Together we'll succeed - March 2007
succeed@kirklees.gov.uk

 

• How can you use your memory effectively when preparing for tests and exams?

Memory works best:

• If you feel positive about what you are doing and clear about why you are doing it
• If you are not tired hungry or thirsty
• If you connect new information to information you already know
• If you take in information through all your senses See it! Say it! Hear it! Do it!

Your success in memorising information will also be influenced by your learning style.

• Rhymes. Thirty days hath September ... How many of us remember this one? This technique works just as well for memorizing dates and facts:In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

• A mnemonic is based on remembering the first letter of a key word in a sequence or list of key words, ideas, names etc Every Good Boy Deserves Favour = EGBDF the notes on lines of music

• Silly sentences. When the list must be memorized in order, form a sentence from the initial letters of the words you are trying to memorize. Example: Remembering the division of the animal kingdom (in order):
  Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
  King Paul Called Out For Gus and Sam
  
• Acronyms. Make a word using the first letter from each word that needs to be remembered. This works only when the list is fairly short and when the order of the words can't be shifted.
  
• Reduce the material to be remembered to your own self-made system of index cards
  
• Represent the idea graphically by use of pictorial or diagrammatic forms such as flow charts
  
• Make a list of key words most useful in explaining the idea or topic.
  
• Try making the idea clear to a friend or member of the family without notes.
  
• Teach it to an imaginary audience. By doing so, you are forced to organize the material in a way that makes sense to you.
  
• Recite the information aloud can help you encode the information (auditory encoding) and identify how well you have learned it.
  
• Taping it means that you can listen to it on a regular basis.
  
• Flashcards: Write the name on one side of the card, and the definition, formula, or pertinent information on the other side.
  
• Gimmicks: Word games or tricks to help you remember. Example
  In flowering plants, the male reproductive structures are the stamen
  
• Music. Just think how easy you find it to remember the words to songs you like. Try making up a song, jingle or rap to help you memorise something.
  

The Journey Mnemonic

The journey can be any specific route that you know well; for example, your regular route to school, to town, or even from your bedroom to your front gate. The important feature is that the route should be one that is very familiar to you, and hence easily remembered. Begin by writing down, in order, all the landmarks that you can think of for your particular journey - you can add or reduce landmarks depending on how many you need and what you are trying to remember. Each landmark stands for one piece of information.Thus you could encode information about a group of famous people (ie pegging their names to specific landmarks of your journey) and their achievements, lists of minerals and their qualities and so on.

 

And then there are mighty mindmaps…