Brain drain

[rocket66]

G'day all

At the moment I'm working my way through the dreaded ATPLs and am finding the mass of information draining at times. Shopping tonight eye caught brain supplements. Has anyone had much success with these and if so which ones? Figure they can't do any harm but wondering if they're something akin to a placebo.

Rocket

[Lasiorhinus]

A better idea is to pace yourself.

Set aside regular breaks in your study to go outside and do something physical. Get your heart rate up, the usual 30 minutes of exercise - this will stimulate blood flow to your brain. It has the added bonus of letting your subconscious think about what youve just been studying, while your conscious mind works on jogging/cycling/swimming/whatever you're doing.

Have plenty of fruit available while you study - the fructose is still sugar to give you the energy to keep studying, but its better for you than sugary food sugar.

Maybe write yourself a timetable - 60 mins study, 10 minute break, 60 minute study, 30 min exercise... and so forth.

You need to give your brain time to process all this information, instead of stimulants to drag you through longer study sessions where you lose effectiveness.
Most human brains can only learn effectively in blocks of about 50-60 minutes at a time, after which you need a short break to refresh.

[The Green Goblin]

Coffee!

I had a plunger on my desk and poured and poured.

After I got through them, I had to kick my excessive coffee habit. Had head aches for weeks :p

[rocket66]

Ah Christ GG, cannot stand coffee. Love the smell of it but cannot stand the taste of the stuff!

Lads thanks for the replies, think I will give the pills a miss and get moving with some physical activity. Probably don't do as much as I should. My intention is to knock over performance and loading then flight planning in 5 weeks. May have my work cut out for me but I'm by no means a quitter!

Cheers

rocket!

[Mr. Hat]

Ah Christ GG, cannot stand coffee. Love the smell of it but cannot stand the taste of the stuff!

Rocket we're going to have to work on that :ok:!

[Dangnammit]

Banana's and kiwi fruit. High in potassium and good for the brain.

In high school (many moons ago) I did a stretch 7pm-7am to complete important work. Ten minute Coffee and banana break every 2 hours away from desk kept me going and going.
Regular breaks when studying is the key.

[WannaBeBiggles]

It's a hard one mate and each person is different.

I'm working full time, so up before 5am, study for a couple of hours, work 8-9 hours and come home and study a bit before dinner and early to bed.

The best advice I can give you is:

Make sure you get enough sleep every night
Get in to a routine and stick to it, your body and mind will get used to it
Eat a healthy diet, fatty food can actually hinder memory (though that is a debated subject)
Eat breakfast! Also, they say an apple has the same/better effect than coffee in the morning
Take regular breaks, don't forget your eyes! Look at distant objects regularly. Eye strain can lead to some nasty headaches
Exercise. Nothing like getting the endorphins pumping to make you feel relaxed. Running is great and I find swimming the ultimate way to stop the mind from working because you have to concentrate on your stroke, kick and breathing, so doesn't give you the opportunity to think about anything else
Use study aids that help you remember things, be they pictures, graphs, flash cards or anything else that helps you
Try to avoid rote learning - it can be your undoing in some subjects!

[Unusual-Attitude]

Im with the Goblin..keep them double shot mocha-frappa-latte's comin! :eek:

[haughtney1]

My 2 cents worth...

NZ ATPL
JAR ATPL
FAA ATP

So Over the years I've done a few exams....

Heres my advice.

1. Be as structured and desciplined as possible..i.e devise a course of action and STICK to it, that means you are gonna have to continue to sacrifice fun things to get the job done.
2. Learn at your own pace, otherwise you'll end up over loading yourself and the knowledge dump valve will activate before you have sat and passed the exams.
3. Lastly make sure you take regular breaks. I found 40-45 minutes was the absolute maximum that I could do before the concerntration went...I then took at least 15-20 minutes to go outside..have a drink...eat a healthy snack....look up at the clouds etc etc

Keep the faith mate and you'll get through....

[ThePaperBoy]

5 weeks huh? P&L should take about 1 week, FPL the other 4.

Keep up the water!

[rocket66]

Thanks to everyone for all the tips on getting through these exams. I've heard flight planning is a killer so hopefully I can at least attemt to make it through an exam so I know what to expect. I'll trowel through some threads to find any tips and tricks I can.

Onwards and upwards!!!

Rocket!

[Monopole]

Rocket, it is really fairly simple....

You go to the pub and buy a jug of beer, but you only get a pot/middy (depends on where you come from), to poor it into.

Obviously, you are not going to be able to pour the contents of the jug into the pot/middy, until you have consumed some of what is in the pot/middy otherwise it will over flow and be wasted.........

The ATPL subjects are the 'Jug', and your brain, my friend, is only a middy.

[Jack Ranga]

Avoid high-sugar concentrated stuff as it will just lead to a low after a while.




BIGM and water, keeps me going


Seen how much sugar is in BigM?

[ophia]

Oh my stars!..i registered but never really took the time to scan through..todae was definitely my day...all this reading has done me good :)

I've just started on performance & loading today & i've really found some good advise..i have a lot of commitments & i push myself too much...more than my body can handle..
Took a year off to do voluntary work & now that i'm back, its taking me a while to get into study mode:ugh:

Cheers for the advise..looking forward to completing the ATPL's..:ok: