Taking Care of Your Body As Well As Your Brain
There are three areas that you need to attend to while you are studying: your stress level, exercise, and what you eat. Concentrating on these areas will help to facilitate the learning that you will undertake over the next several weeks.
Reducing Stress
When you are working toward an important goal, there is a certain level of stress that comes with the territory. If there is enough stress for a sustained period of time, eventually this can hurt your ability to focus and may even damage your health. You need to implement some stress-reducing actions on a regular basis.
It may sound silly, but staying quiet and doing some deep breathing exercises have been shown to reduce stress. If you have scheduled a two- to three-hour block of study time, do this every hour or so.
Also, try visualizing some wonderful, idyllic places that are particularly soothing to you, like waves on a beach, a gentle spring shower, or a snow-capped mountain range, as you breathe deeply. This should help to relax you.
If you are trying to sleep and are too wound up from working and studying, and you are in bed and the room is dark, start to breath deeply while relaxing your toes, then moving to your calves, your thighs, your hips, your shoulders, your arms, your jaw, your head, and so on. See the suggestions for the relaxation exercise.
Exercises like those mentioned should help to reduce your stress level and should help you get to sleep faster and sleep better. With a good sleep, you will be more enthusiastic and better able to face the challenges of the next day and the next ASVAB study schedule. It will also help you retain more of what you study.
Relaxation Exercise
While in bed or in a dark, quiet place, lie still with your eyes closed. Let your body and mind slow down for a few moments. Stay still and quiet. Breathe deeply. Be aware of your breathing.
As you stay still and quiet, focus on your toes. Clench them and then let them relax. Do this two or three times. As you relax your toes, think about how they would feel if they turned into liquid. Let your toes turn to liquid. Release the tension. Then do this same exercise with your ankles, your calves, your knees, your thighs, your buttocks, your stomach, your chest, your back, your hands, your forearms, your biceps, your shoulders, your neck, your jaw, your cheeks, your eyes, and your forehead. Let them all turn to liquid as you move from your toes to your head.
Once your muscles are relaxed, let your mind float and dissolve. Let your thoughts flow away. Breathe deeply as you reduce your stress.
Physical Exercise
Be sure to incorporate some vigorous physical exercise into your weekly routine. Doing some sort of aerobic activity, like running, power walking, or cycling, will help reduce your stress level and will also keep you physically stronger to contend with your study schedule. Don't skip your weight-training exercises, either. Physical activity has been shown to reduce stress and keep you healthier.
Plus, if you are really interested in joining and performing well in the military, you need to be physically fit, so why not start now to incorporate exercise into your weekly schedule? Start transforming that body fat into muscle. Drop the necessary pounds if you need to.
Eat and Act Right
It's very important for your heath that you maintain a good weight and eat well. Eating low-fat, healthy meals will keep your weight down, which will, in turn, help you feel more energetic, healthy, and focused on your task.
Abusing your body in any way will only hurt your efforts, as it will make you less alert and less focused. Clearly, if you are abusing drugs or alcohol, your entrance into the military will be problematic, at best. Get a grip on those behaviors, as they are likely to reduce your chances of qualifying for military enlistment. Shed those bad habits now!
Although you won't be disqualified from the military for smoking, it is a bad habit that damages your body and brain functioning. Smoking also reduces your athletic ability, a very important aspect of being successful in the military. Offload the smoking problem now, and if you haven't succumbed, don't start.
How to Study
There are several ways that you can approach studying. The methods you select depend on how you have studied in the past and what feels most comfortable and productive to you. You may find many of the techniques listed here to be useful as you work on your preparation for the ASVAB.
Prioritize
Start with the most difficult subjects first. That way, you will give your freshest and most focused attention to the subject areas that are hardest for you.
Use Dead Time
Any time there is some space in your schedule, review your notes or lists.
Highlight Important Sections
In the reviews in this book or any textbook that you use, it is helpful to use a highlighter to focus on important concepts. Another good strategy is to take notes on the concepts that seem important to understand and remember.
Create Concept Maps
Concept maps are somewhat like a visual outline. They help you keep things straight and show the relationships between and among various ideas.
Read and Summarize
As you read a section of material, stop and think about what you read for a moment. In a notebook, write down what you read in your own words. Do this for each section. The more active and interactive you are with the subject material, the more you will remember.
Develop Flash Cards
For things that you just need to memorize, develop flash cards with the question on one side and the answer on the other. Using flash cards, you can study while waiting for the bus, or your family and friends can test you. Just writing things down on the flash cards will help you retain the information.
Use the PQRST Method
Preview, question, read, summarize, and test yourself.
Preview. Skim the material to see what it generally contains.
Question. As you work through a section of material, think about what types of questions could be asked on a test. Write down the questions and the answers.
Read. Read sections of material carefully and actively.
Summarize. Summarize what You've read. Jot down notes, diagrams, key words, and processes.
Test. Recite and review what you have read and written down in your notes immediately after you have read and summarized.
While in bed or in a dark, quiet place, lie still with your eyes closed. Let your body and mind slow down for a few moments. Stay still and quiet. Breathe deeply. Be aware of your breathing.
As you stay still and quiet, focus on your toes. Clench them and then let them relax. Do this two or three times. As you relax your toes, think about how they would feel if they turned into liquid. Let your toes turn to liquid. Release the tension. Then do this same exercise with your ankles, your calves, your knees, your thighs, your buttocks, your stomach, your chest, your back, your hands, your forearms, your biceps, your shoulders, your neck, your jaw, your cheeks, your eyes, and your forehead. Let them all turn to liquid as you move from your toes to your head.
Once your muscles are relaxed, let your mind float and dissolve. Let your thoughts flow away. Breathe deeply as you reduce your stress.
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