Struggling to study? Your brain is more powerful than you think
Written by Kortext Ambassador Nyarobi and reviewed by our team. Nyarobi is a student at Aston University.
As exams loom and stress rises, revision can get to you. Admittedly, it is hard, especially when you hit bumps in the road.
Sitting with material that will not stick, a formative assessment that didn’t achieve a dream grade, feeling behind your peers… it is NOT a sign that you cannot do it. Believing you can, could make all the difference.
Don’t take my word for it, though. According to neuroscience, a change in perspective and learning how to cultivate your brain’s potential could transform your learning experience for the better. The concept is called neuroplasticity, and honestly, I wish I had heard about it sooner.
What is a growth mindset?
A growth mindset, a concept developed by psychologist Carol Dweck, is simply the belief that your abilities can develop with effort and time (they can!). The opposite is a fixed mindset: the belief that you are either good at something or you are not.
Neuroplasticity is basically the science that proves a growth mindset right (Staneiu, 2023). The brain can change, and ability is not predetermined. Struggling with something now does not mean you will always struggle with it.
Neuroplasticity? What’s that?
Neuroplasticity is the mind’s ability to change its response to learning by forming new brain connections, strengthening the existing ones, and adapting the psyche over time (Blanchette Sarrasin et al., 2018).
Sounds super technical, right? In practice, though, it’s incredibly simple. Sitting with a difficult concept, or revisiting something you did not understand the first time, is using neuroplasticity to rewire your brain, so don’t let your lack of understanding discourage you, and keep going!
Thompson (2025) backs this up. This study shows that understanding how and why the brain changes in response to learning is what helps students push through difficulty rather than conclude they are not capable.
How can this help me as a student?
(You might want to pay attention to this section)
A growth mindset and neuroplasticity have been extensively researched on helping students. Thousands of people have benefited from the science; you could too.
Students with a growth mindset consistently report better mental wellbeing, more resilience, and lower levels of psychological distress (Tao et al., 2022). A growth mindset does not make your exams easier. But it changes how you relate to the hard parts of getting through them.
A meta-analysis of ten peer-reviewed studies found that when students were taught about neuroplasticity, it had a meaningful positive effect on their academic achievement, and brain activity… particularly for students who were finding things hardest (Blanchette Sarrasin et al., 2018).
At undergraduate level, neuroplasticity training was also found to significantly shift how students saw their own capacity to grow (Anschutz, 2024). Similarly, Xu and Dieckmann (2025) found that students with higher growth mentality were more likely to learn from mistakes rather than be derailed by them. A really useful quality to have when a practice assessment does not go to plan.
How do I implement this?
Rather than a to-do list, here are a few things worth knowing as you go into assessment season.
- Testing yourself is more effective than re-reading. It feels harder because it is harder, and that is exactly why it builds stronger neural pathways. Struggle during revision is a feature, not a flaw.
- Getting things wrong is not wasted time. Students who treat mistakes as information rather than verdict show measurably better cognitive adaptability and performance (Xu & Dieckmann, 2025).
- Progress is real even when results are not there yet. A growth mindset notices that you understood something today that you didn’t last week. That matters.
- If you have access to support through your university, please use it. Getting support is not a shortcut, and it will only make your mindset shift more effective.
A note for students who may learn differently.
Learning about neuroplasticity has benefits for everyone, even those of us who may have felt like it is harder for us to grow.
As an ADHD student myself, there have been times when I have felt like my brain was working against me. Learning about neuroplasticity has been one of the more quietly reassuring things I have come across.
Harnessing neuroplasticity and a growth mindset to motivate students is proven to be especially important with neurodivergent learners, whose cognitive development and learning styles deviate from the typical range. (Goldberg, H.2022)
If you’re a student who gets Non-Medical Helper (NMH) support, harnessing a growth mindset could be a fantastic accompaniment alongside your study skills, organisation, and strategies sessions. This kind of support is rooted in the same principles as neuroplasticity: the idea that skills can be learned, practised, and developed with the right support.
A final thought
For smarter study, increased motivation, and higher capability, choose a growth mindset. Applying neuroplasticity strategies is backed by science and bound to help if you remain consistent. Your brain is doing more than you think. Give it the chance to show you.
