Have you ever met a person, who has never faced any problems with remembering a large amount of information? Nowadays, living in the media era and being able to access basically any source of information, we are startled by the greatness of the human's brain, but at the same time feel puzzled, not knowing how to squeeze all the wisdom into only one head. Here are a couple of tips on how to organize the studying process, making it much more fruitful and less tiring.
Concentrate
Do your best to keep concentrated on what you are trying to learn. Yes, it is incredibly hard, as the phone keeps buzzing, the new video game is inviting you into its world, you might suddenly feel hungry, thirsty and so on. Just keep in mind, that as many times you let anything distract you, as many times you will have to start anew.
Plan accordingly
The time, when our brain remembers things best, is 8-11 in the morning and evening. It is also known, that what we read before going to bed, stays in our memory longer, especially if you revise it in the morning. But be careful, do not take this advice literally and postpone doing your homework until the late evening! Use this tip for looking through short articles, for your literature assignments or any other kind of reading.
Write Down the Key Points
It is proved, that our brain remembers 90% of the information, written down by our hand. Use this fact for your own good! Write down short notes on what you have just read, watched or listened. You can use schemes, add little drawings to your draft, you can even take down associations if this can help your learning process. If your memory is visual, you will be able to recall everything just by looking at your draft!
Explain
The most productive way to remember new material is to understand it. Memorizing even a couple of sentences without clearly knowing the meaning is useless, as they will be wiped out of your memory in the nearest hour. To make sure, that you have understood everything, try to… Explain it! It is not necessary to let your parents or friends struggle like you do – no matter how funny it may sound, you can explain it to your dog, guinea pig, even a cactus if you wish. Nobody grants, that the cactus will ace the test on this material, but you will definitely understand and memorize it.
Additional Tips:
- Do not try to remember anything, when you are stressed or nervous. You will forget any new information even before you calm down. Better try to relax, have a cup of tea with a piece of dark chocolate and get started.
- If you have a large amount of material to memorize, like all the facts for the history test, divide it into parts and work gradually. Trying to learn the whole book in one evening may be possible in a fairytale, but not in the real world.
- Nothing will work better than revising the information you have studied before. The scientists calculated that the first time you should revise everything 40 minutes after having learned it, and then keep on doing it every day. It might seem time-consuming and useless, but all the efforts will be worth the result.