How to Increase Smarts in BitLife
Quick Answer
If you want to know how to increase smarts in BitLife, here is the short version: study harder every year at school, read books, visit the library, watch documentaries, and take the memory test. Smarts grow fastest while your character is still in school or college, so the work you do as a child and teenager matters far more than anything you do at 40. Start early, repeat the same few habits every year, and your character will qualify for university, scholarships, and the best professional careers in the game.
Table of Contents
Why Smarts Matter So Much
Smarts is not just a number on your character’s profile. It decides which doors open.
School, University, and Scholarships
High Smarts mean better grades, and better grades mean university places and scholarships. Guide sites consistently put Smarts at around 70 or above as the safe zone for demanding paths such as law school. If your character dreams of a professional career, Smarts is the stat that gets them through the door.
Careers That Need a Sharp Mind
Doctors, lawyers, judges, and many other top jobs need a degree first, and degrees need Smarts. Our guide on how to become a judge in BitLife shows a career where the whole journey — degree, law school, thirty years of practice — rests on keeping Smarts high from childhood. If you are still choosing a study path, our BitLife university majors list explains which majors lead where.
How to Increase Smarts in BitLife: The Methods That Work
Step 1: Study Harder Every Year
This is the single most important habit. While your character is at school, open the school menu and choose Study Harder every single year. It costs nothing and it is the most direct way to push Smarts up. Skipping years is the most common reason players end up with a character who cannot get into university — one lazy year will not ruin a life, but five will.
Step 2: Read Books Regularly
Go to Activities → Mind & Body → Book and read a book. Reading is a steady, repeatable Smarts boost, and you can do it from childhood onward. One warning from the guides: choose your books with care, because some books can actually lower Smarts. Stick to sensible reading and treat books as a yearly habit, not a one-time fix.
Step 3: Visit the Library
Also under Activities → Mind & Body, the library is the quiet companion to reading. Regular library visits raise Smarts over time, and they pair naturally with the reading habit — read a book, visit the library, study harder, and the three habits stack together.
Step 4: Watch Documentaries
Head to the Movie Theater under Activities and watch a documentary instead of a comedy. Documentaries are the one cinema choice that guides credit with raising Smarts, so when your character fancies a night out, make it an educational one.
Step 5: Take the Memory Test
Under Activities → Mind & Body you will find the Memory Test, a real memory minigame. Performing well in it boosts Smarts, and it is one of the few Smarts activities that feels like a game inside the game. It is a good filler whenever you have a free year with nothing else planned.
Step 6: Tend Your Garden
Gardening, also under Activities → Mind & Body, relaxes your character and benefits Smarts too. It will not carry a character to university on its own, but as a small yearly habit alongside studying and reading, it helps — and a relaxed character studies better anyway.
When Smarts Grow Fastest — and When They Slow Down
School and College Are the Golden Years
Guides are clear on this: the biggest Smarts gains come while your character is attending school and college. The same activities give smaller returns once your character is an adult with a job and a mortgage. That is why the best Smarts plan starts at age six, not at age thirty.
Can Adults Still Raise Smarts?
Yes, but slowly. An adult character can still read, visit the library, and take the memory test, and those habits still help. What an adult cannot do is replay school. If your adult character’s Smarts are low, focus on steady habits and accept gradual progress — and remember that other stats can still carry a good life even when Smarts stay modest.
What Lowers Smarts — and How to Fix It
Habits That Drag Smarts Down
Smarts fall when your character stops learning: dropping out of school, never studying, and never reading all push the stat down over time. Certain books can also hurt, so reading everything without thinking is not a strategy. A life of pure partying and no study is the fastest route to a low-Smarts character.
How to Recover Low Smarts
Recovery is the same plan as building: study harder if still in school, read sensible books, visit the library, and add the memory test. There is no instant fix, but the stat does respond to steady effort. If your character was born with low Smarts, the childhood habits matter even more — guides specifically advise library visits and yearly reading for low-Smarts children before university age.
The God Mode Shortcut
One honest exception exists. With the official God Mode pack, you can set a new character’s starting Smarts at creation instead of growing them over years. That is a paid shortcut, not a gameplay method, and it only applies to new lives. Our explainer on BitLife Premium and God Mode covers how the official editor works. For every other character, the school-year habits above are the real answer.
For a full picture of how Smarts fits with the other three main stats, see our BitLife stats explained guide, and for everything else the game offers, start from the BitLife Guide homepage. The community-run BitLife Wiki is a trusted reference if your version’s menus look slightly different.
FAQs
How do you increase Smarts in BitLife?
Study harder every year at school, read books, visit the library, watch documentaries at the movie theater, and take the memory test under Activities and Mind and Body.
What is the fastest way to raise Smarts in BitLife?
Study harder every school year while your character is young — Smarts grow fastest during the school and college years, so yearly study beats any adult shortcut.
Can you raise Smarts as an adult in BitLife?
Yes, but more slowly. Adults can still read books, visit the library, and take the memory test, though the gains are smaller than during school.
Do books always raise Smarts in BitLife?
No. Most reading helps, but guides warn that some books can lower Smarts, so choose what your character reads with care.
Does God Mode increase Smarts in BitLife?
God Mode lets you set a new character’s starting Smarts at creation. It does not raise Smarts during a life that has already started.
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About the BitLife Guide Team
Written by the BitLife Guide team — we play BitLife daily and write simple, honest guides for new and returning players.
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