High School Hacks – 6 Study Secrets The Smart Kids Aren’t Telling You

Smart kids seem to fly through school whilst those who aren’t naturally academic often feel as though they’re climbing an impossible mountain every time they have to prepare for a test. 

Guess what? The smart kids have some study secrets they’re not sharing. There are study hacks you can steal to help you ace those tests too. It’s time to boost your brain-power with these six study hacks the smart kids aren’t telling you:

• A Little Extra Help

Even the smartest kids need a little extra help to keep their studying on track. Parents can often provide this kind of help, although high school tutors are quite a common occurrence too. Having that little bit of extra guidance is pretty useful, especially if you have certain subjects you struggle to keep up with. 

• The Forgetting Curve 

The ‘Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve’ demonstrates how information is lost over time when you don’t make the effort to keep it stashed in that beautiful brain of yours. If you want to flip the curve and get yourself consistently storing your educational memories rather than forgetting them, you have your work cut out for you. 

There is a lot to it, but smart people generally know that fighting forgetfulness means making more effort to reinforce what has been learned by understanding the way the forgetting curve works and regularly doing things like active recall training. 

• Smart Kids Chunk

Chunking is a theory that suggests people remember information better when they absorb related ideas in bite-size chunks, rather than taking everything in all at the same time. If you want to streamline your studying with chunking, the core of the theory is that you should limit your study time and material to small but regular portions. If it doesn’t work for you, there are lots of other ways to streamline studying. Often, it’s a case of not finding a better way to learn, but a way to learn that’s better for you. 

• Exercise

Exercise causes us to feel better overall, making it more likely that we can retain information, study well, and hopefully ace those tests. Studies also show that exercise helps improve memory and the ability to think. In one study, researchers found that aerobic exercise can actually make your verbal memory and learning part of the brain, the hippocampus, bigger. So, your smart pals may well be studying loads, but they’re probably spending some time running or playing sports to boost their brain-power too. 

• Downtime

Believe it or not, smart people do not study every hour of the day. If they did, they might suffer burnout, which can cause issues with appetite, academic performance, headaches, insomnia, and general lethargy. To avoid burning out, smart people take regular study breaks. This could be a walk in the garden or a full weekend of hiking. Anything that takes your mind off everyday stresses is a good way to avoid burnout. 

• Vitamin Boosts

Smart people invest in their brain-power by eating and drinking vitamins and micronutrients. 

Things like zinc, iodine, omega-3, and B12 can have a great impact on the function of your brain. Luckily, there are tons of easy ways to get these vitamins into your body, including delectable, brain-boosting smoothies. 

You may put smart kids on a pedestal, but guess what? You’re smart too. You just might not realize it yet because you’re not making the most of your brain-power. Take advantage of the hacks above and soon enough, you’ll be tapping into that hidden intelligence and acing your tests alongside the smartest kids in school.