My Impressions: One-Minute Tips for Effective Memorizing

So I was in Asia for a bit over two weeks doing my thing, came back and got lazy.  For me, Asia trips always seem to be a mission.  Tons of friends and family to see and often times it feels a bit overwhelming.  Anyway, one of the more relaxing parts of my trip was just chilling with my MBA classmates in a book store.  Cheng Ping book store!  The biggest (?) bookstore in Taiwan that could probably be listed as a tourist hot spot.  They still have a lot of traffic and seem to be thriving (as compared to Barnes & Nobles and Borders (who?)…).

Recently, I’ve been trying to learn A LOT of things (Ruby on Rails, Japanese, Esperanto, Morse Code, Acupuncture, SQL, VBA…), I felt like the RAM and storage of my brain was starting to reach its capacity.  In grade school, I could memorize an essay word-for-word after reading it maybe 2-3 times.  Now, I can’t even memorize a sentence for a presentation if my life depended on it.  I went onto the ‘improve your brain’ section and found this book to help my memorization. 

Translation is One-Minute Tips for Effective Memorizing, and I could not find an actual English translated version.  I read the whole book in an hour while I was intra-commuting on the Hi Speed Rail. 

Basically, the author sucked at studying growing up, then found his own system of memorizing a whole bunch of stuff efficiently.  In Asia, high competition and the massive amounts of tests for students to go through growing up -> memorization and test-taking skills seem to be an important skill for one’s academic achievements. 

Challenge Your Own Beliefs

The biggest take away for me is we should question ourselves and our beliefs more.  Author gave an example of how some people say, “Yeah, I was never good at studying” or “Yeah, I have a bad memory.”  But how often do these people actually spend time studying how-to-study or study memory and practice those skills?  Studying is a skill.  Memorization is a skill.  To conclude one’s lack of talent without actually testing its limits is dismissing a lot of potential and value…

We can extend that self-challenge to other aspects such as:

   • Yeah, I gain weight easily even if I only drink water -> have you studied calories and tracked your intake/output?

   • Yeah, I suck at public speaking -> Have you took courses and actually tried to improve?  Video tapped yourself, took notes, consciously putting effort and  making changes?  Or you just said some stuff without preparation and people fell asleep?

List goes on and on.  I suggest everyone to challenge themselves and really question that self-doubt.  You may be surprised. 

Myths of Memory

Anyway, given that premise on challenging your methods of memorization, author lists out some myths of memory/study.  Some seem to make sense, some I’m not sure.  But I guess the fun is finding out what works for you.  I always find it fun to constantly challenge the authority.  But here are the author’s conclusions:

   • Is writing things down better?  Answer is, only if the actually test is a writing test.  If the test is multiple choice (which seems to be the norm now), rote memory on a flash card is probably more time efficient.

   • Is it better to remember a “whole” concept at the beginning or small compartments?  Answer is small compartments, although you may want to “understand” the whole concept at the beginning. 

   • Is sitting down to study the best way?  Answer is studying out loud while you walk around is more stimulating to the brain and activates more senses.

   • Is finding a quiet library the best place to focus?  Answer is go find somewhere with background noise (like a subway…).  You want noise, but not comprehensible noise (like music with lyrics).  

 

Color Technique

Then finally, one of the memorizing techniques I found intriguing.  Colors.  We should use more colors in our study.  Author suggests up to 4 colors: blue (take notes with blue), yellow, green, red.  Either have 4-color papers to take notes on, 4-color pens to takes notes with, or even 4-color post it’s.  Have a cascading system, e.g.:

   • Blue: never before seen material

   • Yellow: Seen but can’t remember well

   • Green: Can remember the answer within 30 seconds

   • Red: Can instantly recall the answer

For test taking people that are cramming the last few days or hours, you should focus on turning everything from green to red and just sacrifice the blue and the yellow.  But for others that have no testing pressure, this method categorizes your familiarity with the subject.  It is then a lot easier to know where you should focus on and what to study.  The only “practical” question I have not figured out is, isn’t that a lot of writing and re-writing?  Maybe someone should make an app for this.  If you have a better way, please share and show that you care. 

That’s all I got.