8 tips to stay smart

Being intelligent also means knowing how to use your intelligence,” said Richard Aladjemoff. Yes, we all have the innate ability to think, but that doesn’t make us geniuses. Intelligence is cultivated, a bit like a beautiful plant that needs to be left in the sun to grow.

How can you stimulate your intelligence to make the most of your abilities? Many studies and books have explored this topic; here’s a summary of the key findings!

1. Work on your types of intelligence

First, let’s define intelligence. In the 1990s, cognitive psychologist Howard Gardner theorized that there are several types of intelligence —eight to be exact. His research highlighted two things.

First, a single, universal intelligence does not exist: we speak instead of intelligences, unique to each individual and divided into four main categories (actional, academic, environmental, and methodological). Intelligence cannot be quantified, and that is precisely why several types exist.

Next – and this is precisely where we want to get to – is that we all have these 8 types of intelligence, but there are often 2 or 3 preferred forms that we use more.

To boost your intelligence, it is therefore essential to build on your strengths … while working on your weaknesses!

Since, according to Gardner, we are all endowed with different types of intelligence without fully utilizing them, we can imagine that using them all would make us geniuses. At the very least, you’ll step outside your comfort zone and discover a whole host of abilities you didn’t even know you possessed.

2- Remain curious

So how do you step out of your comfort zone? By being curious, of course! Curiosity is a true engine of intelligence, even more powerful than a jet engine. It’s therefore essential to remain open to everything by reading, observing, and continuously learning. The more you’re interested in the world around you, the more cultured you’ll become .

Dr. Béatrice Millêtre, a specialist in cognitive therapies, explains that “being interested and having an open mind stimulates intellectual faculties much more than trying to be successful in a single field by learning everything by heart.”

When you learn something new, you stimulate your brain through reading, research, and the questions you ask yourself… It’s a great workout, even if you don’t realize it! Above all, you’ll see that you’ll set off a chain reaction: the more you learn, the more you’ll want to delve deeper into the subject, and so on.

The ultimate advice

Give yourself a challenge and try to learn one thing a day . It could be in the morning on public transport or on your way home from school in the evening.

Don’t know where to start? Everything is already at your fingertips with the advent of digital technology! Podcasts, newsletters, or crash course-style videos will only take a few minutes of your time and will do the job perfectly.

There are also apps specifically designed to feed your curiosity, such as Trivia Crack for amazing everyday facts!

3- Keep an eye on current events

Of course, the most effective way to stay informed and ensure you always have something to learn is to follow current events. This allows you to broaden your knowledge and understand the world around you. It helps you be more effective in many areas, both personally and academically.

That great article about a current political event you read on the bus this morning will always be useful. You can use what you learned in a discussion to defend an opinion, or as an opening in your next HGGSP essay. It’s an added value that will always be helpful.

In addition to keeping you informed about the political, economic, and cultural decisions that are causing our world to change at breakneck speed, current events also train your memory! Reading is indeed a great way to retain information, especially if you have a visual memory.

4- Remains critical

These days, most information is shared on social media. In fact, one study estimates that 91% of journalists use social media as part of their work. But given that fake news is rampant on these same platforms, it’s important to remain critical.

All that’s left for you to do is play devil’s advocate to develop your critical thinking skills, take a step back, and build your own references and opinions. Reading the news is good, but make a habit of doing it intelligently, that is, by varying your sources and questioning the arguments presented.

5- Pay attention to your attention!

With all these resources available to you for information, it’s easy to become dependent on digital technology. Nicholas Carr, author of * The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains*, explains that “we are becoming less intelligent, more closed-minded, and, in a way, intellectually limited by technology.”

Why is that? Because the abundance of information is often fragmented and constantly overlapping, doesn’t help us get to the bottom of things. Our ability to concentrate and pay attention suffers, which doesn’t exactly stimulate our brains…

Did you know? We talk about infobesity to describe the constant flow of information relayed onbyhe media.

A little trip down memory lane

It’s therefore crucial to counteract this omnipresence and gain the upper hand over technology by returning to the good old 18th century. You’ll never believe it: when everyone wasn’t glued to their smartphones, people read books.

Books really do stimulate your brain, keep it active, and prevent it from losing its abilities, which isn’t really the case with technology.

Books have many other advantages:

Reading improves your knowledge and enriches your mind.
– It introduces you to new vocabulary and new language registers.
– It makes you use your imagination because you immerse yourself body and soul in a story,
-It makes you work on your memory, your concentration…
– and puts your mind at ease!

6- Give your memory a boost

Memory maintains the proper functioning of the brain, so the more you develop it, the more you improve your intellectual abilities.

With all the information constantly bombarding us, it’s difficult to remember everything. In fact, our short-term memory can only retain information for up to 30 seconds. s That’s it!?

If you believe this information is worth remembering, you must work to make it work. As you learn, you’ll discover what works best for you! You can, for example, rely on your learning style (auditory, visual, or kinesthetic) or try other memorization techniques ranging from memory palaces to spaced repetition.

Thanks to this, you’ll never forget your shopping list or the name of your friend’s cousin you just met again…

Alternatively, you can always use sticky notes for occasional reminders. Try jotting down the information on your hand, in a notes app, or even with our SPOT NOTES that you can stick all over your room. Now that’s a helpful tip!

7- Challenge your knowledge

Furthermore, to stimulate your brain and memory, we encourage you to test your knowledge to optimize its retention. We’re giving you an exclusive look at our favorite technique: flashcards. This memorization technique encourages you to take action by actively searching deep within your memory to recall information.

Creating a flashcard couldn’t be simpler:

1. Take a blank piece of paper
2. On the front, write a question. For example: What happened on 14, 2026? Who created the forgetting curve? In which region is Caen, the city where your Oxford notebooks and flashcards are made?
3. On the back, fill in your answers. Respectively: the French presidential elections, Ebbinghaus, Normandy.
4. All you have to do now is pull out your flashcards regularly to prevent your memory from failing you!

Once that’s done, you can activate REVISION mode to get down to business. The app will display your scanned flashcards: you’ll have to guess the hidden side. If you’ve found the correct answer, swipe the card to the right. Otherwise, swipe to the left. The algorithm will take your performance into account to create personalized sessions later!

8- A healthy brain in an athlete’s body!

Eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day, avoid eating too much fat, practice physical activity… We talk about it in every way imaginable (not mayonnaise, then) for a good reason: to guarantee you excellent health!

Did you know that you can also boost your memory through your lifestyle? Research had already shown that a healthy lifestyle could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease . Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) went further by examining its impact on memory in adulthood. The study, published in the June issue of the journal International Psychogeriatrics, indicates that there is a real correlation between the two.

Hou know what you have to do… Make flashcards, put on your sneakers, eat well, sleep 8 hours a night, and you’ll soon become the next Einstein!

We hope these tips have shed some light on how to stimulate intelligence. No need to be a bookworm or stay up all night playing with a microscope; as you can see, small daily actions can make all the difference. We hope you’ve learned something and that we’ve contributed to your intellectual development!