Memorization is already part of our daily activities like when you are trying to remember names, to-do lists, important events, and so on. Moreover, this is a valuable skill for students because you need to learn different subjects, concepts, and ideas. However, it’s pretty common to be cramming when exams roll around. This is not only an unhealthy habit but can also cause confusion and reduce your ability to memorize information effectively. Luckily enough, there are fast memorization techniques that can help you improve your memorization process in a healthy and effective manner. To learn about these, scroll down and read through the article.
8 Memory Techniques Effective for Studying
How Does Brain Work?
Before anything else, let’s understand first how human memory works. There are three fundamental processes of memory you should learn to effectively apply the memory techniques we’re going to discuss. This includes encoding, storing, and retrieval. Encoding is the stage where your memory perceives events or information through your senses like sight, sound, touch, etc.
Next is storing which is responsible for recording the newly acquired information. Here your neurons communicate with different areas of your brain about the information you perceived. Lastly, an integral part of memory improvement techniques is memory retrieval. This refers to the process of bringing stored information into consciousness. Your brain remembers the stored data by revisiting or replaying the pattern of neural activity.
Use Mind Mapping
Mind mapping encourages you to associate new information with previously learned information, which is the natural cognitive process of the brain. It is one of the most helpful memory techniques for studying because it allows you to incorporate words, images, colors, branches, and other visuals to organize ideas and make the material easy to memorize. Of course, you can make mind maps with a pen and paper, but a visual tool will make things much easier. Students can use GitMind, a free tool that allows you to create a memorization structure for almost any topic.
Acronyms and Mnemonics
Acronyms and mnemonics help you remember information faster by creating patterns of letters, associations, or ideas. This is commonly used to recall a list of information. For these memorization techniques, we take PEMDAS as an example. This acronym stands for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Regardless of whether the word is pronounceable or just made up, it still qualifies as far as mnemonics are concerned.
Chaining Technique
You can also use the chaining technique to boost your memory instead of the traditional flat memorization. This specific technique uses a storytelling approach. Just take all the information you need to remember and tell a story, while mentioning each idea in order. Of course, it helps to create a story with a theme that is interesting for you.
Chunking Method
Remember the saying “Less is more”. There’s a lot of truth in this, especially for memory techniques. Chunking is breaking down a large amount of information into units or groups. Say you need to remember a 10-digit number. Instead of remembering each number, you may divide the data into 4 units to make it easier to recall.
Use Visualization/ Imagery
Another way for easy memorization is through imagery or visualization techniques. You can associate and imagine images related to the information you need to remember. It helps to think of vivid colors, pleasant, and positive ideas to help remember them more easily. Now if you want to preserve the information in your memory much longer, you should use funny images or humorous visuals.
Recite what you learned with others
Sharing what you learned with others is one of the most effective memory techniques for studying. You are not only helping others to review but also allowing your brain to build long-lasting connections. By reciting the information with your classmates, you can also get feedback about whether what you’ve learned is right and get a mental note of the areas you missed.
Review the material
Our brain can only store memories over a period of time. In order to create long-term memory, reviewing the materials you’ve learned before is the best way to do it. This is to make up with the areas of information you already forgot or missed.
Get a good night’s sleep or take power nap
Your health also plays a vital role in boosting your memory capabilities and that brings us to our final method in our list of memorization techniques. Sleeping actually resets our brains which is an important activity in learning and remembering things. Studies have found that sleep deprivation can negatively impact both long-term and short-term memory. Also, it affects your creativity, thinking, and concentration when you lack sleep.
Conclusion
Improving memory is easier than it sounds. You just need to train your brain to remember and learn information faster. For that, you need these memory techniques to get the most out of your study sessions.
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