Ways To Boost Your Memory

Recalling all that you have learnt during examinations can be a real problem for many students.

Students, therefore, cheat in examinations. The challenge is for all students to recall the information when it is needed.

According to experts, the brain has a short-term and long-term memory. The short-term memory holds small amounts of information for brief periods.

You can add up numbers in your head, remember a telephone number or the first line of a sentence while reading or listening, among others. If you want to store information indefinitely, especially what we learn in school, it must go into your long-term memory. So how can you put it there?

Here are some tips to guide you.

• You need to develop an interest in the subject and remind yourself of the reasons for learning it. You need to understand that if you learn very well, you will pass your examinations and that will help you achieve your aims and aspirations.

• You have to be attentive in class. When you take notes yourself you tend to be attentive and understand things better. Notes taking not only focuses the mind but also enables a listener to read over it later.

• It is also important to understand the topic very well. If you don’t understand anything you need to ask. If you understand a lesson or concept, you are likely to remember it very well.

For example, when a Pre-Vocational student understands how a particular equipment works, he will better remember details about it.

• You can also categorise similar concepts or ideas which are related. For example, if you learn about the human body, you can categorise its various parts to make learning easier.

• When you want to remember what you have learnt repeat it aloud and that would force you to pay close attention. According to experts, listening even to yourself calls into play other parts of your brain.

• Make a mental picture of whatever you learn. By visualising it, you will tend to remember it very well.

• You can also associate whatever you learn with something you already know. Linking thoughts to memories already stored makes retrieving easier. For example, in order to remember someone’s name, you can link it to a feature of his appearance or something else that will call the name to mind. The more humorous or absurd the association, the better the recall.

• Allow time for the information to be processed, to soak in, as it were. One of the best ways to do this is to review what you have learnt. You can memorise it or write it in your book. You can repeat it so many times. Repetition is called the mother of retention.

Studies have shown our memory is much like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets, even into old age.

By Hannah A. Amoah