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How to Be Smart
Author Info
Updated: July 19, 2019 | References

Intelligence isn't just something you're born with; you can make yourself smarter with a little bit of hard work!
To be smart, exercise your brain with puzzles and creative tasks, develop your people skills, learn as much as
you can about as much as you can, and continually strive to broaden your horizons by keeping an open mind
and stepping outside your comfort zone. Increasing your intelligence may seem difficult, but as long as you
have an eagerness to learn, it's a very doable goal.

BYJU'S

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Method One of Five:

Exercising Your Brain
1 Work on puzzles like the Rubik's cube. Doing puzzles like these will keep your brain working and
increase your mental capabilities. Your brain is a muscle: you have to exercise it!

Sudoku is a great puzzle to try to solve and it expands your thinking. These can be purchased in books,
are often printed in newspapers, and are easily found for free online.
2 Do artistic activities. Drawing, sculpting, painting and other arts unleash your creative side and expand
your problem-solving skills. A creative brain can think outside the box to find ways to get things done
better and faster.[1]

3 Do math. Learn how to do mental sums or speed math. The hard thinking that is required for math will
make your brain work hard and help develop the connections that will help you think better and faster.[2]
4 Write stories or poetry. Creative writing forces your brain to work on inventing situations and dialogue,
characters and environments. This will make you a better thinker and help you process information.
Using language like this will also improve your vocabulary and speech. Writing is also a fantastic way of
expressing yourself and your thoughts.[3]
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Method Two of Five:

Developing Your People Skills

1 Simplify. Talking about things that no one else can understand does not make you smart. Genius is the
ability to translate the complex into the simple. Practice explaining concepts to others. See just how
simple and clear you can make your explanations.
2 Learn to listen carefully to others' opinions about controversial things or things they know about and
you do not. You do not have to agree with them but remember everybody has something to teach you.
Asking questions may allow you to re-evaluate your own beliefs, or point out the flaws in theirs. Keep an
open mind. The more intelligent you are the more questions you will ask of the people around you.
 3 Be nice to people. Practicing kindness in the face of challenges is a sign of maturity, class, and
intelligence. Remember that you also have a lot to learn from other people. Being kind to them will
allow you access to their lives and experience. Who knows what you might learn?

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Method Three of Five:

Educating Yourself
1 Aim to educate yourself. Keep in mind education isn't the junk you are forced to do in school for
diplomas and degrees; it's an understanding of the world around you. People who are naturally curious
for some reason begin to stop asking questions the moment they hit school. The truly brilliant mind,
however, always questions their world and tries to make sense out of it. That is the secret to "genius".

Try teaching yourself. You can even learn from your life experiences, sometimes called "unschooling".
2 Work on your vocabulary. Use a few definitions from the dictionary each day, or subscribe to a "word-
of-the-day" service online. You can also take the vocabulary tests in Readers Digest or buy a book on
increasing your working vocabulary. Read the dictionary one word at a time. This will take you at least a year
but you will grow intellectually.
3 Read a variety of books. Reading is a productive hobby to have and can help you learn all kinds of new
things. You may not always enjoy it, but reading will open up your mind to a variety of new ideas and
experiences. Browse whatever books you find interesting and insightful. Many people recommend reading
every day.[4]

4 Educate yourself about the world around you. Cultivate an interest in subjects like current events,
interesting facts, funny and inspiring quotations, good books and movies, scientific studies and
interesting inventions. Educational television, like PBS, is a great way to learn. Learning to think critically
about the world around you by being aware of cause and effect in events will make you much smarter.
 If you can read much faster than you can speak, it is much more efficient to read a book, or better yet a
non-linear electronic document like a wiki than to watch a show for all but the most intellectually
demanding or video-dependent learning. Commercial television is particularly bad because its ultimate
purpose is to do just enough to keep you at the TV and its ads, not satisfy you so you can do something
else.

5 Make connections. Find uses for information, rather than just collecting useless trivia. Burying
information somewhere deep in your brain is not useful; you have to be able to access it in situations.
Think of situations in which a piece of information will make sense. Then share it and watch it grow!
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Method Four of Five:

Developing Good Habits

1 Ask questions often. Asking questions and questioning everything around us constantly is what makes
us smarter. There's nothing wrong with not knowing the whys or the hows! Everybody has something
that they don't know. But by developing a healthy habit about asking when you don't know something, you'll
find yourself getting smarter and smarter.

2 Set goals once a week. Ask yourself during each goal-setting session, how many of last week's goals
did I achieve? Why didn't I accomplish some of my goals and what can I do to give myself a greater
chance of success?[5]

Constantly work hard to achieve each of your goals. Without goals, you would have nothing to hope for.
Reward yourself after accomplishing your goal.
Be organized. You don't need to be a total neat freak, but wasting time is not smart. Of course, many
geniuses are completely disorganized (think of the absent-minded professor) but if you're making an
active effort to be smart, taking a conscious approach to how you spend your time is a big step in the
right direction.
3 Devote time to education. Educating yourself takes time, and if you want to get smarter it is going to
require effort. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. You need to spend a lot of time actively thinking and
learning if you want to really be smart.
 4 Always learn. There are many sources of information out there. For example, books, documentaries,
and the internet. School is just one source of information. If you have straight A's, that doesn't mean
that you are smart. Exercising an open mind will make you more intelligent and constantly learning will help
you get there.

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Method Five of Five:

Expanding Your Horizons
1 Learn a new language. Apart from being a linguistic exercise, it may bring you into contact with new
people and ideas. You may feel less of a stranger when you visit a place and you know some of the
language. Also, at some point you will realize that there are some phrases or concepts in other languages
that have no direct translation in English! This can be a challenging and fun exercise for the mind. (Note, try
to be patient and positive when studying a language as it may take time to reach the level you desire.)[6]
2 Visit new places as much as you can. Try to visit other countries too. Visiting cities in your country or in
a different one gives you an open mind and teaches you about the universe. You will be able to
understand other cultures (how people live in a different place, how they behave with each other). You will
also be able to understand that there is so much to see and do anywhere. You will be fascinated on how
there are so many different people and cultures in the world. That will make you smart and interesting.
 3 Be open-minded and willing to learn new things. Just because you're great at one thing doesn't mean
you have to stick to it! Find ways to step out of your comfort zone. This is where the learning happens.

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Community Q&A

Question

Does stress affect how smart you are?

Community Answer

Stress does make an impact on how smart you are, since it is difficult to concentrate and absorb information when
you are stressed.

352 38

Question

Does getting enough sleep help your brain to be smart?

Community Answer
It certainly does! Getting the right amount of sleep and rest every day helps to boost your brain power by laying
down memories of what you've learned. Having sufficient sleep helps you to access/absorb information, which
makes you smart.

572 75

Question

What do I do to get smart?

Community Answer

Work hard on a topic. Don't care if people think you are a nerd and tease you. Try focusing on these topics: physics,
chemistry, biology, geology, and math. Learn as much as you possibly can.

397 53

Question

I consider myself smart but does that make me smart? How can I be smarter than others?

Community Answer

Consider yourself as smart isn't sufficient to be smart, there needs to be more to back up your wish. It's also not
ideal to strive to be smarter than others, without more. Being smart is more than book smarts or IQ; it's also about
emotional intelligence, the ability to connect with others and the ability to consider others. It is not important to be
the smartest person in the class -- what matters is that you should consider what you have to offer the world
because everyone has the opportunity to make this world a better place.

658 98

Question

How do I improve my ability to retain information?

Community Answer
Take notes on the information you'd like to remember, and read them a couple times in the next few weeks. Try to
engage with the topic by asking deeper questions or connecting it to topics you're more familiar with. If you need to
remember one vital piece of information, learn special memory techniques.

423 63

Question

How do I keep myself motivated and interested in a subject?

Community Answer

Focus on and know your purpose. With your focus on purpose, you can help yourself to remain interested and
proactive about learning more.

297 46

Question

How do I remember vocabulary words. I am not good at remembering any.

Community Answer

This will depend in your learning style: if you're good remembering shapes, then try to associate words with
shapes. If you're good remembering sounds, then try to associate music or simple sounds to what you need to
remember. This creates a pathway to develop your memory and train your brain to keep the words in mind.

350 56

Question

Will reading works of fiction help me become smart?

Community Answer

Certainly! Most of the classics you would be assigned in an English class are fiction. But newer books and popular
fiction work, too. All reading makes you think, and thinking builds your mind. Just make sure you're reading books
that are a little challenging for you; always set the bar a little higher.
 174 26

Question

What is the best sort of information source other than internet and classes in school?

Community Answer

People are a great source of information. We're humans, and we learn from all our mistakes and all our
achievements. We all come from a different background, and we all have a story to tell or a lesson to teach. Also,
read some books!

62 8

Question

What do I do when learning gets so boring to me?

Community Answer

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Tips

There is more than one type of smart. There's book smart, street smart, people smart, emotional smart,
technology smart, and many other types of intelligence.
2 Helpful? 1

Smart can also mean having a smart physical appearance, especially in the UK. Make sure you are smart
and know which smart you need or want to be.
2 Helpful? 0
 
Know the difference between being smart and being knowledgeable. Being smart is not the same as
knowing a lot about the subject. Being smart means you understand problems and can think of ways to
solve them. Being knowledgeable means you know a lot about one or more topics. Are you both smart
and knowledgeable or just  one?
2 Helpful? 0

Don't just go online, research one fact, and wow people with it. Pick one topic to learn about instead.
2 Helpful? 0

If someone asks you a question

  that you don't know the answer to, ask them to explain or to ask it in
another way. Maybe they have not framed their question well, or they are being indirect; maybe they are
not asking a question at all, but expressing another idea? For example, "do these pants make me look fat"
is not a 'real' question but  a way to ask for reassurance. If you have determined that they really want an
honest answer from you, and you don't know the answer, ask them why they want to know, or the context
of their question. Once you understand what they want to know, but you don't know the answer, be honest
and say you do not know.
2 Helpful? 0

Pay attention in class, during a lecture, at a conference or around the meeting table. Staying alert helps
you pick up information and cues that others miss. It saves time and keeps you smart.
2 Helpful? 0
 
Don't become to think you are better than everyone because you are smarter than them.
3 Helpful? 0

Pay attention to the class.  If you don't get something, ask the teacher about it. Don't be afraid to ask!
 3 Helpful? 0
 

Know a good tip? Add it. Add

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Warnings

Don't put yourself down. When you do this, you begin to believe that you're not smart and this can turn into
a self-fulfilling sense of "giving up". Tell yourself you can do it, even if it requires effort and time.
5 Helpful? 1

Don't become a know-it-all, do-it-all, or argumentative. It is obnoxious! It is better to be subtle, not obvious.
2 Helpful? 1

Know your limits, take a break

  every now and then to reassess yourself and manner of completely
achieving your primary goal.
1 Helpful? 2
 

 
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Smart&oldid=26816728"
About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create
this article, 327 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. Together, they cited 6 references. This
article has also been viewed 3,205,918 times.

Co-authors: 327
Updated: July 19, 2019
84 votes - 73%
Views: 3,205,918

Categories: Featured Articles | Intelligence

Article Summary

In other languages

References

1. ↑ https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0101035
2. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/aug/28/schools.highereducation
3. ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/trouble-in-mind/201304/creative-writing-and-your-brain
4. ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953616303689
5. ↑ https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html
6. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4320748/

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