What’s your Peak Brain Score? Is your Peak Brain Map accurate? Are Elevate, Lumosity and Peak brain training scores correct? I asked Peak’s expert!
You know those days when you simply can’t accomplish what you set out to do?
To train my focus, I’ve been using the Peak brain training app (for iOS and Android) consistently, for over a year.
Still, whenever I have one of those unproductive days, I can’t help ask myself the world’s shortest question: “WHY?”
Was it yesterday’s workout? Too much food? Too little? The wrong kind of food? Did I get enough quality sleep? Did I drink coffee yesterday? Lots of factors to consider.
Such questions are very hard to answer with any degree of verifiable certainty though. There are so many data-points/variables involved, that’s it’s impossible to keep track of. And even if one did go all in, tracking every little cup of coffee, what one eats, when one sleeps, how much one has worked (and what kind of activity): the interplay between all those activities explode into an almost infinite palette of possible cause and effect scenarios.
Daunting.
I still love tracking myself, though. Provided it happens automatically, on auto-pilot; requiring no manual input by me.
One app I’m using, is RescueTime. It tracks what I’m doing on my MacBook Pro, 24/7. By categorizing the activities, I get a good overview of my current procrastination vs productivity level. I personally find self-tracking enlightening and useful.
Instead of meditating traditionally, I’ve used an EmWave biofeedback device by HeartMath regularly for years now. I love how technology can improve our lives in meaningful ways. The EmWave measures HRV (heart rate variability) – and helps me find a state where my breathing pattern is soft, and my mind in a state of flow. Difficult to describe. It’s the same feeling I’ve felt everytime I’ve experienced synchronicities in my life. An “openness of the heart” is how I can best describe it.
Lately, I’ve been eyeballing (read: drooling over) the Basis Peak “smart watch” made by Intel (I believe they know what they’re doing). In fact, I decided to order it from Amazon today! Woohoo! Anyway (getting my hands down…) the Basis Peak wrist watch can measure your heart rate, sweat levels, skin temperature, calories burned, sleep cycles, and it can even automatically track walks, runs and cycling/bike rides. How cool’s that?
Update December 10, 2017: when Intel withdrew the Basis Peak from the market, and asked all customers to return it for a full refund, I instead purchased the Fitbit Blaze, which isn’t as advanced as the Basis Peak, but nevertheless: I’m very happy with it!
Incidentally, I also play a brain game called Peak on my iPhone on a daily basis. Like Peak’s more well-known competitors Lumosity Elevate, and CogMed, Peak is based on the idea of neuroplasticity. In layman terms, your brain is a giant moldable, elastic, ever-changing mass, always growing new neurons and pathways. To adapt to your life, environment and tasks. What does that mean? It means I’m not as dumb as I once were! Haha. Kidding aside: I (and you too!) can train your brain to become better at f.e. problem-solving or speaking more fluently.
There’s some controversy going on in neuro science circles, though. Some argue that by playing f.e. Lumosity, Elevate, and Peak brain training games, you’ll just get better at playing those exact games. The improvements aren’t carried over to other games or tasks, where your brain training should have made you more adept at doing them, as a result of your brain game training.
Other scientists, and it has to be said, that it’s often those who are closely associated with brain training games (like Elevate, Lumosity, CogMed and Peak) counter with the stance that training key cognitive skills like problem-solving and working memory does indeed work – i.e. it does carry over its benefits to other, similar tasks that are part of daily life and work.
Does Peak brain training work? Can you trust your Peak brain map and Peak brain score? I’m not sure yet, and neither are the brain-scientists! But I’m giving it a fair chance. My own “sense” is that it is working. But: can I trust myself to fairly judge how I’m doing? Hey, nice segway, ’cause that’s exactly what the rest of this article is about! 😀
You see, a few days ago, I got this (self-professed) “amazing” idea:
Since I do my Peak brain training every day, and at different times of day – it should (apart from calculating my Peak Brain Score) also be able to, over time, track how good I am at problem-solving tasks on f.e. Tuesday evenings… right?
That way, I could soon be finding patterns, and schedule problem-solving oriented work for those days where I’m statistically best at doing so (aka: scoring highest in Peak). Right?
Proactive, and proud of my “genius” thinking, I decided to shoot an email to the Peak developers, right away!
But was it really such a genius idea? Is it doable? Feasible?
Below, I’ve reproduced the ensuing conversation. I asked and got permission to do so, with a quick disclaimer:
“Feel free to quote me but do note that I didn’t necessarily discuss these matters with the games development team, so it’s always possible that they see it differently or that a different direction will be taken in the future.”
When you read the following, notice THE AMAZING SUPPORT EXPERIENCE provided by Maya, the supporter who replied to my email. In-depth, and super interesting angles on my idea. In a way, I got owned – pwnd. I like that though – it’s always great to have my ideas challenged by people who know more about a subject than I do.
Hi Peak’ers 🙂
In addition to my Peak brain score, a metric I’d LOVE to see in Peak, is time of day (and perhaps also day of the week) I’m usually at my brightest. If you’re über-cool, you can also show me this data, split up into categories: When is Oliver best at problem-solving? Friday mornings? Aha, then I know I should schedule tackling business challenges for Friday mornings, for example!
Would be so useful for planning my work days, if I could, as an example, clearly see that I’m no good at words (language) in the evenings, so I should ideally never attempt to write blog posts in the evening.
Oliver
Maya from Peak responded back very quickly – and thoroughly. Lovely! Here’s her reply:
Hi Oliver,
Thanks for your suggestion! I will pass it on to development.
I think it would be difficult to do for a number of reasons though. Changing time zones is one that pops into my head, but the main issue I see is that there are dozens of other factors that impact your performance way more than time of day. Are you tired? Feeling sick? Lots of adrenaline? Hungry? Happy? All of these things will probably be of much greater importance than the time of day.
The results might also be skewed because to know when you perform best, we would need data for every single moment of the day – but you won’t play every single moment. So it would be very difficult to say anything sensible about it, I think.
Thanks for your interest in Peak and have a good day!
Maya @ Peak
And what I wrote back to Maya:
Hi Maya
Thank you for an interesting take on this. I can definitely see what you mean.
Then, I’d love to see you tracking those parameters, asking me (when I launch the app to play) how I’m feeling, whether I feel tired or well-rested, hungry, full, or in between 🙂
I know it probably goes beyond the scope of Peak, but on the other hand, Peak is quite complete, stat-wise, compared to many other brain games, and that’s what I like about Peak. And to measure the stats I’m referring to, brain games are needed, to measure cognitive performance. An app that asks me for the above (mood, hunger, sleep) + additional questions like “do you feel good at problem-solving right now” obviously wouldn’t work well, as the answer to such a question would be subjective and hard to measure. Furthermore, the gamification aspect would be missing, leading to less involvement/engagement with the app, leading to fewer data points, etc.
Thoughts?
=)
Again, shortly after, another brilliant, in-depth reply from Maya:
Hi Oliver
Sure, I have thoughts on that 🙂
I acknowledge that it would be great if we would be able to measure all of those things and feed the information back to you. However, the problem you mention of ‘do you feel good at problem solving-questions’ being subjective, also goes for any other data we ask of you. You might be able to tell us if you’re hungry or not, but then again our brain often mistakes thirst for hunger. Some people are always hungry also when they’re full. So it would tell us more about your subjective experience than your factual state, if that makes sense. We can’t check if you recently ate, and what. Likewise, if you’re feeling tired, you might have slept too little or you might have eaten too much sugar and be on a low. (We could ask you these sub-questions rather than just ‘are you tired’, but there will always be too many factors to control for).
My fear is that if we would start asking these sorts of things, we’d descend into a sort of pseudo-scientific field where we don’t want to be. Right now Peak is solidly science-based – we want to keep it that way, ergo we want to work with actual measurables rather than suppositions. We want to be accurate, and I think in a scheme like this we couldn’t be.
My last qualm is that even though you would be really excited, most of our users would start hating us 🙂 some object even to having to give their email address, so any other data we ask would be too much.
You’ll be interested to know though that we do work together with universities to test Peak in scientifically measurable ways in specific contexts.
So there’s definitely movement in the crossover field between science and games, I just don’t think we could realise the same results just yet with only users telling us how they feel 🙂
I hope that helps!
Best,
Maya @ Peak
Isn’t that an impressive case of amazing customer support? I think so.
I love that Maya didn’t just leave her reply to me at “Thanks for your suggestion! I will pass it on to development.” – she went on and explained the challenges involved in implementing my idea.
So yeah… I still can’t get/find the answers to those questions I posed at the beginning of this blog post. One thing is sure though: Self-tracking (quantified self) is the future. If you sometimes procrastinate, and wonder where your time went, and haven’t yet at least tried RescueTime – you really owe it to yourself. I’ve used RescueTime for several years now.
Another example: medical companies are doing lots of research in being able to measure which patients will respond to a particular drug, with fewest side-effects, making it a matter of a simple blood-test to gauge whether this particular treatment/drug will work for you. And that’s just one example. We need to understand ourselves better, and objectively, if we are to evolve into the best beings we can be, each one of us. We’re all unique, individuals, and that’s the great challenge here. It’s also the biggest opportunity.
But what about you… do YOU track and improve your yourself? Doing Peak brain training? Prefer playing Elevate? Lumosity? What’s your Peak brain score?
Lynn LaBranche says
I have tried and tried to sign on for a full Peak but it keeps telling me that I have signed up but must wait because there is a problem. Can you help please?
Fer says
Hi, I really enjoy Peak and bought a lifetime license because of this, and to support development. I am not much good at the Peak score (yet 😉 , only around 500, but because of that it is why I continue playing.
I also recommend any of you to test its Wizard Memoroy training game, which should be buy a part as a single payment. I have noted it has helped me a lot with my working memory.
The controversial about if is it helps, my own feeling is it does, but it is only a feeling. Anyway I mix playing Peak two or three time a week with playing Android games, but not videogames, but physical board games digitalized. I enjoy a lot Tsuro, Kahuna, chess, gomoku, Axio Octa, Stratego, Gin Rummy… and others. I see they improve my brain in differents ways, and about all, they are all very fun. Board games are a world to explore…
Regards
Fer
Oliver Nielsen says
If nothing else, it does train one’s willpower, and ability to stay focused on various types of tasks. Very much worth it, IMO.
But I sometimes wonder whether the mental energy (glucose etc) is better spent on work-related / creative tasks. That’s brain gymnastics too, and it’s 100% relevant skill-building.
Some brain researchers argue that brain games aren’t effective, because the skills don’t translate to other, related skills. If you get good at a specific problem-solving brain game, you’ll be good at that particular problem-solving brain game, not at problem-solving in general.
Personally, I think it does translate though. But science isn’t clear on that. Yet.
=)
Oliver
Kris says
Hi Oliver! Great stuff, congrats on the aspiration to “quantify yourself” within the healthy limits, I can totally relate to that. I’ve been also noticing how my peak score for “focus” improves after meditation and for “problem solving” – after sleep, and find super exciting to keep up with the observations!
One app that came to my mind after reading your conversation with Maya was Welltory. The basic idea behind that app is: measuring your biometrics and correlating with sleep, coffee, mood and other subjective metrics, pretty much the “pseudo-scientific” way of doing that as Maya had described. I think that since Peak wouldn’t provide you with several measures you’re curious about, you’d might want to try to observe these by yourself, and probably Welltory might be a helpful starting point: measuring your parameters and the brain score and spotting patterns. Hope this helps (or at least entertains:)
Riya Patel says
My peak brain score is 251 but I just started a 9-10 days ago. I don’t actually know how high it goes.
Johanna says
I have been training with Peak for over 2 years. For me it’s more about the fun of the games and the challenges with the dimensions I’m not very good at. My PBS is 961 and I’ve always wondered how many more people do play as actively as I do. It would be good to know against what I am comparing (I’m in the 99 percentile for my age)
I do track some things, but I’ve noticed that after a while, I am not as conscious and serious about the tracking, so steps, calories burned and such have become less of a goal.
Hermann says
I am playing since October and at the moment I am around 790, currently I am not trying hard to do better then this, but somehow I think it should not be the point. Do you actually ‘try’ to beat the game? I mean build patterns to play better a specific game or you reached that score simply by doing every day better?
Caroline says
Some of is luck though surely. I can’t get the 5 near misses in Earth defence even if I leave most of the meteors unexploded. So there’s must be a luck element of getting them on the right trajectory in the first place.
Ian Blair says
Hello Oliver,
I very much enjoyed the article. I definitely need to check out RescueTime!
One of the negatives mentioned about these games is “you’ll [only] get better at playing those exact games.” My opinion is it depends! I think if you only play the daily exercises, and no retries, you’ll get a better idea of your performance. Whereas if you retry each time to get the best performance, or a performance that matches one of your best, you start to enter into practicing the specific game, which negates the purpose of the brain training IMO. As much as I hate ruining one of my high scores or PEAK scores for any specific game/category, it seems more realistic that your scores would fluctuate and average out instead of ALWAYS increasing. It’s about doing it everyday, not getting high scores (then it would just be a game.)
To your questions about collecting a statistical analysis for time of day performance, etc. I think the PEAK team skirted this answer. They said it is all science based. Well, most studies that test anything test at similar times of the day and hope all participants have as little variance in their days as possible. The stats they show on the app itself are completely variable (are you playing once a day, multiple tries at a game, etc). The idea that the variables are keeping them from adding additional stats is absurd. I would guess that over 50% of users probably do not simply play the daily workout without any retries. Also, the variables they mention that would affect the time of day diagnosis are generally based on the time of day. If you keep a routine daily, your emotions, energy, hunger, etc should occur at similar times daily. When it does change, as you mentioned, something may have thrown you off and it’s easier to recognize when you’re on a routine. Thus, for those of us that keep daily routines, we could be able to find our best time of day for performance.
We need to do some of our own testing. I suggest spending two weeks practicing at the same time everyday, record your scores, and then change the time and repeat. From my research of intermittent fasting, I would assume our peak, do not pardon the pun, scores would be a couple hours after we wake up, but before we consume any food. Post-lunch might be the lowest. Evening the middle score. What do you think?
Mx says
J,
Gotcha. I have stats on all 37 games. Thx for responding.
Jimmy says
@Mx
Okay, if you are in the stats view (same as where you see the brain score) you will have games as one of the Tabs. There you will see all games you have played should be 37 if all games is played.
I have a friend that didnt play the daly exercise and choosed the games by picking them out as what he liked to play. Less games, playing the ones youre good at will give a high Avg brainscore but on 20 games its easier than playin all 37 and obviously not compareable.
/J
Mx says
Jimmy,
To be clear, my getting a 100% is a single game score and not the aggregate game score or 1000 score.
I sometimes play Grow without the keyboard and it does make a difference- but not as much as I expected when using at least two fingers. The keyboard only works for Grow. I think the larger screen on the ipad is helpful for all games.
I’m not sure if I understand your question about playing all the games and I don’t have access to see anybody else’s performance. I get 4 random games a day and often don’t play all of them. I also took a break from it for a month or more. I have played each game and have at least a Grand Master ranking in more than 2/3 of the games. My overall brain score was higher when I regularly finished the workout of 4 games every day. My worst rankings (expert with low overall scores) are castle block and pixel logic – I haven’t played those games very much. I find castle block more challenging than I expected. I’m not one to go to YouTube or look for hints on how to improve my performance, I’d rather muddle through it and I’m thrilled when I figure out some little detail that allows me to improve scoring.
My recent Aha! was that my finger didn’t have to be on the sun face in Flame Dodge- it made a difference. My confession is that when I show the game to family and friends to get them interested…before time runs out I always grab my ipad and dump them out of the game so their score doesn’t impact MY score.
Mx
Greg says
Not cool the cheat thing because it artificially raises the game level and as a consequence raises the difficulty to get higher score (current. 755 / 98th) ! 😉
Oliver Nielsen says
Interesting point Greg. Thanks for bringing it up!
=)
Oliver
Mx says
I’m a non-payer over 1 year. When 0verall was>900 I started goofing around with games/ techniques regardless of the impact on overall score. So I tanked my overall and today it’s 833, overall 99%er and I only play when I like the games that are offered -that means my overall won’t improve until i start play the games I don’t like.
I’m wondering what everyone is playing on? I’m on an ipad. I use a keypad for Growth (only game it works for) but the screen won’t rotate ☹️. I don’t use a stylus and I think it would make a difference for some games.
Success Tips for Growth (my fav) add suffixes to every word : ‘ed,ing,ly,ize,izes,ized,izing,tion,tional,tionally ‘ etc and plurals. If it doesn’t work, so what? Some words need compounds- ‘boa’ make boat, boathouse, board, boardroom etc. After words that come naturally I go the alphabetical order for the next letter e.g.: boa (b,c,d…). Instead of thinking my way into coming up with words I’m accessing my word database. I often get 2/3 games at 100% score out of a 10 game streak, but if the TV is on or the dog is barking I’m less likely to score well. Hope this helpful.
One important thing I’ve learned from playing PEAK is that distraction definitely has an impact on performance. We know it, we just don’t usually believe it. Wonder if PEAK had any idea they could teach such a profound life lesson? Enjoying everyone’s comments- so Thanks Oliver!
Jimmy says
Hi, at brain score 905. Playing only on my phone, IPhone 6s, no keyboard only the screen. Trying to use more than one finger when possible.
At about 890 on Grow, Babble bots and word fresh… IPad and keyboard would proble help alot… Theoretically easier in most games where speed writing is involved and some others as well?
Or what is your experience, is it the same? I always loose a lot of points in grow due to misses on the keyboard but thought of it as a part of the game.
/Jimmy
Amalia says
How can you have such a high score on grow and write “loose” instead of “lose” ? And English is not even my native language… :)))
Caroline Reid says
Because lose is still a word. Grow is a word game not an English grammar game. And no need to get personal Jimmy is using an iPhone after all and we all know about predictive text
AC says
“Lose” means to be unable to find (something or someone); to fail to win (a game, contest, etc.); to fail to keep or hold (something wanted or valued).
“Loose” means not rigidly fastened or securely attached; having worked partly free from attachments; not tight fitting.
daniel says
I am currently at a peak score of 917, and basically I stumbled upon this site on the search for some highscore lists 😀
not sure if its even possible to reach 1000, as you d have to have a perfect game score in every single game I guess? anyways, would really like to know where the very best players are at
Brian says
I’ve been playing for a while and have a peak score overall if 954. I did once reach 1000 on one game the face smiling one. I’m at 999 on a bunch of games and in the 99th percentile in each category. I would agree that there a probably hardly any regular players with low scores. It’s just human nature to do what you’re good at.
It’s a good brain work out though for sure.
Lauryn O'Brien says
I have an overall Brain score of 926. I’m in the 99th percentile in every category except language (thanks to the game Grow which I have a brain score of only 607 on!) what I’ve found is that doing the achievement goals is really important because the higher your level, the higher your scores get and it makes a huge difference in the brain score you’re getting. I really want to get to the 100th percentile but I’m not sure if it’s possible lol. By the way I’m a 21 year old female. Does anyone else have a certain game that’s holding them back? I also think the game Slide is extremely unrealistic in the scores you need to get to level up, but maybe I’m just bad at that game. Thoughts?
Lauryn O'Brien says
Also, I’ve been playing for about 40 days and I’m a pro user. My scores in each category are:
Memory: 952
Coordination: 944
Language: 880
Focus: 959
Mental agility: 925
Emotion: 977
Problem solving: 902
Ryan says
My peak score is 675. I’m in the 97%.
Memory 96%
Problem Solving 88%
Language 88%
Mental Agility 98%
Focus 94%
Emotion 94%
Coordination 79%
If I could just get my coordination up then I’d be quite a bit higher I bet.
Richard Stone says
Hi Jimmy
You are right in your assumption that it gets harder and harder. Now that you are in the 98th percentile, you will notice that your score may not always go higher after a day’s play. Depending on the type of game you are good at (or not so good at) and the games you get to play each day, your score can actually go lower some days.
Getting to 850 – hhhhmmmmm…… Would not have been possible for me without cheating (as discussed in earlier posts). The speed at which you need to do some of the games just does not seem realistic to get to a score that high….
I had scores under 850 for 16 of the games and scores over 850 for 22 of the games when I took a break – my overall score was then 847.
All the best in improving your scores, Jimmy!
Jimmy says
@Richard 847 is not bad! Did you pass in to the 99th percentile?
/Jimmy
Richard Stone says
Apologies, Az….. I might call it something else. But thank you for your insightful comment.
Oliver Nielsen says
=)
Azeotrope560 says
That’s really dumb, Richard…
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Richard
Let me know how you like Elevate.
Cheating each game? I’d call that problem-solving;)
=)
Oliver
Mx says
To Any who are interested:
I got some feedback from Peak Customer Service. When you play a game they do provide percentages from 0-100% on the bell curve. A score of 100% means that you have the top score or are currently tied with the top score. The lack of a game % on the game score is something they weren’t aware occurred. (That’s a separate thing from not getting aggregate % for new users or beta games.) I ran numerous self tests on a particular game with Legend rank (to make sure it wasn’t just a one-off) and had Scores ranging from 4% to 100% and I also had several games that were high scoring with no %.
Richard- I found your comment about cheating games fun. On the Memory Sweep game I totally cheat- by blinking hard then opening my eyes wide & staring- when the image goes away I still see dark spots on the screen where they were. I don’t really like that game- so I feel justified with my approach, lol. And turning your phone sideways for tap trap is interesting, I’m going to borrow that idea.
I agree with Oliver regarding Elevate- and my experience is that Peak and Elevate target from different angles. I am in a very different thought process for each of them. Elevate requires me to think and use my senses more; Peak is assessing and reactive processing (if that makes any sense). But that could just be about how my brain works.
Thanks to both of you for feedback.
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Mx
Thanks for coming back here to share your insights re: Peak’s scoring. Much appreciated.
On your comparison of mindsets for Peak vs Elevate I just thought of this:
A green beret would play, and benefit from, Elevate. It helps communicate better, as well as exercise ones practical skills, like listening, calculating/estimating costs, etc.
A fighter pilot would play, and benefit from, Peak. Lots of quick-reaction and coordination practice.
=)
Oliver
Oliver Nielsen says
Hi Richard
Missed your question regarding the Happy River game:
You’re right: it’s more of a coordination game than a game training emotional reactions. And I’d say it’s even more of an impulse control and stress response kinda game. At least for me:)
Oliver
Richard Stone says
Mx, trying out new ways of improving your score is very interesting. I have recently started turning my phone sideways when doing TapTrap, because it is easier with the items moving up and down. TapTrap changes the direction to left to right now and then which is more difficult to me.
Another interesting thing Peak has shown me is that my coordination is not as good as I thought – it is actually my lowest score at 673. I am glad to say that my emotional score is higher than I thought (but coordination comes into play innsoemmof those games as mentioned previously.
Oliver, I am proud to say I broke the 800 marks last week and moved into the 99th percentile just prior to that. (Another) Richard commented on whether there really are people scoring in the 5th percentile etc a while back – I am sure that the score at which you hit different percentiles vary as the scores of the players vary – in other words the bell moves and chages shape as the players report on their progress. In this case there MUST be people in the 5th percentile as their information will also be used to caclulate the latest percentiles and scores required to reach them.
Keep on Peaking!
Oliver Nielsen says
Hi Richard
You’re likely correct regarding the calculation of the top percentiles. And congrats on your improved scores!
How are your Elevate scores? I’ve been quite fascinated by Elevate’s focus on improving specific writing skills – something I can use directly in my work as a blogger and in copywriting.
I haven’t upgraded Elevate to Pro yet, though. I’m playing a game with myself: once I’ve completed a full week of consistently playing Elevate daily, I’ll allow myself to upgrade to Pro, as the prize:) Apart from motivating me to play every day, it’s also a concrete way to avoid purchasing stuff I may not need. Another example would be telling myself I can purchase the full version of Logix Pro X or upgrade my Reason license, once I’ve made a full track in GarageBand. That way I avoid purchasing a license for software that may end up rarely used.
Thought I’d throw that tip in here, as I’ve found it helpful in avoiding the diagnosis PIP – “passion-induced impulsive purchasing” 🙂
=)
Oliver
Mx says
Hi Oliver,
I found this dialogue fascinating. I’ve been using Peak and Elevate, free versions for the past year- at varying frequency. I try to turn everyone I know onto both and especially Peak. I’ve noticed that familiars who are good at the games stick with it- and those who aren’t stop because it makes them feel stupid. For me, it’s about beating my own scores and I particularly like the speed competition. My friends and family who don’t like Peak are intimidated by the clock. The days that I just want to play, that’s what I do (still competitively). The days I want to work I will pick my weaker areas and focus on those games.
Here’s what I love best about it: If I play the same game several times (and I can as a free user) I start to experiment with techniques and different thought processes to improve my scores. Sometimes I take a hit on my Peak brain score… but I don’t let that stand for long before I work to recover my brain score. The way I see the game improving me is that I intentionally spend time experimenting with different approaches. But that’s just plain fun anyway.
As an unpaid you do get to check your scores/stats versus others in age & profession. When I started I checked stats often because I wanted to assure myself that the grey matter hadn’t turned to mush. As time passed it shifted into a personal competition. Blah, blah, blah- here’s a question- with the new Legend status- does anyone know what it means when they don’t give you a percentile at the end of the game for how you fit on the bell curve? They give up to 100% but sometimes there is no % offered. In my fantasy world that means I’ve bested the best….but I’m pretty sure that’s not it, lol.
So glad to know I’m not alone in my crush for the app.
Thanks,
Mx
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Mx
I like how you try out different strategies. I’ve done so too, on some occasions. But only when I have an idea of an alternate way to do it.
Which reminds me:
Peak could offer more suggestions on HOW to improve your score. Elevate is more helpful in this regard. In Peak, my math-related scores have always been low (I’m almost a case of dyscalculia) but in Elevate, they’re much better. Elevate’s tips made me realise that I simply haven’t had the strategies to calculate stuff like fractions. Now that I do, they’re much more manageable:)
Oliver
Richard Stone says
Andrea
Peak is much more fun as paid member. I took a family package where you can add five people on your account. You get six games a day and more chances to practice.
On your 98% comment – I see any IQ type test not purely as an intelligence test, but a test of raw brain speed. Think of it – if everybody had unlimited time to complete IQ tests then all (or most) will get a good score. All IQ tests (and most Peak games) have a time limit, leading to people with the ability to process information fast to score higher.
I do not know if the unpaid members get to compare their scores to other groups such as age group, occupation group etc, but that information is also quite interesting. Occupations I thought would score high are actually not doing so and vice versa.
Peak-greetings
Oliver Nielsen says
Hi Richard
Indeed, it’s not good to be a hairdresser or cook! But don’t tell them, they may refuse to cut your hair or cook for you! ☺︎
I absolutely agree: those stats in Peak are interesting. I’ve found myself perusing them more often than i.e. should (i.e. I should be doing something more meaningful:)
You’re right that speed is a big bottleneck for many people (myself included) when it comes to scoring well in brain games. I’m not so sure you’re right about everyone being able to solve an IQ test like a genius, if only they have enough time. Many people will give up: their brains can’t come up with any more new solutions, as they run into a barriers like a lack of ability to come up with creative alternative possibilities, as well as the barrier of sheer patience/will-power.
Einstein was known to say something along the lines of “I’m not a genius, I just work harder at solving problems than other people” (i.e. he didn’t quit) – wildly paraphrased quote, as I can’t remember the exact one.
=)
Oliver
Ryan Ramirez says
Brilliant post Oliver. I’ve been looking to see how reiable Peak is in terms of data, information and benefits overall.
I’m in the 96th percentile after 31 days of using Peak, which seems quite awesome. But my monthly subscription has just expired, and I’m wondering whether an entire year subscription would be necessary or would even improve my brain or abilities much further? I’ve gone into the 96th percentile in 31 days. What happens when I peak to the 100th percentile and have a peak score of 1000? Will their data show any further improvement?
Probably stuff I should ask them rather than you (so I will lol), but I’m assuming I’d receive a somewhat biased response.
Anyways, just seen that this post was last year, so any new information you’ve found out would be nice to read and know.
Thanks again for your post!
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Ryan
Thanks for the kind and encouraging words! Much appreciated:)
As you get closer and closer to the 100th percentile, it will get progressively more and difficult. I’m not sure, but I think 1000 represents the highest anyone has ever scored. Achieving a score of 1000 would be almost impossible. And perhaps mean you’re THE best Peak player, worldwide… But again: I’m not sure.
If you continue playing for longer than 31 days you’ll also very likely hit a plateau. It’s like going to the gym: at first you gain a lot, really fast. After a while you hit a plateau, where progress slows down considerably.
Please be sure to share what you learn and hear from Peak support =)
Oliver
T says
Hey I just did my first workout and my peak score is 233 is the good?
Richard says
Oliver
Do you believe the centiles on Peak? It claims they are the centiles of active users in my age group. Are there really active users on the 5th centile (for instance), do you think? I am sure there are plenty of people who get low scores and go away, but they are hardly “active users”. There would be a significant incentive for the developers to “flatter” the punters with better than truthful centiles. I am flattered by mine!!
Best wishes
Richard
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Richard
I presume that by centiles you mean percentiles, right?
You have a good point that a brain game provider like Peak could be “flattering” their users with “good grades” so to speak, and not throw them off with bad scores. But the scores are what they are – and I’m sure many people aren’t scoring as high your or I do, in certain games. So yeah, I do think there are active users scoring much lower than you. Maybe Peak aren’t flattering you, but just reporting your actual mental capacities – and they’re somewhat higher than you expected them to be:)
Write them an email and ask, they may give you a straight answer. I can only guess;o)
Thanks for chiming in Richard!
Oliver
Jake says
Very nice article 🙂 I do have same interest in brain training and have been playing Peak for a while now and searched for a similar question everyone has.. Does this really help? I’ve been playing for about a month now my Peak brain score is at around 600 with Free version, sitting around 93% in my age group 30-35. Haven’t seen any real life improvement yet 😉
Oliver Nielsen says
Hi Jake
Good input.
I’m curious: how would you expect those real-life improvements to manifest? Better focus at work? Better math skills?
As written in the article, it can be so difficult to quantify. And difficult to identify causes to noticed effects.
Example: I’ve not played brain games on a daily basis for a few months now, due to being busy. I’ve “noticed” my ability to concentrate deteriorate. BUT, is that due to me not playing brain games – OR is it due to me being too busy/stressed? It could be one or the other. Very hard to say with certainty.
However, my current personal take on it is:
Some skills, like concentration and impulse-control, does benefit from brain-training. I.e. doing the activity itself, is inherently useful. It helps us get better at “staying with the task” – not letting ourselves get distracted.
Other skills, like (working) memory, is more “hard-wired” so to speak. Meaning: we each have the amount of memory installed in our “computer” that we have. We can’t upgrade our brains to a larger harddrive and RAM. Here, brain games won’t help, at all. I’m saying that after having intensely played Peak’s Wizard advanced (extra) brain training game, on a daily basis, for close to two months. My memory has not improved one iota. To the contrary, it has deteriorated 😀
I’ve noticed that for hard-wired stuff like memory and to an extent math: the biggest improvement will come from learning skills. Memory-tricks, like f.e. making up a story that involves the objects you are supposed to rememeber. That’s one proven memory-enhancing strategy that works really well. But it won’t increase working memory. Only help more “fit” into what you have.
Makes sense?
=)
Oliver
Dana says
The only app that I currently use is Peak but I have been looking at the efficacy of other apps in terms of physical and mental peaks as well. Alrough I have started using those other apps yet.
My peak brain score is 287 but I just started a week ago. I don’t actually know how high it goes.
Best,
D
Oliver Nielsen says
Hey Dana
The Peak score goes to 1000. around 700-750’ish you’re in the 97th percentile or thereabouts. Above 800 you’ll be in the 98th percentile or such.
I’ve been using Elevate as well. As a writer/blogger, I find it many language games useful. Peak is more all-round.
Thanks for commenting =)
Oliver