plan into action. If there is no such place in your house, then substitute a room at school during breaks or before or after school. See if you can find permission for this. Use the local library, on weekends if necessary. Oh, weekends are just for playing? Then you are just playing at being serious about giving yourself as much chance of success as possible. Do not kid yourself. Setting up a good area now will carry into the future. You will gradually and naturally set up your work area for best production automatically when others will struggle. It is not just for school.

Could you negotiate a quiet time in the house? Sometimes others do not realise the importance of letting your thoughts fully focus on the work of school and how it may help them in the future as your career grows. This may be tough when you are starting out. But every small victory counts. It is not always a final battle that wins but the skirmishes that make up the whole that prove to be decisive. If your success has been limited until now, do not give up. You may have to prove your intent. Step by step. Find the support. Email me.

What is ideal?

Sit at a table, comfortable chair. If possible have only the material you are working on lying on the table. Well lit. A window through which you can easily look outside and open for fresh air. If you have to have music, make it music you can tune out to so it does not interfere with some intense concentration. Make it easy to turn off now and then. Take short breaks from whatever you are doing, glance out at the day, turn off music and enjoy the silence, let knowledge sink in and work its way into your mind and thinking. Set a timeframe, say one hour. Then give yourself a complete break. Stand up. Stretch. Roll your eyes, they need a change too. Have a drink or snack. Limit the break to 5-10 minutes max.

Get serious about your success. Better School Marks is where you can easily start. You have to be there. Take what you can from it to most advantage you. Enjoy doing it. It is the successes, no matter how small, that we look to for our pleasure that we want to get out of school. They are selfishly just for us.

Smart? The world needs you

School may not be what you want to be doing. Suffer! It is just part of the system. It is very often the key to future possibilities of career, study and success. If you are clever, the world needs you. If the academic part of school is easy, make it harder by setting challenges. The world need you. Many potential inventors of medicine, machinery, structures, science and creators of art in all its forms are lost because of brilliant minds losing their gloss in a school delivery mechanism choked with the mundane, the unnecessary and the bland.

It is the blandness of the system that creates non-creative activities, producing by conformance, a choking of the flow of creative juices in students. Schools will say they do creative writing and all manner of cultural pursuits, designed to promote creative thought but this is all formulaic. Creativity activities need to be set to boundaries that do not limit the mind in its exploration. At school we are all marked "A" or "C" or "very good" or "needs improvement". It's all a mish mash of a marking system. Would Leodardo da Vinci's teacher mark his science as "will not fly, man was not meant to fly - D"? Limiting creativity is one of education's biggest blunders.

"Creative writing", as a subject has myriad rules to define it and what it should consist of and end up looking like. Often teachers turn out creative clones of themselves. Creative? "Art is creative" I hear you say. Well, it should be. But again the rules offer too much definition for students to let their minds wander to the infinite edges. Too little time and too little co-ordinated effort across the curriculum makes sure we are not developing this most important compartment in our brain. Leonardo explored art, science, mathematics, philosophy, logic. Freely swapping one to another. He is recognised regularly in our texts as having had one of the greatest minds.

What can you do? Keep your mind polished. You may have to find ways to create scenarios that constantly challenge. Draw. Paint. Play an instrument. Dance. Create. Write. Stir the depths of your mind. Let it flow to the outer reaches of the universe and the inner secrets of your thoughts. Then look to the academics. If the content of mathematics classes is too slow, too easy then go to a library at the local College and ask to join. Sit there and read books that show you what is coming up next. Then determine to get there by yourself. Go to the College to get the feel and atmosphere. If not, ask your school library to get you some texts on loan.

Take a slow pace and look ahead of where you are. Not necessarily mathematics. For any subject you can see where the class is going and find something that takes you past it. Choose one of your favourite subjects and see where it fits into the world process. However small a step you make here, you will be advantaging the world. See if your desires lie in cultural, scientific, literature, or other but find something to be passionate about and get started. If you are only reasonably able, then your influence on the world can be great. Good luck!