Studying for exams? Here’s how to make your memory work for you

Have you ever thought about how your brain works while learning? If you know this, you may be able to save and retrieve information.

There are three main memory structures: sensory, working and long-term memory. With these tips you can activate all three to improve your learning.

1. Try to learn the same content in different ways

Activation of your sensory memory is the first step. The sensory memory is based on the senses, of which you know for certain that they are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.

So think about it - to activate your sensory memory, you should activate as many senses as possible. We mainly use visual and auditory (audio) aids in learning, but many disciplines use more than these two senses. Fine art, for example, would require touch.

Instead of just reading your textbook, try using podcasts and visual aids like posters, presentations, and online blogs.

Try to activate different senses while learning. By listening to a podcast. from shutterstock.com

When we activate our sensory memory, we participate in the processes of attention and perception.

Man has to pay attention to learning and the more cognitive resources we provide for a task at a given time, the faster we learn. For this reason, it makes sense to learn in an environment conducive to learning, eg. In a quiet room at your home or in the library.

Sensory and working memory are limited so that learners have to allocate their resources as selectively as possible and with minimal distraction to important information.

How we interpret information is based on what we already know and our previous experiences. One way to use this is to share knowledge with others before starting a new or unknown task. So try to check what you have learned with a friend or parent before you learn something new.

If you do not understand something in the first instance, it may be because you have not paid enough attention or have not correctly recognized the question or problem. Try to clear your mind (take a break) and think carefully about how much attention you pay to the question.

If this still does not work, ask for advice or get help to make sure you're on the right track.

Reforbes, in touch with tomorrow

2. First learn simpler parts and then build on them

As soon as a learner perceives and takes note of learning material, the information is transferred into the working memory. Here your conscious processing takes place.

When you take an exam, your working memory decides what your answer will be and how you will structure your response.

What many learners do not notice is that after a long period of learning, they feel that they are not learning as much as they originally did. This is due to the so-called cognitive overload.

Your memory can contain only a limited number of information bits. The exact size of these bits depends on your level of knowledge. For example, a child learning the alphabet has little prior knowledge, so each letter is stored individually with, for example, 26 bits. As they become more familiar, the letters merge into one piece.

Consider the type of information you learn to make your working memory more efficient. Is it low or high in the "bits" section? Are you trying to learn something that you need to master before you can move on to challenging sections? If the answer is yes, you are consuming a lot of "bits" of memory.

First, try to master the smaller bits so you can get that information faster without using unnecessary cognitive resources. Then go on to the harder parts.

This type of mastery is called automation.

If you learn something that turns it into an automatic thought or process, you can give the learner more cognitive resources for tasks that consume more "memory bits". Because of this, we at school are encouraged to memorize our multiplication tables so that we can release cognitive resources to solve the more difficult mathematical problems.

Automation is when we know how to do something without having to think about it (like driving a car). from shutterstock.com

Memory is limited, which is why you want to transfer the information to your long-term memory with unlimited storage capacity.

For information to be permanently stored there, you must participate in the coding process. Many things that you can do by teachers, such as: Previous work and the writing of an essay plan are coding strategies.

Another coding strategy is the Pomodoro technique. Here you use a timer to divide the learning into intervals, usually 25 minutes, separated by brief pauses. When used effectively, Pomodoro can reduce anxiety, improve focus, and increase motivation.

What you do at the time of encoding affects the transfer of information from your long-term memory to your working memory, which then gives you answers to questions. You can better remember when the retrieval conditions match those of the encoding.

For this reason, we often want to recreate a quiet learning environment when learning, as this is similar to the exam environment.

Education Building A Better Tomorrow.

3. Link new information to things you already know

Try to explain to someone without knowing the content what you have learned instead of reading the exam notes. Being able to teach someone effectively means that you have a solid understanding of yourself.

Their long-term memory generally has an infinite capacity, but it is only a memory structure. Just because you have something stored there does not mean that you can retrieve it effectively and efficiently.

Most of us had the experience of studying, but could not retrieve the information we learned. Or we misread the information, which means that we received the wrong answer.

This may be because we learned the material on a flat level, as opposed to a deeper level of processing. Learning material learned the night before means that we have not linked the information with the established knowledge structure.

You can help yourself by linking new information to old information that you already have in your long-term memory, such as: For example, by drawing an analogy between the new and something you already know.

If you know all about memory, you can understand why some learning methods are more or less effective than others. When learning for exams or not, it is important that we think about how our brains work and how we best learn as individuals.