{"id":34510,"date":"2026-05-15T16:38:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kortext.com\/student-hub\/?p=34510"},"modified":"2026-05-15T16:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:39:58","slug":"struggling-to-study-your-brain-is-more-powerful-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kortext.com\/student-hub\/ambassador-blogs\/struggling-to-study-your-brain-is-more-powerful-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling to study? Your brain is more powerful than you think"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Struggling to study? Your brain is more powerful than you think<\/b><\/h3>\n

Written by Kortext Ambassador Nyarobi and reviewed by our team. Nyarobi is a student at Aston University.<\/em><\/p>\n

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As exams loom and stress rises, revision can get to you. Admittedly, it is hard, especially when you hit bumps in the road.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sitting with material that will not stick, a formative assessment that didn\u2019t achieve a dream grade, feeling behind your peers\u2026 it is NOT a sign that you cannot do it. Believing you can, could make all the difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t take my word for it, though. According to neuroscience, a change in perspective and learning how to cultivate your brain\u2019s potential could transform your learning experience for the better. The concept is called neuroplasticity, and honestly, I wish I had heard about it sooner.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What is a growth mindset?<\/b><\/h3>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neuroplasticity is basically the science that proves a growth mindset right (Staneiu, 2023<\/a>). The brain can change, and ability is not predetermined. Struggling with something now does not mean you will always struggle with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Neuroplasticity? What\u2019s that?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Neuroplasticity is the mind\u2019s 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<\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sounds super technical, right? In practice, though, it\u2019s 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\u2019t let your lack of understanding discourage you, and keep going!<\/span><\/p>\n

Thompson (2025<\/a>) 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How can this help me as a student?<\/b><\/h3>\n

(You might want to pay attention to this section)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0A growth mindset and neuroplasticity have been extensively researched on helping students. Thousands of people have benefited from the science; you could too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Students with a growth mindset consistently report better mental wellbeing, more resilience, and lower levels of psychological distress (Tao et al., 2022<\/a>). A growth mindset does not make your exams easier. But it changes how you relate to the hard parts of getting through them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2026 particularly for students who were finding things hardest (Blanchette Sarrasin et al., 2018<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0At undergraduate level, neuroplasticity training was also found to significantly shift how students saw their own capacity to grow (Anschutz, 2024<\/a>). Similarly, Xu and Dieckmann (2025)<\/a> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How do I implement this?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Rather than a to-do list, here are a few things worth knowing as you go into assessment season.<\/span><\/p>\n