Remembering for
Exams |
| Sometimes
it's hard to remember: |
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Suggestions: |
| because there's no desire to
remember, no interest in the material, and thus no clear reason to remember. |
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Meditate to find a reason
to remember. Talk with the instructor or with students who seem interested in the material
to learn what motivates them. Write down your reason, once found, and keep it around for
periodic pep talks with yourself. |
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| because the material to be
remembered hasn't first been understood. |
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Try to get a "bird's-eye
view" of the whole system before attempting to remember details of each part. Read a
simplified version or critique of the material before returning to the original. Ask for
help early if you've tried and just can't understand. Caution: initial understanding
should be complete well before the test so the last few days can be spent reviewing. Don't
wait until the lest minute to try to understand. |
|
|
|
| because the initial reading
and study wasn't done with the intent to remember, but rather with the idea of just
underlining now and then really learning the material "later." |
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Read with the intent to
remember, that is, read actively to identify and hold your self responsible for
information that needs to be remembered. Make the first reading count! |
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|
|
| because most forgetting takes
place rapidly, right after initial learning unless some effort is made to use the new
information or to recall and "store" the information for later use. |
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Take a few extra moments at
the time of initial reading to stop and mentally test yourself over what you've
just read. Immediate recall of newly learned information is the essential first step to
later memory of it. |
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|
|
| because most study time has been spent just
passively rereading and "looking over" the material to be learned. |
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Spend more than 50 percent of study time
recalling and testing to see how much of the material is still unlearned. Having once
learned and immediately tested by trying to recall the information, continue to test yourself at periodic intervals. Expose as many
senses as possible to the information: write it, speak it, hear it, and visualize it.
Familiar, well-learned things assume identities of their own and are not likely to be
confused with similar things. |
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|
|
| because the form of study was
inappropriate to the use of the material required on an exam. |
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Practice using the
information for a quiz: Predict essay questions and actually write the answer, work
problems, etc. It's one thing to know material and another to be able to "use"
it on exam questions. |
