Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades

1. Your Brain is the Foundation for Academic Success

After looking at more than 150,000 brain scans over the last 30 years, I have learned that when your brain works right, you work right—whether we’re talking about school, work, relationships, money, health, or anything else.

Brain health matters. Your brain is the control center for everything you do, including how you learn, focus, remember, and interact. Success in school, and life, starts with optimizing this vital organ. When your brain is healthy, you are more effective, creative, attentive, and organized, making academic goals much easier to achieve.

Subtle issues impact performance. Even minor problems in brain function can hinder your ability to succeed academically. Issues with planning, focus, organization, and memory are often linked to troubled brain function. The good news is that you are not stuck with the brain you have; you can actively work to make it better.

Optimize your brain. The first step to becoming a more successful student is to love your brain, avoid things that hurt it (like lack of sleep, poor diet, drugs, chronic stress, head trauma), and do things that help it (like exercise, learning new things, healthy relationships, good nutrition, stress management). Making brain-healthy choices is the most important investment you can make in your academic future.

2. Understand Your Unique Brain Type

Knowing your brain type can help you understand more about how you learn, study, and perform in school, as well as how you interact with your teachers, fellow students, and others.

Brains are unique. Based on extensive brain imaging, there isn't one single pattern for challenges like anxiety or ADHD; rather, there are multiple types requiring personalized approaches. Similarly, brain scans reveal distinct personality types linked to activity in different brain regions, influencing how you think, feel, and behave.

Five primary types. While there are combination types, understanding the five primary brain types provides valuable insight:

• Balanced: Full, even activity; conscientious, reliable.
• Spontaneous: Lower PFC activity; creative, risk-taking, can struggle with focus/organization.
• Persistent: Increased ACG activity; strong-willed, likes routine, can worry or get stuck.
• Sensitive: Increased limbic activity; deeply feeling, empathetic, prone to low moods.
• Cautious: Heightened basal ganglia/amygdala activity; anxious, prepared, reserved.

Tailor your approach. Identifying your brain type helps you understand your natural strengths and vulnerabilities in learning and social interactions. It allows you to implement targeted strategies, like boosting dopamine for a sleepy PFC or increasing serotonin for an overactive ACG, to optimize your brain for academic success and better relationships.

3. Master the Art of Changing Habits

Changing your study habits is a critical step toward becoming a more effective student.

Habits shape success. Your brain creates habits through neural connections that strengthen with repetition. These can be productive, like consistent study, or unproductive, like procrastination. The key is that you can rewire your brain and replace old habits with smarter strategies.

The STAMP process. Change involves five key elements:

• Set yourself up to win: Start slowly, take planned risks, build confidence through success.
• Tools: Identify your strengths and weaknesses, acquire necessary study aids.
• Attitude: Cultivate a positive, confident mindset, surround yourself with supportive people.
• Motivation: Know your "why," use tools like the ONE PAGE MIRACLE and anchor images.
• Perseverance: Count the cost, accept that growth involves pain, stick with it.

Change is a process. Understand the six stages of change (Won't/Can't, Might, Will, Am, Still Am, Whoops!) and recognize that slipups are normal. Use the "then what?" question to consider consequences and align your behavior with your goals, consciously directing your life.

4. Preparation and Organization are Paramount

What is important is to recognize that preparation is paramount to accomplishment.

Foundation for success. Just as building a house requires a solid foundation, academic success depends on thorough preparation and organization. Starting at the very beginning, mastering the basics, and having a clear plan saves time and reduces frustration in the long run.

Key preparation steps:

• Hone reading skills: Build vocabulary, read all parts of the text (preface, summaries, charts), avoid distractions, start over when lost.
• Create an ideal study environment: Comfortable, quiet, well-lit, cool space free from clutter and distractions like phones.
• Stay fresh and energized: Take regular breaks (10 mins/hour), get moving during breaks, prioritize sleep, nutrition, and hydration.
• Master the basics: Don't take advanced classes before you're ready; build your knowledge on a rock, not sand.

Organize your life. Effective organization involves scheduling your time realistically, creating a systematic approach for each class (using the syllabus, talking to others), and organizing your notes. Most importantly, organize yourself by developing discipline, delaying gratification, taking responsibility, and balancing different areas of your life.

5. Always Seek the "Big Picture" First

I think getting the “big picture” in a subject is the first step to being a successful student, but it is a step that far too many ignore.

Context is crucial. Understanding the overall framework or context of a subject before diving into details is essential for effective learning. Trying to memorize isolated facts without knowing where they belong is like getting lost in a forest because you don't realize you're in one.

Go from general to specific. Start with the main ideas, concepts, and principles, then integrate the supporting facts and details. This approach helps you build a rational sequence of knowledge, making it easier to understand and remember information. Develop a system for each subject that allows you to see the structure.

The BRIGHT MINDS framework. The "big picture" also applies to your brain health, which is the foundation for learning. The BRIGHT MINDS mnemonic highlights key areas influencing brain function:

• Blood Flow, Rational Thinking, Inflammation, Genetics, Head Trauma, Toxins, Mental Health, Immunity/Infections, Neurohormones, Diabesity, Sleep.
  Optimizing these factors provides the necessary foundation for your brain to process information effectively.

6. Adopt Effective Study Methods

The most successful students use study methods that are productive and economical, while underachieving students tend to have methods that are frustrating and inefficient.

Study smarter, not harder. The amount of time you study is less important than the effectiveness of your methods. Developing a systematic approach tailored to you can dramatically increase your learning efficiency and reduce wasted effort.

Key methods for success:

• Blow out the beginning: Put maximum effort into the first few weeks to build a solid foundation and confidence.
• Avoid test-to-test syndrome: Schedule your time throughout the semester, not just before exams.
• Go beyond textbooks: Utilize review books, recent articles, and old exams for broader perspective and targeted review.
• Preludes to methods: Quick recap before studying, study in defined units, rewrite poorly written material, ensure understanding before memorizing, apply what you learn, shore up your foundation.

Five surefire techniques:

• Preview/review: Frame your study with overviews and summaries.
• Test making: Create your own questions to identify key facts and reinforce learning.
• Underlining: Highlight important points to focus, stay active, and facilitate review (don't underline everything!).
• Outlining: Re-expose yourself to material methodically (can be time-consuming).
• Pretend to be a teacher: Explain concepts aloud to check understanding.

7. Maximize Your Time in Class

When you have the skills needed to operate at peak efficiency during class, you can greatly reduce your study time and perform better on homework and exams.

Class attendance is vital. Attending lectures offers numerous benefits beyond just hearing the material, including clarification, understanding the professor's emphasis, getting exam clues, and learning how to learn the subject. Mastering the lecture significantly reduces subsequent study time.

Be present and prepared. To get the most out of class, be prepared by getting enough sleep, eating well, and reading ahead. Minimize distractions like phones (they can cost you half a grade!) and noisy classmates. Stay awake and alert by hydrating, fidgeting quietly, or sitting near the front.

Effective listening is active. Hearing is not the same as listening. Effective listening involves five steps:

• Adequately hear the lecturer.
• Process what you hear (pay attention).
• Acknowledge you've heard (feedback).
• React emotionally (engage).
• Assimilate the information (put it into context).

Become a note-taking pro. Good notes are your best review source. Take clear, organized notes using abbreviations, outlines, and margins. Pay attention to verbal and nonverbal cues from the teacher about what's important. After class, recopy notes to reinforce learning, fill gaps, and create review sheets.

8. Unlock Your Memory Potential

The skill of being able to recall what you have learned is one that has infinite value to students.

Memory is a process. Making memories involves encoding (paying attention, associating purpose), storage (hippocampi act as gateways, information is stored in chunks across brain regions), and recall (actively searching and reassembling chunks). Actively working your memory strengthens it.

Types of memory:

• Immediate: Less than a second (enhanced by attention).
• Short-term: Less than a minute (governed by PFC, enhanced by concentration, grouping, understanding).
• Long-term: Hours to years (processed via hippocampus, stored widely, enhanced by association and active processing).

Why memory fails: Lack of focus, lack of understanding, failure to see the "big picture," and lack of motivation are common culprits. To improve, pay attention, understand first, fit details into context, and convince yourself the material is important.

Six memory tools (Mnemonics): Use associations to make recall easier.

• Dates/Numbers: Translate numbers into letters to form memorable words/phrases.
• Rhyme: Use rhymes or peg systems (bun=1, shoe=2) to remember sequences.
• Places (Loci Method): Associate items with locations in a familiar place.
• Acronyms/Initialisms: Form words or phrases from the first letters of items.
• Pictures: Create weird, action-filled mental images (brain thinks in images).
• Connections: Find similarities or group items by characteristics.

9. Leverage the Power of Relationships

Often there is “no head” at work trying to learn, assimilate, or memorize information because you’re lost, bogged down, or bored by what you’re doing.

Two heads are better than none. Studying with a partner breaks monotony, increases understanding, clarifies weak areas, provides motivation, and exposes you to new study methods. It also contributes to your social well-being, one of the four crucial circles of health (Biological, Psychological, Social, Spiritual).

Choose wisely. Select a study partner based on equality and compatibility in intelligence, speed, organization, and motivation. Try studying with a few people initially to find the right fit. Stick to two, maybe three people maximum; larger groups are less productive for focused study. Avoid choosing a partner solely based on romantic interest, as this can be distracting.

Effective group study:

• Be prepared: Each person reviews notes/reading beforehand.
• Teach each other: Explaining material solidifies understanding.
• Set time limits: Stay focused and take planned breaks.
• Take turns: Systematically review material, alternating roles.
• Create test questions: Anticipate exam content together.
• Minimize distractions: Apply all good study environment rules.
• Recap and review: Summarize main points at the end.

Go to the source: Your teachers. Cultivating relationships with instructors is invaluable. Approach them before, during, and after the course to ask questions, get guidance, understand their expectations, and even get copies of notes or old exams (if permissible). Knowing their "brain type" can help you tailor your approach.

10. Conquer Test Anxiety and Excel on Exams

If a B student operates at an A level on exams, that student will see more open doors and have more choices for future goals.

Test-taking is a skill. Achieving high marks involves not just knowing the material but also mastering test preparation and test-taking techniques. Pressure is unavoidable, but you can harness it to motivate preparation rather than cause foolish behavior.

Preparation timeline:

• Weeks before: Set study schedule, study in units, review periodically, complete notes, create test questions and "big picture" sheets, ask the professor the "Four Whats" (topics, emphasis, question types, clues).
• Days before: Study with a partner, attend classes right before the exam (important clues given), maintain a good attitude, revise "big picture" sheet, cram for review (recent exposure aids retention), not first exposure.
• Day before: Quick overall review using notes and "big picture" sheets, prioritize sleep and healthy eating.
• Day of: Eat moderately, arrive early but avoid anxious crowds, find a seat away from distractions, trust yourself.

Taking the exam: Overview the test, read instructions carefully, answer known questions first, trust your first impression, take questions at face value, ask the professor for clarification if needed, and don't rush to finish. For essays, read slowly, outline, start general, be concise when sure/lengthy when unsure, manage time, and review. For objective questions, read slowly/answer quickly, beware of universals, use notation systems, and use elimination strategies when unsure.

11. Communicate Your Ideas Effectively

Writing is a skill that will serve you well not only in middle school, high school, and college, but also throughout your life.

Writing and speaking are vital. Being able to articulate your thoughts clearly in writing and speaking is a powerful skill that opens doors professionally and enhances personal interactions. These skills share many similarities in their preparation process.

Eight steps for papers/speeches:

• Schedule your time: Meet deadlines to avoid stress.
• Choose a topic from the heart: Passion makes the process enjoyable and the result engaging.
• Narrow it down: Ensure the topic fits the required length/time; avoid overly broad subjects.
• Do adequate research: Find reputable sources to support your points; take voluminous notes and keep a bibliography.
• Make an outline: Start with your thesis and main points, then add details; paraphrasing here makes writing easier.
• Discuss your ideas: Get feedback on your outline from a trusted friend or teacher before writing.
• Write a first draft: Tell your audience what you'll say, say it, then recap; focus on ideas flowing, clarity, conciseness, and maybe humor; don't edit as you go.
• Revise your work: Polish sentence structure, vocabulary, grammar, and flow; "writing is rewriting."

Public speaking tips: Overcome anxiety by picking a topic you love, revising your script, practicing in front of others or recording yourself, timing your delivery, and carrying notes (but don't rely on them too heavily). To soothe anxiety, slow your breathing, don't run away, write down fearful thoughts to challenge them, and consider calming aids if necessary.

12. Cultivate Your Whole Self for Success

The end of this book will show you that developing your “other sides,” sowing healthy seeds, and directing your pain will strengthen your overall abilities as a student and as a person.

More than just a student. While studies are important, neglecting other areas of your life leads to an unbalanced existence and hinders overall growth. A well-rounded individual is often a more effective student.

Develop your "other sides":

• Physical: Prioritize exercise, sleep (7-8 hours), and brain-healthy nutrition (quality calories, water, protein, smart carbs, healthy fats, colorful foods, clean food, eliminate allergens). Your body is the instrument of learning.
• Relational: Cultivate meaningful relationships with family, friends, and peers. These provide support, teach valuable lessons, and contribute to fulfillment. Don't let studies be an excuse to avoid potentially painful but necessary human connection.
• Interests: Pursue hobbies and extracurricular activities. These challenge different parts of you, can lead to unexpected career paths, and make you a more interesting person.

Sow healthy seeds. Your academic harvest depends on the quality of your efforts and methods, not just the quantity of time spent. Reviewing key principles like habit change, preparation, organization, seeking the big picture, effective methods, class skills, memory techniques, leveraging relationships, conquering tests, and controlling your thoughts cultivates the fertile soil of your mind. Directing the inevitable pain and challenges toward growth, rather than letting them defeat you, is crucial for perseverance and ultimate success.

Last updated: May 30, 2025