Tips To Memorize Your Notes Faster Before Your Next Test

Can you believe it's already November!? I seriously feel like I was writing posts for back-to-school just yesterday! The great thing about this is that the semester is almost over. The not-so-great thing about this is that finals are coming up. 

Don't you often wish you could remember your biology notes as good as you can remember the lyrics of a song two days after it came out? Yeah, same. With finals around the corner, there's no doubt that we are all going to need to remember A LOT of information just as well as we are able to recall song lyrics. Luckily, I've compiled a list of things you could do to help you memorize your notes a little bit faster before your next test. 

Memorize in Chunks

I usually find projects super overwhelming even before i get the chance to look over them. Just thinking of everything i have to do, is enough to make me procrastinate for awhile. Recently, I have noticed that dividing my work in smaller sections often makes it more bearable and manageable. 

Same thing when it comes to studying. You're more likely to remember what you're trying to learn if you break it down into smaller feasible chunks. I mean, would you shove a whole pizza in your mouth, or would you slice it and eat one slice after the other? Okay, I have never attempted to eat an entire pizza at once but the second option seems way more manageable. Make sure you take breaks in-between chunks to give your brain time to fully take in what you just learned.

Read Out Loud

When studying your notes, you'll most likely retain more information if you read them out loud rather than reading silently. You might think this sounds a little crazy but I promise you I'm not making this up. This is actually proven research. The study says that reading out loud will help you remember things you might have otherwise missed while reading quietly. So next time you're reading over those notes of yours, make sure you add some volume. 

Alright, I know I just told you to read your notes out loud, but don't go reading 20 pages straight up. If you result to reading everything out loud, it will be no more effective than reading quietly. What you should do is read the important things or things you think you might forget out loud, and study the rest quietly as usual.

Teach Someone

What's the best way to make sure you really know your material? Teach it to someone! Not only are you reinforcing what you learned in the process, but you are also teaching someone else something new.

If you can't find anyone to teach it to, teach yourself. You can pretend you're giving a lecture and make up questions you think someone might ask and answer them. It sounds weird but it totally works. 

Rewrite Notes

 You probably think that I sound really silly right now and asking yourself why in the world you'd rewrite notes you already wrote down. Once again, hear me out. I know it sounds like unnecessary extra work but if you actually give it a try, you're definitely going to see the difference it makes. It'll be easier for you to understand and recall a lot more information when you take time to rewrite your notes. Make sure you rewrite them in your own words and not the words of your professor's power point slides or your textbook's.

Move Around

Studying the same subject in different locations will help you remember the information you're studying. Standing and walking stimulates blood flow which helps you stay attentive. Instead of reviewing by only sitting at your desk, you can try pacing back and forth or moving to another room. This way, your brain will be forced to make multiple connections with the information you are reviewing, thus strengthening your memory.

Another way you could make connections is by relating what you're studying to stuff you already know. This will also make it much easier to recall what you learned later on. 

Use Rhyme Mnemonic Association

This is personally my favorite way to help me memorize my notes because it's actually pretty fun! My friend and I used this method numerous times when studying for our history tests. There is an overwhelming amount of names and dates to remember for such classes and this method helped us a lot. We will often make up silly and completely unrelated stuff to remember our material and it'll be so funny to remember them when a question would come up on the test. Here are some examples of mnemonics for your reference.

Make up a Story 

You can make up a crazy story in your head while adding facts about what you're trying to memorize. The weirder or crazier your story is, the better you'll be able to remember it along with all the facts you were trying to memorize. This method works great if you're maybe trying to memorize elements of the periodic table for your chemistry class or bones in our bodies for your anatomy class.

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