Increasing Concentration

"I can't concentrate." "My mind wanders when I try to study."
Lack of concentration is one of the most frequent complaints heard on a college campus.

Concentration: the ability to direct one's thinking in whatever direction one would intend.
We all have the ability to concentrate -- sometimes. Think of the times when you were engrossed in a super novel. While playing your guitar or piano. In an especially good game of cards. At a spellbinder of a movie. Total concentration.
But at other times your thoughts are scattered, and your mind races from one thing to another. It's for those times that you need to learn and practice concentration strategies. They involve (1) learning mental selfregulation and (2) arranging factors that you can immediately control.


Training Your Wandering Mind :
Learning Mental Self-Regulation for Improved Concentration

Improving concentration is learning a skill.
Learning a skill takes practice... whether it is shooting baskets, dancing, typing, writing, or concentrating. Do not confuse these strategies with medicine. When you take a medicine, it acts on the body without your having to help it.

Concentration strategies require practice. You probably will begin to notice some change within a few days. You'll notice considerable improvement within four to six weeks of training your mind with some of the skills that follow. And that's a short period of time considering how many years you've spent not concentrating as well as you'd like.

Begin by practicing these techniques:

Be Here Now,
The Spider Technique, and
Worry Time.

Then try any of the Other Mental Strategies that sound promising to you. Give them an honest try -- use them for at least three days. If you notice a little change, that suggests that the skill will be valuable and, with continued practice, will greatly improve your concentration. There are also Other Factors You Can Change now in your environment that may be helpful.

Be Here Now

This deceptively simple strategy is probably the most effective. When you notice your thoughts wandering astray, say to yourself

"Be here now"

and gently bring your attention back to where you want it.

FOR EXAMPLE:
You're in class and your attention strays from the lecture to all the homework you have, to a date, to the fact that you're hungry. As you say to yourself

"Be here now"

you focus back on the lecture and maintain your attention there as long as possible.
When it wanders again, repeat

"Be here now"

and gently bring your attention back.
You may notice that your mind often wanders (as often as several times a minute at times). Each time just say

"Be here now"

and refocus. Do not try to keep particular thoughts out of your mind. For example, as you sit there, close your eyes and think about anything you want to for the next three minutes except cookies. Try not to think about cookies...When you try not to think about something, it keeps coming back. ("I'm not going to think about cookies. I'm not going to think about cookies.")

When you find your thoughts wandering, gently let go of that thought and, with your "Be here now," return to the present.
You might do this hundreds of times a week, if you're normal. But, you'll find that the period of time between your straying thoughts gets a little longer every few days. So be patient and keep at it. You'll see some improvement!

The Spider Technique

This is another strategy that sounds deceptively simple. But it is the basis for concentration because it helps you to maintain your concentration and not give in to distractions.
Hold a vibrating tuning fork next to a spider web. The spider will react and come looking for what is vibrating the web. Do it several times and the spider "wises up" and knows there's no bug and doesn't come looking.
You can learn that. Train yourself not to give in to distractions. When someone enters the room, or when a door slams, do not allow yourself to participate. Rather, keep your concentration on what's in front of you.

Use the "Be here now" technique to help you regain concentration when you do become distracted momentarily.

Practice this in a variety of settings, such as:
In lecture classes practice letting people move or cough without having to look at them - just let them "be out there" while you form a tunnel between you and the lecturer.
When talking with someone keep your attention on that person, look at his face, and note what is being said. Let the rest of the world just be "out there."

Worry or Think Time

Set aside a specific time each day to think about the things that keep entering your mind and interfering with your concentration. For example, set 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. as your worry/think time. When your mind is side-tracked into worrying during the day, remind yourself that you have a special time for worrying. Then, let the thought go for the present, and return your focus to your immediate activity.

There's research on this, believe it or not! Persons who use a worry time find themselves worrying 35 percent less of the time within four weeks. That's a big change!
The important steps are:

(1) set a specific time each day for your time,

(2) when you become aware of a distracting thought, remind yourself that you have a special time to think about them,

(3) let the thought go, perhaps with "Be here now," and

(4) be sure to keep that appointment with yourself at that special time to think on the distracting thoughts of the day.

Other Mental Strategies :

Tallying your mental wanderings. Have a 3 x 5 inch card handy. Draw two lines dividing the card into three sections. Label them "morning," "afternoon," and "evening."
Each time your mind wanders, make a tally in the appropriate section. Keep a card for each day. As your skills build, you'll see the number of tallies decrease. And that's exciting!

Rest/Stretch Time . Remember to take short breaks. Lectures are usually 50 minutes long, and that's about the length of time most people can direct their attention to one task. But, that's just an average. Your concentration time-span might be less (20-35 minutes) or longer (perhaps 90 minutes).

When you take a break, oxygenate (get more oxygen to your brain)! Get up and walk around the room for a couple of minutes. When we sit for long periods, blood tends to pool in our lower body and legs (because of gravity). Our calves serve as pumps for our blood when we walk, getting blood flowing more evenly throughout the body. As a result, more oxygen is carried to the brain and you are more alert.

Change Topics. Many students aid their concentration by changing the subject they are studying every one to two hours. You pay more attention to something that's different. And you can give yourself that variety by changing the subject you study regularly.

Incentives and Rewards. Give yourself a reward when you've completed a task. The task might be small, such as stay with a difficult assignment until you've finished. An appropriate reward might be a walk around the block, a glass of water, or reading the day's cartoon in the newspaper..
For those special projects such as term papers, design projects, or long book reviews, set up a special incentive. Upon completion, plan to give yourself a special pizza, movie, or an evening of TV.
Incentives and rewards can be overdone. Use them for the especially difficult assignment or longer projects. When you do use them, make the rewards something you ordinarily would not give yourself.

Increasing Your Activity Level. Your concentration wanders more easily if you just read an assignment straight through. Instead, take the heading for each section and turn it into a question. For this section, that would be, "How can I increase my activity level while studying?" Then study that section to answer that question. Do this routinely. The questions give us a focus for each section and increase our involvement.

Also, as you study an assignment, make a list of questions you can bring to class. Listen to the lecture for answers to those questions.
Shift position in your seat every so often. Don't sit there frozen in one position. The move will help keep the blood circulating, sending more oxygen to your brain and helping you remain alert.
Skydivers, rock climbers, tightrope walkers, and lion tamers don't have trouble concentrating! You probably haven't done any of those. But, think back to some time in your life when you had that calm, total concentration. Close your eyes and recreate that time. Visualize it, if you can. Feel how you felt at that time. Now, when you begin studying tonight, recapture that focused attention and see how long you can hold it. Does it feel as if that might work? If so, begin all your study sessions with the feeling and see how long you can maintain it. With practice, your concentration will get better and better.

FACTORS YOU CAN CONTROL NOW !

Chart your energy levels. When is your energy level at its highest? When are your low energy times? Study your most difficult courses at your high energy times. Sharpest early in the evening? Study your most difficult course then. Later in the evening? Work on your easier courses or the ones you enjoy the most.
Now that's not what most students do. Instead, they put off the tough courses until later in the evening when they are more fatigued. It's more difficult to concentrate when you're tired. Reverse that. Hard courses at peak energy times. Easier ones later. This alone can help to improve your concentration.

Light. Make sure you have adequate light. It's essential to keeping your attention focused on what you are studying. So your eyes don't tire, use indirect lights (to avoid glare) and ones that don't flicker.

Chair and Table. Sit on a not overly comfortable chair at a table, not sprawled out on your bed. Your bed is where you sleep and dream.

Posture. Sit up straight to aid concentration rather than sprawled out in a similar-to-sleep position.

Clear away distractions. Don't have pictures where you'll notice them when looking up from your studies. Also, put out of sight any material for other courses. Seeing it can panic you a little about all you have to do. So put it out of sight.

Signs. Don't hesitate to put signs on your door. "I need the grades. Please let me study." "Please do not disturb." "Concentrating is tough. Help me by staying away." Some inconsiderate person will interrupt. Ask them to come back later. If they don't leave, practice ignoring them (See the Spider Technique above).

Take your phone off the hook. Yes, you might miss a call. But developing your concentration skills is important. It will be useful for the remainder of your life.

Where you study can make a difference. Think about where you concentrate best. Often it's difficult to study where you live, so look for a corner in the library that's quiet and facing a wall (not a door with people coming and going or a window with a distracting view). Some students study better where they live. Find the place or places you find most conducive to concentration.

Background music? Research on productivity with music versus without music is inconclusive. If you think you need music, choose some with no lyrics and with relatively monotonous melodies. Baroque music is the best example. Something with words, a definite beat, a catchy melody, or one of your favorite pieces can easily divert your attention, often without your being aware of it at first.
Perhaps you might try "white noise" -- it masks out environmental noises and helps minimize distractions. Your radio can be an inexpensive source of white noise. Switch to FM and team to the high end of your dial. You should get a steady static or form of white noise, unless your radio is an especially good one. Or keep a fan running.

Enough time for everything? Ever find your study of one subject interrupted by worries about getting assignments in another course done? Or waste time trying to decide what to study? Take an hour or so and do a little planning.
First, estimate for each course the number of hours you'll need to study each week. Then work up a flexible time schedule. Include all your obligations (classes, meetings, meals, laundry, etc.). Then allocate specific time periods for studying particular subjects. When studying one course you won't worry so much about others because you'll know that you have time for them.

Be flexible in your schedule. If you need an extra hour on a subject, continue with it and then do a little juggling to make up the study time you encroached on. You'll probably need to modify your schedule from time to time.
If you would rather schedule smaller chunks of time, each Sunday plan the following week and change from week to week. Check to be sure you're getting study time in on all your courses.

Rewards for Concentrating. In summary, the rewards for improving your concentration can be priceless. You'll be delighted at your ability to recall information given in lectures. You'll find yourself accomplishing more in the same period of time. It can even affect your social life. Your special friend will appreciate your undivided attention and, in return, will give you undivided attention. So will other friends. Best of all, concentration skills help your self confidence because you will realize how much more is possible when you can give your total attention.

Lateral Thinking Puzzles are great fun and a good way to stimulate a group of children or students and can help to boost your intellect but they are also used by innovators and inventors to create new ideas and products for companies.

Lateral Thinking Puzzles, unlike most puzzles, are inexact. In a sense, they are a hybrid between puzzles and storytelling. In each puzzle, some clues to a scenario are given, but the clues don't tell the full story. Your job is to fill in the details and complete the story. Obviously, there is usually more than one answer to any given puzzle, but, in general, only one solution is truly satisfying.

The Best IQ Question

This Question was developed and used in Japan for job and university IQ tests. Mainly used in the IT sector. This test is solved in around 15mins . Let's see can you get every one on the other side?

The Question is :

There are some people at one shore of the river and a boat. They have to cross the river. The people consists of  a Mother with 2 daughters, a Father with 2 sons , a Thief and a Police officer.
The Rules are :
1. Only two people can travel at once through the boat.
2. Only the Police officer and the parents can drive the boat across the river . The children and the thief can't drive the boat.
3. Daddy can not stay with the girls without the presence of the mother, otherwise he will kill them.
4. Mum cant stay with the boys without the presence of the father, otherwise she will kill them.
5. The arrested Thief cannot stay with any of the family members without the Police officer, otherwise he will kill anyone of them.
6. These rules apply on both the shores of the river.
7. The Police officer can only prevent the thief from killing anyone (if they are on same shore) , he can't prevent the family members from killing if above conditions is violated even when he is on the same shore.

Now , By what method and order will you make everyone cross the river safely so that no one kills anyone and no one dies ?

A Mind Boggling IQ Question

There were 5 persons standing at one side of a bridge on a pitch dark night. All of Them have to cross the bridge. The speeds of all persons are different and they take 1 sec , 3 sec , 6 sec, 8 sec , 12 sec  respectively to cross the bridge. Only 2 persons at most can cross the bridge at a time, that only using the Lamp to see in the dark, without it no one can cross it. This means if 2 persons go with the lamp for the first time then one of them has to return back to handover the lamp. The Lamp will glow for a total of 30 sec, which means all of them has to cross the bridge in 30s . Also when  2 persons are crossing the bridge both the persons will walk at the speed of slower one, which means if  6 sec person is travelling with 12 sec person then it will take 12 sec for both to reach the other end. Also the time during handing over will also be counted as the lamp will glow at that time also which means if 6s and 12s goes , and 6s returns then total time will be 24s. Now, tell in what order and pairs will all of them cross the bridge and in what time ?

A Mathematical Puzzle

Once in a marriage party people from three castes arrived namely The Brahmans , The Rajputs and The Muslims. The food arrangement at the party consisted 100 plates for 100 people . The Brahmans said that each one of them will eat 4 plates. The Rajputs said that each one of them will eat 2 plates. The Muslims then said that 4 of them can eat from 1 plate. The Number of plates and people cannot be changed then find the number of Brahmans , Rajputs and Muslims that were at the party so that all of them ate the food as per conditions.

SUCCESS PLAN ::::: BETTER REVISION

We remember only 18% of what we have learnt initially, after 24 hours and we tend to forget rest of 82%. This is a very important fact for you to remember. We will discuss below how can prevent this loss by using the technique of Systematic Revision which is a programmed pattern of review.

The human brain has 1500 crore neurons or brain cells. Each single brain cell makes connection with 5000 to 10,000 other brain cells. The brain can be imagined to be a huge telephone network. When we learn something, new connections are created in the brain. Repetition strengthens that network.

Famous author Tony Buzan recommends Systematic Revision like this. The first review should take place 10 minutes after a one hour learning period and should itself take 10 minutes. This will keep the recall high for approximately one day, when the next review should take place, this time for a period of 2 to 4 minutes. After this, recall will probably be retained for approximately a week, when another 2 minute review can be completed followed by a further review after about one month.

Systematic Revision is an extremely powerful scientific technique for transferring information from the short-term memory to long-tern memory. This technique Improves your learning, thinking and remembering.

SUCCESS PLAN ::::: REMEMBER IN A BETTER WAY

In order to reduce or remove the causes of forgetting and so be able to remember better we have to

1. Get a strong impression by paying careful attention.

We must obtain a deep Impression Of the mind of what we wish to remember. The attention must be concentrated on only one thing at a time to the exclusion of everything else.
If you want to concentrate on something, you must feel that It matters to you. You must be interested in it. It must evoke your enthusiasm. The deeper and more permanent the interest the more sustained the attention.

2. Repeat under conditions in which repetition is effective.

Psychologists have discovered a number of conditions under which repeating what we wish to remember helps us to remember it. Those conditions are

(a) You remember better if you understand what you repeat (better comprehension).

b) You remember better if you study a little but often (spaced learning-have frequent breaks while studying)

Do not study more than half an hour continuously without any break. Give a break for every half an hour. A five minute break is good enough. Actually, we remember better at the beginning and at the end of a learning period. We remember less during the middle of learning period. It shows that if you have four learning of each 30 minutes in approximately in a 2 hours session, then there are 4 beginnings and 4 ends which correspond to high learning and high memory.

In the 5 minute break period, you may get up and walk or you may close your eyes and relax. You must remember two important aspects of  break :
(1) you must relax
(ii) you must continue study after about 5 minutes.

Relaxation results in increased blood flow to your brain, and that means you function at higher intelligence.

SUCCESS PLAN ::::: EFFECTIVE LEARNING

I. Always make an effort to understand the study material / lessons,
the principles which underlie it.

II. Instead of reading and rereading, read and then try to recall. The most popular way of doing a thing is not always the best way. For instance, People may expect to remember a piece of material after reading it once - or after reading it and then re-reading it.

Both methods are inadequate, the first because it is an uneconomical use of time. Research has shown that a second reading brings only 7 per cent more comprehension, while a third one adds only another 1 percent. The time spent on rereading is out of proportion to the gain that can be expected from it. A best method for super learning is P-V formula.

This P-V formula is your key to more effective study. Established by experimental research on learning methods.

(i) P stands for Preview : Browse through the study material / lessons to get a general idea of what it is about. Close the book and think about what you have gathered from your preview.

(ii) Q stands for Question : Ask yourself a few questions which you want your reading to answer. Some authors suggest such questions at the beginning of a chapter. If your author doesn’t, think of your own.

(iii) R stands for Read : Read the material and make sure that you understand it. Underline key words and phrases. Think about what you have read. Assess the relative importance of its various features.

(iv) S stands for Summarize : Make notes on what you read (create a Mind Map)

(v) T stands for Test : Test yourself on what you have read by using the information to answer the questions you asked under Q(above)- Answer the questions and problems set by your teacher Or by your text book author. Answer questions set In earlier exam papers. Discuss the subject with your classmates.

(vi) U stands for Use : Try to put material to some practical use In everyday affairs.

(vii) V stands for Visualize : Picture the ideas in your mind’S eye or visualize the actual pages of the textbook Or notebook.

Logical Reasoning

ANALYTICAL ABILTIY    

Directions (Q. 1-5): Below the  letters and their numeric codes are given and  that of some conditions are 
to be followed while codifying the given letter groups in each question. Study  them and find out
the correct numeric coded form of the given letter group in each question. If none of the coded
forms is correct, your answer will be (d) i .e. ‘none of these’.
  Letters  :   M Q I N E Y U G R
  Numeric Codes   :    2  5  3 7 1 8  4  6  9
  
  Conditions:
  (i)   If the first and last letters are vowels both are to be coded as $. 
  (ii)  If the second letter is a vowel and the third is a consonant a single code is to be used and both
are to be coded jointly as %
  (iii) If the first letter is a conson ant and the last letter is a vowel both are to be code as?

1.  UNGRE                                
  (a)  $769$      (b)  4769$  
  (c)  47691      (d)  none of these

2.  EINUM
  (a)  1%72      (b)  0%42  
  (c)  1374?      (d)  none of these

3.  GENIR
  (a)  ?173?      (b)  6%39  
  (c)  6%79      (d)  none of these

4.  ENIMY
  (a)  1%28      (b)  ?732?  
  (c)  17328      (d)  none of these

5.  QUERI
  (a)  5%93      (b)  ?413?  
  (c)  ?419?      (d)  none of these

6.  Vinita bought a watch with 24% discount on the selling price. If the watch cost her Rs. 779. What
is the original selling price of  the watch?
  (a)  Rs. 1,000      (b)  Rs. 950  
  (c)  Rs. 1,040      (d)  none of these

7.  Samantha, Jessica and Roseline begin to Jog around a circular stadium, they complete their
revolutions in 84 s, 56 s and 63 s respectively. After how many seconds will they be together at
the starting point?
  (a)  336      (b)  504  
  (c)  252      (d)  cannot be determined
             
8.  A sum of money is to be divided amongst A, B and C in the respective ratio of 
3 : 4 : 5 and another sum of money is to be divided between E and F equally. If F got Rs. 1,050
less than A, how much amount did B receive?
  (a)  Rs. 750      (b)  Rs. 2,000  
  (c)  Rs. 1,500      (d)  cannot be determined


9.  16 men can complete a piece of work in 8 days. In how many days can 12 men complete the same 
piece of work?
  (a)  10      (b)  28/3
  
  (c)  32/3      (d) 34/3

10.  If the numerator of a fraction is increased by 200% and the denominator is increased by 160%, the
resultant fraction is  7/13 . What is the original fraction?
  (a) 7/15      (b) 2/15

  (c) 8/15      (d) 5/7




ANALYTICAL ABILITY
1.  (a)  2.  (d)  3.  (b)   4.  (c)  5.  (c)
6.  (d)  7.  (b)   8.  (d)  9.  (c)  10. (a)

Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart ?

IS GEORGE W. BUSH stupid? It's a question that occupied a good many minds of all political persuasions during his turbulent eight-year presidency. The strict answer is no. Bush's IQ score is estimated to be above 120, which suggests an intelligence in the top 10 per cent of the population. But this, surely, does not tell the whole story. Even those sympathetic to the former president have acknowledged that as a thinker and decision-maker he is not all there. Even his loyal speechwriter David Frum called him glib, incurious and "as a result ill-informed". The political pundit and former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough accused him of lacking intellectual depth, claiming that compared with other US presidents whose intellect had been questioned, Bush junior was "in a league by himself". Bush himself has described his thinking style as "not very analytical".

How can someone with a high IQ have these kinds of intellectual deficiencies? Put another way, how can a "smart" person act foolishly? Keith Stanovich, professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, has grappled with this apparent incongruity for 15 years. He says it applies to more people than you might think. To Stanovich, however, there is nothing incongruous about it. IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties, he says, including logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity - how much information you can hold in mind.

But the tests fall down when it comes to measuring those abilities crucial to making good judgements in real-life situations. That's because they are unable to assess things such as a person's ability to critically weigh up information, or whether an individual can override the intuitive cognitive biases that can lead us astray.

This is the kind of rational thinking we are compelled to do every day, whether deciding which foods to eat, where to invest money, or how to deal with a difficult client at work. We need to be good at rational thinking to navigate our way around an increasingly complex world. And yet, says Stanovich, IQ tests - still the predominant measure of people's cognitive abilities - do not effectively tap into it. "IQ tests measure an important domain of cognitive functioning and they are moderately good at predicting academic and work success. But they are incomplete. They fall short of the full panoply of skills that would come under the rubric of 'good thinking'."
IQ isn't everything

"A high IQ is like height in a basketball player," says David Perkins, who studies thinking and reasoning skills at Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It is very important, all other things being equal. But all other things aren't equal. There's a lot more to being a good basketball player than being tall, and there's a lot more to being a good thinker than having a high IQ."

IQ tests and their proxies, which are designed to measure a factor known as general intelligence, are used by many businesses and colleges to help select the "best" candidates, and also play a role in schools and universities, in the form of SAT tests in the US and CATs in the UK. "IQ tests determine, to an important degree, the academic and professional careers of millions of people in the US," Stanovich says in his book, What Intelligence Tests Miss (Yale University Press, 2008). He challenges the "lavish attention" society bestows on such tests, which he claims measure only a limited part of cognitive functioning. "IQ tests are overvalued, and I think most psychologists would agree with that," says Jonathan Evans, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Plymouth, UK.

Indeed, IQ scores have long been criticised as poor indicators of an individual's all-round intelligence, as well as for their inability to predict how good a person will be in a particular profession. The palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould claimed in The Mismeasure of Man in 1981 that general intelligence was simply a mathematical artefact and that its use was unscientific and culturally and socially discriminatory. Howard Gardner at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has been arguing - controversially - for more than 25 years that cognitive capacity is best understood in terms of multiple intelligences, covering mathematical, verbal, visual-spatial, physiological, naturalistic, self-reflective, social and musical aptitudes.

Yet unlike many critics of IQ testing, Stanovich and other researchers into rational thinking are not trying to redefine intelligence, which they are happy to characterise as those mental abilities that can be measured by IQ tests. Rather, they are trying to focus attention on cognitive faculties that go beyond intelligence - what they describe as the essential tools of rational thinking. These, they claim, are just as important as intelligence to judgement and decision-making. "IQ is only part of what it means to be smart," says Evans.

A Mind Boggling IQ Question

Facts:

1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colours
2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality..
3. These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet.
4. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same drink.

 

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in a red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the house right in the centre drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbour who drinks water.

The question for the test is ... WHO KEEPS THE FISH?