How to Improve Focus, Concentration and Memory While Studying

How to improve focus while studying

Concentration is the effort of keeping your mind on one task; your attention span is how long you can keep it there before it drifts. You can't force either by willpower alone. What works is removing what pulls your attention away and giving your brain enough rest to do the work.

Keep your phone out of the room

In our experience, the phone is the biggest single distraction for students, even when it is silent. Put it in another room while you study, or at least out of sight with notifications off, and check messages only in your breaks. If you study from video lectures, download them first and switch the phone to do-not-disturb.

Study in timed blocks with a clear goal

We suggest blocks of 45 to 60 minutes with a 5 to 10 minute break, and a longer break after two or three blocks. Before each block, write down the one thing you will finish, such as "10 questions from Chapter 4", rather than "study tax". Keep a notepad beside you: when an unrelated thought comes up, write it down and deal with it in the break.

For full-day schedules built this way, with a practice block at the time your exam is held, see our daily study time table for CA, CS and CMA students.

Refresh your mind in the breaks

A break should rest your attention, not move it to another screen. Get up, walk around, drink water, step outside or look out of a window. Once a day, a 20-minute walk in a park or anywhere green is a good reset before your next block. In our experience, scrolling social media in a break makes it harder to settle back in.

Sleep 7 to 9 hours and skip the all-nighters

Adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night, and teens aged 13 to 18 need 8 to 10 hours, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Sleep also matters for memory: "Sleep helps with learning and the formation of long-term memories," and too little sleep "can lead to problems focusing on tasks and thinking clearly" (NHLBI). An all-nighter before a paper costs you both the focus and some of what you studied.

The NHS suggests these habits for better sleep:

• Go to bed and wake up at around the same time each day.
• Give yourself time to relax before bed.
• Make your bedroom comfortable, and put your phone away before bed.
• Avoid caffeine late in the day: tea, coffee, cola and energy drinks can keep you awake.

Exercise every day

The NHS says physical activity can boost mood, sleep quality and energy and reduce your risk of stress, and the UK guideline it quotes is at least 150 minutes of activity over a week for adults. The World Health Organization links regular physical activity with better cognitive outcomes in children and adolescents and better mental health, cognitive health and sleep in adults. A brisk walk, a sport or a yoga session between study blocks all count.

Music and meditation: keep them if they help you

Some students study better with music and some don't. In our experience, instrumental music at a low volume suits practice questions better than reading new theory, where songs with lyrics compete with the words on the page. Try a few days each way and keep whichever gets more done.

Likewise, a few minutes of sitting quietly and breathing slowly before a block helps some students settle. It needs no equipment, so it is worth trying.

How to improve memory for exams

The methods in this section come from Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning, a practice guide published by the US Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences in September 2007. It is written for teachers, but each of these methods is one you can use on your own.

Test yourself instead of rereading

According to the guide, "having students take a test is almost always a more potent learning device than having students spend additional time studying the target material", especially when you have to recall the answer yourself, as in short-answer or fill-in-the-blank questions, rather than pick from options. The guide adds that you should check the correct answers afterwards.

In practice:

• After reading a section, close the book and write down everything you remember, then check what you missed.
• Make flashcards for definitions, sections, formats and formulas, and test yourself on them rather than reading them.
• Solve past papers and mock tests under a timer, then compare your answers with the suggested answers. ICAI publishes study material, Revision Test Papers, mock test papers and past papers with suggested answers on its Board of Studies Knowledge Portal; for a plan built on them, see how to self-study for CA at home.

Space out your revision

The guide recommends meeting each key topic on at least two occasions, separated by several weeks to several months: "delayed re-exposure to course material often markedly increases the amount of information that students remember." It also notes that leaving too long a gap costs much less than leaving too short a gap.

So don't revise a chapter three times in one week and then leave it until the exam. We suggest a quick self-test the day after you study a chapter, again about a week later, and again a month later. A simple revision log (chapter, date studied, dates tested) keeps track.

Check what you know after a gap

The guide notes that most learners "typically overestimate how well they have mastered material when they are finished studying", which it calls the "illusion of knowing". So judge what you know after a delay of an hour, a day or a week, with only the question in front of you and not the answer. Each morning, try to list the main points of yesterday's chapters from memory; whatever you can't recall goes to the top of today's list.

Explain it in your own words

The guide recommends asking and answering "deep" questions: why, why not, how, what if, how does X compare to Y, and what is the evidence for X. Explain a provision, a standard or a method aloud or in writing as if teaching a friend, and ask why the rule exists and how it differs from a similar one. If you get stuck, that is the part to study again.

Draw it as well as reading it

The guide recommends combining graphics with verbal descriptions, because together they lead to better learning than text alone. Turn procedures and timelines into flowcharts, and put each chapter on a one-page chart or mind map that you can redraw from memory during revision.

Memory techniques for lists

The two techniques below are not covered by the US guide above. They are traditional memory aids, and in our experience they help most with lists you have to reproduce in order.

Use mnemonics for lists

Mnemonics turn a list into something easier to recall, such as a word made of first letters, a rhyme or a short sentence. The classic example is VIBGYOR for the colours of the rainbow: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. Make your own for the lists in your syllabus, or use well-known ones where they exist.

Build a memory palace for long lists

The memory palace, or method of loci, ties each item you need to remember to a place you know well:

1. Picture a place you know thoroughly, such as your home, and fix a route through it.
2. Choose stops along the route: the front door, the shoe rack, the sofa and so on.
3. Place one item at each stop as a vivid, unusual image, the stranger the better.
4. To recall the list, walk the route in your mind and collect each item in order.

What helps less than you might think

Brain-training games

Sudoku, chess and puzzle apps are fine as a break if you enjoy them, but don't count on them to improve your concentration on your syllabus. In 2016, the US Federal Trade Commission charged the makers of the Lumosity brain-training program with "unfounded claims that Lumosity games can help users perform better at work and in school", and the company agreed to pay $2 million to settle the charges. Time spent practising your own subjects does more for your exam.

Rereading and highlighting on their own

In our experience, rereading feels productive because the material looks familiar, but recognising a page is not the same as recalling it in the exam hall. Use reading to learn a topic the first time, then switch to testing yourself.

"Brain foods"

No single food replaces sleep, exercise and practice. Eat regular meals, drink enough water, and keep tea and coffee to earlier in the day so they don't cut into your sleep.

A sample focused study session

Putting the methods together, a session we suggest looks like this:

1. Phone in another room; timer set for 50 minutes; one written goal.
2. First 5 minutes: from memory, write down what you remember from your last session on this paper. Check it and note the gaps.
3. Next 30 minutes: study the new topic. Draw a flowchart or chart as you go.
4. Last 15 minutes: close the book and answer questions on what you just studied; then check your answers.
5. Break: 5 to 10 minutes away from your desk and screen.

In the last week before an exam, shift the balance almost entirely to timed papers and self-testing; our guide on how to study for exams in a week covers that stretch.

When poor concentration needs a doctor

Everyone loses focus at times, especially when tired or short of sleep, and the habits above are the first thing to try. But if you have found it hard to concentrate for most of your life, not only before exams, it is worth seeing a doctor. The NHS lists being easily distracted or forgetful, finding it hard to organise your time and finding it hard to follow instructions or finish tasks among the signs of ADHD in adults, and says these symptoms usually start before the age of 12. It advises seeing a doctor if the symptoms are affecting your studies, work or relationships; the doctor may also check for other causes, such as anxiety.

Ongoing sleep trouble is also worth raising: if you regularly find it hard to fall asleep, stay asleep or wake too early, and changing your sleep habits does not help, the NHS advises speaking to a doctor.