Are these well known study 'tips' fact or fiction?

Study leave kicked off this month for lots of New Zealand students.

Students in years 11, 12 and 13 are typically given two to three weeks to prepare for NCEA exams, which begin on 4 November.

NCEA exams are held over three weeks, finishing with digital technologies, social studies and language papers on 28 November.

University exams also tend to begin mid-October and wrap up late November.

For those hitting the books we wanted to find out which study tips could actually work and which should go in the bin. Will 'brain food' really help? How much sleep do you need? Does cramming ever pay off? And does a healthy body really mean a healthy mind?

Food commonly considered 'brain food' like fish is good, but it won’t work on its own, nutritionist Claire Turnbull explains.

“There are lots of different foods that have nutritional benefits, but really, what we know for overall brain health and learning and energy levels is that variety is really important.”

She says protein is key, especially during exam season. Try and get some into breakfast and lunch to help you feel full and be able to concentrate without a rumbling tummy, she says. And of course always eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.

She suggests a consistent meal structure – that’s breakfast, lunch and dinner - rather than snacking - to maximise brain functionality and maintain blood sugar levels.

And stay hydrated – this has a significant impact on one’s ability to concentrate.

“Keeping well hydrated is incredibly important for your brain to function properly, so you know, having a water bottle on your desk or in your room… is definitely a good thing."

She also adds that caffeine is a concern in this age group. It compromises quality of sleep and a student’s ability to learn and memorise content, Turnbull says.

“A little bit of caffeine is okay in the early part of the day, but too much caffeine causes anxiety and it absolutely compromises your quality of sleep, and then that quality of sleep compromises the ability of your brain to convert short-term memory to long-term memory."

For high school students the general rule of thumb is eight to 10 hours, professor of fatigue management and sleep health Leigh Signal says.

“Sleep is incredibly important in helping memories and retaining information.

“It’s also really important for our emotional wellbeing and how we feel about the world and ourselves… and so if you want to feel motivated to study, then sleep is going to be that really important component to be able to stay focused and, in the zone to learn.”

Changes during puberty can also shake up internal body clocks which regulate sleep patterns, Signal explains.

“Often they just can’t fall asleep as early as they used to, and they want to sleep in a little bit more,” she says.

But Signal strongly recommends avoiding all-nighters and backs up the advice to limit caffeine in the second half of the day.

Dr Karyn O'Keeffe, senior lecturer at the Sleep/Wake Research Centre, also suggests students avoid screens one to two hours before bed.

“Not necessarily because it will stop you from getting off to sleep, because if you are tired enough you always will, but because it can affect your circadian body clock in the brain.

“It might mean that your sleep moves later, so when you wake up in the morning you don’t feel refreshed and you don’t feel ready to get out of bed.”

She says the main rule of thumb is “don’t use devices after you turn the lights out”.

According to Mohamed Alansari, senior researcher at the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, cramming is hard to do and adds unnecessary pressure.

“If you are generally stressed or anxious, [cramming] adds unrealistic and additional pressures that automatically puts people off from engaging.”

He says people often confuse cramming with revision.

“A lot of teenagers come to us and say ‘oh but last minute I go through all the content I quote on quote cram and I’m doing well in exams so surely cramming is okay’, but what people don’t realise is this is actually revision not cramming.”

Cramming is defined as trying to learn and process unusually high amounts of information, content and material in a short amount of time.

Often the content is new, he says, so students have not been exposed to it in the past.

“So when a student finds themselves the night before their exam or the week before looking up all this information and processing it with ease, the chances are they have actually engaged with it previously and they are just revising it, they are not cramming it.”

“Generally so,” Alansari says.

For example, teenagers who don’t sleep well are more likely to experience mental health difficulties, he says.

“They are more likely to have concentration issues, they may have trouble managing their emotions, which leads to disengagement, which inevitably leads to lower achievement outcomes.

“It’s sort of one of those bad chains, once you start one thing it leads to another bad thing which leads to another bad thing.”

Moving your body is very good for you during exam, Alansari says.

“It’s good for your mood, it improves your mood overall, blood circulation, and for some people it’s a nice breather, and it’s a nice way to release some of that stress and anxiety built up around studying.

“It’s all about untying those mental knots and mental hurdles that we create that stop us from prepping for exams.”

Alansari says moderate levels of stress and anxiety are a good thing and “very normal”.

“It helps with arousal and excitement about the task, and is means that you care… it leads to better achievement outcomes in the long run.”

Alansari says affirmations and mottos actually work, especially if it’s personally important and meaningful.

“So it’s not something superficial or they can’t relate to or doesn’t bring them the kind of satisfaction they want out of it.”

When finding your motto, it’s important to understand your 'why'.

“You need to have conversations with yourself, or if you are a parent, you’ve got to have conversations with your kids about finding their why or the anchor.

“That kind of helps with the motto that you are going to create and have all around you… why are you doing this in the first place.”

Not always, Alansari says, one person’s optimal study environment may not be the same as the next.

“What seems clustered or chaotic might seem extremely organised to someone else.

“It’s all about your relationship to that space and how your perceive it.”

When it comes to sound in that space, it might be worth turning off the tunes. Alansari says literature suggests music can overload someone’s sensory system, which can prevent focus during study.

However, he says the rule of thumb is “within reason and whatever works for you”.

“You know yourself better than anyone else, so create an environment that suits your study habits.”

Nutritionist Turnbull adds that it's best to avoid eating at your desk if possible.

“I would recommend keeping food separate from your study environment, but rather using something to eat as a mindful break.”

Nic Hill, headmaster at Christchurch Boys' High School, has bad news for anyone who thinks they can use osmosis as a study hack - ideas won’t just seep into your brain.

“Our learning support director when he was at university, he heard about this osmosis thing, so he printed out his notes, put it in his bed and slept in them – didn’t work.”

Hill says study shouldn’t be easy and must be specific to the test or exam.

“If you are training to run a marathon you don’t swim, you run. If you training to answer calculus questions, you don’t read your calculus book you practice answering calculus questions…

“Study should be hard work, you should be tired… the exam should be hard and you should walk out feeling like you have worked hard.”

Hill says a study tip that is “absolutely guaranteed” to help is mind maps.

“Mind maps are getting a bit of paper and diagrammatically putting your knowledge on the paper but focus it towards answering a question.

“So it’s not everything you know, it’s everything you know to meet the standard to answer the question.”

He also points people towards the NZQA website for notes that should guide one’s study.

“On the NZQA website there are things called assessment specifications and explanatory notes that tell you what the exam is going to be like.”