23/03/2018
Use these 3 tips to improve your study and memorization (plus 2 more to solidify what you’ve learned):
Tip # 1: Use a timer.
It’s incredibly difficult to focus on any subject if you know that you’ll be spending hours at your desk studying. For targeted study sessions, use a timer to create small deadlines you can work towards. The benefit? Your brain can focus in a more targeted and effective way, all in a shorter time period. Here’s how:
For first-time reading and reviewing study material: set the timer to 30 or 60 minute increments to maximize concentration; or, you can also try the Pomodoro technique which consists of 25 minute blocks of time, followed by 5 minute breaks.
For preparing for exams: use the review questions provided either in your textbook or given by your professor (if you have neither, create your own questions based on the most important concepts from each chapter). Write the questions down on a sheet of paper. Then, use the Pomodoro technique to give yourself only a short time to answer each question. Use each 25-minute block of time to cover several questions, and go down the list until you’ve covered them all.
Tip # 2: Teach what you learned.
One of the most powerful memory techniques that people don’t tap into is recalling newly learned information by teaching it to someone else. The benefit? It helps you review, recall, and retain what you’ve learned in a much better way than just silently looking over the material. Here’s how:
Get an audience: it can be a close friend or family member. Too shy to speak to anyone? Pretend you have a couple of invisible students who really need to learn what you just covered!
Create a makeshift classroom: take a large sheet of white paper (even better: tape together 4–6 sheets for a bigger writing surface), then tape it to your bedroom wall at eye level. Be sure you have a bit of space to stand in front of it, just like you’d be standing in front of a real blackboard in a classroom. Have a pen handy, maybe even a thick black marker (or different colored highlighters) to underline important concepts.
Get to work: Write an outline of the most important points you’ve learned in the chapter you just covered, then go over the concepts aloud one by one. Make your “lecture” come alive by drawing diagrams on the side and by providing a few examples; add some humor or a short story to make it even more interesting. At the end, summarize what you thought to be key parts of the lecture and highlight these sections with your thick marker or highlighter. By the time you’ve finished, you will solidify what you’ve learned by using visual cues to memorize and recall the most important parts of the lesson.
Tip # 3: Build a memory palace.
A memory palace ('the method of loci') is a memory-boosting technique that dates back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It’s called a palace because it represents a place or series of places that you can create in your mind to store information that you need to remember. The benefit? Your brain remembers information better when it’s told in a story format, and a big part of this technique is telling the story of where the information is located. Here’s how to start:
Learn how to build a memory palace
Example 1: step by step guide to building a memory palace
Example 2: how to build a memory palace
Read a book
Joshua Foer: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
Harry Lorayne: The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play
Watch a video
TEDTalk with Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do (length: 20 minutes)
Explore a Quora question
What are the best books on Memory Palace?
To speed up your memorization process, try 2 more tips:
Tip # 4: Visualize your progress.
This is a technique called building a mental model; you imagine in detail what you expect to read and learn. As you imagine the details, be sure to cover all the steps you will be covering. For example: if you are studying or learning something new, visualize covering a certain amount of material (chapters, paragraphs, sections), taking notes on the important concepts you discover, writing down questions to research later. The benefit? You train your brain to anticipate next steps and map out the entire learning process in a way that’s easier to understand.
Tip # 5: Schedule a workout for after your study session.
Exercise is important to boost memory, but timing of it is key. Scientists found that people who exercised four hours after their study session retained the information better a few days later than those who exercised either immediately after studying or those who didn’t exercise at all. Brain scans from the study show that exercising with a delay affects the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is important for learning and memorising.
