Study Methods

This may be a follow up of the Procrastination thread, but I was just wondering how everybody here studies for things that require memorisation. Do you just read over the textbook, make flash cards, or do something else?

Personally, I write things down over and over until it's stuck in my head, but it's so time consuming that I don't do it anymore (I'm lazy x_x) and I just read my notes over and over. Maybe there's a method better suited to me that I just haven't discovered yet?

Write down what you memorised, draw pictures, outline the steps, make use of mnemonics. Doing these steps are really helpful for bio, chem, and languages. If you like learning European languages like me, you'll definitely have to make use of mnemonics and get used to writing vocabulary words and grammar rules over and over again.

There's this acronym I memorised for organic chem where you have to memorise the relative priorities of chemical functional groups and it goes CEAA CAKAAT, where each letter represents the first letter of a functional group in decreasing priority. I don't know why that sticks in my head but it just does. There are a bunch of others I've used for chem, German, and English when I first started learning English.

What I do is read the text book first and highlight the most important topics then make notes. Then read over my notes or if the class notes are provided I read over those.

There's this acronym I memorised for organic chem where you have to memorise the relative priorities of chemical functional groups and it goes CEAA CAKAAT, where each letter represents the first letter of a functional group in decreasing priority. I don't know why that sticks in my head but it just does.

A lot of people do stuff like that and I think another technique is to associate the information with an image or make up a little story to go with it.

I never did any of that myself. I just made notes of the key information and read over them again and again till I had all the text memorized.

In physics and mathematics, you should do exercises until you know the formulas and ways of attacking an issue by heart.

I never thought about using mnemonics... maybe I'll try thinking up of some for my next test. As for highlighting, that doesn't really work for me as I end up highlighting almost everything >.<.

if im writing something while paying attention to what im writing i usually remember it.

I dont study and manage to decently somehow anyways...

What Ive found to work: Going over information multiple times. So listening in class and paying attention, then "relearning" it say a week later by reading the texts or something. I find that works best for me personally.

ANother method that works for me is taking notes (even when in class notes are given) as it helps me understand concepts better.

I never thought about using mnemonics... maybe I'll try thinking up of some for my next test. As for highlighting, that doesn't really work for me as I end up highlighting almost everything >.<.

Hahah I do the same...my pages are like literally covered in highlighter, but colours make me happy.

And personally, I haven't found a way to get around endless hours of studying for memorization-intensive material. It just takes time . I write/draw/say out loud stuff repeatedly until I can reproduce it in some way. And go about it in an organized fashion, like memorizing one logical section at a time. Being able to discuss the material later with someone else studying the same thing *really* helps a lot as you can quiz each other or explain stuff to each other, and really test if you know it then. As for mnemonics...love them. LOVE THEM. I use them wherever I can.

But yah...still ends up time-consuming however I go about it. =[

People have analyzed some of the best memorizers out there, and they actually use pretty much the same techniques the rest of us use. The only difference being that their brain structure is extremely efficient, so there's less interference with memories and whatnot.

I'm kinda interested in this mnemonics, but I can never imagine myself being able to create one. I just know a few that others have told me.

And studying is always time consuming, but maybe there's a way to make studying more efficient? That's kind of my attempt at making my life easier *is lazy*...

B> Photographic Memory hehe

It makes me sad to see people actually being able to memorize and recite excepts from textbooks almost word for word...

for me, I never had to memorize stuff in the last 2 years because all the courses I take are math related and not memory related.

I don't really memorize the math equations either, during a test when I forget an equation, I'll just use logic and common sense to figure out the equation and use it.

but back when I had to memorize stuff... e.g: periodic table, I cheated....
I developed my own alphabet. and I just use my alphabet and write out those stuff I have to memorize on calculater, ruler pencil and etc... since only I can understand the alphabet I never get caught, other people who see my alphabet will think it's decorations.

There're 2 sayings you should consider:

1 - Practice makes perfect
Like anything in life, you will find it easier the more you practice.

2 - A picture says a thousand words
Usually, we absorb pictures faster than a wall of text. This is why organising your information into a picture helps your memorisation process. In order for you to form a proper picture, you need to sort your data logically and methodologically. One thing about us is that we're messy by default, especially when it comes to organising information in our head. This helps filing the necessary data the way we want it.

Otherwise, what Lylac already said. Simple things like SOHCAHTOA (for trigonometry) is an easy way to remember formula.

I learn best with pictures, diagram's and putting little rhymes together. Since I'm in the medical field I have alot of stuff I need to remember about the body and any little rhyme or tune I can get in my head helps ALOT. I also use flash cards and ALOT of note taking and just going over it a ton of times. When I take notes I often draw little pictures as well. I'm such a visual person that this helps tremendously for me.

I bookmarked this thread.

What I do to memorize? I memorized the quadratic function by getting it wrong over and over and over (I was doing that for three months) and over again. I don't remember properties of right triangles as well, because I didn't spend a lot of time on that =X

Do people use mnemonics for everything? Or is it just for something that's otherwise hard to memorize? How would you know when mnemonics are needed?

With some things, a mnemonic is staring you in the face. Anything in a pronouncable order, really. BEDMAS, for example.

> Copy notes over again. By writting them over again helps you memorize them.
> Draw pictures / maps / graphs / examples. Very useful for visual people like me.
> Find tricks to remember complicated notions. Sentences, words. e.g. Biology notions: Metabolism Reproduction Movement Irritability(sp?) Organization Adaptation ~~> M.I. A.M.O.R.
> Last minute studies are always the worse. You HAVE to learn to start studying way before the day of an exam. Tricks can't always save your ass.
> Sleep early. It's a real plus for concentration.
> Eat. Brain needs energy to work.
> Review your notions before going to bed. It has been proven that when doing that, your brain stocks the info in your subconscious and helps you memorize them.
> Use flash cards. Recopying your whole notes on them isn't helpful. Use keywords.
> Do your homeworks. Practice leads to success. No one is a perfect student.

Use mnemonics when they are easy to remember and they are effective. I try to use mnemonics when I see good ones for lists of things I need to regurgitate, not necessarily really long or hard to memorize. Mnemonics just make it easier (why not save the time/effort whenever you can? ). Granted, we get handed mnemonics a lot in medicine so it saves us some time trying to come up with our own. But there are tons floating out there online...<3 google.

Hmmm.. after reading through this. how do you people take notes? what style/methods?