Multiple Choice: First Instinct or Second Guess?
When we discuss ways to score your best on tests like the SAT and ACT, we often address content areas like reading, writing, and vocabulary. But we also know that much of the challenge of a test lies in its fiendish structure. When tacking standardized tests, you’ve got to maximize precious resources like time, energy, and anxiety over the span of many hours. But if you really want to prep right, you should take a little time to understand the classic question format: multiple choice. Multiple choice questions may seem simple and efficient on the surface, but all those tempting half-right choices can induce high levels of skepticism and doubt. Every tester at one time or another has grappled with that eternal, existential dilemma: should I stick with my first choice or should I change it? Unsurprisingly, researchers have explored this very issue and come up with a confident answer:…
Fold Your Brain for Fun and Profit
Meditation may be tough to master in this busy, plugged-in world, but regular practice can moderate stress, promote emotional well-being, and foster physical health. If those benefits aren’t enough to sell daily relaxation, consider this one: meditation can actually make your brain better. Consistent meditation over a period of years has been linked to positive changes in both the structure of the brain and the strength of synaptic connections. Researchers at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging found that long-term meditation promotes gyrification, which is more desirable than it sounds: …Gyrification or cortical folding is the process by which the surface of the brain undergoes changes to create narrow furrows and folds called sulci and gyri. Their formation may promote and enhance neural processing. Presumably then, the more folding that occurs, the better the brain is at processing information, making decisions, forming memories and so forth. Do you know someone…