Study Prof

Here’s a great picture of exactly how we achieve our goals through repeated actions.  We become what we repeatedly do.

This is a time-lapse of a Japanese group that walked the same path over and over. After several days they had worn a path in the grass. Consider how long it will take for the path to grow over once they stop walking. Weeks? Months? Once the path is sufficiently well-trodden, it will remain for a long, long time. As you are cultivating new habits, frequent repetition is the key to changing an action into a habit.

In the same way weaning yourself from a bad habit is not an overnight proposition. It will take time and effort to keep yourself from travelling the well-worn path long enough for it to grow over and disappear.

The lesson also applies to creating memories, although this illustration would represent brute-force repetition. Easier: use mnemonics to create a stronger path initially. That will cut down on the number of repetitions you’ll need to make that memory rock solid.

Rank these professions in order of average IQ, highest to lowest (just give it your best guess).

• Neurosurgeon
• Nuclear physicist
• Professor of Law
• New York cab driver

Yeah, yeah. I know what you’re thinking. There are probably some real idiots in those first three professions, and there are probably some certifiable egg-heads driving cabs. But that ain’t the way to bet.

Now rank them again, this time in order of which will know the best route from Central Park to LaGuardia at 5pm on a Friday afternoon.

This time, I’m betting on the cabbie.

Even your relative dullards in the world of cab-driving have (more…)

Ever had a car wreck? Any big, emotional, unusual event such as a car wreck, our high school graduation, or our first kiss, is easily memorable. No notes. No flash cards. It just sticks!

“Car wreck” memories stick because they are emotional and unusual.  They are also multi-sensory.  So how do we take something as boring as vocabulary (or anatomy, or chemistry, or [fill in your own memory bugaboo here] and make it multi-sensory, unusual, and emotional?

It’s actually very easy!  (more…)

Ironing a nice fold into a shirt or some pants requires heat, pressure, and repetition. First you get the iron hot, then, applying steady pressure, you go over that crease again and again until the fold is pressed into the fabric.

Could you get the fold ironed in without the heat and pressure? Sure, but it would take forever.

Getting memories ironed into our brains is a similar process. Going over the memory again and again will eventually work, but we can make the process much faster and more effective by using the mental equivalent of heat and pressure–what psychologists refer to as elaboration.

Some ways you can use elaboration…

• Ask yourself questions about what you are learning. Where have I heard this before? What does it remind me of? Is this true? How will this be tested?
• Turn verbal information into visual information by drawing a picture, chart or diagram.
• Turn visual information into verbal information by describing what you see.
• Relate the information to something you already know. That Mussolini character reminds me a lot of my hockey coach. (All of these are integrated directly into my note taking system as discussed on the free study skills video and in my ebook).
• Act it out. For example, put on a play about cellular mitosis using tube socks in the starring roles. (I suggest you shut and lock your door before doing this since it tends to cause roommates to give you funny looks and hide their socks.)
• Set it to music. My daughter’s kindergarten teacher used this to great effect, teaching her students a song to help them recall the spelling of every color they learned (the downside is that my daughter now hums under her breath when asked to spell “yellow.”) I’ve had friends who used this method to memorize extremely complex processes, though, so don’t discount it.

Here’s how I use this to really learn complex texts I’m reading…Please log in or sign up to read the rest of this content. Find out more.

Here’s a quick game that you can teach your kids to help them learn to apply mnemonics and also build a foundation for later study skills.  Kids may not be too keen on studying, but if it’s fun they’ll do it all day long. My kids and I usually play this while driving.

Three Story

One person is the storyteller. Their job is to tell a (very short) story that uses three words provided by the other participants. Any three words will do; we like to use nouns or verbs, the stranger the better. For example, “gorilla, ball gown, light saber.”

The storyteller tells a short story (usually under two minutes long) using all three words. (more…)

No matter what you are memorizing, mnemonic strategies will make the process easier and less time consuming. It may take more time to memorize the info initially, but you will more than make up for it by having to do less review later on!

The mnemonic process may not be so obvious when you are trying to memorize visuals, so let’s try it with a very complex chart that someone in anatomy or pre-med might have to memorize.

Click for full-size image. Public Domain image from Wikimedia Commons

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Memory is more like a barrel of monkeys than a barrel of bricks.  With a barrel of bricks, the more bricks there are, the heavier and more unwieldy it becomes. With the barrel of monkeys (and I’m referring to the children’s toy here), more monkeys means more connections, and that means it’s easier to lift the mass.

Memory works like that.  More details actually makes the memory more memorable.  Often, people protest that making up mnemonic stories to recall things like vocabulary or formulas just adds much more to memorize.  It’s counter-intuitive, but the detailed stories actually make it easier to recall what you are attempting to memorize.

Think about it this way; who do you remember best from your fifth grade class; the quiet, uninteresting kid who always sat in the back or the stinky kid with the bright red hair who always got in trouble?

Trying to memorize formulas or equations?  You can use mnemonics, as I’ve mentioned previously, but you’ll need to modify your methods a bit to take into account numbers and symbols.  Perhaps the best way to make the method clear is to give you a few examples.

Let’s look at the quadratic formula first.

Going from left to right, I turn the formula into a story or scene with each number and symbol represented in the story. (more…)

Mid-terms and finals are the bane of most college students’ existence.  One final exam would be bad enough, but at the end of the semester we often have to take two or three exams in a single day!  It’s enough to make even the most studious among us pine for the life of a beach bum.

If you find yourself in this unenviable position, here are some tips and tricks to help you make the best of a bad situation.

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Here’s a nice little video example of how to apply mnemonics your studies.