TECNICA DI CONCENTRAZIONE

Per applicare questa tecnica di concentrazione dovrai seguire alcuni semplici passi:
1. Immagina di stringere in mano un mandarino immaginario. Concentrati sui dettagli: immagina la
consistenza del mandarino, il suo odore, il suo peso, la sua temperatura.
2. Passa il mandarino da una mano all’altra, saggiandone ogni piccola sfumatura.
3. Ora afferra il mandarino con la tua mano destra (la sinistra per i mancini!) e portalo a toccare la parte
posteriore della tua testa. Lascia il mandarino in questa posizione: è un mandarino magico, non
preoccuparti non cadrà.
4. Chiudi gli occhi e lascia che il mandarino galleggi in equilibrio là dove lo hai lasciato. Concentrati sul
tuo stato fisico e mentale. Probabilmente ti sentirai rilassato ma concentrato allo stesso tempo.
5. Sempre con gli occhi chiusi immagina che il tuo campo visivo si espanda e riesca ad abbracciare tutto
ciò che ti circonda.
Le tue risorse mentali sono preziose, ogni volta che ti siedi di fronte ad un libro di testo devi
farlo come se fosse per te l’unica occasione per apprendere quello che stai studiando.
Ogni volta che devi leggere un nuovo libro di testo o delle dispense, utilizza una penna o una matita come
“puntatore”; in casi estremi puoi utilizzare anche un dito!

VISUALIZZAZIONE
Ecco 3 semplici passi per una tecnica di visualizzazione efficace:
1. Definisci il tuo obiettivo. Il fatto che concentrarsi esclusivamente sul risultato finale
sia controproducente, non significa che tu non debba avere chiaro in mente il tuo obiettivo! Se non
hai idea di come definire il tuo obiettivo, leggi questo articolo; in alternativa puoi usare
lo stratagemma della promessa.
2. Immagina il processo per raggiungere il tuo obiettivo. Definito il tuo traguardo, inizia a pensare
quali azioni devi intraprendere per raggiungerlo. Non ti proiettare troppo in là nel futuro: pensa alle
azioni da compiere questo mese, questa settimana, domani.
3. Immagina te stesso compiere queste azioni. Ogni giorno visualizza per almeno 5 minuti te stesso
mentre compi le azioni necessarie a raggiungere i tuoi obiettivi. Immagina di essere estremamente
motivato mentre completi le tue attività. Immagina la semplicità e la naturalezza con cui porti a
termine i tuoi impegni.

SPACED REPETITION
To better understand spaced repetition and how to put it to practice, here is a 4 step guide to using spaced
repetition:
1. Within 20-24 hours of initially taking in new information, review the notes that you originally
took. When reviewing your notes, look away from the notes after a quick glance and try to recall the
important points. There is a difference rereading and recalling. Rereading the material does not form
as good of a memory as trying to recall the material from memory.
2. Within a day after the first review (step 1), try to quickly recall the information without relying on
the notes as much. Try to recall the information when taking a walk, or just simply sitting down. You
can increase the efficiency by making note cards (or flash cards) of main ideas and then quickly
testing yourself of the concepts.
3. After step 2, try to quickly recall the material every 24-36 hours for the next several days. These
recalls do not have to be lengthy, they can be quick recall of the material while walking to class or
eating. You can also try to look at your notes again quickly during this stage and try to practice recall
while working with your notes. While trying to recall the ideas, it is a great idea to recall it in a
quiz/test format, meaning you should ask yourself questions to see if you can can come up with the
answer. This is where using flash cards is going to be important because you can just put the answer
on the back side.
 4. Then several days before the big test, take out the material and begin recalling and studying it
again. The rule of thumb for any big test is to study one week out. This way, you are able to
reconsolidate the information if need be and give your brain time to (re)process the concepts.
Tip #1: Research has shown that it can be especially useful to review material shortly before you go to sleep.
Sleep is the time when your brain is working hard to try to sort and consolidate all the information you have
taken in throughout the day, sorting out what’s important and what’s not.
Tip #2: Your brain needs time to absorb and process the information. That is what spaced repetition does. It
allows for time for your brain to retain the idea, process the concept, to consolidate and chunk the
information, and build neural pathways to other related concepts. Studying last minute, after you have
forgotten everything does not allow your brain to retain the information and is an extremely ineffective
method. That is why many people forget the information as soon as the test is over.
Tip #3: In addition to repeating the ideas in your head, the ideas must have some type of meaning to you if
you are to store it in your permanent memory bank. This means that in addition to repeating it in spaced
intervals, you must also associate the learned material to an already established association in your
brain. This can be done with memory devices (such as a memory palace or mnemonic device) or by
establishing the connection between the new idea you are trying to learn and an old idea that you already
understand well.
Tip #4: When learning new material, it is helpful to use multiple modalities of learning by writing the idea
down using hand-writing, saying it out loud, and using your imagination to turn the idea into something
memorable (such a mnemonic device or a memorable visual).
Tip #5: Repeating something you already learnt or know very well is easy. It can bring the illusion of
competence; that you’ve mastered the full material when you actually just know the easy stuff. Balance
your studies and focus on the more difficult (deliberate practice). This sets the difference between a good
student and a great student.

SQRRR
Follow SQRRR or SQ3R to read a chapter or whatever you are trying to memorise. SQRRR means Survey,
Question, Read, Recite and Review.
1. Survey: In this step you need to survey the entire chapter thoroughly which includes reading its
introduction, summary, all major and minor headings. This will give your brain an idea about "what
you are actually going to read?".
2. Question: After surveying the chapter your brain gets ready to feed knowledge. Now start asking
yourself questions (Better to write them down) over headings, sub-headings and other important
stuff you found while surveying.
3. Read: It is the most important part of SQRRR. Here you read the chapter and try to answer the
questions you just wrote. Always read with finger technique (Finger on the line you study). Start
making more questions and answer them.
4. Recite: In this step you need to recall all the major points and questions orally
5. Review: Here you need to recall everything in the chapter and pertain the forgotten key words.

INTERLEAVING: MULTIPLE TASKS A DAY

Interleaving is learning multiple related concepts in a mixed way. You take your topic A and then spend ‘mini-
blocks’ of 20 mins on A, 20 on B, 20 on C. Plan your study as ABC ABC ABC or get creative- ABC, ACB, BCA. All
of these should be short ‘interleaved’ sessions and you should repeat the study pattern over a long period of
time. Not in a single stretch. Use this study technique for topics that are related, not disparate. The more
related A, B, C are, the better it is. Basically, study in parallel and not in series. This way, learning for all 3
topics will occur parallel to each other over time; something that is perfect for school and college level
science learning.
 NOTE TAKING
For non-technical classes, our note-taking strategy is Question/Evidence/Conclusion. Instead of taking
unprocessed notes, then forming questions after for recall, we write the questions directly. Each bullet point
contains one question and evidence to support the following conclusion. We are also forming our study
guides during the lecture. Study guides are our recall aid - we copy the question from each block of our
Question/Evidence/Conclusion notes. The study guide should be a smaller paper that you can carry around.
This requires intense concentration. Prepare yourself beforehand and sleep well. At the end of the lecture,
we have our notes in QEC format, and our study guide which is simply a transcript of each question from our
notes. You should review your study guide before the next day starts - ideally in the next 24 hours. Put aside
ten minutes to do so, and answer the questions. You can do this anywhere - while walking, in the train... The
important thing is to do this consistently, and it is the hardest part of this method. If you don't get the material
now, you will have to review it later on, costing you time.