Have you ever found yourself feeling confident about how much time you spent studying for a test, but when you sit down with the test in front of you, your mind is blank? How is it that we spend so much time looking over our class material for it to escape our minds when we need it most? It could be because you’re not using the techniques to put information from your short term memory into your long term memory. While sometimes the information can be stored in your long term memory without much work, it’s not reliable to think this will happen for everything. In order to increase the chances of information going into long term memory, we have to repeat and use this information as much as we can. This process is called active recall.
But what are some methods to do this?
- Free yourself of distractions
It’s hard to memorize something when you’re distracted. Make sure there are as few distractions in your study space as possible. This can include your phone, anything making noise, or any clutter around.
- Try to understand the information
If you don’t understand the material, while you can still memorize the information, it might not be helpful. If you have any questions about the material you could schedule a session with a tutor or ask your professor for help before/after class or during their office hours. Make sure when you’re meeting with a tutor or professor that you go into the meeting knowing specifically what you need help with. You might be comfortable with part of the material, but some of it makes no sense when you look at it. Reaching out for extra help can help you get where you need to be with comprehension
- Write it out
Writing is shown to be a way to help us better encode information. While you are trying to memorize a concept, you should write
- Self Test
The best way to study for a test is to study how you are going to take the test. During the test, you most likely won’t have access to your notes so you should quiz yourself on the information to make sure you actually know it. While the information may look familiar when you study by reading over your notes, you are not actively recalling the information. When you quiz yourself, you should remove the answers from sight so that you can actively recall the answers. If you aren’t able to answer the question/remember the material without the help of your notes, it means you need to spend more time memorizing the material.
- Teach Someone else
If you can teach someone else the material, and explain it in a way that they understand it, then you know the information well enough to test on it. You and your classmates could create study groups and practice teaching and explaining the information to each other. If you feel confident that you explained it well, and your classmates feel your explanation was sufficient, then you’ve studied the material enough to remember it during a test.
- Chunk the information
Break down the information into groups. Not only does this help you tackle the information into smaller bits, it can also help you relate the information to each other. For example,
