Build A Better Career

Does the idea of applying for graduate school make you shudder at the thought of prepping for yet another standardized test? Don’t you wish you could increase your score without wasting time on otherwise irrelevant prep methods? Brain fitness training may be just the answer you’re looking for.

Standardized entrance tests such as the GRE, MCAT and LSAT aim to assess your problem-solving and analytical skills. But to increase those skills you need to increase your fluid or innate intelligence which has for a long time been thought impossible. Last year however university researchers showed that it is possible to increase fluid intelligence and general problem-solving ability with a new kind of brain fitness training exercise.

The scientists took graduate students from the University of Bern and subjected them to a training program that progressively increased their visual and aural working-memory. After 19 days of training, fluid intelligence for each person in the trained group increased by at least 40% over and above that of the control group members. Imagine the benefits for a graduate entrance test.

The other good news is that the team only published its research findings in April 2008, and so far most of your graduate-school competitors won’t be tuned in to this new test prep method. And whereas typical test prep helps you increase your test scores but won’t help you do better in school, this novel working-memory training boosts your attention and general problem-solving ability leading to overall enhancement in your thinking.

But before you rush off to buy brain training software, make sure you’re looking for the right kind. The working-memory training protocol used in the study is called “dual n-back” working-memory training. (To make your search easier, and in the interest of full disclosure, I was so inspired by the team’s findings that I incorporated the dual n-back training method into the Mind Sparke brain training software, Brain Fitness Pro.)

With the economy shrinking and the job market tightening, signing up for an advanced degree is a smart move. Preparing your brain for the tests ahead by training your working-memory and increasing your problem-solving ability is doubly smart.

Oxford-trained scientist, author, and technologist, Martin G. Walker is a member of The British Neuroscience Association, Learning and The Brain, and MENSA. His company Mind Evolve, LLC publishes free information on the field of neuroscience and brain training as well as effective and affordable brain fitness software under the brand name Mind Sparke.