Read more: How to Eat Properly Before an Exam | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2189053_eat-properly-before-exam.html#ixzz1Zt6uMEAX

Instructions

1 . Eat a well-balanced meal before the actual exam. If your exam is in the morning, give yourself time to eat breakfast. Include protein and fruit to provide energy.

2 . Fill yourself with protein-rich foods like eggs, nuts, yogurt and cottage cheese during breakfast and lunch on the day of the test. The benefits will last throughout the day.

3 . Keep each meal light, as heavy dishes will cause you to be drowsy. Skip dessert if you aren’t hungry. The last thing you need is to fall asleep during a test.

4 . Skip the caffeine as a meal substitute. Avoiding caffeine all together (if you normally drink it) may cause headaches, but you shouldn’t overdo it. Overdosing on coffee and energy drinks may cause you to become too jittery and then crash. Try green tea as a natural caffeine addition to your diet.

Read more: How to Eat Properly Before an Exam | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2189053_eat-properly-before-exam.html#ixzz1Zt70Cr8R

When you’re studying for finals, good nutrition often slides way down on the priority list. It’s easy to get into the habit of glugging coffee and gobbling take-out pizza, because you don’t want to waste time on food preparation. But, actually, good nutrition should be part of your study plan because it’s going to help you ace those tests. The better the fuel your brain gets, the better you’ll study. It’s a…well…no-brainer.

Here are 10 tips for eating right during exams:

1. How do I eat smarter? Meeting daily vitamin and mineral requirements will make doing your best much easier. Iron and B vitamins are especially important to maintaining the physical and mental energy necessary to study well. Iron-containing foods include red meat, cereals and spinach; one good meal idea is chili because it contains ground beef and kidney beans. Foods that contain B vitamins include whole-grains, wheat germ, eggs and nuts. Fish and soy are other foods that are said to help boost your brain by providing the nutrients it needs.
2. Dude, chewable Vitamin C is not a meal. Dietary supplements are good, but real food is better. An orange contains not only Vitamin C, but  also fiber, beta carotene and other minerals — so it can’t be replaced by a pill. When you’re heading for the library, pack whole-food items like apples, bananas, clementines, carrot sticks or dried apricots.
3. Eat at regular intervals. Eating regular meals helps keep nutrient and energy levels more stable, curbing the temptation of empty-calorie snacks in the vending machine.
4. Big meals keep on turning … in your stomach. You might find that eating the standard three-big-meals-a-day slows you down mentally and physically. Consider 5 or 6 well-balanced, smaller meals, like toast spread with peanut butter, hummus or tuna, or a piece of cheese with fruit.
5. Meet breakfast, your new study buddy. While much is said about the reasons to eat breakfast, less known are the best ways to eat smart in the morning. Coffee and a donut just don’t cut it. The idea is to get some protein, calcium, fibre and a piece of fruit or a vegetable in there. So, a bowl of cereal with milk and a piece of fruit would do the trick. Or try a cereal bar with milk. We have some additional quick breakfast ideas for you to enjoy!
6. Going bananas? Good. Fruit ranks high among the best foods you can eat for your brain.Blueberries (which can be bought frozen in bags) get a lot of attention because they contain powerful antioxidants and other nutrients. The natural sugars in fruit offer clean energy, so you don’t experience the crash that follows consumption of refined sugar.
7. Choose powerful vegetables. Not all vegetables are created equal. The darker the color, the higher the concentration of nutrients. For example, spinach has more to offer the mind and body than iceberg lettuce. Other great vegetable choices include bell peppers, broccoli and sweet potatoes.
8. Smart snacking can enhance studying. Snack smart while studying and you may find that you retain more. Try to get two food groups into your snacks to balance the nutrients and keep your blood-sugar level stable. Some smart snack examples are banana with peanut butter, a smallbaked potato with cottage cheese, or an English muffin pizza.
9. Gather simple recipes for nourishing foods. It’s easy to feed the brain well. No-fussrecipes let you eat to succeed, without taking too much time. Here are four ideas:
   • Combine scrambled eggs with toast, cheese or salsa
   • Spend 15 minutes preparing chili and continue studying while it simmers for two hours
   • Go Tex Mex with quesadillas, adding whatever veggies you’ve got on hand
   • A little chopping is all it takes to construct a hearty Chef’s Salad
10. Stay well hydrated. Choose your beverages well, though.  Caffeine and sugar should be kept to a minimum. Since too much caffeine can make you jittery, try to drink moderate amounts: 400 to 450 mg per day, the equivalent of 2/2.5 cups, (16 to 20 ounces or 500 to 625 ml). Better choices include water, fruit juice, milk, and anti-oxidant-rich green tea.

Good luck!

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content source from : http://startcooking.com/blog/303/10-Tips-for-Healthy-Eating-During-Exams

I urge you to close the door, turn off your cellphone and listen attentively. The following list contains ten proven techniques to memorize information, ready? O.K, here we go:

1. Don’t Let Yourself Be Disturbed

I used this technique in the beginning of this article ie. “close the door, turn off…”

You can’t memorize something if your mind is directed towards something else, concentration is essential!

2. Learn Mnemonics

Mnemonics is a type of memory aid that basically helps a person memorize data. The more information that needs to be remembered, the more complex the mnemonic becomes. The most common type of mnemonics in school are those that rhyme…

3. Thirty days hath September…

Rhyme mnemonics are often used in school, why? Because they work! It’s an excellent way of remember lists (like all the months) but it can be used in other ways as well. In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue is a famous rhyme mnemonic used in schools, so start rhyming and less whining! (I am so lame BTW)

4. Form A Silly Sentence

What’s a silly sentence you ask? To clarify this, let us say we would want to memorize 3 Swedish Cities (starting from the biggest); Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. The initiating letters are SGM and a possible silly sentence could be:

Simon Greeted Me

5. Abbreviations Make Life Easier

Don’t you agree? We love to say UN, US etc. instead of The United Nations, The United States Of America (what made you chose such a long word, makes it hard on us foreigners by the way…). Here is an excellent article, written by an expert on the subject (O.K I surrender… it’s actually my own article): How To Use Abbreviations.

6. Do It Like The Talk Show Hosts

All TV-show hosts use small flashcards to help them remember the content of the show, this is proven method to bring back memories swiftly. I recommend you use a small software called Cue Card, there’s a free version hosted right here on the site.

Click Here To Download >>

7. Gimmicks = Bad?

For some odd reason, this word seems to radiate negative emotions, probably because gimmicks are used so extensivley in advertisements. Anyhow, the use of word games or tricks can help you process information. Try it and buy it!

8. Mind Maps – Find Your Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of mind mapping, and I recommend you to use mind maps as often as possible. I’ve already covered how mind mapping is done so I won’t go into that again. Here’s a free mind mapping software by the way, hope you enjoy it!

9. Association – The Biggest Secret

It’s really a shame that I didn’t put this in the beginning of the article, I’m sorry I forgot. Associatin is basically the art of linking a piece of information to something else. What’s the first thing that hits your mind when I say the word SUMMER?

Did you think about heat, ice cream, vacation, swimming or anything related to those activities? We think about heat because we relate this word to the term summer, it comes naturally without any real effort.

This is perhaps the biggest memory secret around, learn how to associate the information you want to remember with some piece of information that you won’t forget. It works like a charm, I promise!

10. Always Explore New Methods

What better place to do that than right here! I’ve written a comprehensive Study Guide which covers this matter (How To Memorize Fast), but if you are not interested (which you should be… ^^) you can always Subscribe To This Blog. It’s free and takes only a couple of seconds (that is to say, if you still remember to do it!).

Did you like this article or despise it? Let us know what you feel by commenting. Stumbleupon users can stumble this post it if they’d like, have a nice summer guys!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Webmaster of www.study-habits.com & author of The Study Guide PRO, Abderisak Adam shares study tips, techniques and guides to the student community. As a student of civil engineering at Chalmers University of Technology he focuses on matters relating to engineering, mathematics and physics.

His chef d’oeuvre, The Study Guide PRO, can be purchased as a digital copy.

This article will teach you how to quickly memorize information, be it for a grocery list, for an upcoming exam or just out of personal interest. In general it’s easier to memorize information that’s less technical and therefore evokes more pictures in one’s mind. Memorizing technical or mathematical information perfectly makes it necessary to build an extensive mental foundation and is not the focus of this article.

The Journey Method

The method I found leading to the quickest results for the beginner is the Journey Method, originating in ancient rome.

In the Journey method information is linked with a well-know succession of places (a “journey”) by connecting images in your mind. Recall is based on mentally taking the journey and automatically remembering the needed information through the associations made before.

Generating a basic journey

The easiest journeys are those you have taking many times in your live and can remember easily without much strain. An example would be your daily journey to work, or a mental tour of your home or that of a friend.

Let’s say you decide to take your home as a base. Here you would start e.g. with the porch, continue inside to the hallway and following up with the living room etc. Make the journey easy to remember, so that you are always able to not only recall each element but to recall all of them in the same order every time.

How to link journey and information

After generating your journey you will be able to easily remember lists with number of items equal to the number of places in your journey. This number can be easily multiplied with another method but for now let’s get into the actual memorization.

In the beginning it’s advisable to write out the journey’s steps with the information beside it, so you can test yourself e.g.

Porch – eggs

Hall – bananas

Living room – medicine

etc.

Visualize the first place and put the first object inside, resizing it so it fits onto your mental screen. It doesn’t matter whether you open your eyes or not, but for practical purposes it’s advised to strive for open eyes at some point.

For some people it’s easier to remember outrageous images (thousand of eggs occupying their porch) for others it doesn’t matter.

What’s important though is making the images big, vivid, detailed and colorful.

Fix each image for a couple of seconds while ignoring outside thoughts.

Recall

Ok, so now this is where the real fun begins.

Put away your paper with the information and take the mental journey. Each stop will instantly bring the embedded information back into your mind. The better the quality of your association (big, vivid, detailed and colorful) the faster.

Don’t worry if you don’t get it perfectly the first time, just return to your paper and re-associate those you missed. After a while you will be able to perfectly recall 100%.

Go over the list again after an hour and during the next day, to fix the information.

Questions and answers

Q: What happens when I want to use my journey for a new list?

A: Just go through the steps as described, old associations will be deleted automatically.

Q: What if I want to memorize something I can’t find a picture for? A: Ok, this brings us closer to memorizing technical info, but I’ll give you a quick pointer. You don’t need to actually find a picture of what you want to remember, but a picture which instantly reminds you of it. Let’s say you want to remember “happiness”, as a concept. There is no way to remember this exactly, so you picture something that means “happiness” for YOU (maybe playing your favorite sport, having fun with friends or being with your family).

Resources

Mind Tools

Excellent website detailing a myriad of ways to improve memory

Happy Child Mnemonics

Good content, but the website WILL make your eyes hurt…

Your brain is a muscle, and like any muscle, it responds well to repetition and routine. Choose a study area in your house, at the library, or at your favorite (quiet) coffee shop. You want the same area, even the same desk, everyday. You want to choose a quiet spot, and you want to have all of the supplies you’ll need readily available to you, including food and beverage. Don’t forget anything; you want to stay in that spot without any distractions. Visit that area at the same time every day. After a few days, your brain will be ready to concentrate as soon as you approach that spot.

2. Tick tock: Get a stopwatch.

Study every day for the same amount of time. Never cram! Cramming only leaves you exhausted for the test, and you’ll never remember the info two days later. Choose an amount of time that is right for the class you’re taking. You’ll have a good sense of what the class requires by asking your professor and after studying for the first few days. Once you choose an amount of time (an hour or two per class is usually more than sufficient), set your stopwatch, and then hide it so you’re not constantly looking at the clock. Don’t leave your study area until the stopwatch goes off. If you run out of things to study before the time is up, great! Review the previous chapters. If you’re writing a paper when the watch goes off, stop even if you’re mid-sentence. That will give you somewhere to pick up the next day. And remember, always reward yourself: Shut the book, put down your highlighter, and take yourself out for a milkshake!

3. Put down the highlighter.

Have you ever noticed yourself highlighting almost every single sentence in the book? It’s sometimes difficult to know what to highlight. Everything seems important. Read the entire page of text before you make any highlighting marks. Then go back and choose the most important sentence in that page. Ask yourself why it’s important. Is it introducing a new idea? A new key word? An important quote or date? If so, highlight it AND write it down in your notes. Keep your notes, and your highlighting, to a minimum. Think about it this way: the information has to earn a highlighting line or a place in your notes. Is it worth it? Usually, the first sentences of a section are the most important; they introduce the idea that the rest of the paragraphs will be discussing. Also, usually anything in bold or italics is emphasized because the textbook writers want you to remember it. Finally, always read the chapter or section reviews. Most likely, your professor will use these review pages to design a test, and they will give you an idea about what you should be highlighting.

4. Build a community

You don’t have to be sitting directly across from other people in order to have a study group. In fact, your study group doesn’t even have to include other students from your class. Use the Internet. Look up the topics you’re studying, and talk to other people on discussion pages about those topics. Become an expert on your topics; don’t just rely on the textbook to build your knowledge. If you can start a study group with other students in your class, chat online at previously scheduled times and introduce them to the information you’ve learned from reading other material and talking with other people. Also, make sure to include your professor in your community; he or she is your most valuable resource, and a person you should communicate with on a daily basis. Professors are always eager to help students who are eager to learn.

5. Ace that test!

First and foremost, be healthy. Eat well, get a lot of sleep, and keep a positive attitude going into your test. Study by going over your notes and your highlighted marks, and rereading the review sections of each chapter. The best way to learn and retain information is to teach it to someone else. Pull a friend or family member aside and see if you can teach that person something from your class material. Also, have that person help you with flashcards (which of course only contain the most important ideas from your textbook or study material). While you’re taking the test, start with the easy questions. If you have to skip around a bit in order to get into a rhythm, that’s fine. Build your confidence. If you don’t know an answer and it’s a multiple-choice test, narrow it down to the two most likely answers and choose between them. If it’s a short answer test or a math or science problem, give it your best try. You might get partial or half-credit. Before the test, take a deep breath and be calm. Trust yourself.

Your brain is a muscle, and like any muscle, it responds well to repetition and routine. Choose a study area in your house, at the library, or at your favorite (quiet) coffee shop. You want the same area, even the same desk, everyday. You want to choose a quiet spot, and you want to have all of the supplies you’ll need readily available to you, including food and beverage. Don’t forget anything; you want to stay in that spot without any distractions. Visit that area at the same time every day. After a few days, your brain will be ready to concentrate as soon as you approach that spot.

2. Tick tock: Get a stopwatch.

Study every day for the same amount of time. Never cram! Cramming only leaves you exhausted for the test, and you’ll never remember the info two days later. Choose an amount of time that is right for the class you’re taking. You’ll have a good sense of what the class requires by asking your professor and after studying for the first few days. Once you choose an amount of time (an hour or two per class is usually more than sufficient), set your stopwatch, and then hide it so you’re not constantly looking at the clock. Don’t leave your study area until the stopwatch goes off. If you run out of things to study before the time is up, great! Review the previous chapters. If you’re writing a paper when the watch goes off, stop even if you’re mid-sentence. That will give you somewhere to pick up the next day. And remember, always reward yourself: Shut the book, put down your highlighter, and take yourself out for a milkshake!

3. Put down the highlighter.

Have you ever noticed yourself highlighting almost every single sentence in the book? It’s sometimes difficult to know what to highlight. Everything seems important. Read the entire page of text before you make any highlighting marks. Then go back and choose the most important sentence in that page. Ask yourself why it’s important. Is it introducing a new idea? A new key word? An important quote or date? If so, highlight it AND write it down in your notes. Keep your notes, and your highlighting, to a minimum. Think about it this way: the information has to earn a highlighting line or a place in your notes. Is it worth it? Usually, the first sentences of a section are the most important; they introduce the idea that the rest of the paragraphs will be discussing. Also, usually anything in bold or italics is emphasized because the textbook writers want you to remember it. Finally, always read the chapter or section reviews. Most likely, your professor will use these review pages to design a test, and they will give you an idea about what you should be highlighting.

4. Build a community

You don’t have to be sitting directly across from other people in order to have a study group. In fact, your study group doesn’t even have to include other students from your class. Use the Internet. Look up the topics you’re studying, and talk to other people on discussion pages about those topics. Become an expert on your topics; don’t just rely on the textbook to build your knowledge. If you can start a study group with other students in your class, chat online at previously scheduled times and introduce them to the information you’ve learned from reading other material and talking with other people. Also, make sure to include your professor in your community; he or she is your most valuable resource, and a person you should communicate with on a daily basis. Professors are always eager to help students who are eager to learn.

5. Ace that test!

First and foremost, be healthy. Eat well, get a lot of sleep, and keep a positive attitude going into your test. Study by going over your notes and your highlighted marks, and rereading the review sections of each chapter. The best way to learn and retain information is to teach it to someone else. Pull a friend or family member aside and see if you can teach that person something from your class material. Also, have that person help you with flashcards (which of course only contain the most important ideas from your textbook or study material). While you’re taking the test, start with the easy questions. If you have to skip around a bit in order to get into a rhythm, that’s fine. Build your confidence. If you don’t know an answer and it’s a multiple-choice test, narrow it down to the two most likely answers and choose between them. If it’s a short answer test or a math or science problem, give it your best try. You might get partial or half-credit. Before the test, take a deep breath and be calm. Trust yourself.

Author: R. D. Clyde
Getting things done is not always what is most important. There is value in allowing others to learn, even if the task is not accomplished as quickly, efficiently or effectively.

Author: John Dewey
Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.

Author: Samuel Johnson
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

Author: Simeon Ben Eleazar
Greater is he who acts from love than he who acts from fear.

Author: Mark Twain
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.

Author: William James
Habit is second nature, or rather, ten times nature.

Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.