Building Your Memory Skills
Here are some hints to help you remember material as you
study and when you review for a test.
- Get interested in the topic. Try to relate it
to something in your own life.
- Intend to remember the material. Tell your brain
that it should hold on to what you are learning.
- Decide ahead of time what is most important.
No one can remember everything. Spend your efforts
on what you really need to know.
- Relate the material to something you already know.
- Organize the material in a way that will make
it easier to learn. For example, remembering a
series of events is easier if you put them in
chronological order.
- Recite out loud and/or write down the points you want to remember.
- Make a mental picture of what needs to be remembered.
- Use mnemonics when you have to remember a list. Using the first letter
of each item, create a phrase that you will remember.
A common mnemonic used in algebra is "Please
Excuse My Dear
Aunt Sally".
This stands for the order of operations:
Parentheses, Exponent,
Multiplication, Division,
Addition, Subtraction.
- Review material immediately after class. This helps set the
new knowledge.
- Use frequent, shorter study sessions, of 45 minutes to an hour, rather
than one four hour stretch.
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