6 Tips On How To Checkmate Your Exams
Organize Your Mind Like Chess Grandmaster and Red Bull Athlete, Tania Sachdev, International Master, and Woman Grandmaster.
Whatever kind of student you are, exams loom like a rumbling cloud of frustration and stress. What if we told you there is a way to put out that fire by fine-tuning your mind into the perfect studying machine?
You just need to learn how to think a little differently. You need to think like a chess grandmaster. And for that, you need to listen to chess champion, Tania Sachdev, International Master and Woman Grandmaster.
After all, few sports require a clearer, sharper mind than professional chess. And there is increasing evidence that chess can improve your cognitive skills, from analysis to planning, forward-thinking to memory.
According to Sachdev, honing these abilities will make you a more efficient studier and will, without fail, improve your grades.
Holding a degree from Shri Venkateswara College in English Honours the 33-year old champion says, “Psychology has a huge role to play in any sport. In chess, it’s even more important. How strong and positive you feel before a game can change everything on the board.
The mental frame has to be really strong to endure a game of four hours and even stronger in difficult positions in the game.” And the exact same principles can be applied to study”. So, without further ado, here are her seven tips on how to study like a chess champ and checkmate your exams.
1. Play The Short Game, Never The Long One
In chess, the key to maximum efficiency is to set yourself short and achievable goals, rather than a grand-final goal. For example, one doesn't set the goal of how they are going to checkmate from the beginning.
Rather, one seeks to incrementally improve one's position, move by move until checkmate is in sight. That same philosophy can be applied to study: try setting yourself the goal of finishing two chapters in the next hour, rather than the entire subject in the next two days. You'll get there a lot quicker.
2. Manage Your Time To Make Better Decisions
Chess, like studying, can be a lonely game. Many times, you have to push yourself, pull yourself together. There are moments in the game that require time to think, calculate and be precise. These moments are critical. But there are other moments when decisions need to be made faster, often with an intuitive feel.
This is why time management is vital. And the better you understand the game, the easier these decisions will come. The same goes for the high-pressure environment of an exam: the better you know your subject, the better you can manage your time to faster recognize which questions require time to think, and which you can answer intuitively.
3. Give Yourself A Break!
Training every day for fewer hours is always more efficient than training like crazy before a tournament, and then taking a long break. Champions are made between tournaments, not during them! In other words, take lots of breaks. Refresh and come back.
This is especially important when you find yourself stuck. Often during training at chess, I would get stuck on a position, unable to solve it for hours. But then we would break for lunch and I would often go back and solve it in minutes.
Even during games, we often take a walk from the board, only to come back with not only a fresh perspective but with an idea that we realize has been staring at us all along.
4. Turn Your Brain Into A Memory Gym
The truth is, a strong memory is a gift. Some people are born with it, others not. However, as a skill, there are some practical techniques that can enhance one’s ability to memorize.
First is association, which involves making the most of your brain's habit of linking ideas by pairing facts or images so that one reminds you of another. Then, repetition learning works well because it helps your brain solidify those connections that are used to recall memories.
That leads to pattern recognition. Our brain is naturally inclined to search for patterns – any hook in the data, or layout on the chessboard, that will aid our performance and understanding of the problem before us.
5. Eat Well To Think Well
If our body is not in good shape, our brain cannot work to its optimal potential. Body and mind fitness go hand in hand. Think of your body and mind as an engine, and of food and snacks as their fuel.
The quality of your fuel will determine how well the engine runs. Whatever you do, don't starve or go on extreme diets. Instead, eat meals on time with light snacking once or twice a day.
And don't stuff yourself. Food that doesn't spike up sugar levels, such as dry fruits or a banana, is great to munch on during the game to keep your energy levels stable.
6. Play Chess!
I can't think of a better way to train your brain than by playing chess. It has taught me so much about life, especially when it comes to thinking clearer and organizing my mind.
It will help hone all the techniques I have mentioned here, that you can then take away and apply to your study routine. Not only that, but chess is so fun.
Looking to take notes efficiently? This video will help you take great notes online using Google Docs!
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