Strategies for College Success
– Chapter 8
Improving your Memory
Original source: http://www.life.arizona.edu/academicsuccess/tips/powerpoint/Strats%20for%20College%20Succ.ppt
Memory Techniques
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What we’ll be covering:
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things that can effect your ability to remember something
basic memory tips
strategies to improve your memory
moving from short-term memory to long-term memory
from memorization to deep-learning
What can effect your ability to
remember something?
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distractions
time of day
your comfort level
stress
your interest in the material
your level of motivation
Memory tips
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Learn from general to specific
Before learning something new, get a general overview
to use as a framework on which to hang specific details
Memory tips (continued)
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Make it meaningful
Why is this information relevant? What is the value in
knowing this?
If you don’t see the value
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Find it! What kinds of situations could you be in that you
would need this information?
Use this as an opportunity to use strategies that will make you a
better student
Memory tips (continued)
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Create associations
Relate what you’re learning to something that you
already know
Construct your own knowledge
Try using analogies and metaphors
Memory tips (continued)
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Learn actively
Manipulate or change the information in some way
Try creating a mind map, diagram, pictures, or note
cards
Always put information that you’re trying to learn into
your own words
Memory tips (continued)
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Reduce distractions
Turn off music, phone, television
Memory tips (continued)
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Monitor what you’ve learned
Check yourself to make sure that you’re learning
Try self-testing yourself using the review questions at
the end of the chapter or make up your own
Memory tips (continued)
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Check your attitude and anxiety
Find yourself thinking how much you hate the course or
instructor? Know when your attitudes and/or anxiety
are inhibiting learning and try to address them
Memory tips (continued)
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Turn abstract ideas into concrete examples
Memory tips (continued)
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Distribute learning
Use many short sessions for studying instead of one
long session
Memory tips (continued)
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Remember something else
When you get stuck and can’t remember something, try
to remember something that is related to it or what you
were doing at the time that you learned it.
Memory tips (continued)
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Stay away from studying similar topics at the same time
to avoid confusion
Memory tips (continued)
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Use mnemonics, or memory techniques
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Try creating a song or rhyme to help you remember (e.g.,
“Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November. All
the rest have thirty-one, excepting February alone. It has
twenty-eight days time, but in leap years it has twenty-nine”)
Use acronyms (e.g., to remember the Great Lakes use the word
HOMES for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior)
Acrostics (e.g., to remember hierarchy of taxonomic
classification remember, “Ken’s Pants Caught On Fire, Great
Scott!” for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and
Specific Epithet => Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Primates,
Hominidae, Homo, Sapiens [Species: Homo sapiens]).
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Visual methods – exaggerate the image of what it is you are
trying to memorize.
Memory tips (continued)
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Avoid studying material in the same sequence
Try starting at the end or middle of the material
Summary
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By using memory techniques you can take steps to learn
and remember information more quickly and effectively
Most memory techniques require that you change or
organize the information that you need to learn.
Repeated reading of text and notes is often not enough.
Simple memorization may help you in matters, like
recounting a sequence for opening a combination lock,
but it won’t in and of itself lead to deep-learning.
Memorization facilitates the road to understanding, but
it is not the same as understanding a subject.