How to Improve your IQ score

Many cognitive psychologists believe that human intelligence has environmental and hereditary links. However most of them also believe that your intelligence or your IQ score can be augmented by taking some efforts.

Some simple lifestyle changes and some practice will go a long way in improving your IQ scores. Yes! the more you practice the better you are going to get. Just like you exercise the rest of your body and muscles to keep fit, you should also exercise your brain to get it to work better. Brain exercise can involve simple things like playing a game that makes you think and involves logic or reasoning like chess. You can also enjoy at least one puzzle a day, it can be sudoku or kakuro or a crossword puzzle or carry a Rubik’s cube along. There are also free downloadable softwares that generate random IQ tests, taking these tests a few times a month is also a good way to give yourself a mental workout. Alternatively you can also read a book, preferably something that will make you think or reason something out.

As far a lifestyle changes go. The primary thing is to take care of your sleep pattern. Experiments conducted on people in sleep deprivation have proved that after about 48 to 72 hours without sleep people cannot use even 40% of their brain power. So if you are drinking gallons of coffee to keep you awake, to study for that important test you are actually harming your chances of doing well. Even though there is no link between caffeine and intelligence, sleep deprivation will harm your long and short term memory and your reasoning and logical ability.

Along with a mental workout don’t forget to indulge in some form of physical activity as well. You don’t have to necessarily hit the gym. Anything from brisk walking to yoga and even dancing can help you improve your IQ scores. Any form of physical activity increases blood supply to your brain giving it more nourishment.

Food can also help in enhancing your intelligence; particularly fish oils are very good for your brain. If you don’t like the taste of fish you can always go for fish oil supplements. Relaxation techniques like Tai Chi and meditation also help.

People have reported a minimum 20 point increase in their performance on IQ tests after they took the above measures. So as you can see just because you did not fare well in your first IQ test there is no reason to be discouraged and assume that you will never be able to reach the above 120 category.