Want To Go Up A Grade? Then Watch Your Mouth.

It really isn`t rocket science anyone can improve their grades by just watching what they put into their mouth.

When you are concentrating (at school, doing homework, being tutored) your brain uses up a lot of glucose so to optimise your learning chances, make sure that before you start work, you`ve had the best nutrition you can get. And this isn`t just at breakfast this is throughout the day: mid-morning, lunchtime, before you start your homework or meet with your tutor. At each break, you need to replace the energy that your brain has just used up - but you can`t replace it with any old rubbish. Think of your brain as a Formula 1 car - you wouldn`t fill up with the cheapest supermarket petrol you could find, would you? You`d use the fuel that is designed to provide the best possible performance. The same applies to your brain.

Do you know what happens if your brain hasn`t been fed correctly? It switches to automatic-mode where your intuition kicks in. The drawback is that if you haven`t eaten correctly, your `intuition` will be consistently wrong, but you`ll mistakenly believe that you`re doing really well - until you get your marks.

Cast your mind back...have you ever gone to school without a proper breakfast only to realise that you can`t concentrate and you feel exhausted even though it`s the start of the day? Or have you done some classwork, homework or sat a test where you thought you were actually doing pretty well, only to be disappointed with the result?

That`s because you`ve not eaten the right food and your brain hasn`t the energy it needs in order to function correctly and to its best ability.

An ideal and incredibly cheap breakfast (although I totally understand that it doesn`t suit everyone) is oats - raw or as porridge - with a banana. Complex carbohydrates are the best fuel you can eat at the start of the day if you can`t stomach the thought of oats, then try wholegrain cereal (Shreddies, Weetabix) or wholegrain toast - anything rather than white bread/toast or sweet cereals.

Before you settle down to do your homework or see your tutor slap some peanut butter, cheese or tuna between two slices of wholegrain bread and butter and tuck into that. You will be amazed at how much easier your work will become and how much more you will remember.

And most of all, drink WATER - don`t waste money on fizzy drinks, energy drinks etc - just plain old water from the tap and plenty of it. Dehydration will affect your concentration levels, your brain performance and your levels of tiredness. So whenever you sit down to work, have a glass or bottle of water by your side and aim to drink 1.6-2 litres a day.

You know, just try it for a week and see what a difference it makes. I think you`ll be impressed.