1. 20 Ways to Master Your Memory
20 Ways to Master Your Memory
Make It Stick
Make It Stick
Rehearse.
Are your using elaborate rehearsal techniques?
Overlearn.
Are you working more than you think you need to so that
information becomes hardwired?
Space it out.
Are you working in shorter sessions, rather than cramming?
Separate it.
Are you separating similar material so you don’t get it confused?
Mind the Middle.
Are you paying attention to what comes in the middle, not just
what’s first and last?
© 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

2. Elaborate or Simple?
Elaborate or Simple?
Which of these 2 images are you more likely to remember?
© 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

3. 20 Ways to Master Your Memory
20 Ways to Master Your Memory
Make It Meaningful
Make It Meaningful
Feel.
Emotions and memories can team
up in powerful ways.
Connect.
Connect new information with what
you already know.
Personalize.
Make new information mean
something to YOU.
© 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

4. 20 Ways to Master Your Memory
20 Ways to Master Your Memory
Make It Mnemonic
Make It Mnemonic
Spell.
Acronyms allow you to memorize lists by making up
phrases using first letters, for example.
Here is a popular one from geography:
My Great Big Hungry Elephant Nearly Consumed Panama =
Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras , El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa
Rica, Panama
Locate.
The Loci (LO-si) system helps you connect places (or
locations) with what you need to remember.
Have you ever remembered the names of classmates by
where they sat?
© 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

5. 20 Ways to Master Your Memory
20 Ways to Master Your Memory
Make It Mnemonic
Make It Mnemonic
Link or Narrate.
By connecting item A with item B
and B with C, you can create a
series of mental linkages. Or build
what you need to remember into a
story.
Peg.
The peg system uses rhyming
syllables to associate images.
Think of pegs as hooks on which
© 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
to “hang” information.

6. 20 Ways to Master Your Memory
20 Ways to Master Your Memory
Manipulate It
Manipulate It
Mark it up.
Be an active reader; interact with the text.
Mark it down.
If it you don’t need to memorize it, just write it down.
Organize.
Rearrange the material you’re trying to memorize.
Picture.
Drawings can be an effective memory tool.
Act.
Consider putting motions to your memorizing.
Produce.
Put things in your own words.
Test.
Create practice exams for yourself.
© 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

7. 20 Ways to Master Your Memory
20 Ways to Master Your Memory
Make It Funny
Make It Funny
Mock it.
The best condition for learning is relaxed alertness—
high challenge, low threat.
Here are a few ways to make memorization fun:
• Create a funny “Top-Ten” list.
• Write a song.
• Recite a poem.
• Be imaginative.
• Be bizarre.
• Even be obscene!
© 2012 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning