If you haven’t studied English for a while, it can be difficult to start studying again. Maybe you’ve forgotten things, or it takes you longer to do something in English, because you’re “out of practice”.
So here are some ways that you can activate your brain, so that you can study effectively and productively! All these techniques help your brain so that you can make the most of your study time.
Warm up your brain
It’s a good idea to prepare your brain for studying. (This is similar to doing “warm up” exercises before sport.) An easy way to warm up your brain is to do something physical. Stretches are good, but any exercise will send blood to your brain. There’s even some evidence that doing something physical before an exam can help you get a better score.
Then, before you learn something new, review older information. You can test yourself on what you learnt through quizzes, and this helps to warm up, or “activate” your brain before more studying.
You can find lots of quizzes on English grammar on this page.
Develop your memory and brain power
We often do things in the same way, and doing things differently can strengthen your brain. Maybe you’ve heard about brushing your teeth with your left hand (if you’re right-handed), but you can apply this principle to studying English. For example, try new or different activities to challenge your brain:
– “teach” someone a grammar point rather than trying to “learn” it
– vary your preferred studying time (study in the evening rather than the morning)
– try different learning activities. For example, try a “tongue-twister” for pronunciation rather than doing “minimal pairs” exercises, and so on
Other ideas to develop your memory:
– involve more than one “sense”. Use your sense of hearing at the same time as using your sense of sight. An easy way to do this is to learn lyrics to songs – then sing them!
– try different memorisation techniques, like mnemonics or memory palaces. (I show you five memorisation techniques in my Advanced Vocabulary In 30 Days course.)
Make good habits
– Create (and keep) a study habit. 30 minutes a day is fantastic, but even15 – 20 minutes a day is a good amount of time to see results. (Just make sure you study at least five times a week for the best results.)
– Vary what you do. Aim to study something different every day, like grammar on Monday, vocabulary on Tuesday, etc. A little variety will help to keep you motivated, and will also mean you cover all the main areas of English.
20 minutes a day for fantastic English!
Regular study is one of the best ways to get a good level of English. In the English Fluency Club you get self-study programs AND live speaking lessons. Together, they help you to become fluent in English. Check out the details here:
The English Fluency Club