20 Secrets of Successful Students

1. Find the right roommate

Find a smart roommate. A Dartmouth study shows that a studious roommate’s habits have a positive effect on the less studious roommate’s grades. It’s the simplest way to boost GPA.

2. Wear the right outfit

Yes, clothes matter. Studies show a distinct relationship between how we dress, behave and perform. Students feel more serious when they dress up (think a lab coat or a suit) and are more attentive than when wearing sweatpants.

3. Pay Your Way (or some of it)

Students who pay their own way take their education more seriously and appreciate it more.

4. Sign up for Seminars

Skip the big lecture class and take a seminar instead. Research suggests that students listening passively learn less. Engaged discussion in a smaller seminar setting facilitates better processing of information.

5. Walk to Class

Studies indicate that walking increases creative thinking, problem-solving and drawing parallels between complex ideas. Fresh air coupled with exercise sharpens focus and may decrease symptoms of ADHD.

6. Get A Part-Time Job

Employment boosts self-confidence, sense of efficacy and facilitates a greater ability to manage time. Students with less time use that time better.

7. Debunk the “Dumb Jock” Myth

Physical fitness correlates with higher test scores. Get fit, or better yet, join a team.

8. Skip the Laptop

Writing by hand activates more regions of the brain than typing, and may even foster better memory recall. Computers in lectures reduce comprehension not just for the student using the computer, but everyone around them.

9. Eat Smart

Yogurt, vegetables, chocolate, wine, and coffee have all been shown to improve memory. Foods rich in sodium, sugar and saturated fat increase stress, depression, and negatively affect cognitive ability and inhibit memory.

10. Ask Great Questions

Asking questions is about cultivating genuine curiosity, taking ownership of the material and seeing connections and possibilities that may not be obvious. Contrary to what many believe, asking questions makes you look smarter too.

11. Chew Gum

Studies suggest that chewing gum improves focus and memory. Please don’t snap or blow bubbles. That’s just rude.

12. Sit up Straight

There is a connection between posture and cognition. A positive learning state, including good posture, is linked with better memory retention and more efficient learning. Vertical studying – sitting at a desk – is superior to horizontal learning – i.e. in bed.

13. Doodle

Research shows that doodlers are actually more engaged with speakers, teachers, and material, than their non-doodling classmates.

14. Visit a Museum

Students who visit art museums exhibit greater critical thinking skills, higher levels of social tolerance as well as increased social empathy. Looking at art also decreases stress.

15. Mono-task

Focus on one task at a time. That means turning your phone off or leaving it at home when you head to the library or class. Studies show that when people turn off email, they are more productive and focused.

16. Study Smart

Forget highlighting, underlining, rereading and summarizing. Studies show they are not efficient methods of learning. Instead, practice active recall, a research-proven method to master material. It entails actively recalling information from memory and self-testing.

17. Time Chunk

For studying, quality not quantity matters. Block out periods of time to focus. Research shows twenty-five-minute work blocks work well.

18. Have a Growth Mindset

Intelligence isn’t fixed. Those who believe that talent can be cultivated and that improvement is the result of effort and hard work tend to achieve more.

19. No All-Nighters

Skimping on sleep impacts the ability to analyze and retain information. Researchers believe improved sleep habits may be the difference between an A and a B.

20. Reflect

Studies indicate that taking a break and reflecting on one’s performance increases productivity. In a study, those who took a short break to consider what they had accomplished performed better on brain teasers than those who plowed through their tasks with no break and no reflection.

The most successful people know learning isn’t about just being in school, it is a life long process. As Henry Ford remarked, it may just be the fountain of youth:

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

I wish you all the best,

Dr. Samantha Boardman

Is Relaxing Overrated?

The media, physicians, and respected authorities on health and wellness wag their well-meaning fingers telling us to take it easy. They inform us that we need to relax more in order to save ourselves from burnout. It is the difference, they claim, between being driven and driven to death. But is it?

Relaxing may be overrated. Research consistently shows there is a link between longevity and staying busy. Dan Buettner studies people who live well into their 100s. In addition to leading active lives and having strong community ties, meaningful work is a common theme that emerges in those who live into their triple digits. For these centenarians, retirement isn’t an option.

Howard Friedman, PhD, author of The Longevity Project, an examination of a study that has followed over 1500 Americans since the 1920s, writes:

Individuals who stayed busiest stayed healthiest.  Often, those who were fully involved in their work (and worked the hardest) lived the longest.  It was not those who took a lackadaisical approach to life who thrived. On the contrary, those who persisted in their education, in their careers, and their marriages and community groups were the ones who stayed healthy and lived long.

Mastery and achievement all require a certain degree of hard work and yes, stress. As Hans Selye, who laid the foundation for stress science in the 1930s believed, stress is in fact the “salt of life,” and goes hand-in-hand with achievement and perseverance. Perhaps the key to avoiding burnout isn’t relaxing more, it is keeping things in perspective, having a connected existence and finding meaning in our lives and in what we do.

It’s how you manage hard work and the stress that accompanies it that matters. Certainly finding ways to unwind and relax is important—all I am saying is that relaxing as an end goal is overrated. Self-reflection, connecting with one’s self and loved ones, doing something that’s meaningful to others and not just ourselves matters most.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal showed an interesting graph highlighting the fact that US presidents, on average, live longer than other men of their time “despite the stress of the job.” I would argue that perhaps it is because of the stress of their job.

Given the choice of a relaxing life or a meaningful one, choose a meaningful one.

I wish you all the best,

Dr. Samantha Boardman

A Brazen Way to Get an ‘A’

The following was reportedly a bonus question on a University of Arizona Chemistry midterm:

“Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?”

Here is a brazen response from a creative student.

Please read to the end. Chemistry has never been so interesting:

“First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, ‘It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,’ and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct….. …leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting ‘Oh my God.’”

The student reportedly received a well-deserved A+.

I wish you all the best,

Dr. Samantha Boardman

Can Music Make You a Better Person

Psychologists, social scientists and even ancient philosophers have long theorized that music has the power to change our lives. None of them, however, has been able to paint a picture of just how that looks, until recently.

Psychologist in Germany set out to map out the effect of significant musical experiences and show that these moments can have positive, lasting effects. By coding the exact words used by participants asked to recall intense musical experiences (they call them IMEs), the scientists were able to create a model of how these experiences are perceived both in the moment and afterwards.

Listeners reported a sense of transcendence during IMEs, followed by a brief period of what they described as disharmony as they went “back to reality,” when the experience passed, then greater optimism and motivation in the aftermath. Many of the test subjects even claimed that intense musical experiences gave them greater insight into their spirituality. Based on their observations, the researchers believe that IMEs impact isn’t limited to during and immediately after the experience:

IMEs cause long-term changes to occur in people’s personal values, their perception of the meaning of life, social relationships, engagement, activities, and personal development.

While the researchers noted that the subject deserves further study, it’s safe to say that listening to a favorite song or even reminiscing about a wonderful night at the symphony, or concert, may do you some good

Music is good for the soul.

I wish you all the best,

Dr. Samantha Boardman

Why I’m Prescribing a Mediterranean Diet to My Patients

When I was training to become a psychiatrist, I rarely paid attention to what my patients ate. Unless the person had an eating disorder or depression-associated weight loss, their diet did not get much airtime. I couldn’t have cared less about how many frappuccinos they drank or how many bowls of Fruit Loops they ate for breakfast.

Little did I know about the link between diet and brain health. Now, nutritional psychiatry is taking off as scientists gain a better understanding of how diet affects mental health. A recent report in the highly regarded Lancet Psychiatry journal even concluded that:

The emerging and compelling evidence for nutrition as a crucial factor in the high prevalence and incidence of mental disorders suggests that diet is as important to psychiatry as it is to cardiology, endocrinology, and gastroenterology.

Here is what we know so far: A typical Western diet high in sugar, processed food, and fatty meats is not good for your mental health. In fact, research shows a strong association between this pattern of eating and depression and anxiety. Related studies show that it also appears to cause the hippocampus—the part of the brain associated with memory and learning—to shrink.

While there is no single ingredient that will put you in a better mood or prevent memory loss, a great deal of evidence suggests that following a Mediterranean diet can boost your psychological fitness. Instead of processed carbohydrates, sugar, and saturated fats, this diet consists of legumes, whole grains, fish, moderate amounts of lean meat, healthy fats like nuts and olive oil, antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, and red wine.

The evidence is clear. A study of more than 10,000 healthy Spaniards found that those who closely followed a Mediterranean diet had a 30 percent reduced risk of depression. Another study specifically linked omega-3 fatty acids in fish with these benefits to the brain. As the authors wrote:

Every year, the list of correlations between certain foods and mental well-being grows: fish and other sources of omega-3 fatty acids might help fend off psychosis and depression; fermented foods such as yogurt, pickles and sauerkraut seem to ease anxiety; green tea and antioxidant-rich fruits may help keep dementia at bay.

Now I grill my patients about what they eat and literally prescribe a Mediterranean diet. The only side effects are feeling and looking good.

I wish you all the best,

Dr. Samantha Boardman

Dress for Success: Is There a Link Between Red Sneakers and Performance?

What would you think if your lawyer showed up to a meeting in sweatpants? Or your doctor rocked a tank top and ripped jean shorts at your annual check-up? Or the President gave a press conference in an old t-shirt. It would be a little disconcerting to say the least. You might even question their competence and authority. In general, we prefer it when people wear clothes that match our expectations. We like them to dress the part.

There are, however, some major exceptions. Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino found that under certain circumstances, violating fashion rules makes people seem more powerful and competent. In the paper, The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence from Signals of Nonconformity, Gino highlights the benefits of dressing differently and not following established norms. Women shopping in luxury boutiques such as Dior and Armani who wore gym clothes were believed to be of higher social status by clerks than women who wore a dress and fur coat. Students thought more highly of a professor wearing red Converse sneakers than traditional shoes. A casually dressed unshaven teacher earned greater respect from his class than a teacher in a suit. In another scenario, people were surveyed about someone attending a black-tie event at a golf club. A man wearing a red bowtie was deemed to be a better golfer and more powerful in the community than a man wearing a regular black bowtie.

As the researcher explained:

Nonconforming behaviors can be more beneficial to someone than simply trying to fit in. In other words, when it looks deliberate, a person can appear to have a higher status and sense of competency.

When it comes to getting dressed, be an original. Feel free to break the written and unwritten rules of fashion. Yes, that means you can wear those white shoes after Labor Day!

I wish you all the best,

Dr. Samantha Boardman

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