Sit less, retain more.

Preparing for the GRE no longer has to leave you deskbound.

The life of a student, especially one aiming to enter a prestigious graduate program, is extremely busy. Classes, coursework, internships, jobs, and extracurriculars fill up one’s calendar; hardly leaving time for all the socializing and lounging outsiders expect of the usual college experience. And after all the cafeteria food and late night pizzas, you’ve got to be sure to leave some time to hit the gym.

If you are applying to graduate school, how are you going to find time for all the applications, essays, and interviews; let alone studying for the latest standardized testing experience of your academic life, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)? Well, the answer is that you will find time, because that’s what you do.

However, you already spend enough time in the library and stuck in front of your books and computer screens. Thanks to a unique new product, students can simultaneously stay in shape and prepare for the GRE.

RunGRE (http://runGRE.com) takes traditional stationary memorization and turns it into a fun, healthy, and improved experience. Audiovisual flashcards that play on any mp3 device allow students to exercise while learning the vocabulary they will need for the GRE Verbal Reasoning and Analytical Writing sections. Instead of needing to take hours out of your busy schedule to sit around and memorize definitions, you can now study on the go and even get fit while you do it. This product will not only save you time; it will increase your enjoyment of studying and improve your ability to perform on the GRE.

Walking to class, riding a bike, running the treadmill, climbing the elliptical machine. These are just some of the activities that you can now make more productive by using RunGRE. Even better these types of continuous physical activity literally put you in a better state of mind for studying.

People often don’t fully realize the importance and benefits of health and fitness to a student’s academic preparation. Too many sedentary periods during work and school lead to a variety of health concerns. And cardiovascular exercise is not only important for physical health, but also for the brain’s cognitive function, including retention and recall.

Physical exercise increases oxygenation and circulation in critical parts of the brain. Specifically, aerobic activities such as walking, jogging, running, cycling, or swimming, deliver oxygen-rich blood cells and nutrients that make it easier to maintain focus and concentration. During aerobic exertion, you will be more receptive to studying and memorization.

Furthermore, research shows that aerobic exercise positively affects the learning process over the medium and long term, perhaps related to releases of specific hormones in the brain effecting cognitive performance. In this particular paper in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, exercise is shown to increase the speed and proficiency of vocabulary learning in comparison to remaining sedentary. So an exercise break could really be the best time for you learn those GRE vocabulary words.

For those interested in further exploring the educational benefits of cardiovascular exercise, this paper in Nature looks at the positive effects of aerobic physical activity on cognition and brain function at the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioral levels.

RunGRE is a Pittsburgh-based company that was developed in order to enable students to benefit from these positive links between cardiovascular fitness and learning. “We didn’t evolve to sit for 8 hours a day”, says RunGRE founder Seth Lesky. “The research clearly indicates that memory and cognitive function is enhanced by physical activity, it’s time education and fitness were combined to work with biology instead of against it”.

RunGRE is the first flashcard system designed with exercise in mind. It is exactly the kind of product that busy students need, allowing them to save time and get fit all while improving their GRE performance. RunGRE is available for download at www.rungre.com, and is currently priced at $12.99.

As interest grows, the company plans to release more flashcard sets for language learning, music, and other fields that require significant memorization.

Get in touch and let us know how you see yourself utilizing this product, or what other subject areas and features you would like to have available.