Neglecting food, water, and exercise

Download an app if you need reminders to drink a glass of water and eat. These are not things that you should skip. Quality food, enough water, and moderate exercise will raise your baseline focus and concentration as well as keep you in a sharper state of mind. The lack of these 3 things can also induce severe lethargy – one more enemy.

Research shows that these factors affect academic performance and the cognitive ability of students. If you stay hungry, dehydrated, and kill your physical movement, you will probably suffer during exams.

• Hunger and poor access to enough food is linked to worse^[19] academic performance.
• Even for school going students, a high-quality meal appears to improve test scores^[20].
• Food insecurity (lack of access to food) creates related problems such as avoiding food-related hangouts, saving money, body image issues, etc., which tend to reduce a student’s GPA directly and indirectly via related mental health issues. The study^[21] was conducted on over 7000 students in the California University system.
• Drinking water and avoiding thirst is directly related^[22] to better cognitive outcomes. Dehydration can lead to cognitive impairment^[23].
• Exercise promotes^[24] mental functioning and research shows that those who exercise (even a little bit) enjoy superior cognitive abilities. This directly impacts the learning ability of students.
• Hygiene is so important that UNICEF has an initiative called WASH^[25] which promotes water-based cleanliness. Their initiative observed that handwashing can improve academic performance in school children, especially in 3rd world nations.

Study tip: Have water, don’t skip food, and do some exercise.