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Attention Scatterbrains!

Sitting with your book in front you,but feeling like going over to your friends place to catch up or wondering if that cool sale is on or if there is that tempting pastry to eat  in your fridge? Scattered. When your attention is in too many places it inhibits you to achieve all that you want to. 

Try out these short tips to increase your attention span.

Wiggle your Toes- Yes, sounds funny but this actually works. It brings you back to focus.

Clear Desk – Studying at a cluttered desk just makes you feel more confused and scattered. A clear desk allows you to draw sight on what is necessary.

Do it Piece by Piece: Choose what chapter you are going to study. Break it in parts. Take each part at a time. Finish it and then go to the next.

Target Window: Use the Target window sheet given below. Take a print and cut the window. Place this on your text. This window allows you to center your attention on what you are currently studying. This proves helpful for those who get distracted by images etc in the text.  

Cultivate Interest: Research shows that attention is sustained when you are interested in the task. Find out a little more about your subjects through your teacher, reference books, internet etc to develop interest in your subjects.

Sit in Quiet Atmosphere: Make sure to sit with your books in a noise free place. Check on ventilation and ample lighting.   

Use Highlighters- Use markers or colored pens to highlight important information. This should act as a visual cue.

Sleep/Fatigue- it’s difficult for the brain to attend to information when you are sleep deprived. A minimum of 7-8 hours is a must.

Stress- This is well known. If one is pressed with issues in the mind there’s hardly any peace to attend to studies. Stress prevents you from attending to important tasks.

Hunger - Foods rich in protein—lean beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, nuts, soy, and low-fat dairy products—may have beneficial effects inattention. Cut back on sugar, this reduces hyperactivity and allows you to focus. Iron rich foods help in attending to study.

Learn through Different Modes: Shift the mode of learning periodically. Use visual, auditory and tactile methods to study. Read, read aloud, listen and write/draw. All these help to create better recall. 

Exercise your Memory

Around two weeks for exams to begin and just what you’re looking for is your memory to function right to produce all the information you’ve fed your brain. Here are few tips that you need to follow for that super score on your report card.

 Use Association to remember facts- To use association effectively, you can create an image in your mind to help you remember a word or an image. 

  

            Use Chunking- Chunking is a way of grouping things together to help you memorize them
  

    Use Acronyms- Acronyms are another wonderful tool for remembering a variety of things, from the names of the five Great Lakes to the words used as conjunctions. You can use a popular acronym, or create one for yourself. 

   Use Acrostics-Acrostics are similar to acronyms, except instead of just remembering the acronym, you can remember a new sentence made out of the first letters of a set of words that you have to memorize in a certain order.

         

     Move your Eyes from Side to Side: Studies show that moving your eyes from side to side for just 30 seconds once a day will align the two parts of your brain and make your memory work more smoothly.    

        Smell Rosemary- Studies show that smelling rosemary can improve your recall. Carry around a spring of rosemary or smell rosemary oil once a day.

Exercise your Brain- Regularly "exercising" the brain keeps it growing and spurs the development of new nerve connections that can help improve memory. Try some fun puzzle exercises everyday such as crosswords, Sudoku, and other games which are easy enough for anyone.

Say things you want to remember aloud- Saying things aloud will help you remember as it becomes a repetition in your mind.

Organize your life- The mind works clearly when the space you function is clear is well. Organize and put your materials in a neat way.

Exercise daily- Regular exercise improves circulation and efficiency throughout the body -- including the brain -- and can help ward off the memory loss.

Reduce stress- Try to stay calm, regularly practice yoga or other stretching exercises. Sit in meditation for at least 15 minutes a day. This will help you slow down your breathing and relax. Caffeine can make you feel more anxious and stressed. Keep it to a minimum.

     Feed the brain - The right foods contribute to a healthy brain, and foods containing antioxidants -- broccoli, blueberries, spinach, and berries, for example -- and Omega-3 fatty acids appear to promote healthy brain functioning. Purple grape juice is proven to improve memory. 

         Deep Breathing : When it's time to study or remember something new, switch your breathing pattern to be slower and deeper. Deeper and slower breathing actually changes the way your brain works.

   Take Better Pictures- Often we forget things not because our memory is bad, but rather because our observational skills need work.

 Sleep.- Rest for about atleast 7-8 hours prior to the exam. 

Daydreaming?

“Vihaaaan” you hear a loud voice suddenly shaking you and you realize “Ohh my god its mom calling me. But why is she yelling?..Ohh damn its so late and its past lunch time.” You look around and see your history books open in front of you. It dawns upon you that you were on a free mind trip. You look up and find your time table staring at you. Holding your head, you wonder if you’l ever mark that chapter complete on your schedule.

Yes, you realize you were daydreaming and that history chapter you sat down with to complete, will not study itself, you will have to study it.

You are not alone. This is for all of us who begin with our purest intention to complete tasks and before we know it, we are daydreaming. Before we realize its too late, we've lost something precious called Time. 

While research has found the benefits of daydreaming to boost creativity, motivation and emotional intelligence it also has disadvantages if done more than often. It can cause you to loose focus and forget important information. If you are studying or trying to complete an important task, daydreaming can interfere with your productivity and cause you to either slow down or stop completely for a matter of minutes. This often hampers you in meeting with timelines set for your study schedule leaving you feeling helpless and irritated at yourself.

 

 

Follow these quick tips to counter daydreaming

Set an Alarm: When you sit to study, sit with your alarm beside. If you know you typically take off mentally in 15 minutes, set an alarm for 20 mins. Begin with studies. Your alarm will ring in 20 minutes, at this point you are reminded that you need to redirect attention and focus. Reset the alarm again for 20 -30 mins for another reminder. Repeat this till you don’t need the alarm.

Keep all Triggers out of Sight: If you think certain things around you can distract you, keep them away while you’re studying. for eg: music,certain books,phones etc

Take Short Breaks: Take short 10 minute breaks after 50 minutes of study, this will automatically relax the brain and prevent you from wandering while studying.

Keep Negativity Away: Most often you would wander off thinking about something bad that happened to you. You cultivate more to that emotion by visualizing the people and situations. Clear the mind of these thoughts and emotions by directly tackling the issue before you sit to study.

Save your Thoughts: If you think you have too many thoughts that you just have to deal with and its important, save them. Imagine you’ve got a box, put these important thoughts, ideas in the box and tell yourself you will look at it later. This will help you focus on what you’ve taken up currently. 

TeacherNI.com Reaches Out

TeacherNI.com at 'Vogue' an Intercity, Interschool Personality Contest.

The Session was conducted at a popular college in South Mumbai. 

Above 60 participants of the Personality Contest ‘Vogue’ attended the session on Developing the Right Attitude conducted by Teacherni.com . The participants learnt about what attitude is and how it affects us. The participants voiced out their ideas about good and bad attitudes. We spoke about how our attitudes are influenced by their peers, family, education background, city and country. 

The participants mastered the formula of the right attitude to be initiating through their thought, feeling, action and therefore consequence. A few participants shared the following problems:

• Being bullied
• Managing girlfriends
• Making friends
• Handling cliques
• Fitting in for approval
• Insecurity about physical appearance etc. 

The Thought Train tool was taught to the participants to help them with these situations. It helped them detect the attitude they exercise to resolve these problem situations.  

The feedback of a few reflected the session to be an interesting, useful, interactive and inspiring one!

Managing Exam Stress for Parents

Yes, you must be imagining why a workshop for parents on Managing Exam Stress. But you would be surprised to know there's a lot that Parents go through while your exams are on.
Below are a few snapshots of the session we conducted at a popular school in Mumbai. 

The workshop  covered the following:

• Setting the Atmosphere

• Food choices for concentration & energy

• Get the right amount of sleep

• What to say and how to help 

• Helping yourself with anxiety

•   Helping your child dealing with exam anxiety

• Ways to De-stress

Practice with Predictive Papers

www.calvin-and-hobbes.org/‎

Wish we could have “Practice Semesters”. It would be such a relief for all students. Since we don’t, the key remains simply to PREPARE and PRACTICE and no better way than to practice with the TeacherNI.com Prediction papers. Simply answer your prediction paper, upload your answer sheet and get corrections and personal feedback by experts. 

 

After all “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work learning from failure.” as General Colin Powell said.

http://www.teacherni.com/

Finding it Hard to Cope with Exams?

Feel like giving up?

Here's what you can do to feel better.

Take a print of the Choice Wheel  and place it in front of you. Spin it to choose a way to feel better.

Recipe for Perfect Exam Success

Our Wise Master Owl will help you cook up the perfect way to get better marks in your next exam. Learn the Recipe for Perfect Exam Success 

                          

Ingredients

3 Cups Attention

4 Cups Concentration                                                                 

1 TeacherNi Prediction Paper with Marking Scheme (Subject of your choice,)

1 Plain Answer Sheet

1 Writing instrument

Method:

Sit in a cool place which is noise free. Sit at your clear desk and place the TeacherNi prediction paper in front of you. Read carefully. Check the marks allocated for each question. Reckon up all the information you have studied from the notes. Now begin with concentrating on writing the answers.

Once you have finished click a photo of your answer sheet and upload it in your TeacherNi account. Receive your corrected papers from experts and feedback for improvement. Check this carefully and note areas for rectification for the next paper.

You are now ready for your main exams. 

http://www.teacherni.com/experts.html

Find the Right Guide

Trying last minute tricks to find answers?

When in doubt ask your Teacher.

During exams rely on more dependable sources for your studies. This will help you feel confident while studying.

Follow these tips to get your concerns resolved by your teacher.

• ·        While studying circle/highlight/underline your doubts.
• ·        Make a note of your doubt against each.
• ·        List them in a uniform manner/ classify them in advance
• ·        Address them correctly to get them clarified. 

Study better with these simple methods.

Study better with these simple methods.

Sometimes students feel saturated with the overload of information that is absorbed by them while preparing for the board exams. After a point of time everything that you study becomes jumbled like the quintessential Indian "khichidi".

 During exams students feel overloaded because they have absorbed so much. After a point in time they feel frustrated and irritated. Two quick things you can do to feel relieved.

1.    Make your own tune. Hum it
2.  Eat a cereal bar. Crunchy berry snack!!  

Studies show that some study methods when adopted give better recall and help the student prepare much easily. Organizing your study patterns and routine will help you avoid the dreaded "blank slate" feeling students sometime get while writing their exams. Mind maps will help you remember better when you write the exams and are a proven method that help a person remember better.