This year, to succeed in your exams, you will need to remember a large number of formulae, definitions, literary quotes, scientific principles, names, dates and various other pieces of information.
You could spend hours trying to rote learn this information, hoping you can recall it in the exams.
Or, you can apply some of the latest research on memory to quickly slot this information into your long term memory, building strong, reliable recall whenever you need it.
That's what I want to share with you in this email.
Below are 7 key ingredients for creating fast, reliable recall of information. I will show you later in this email how to directly apply these to your study.
1. Focussing your attention increases the quality of the memory you create. It is the first and most critical step in creating strong memories.
2. Increasing the sensory input to your brain helps to make information stand out from the background noise of everyday life. It amplifies the signals to your brain and helps to burn an impression on your memory.
3. Loading information with emotion creates a stronger personal experience of often very impersonal information. This process connects a mental concept into a physical experience.
4. Visualising information actively engages your brain in reconstructing the information. By doing so you are actually creating neural connections in your brain. Your conscious thought is actually resulting in a physical rewiring of your brain's neural cells! ... That always does my head in whenever I think about it!
5. Processing information deeply allows you to anchor the information to many other ideas and concepts, creating an elaborate mental representation of the information.
6. Using spaced repetition further helps you to transfer the information to long term memory making sure that the natural forgetting function of your brain is overcome.
7. Practising your recall gives you the direct experience of remembering, giving you feedback and confidence that your memory has been installed.
When you apply these techniques to your study, and start to see how easy it is learn and remember information, you will start to make a rather startling realisation ...
That your potential to learn is far greater than anything you have ever imagined
All that talk you hear about ... how humans only use a fraction of our potential brain power ... it's true.
How to memorise anything ...
STEP 1: Focus your attention.
The first step to memorising anything is to focus ALL your sensory awareness onto what you want to remember. Remove all distractions from your environment. Bring all your attention to what you are studying. As you read, imagine your eyes are like lasers burning the information onto your memory. Listen to yourself thinking. Anything you do that focuses your attention will help you to strongly 'encode' the memory.
STEP 2: Increase sensory input.
Our attention is always attracted to anything in the environment that looks different or unusual. Use this natural feature of your brain by making the information stand out.
Interact with the information using sight, sound and movement and you will be sending multi-channelled, amplified signals to your brain. The result: High-speed learning!
But a word of caution: We humans also have a tendency of avoiding trying anything too different, especially when it feels awkward. We think it keeps us safe ... but it actually just keeps us boring. So try something different, step out of your comfort zone, and expand yourself. Your brain will thank you for it!
HERE'S HOW ...
- Rewrite formulas/facts etc on large paper using large colour letters and stick them up around your room.
- Read information aloud, accentuate the sounds, watch yourself in the mirror as you rehearse aloud the key information.
- Turn information into symbols, diagrams and pictures.
- Draw Mind Maps connecting all this information together.
- Rehearse key information to the rhythm of some upbeat music.
- Ask yourself questions, then answer them!
- Replay information in your head while out walking, running or cycling (study on the GO!)
STEP 3: Load with emotion.
On its own, information is relatively boring. It is just facts. However it is in your interaction with information, how you personally process it, that makes this information personally relevant and therefore memorable.
Your emotional state (how you feel in the moment you are studying) has a huge effect on how much is remembered. How you feel in any moment is not a random incident. How you feel is determined largely by what you focus on. Control your focus and you will control your feelings.
Focus on what you want to achieve, connect with the feelings of success and accomplishment BEFORE you have actually succeeded, listen to uplifting music. All of this will help you to put yourself into a highly alert and energised state.
Then from this state, start to load emotion into the information you are studying. And remember: Weird = Effective.
HERE'S HOW:
- Use your imagination to create funny and strange associations with the information.
- Imagine studying with your favourite famous person ... they ask you questions and you answer them. Try a different person for each subject!
- String facts together by making up strange stories ... all from the deep and weird recesses of your imagination!
STEP 4: Process information deeply.
One of the key factors for transferring information to long-term memory is the depth of processing - either at a very shallow level (eg just reading) or a very deep level (connecting the information with other ideas, questioning or challenging the information etc).
When you connect and relate information to other concepts you create a chain of memories that each lead to one another. You create more pathways in your mind that take you to the information you want to recall.
HERE'S HOW:
- Ask yourself questions like: "How is this information similar to ____ ?", "How is it different to ______?". What does that really mean?
- Draw a mind map or diagram that shows how several concepts are connected together.
- Organise the information in an appropriate way eg on a timeline, as a sequence of steps, in order of importance, into similar groups etc.
STEP 5: Visualise information
Use your imagination to recreate information that you have studied. Get relaxed, close your eyes and actually recreate the information in your mind.
HERE'S HOW:
- After you complete a math problem, rehearse the steps in your mind, imagining writing out each step as you go.
- Once you have studied a diagram, mentally redraw the diagram in your mind.
- Imagine someone explaining to you what you have just studied.
- Get creative ... you are limited only by your imagination.
STEP 6: Use spaced repetition
Spaced repetition is the careful placement of review sessions to maximise transfer to long term memory. This is done in order to overcome our natural tendencies to forget information that our brain considers unimportant. Only a small amount of time is required for these review sessions but the timing is important.
Imagine you just completed a 1 hour study session at home in the early evening. Here's how you would use this technique to ensure you maintain strong recall for the material you studied.
HERE'S HOW:
- 20 minutes after the study session, spend just 5-10 minutes refreshing your memory on the material you studied. Quickly scan through the work you completed. Highlight in your mind the key steps or key information.
- 2 hours after the study session do the same again.
- 1 day later repeat again.
- 1 week later spend 20 minutes reviewing material from the last week's study sessions.
- 1 month later take 30 minutes and quickly review the work you did in any study over the last month.
STEP 7: Practise your recall
This is simply a case of setting up small tests to check you can recall, rather than just recognise, the information you have studied.
HERE'S HOW:
- Go back and answer some of the questions you previously studied.
- Give your study notes to a friend or family member and get them to test you on the key points.
- Make flash card with key words on one side and definitions or explanations on the other.
So there it is. Rather long I know but pretty much a crash course in becoming a genius.
The first 5 steps above aren't really steps. You can apply those simultaneously as you study. As you do you will start to get better and better at using these techniques ... they will start to become a natural part of your study.
So give it a go. Try something different. You just might surprise yourself!
Until our next communication...
All the best
Geoff Peterson
StudyPass
PS If you haven't yet downloaded our revision checklists for various subjects, then check them out by clicking here.
Š 2009 Growing Minds Ltd
Growing Minds, PO Box 633, Christchurch, Canterbury 8140, NEW ZEALAND
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