APU Careers & Learning

Tease Your Brain to Keep it Sharp

 

Tease Your Brain to Keep it SharpYour mind is arguably your most important tool in functioning. For those taking classes online or in person, just attending class and completing assignments may not be enough stimulation to keep it sharp.

There’s a reason some teachers dole out such hefty reading assignments and pick out the most nitpicky details on a test. I had a literature professor once that took half of a sentence from a character in a Henry James novel and used it as a fill in the blank on a test. Don’t wait for your professor to challenge you; although this should be a weekly occurrence on their part.

Try Sudoku puzzles, or crossword puzzles. The Sunday New York Timescrossword puzzle is said to me one of the most challenging to complete. Even something as simple as writing instead of type can be helpful. It jogs a different part of our memory to physically express yourself on paper. Lifehacker has a great list of “10 tips to train your brain“; one of them is to pretend like you’re teaching the topic. In my experience the teaching method works best for math and the sciences. You’re giving your brain a chance to rationalize why x=y or how many atoms make up a molecule.

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