How to Improve your Memory
A large part of college is memorizing and being able to bring up information at any given moment. But what if your memory isn’t the best? How can you improve your memory and be able to stay on top of everything you’re learning?
It’s not easy, but here are some ways to help.
Eat and Sleep Well
The biggest mistake students make when studying or trying to remember information for classes is that your body is where the information is stored. If you aren’t taking care of your body it can’t memorize information.
Sleep an appropriate amount of time. A tired brain can’t take anything in. If you try to study while tired, the likelihood of you successfully remembering anything is very slim.
In the same way, a hungry body can’t focus. This isn’t about what you’re eating but about keeping your body fueled. Food is energy and without it your brain has trouble functioning.
If you want your brain to be able to do more, you have to give it fuel and care to be able to function properly.
Play Games
This may seem like an odd choice for memory but keeping yourself challenged via board games, computer games, or simply Pet Rescue on your phone can help.
Routinely having to make yourself memorize and adapt to situations can help your memory, especially if it’s in a way you aren’t always conscious of. If you’re keeping yourself on your toes then when it comes time to cram, your brain doesn’t need to boot up, it’s already running.
Make Associations
Connect the dots between two items that have nothing to with each other.
- If you learn in visuals, link facts to colours and repeat those colours and facts until they are one and the same to your brain. Or use different images and graphs in the same way.
- If you work best with sounds then listen to songs while you study. Link song lyrics and chord progressions to specific terms and facts.
- For reading and writing, create a visual link between words. Create acronyms for facts or rhyme schemes to remember difficult information.
- Kinesthetic is linking physical actions to facts. Get up and walk around as you study, recite the material as you pace or write out practice exams. You want to have a motor memory of the information when you sit down to take a test.
Repetition
The be all to end all rule to improve your memory is repetition. If you want to remember something repeating it, in any way, is the best course of action. Whether it be in writing, reading, doing, or hearing nothing beats repetition.
Repetition is training for your brain. If you can get better at sports by practicing, you can get a better memory in the same way. Memory is your brain calling up information so the more times you remind your brain of that information, the easier it’s going to be for it to pull it up.
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