GRE Smart Books with Neil: Brain Rules by John Medina
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As a long-time instructor of all things standardized testing (GRE, GMAT, LSAT, SAT), I love reading books about math, logic, learning, skill acquisition, neurology, and psychology. In this blog series, I bring you book reviews and recommendations, as well as excerpts and summaries you can put into practice right away on your GRE journey.
Dr. John Medina is a developmental Molecular Biologist with “a lifelong fascination with how the mind reacts to and organizes information.” In his book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Home, Work, and School, Medina lays out 12 “rules”—one per chapter—that science has learned about the way the brain works, and gives (mostly) clear recommendations for what you can do with that information.
1) Survival: The human brain evolved, too.
2) Exercise: Exercise boosts brain power.
3) Sleep: Sleep well, think well.
4) Stress: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way.
5) Wiring: Every brain is wired differently.
6) Attention: We don’t pay attention to boring things.
7) Memory: Repeat to remember.
8) Sensory Integration: Stimulate more of the senses.
9) Vision: Vision trumps all other senses.
10) Music: Study or listen to boost cognition.
11) Gender: Male and female brains are different.
12) Exploration: We are powerful and natural explorers.
While some of these “rules” may seem blatantly obvious, the science behind them, as well as the great advice for how you should practice and study, makes the book a worthwhile read.
Neil’s Quick review
I like it. Brain Rules is a fun, easy read, and everything Medina Says is backed up with solid peer-reviewed research. As a learner and a teacher, I find the book delightfully inspiring in its use of anecdotes and examples—from Jack Lalanne to Frank Lloyd Wright in one chapter alone. This is a good book to read before you start your GRE journey or a good reference if you find yourself stalling out or losing your motivation. Is it perfect? Nah. I find a few of the chapters more informative than useful. For example, the chapter claiming “male and female brains are different” is interesting but ultimately frustrating, as it didn’t give me solid recommendations for how to better interact with and help my female students (for that, I suggest Deborah Tannen’s book You Just don’t Understand). Overall, it’s worth a read. If you do any presenting or teaching, the chapter on attention is amazing. I keep the book on my shelf and reread it it periodically to remind me of some big ideas that can help me structure my own learning and teaching, and the learning processes my students. If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to check out Medina’s website, which is loaded with free content.
How can this book help me prepare for the GRE?
You can easily put three of Medina’s recommendations to work right away to help your GRE score and any other learning you want to do (I’m working on the Bass guitar right now).
Exercise: Don’t work so hard that you leave out exercise. Make time for exercise and you can do wonders for your brain. According to Medina’s research, “Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in tests that measure long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving, even so-called fluid-intelligence tasks,” all of which are tested on the GRE. Studies show that inveterate couch potatoes who start doing aerobic exercise for 30 minutes two or three times a week show big cognitive improvements from exercise. How does it work? Medina writes: “Exercise gets blood to your brain, bringing it glucose for energy and oxygen to soak up the toxic electrons that are left over. It also stimulates the protein that keeps neurons connecting.” Whether you buy that science or not (seems legit to me), aerobic exercise as part of your study can only help.
Sleep: “Loss of sleep hurts attention, executive function, working memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning, and even motor dexterity.” What does this mean for your GRE score? If you’re the type of person who likes to stay up late and “cram” for an exam, you’re probably doing yourself more harm than good. Make sure you get sufficient sleep and include afternoon naps if you have to. Also, a good night’s sleep can help you solve problems, encode memories, and improve learning. So instead of staying up late to study more, just sleep on it.
Repeat to remember: According to Medina, there are four steps to memory: encoding, storage, retrieval, and forgetting. First, if you want to make a new piece of information move from short to long-term memory, you have to “encode” it. Sometimes this process happens automatically (e.g. when watching a great concert), but with GRE content, you probably have to work to commit vocabulary and math concepts to memory. The more elaborately you encode information, by contemplating its meaning, but also associated emotions and senses (especially sight), the stronger the memory will be. Then, in order to “retrieve” that information quickly and efficiently, you have to repeatedly access that memory over and over again. “Deliberately re-expose yourself to information if you want to retrieve it later…Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more elaborately, and in fixed, spaced intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the most vivid it can be.” This is why flash cards can be such an amazing tool for you, so take the time to make them.
So, it’s time to get to work: make some flashcards, go for a run, and then take a good nap. You may be surprised at how well your brain follows Medina’s rules. 📝
Find Neil’s musings helpful? Most do. Don’t forget that you can join him twice monthly for a free hour and a half study session in Mondays with Neil.
When not onstage telling jokes, Neil Thornton loves teaching you to beat the GRE and GMAT. Since 1991, he’s coached thousands of students through the GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT, and SAT, and trained instructors all over the United States. He scored 780 on the GMAT, a perfect 170Q/170V score on the GRE, and a 99th percentile score on the LSAT. Check out Neil’s upcoming GRE course offerings here or join him for a free online study session twice monthly inMondays with Neil.