It’s the day of the big test. You studied hard last night, and as you walk into the classroom, your head is swimming with facts.

All of which mush together the second you see the test. Is Pierre the capital of North Or South Dakota? Is it Carson City or Jefferson City that’s the capital of Nevada? How about Vermont-Montgomery or Montpelier?

“But I knew this stuff last night,” you say as you leave the class. And you probably did. But if you don’t use the right techniques, you won’t remember what you’ve learned.

Some people remember things that first time they see them. The rest of us have to work at remembering what we’ve learned. Luckily, there are some techniques that will help.

One way to remember new material is to connect it with something you already know. Your science teacher has mentioned that friction creates heat. You already know that rubbing your hands together warms them. So you won’t find it hard to remember that meteors are heated by friction with the earth’s atmosphere.

Use Mental Pictures

You can use a mental picture to help you remember facts. The capital of Maine is Augusta. You might picture a horse standing with a gust of wind blowing its beautiful  mane.

You can also use a series of mental pictures. Sometimes when you study you may smell a certain smell that your brain can connect with the subject at hand. Or you can remember a friend calling you when you were about to find the final answer or finish the last page of a subject. You can’t imagine how much help did I get from such occasions.

Learn How To Remember Facts

From the multiplication tables in math to the periodic table in chemistry, students constantly have to memorize facts. Here are some tips to make it easier:

• Short lists are easier to learn than long lists. If you’re memorizing the  states and their capitals, it will take  less time to memorize five lists of 10  than one list of 50.
• When memorizing a list, start in a  different place each time. Otherwise,  you’ll tend to remember the beginning and the end of the list  better than the items in the middle.
• Writing a fact over and over can help  you memorize it. Just be sure you’re  spelling correctly. If you don’t, you’ll  memorize the wrong spelling.

Use Mnemonics

A mnemonic (nih-MAH-nick) is a short (and usually silly) verbal device that helps you remember things. You probably already know some mnemonics-for instance, the famous calendar rhyme that begins , “Thirty September, April, June and November.” Another mnemonic involves creating a sentence in which the first letter of each word is the first letter of one of the things you have to remember. To remember the nine (now eight!) planets in order, remember this sentence: My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles! (I told you it could be silly!) (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto*) The last one is no longer a planet 🙁

Test Yourself

Before you take the test your teacher had prepared, try giving yourself a test. If you’re studying chemistry, ask yourself, some questions you think are important and reflect important concepts and laws. Ask yourself about the chemical compounds that may appear in the test. Or you can resort to the end of chapter problems so you can chose some problems to solve as if they are test problems. One technique used is to solve ten (10) problems if your test will have five (5).

Flash cards are another way to test yourself. Suppose your memorizing biological names. Get 50 index cards and spend the time preparing them to be flash cards. the time you spend preparing them is also considered study time. Quiz yourself by looking at the flash card side with the question and give the answer. flip the card if you think you need help remembering.

You may notice that you started to connect the question with the card. This question is on the card torn at the top. This question is when my pencil’s tip got broken and so on. Again, your making connections with the answers.

Keep Your Brain Engaged

Have you ever been listening to the radio to find out when your favorite band is going to be in town? Then you hear the DJ say, “So we’ll see you at the concert!” You missed the dates completely! You heard the radio but your brain was on autopilot. You had “turned out.”

Research shows we learn best when we keep our brains “turned in.” You can do that as you’re listening or reading by constantly asking yourself questions. “Does that make sense?”
“Did I already know that?”
“Is this different from what the teacher said?
Or from what I have read?”
“Is there anything new or unusual here?”

As a bonus, when we keep our minds engaged and thinking, it is not only easier to remember what we’re learning, it is also likely to be interesting … and even fun.

Use It Or You Will Lose It

Athletes say this to themselves everyday as they work out. They know they need to keep practicing even if they’ve mastered a skill. Studies show that students who review what they have learned achieve more than students who don’t. Want to remember those methods for the final exam? Look over your flash cards every now and then. Challenge a friend to trick you to a mistake!

The memory skills you learn now will make it easier to remember things throughout your school career… and throughout your life.