Lots of people emphasize the utility of advanced memory techniques like the memory palace, also known as the method of loci, or even simple mnemonics.
But how do you actually put them into use as a student?
Deciding how to use these memory techniques really depends on what kind of information you're learning. So, apart from the medical school prerequisites, the information you're learning in college varies a great deal based on your major.
When you do get to medical school, all those complex math concepts, physics, and ochem -all goes out the door. Medical school is almost purely rote memorization, but regardless of whether you're in college or in medical school, you will benefit from the method of loci and mnemonics for certain types of information.
The first is spaced repetition. ( Flash Card)
So, first, doing flash cards for memorizing information efficiently. Most of the information we do try to memorize, and just place regular flashcard. Either a cloze deletion, or a simple card, or image occlusion, etc. These are quick to make, quick to review, and they workbest for simple concepts. This should be your primary method of memorizing information.
The second technique is : Mnemonics.
They require a bit more effort to create, but they offer better retention and recall for things like Anatomyor lists.
For example, if you're memorizing the branches of the external carotid artery, mnemonics areprobably your best bet. Similarly, if you need
To memorize a group of drugs under a certain class type, mnemonics will serve you well.
Now you obviously want to use mnemonics that are memorable, and therefore effective for you, and this is going to vary from person to person. So this means, you often need to make your own mnemonics that you find personal and you find memorable and that makes sense to you.
For certain concepts like Anatomy, there are multiple mnemonics floating around that you can also just try out. Inappropriate dirtyones are particularly obnoxious, and therefore more memorable for me. 😆
And the last technique is an advanced one called the method of loci, which is a Memory Palace.
For those of you who are not familiar with this is where you combine the information you're trying to learn with visualizations of familiar places. Therefore, you're taking an advantage of spatial memory. Generally, you move through the familiar place on a route and this is more effective than just being stationary. So, for example,
You could imagine waking up in your bedroom,walking downstairs, and in the process of doing so, visualizing multiple events happening.
Each of these eventsis tied to a certain concept or element that you are trying to memorize. By having this vivid memory, you're better able to recall the information at a later date.
Again, this is going to work best for images that are really out there. They are grotesque, they're obnoxious, they're ridiculous, etc. These are the ones that stick. This is also the same technique that the pros use in memory competitions.
Now, I would only use the memory palace for concepts that didn't fit well into either regularflash cards or mnemonics. If a concept was particularly difficult for me to memorize, I would then go with memory palace.
The reason being that the memory palace takes the greatest amount of time to create, but it is also the most robust way to memorize information.
Lastly, it's important to regularly review your mnemonics and memory palaces. If you create them once, you will not remembert hem on the test day. You have to repeatedly review them just like anything else you're trying to memorize.
So this note had all the mnemonics and memory palace stories that I used and it was divided up by subject, I could then go and review this whenever I needed a refresher. I would also occasionally teach my friends off of this list the various mnemonicsor stories that I used during our groups tudy sessions.
Sometimes they would use them and sometimes they would say that hasn’t really worked for me, I'm going to create my own. Regardless,in the process, I was reinforcing myown stories and mnemonics which helped me learn them as well, so it's a win-win this way. Don't be a gunner.
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