Tricks to learning things!

Hey i need help!
It's my third year of uni and my course is demanding with a lot of content to learn. Well i plough through my work, making notes, reading it out to myself, sticking bits to the wall.... but it seems to go in one eye/ear and out the other eye/ear!

Does anyone have some tricks on how they learn their work..... plus this post is a distraction from making notes as i just feel like i've not taken anything thing in for the last god knows how long!

when i am having trouble remembering something i rewrite my notes from class a couple of times, use different color pen to remember important things, make flash cards, and draw pictures, good luck!

ive heard that walking around your room, or such, while reading and chewing gum (not nessasarily at the same time) have been found to help your brain retain "stuff"

and i am being serious

Cool my friend who retains stuff easily eats a lot of snacks when they revise so maybe you have something here! Plus the bastard never puts weight on!

Mnemonics helps me BIG time.

I remember things from years ago simply because I used mnemonics when I first learned them. For example...I remember the English Common Law felonies from my Intro To Law Enforcement class from 10 years ago because of "BARRMMS-T"

Burglary, Arson, Rape, Robbery, Murder, Mayhem, Sodomy & Treason

I failed Psychology but I'll never forget the lobes of the brain thanks to "F-Pot"

Frontal, Parietal, Occipital & Temporal

Luckily I have a photographic memory, all I need to do is write it down and I remember it.

Go on, test me.

They kind of help for the simple rules

But chemistry comes with hell of a lot of formulas and crap and Mnemonics fail to work for a lot of the things i have to learn!

I use mnemonics too, for EVERYTHING. when you have to remember something, make an association for it. Usually you use the first thing you think of, even if it makes no sense whatsoever. I still remember the little ditty from learning the directions: Never Eat Sour Worms. Seriously though, this stuff sticks with ya

well, for some of the formulas, you could make up a little story. C'mon, gimme a formula, i'll make a story so you remember it. i'm great at this stuff.

I don't mean mathmatical formulas i mean complex chemical reactions!

funny, thats how i remember the lyrics to Stairway To Heaven...

TALWSATGIGASBASTH.
WSGTSKITDAACWAWSCGWSCF
WOOOOO, ASBASTH

TASOTWBSWTBSAYKSWHTM
ITTBTBTASWSSAOOTAM
WOOOOO, ASBASTH

TAFIGWILTTWAMSICFL
IMTIHSROSTTTATVOTWSL
WOOOOO, ASBASTH

AIWTSIWACTTTTPWLUTR
AANDWDFTWSLATFWEWL

AIMMW

ITABIYHDBANIJTSCFTMQ
YTATPUCGBBITLRTSTTCTRYO

YHIHAIWGBYDKTPCYTJH
DLCYHTWBADYKYSLOTWW

AAWWODTR
OSTTOS
TWALWAK
WSWLAWTS
HESTTG
AIYLVH
TTWCTYAL
WAAOAOIA
TBARANTR
ASBASTH...

I talk out loud while i read from books, when you read silently you automatically sort of browse over the text, reading the important bits out loud makes sure you actually take it in.

when i'm really desperate i actually start copying it down on paper, i'll just read defenitions or formula's and then write them down for myself forcing me to look at and consider each part while comitting them to paper.
i'm really scatterbrained so i need repetition to get things in my head.

My method was as follows:

1) Go to class on first day and pick up syllabus.
2) Come back several weeks later for mid-term.
3) Come back again at end of term for final exam.
4) Receive grades in mail.

That usually worked just fine.

lol, thats what im doing right now


um, for main poster though i found it works well to copy your notes a few times, not word for word, but a sentence at a time

Dr. Phil says to eat blueberries or eggs before studying and before tests.

And, we all know Dr. Phil is never wrong.

mmmmm...blueberry omelette....mmmmmmm

Try and teach it to someone else. Or even just try to explain it to someone else. You suddenly find out what you actually know and what you just think you know. You also have to put abstract thoughts into words, so you're using different parts of your brain and the repetition makes it all a lot more solid.

Also; if you try reading a book aimed at much younger children you should boost your confidance because you should be reading stuff that you know, and you can 'predict' what they're going to say, and this leads you on into thinking more about the higher levels, the stuff that isn't covered in the book but that you know.

Enemas Loosen Plugged Asses
Egg -> Larva -> Puepa -> Adult

Thankyou TV funhouse for teaching me the insect life cycle

Something that made rote memorization easier for me during university studies:

Getting large sheets of paper and markers and drawing/writing out what I was supposed to be remembering, preferably while repeating it out loud as a kind of chant (the brain is then imprinting the same pattern in many different ways -- tactile, verbal, auditory, visual -- all at once).

If you're trying to memorize a specific piece of information (such as a chemical equation), write it over and over in the same color while repeating it to yourself. Do the same for the next equation, but use a different color. The equations will become associated with the color in your head so you'll have another way of remembering them.

that stairway thing was hilarious

I hear if you smell a marker or something while your studying, then smell the marker again while your taking the test it will help jog your memory. never tried it myself, but it sounds just crazy enough to work

i do a lot of word association... like if a person's name i need to remember reminds me of something silly, i focus on remembering the silly thing and when it comes tme to write down the person's name i have no problem...and i didnt even realize i still knew it! as far as fornumlas and such, rewrite it a crapload... goodluck!

Negative reinforcement, all the way. Hook some electrodes up to your eyelids and have a good friend hit your brain with some juice if you're having a hard time remembering something.

One of my Chemistry Professors used to say that you can learn almost everything you need to know about Organic Chemistry from the Aldol Reaction. His advice is good and the reason its true is that the secret to chemistry is that you don't really need to learn alot.

Once the key concepts sink home, you can look at a chemical and see how it will react. When you don't know the concepts, its a hard task to learn parot fashion - so much more effort is required and you don't get to know what to do when you meet something new.

With that said, you will need to learn some things parot fashion, such as the trivial names of chemicals. Try this link on Memory Strategies to see what suits you.

Personally, I find that writing something down and then reacalling it helps alot, but you need to find what works for you.

Best of luck.

P.S. This link shows some of the key reactions in organic chemistry, once you understand how the reations work, you will find that the flood gates open and you can look at any chemical and see how it will react.

Wow thanks all! I'm definately gonna try some of these!

I have heard that the scent thing works, but I have always wondered how the prof feels about people bringing in essential oils or scented markers or whatever.

Peppermint is supposed to help you retain information. I always sucked on a peppermint candy or put some peppermint essential oil in my oil burner. I DO NOT suggest getting any of the peppermint oil on your skin as it burns like a bitch.

I am not sure how this will work for chemistry, but I use rhyming to remember lists or a series of things (like a chemical formula). For example, say I need to go to the grocery store and pick up toilet paper, cheese, grapes, coke and rice. I remember it like this:

1- bun - I need some toilet paper for my buns.
2- shoe - Shew - stinky cheese
3 - Tree - I need grapes from a grape tree. (It does not matter that grapes don't grow on trees, it is just to help you remember.)
4 - Door - If I don't get some coke my head will hurt like I ran into a door. (Sometimes the more elaborate the connection the easier to remember.)
5 - Hive - I need rice which sort of looks like larve.

Maybe this will work for you. Good luck!