Memory skills , Pūkenga mahara

To replicate test conditions, your study space should be:

• quiet and free from distractions
• a comfortable temperature with adequate ventilation
• well-lit and not dark
• furnished for study, for example, with a desk and chair.

Make sure the environment you are in is conducive to study and you are not experiencing any discomfort. Eat before you start studying and make sure to drink and stretch during your study session.

While it is normal to feel nervous, being too anxious before or during your exams will make it more difficult for you to remember what you've studied.

If you have problems with test anxiety, contact the Health and Counselling Service for tips on improving your wellbeing, anxiety and stress management.

Counselling services

You will retain more information by learning in small manageable portions than if you attempt to learn a great deal of information at once. Study often, in short bursts. Take regular breaks.

We recommend you study in periods of 20 to 40 minutes then take a break – you will figure out what time period suits you best.

Make these breaks mandatory even if you are enjoying your reading or studying. Breaks also prevent fatigue and loss of concentration so that you can study longer.

If you are struggling with a concept, revisit your introductory textbooks or find a simpler text in the library. You need to understand the basic concepts that underlie a more complex idea.

If you still can't understand even after finding an easier source of information, consider:

• asking your lecturer
• asking a peer or joining a study group where you can ask questions
• finding a different learning resource, like an online tutorial or video examples.

If you are short on time, you may decide to omit that topic and focus on the ones you understand better. However, be aware that this is risky and you may be limiting how many marks you can get in the exam.

Do something with what you are trying to remember. Don't just read over material and assume that you will absorb the information ‘like a sponge’. To engage with the material you're learning:

• Ask yourself questions
• Think about the topic in relation to your own experience
• Put theories into your own words
• Discuss issues with class members
• Put a question into a discussion forum
• Work through some examples or previous exams
• Create a summary, list, chart, flash cards or mind map.

Find past exam papers

Add detailed labels to your diagrams, especially in science subjects. You can show the steps in a process such as a flow diagram and label the stages.

Hang the diagrams on your wall where you will see them often and keep them in view until you can recall each step and its place in the sequence.

Charts and tables help you to visually recall the number of facts about a concept, any special features or how many differences there are.

Use a chart to summarise sets of facts or compare 2 or more theories, models, groups of characters or unicellular organisms.

Note-taking using charts or tables

A mind map provides you with the keywords relating to the topic and the framework showing how these are interconnected, for example through its shape and number of branches or sub-branches.

To be useful, mind maps should:

• be detailed, tidy and easy to read
• include visual cues that help your memory, such as numbering, diagrams, icons or colours
• include your own examples
• show links between and within branches.

Use mind maps to show all the connections for a particular term, person or theory. This helps you develop a clear understanding of the term and how, when and why it is used.

A mind map clarifies and connects concepts to help you remember them.

Note-taking with mind maps

You may find it useful to create a mind map throughout the semester as each topic is completed, or to make a mind map as a revision tool for each topic at exam time.

Using a mind-map to study

Try to learn each branch of the mind map. Commit them to memory by linking each branch to a colour, position or size. For example:

• 'the red branch is…'
• 'the top left branch…'
• 'I know there are 10 key words for this one…'

Try to replicate the mind map as quickly as you can. If you can re-make the mind map quickly, you can recall the information quickly in the exam. Move on to another topic and then come back to test your recall of the mind map again.

Use the mind map as the basis to:

• talk aloud about a topic
• write about a topic – if you didn't cover everything in your answer, go over the mind map again focusing on what you left out
• write a compare and contrast answer for 2 branches of a mind map.

Using your mind-map in the exam

In the exam, draw your mind maps for any of the topics you have studied on the exam paper. There will usually be a blank page for notes like these. If you remember more branches or key words as you work through the paper, add them to the mind map as you go. Alternatively, draw your mind map at the top of the page before you start to write your essay answer.

Use these mind maps to help you structure your answer in the exam. Don't cross them out until you have finished answering the question. They may earn you marks if they contain accurate information which you have not had time to put into the body of your answer. Remember that a mind map is not an acceptable exam answer on its own and you must still answer in your own words.

Concrete images like a car or boat are easier to remember than abstract concepts like intelligence or love.

The link method

Create a 'link' between items to help you remember them. For example, if you need to remember bananas, carrots, lemonade and honey, you could imagine a monkey eating bananas while planting carrots and watering them with lemonade. The sweet syrup in the lemonade attracts bees who use the syrup to make honey. While this may seem like a ridiculous image, it is a memorable one!

This technique is effective for learning vocabulary. For example, the French word for snail is escargot. This could be imagined or illustrated as a snail being loaded on a boat – a 'snail as cargo'.

While this strategy takes effort to set up, it is very effective once you have created the association. You need to imagine a room and all its furniture in your mind. Associate information with each part of the room, the furniture and furnishings. The more novel or silly the association, the easier it is to remember and the better this technique works.

• Start by organising all your notes about a particular topic, unit or section of a subject area. Break the topic into sections and organise these so that you have all the important information in a set, including definitions, characteristics, uses, applications, examples, theories and theorists.
• Visualise a room that you are very familiar with, such as your bedroom, a classroom or a room in your family home.
• Try to recall all the furniture in the room, such as bookshelves, chairs of different kinds, curtains and windowsills.
• Associate 1 set of information with each piece of furniture. Try to visualise the link in some way to enhance the memory. If you can make the link funny or incongruous, it will be easier to remember.
• Practice recalling the set of information on each piece of furniture.
• Practice visiting the room in your mind. Visualise the furniture and use the links to recall the sets of information relating to the topic in the room.
• Repeat the process using another room for another topic.

Once the effort is made to 'set' the association securely in your mind, imagining the room brings excellent recall.

Acronyms

Acronyms are words made from the first letter of the key words relating to a concept or process. Some of the most common examples are:

• BEDMAS used by maths students to remind them of the order of operations. It stands for Brackets, Exponentials, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction.
• TRACC used to remember that business memos should be Timely, Relevant, Accurate, Concise and Clear.
• ROYGBIV used to remember the colours of the rainbow in order – Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Acrostics

Acrostics are phrases or poems in which the first letter of each word or line functions as a cue to help you recall the words you are trying to remember. For example:

• 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit' is used in music to remember notes on treble clef lines – E, G, D, F.
• 'Betty Brown Runs Over Your Garden But Violet Grey Walks' is an acrostic used in engineering and technology to remember resistor colour codes and their values – Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Grey and White.

Repeating formulas or definitions in a rhythm can help you remember this type of information. Speak information aloud using a sing song type of ‘speech’ or ‘sing’ sets of information in a tune.

For example, 'i comes before e, except after c... or when it sounds like an a, as in neighbour and weigh.'

This process helps to reinforce your memory. In an exam, you will find that you recall it in the same way, with the same rhythm or tune.

For example, some nurses have to remember the colour of blood tubes and know what they are for. To remember this accurately, you might remember the story:

'My plain aunt has 4 red dogs called biochemistry, serology, drugs and hormones. Aunt EDTA has 2 purple dogs called haematology and cell count. Aunt Oxalate has a grey dog called glucose...'

In this narrative, the aunts are the anticoagulants, the colour of the dogs is the colour code of the tests and the dogs' names are the purposes for the test.

Short-term memory can only deal with about 7 items before old information is ‘bumped out’ to make room for new information. Chunking things together helps you remember more.

For example, when learning a telephone number, it is hard to remember more than 7 digits. The number is much easier to remember when it is grouped into 4 chunks.

'0800, 83, 83, 83' is far easier to remember than 0 8 0 0 8 3 8 3 8 3.

Formulae are easily learnt in chunks.

This memory strategy is particularly useful after you have already reviewed a topic. It is a good self-test of how well you know a topic.

Combine self-talk with other methods such as chunking, acronyms or a Roman room – especially if you are learning definitions, formulae, equations or sets of principles.

If you can speak fluently about a topic, you will be able to write fluently about the topic.