Finals are rapidly approaching and it’s time to start spending every waking moment studying. If you are someone who has trouble staying focused, remembering what you learned, can’t get motivated, or just want to change up and improve your study routine, try listening to music! There have been so many studies done on how your brain reacts to music while you’re studying. It can help improve your memory and productivity, and help you stay on track. Ever heard of the “Mozart Effect”? According to Wikipedia, The Mozart Effect is a set of research results indicating that listening to Mozart‘s music may induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as “spatial-temporal reasoning;” Popularized versions of the hypothesis, which suggest that “listening to Mozart makes you smarter”, or that early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development. Basically, listening to music makes you smarter.

You are not at a rave or trying to get pumped up for a workout, so keep the loud crazy upbeat stuff off your playlist. Classical, instrumental, soft, nature sounds and ambient music is the stuff that gets your creative juices flowing. Finish the semester strong and good luck on finals!