Advanced Memorization Strategies: Channel Your Inner Poet or Diva

The more fun you have linking material in strange or silly ways, the better you will remember it. Try rhyming, visualizing, singing, telling a story, or making an imaginary treasure hunt for yourself.

Boring But True (You mean 20 minutes isn’t enough time to learn human anatomy?)

Give yourself plenty of time to study. You will be less tense, it will be more enjoyable, and you will be in a mindset to learn and understand.

If at all possible, spread your study sessions out over time, preferably over days. Psychologists call this distributed practice. Lots of repetition is best for storing information in your long-term memory. Since you are putting this time and effort in, wouldn’t it be cool if you could remember this info 5 years from now when your cousin is in crisis and could benefit from your genius?

To learn the material even better, see if you can work it into everyday conversations. Tell your friends about a theory at lunch or sprinkle your conversations with terms you are trying to learn. You may earn a Hermione nickname, but you will remember the material!

Get Creative (Can I sing this definition to the tune of “Birds of a Feather”?)

Read key terms out loud and talk through ideas. Saying it out loud is a different and helpful way to learn.

Pace around your room while repeating key terms and concepts to yourself (Yes, I know, I’m asking you to talk to yourself while running around in circles, which may make you look vaguely unhinged, but hopefully you are alone! And physical movement can work!)

Try grouping similar concepts into categories. If you are trying to remember the variables that influenced obedience in the Milgram study, you might group them into variables related to the authority figure, those related to the victim, and those related to the environment.

Use first letters to make an acronym that you can remember. ROYGBIV is used for the colors of the rainbow, and the Big 5 Personality factors are often remembered by their first letters, which can spell OCEAN or CANOE. If you have multiple terms or names you have to remember, see if you can make a word out of the first letters.

Rhyming, “sounds like,” and word games make you work through the idea on your own to come up with the strategy and then stick better. You can go so far as to make a poem (like the popular “30 days hath September…”). Or rhyme the definition with the term, or think of words that sound similar (I can remember “anions” are negatively charged because “anions” is similar to “onions”, and I don’t like onions). Or try other plays on words (“cations are pussytive”).

Sing a definition to the tune of a song or commercial you like. Lots are out there already!

Visual associations, like remembering that Somalia is shaped like a pirate cutlass, can make it stick in your memory better.

Try self-associations, like linking information to the date of your birthday or the name of your favorite restaurant. You generally remember better when things are relevant to you, termed the self-reference effect. Can’t easily link an idea to yourself? Try someone else close to you.

Create a story, the sillier or sexier the better. Or see who else has already done so. This economics paper describes first using the rhyme “Mrs. Pixpy maximizes utility” to remember the formula for constrained utility maximization. And then imagining taking her baby’s rattle away and giving it chocolate until it stops crying to understand marginal rate of substitution.

Store it in your “memory palace,” dorm, house, or houseboat. For any space you know well, imagine putting different objects, terms, or concepts around the house or room. If you have to remember the steps of a process in order, you might imagine the first one as you walk through the front door (the more vivid you make the image the better), the second one in the first room, the next one in the kitchen, etc., so that you are visually walking around your house collecting steps in the process.

Get Biological

I hate to break it to you, but you are a biological organism and need to take care of the watery meat sack that is your body. Your brain will function better because of it.

Get sleep. “All-nighter” study sessions are not a good idea for learning and remembering complex material. Your brain organizes and stores information while you sleep, so be sure you leave yourself some time for sleep! Also, less sleep means you make poorer choices, have a worse mood, will have more unhealthy food cravings, will have a compromised immune system, and may find yourself sick.

Get exercise. Consider taking exercise breaks during studying. It will help energize your body and your mind, as long as you don’t work out to the point of exhaustion. Running, biking, swimming, weight-lifting, rollerblading… You get the idea. Or combine exercise and study by walking with a study partner and discussing and quizzing each other on the material (the more socially acceptable version of yesterday’s solo pace and chant technique).

Eat healthy. Healthier food will help you feel your best and most alert. Fruits, veggies, lean proteins. You know the drill. Think of it as part of your test prep. Try carrots and hummus for a study snack instead of Doritos and Mountain Dew.

Avoid too much caffeine, sugar, or alcohol. A little caffeine early in the day can help you feel more energized and focused. But dose down as the day progresses. Since caffeine has a 4-6 hour half-life, approximately 50% of it will still be in your system 5 hours later, and perhaps 25% is hanging around 10 hours later, potentially interfering with sleep. Moderation is also key. Too much caffeine can make you feel anxious or angry. Not ideal. And while we’re at it, let’s avoid sugar crashes and cravings and remember that alcohol might make us feel relaxed but interferes with the restfulness of sleep.

Take breaks for little things like showering or napping, but also to change things up and give yourself time to socialize. Instead of procrastinating, how about starting to study right away so you can get to a fun break you have planned in 3 hours?

The good news is that you can learn a lot during little 45-minute bouts of highly focused studying! And more enjoyable studying can be more effective studying! Make it fun and convince yourself that you are interested in this material and you will be happier AND learn more!