A way of memorization for school material that works for you
If you have a picture memory, that is you recall by forming a mental picture of an arrangement of words or symbols, this final contraction needs to be set out in a particular way. If, however, you only need to trigger strings of words, you can adopt whatever arrangement makes it possible for you to memorize accurately all the file names, the triggers.
One effective pattern was to draw a neat circle in the centre of the page and write in capitals the subject title. From this hub radiated a series of spokes ending in more slightly smaller circles. Other longer lines led from the hub to an outer ring of circles and for each of these circles there were another two or three smaller subordinate circles.
In the inner ring of circles, write just one word – one word only – that becomes the trigger, the file name. These are, say, the seven or eight most vital keys. Into the circles of the outer ring, perhaps another seven or eight, write one word to represent the main but subsidiary pointers. And in the subordinate rings that connect to the outer circles, add one-word pointers that represent key elements of that subsidiary topic.
What you now have is a visual representation, a pattern, that fully summarizes your subject area and gives you a way of accessing your mind to dredge up the information you need under exam conditions. The hard part is that you have to be able to recall exactly the single sheet ‘pattern’.
Regardless of how you recall information, this is not as difficult as it appears at first sight, though it may require some tedious repetition until you can reproduce it exactly on paper and ‘fix’ it totally in your mind. Then you go into the exams with, say, four of these ‘patterns’ ready for instant recall and you make absolutely no effort to recall anything else until the big day. As long as you can retrieve the single sheet of headings, the rest will inevitably follow, provided, of course, you are not physically or emotionally exhausted by swotting excessively, hung over, sick or in a blind panic.
The secret of using such a system is to get it down to the solute minimum. The points sparkle out of your mind like the flashing of a diamond.
There is one last step which is completed when you are actually in the exam. Having read the exam paper carefully, draw on a sheet of paper your aide me’moire, the code sheet that is going to give you access to all those files stacked away in the hard (or floppy) disk of your mind. Once this is down on paper the effort of recall is over. All you have to do now is fit this pattern to the fabric of the exam paper and allocate the right triggers to the right question.
Of course this does not work for math, languages or some science subjects which are technically complex. But it will work for English, history, geography etc.
If you have any doubts about this approach, test it for yourself in end of topic test or mock exam. It works best if you are ’stressed out’ by the exam situation and your performance is enhanced by he competitive and chemical responses of your body which act n mental function. And it should teach you the vital lesson that you don’t know what you know until you put pen to paper. The other element you may have to practice is compressing this information into just a few key words. It sounds easier than it is and there are a few tricks that can help here.
First, choose words to which you respond emotionally. If an emotive word is used it calls up a feeling, something that reaches beyond a cold intellectual response and involves your emotions in a certain (but probably indefinable) way. Second, the word must represent the topic area that it is to trigger in your mind. Wholly unrelated words will not have the same effect.
For example, you are taking a modern history exam and you wish to recall a ‘file’ about the Vietnam War. Where relevant you could use key words like bloodshed, defoliant, mines, choppers. All these words conjure up pictures related to a range of inputs from newspapers, TV or reading, and they trigger at once a whole constellation of ideas and facts. They have the effect of making the mind ‘race’ into the topic with spontaneous force, mainly because you have feelings, emotions, about many of these things.
The tough part of your task, however, is to represent a wide body of information with very few words. So the choice of those key words is critical in creating the flow of data on to the screen of your conscious mind.
As a second example let us use a classical topic like Shakespeare. You are going to be examined on the play Twelfth Night, which you studied for one term in great detail. The examiner wants to ascertain, first, whether you are familiar with the storyline and the characters in all their complexity. But he will also slip in a question that tests your understanding of Shakespeare’s view of his world and his morality. How do you tackle a subject like that?
The central characters will lead to the ‘also-rans’, so focus on the ‘big time’. These could be named in the outer ring of the diagram, with subordinate points about their roles flowing out further as before. In the inner rings, you will want to place triggers to recall the central and developing themes of the play-morality, conformity, justice, humor, trust, love, jesting, pride (or what you will). These abstract ‘ideas’, when linked with the play, will trigger thoughts of how the author and the main characters ’saw’ these elements, and how you yourself interpreted the play and its relevance for your perceptions of the modern world.
The moment you focus on the word pride, for example, you ill recall the fall of the tragic Malvolio at the hands of mischievous Maria. Your mind will (should?) race into a whole set of related ideas about the ruthless baiting of the old fellow and his inevitable downfall. Did he bring it on himself? Or was he the victim of cruel humor? What is the function and value of humor in human relationships? Was Sir Toby Belch, saint, villain or just a shallow layabout? Did the timid ranting of Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and his gullibility, say anything useful bout the human condition? And how did all this fit with the political and romantic central theme?
You can get as abstruse as you like once these memories start to shower like mental confetti over your exam desk. As you start to force these ideas into some sort of order, you will along the way no doubt remember some of the brilliant language used to engineer or describe the wayward encounters of the play.
If you were fortunate enough to have a teacher who was able to pass on a love for the genius of Shakespeare you will relive and even savor the linguistic delights to a point where you may have to pinch yourself and get back down to earth in the exam room. It is that kind of involvement and enthusiasm which generates the best work, which is precisely why a subject that bores you stiff should be abandoned at the earliest possible moment in favor of something that fires your imagination.
Maths and the sciences
If you are taking exams in technical subjects, like math and sciences, you may be able to use this system up to a point. It will be helpful both for remembering the fact-based material and for recalling key formulas or mathematical techniques. Otherwise, you will just have to practice each process and formula until it is firmly fixed in your mind through repeated use. Even then you can use ‘triggers’ to help in the fixing process.
Languages
In the case of a language, the best way to remember is to use. Time spent in a language lab is worth any amount of formal teaching. And a focus on colloquial communication is invaluable in giving purpose to the more formal grammar and vocabulary building process. Better still, a visit to the subject country is the best of all ways of learning a language because you are then setting your understanding of the language against the culture and environment of the people who use it.
A language (with the exception of Latin) is a living, evolving means of communication, and the more you can breathe life into learning it, the better. Today there are many opportunities to move beyond the language lab to reality – exchange visits and holidays, to name just two. If you grab hold of them you learn fast. Nothing reinforces vocabulary like making mistakes, and if you give native speakers (at home or in the country of the language) license to correct you as you go, you will remember best those lessons where you were embarrassed by a stupid error. So, instead of poring over text books and learning lists of words, get out and talk.
Exams, too, may have an oral element and be designed to test both word discrimination and your ability to go beyond mere comprehension to communication. Whatever way you finally digest your material, you have to devise a formula that works for you. That means you may have to experiment until you find the right pattern. But remember that the process may be enhanced and more effective under real exam conditions than otherwise.
