Need Studying Tips?
Helpful Tips to Improve the Effectiveness of Studying
A Bit of Information on Memory
Tips That Will Help You Remember the Information You Studied
- Chunking the Information:
This means you make connections with information, or categorize it to make recalling that information easier.
Example: You may remember the year 1956 by chunking it apart because your brother is 19 years old and your dad is 56 years old; or you can group information with similar concepts together.
2. Maintenance Rehearsal:
This means that you repeat the information to yourself over and over again in hopes of memorizing the information.
Example: This could be in the form of flashcards, where you write the term on one side and short definition on the other side and quiz yourself on each flashcard.
3. Spend Extra Time on the Material in the Middle:
Science shows that you are more likely to remember the material you studied at the beginning and at the end of your information(AKA Serial Position Effect). So you may need to spend some extra time rehearsing the material in the middle!
4. Mnemonic Devices and Elaborative Rehearsal
This is a strategy to help retrieve information easier. You make associations of the new information with old information.
Example: To help remember PEMDAS(used in math), people may use Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally; you can put the new information to the tune of an old song you know.
Additional Information on Retrieving Information from your Memory
When taking a multiple choice test...
You use recognition: the ability to recognize information that has been stored in your memory.
Example: You read a multiple choice question and can't quite remember the answer off the top of your head. After looking at all the answer choice you may be able to narrow the down the choices and recognize the correct answer!
When answering a short answer question...
You use recall: the reconstruction of information that's already been learned.
Example: When you read a question and you have to write out the answer, you have to recall the information that you already learned in order to write down the correct answer. Sometimes in this process of remembering we may use confabulation: which is filling in the gaps of our memory, although what we remember may not necessarily be true.
After a long time period of not using the information...
You will forget the material. In relevance to a student's life, the process of forgetting is most likely going to happen through decay: the fading away of memories over a period of time.