What is the best way to memorize large amounts of information?

When I took my first history class in college, it seemed almost impossible to absorb all the information that my professor was giving us. It was like one big long story that just went for months and months at a time. But then I realized - it's a story!

So when finals came around, my "study time" was devoted to rewriting my notes - in play form. Now, I'm creative to begin with, but when you look at history in an ironic and funny way, there's a lot to giggle at (including men named "Ashley" and explorers like Columbus that miss India by a few thousand miles). So I boiled everything that was told to me down to a few pages of bullet points (the main events of everything that happened, why it happened, who was involved), and wrote a play.

You can read it here (I'm not promising award-winning writing, it was more to amuse myself than anything, but have a look if you'd like): missinghorcrux.deviantart.com/art/Westwa... When I took my first semester of Chinese, I was completely bogged down with all the characters I had to learn. Now, I like learning languages - my major in college was Italian, and I took French in high school as well - so I had the "romance" languages down pretty well already. But I was completely baffled with Chinese, because it wasn't related to anything I already knew.

When I took Italian, I could at least relate to French words I'd already learned to study for my tests - but Chinese doesn't relate to English or French or Italian, it's completely different. So I had to start from scratch, which was new. So what I did was make a bunch of flashcards each day, covering the characters and words we had from that chapter.

I would write the character on one side, and the pronunciation and meaning on the other. Then I would rearrange the flashcards to make my own sentences and to quiz myself before tests. But then we started running into some more complicated characters (my Chinese professor taught us traditional characters, which have more strokes than simplified characters).

At that point, I decided to start learning why the characters were drawn the way they were - so it wouldn't seem that random. For instance, ç? « (fire) is meant to look like a bonfire made of two sticks in the middle, and dots on the side that represent the fire coming off.

É›ª (snow) is made of the radicals 雨 (rain) and a reduced form of å½— (sweep) - rain that can be swept away is snow! So basically, my two strategies for learning a lot of information at one time are (1) have fun! And (2) take things apart, simplify them, learn why they are what they are, and you'll remember them better.

I hope that helps, and best of luck in your studies!

Before you focus on methods of learning, focus on how you remember. Memories are activated by cues that we bind to them. Even if you have already stored information in your memory, you will need ways to access it, by cues, "keys" one might describe them.

This cue can be a word, a smell, a feeling or anything that is possible to bind to a memory. Each time you access a memory, new cues can be bound to it, and you can even change the content of the memory. Efficient cues are cues you can produce when you need to produce the memory, so it depends on what you want to learn, and when you want to activate the memory.

The more cues, the better: Rehearsal is the key to learning. But rehearse in different ways or find out which way is most personally effective. Doing the exact same thing over and over will not create different cues, only enforce the same ones.

You will want cues that can be activated in the situation where you want to remember the information. Context: Memories are saved with information about the state you learned them in, and are more easily activated when in the same state. So you might find that learning in the same context and emotional state as you want to use the information in is a good idea.

Arousal & Performance: If you're not familiar with the concept of arousal, it basically means that optimal performance is achieved with medium arousal. That is, you want to be active and alert, yet not too alert, and the same goes for relaxation. For instance, you might want to sleep well and have a coffee before you perform or take a test, yet too much sleep might make you drowsy, or too much caffeine make you jumpy.It can usually be planned for.

Make it personal: Anything relating to the self or involving the self is more easily remembered. If possible, make the information you're trying to learn personal by using it in personal activities like conversations or everyday life. Try to figure how this info could be useful to you, in real or imagined situations.

Relate it to your goals and ambitions. Reformulate what you have learned, in your own words, orally or written, or by illustrating. Elaborate: Simple repetition often won't do.

You need to think, to reorganize and elaborate on the information you are trying to learn. Try to imagine how certain info relates to other fields, how it would be useful in potential scenarios or how it could be different.It's often a good idea to imagine how the creator of the information discovered it or used it. Put the info in context, but also try it in different context.

You can try free association around a subject, and try to find areas relating to it. Keywords & Umbrellas: It's useful to gather related information under keywords or wider concepts (umbrellas) for easy access. Learn how different pieces of information relate to another, and then learn to associate them with keywords or concepts that are more easily remembered than the sum of the parts.

If you can remember the keywords, you can have an easier time remembering what it stood for. The keywords are not necassarily words, you can use pictures or other senses to form an cue. Chunking The use of key words and concepts relate to the idea of chunking.

Chunking is the process of recoding information in familiar manageable units. For instance, if you need to learn a long string of numbers, it can be useful to break it down into meaninful components, such as dates, lucky numbers, or other meaningful parts. Instead of "one" "nine" "six" and "three" we can recode the string 1963 as "the year kennedy got shot".

Different senses, different methods: As individuals differ, some find it easier using oral repetition, other prefer writing or listening. You need to try different methods and senses out. Some write down everything they hear and read, others record sounds, some draw mind maps.

I personally find it easy to remember conversations on subjects, for instance. Rehearse again! After chunking information or assigning keywords, you will want to rehearse the information without the source present.

You might also want to test yourself by writing a paper or answering questions. Every new occasion you rehearse, is a new possibility to bind cues. Don't forget that resting and taking time off is also important, and much of the process of consolidating memories can go on even when you're sleeping or resting.

You will need to take pauses, and learning is more efficient if spread out over time. Of course, you will also need to find the motivation to take the time and effort necessary for learning, so there's another reason to "make it personal"! (sources: "Cognitive Psychology" Michael W.

Eysenck & Mark T. Keane, 2005 and seminars) /A bachelor student of psychology.

This may sound a bit odd but it always works best for me. If it's about a certain subject I try to hum a little tune that either has the info in it or triggers my memory and allows me to have all the information at hand. Like I said, a little odd for some, but works wonders for me.

:).

Evernote. Hands down. Sync your notes across the web, computers (mac and pc) as well as your iPhone.

I use it for my photography business and for college. As a bonus it will make images searchable based on the text found in them. Evernote uses two pay models; free and premium.

The premium version gives more bandwidth for synchronizing across the web and removes ads. The pay version uses a small unobtrusive ad in the lower left corner of the screen. I use the free version heavily and have never gotten near the allowed bandwidth quota (displayed in the upper right of the screen.

I always liked using this technique: associatedcontent.com/article/886067/mem... Basically it entails a great deal of repetition. As an example say I wanted to memorize the 1-10 in German. The first morning I would write 1-3.

Just write them down a few times and then put them away. The next morning I would write 1-3 from memory, and add 3-6. If I forgot 1-3 and had to look them up I would write this information several times.

The next morning you continue this, write 1-6 from memory and add 6-9. You get the idea. Eventually the information is moved from short term to long term memory.

The act of repetition improves recall rate. For example I may remember that seiben is seven in German, but how quickly? Instant recognition is what I want, this method gives it to me.

The best way is to be able to sell it in a new format like video or even audio with more comments and details in those formats….. if your information is gold some people will pay to have it in a convenient format You can also write a book with that information like many does on amazon… or simply create a community around a subject….

Memorization is certainly a hard task especially since each person learns differently. There's been a lot of work that's gone into the science of memory and forgetfulness and the results of that research has suggested that there is an optimal time between learning something and reviewing it for long term storage in memory. If you're interested in reading more about these concepts check out this article in Wired...bit.ly/y66fU.If you want to try out this concept for real check out a site called Smart.Fm (smart.fm/tour#video).

I've used their training engine to learn some information I needed to know and it worked great.

If we look at our general memory - we receive some piece of information, we sense it, see it, feel it, read it, and it goes into our brain and it is stored in the short term memory. Now the trick is to move this information to the long term memory so that you are able to keep it longer than five or ten minutes. The well known learning curve shows that in five minutes, much of the information we have taken in is lost.

After an hour – two thirds of it is lost. And after a day has passed - 90 % of it is lost. This is the curve of forgetting.

What we've found is that you can reverse that curve. And there are various techniques to do it. The first thing we want to go over is how a simple recall method can help you store the information.

Now this type of information we'll call ROTE INFORMATION, for example, when you are learning a section of a speech. In these cases you are learning something that is not just a list; that is not just something simple and direct. It’s more of a instance of wanting to remember situations - wanting to remember broader terms.

First and foremost you want to ORGANIZE the information you are going to be taking in. You have to decide in what manner you want to take the information in. It may be by rote memorization of a URL1 may well be some type of outline form.

The first step is to take in the information. And when you take in the information you really must learn to fully attend to what you are doing. Involve yourself in what you’re taking in.

We use the phrase "Be where you are. " Be truly focused. Incorporate as many of the senses as you can.

In other words, write it down, see it, even say it out loud sometimes. The more senses involved enhance the memory process. And now you can reverse the learning curve.

This is the key point here. You can reverse the learning curve by RECALL. The number of times you recall something helps move that piece of information from your short term memory to your long term memory.

To point out a specific technique that works the best: Step number 1 - take in formation. Step number 2 - about five minutes later, undisturbed, go over the main points of what you are trying to remember. That should only take you a minute or two.

Step number 3 - an hour later, do the same thing. Step number 4 - three hours later, do the same thing. Just go back over the information a minute or two.

Step number 5 - six hours later, do the same thing. Then that night before you go to sleep, review the material one last time. Then step number 6 - repeat that three times a day for the second and third days.

Now you have that information for the long term. Now to the student first taking this in sitting there saying, Man, I'm not going to do that. That six times the first day, two to three times the next day.

My goodness, there's no way I'm going to do that. That's just a lot of work. Baloney!

Think about it. That's 12 times the first day. The second and third days, you only do it 6 times.

That's eighteen, let's round it to twenty times. That's twenty times you are reviewing that information over three days for a minute or two. That means you are spending forty minutes studying that information, and you have it.

And you know it, you possess it, and it isn't going anywhere. How many hours do people spend studying? Think about it.

Typically, people sit down and study a subject for an hour or more to try to learn it. This is simply a more efficient way of doing it in a more piecemeal fashion. And by spreading it out over a period of days and recalling it more and more, you move it into that long term memory and it stays solidly there.

Association: whatever you wanna remember, just associate or link it to something.. it could be visually, sound-like, remind you of and such. The more details you put in that imagination linking those thoughts, the faster you remember. Example, imagine remembering passwords: "GoogleRocks" is too simple."G00GL3R0CKS" substitutes numbers for alphabets.

Sometimes I try simplifying a huge sentences by getting the main point, and then try to categorize them into sections. After which, I have, like, 5 points which I know to expand and just remember the main reason why I remember those 5 points (title). Simplify by Association.. or Associate by Simplification.

Whichever it goes. In the end of the day, takes a lot of time and practice.It helps a lot also if you could develop your own method of remembering. Tricks and tips are so useful throughout school, books, ,courses, experiences, influences and such.

Cheers!

It depends on the person. For me, to memorize something, I just have to read it over and over again until I get the thought of the content. Once you understand the whole thing, it would be a lot easier for you to remember everything word by word.

If you have to memorize something which exceeds two pages, try to read the content first then understand the whole thing. Then divide them into parts then read each part separately. Move on the next part when you thoroughly know the other part.

When you moved on another page or part, make sure to at least read the first part every other time so you wouldn't forget the first one. :) This trick works for me. I used to join declamation contest since I was in preschool til college where I have to memorize up to 3-5 pages of script and this is what I always do.

Good luck!

It depends on how long you have to get it down. I find it good to record myself while I read a loud then repeat the recording over and over till you can recite it from memory. I find this to be very help full.

Depending on how much info you need to obsorb it usually takes me a day or two. Good luck I hope this works trsunderground.com.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.