Any tips/guide to increase memory retention power?

[The Day Dreamer]

Need it urgently. Gotta improve it for GRE. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Naer]

What helped me was to look at the objects in your proximity. Ie apt or house. Let's say I'm looking at a coffee maker. Look at the coffee maker and visualize every past coffee maker you have ever seen at the moment of looking at the coffee maker. It's about referencing to the past to recalibrate your present moment. Look at a word on your tablet and reference the past pertaining to small bits of the word like the first syllables of the word or even the letter. The word "letter" can be dissected to calibrate your present just by looking at it and referencing the past. When I look at the letter "l" of letter, I should think about the first objects in my memory bank that start with the letter l. When I look at the letter "l" of "letter" I may think about love. Then I immediately do to people I love in my own life. Or I look at it in a way that the first syllables refers to in ways that flexes your brain to reference your experiences. Letter or let could be seen as, "I" let"" my cousin borrow my shirt. I'm thinking about the first syllable of "letter" breaking it down into small pieces to reference the past as a referential calibration.

 

[Kaido]

This is time-intensive, but it works & got me through college:

http://www.johnplaceonline.com/study-smarter/how-to-memorize-anything/

Basically you rewrite your notes into short sentences, then go into a quiet room by yourself & use the stacking method to pound the information into your brain. You can memorize whole chapters of stuff this way. It is extremely slow to do when you start out, but once you pick up the habit, you start to get faster. Keep in mind that a single page can take like 20 minutes when you're starting out, so it's not fast by any means, but it does work very well, and it sure beats trying to do flash cards, or scan your notes, or stare blankly at the textbook for hours - it's productive time spent because you actually get a payoff out of it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Keep everything at stock speed, setup proper air flow. ECC ram can help too. You definitely want a UPS as well.

 

[Brainonska511]

Need it urgently. Gotta improve it for GRE. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

I don't think simply memorizing stuff is the way to go if you're going to take the GRE. You're likely to be better off doing loads and loads of practice questions. And when you're reviewing material, write it down in your own words. Make flash cards and use them whenever you have some downtime on the go.

For reading and writing things, simply reading books can be a big help too.

 

[dighn]

get plenty of sleep.

 

[destrekor]

This is time-intensive, but it works & got me through college:

http://www.johnplaceonline.com/study-smarter/how-to-memorize-anything/

Basically you rewrite your notes into short sentences, then go into a quiet room by yourself & use the stacking method to pound the information into your brain. You can memorize whole chapters of stuff this way. It is extremely slow to do when you start out, but once you pick up the habit, you start to get faster. Keep in mind that a single page can take like 20 minutes when you're starting out, so it's not fast by any means, but it does work very well, and it sure beats trying to do flash cards, or scan your notes, or stare blankly at the textbook for hours - it's productive time spent because you actually get a payoff out of it.

Since I'm out of school, I should give this a try the next time I am preparing for another cert. :hmm:
I am awful and memorizing school-related things these days, usually because I don't have the concentration on it that I used to. I remember in junior high I had pulled pages of a text book from memory to answer a few questions on a test. Not entire pages but relevant pages and the spacing and placement of diagrams and key facts. It was sort of magic.

My photographic memory was great for schooling. Since then, my film has went undeveloped, I think I ran out of developer.
I can remember visual impressions exceptionally well, navigation by sight is one of my big tricks - names and words on signs, not always captured on said film or otherwise able to leave any impression. Sometimes, though, sometimes.

My attention span/determination/discipline has went to shit over the years since middle and high school.

 

[Kaido]

Since I'm out of school, I should give this a try the next time I am preparing for another cert. :hmm:
I am awful and memorizing school-related things these days, usually because I don't have the concentration on it that I used to.

Yeah, it works awesome - it's a great tool. Education basically boils down to comprehension (understanding it) & retention (remembering it); I break down information using mindmaps, then once I've got it worked out in my head, I write out the short sentences & use the memorization tricks. Works for everything from history timelines to math & science to whatever. I didn't figure this out until well into college; this would have saved me years of frustration in grade school - I had no idea how to study properly!

Keeping that information in your head long-term just requires more work...you basically do the same thing, but space out the stacking memorization trick over time. Read up on the psychology of memorization if you want some numbers...its like the next day, the day after, a couple days after, a week after, a month after, etc. But if it's test or cert stuff, that can just get flushed with time because it's not really all that useful after you pass the exam, so you don't have to bother memorizing it more than just the once.

Jumping into the bigger picture, if you haven't checked out Getting Things Done by David Allen, that's a great system to adopt to keep track of all of your commitments. That's one of the things that got me thinking about memorization & education...he says not to treat your brain as a storage device - basically capture all of your to-do's & then process them later, that way stuff isn't constantly on your mind. Lots of interesting systems & psychology tricks out there to get better results from studying, stay on top of things, etc.

 

[Imp]

Memory palace? Apparently, that's a real thing and not just something I heard of from TV. Something about turning things you want to memorize into images.

I don't think simply memorizing stuff is the way to go if you're going to take the GRE. You're likely to be better off doing loads and loads of practice questions. And when you're reviewing material, write it down in your own words. Make flash cards and use them whenever you have some downtime on the go.

For reading and writing things, simply reading books can be a big help too.

I really worked my ass of in grad school, but I sometimes didn't completely understand something and ended up just memorizing it. Worked great for the exams -- I can also remember entire conversations from years back, so my memory is probably pretty good to begin with.

 

[Kaido]

sometimes didn't completely understand something and ended up just memorizing it. Worked great for the exams

Yeah - I just took a physics class & there were things I just didn't understand, but I memorized the formulas & information and was able to get through the tests & whatnot anyway. Comprehension is a whole different ballgame from memorization tho; part of it depends on how easy you personally learn new stuff, and a bigger part of it, I think, depends on how it's presented - if the book is crappy or you have a professor who isn't good at teaching in a way that breaks things down so you can understand them, it's just going to be that much more difficult to comprehend the material. Rocket science is easy for rocket scientists, you know?

 

[Brainonska511]

Memory palace? Apparently, that's a real thing and not just something I heard of from TV. Something about turning things you want to memorize into images.



I really worked my ass of in grad school, but I sometimes didn't completely understand something and ended up just memorizing it. Worked great for the exams -- I can also remember entire conversations from years back, so my memory is probably pretty good to begin with.

Yeah. Sometimes you just need to memorize something, but the GRE isn't as amenable to that.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Stop day dreaming for one

 

[KMFJD]

cut down on the weed

 

[disappoint]

Need it urgently. Gotta improve it for GRE. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Repetition, repetition, repetition.

Diet? Beets.

Also did I mention repetition? I think I did but I don't remember.

 

[TheGardener]

get plenty of sleep.

That. Though maybe I'd say get a sufficient amount of sleep.

 

[SystemVipers]

Hi, there is a great book on that subject and it really works...

MOONWALKING WITH EINSTEIN
The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory
An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.

Moonwalking with Einstein uses something of which I'd never heard: the "Memory Palace." The Memory Palace exploits our inherent skill for remembering images and spatial locations, harnesses these two abilities we all posses in abundance, and relates them to the memorization of numbers, lists and assortments of other difficult to remember items. The amazing thing is that the Memory Palace not only makes memorization easy, it also makes it fun.

NY times Review

Google it, read it and post your results a month later.,....lol

best of luck!

 

[who?]

The brain works much better if you're aerobically fit.

 

[disappoint]

The Roman Room:

The Roman Room is a technique that could be applied to a list of words, or any information once you get well practiced at creating visual depictions of abstract words. The technique goes like this: bring to mind a room that you are very familiar with. This can be anything from your current bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, anything that you are very familiar with and therefore comes to your mind in a detailed depiction. As you walk into the room, the corner over your left shoulder is number 1. Then, moving clockwise round the room, the next wall is number 2. The next corner is number 3. And so on, so that the corner that is number 5 is opposite of the corner that is number 1, and the wall that is number 2 is opposite the wall that is number 6.

The Roman Room There are 8 numbers so far: there are 4 corners and 4 walls in a typical room. In addition to these 8 distinguished locations, number 9 will be the floor and number 10 will be the ceiling.

It is important that these enumerated locations become automatically identifiable. To practice, take ten pieces of paper, numbered 1 through 10, and draw them at random. When you draw a number, identify that location in your mental room as quickly as possible. So, for example, if you drew the number 4, you should see the wall immediately across from the door (since location 1 is the corner behind your left shoulder, location 2 is the wall to your left, and location 3 is the next corner moving clockwise). When you identify this location, think about all that is in that location usually. This may be where you store some of your books and one of the walls your bed touches, as is the case in my bedroom. This number-drawing exercise is important for two reasons: it important that you are able to quickly identify what corners, walls, ceiling and floor corresponds to which number in the numerical sequence, and revisiting your mental room is helpful for giving your mental representation of your room more life.

Next, with your room clearly drawn out in your mind, we can use the room to help commit information to memory. An excellent method is by incorporating into the room objects that are symbolically representative of the information you want to remember. The list I provided earlier is easy to use because they are all objects: you can place a textbook in the location number 1 (which is behind the door in my room, so I imagine it as a door-stop), lean on location number 2 with your shoulder (because it is the wall on your left-hand side), and so on.

What is important is that you SEA to see. That is, incorporate Senses, Emotions, and Action into your memory. For example, placing the textbook as a door-stop, I imagine seeing and feeling the textbook, feeling my frustration that the door handle has been making holes in my wall, and imagine myself choosing the book and putting it in place.

This level of engagement with memories takes time, but it makes their recall more efficient and reliable because you have created a mental environment that allows for greater integration of memory. So, in the end, you will save time.

Sauce: http://oneclass.com/blog/1/9820/knowledge/part-1-learn-how-to-memorize-top-6-memorization-techniques

 

[sdifox]

Cattle prod. Shock yourself every time you forget to do something.

 

[IronWing]

Castration is the only answer. Free up all the brain power you're using to generate sexual fantasies and apply it to your studies.

 

[MrSquished]

straight vodka

 

[tcsenter]

CNS stimulants, particularly the nootropics, when used sensibly and moderately can help. Sensibly precludes usage that results in less restorative sleep, BTW. A hops-rich beer or two can help while studying. Srsly, a bunch of studies show a small but repeatable benefit in learning and memory with sensible and moderate alcohol intake.

15+ minutes of intense exercise daily. Omega-3 fatty acids, from multiple sources (cold water fish, flax, borage, and krill) with emphasis on DHA and EPA rather than ALA. Careful with the Omega-3 + alcohol together, too much Omega-3 can become a potent anticoagulant.

 

[destrekor]

The Roman Room:


Sauce: http://oneclass.com/blog/1/9820/knowledge/part-1-learn-how-to-memorize-top-6-memorization-techniques

Where the hell was this thread when I was in school.

Dammit.

Well... if I ever fulfill my goal/promise to get another degree, one more practical this time around, I'll have to utilize these different tricks.

For my creative writing aspirations, I am beginning to try and wrap my head around mind mapping and similar approaches to see if they are better than my haphazard note methodology that I currently use.

 

[OverVolt]

Sit down shutup and %^&*ing read.

 

[Moonbeam]

I remember everything that interests me.