Dr Neil Cox's Top Tips for Passing your Exams

Last night I gave a slightly abbreviated version of the Genetics, Lifestyle and Health talk to a group of parents and pupils at Exeter School. Once I got home I realised that it may have been helpful to talk a little about learning since many of the audience were students about to sit some very important exams. It was too late to go back, so I decided to write this article instead. So this is for all those of you who are in the build up to your exams whether they are school, university or professional. Good luck - I know you can do it!

Dr Neil Cox's Top Tips for Passing your Exams

How many of you would like to be able to retain the information that you study more easily and therefore perform better in your exams? In that case; here are my three top tips to enhance your learning.

Movement enhances learning, memory and concentration. There is a centre in your brain known as the Hippocampus. Now with a name like hippo-campus, that would have to be your learning centre. The hippocampus is the part of your brain responsible for turning short term memories into long term memories and is therefore crucial to any learning. In studies done with both rats and mice, the animals that were encouraged to move (allowed to run on a wheel) were not only better at learning tasks but developed BIGGER hippocampi than the animals that were not allowed to exercise. Exercise GROWS the part of your brain involved in learning! WOW!

Movement of your spine is particularly important due to the number of movement sensors in your spine and their connection to your cerebellum and hippocampi (one on each side of your brain).

So my tip, which should be easy to implement now that you are heading home for exam leave is; try to incorporate as much movement as possible, particularly of your spine, into your daily routine as you study for your exams. This will boost your learning ability more than anything else. Any kind of exercise will do and especially those that move your spine. If you’d like suggestions check out our "Spinal Hygiene" exercise pages (http://images.vortala.com/chiropractor/UK/Devon/Exeter/County%20Chiropractic%20Exeter/SiteGraphics/basic-spinal-p1.pdf).

Fish oil feeds your brain. Your brain is made up almost entirely of fat – but not just any kind of fat, the special kind of fat found in oily fish known as Omega3. Omega 3’s have been shown to enhance many aspects of brain function including our favourite three right now… learning, memory and concentration. So my tip here is; make sure you are getting plenty of Omega3 oils in your diet. One way to do this is to eat more oily fish – Wild Atlantic Salmon, Mackerel and Sardines are good examples.

The easiest and safest way to ensure that you are getting all the Omega3 you need is to take a purified fish oil supplement. Good examples are Innate Choice, available at the practice, or Eskimo3, available at any chemist or health food shop.

Both sides is best. Learning happens most effectively when both sides of the brain are involved at the same time. That is why stories are so effective – the facts stimulate the left side of your brain and the emotion and imaginative elements stimulate the right side. To try to make use of this principle; use different colours in your notes. Highlighting or writing key words or phrases in different colours helps since reading the word is a left brain activity but your right brain processes the colour. So my tip – make your revision notes as colourful as possible (just the key points though – they are notes not artwork).

Finally, I want to encourage you to be positive and have confidence in your ability. We know that mental states of hope and optimism help to turn down the stress response and therefore make it easier to learn. States involving fear and pessimism on the other hand stimulate the stress response and make it harder to learn or to concentrate on any one thing for a period of time. So if you feel yourself stressing about an exam; acknowledge how you feel (this is not about denial) and then say to your self that you are choosing to focus on the things that you can control and what could go right, rather than on things that you can’t control and could go wrong. I hope that the exams go well for your all and wish you all the very best for the future.

Yours in health,

Neil Cox