Memory techniques
Improving your memory
- Self-awareness is important: Know what works for you already, e.g., do you prefer visuals or sound?
- Repetition: Checking often can keep things in your long-term memory
- Association: Linking to what you know already can help you to remember
- Mnemonics: In the form of a song, rhyme, acronym, image, phrase, or sentence e.g. Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate – ‘RICE’
- Active listening/reading – discuss/think about it
- Write things in your own words
- Personalise information – How can you use it? What are its implications?
Use your environment
Place stickers of key information around your room so you can visualise it in an exam situation, e.g., place notes above your bed, on your lamp, by the window…
Use auditory memory
- Record yourself and listen back (you can do this while doing other things)
- Set things to music – make up a song about the subject you are trying to remember
- Dramatise things: act out scenarios/words/concepts
- Make up stories (the more bizarre, the better!)
Use visual memory
- Make clear & attractive notes
- Use colour: give themes different colours, familiar colour combinations, e.g. traffic lights
Remember, memory thrives on…
- Imagination
- Association
- Organisation
- Repetition
Memory triggers
Different things trigger our memories. For example, a certain song might remind you of a holiday. Find out what triggers yours and use this to your advantage.
- Sound: Odd-sounding words or rhymes, rhythm, music
- Place: You can associate words to a place you know, for example, imagine a scene and ‘place’ different ideas in different places in your scene.
- Visual: What does the word look like? Use pictures, notice how things are arranged on a page
- Word association: Group related ideas together
- Activity: You might remember something because you did an activity based around it, e.g. perhaps you took part in a discussion on a certain topic, and this helps you remember key concepts