What is the best way to memories what you study?

Question

I do a lot of reading and note taking for my dental assisting course. I normally study about 6 hors a day. I only retain about 2 half ours of the information. What should I do?

Answer 1

Create Mnemonic devices like:

Huron
Ontario
Michigan
Erie
Superior

(The names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES)

Answer 2

so many complications arise when you talk about memory and the best way to study. You are have already made it this far in your career, studying to become a dental assistant, so you must have been doing something correct already to get this far. Ok:

There are in general three type of learners:
Audio - best from hearing
Visual - best from seeing
Tactile - best from touching/doing

to find out which one suits you best, or maybe a combination of them, will help you very much in determining the best way to study. Now in regard to the 6 hrs a day that you study, do you do it all in one go? if you retain about 2 hrs of study, i would suggest that you break up your study sessions by two hours, three times a day. you could do the flash card thing, and maybe the high light thing (studies have shown that you pay more attention to highlighting the paper neatly more than one tries to digest the information being highlighted) but those are very visual only based, and unless you have a perfect photographic memory just copying what you read may not help.

Paraphrasing the information, taking out of the text what is useful is your best bet in retaining the facts, and the important details necessary for earning your degree after taking the exams. Also, reading out loud gives you the audio and visual aspects all at once. Read slowly, to make sure to understand everything, and also, answer questions you may have while reading to yourself, out loud, sometimes you will find that you can critically solve your own questions, and that will help you to remember something difficult even better. Make sure to re-read everything that you have summarized the next day, as a refresher for what you will start in your next study session, this repetition will help you to retain the information.

Remember, study buddies may also help motivate you as well!

Answer 3

You might already do this, but only work in short bursts with regular, short breaks.

Read and re-read your notes and test yourself on the key points.

Some people find it useful to visualise important information, so you could try mind-maps or diagrams.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Make up anagrams for the things you need to remember ( you know, like when you had to know the 5 Great Lakes: HOMES for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). Good Luck!

Answer 5

association works best for me...or finding relationships. like for example....ive always remembed annapolis is the capital of maryland because ANNA and MARY and both women names

Answer 6

association with what you know,are familiar with,and will remember!