Isabell Collet

Isabell is a Social Marketing intern with Brainscape from November 2011 to May 2012. Originally from Germany, she received her Bachelor’s degree from Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz in August, 2011. At the age of 10 Isabell began studying English (her first foreign language), but dissatisfied with her progress and mastery of the language so far she started reading and writing English stories and joining online communities at 14. In university she continued her education with a minor in American Studies, hoping to one day get the chance to visit the US to work or study there. For the future she hopes to brush up on her French and acquire at least one additional foreign language.

Isabell Collet's Posts

Video of the Week: The Learning Revolution

By Isabell Collet, 2/23/2012 at 3:35 pm

Sir Ken Robinson’s speeches on learning and education systems are often among the most popular talks posted on TED. In the past, we’ve posted two videos of him talking about language learning and creativity on our own blog. This time, Robinson speaks out on a topic that concerns us at Brainscape very closely. In his very well structured analysis of the state of learning and the education system today, he makes this point: Like all things, our approach to teaching and learning has to change.

Now more than ever, we need less standardization and more personalized learning. Different people have differents strengths and abilities, which is something that should be recognized by and implemented in education institutes and their teaching strategies. The 21st century and its numerous inventions and revolutions make this very easy. (more…)

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How to Stay Active

By Isabell Collet, 2/22/2012 at 8:40 am

Desk Stretch You may have learned recently that sitting can kill you. Did you read the article, acknowledge the information, worry about it but still not take any action? Lucky for you we at Brainscape feel that it’s our job to make sure you live a long and healthy life, even if you spend hours upon hours of it hunched over your keyboard. For all office workers like ourselves that spend 8+ hours per day sitting in their desk chairs: Stay active! Get up, take a walk, stretch; there are many ways to take break from sitting.

It doesn’t even have to be a standing desk, something that seems to become increasingly popular. (Its health benefits compared to sitting are being explored in a new study.) The idea of standing all day for some may be even less attractive than crouching at a desks for hours, so below are some fast and simple tips on how to stay mobile while working. Read through the article and then click through the gallery over at Huffington Post, which will hopefully inspire you and make you leave your desk chair today. (more…)

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How an Unhealthy Diet Can Shrink Your Brain

By Isabell Collet, 2/13/2012 at 9:00 am

In our blog we keep stressing the importance and benefits of a healthy diet to improve studying and learning and keep our minds sharp. If you’re tired of hearing or skeptical about brain foods, this article might help you reconsider your stance on the subject. Boosting your test performance with healthy and nutritious food is one thing. Actually losing memory and critical thinking abilities due to an unhealthy diet is quite another. But this is exactly what a new study conducted in Oregon seems to prove.

Researchers took blood samples and scanned the brains of test participants whose mental abilities had been previously tested. The test results show that there is in fact a link between an unhealthy diet and lessening cognitive abilities as well as brain volume. While other factors may have a greater effect than food, if you want to stay sharp throughout life you may want to consider laying off the fast food and eating more fruits and vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds. Below we’ve posted the Huffington Post article which discusses the study in detail, so read on to learn more about the findings. (more…)

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How Much Caffeine Do You Consume?

By Isabell Collet, 2/7/2012 at 8:31 am

Are you among the people who need a cup of coffee to start the day? And then a second one later on to get through the day? Well, why not?

One of the benefits of caffeine is the boost in alertness it gives us, which is exactly what we seek first thing in the morning. If you’re not exactly a morning person, a stimulus to the nervous system might be needed to allow you to function the way you want to and need to. But what about those negative side effects coffee and other caffeinated beverages have? (more…)

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How To Successfully Change Your Habits

By Isabell Collet, 1/31/2012 at 8:31 am

How to Successfully Change habits Like every year, New Year’s and all that it entails has come and gone. Did you make a resolution? Did you stick to it? If you did in fact not succeed, shame on you! We gave you such great tips and offered all the necessary incentive; there really is no excuse. … Except for the fact that changing your habits in order to change your life is probably one of the greatest challenges we can face. It is never easy to kick a long-standing habit, even if we know that the end result will be rewarding on many levels. If it is not the incentive we’re missing, there are numerous other things that can trip us up along the way. In fact, our own happiness and confidence can turn out to be the greatest enemy. David DiSalvo wrote a book on this subject entitled What Makes Your Brian Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite. His fellow bloggers at Psychology Today reviewed the science-help guide and excerpted below are a few tips on how not to fall into that happy trap. Read through the advice and armed with this knowledge, why not give it another shot and finally break your habit? (more…)

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Why We Forget

By Isabell Collet, 1/26/2012 at 10:17 am

When presidential candidate Rick Perry was not able to name one of the governmental agencies he wants to abolish during an infamous presidential debate this fall, the public’s reaction covered a wide range from sympathetic to outright gleeful at the flub. While his supporters would have liked to cite neurological problems as responsible for the lapse , critics just saw it as proof that the Republican does not know his own politics. So why did he forget when he needed to remember? (more…)

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How Being Forced to Study Phonetics Made Me More Aware of Languages

By Isabell Collet, 1/23/2012 at 9:53 am

At some point in our lives, we are all forced to sit through a lesson on something we do not care for at all, yet that particular thing later turns out to be very beneficial to us. For me, this happened in my second year at university. It came in the form of a phonetics class, uniformly the most dreaded course everyone studying American or British Studies has to sit through – and pass. The final exam is split in three parts: 1. a pronunciation exam 2. a theoretical exam 3. a transcription exam.

The first should be self-explanatory. For those completely unfamiliar with phonetics, the second takes a closer look at such concepts as sound production, articulation, word stress, etc. In short, any and all things that go into the production of sounds and how they can be explained, categorized, produced, etc.

And for the final part of the exam, we all had the dubious pleasure of studying the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and then transcribing an English text in phonetic script. Sounds easier than it is, especially if you’re not a native speaker and may not even know how some of the words you’re supposed to be transcribing should be pronounced correctly. The failure rate for that class, as a result, is a whopping 80%. Before you applaud me for triumphing despite the odds: I did, in fact, not make the 20% cut of this statistic.

But let me start at the beginning of my classes. (more…)

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How Memory Works: an Infographic

By Isabell Collet, 1/19/2012 at 8:32 am

For our blog’s sections on ‘Your Brain‘ and ‘Test Prep‘, we’re always on the lookout for great articles, videos and charts on memory and retention. By helping you understand how our brains work, we want to allow you to try different approaches to studying that will hopefully help you become better learners for life.

Over time, we’ve compiled articles on brain foods, how motivation and memory works, methods for better retention, … If we take a look at the sum of all articles and areas of interest, it seems obvious that there should be one chart that combines all of these elements that make up and influence our memory. Thanks to onlinecolleges.com, there now is. (more…)

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Food for Thought – 10 Food Tips to Help You Learn Better

By Isabell Collet, 1/16/2012 at 7:57 am

No matter which guide you consult or which article you read on effective and healthy studying, every single one will include the words ‘eat healthy‘ and ‘drink enough’ (in some variation or other). As our bodies, especially our brains, need nutrition to function to the best of their abilities, this is probably the most important piece of advice to follow. But while we may keep this information at the back of our minds, we do not necessarily know what the ‘right’ food might be. Or we do know, but may not find the time to prepare a full and healthy meal.

No more! Once the big test approaches, stock up on what you may need (and want!) to eat; look up and print out recipes that might come in handy; why not prepare a meal beforehand that you can warm up later? That still leaves the big question: What is the right kind of food to eat? Startcooking.com put together this list that might give you a few ideas and might even surprise you. Give it a try and let us know: What is your favorite food for thought? Any quick-to-make but tasty recipes to recommend? (more…)

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Memory Outsourcing: The Google Effect

By Isabell Collet, 1/11/2012 at 8:12 am

Why does anyone still bother to memorize anything when the answer to everything you might ever need to know is just one click away? Most likely, the answer is that you either have to, or you want to. In the course of our education and then later in professional life, we will encounter situations where it is not possible (or advisable) to look up the answer to a question. That would be a possible scenario where you have to study and memorize facts that must be recalled at a later point. If you want to learn a new language, mastering the vocabulary will be inevitable. In that case, since you’re hoping to one day be able to converse with a native, you want to remember what you learned. The point is that no matter how far advanced our access to knowledge has become, it will never completely replace our memory. (more…)