Turn on the laptop and turn off the brain. (At least in lecture situations) Learn real study concentration skills.
A growing body of evidence shows that over all, college students learn less and have less study concentration when they use computers or tablets during lectures. They also tend to earn worse grades. The research is unequivocal: Laptops distract from learning, both for users and for those around them. It’s not much of a leap to expect that electronics also undermine learning in high school classrooms or that they hurt productivity in meetings in all kinds of workplaces. Measuring the effect of laptops on learning is tough. One problem is that students don’t all use laptops the same way. It might be that dedicated students, who tend to earn high grades, use them more frequently in classes. It might be that the most distracted students turn to their laptops whenever they are bored. In any case, a simple comparison of performance may confuse the effect of laptops with the characteristics of the students who choose to use them. Researchers call this “selection bias.”
The best study and concentration strategy for some is to record the lecture on the laptop or pad for playback later, but develop focusing skills to absorb better in the live moment.
In the 1960s, Michigan State University was one of the first major schools to teach and use hypnosis to give the schools’ swimmers and divers a mental edge. That worked so well that the same techniques were use in the psyche and English departments. Before classes and tests, students were taught to relax with a sequence of relaxation inductions and to repeat positive affirmations to photographically absorb information or to access that information accurately during tests. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to realize that a relaxed mind has less noise going on and as a result, access to focusing abilities or for info retrieval is very real.
I’ve worked with over 1,700 students in the past 2 decades, (approx. 1,600 3rd year law school students about to take the BAR–passing percentage over 85%). I’ve seen stressed out, low confidence students shine by using simple behavioral techniques available to everyone to develop better study and concentration skills.
Practicing relaxation exercises and repeating positive affirmations twice a day create the suppression of cortisol (stress) and promotes dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin (feelings of happiness and positivity). The bottom line is study concentration improvement and access to memory, even in pressure situations like testing. You become what you think about…a better more focused student, a more capable test taker, and these are traits and positive habits that will work equally well in later life, as well.
See the inexpensive and powerful cds/downloads under PRODUCTS, STUDY and CONCENTRATION POWER on this website.
Make it an interesting day!
Barry