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LEARNING CENTER

MEMORY

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Three Easy Steps to Remembering 1. Choose facts 2. Construct review cards 3. Examine and study review cards

Step One: Choosing facts

1. Developing your memory is the most effective way to learn factual information.
    
   • Take effective class notes
   • Go over handouts to choose main ideas and other significant data you have identified as potential test material.
     
     
2. Inspect your book for the following:
    
   • chapter titles and headings help organize text information
   • any italicized, underlined or bold-print type
   • key words that are listed in the chapter either at the beginning or end
   • the outline at the start of the chapter
   • summary at the end of the chapter
   • any of the graphics in the chapter
   • all math and science equations and formulas
     
     
3. Find a "study buddy." Share class and textbook notes. Try to predict what your instructor might consider important. What questions will be asked? Visit with your instructor during regular office hours to share your study methods.
   

Step two: Creating review cards

1. For each class or chapter, buy different colored 3x5 inch cards. You should be able to find these at any office supply store.
   
   
2. Write or print information on card.
   
   An example is to write a word on one side and the definition on the other.

   For Example:
   

    

Side one: Word	Side two: Definition
Communication	A giving or exchanging of information. A means of communication

• Repeat and recite.
  
  
• Repetition is the most common effective memory device.  

3. Use a card for each fact, definition, idea, or technique.

   For Example:

Side one: Concept	Side two: Facts
Why was DaVinci called "The Universal Man?"	Painter, engineer, botanist, optician, inventor Mona Lisa, The Last Supper Very important in changing art (1452-1519) celebrated human body



4. Use time wisely. Incorporate waiting time into extra study time (ex. a doctor's waiting room). Take review cards to study.

Step three: Studying review cards

1. Instructors rarely write tests with information as it is written in your textbook, so shuffle your cards to randomly learn material.
   
   
2. Don't try to learn too much information at once. Study from seven to ten cards at a time. Trying to absorb too much information at one time will not transfer short-term memory to long term.
   
   
3. Read over your first card and quiz yourself on information. If possible, read your answer out loud. If that is not possible, write out your answers. Check your answer immediately to make sure it is correct or to verify the answer you could not remember.
   
   
4. If correct, put a check mark on the upper right corner. If incorrect, put an "X" in the corner. This will indicate where you need to focus your attention.
   
   
5. After a short while, stop and do something else for about an hour.
   
   
6. Go back to your cards; remember to shuffle them. If you did well the first round, pull out another seven to ten cards. Say the answer out loud or write down your answers to help learn effectively.
   
   
7. Restrict your review cards to 14-20 in one subject each day.

    

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Mnemonic Devices

Acronyms

Creative Sentences

Rhymes and Songs

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Acronyms

An acronym is a made up word to recollect helpful information. Acronyms aid in remembering lists of words. Take the first letter of each word in a phrase to make up your acronym:

Examples:

NASA-National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Roy G. Biv-red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet(aids students to remembers the colors of the visible spectrum)

IPMAT-interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telephase)aids biology students remember the stages of cell division

Radar-radio detecting and ranging

FBI-Federal Bureau of Investigation

FACE-spaces on the treble clef

HOMES-Lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior in Michigan

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Creative Sentences (Acrostics)

Acrostics are usually sentences that aid in remembering a set of letters that stand for something.

Examples

1. Every good boy does fine (E,G,B,D,and F, music notes of the lines of the treble clef staff.

    

2. Georgie eats old gray rats and paints houses yellow (how to remember how to spell the word geography).

    

3. Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally(math order of operations parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction)

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Rhymes and Songs

Put what needs to be remembered into a rhyme. As in childhood, rhymes were easy for us to remember.

Example

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

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In conclusion, mnemonic devices, while helpful in allowing us to remember information, have four setbacks:

1. The first is that it may not allow you to understand material.
2. Second, mnemonic devices may take as much time to learn as trying to remember than common ways.
3. Third, mnemonic devices may be more, or just as, difficult to learn than traditional methods of learning the material.
4. Lastly, mnemonics may not work for remembering math and science terms.

Mnemonics can work despite the limitations.

Compiled for the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Writing Lab by Ronda Meyer

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last updated 01/10/07