6 free games to make you smarter

Free games are always a great way to pass your time or reward yourself after an exam or assignment. They provide the perfect balance of fun and excitement, all without you having to spend a single penny.

The best part? The fun you get from the game isn’t completely insane – studies show it can actually help you get smarter. In fact, gambling can increase your brain’s gray matter and teach you better problem solving skills, among other benefits.

This makes it an ideal activity to relax and continue learning at the same time. It’s a great way to keep your mind sharp as a student and learner, and can ultimately help improve your academic performance along the way.

Here are six of the best free games that will boost your brain activity, keeping you fresh and busy without sacrificing an ounce of fun or excitement.

6 free games that will make you smarter

Brightness

Brightness is one of the most popular apps specially designed to give you a mental workout. As a leading app in this field, it offers more than 50 brain games that challenge your brain in different ways. This includes helping you improve your memory, speed, logic, problem solving skills, math, language, etc.

The app is not completely free – you are only limited to tthree games a day. Still, you can track your scores and see your improvement over time as a free user, as well as compare your performance against other people.

raise

With over 35 (and counting) brain training games, you’ll never run out of things to play raise. Designed with education in mind, you can find plenty of engaging games to help you improve your reading, writing, speaking, and math skills. The best part? You can customize your training depending on the aspect you want to focus on.

The app is free to download for iOS and Android users, with some in-app purchases.

Peak

The best free games are the ones you can play on the go – and Peak is another that gives you the chance to do just that. With this app you can access a range of brain games that will help you improve your concentration, memory, problem solving, mental agility and other cognitive functions needed to stay in top shape as a student.

The app is free to use and download for iOS and Android users, but also offers in-app purchases that will allow you more advanced features.

Many of these games can be downloaded to your smartphone, making them easy to play on the go. Source: Daniel Leal/AFP

braingle

braingle claims to have the largest collection of puzzles in the world – and for good reason. Its website hosts over 15,000 puzzles, games and other brain teasers in the form of optical illusions, codes and ciphers, and quizzes.

What sets Brangle apart is its large and enthusiastic online community, many of whom interact regularly. That way, you can arrange to play one of its many games while getting to know — and learning from — like-minded gamers all over the world.

happy neuron

Similar to Lumosity, happy neuron is a platform that personalizes its brain training activities according to your abilities and interests. Here, games and activities are divided into five critical brain areas: memory, attention, language, executive functions, and visual/spatial functions.

The site is not completely free. You’ll have to pay a monthly subscription to use it, but there’s a free trial.

Queen

Queen differentiates itself from the rest of the apps and websites on this list by offering personality tests and surveys instead of traditional games. Apart from that, it has a collection of “brain tools” such as logic, verbal, spatial and mathematical puzzles; quizzes; aptitude tests; and more.

These are designed to help you exercise and test your brain. Once completed, you can save your results and scores by creating a free account. However, you may need to pay a fee to access your full results.