How to support someone who is grieving: five research-backed strategies 
Time to buy local: war fuel price shocks reveal the folly of a long food supply chain 
NASA Resumes Cygnus XL Cargo Docking with Space Station After Software Fix 
Disaster or digital spectacle? The dangers of using floods to create social media content 
Trump and Merck KGaA Partner to Slash IVF Drug Costs and Expand Fertility Coverage 
What’s the difference between baking powder and baking soda? It’s subtle, but significant 
Office design isn’t keeping up with post-COVID work styles - here’s what workers really want 
Trump Administration Releases New UFO Files and Apollo Mission Records 
Booked to travel through the Middle East? Here’s why you shouldn’t cancel your flight 
Neuralink Plans High-Volume Brain Implant Production and Fully Automated Surgery by 2026 
Astronomers have discovered another puzzling interstellar object − this third one is big, bright and fast 
Glastonbury is as popular than ever, but complaints about the lineup reveal its generational challenge 
Can your cat recognise you by scent? New study shows it’s likely 
Why have so few atrocities ever been recognised as genocide? 
The American mass exodus to Canada amid Trump 2.0 has yet to materialize 
Exams of any kind are stressful to humans, largely because the brain doesn’t like to exert effort under any circumstance and panics when stressed out. According to a new study, one of the best ways to help students perform well during tests is to do a practice round beforehand. This helps preserve memory, allowing it to remain intact under pressure.
According to a study conducted by researchers at Tufts University, learning practice tests or retrieval practice is a good way to protect the mind from damages caused by stress. This helps students remember their lessons more clearly, and thus answer questions more easily, MedicalXpress reports.
The study involved 120 students, all of whom had perfectly working memories. The study’s senior author Ayanna Thomas and her team then proceeded to put the students through a series of tests designed to see the effects of retrieval practice on memory.
"Typically, people under stress are less effective at retrieving information from memory,” Thomas said. “We now show for the first time that the right learning strategy, in this case, retrieval practice or taking practice tests, results in such strong memory representations that even under high levels of stress, subjects are still able to access their memories."
The results also serve to highlight a particular flaw in a standard practice among students before exams; cramming. This is basically a method of studying where students try to learn as much as they can within a short period of time just before an exam. Based on the results of the study, this simply does not work, the Daily Mail reports.
For a majority of people, the brain goes into panic mode if it is subjected to an unusual amount of stress, which is exactly what exams are. By subjecting the brain to, even more, stress during the learning process, memory starts to fray once the actual exam starts. At that point, it wouldn’t be surprising for the students to remember only a fraction of what they studies.
