the more you study, the more you know. the more you know, the more you forget. the more you forget, the less you know. the less you study, the less you know. the less you know, the less you forget. the less you forget, the more your know so:

why study.
epicure, Nov 21, 2008 @ 13:23

Relax!!!!!!!!!!  The fretting will not help your already panicky self.

 

Like the saying goes, "the brain is like a muscle: Use it or lose it."

 

For the last 5yrs all your brain may have been required to do is read newspapers, magazines and novels among other routine errands like cooking, ironing etc.  While doing these things, the brain is never prompted to bring to memory a lot of information, in a specified time and rearrange this information to be able to make sense as an answer to an exam.

 

The beginning is always hard, but believe me with time you will settle into things.
Shuta, Nov 21, 2008 @ 13:51

Hoiling, the tips are very basic and there's nothing new in what I can say here : You committed to something ambitious, and you have to invest the necessary energy to succeed. Voicing a clear and unequivocal "Yes, I'll do it and I'm willing to do whatever is required to achieve my objective" is the first step to success. Lead a very structured life (can be boring, be prepared), avoid stress, eat well (light and balanced meals), sleep tight (early sleep is better), exercise regularly, drink reasonably, no cigarettes (demonstrated adverse effect on the blood supply of brain cells) and give yourself a decompression chamber: have fun, see friends, go to the cinema, play an instrument, paint, whatever, but give yourself these magic moments of absolute freedom that belong to you and you only. If you have doubts or feel discouraged don't keep it for yourself, share it with friends; that's what they are here for...



As for the memory, it's like a muscle: Train it and it will come back. Train it well and it will surge. There are courses and books on how to improve its performance, and I can only advise you to explore them.
Free, Nov 21, 2008 @ 13:54

"there is always the magnesium thing. Eat bananas!" 

I thought you eat bananas to get potassium :P

As for these other household chores.... get your other half to support you or employ a cleaner et voila! that way 10% less stress and more time for your studies. 

Good Luck!! and feel free to vent on the forum if it helps :)
YouMeCo, Nov 21, 2008 @ 14:15

Thanks guys for the support!! Yes I guess with time my brain will start working again and stop being So lazy, and the memory will improve. I guess it's just a case of  :first exam where i actually have to remember stuff by heart in year - panic syndrome. I have been leading quite a balance life lately, no alchool, no late nights (not too many) and healthy eating and stuff, so I guess once I get in the routine of learning it will seem so much easier.

Thanks for the tips on how to excercise the memory and the brain, i will have a look at some of those books, all my study techniques are from my university years, when i had a more 'trained' brain and also more time to read the book, summarize it in study notes, then summarize the notes in revision cards and so on ... and following the advice of Tinkie and Youmeco I'll stock up on bananas and leave work earlier (luckily i don't work for the company I used to anymore) ... and will see what the other half thinks about doing house chores or employing a cleaning lady :( (youme I will shamelesly say it was your suggestion!!! )

Thanks again for the support and for letting me vent :)

Will report on how the exam will go (I do hope that I'll pass, even barely .. just to be encouraged to do the next!!)

V
Hoiling, Nov 21, 2008 @ 14:26

Hi Vale,



This article might help explain things about learning as we get older. Bottom line, if you have to learn new material, be sure you are studying someplace calm and quiet - no music, TV etc.



Yes, I know that this article is focused on seniors but I think that it applies to the rest of us as well.



Verbier





Distracted easily? You're getting older

November 26, 2008



Megan Ogilvie

HEALTH REPORTER



Reading the newspaper? Studying for a test? Trying to balance the bank book? It might be best to turn off the TV.



Toronto scientists have found further evidence that older adults have a hard time tuning out distractions when concentrating on a single task.



The new research, reported yesterday, suggests older brains are less able to filter irrelevant information from the environment than the brains of younger adults.



This seems to make it more difficult for older adults to focus on the task at hand, said study lead author Dale Stevens, who conducted the research at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest as a doctoral student at University of Toronto.



It is known from behavioural studies that older adults are more easily distracted, but this is the first to look at what is going on in the brain when people try to form a memory and fail, said Stevens.



"This certainly is consistent with the way we understand the problems older people might encounter when encoding information in everyday life," said Michael Rugg, director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.



Stevens and his colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of 12 younger adults and 12 older adults.



The groups were shown pictures of faces and were later asked whether they recognized any.



When both groups failed to recognize a face, the researchers saw decreased activity in the memory encoding regions of the brain, including the hippocampus, something the researchers expected.



But when older adults looked at faces they later forgot, their brains showed increased activity in a region that should have been quiet during memory encoding – the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that processes sound in the environment. The group of older adults had an average age of 70.



"This indicates that older adults were not able to suppress or filter out the noise of the fMRI machine," said Stevens. "We did not see this in the younger adults at all."



As it scans, an fMRI machine makes loud, repeated knocking noises.



Rugg said the study, published yesterday in the Journal of Neuroscience, suggests auditory distractions may prevent older people from properly filing memories.



Toronto Star
Verbier, Nov 26, 2008 @ 13:35

[quote]It's been a while since my last exam at university and almost a year also from my last exam to enroll into a post grad degree ... so now that I have actually started studying I have this HUGE dilemma ...



How did I use to do it when at university and how to do manage now? I do remember having massive amounts of exam stress, but now it just seems that no matter how many times i revise, do mock test, review practical examples ... the day after I still don't remeber how to do certain things. I try to mentally revise it or do some more mock excercices while on the train and ... paff .. my memory goes blank. Again. Which results in panic, and more stress.



With a HUUUUGE struggle I managed to stick to the study plan i made before starting, studied kinda regularly after work (other major struggle ... how do you people find the energy to go through books after 8hs or more at work? and how do you find the time to work, cook, clean the house, iron .. and still study??) and now few days before the exam ... my mind is still blank. Was my brain more flexible 5 years ago? why was it SO much easier to retain information??



Do you have any tip or technique to manage both the studying and revising process AND the pre-exam stress??



Vale[/quote]



firstly, congratulations! working full time and studying is very ambitious and far from easy!

to share my thoughts on the logistics part of things, i believe that if you're taking on such an endeavor, something's gotta give - as they say!

cooking, cleaning, ironing etc etc may be moved down on the list of priorities :)

while working and studying, my only main concern was my children, so we all just had to accept the fact that most foods would be relatively simple and the cleaning very basic (and that i wouldn't be the only one doing it!).

also, i found it more efficient for me to study in the morning before kids were up and before leaving for work, so got up at 5 a.m. and got in a few hrs every day - including week ends - and i found that i retained much more in the same amount of time than if i tried doing anything in the evening after a full day of work and kids and when i really just wanted to go crash out!

as for the exams, i would read over everything only once the night before and never right before the exam.

as far as memory goes, there is something called "Tonoglutal" which is said to help...must be taken a couple weeks before the exam to take effect.



i'm no expert and have certainly never engaged in postgrad studies, however, those are my thoughts on the subject from having experimented a number of things over the past several years!



good luck!
arj799, Nov 26, 2008 @ 15:10