Learning and exam skills are predominantly a test of memory. Improving your memory will improve your results. Check out our top memory tips - and work smarter, not harder!
- Focus: Study in a place with minimal distractions. If this isn't available at home then go to the library or the park.
- Study Regularly: Memory development hinges on repetition and training. Make sure you study regularly and go over the same information multiple times to really let it sink in.
- Organise: The memory is a highly structured area of the brain. Make your study sessions work with it by grouping similar subjects and concepts together. Find areas of synergy in your courses and learn them simultaneously.
- Mnemonics: A common trick to aid in memorising terms, dates and formulas. For example you might remember My Dear Aunt Sally (mathematical order of operations: Multiply and Divide before you Add and Subtract).
- Relate: When learning new concepts try to relate them to things you already know. By establishing neural links between things you already know and new things you are learning they are much more likely to stay in your memory for longer.
- Elaborate: When learning a key term, study it and then find out something else about it. For example, the battle of Hastings happened in 1066. Finding out that it was the fourteenth of October, and then linking that date with say the word "Fort" related to battle and October with "Octoberfest" you just need to remember "German Fort" instead of "the 14th of October 1066". This will lead your memory down the path you created and make it much more likely to remember the year 1066.
- Visualise Concepts: Instead of just reading about history or physics for example try to visualise what is actually happening and then sketch it out. Draw pictures in the margins of your books to act as visual cues.
- Teach Someone: Going over your notes and explaining concepts to a third party will force your brain to try to look at the information you have learned from another persons point of view, which may lead you to spotting holes in your knowledge you weren't aware of before.
- Create Mind Maps: A lot of information in books is presented in a serial form where you are much more likely to remember information at the beginning and end but not much from the middle. As you read, create a Mind Map of the information you are absorbing and then go over this mind map several times afterwards. This will help your brain "de-serialize" the information.
- Variation: Study in different places and at different times of the day. Try spending a few minutes each morning going over the things you learnt the night before.