The most important thing you’re going to need in order to pass a final exam is your brain. This remarkable 3-pound organ located between our ears is composed of about 100 billion brain cells called neurons. These neurons create, relay and transmit electrical signals to communicate with each other.

Neuroscientists like to call this “cognition.” A single neuron can connect with up to 10,000 other neurons in our brain. Complexity is an understatement.

When studying for finals, you are strengthening these connections, as well as allowing for even more distant connections or “associations” to be made.

To simplify, the more you activate these new connections and associations through studying, the more likely you will remember that particular piece of knowledge during your final exam.

The following information contains a few helpful studying tips prepared by your friends in the MSU Neuroscience Club Outreach Committee that are in favor of healthy and strong memory formation.

Studying Basics

Do not cram! Instead, schedule your studying in advance. Planning ahead for more studying time allows for more repetition and rehearsal of your material. Increased repetition allows for more activation of these memories, thus allowing for a stronger, more deeply rooted memory of your material.

Take breaks! If you find yourself rereading the same paragraph over and over, stop before you waste any more time. Give your brain at least 10 minutes to regenerate its memory building supplies.

Guard your Sleep

Do not pull all-nighters. Your brain has a natural sleep-wake cycle, called the circadian rhythm. During a healthy rhythm, attention, cognition and memory formation are at their best.

How do you get in rhythm? Fall asleep and wake up at the same times every day for at least a week. Once in rhythm, your brain will naturally start to understand when it needs to go to sleep and wake up. Falling asleep will become a breeze.

Early in the morning, your brain will start working hard to prepare you for your wake-up. So when it’s actually time to, you’ll wake up refreshed and ready to start the new day.

If you’ve accumulated a sleep deficit, the best thing to do is to take a power nap. A power nap is designed to prevent you from going beyond the first two of the four stages of normal sleep.

Going beyond these two stages and then waking up will cause you to become even more tired than you were before your nap. Studies have shown that naps under 30 minutes are most effective at reviving overall cognitive performance, attention and wakefulness.

Avoid Distractions

Avoid distraction, especially early in the day.

Distracting yourself early in your studies can feel more rewarding to your brain than studying. So if you’ve distracted yourself once, your brain will constantly demand and seek that reward again and again after you go back to studying. By doing this, you’re setting yourself up for a tough inner battle that can be hard to win throughout the rest of the day. As the old adage goes, first work, then play.

Avoid Multitasking

Break up your work and do things one at a time.

Students who juggle multiple things, such as texting, Netflix, Facebook and other media while doing homework, perform significantly worse on simple cognitive tests than those who prefer to accomplish tasks one at a time. Over time, multitaskers show substantial decreases in cognitive control, attention and memory acquisition compared to those who take on a single task at a time.

Brain Food

Foods rich in antioxidants, fatty acids and essential vitamins have been shown to improve brain health. Such foods include blueberries, spinach, whole grains, nuts, tea, coffee, salmon, avocados, beans and dark chocolate.

There are also certain foods that are known to negatively impact and “fog up” your thinking.

Foods that are high in fats — especially trans fat, salt, fructose and processed proteins — can cause this “brain fog.” At all costs, avoid eating junk food, salty food and foods high in sugar — especially on the day of a test. These foods can cause detrimental effects in your overall mental clarity.

Exercise

Along with increasing the strength of your heart, lungs and muscles, exercise makes your brain stronger too. At least 30 minutes of cardio exercise has shown to provide immediate improvements to mental clarity, attention, mood and memory formation.

The long-term effects of exercise are remarkable as well. A plethora of studies have shown that people who exercise on a daily basis are known to have heavier brains, lower rates of anxiety and depression, better attention and higher test scores compared to those who don’t. So, get out and run.

Conor Peleman is a neuroscience senior. Reach him at pelemanc@msu.edu.