Introduction
If your memory is like a sieve where all those lecture notes are concerned, fret not. Help is at hand. Rev up those brain cells and impress your teachers through the fun and enjoyment of brain games. Brain games are easy to find - in newspapers, magazines and online. Not only do they improve your memory and concentration span, but they may help in reducing the risk of Alzheimer`s disease later in life.

Tips and hints on how to train your brain
The key to improving your memory and training your brain is to enjoy doing the various brain games available, also to practise doing brain games regularly - ideally for 30 minutes daily. It goes without saying that practise makes perfect. The more you challenge your brain, the more efficient you will be able to process and retrieve information. It`s a good idea to use as many senses as possible, associating information with colours, smells, sounds and tastes, for example. Some students will find it beneficial to write things down, others will find it helpful to connect new pieces of information to what they already know. Learning and understanding new information is made easier through organising and categorising it, perhaps through the use of mnemonics, acronyms, rhymes and alliteration. New information is also easier to remember through repeatedly reviewing it as well as focussing and staying positive through out the learning process.

Popular brain games
There is the fun aspect of brain training where games are played for fun, evolving along the lines of brain twisters, mind games concepts and simple knowledge based games such as trivia quizzes and then there are educational brain games such as mathematical puzzles like the missing square puzzle and word challenges like crosswords, anagrams and ciphers. A large number of different kinds of puzzles have been developed including logic puzzles using a chess board such as Knight`s Tour and Eight Queens, picture puzzles including jig saws and its variant Puzz-3D. Logic puzzles include Nikoli, Sudoku, Number Link and Ripple Effect among others.Recently, several popular brain training games have been developed as video console games, a truly popular one being Dr Kawashima`s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain title for the Nintendo DS. To date, only mathematical games are available.

Benefits of brain games
With brain games you can exercise your cognitive skills, improve your memory through mental stimulation, improve your concentration span, increase your alertness and awareness, and enjoy clearer and quicker thinking. Speed up the time taken to solve mental tasks with a Sudoku puzzle, expand your vocabulary with crosswords, test your visual and audio perceptions, spatial reasoning, reaction time, verbal reasoning, assess your mathematic skills and finally check out your general problem-solving ability, otherwise known as `fluid intelligence`.

So, take up the challenge of brain training today and be safe in the knowledge that you`ll never need to suffer from not remembering that vital piece of info again.