Step by step guide to memorising large chunks of information

This is the second post of three on how to learn, memorise, and apply information.

Understanding something is one thing. But remembering it is another.

Let's be a bit more specific though. The problem isn't with remembering something for a short while. If someone tells you their name, you probably still remember it two minutes later. But if you never met them again, and I asked you what their name was two years later, chances are you don't remember it anymore.

So the real question is, how do we get information into our long term memory?

There's only really one answer to that: spaced repetition over a long period of time. It's not a pleasant answer, it's not an easy shortcut, but with current science, it's your only option. Memory is formed by connections between neurons, and these connections grow stronger the more they are used. Over time, without use, these connections grow weaker again. So, even if you form a really strong connection, over time without use it will fade. This means, even if you remember and know something extremely well now, that is no guarantee that it will still be in your mind a couple months or years from now.

Your brain is quite picky with what it lets into it's long term memory, so there's quite a lot of work to do.

Spaced repetition

First of all, before I cover all the optimal timing, the question is, how do you confront yourself with the information again and again?

Just reading it might work if you do it often enough. But we want to save time, and be as efficient as possible. So, what works better? Actively recalling the information from your mind. You can do this in many ways, flashcards are probably the most popular. The key is that you really try and remember the information before you go and look it up. Then, what I suggest you do is keep a list of the topics you didn't remember, and cover those in the near future, while saving the rest for a more distant time.

This does require that you know most of the information. That means, you do not want to repeat the information after you've already forgotten it. You want to be earlier. The optimal time is when you are about to forget something. This is because then you are doing the minimum number of repetitions necessary to get something into your long term memory. If you repeat it more often, while you still remember it clearly, that is still effective, but a bit less efficient.

Now, the spacing between the intervals for repetition increases over time, as the information becomes more ingrained in your mind.

I recommend that you do the first repetition within 24 hours of learning something. If you learn something in the morning or early afternoon, definitely aim to review it in the same day. Then, a second repetition two days later, and another one a week later. After that, aim for a weekly repetition for 2-3 weeks before switching to monthly repetitions.

Now, this framework will work very well for some people, but will need some adjustment for other people, so I recommend that you experiment with it yourself. If you find that you still remember everything extremely clearly, space the repetitions out a bit. If you struggle remembering something, view it more frequently.

Track your repetitions

To know what works best for you, you need to try different timings and record them. Keep a calendar of when you revised a topic, so that you know when you need to cover it again. I also suggest that you keep track of the times when you hardly remembered anything at all about a topic. From that, you can find out what your optimal time intervals are for memorisation. Alternatively, I recommend using to-do lists to plan ahead which topic you want to revise when.

Aim to study a bit every day. This way, you don't cover all the content at the same time, so you don't have to remember a whole textbook in one day. Instead, spread out the topics so that you recall them on different days. This way, your mind has less work to do on days where you study, so you can focus more energy on actually remembering something.

This may seem like an awful lot of work, and it is. Especially at the start, when you're trying to find out for yourself how to space your study sessions, it takes some proper planning and time. However, once you've settled into a rhythm, you'll find you're a lot more efficient, as you're not wasting time pointlessly studying or studying at the wrong time.

Tools for memorisation:

Again, flashcards are great. They take a while to make though, so I do recommend using an online version, as most people type faster than they write. There is also a multitude of pre-made sets of flashcards on sites such as Quizlet, if you're in a hurry.

What also works for active recall is just writing everything down from memory. These brain dumps put everything you remember down on a sheet of paper, and then you can add what you didn't remember from the textbook. With this method, it's a bit easier to track progress, as you can see the list of things you remember grow longer over time.

If you're on the move, simply going over information in your mind and thinking about it is a great option, as you're still doing the work of actively retrieving the information from your mind, which strengthens those neural connections. However, this way it is a bit harder to keep track of what you actually remembered.

Mnemonics

You either love them or hate them. For some people, having a word where every letter represents a concept helps with remembering the concepts. For example, think of ROY G BIV to remember the colours of the rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet).

Generally, these work best for when you're just memorising raw data that you can't really link to anything, and that don't really have any meaning, such as the colours of the rainbow. Personally, I'll only use them for that. When I am memorising the stages of a process, I'd rather just memorise those instead of having to remember an extra word or sentence.

Memory palaces

This is when you imagine something visual and assign meaning to parts of it. They're basically an improved, visual version of mnemonics.

For example, you can imagine a house where every room represents a stage of a process. To continue with the previous example, you could imagine first entering and seeing a group of tomato plants growing in the first room, representing the red colour. Then, in the next room, someone is selling oranges, and in the room after that, you open the fridge and see a bottle of yellow lemonade. For these mental palaces, the crazier and more abstract the individual rooms and ideas, the more likely you are to remember them.

Sticky notes

Write a question about a specific piece of content you are struggling with on a sticky note, and put it somewhere on a wall where you frequently see it. For example, you could write: What were the events that led up to the First World War?

Then, every time you pass by that note, try and answer the question, and check your answer. This way, you don't actually need to sit down and study for a long period of time.

This technique works well to quickly and easily learn small bits of data. Especially if you struggle with consistently revising, this can be very effective.