5 Brain Hacks to Memorize Anything Quickly
People often struggle with memorization, especially students at school or university, who are expected to be able to recall large swathes of information for their tests and examination. Memorization is an ancient art, and through the ages, human beings have devised a number of different techniques to become more proficient at it. Here is a look at 5 of them.
Figure out how you learn best
People can be divided into three types based on how they prefer to learn: auditory learners, visual learners, and tactile learners. Auditory learners prefer learning by ear, visual learners by sight and tactile learners by doing or experiencing. Figure out which one of these groups you fit into, tapping into your preferred method of learning for the purpose of memorization. If you’re an auditory learner, record what you need to memorize in your own voice and listen to that recording over and over again, until it is committed to memory. If you’re a visual learner, color code your information, incorporating visual cues to help you memorize. And if you’re a tactile learner, engage as many of your senses as you can to help your memorization, for instance, by memorizing off a page you can touch and smell rather than off a screen.
Spaced repetition
You need to engage your long-term memory in order to be able to retain information inside your head for long periods of time, meaning that forcing yourself to memorize something in a short time-span will likely not work. You must extend the period during which you commit something to memory over a few weeks or possibly months. Repeat what you wish to memorize right after you have learned it, then again 15-20 minutes later, then again 6-8 hours later, then a day later, then 2-3 weeks later and finally a couple of months later. This will give your brain sufficient time to create associations with the content being memorized, storing it in your long-term memory.
Take breaks while memorizing
Give your mind breathing room in between all that memorization. Take breaks, coming back to your content with a fresh mind, allowing yourself to discover which parts you have memorized well, and which parts you need to work on.
Make associations
Make the knowledge you already possess a reference point for learning what you’re trying to memorize. The greater the mental connections you can make with a piece of information, the more successful you will be at memorizing it. Mnemonic devices can be extremely helpful tools in this regard.
Chunking
Chunking simply means breaking down the content you have to memorize into smaller, easier to remember chunks. If, for instance, you’re memorizing a phone number reading 202-896-0909, you may consider breaking it down into three sets of numbers, “202… 896… 0909,” making them easier to memorize. It is important to remember, however, that chunking doesn’t work as well with complex content involving conceptual learning, like the idea of nationhood; it works well with things made up of smaller things, like the periodic table.
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