Joe's Jotter: Ten ACE Ways to help you remember ‘stuff’
Ten ACE Ways to help you remember ‘stuff’
There are so many different ways to remember things. Have a sift through ten of my favourite types and see would any of them work for you before or during the exams.
1. Flashcards
Flashcards are great for summaries and giving you a snapshot of a certain topic at a glance. The fact they can be carried in your pocket gives them obvious advantages. Flashcards were made for bullet point summaries, so try and take a mental picture of whats on each card.
2. Set you own tests or get a friend to help
Ask your friend to send you a list of possible questions on a topic. It will be certain that they will view topics from a slightly different viewpoint to you. Someone else’s questions will focus your mind on remembering a slant you didn’t even consider.
3. Do something unusual while learning
Walk, run, jump on your bed, or introduce some kind of movement while trying to get an essay or a set of rules into your head. This will automatically create an association between the topic and activity. Sitting at your desk isn’t going to work for everything. Be creative.
4. Work with a friend
Throw a dice for whose going to write out an essay or summary of a topic. Share the summaries, teach it to each other and pay close attention to how your friend has gone about their learning and creating the piece of work.
5. Create your own Mind map
Invent your own diagram or table to store and summarise Information onto. Draw up the summary across a full A4 landscape page with large writing on it so that it is easily readable. Work on recalling where certain Information is located on specific parts of each page.
6. Be the Teacher
If you have summarised content on a topic, pick a ‘victim’ in your house and teach it to them in all the ways that you know. Let them ask questions at the end if they want. By the end of the lesson, you should know exactly how competent you are on this knowledge.
7. Use large sheets or a small whiteboard
Get your hands on either of the above if you can. With larger sheets, you will have more freedom to create a bubbles and arrows effect. This is really useful where there are linkages between topics for a given subject. Examiners love links created inside and between subjects.
8. Test yourself
After learning some content, take a blank sheet of paper and write down every little thing you know about it. This is great practice for any upcoming exam, as this is effectively what we do in exam situations. Re-creating this process will fine tune your memory recall skills.
10. Use your wall
Stick charts, summaries, diagrams, and facts on your wall. This has been used by millions of exam students over the years and is a great way of helping Information stick in your head. Do not be afraid of trying a new way to learn a topic, even with only days before an exam.
10. Use Variety
Learn ‘stuff’ in as many different ways as you can. Summaries, bullets, postits, flashcards, audio, video, notes, etc. This will give you a better chance of remembering it. Visual learners – You know what to do. Use Diagrams, Tables, Pictures, and Mind maps where you can. Joe
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