Memory and Study Skills

Paula Williams

Educational Psychologist

Bucks CCMarch 2013

What do Effective Learners have?

Knowledge

(what to, why to)

Skills (How to)

Motivation (want to)

So what skills do you have?Let’s play to your strengths

Instead of getting worried about what you do not know or understand, find out what you do know and celebrate your skills and achievements.

So what skills do you already have and use?

What is your motivation to do well?

What are your short term goals?

What are your long term goals?

What motivates you?

Extrinsic or Intrinsic?My parents are paying me I want to go to Uni

I’ll be punished if I don’t do well I want to show/ prove I can

Four key steps to getting started

• Check out your state of mind – Chill!!

In your revision room and in the exam hall

Use relaxation techniques if you get anxious

• Have all the resources to hand

• Have a quick browse of all the work “The big picture” allows the right hemisphere to assimilate the whole picture an overview before you get down to the detail

• Plan your approach

Be physically ready

• Physical exercise and fitness improve studying capacity

• Sleeping well improves studying

• Good diet is important - sugary foods should be avoided just before studying

• Starchy foods eaten about an hour before can set the body up for study

• Relaxation techniques can be used for relieving stress during study

• Focus your mind – monitor your concentration; take a break; press your

thumb and finger together to refocus yourself

Be psychologically ready

• Your attitude is important: you need to engage with a topic before it can be effectively studied. 

• Adopt a CAN DO! attitude 

• Learning should be linked to long-term goals.

• You should be aware of your own learning styles and preferred learning strategies

• A positive attitude will boost your potential – think of all the things you achieved without a teacher You didn’t say “oh I decided not to walk/talk as I was no good at it!” You kept trying until you succeeded; and everyone encouraged you

Tackle your demons

• Identify the blocks to your learning

• Find out what you do not know and go out of your way to understand or tackle it.

Be PreparedDevise a plan

• Have a visual timetable• Lists of tasks to achieve• List of subjects to cover• Be clear and realistic about what you can achieve

Do a pyramid /calendar for your revision goal and take action!

Use Effective ways to organise your work• use mind mapping; condense the info on to one sheet; make a list; use post-its

Ask for help when you get stuck.

Become task (not time) orientated.• Build in short breaks

Review past papers, know the format of the paper(s)

Mind maps

Formulating Opposing Arguments

Critical Thinking

“A well-cultivated critical thinker":

• raises important questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely

• gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively

• comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards

• thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their

assumptions, implications, and practical consequences

Use Positive Self Talk

• Adapt a can do attitude

• Identify mistakes as opportunities to learn

• Personalise your learning

• Don’t focus on the negatives or failure

• Talk it into a recorder / record on your phone

• Film it, do it, act it, say it out loud,

Memory Basics

• Your memory works best when you are happy and relaxed

• Fear and anxiety limit your thinking and creativity

• A good memory is not something you have it is something you do

• You all have good memories; it is just that some have fine tuned them better than others

• Be aware of the difference between creating short term and long term memories (we need to learn something at least 7 times before it transfers from STM into a LTM)

Enhancing your memory

Memory stackingBased on visualisation – most of our memories of images are stored as visual images.We need to construct images that are FUN in our brainSenses – attach different senses see, hear, taste, feel

Colour – Increase the brightness / colour a bright pink elephant

Animate – have the image doing something

Wild – have some creative fun with the image; if it stands out our brain remembers it

The more of these you use the better

Our brains are creative- there are no limits!

Use your emotions to enhance your memory

Attach images with:

Happy, silly, fun

Scary, fearful or even slightly

Humorous or Rude images.

Make it personally meaningful to you

Enhance your memory verbally1. Verbal mnemonics use words to aid recall

There are a number of different types:• Acronyms - A word or phrase is formed from the initial letters

of whatever we’re attempting to commit to memory.OILRIG (oxidation is loss, reduction is gain)

• Acrostic - A poem or sentence where the first letter of each word or line helps us recall sequence etc My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets

• Rhymes – these are easier to remember 30 days have September, April June and November etc… 

• Put your own words to music or rhymes, • Create a rap• Sing a difficult word; use different voices

Enhance your memory visually2. Visual imagery Mnemonics Again this is based on the organisation of things to be recalled.  For example if we want to recall things in order first, second, third etc.  First we associate each number (one, two, three) with something that rhymes (verbal mnemonics) One-bun        Two-shoe          Three-tree         Four-door    Five-hive           Six-sticks … Then you visualise your items to remember to each of the objects

3. Method of loci is to visualise a route such as your journey to school and then tag items to be recalled to these.  On recall they visualise retrace theirsteps around the landmarks.  This seems to work better with concrete nouns rather than with more abstract terms. 4. Visualise your mind map

5. Using Cues and context – recall your teacher telling you the information; visualise being in that setting. Recall the video clips that you might have been shown. Add colour and exaggerate the features to improve your memory.

Enhance your memory numerically

The Major SystemEach numeral is associated with one or more consonants. Vowels and the

consonants w, h, y and x are ignored. These can be used as "fillers" to make sensible words from the resulting consonant sequences.

The most popular mapping is:

So 43324 would be remember

Maintaining your knowledge

After a 1hr revision session…………10 mins on, go through the info for another 10 mins.1 day later – go over the info for 5-10 mins.1 week after the learning, go over the info 2-5 mins.1 month later, revise the info for at least 2 – 5 mins.Before exams, read through info and notes to convince yourself that you know it.

Use it!

Or lose it!!

Tackling those difficult areas • Do the hard stuff first then go over easy stuff as a pat on the back

• Then go back to it just before your exams

• This helps to utilise the effects of primacy and recency.

The graph shows the amount of information retained according to the order in which it was presented

Establish a mastermind groupWe Learn…

• 10% of what we READ

• 20% of what we HEAR

• 30% of what we SEE

• 50% of what we HEAR & SEE

• 70% of what we DISCUSS with others

• 80% of what we EXPERIENCE personally

• 95% of what we TEACH to someone else William Glasser

So what can you do?

• Get a study group of positive like-minded people around you and go out of your way to support and push each other to learn what they do not know.

• Identify an area; research it; tell your friends what you have learnt

• Utilise the group’s power: find out different information and share it.

Summary of Top Tips for Success1.Have a ‘Big Picture’. Decide in advance what you want to achieve…

If you don’t know what you want to achieve - HOW do you know when you’ve got there?Eg. 2 x A’s, 1 x B in exams etc...

2.Why?...If your reason ‘why’ is strong enough - then you’ve got a great chance of getting there... BUT, when obstacles appear (and they will!) and your reason ‘why’ is not strong enough - you’ll give up before you even started !!

3. Have a plan...How will you get there... it can’t just be random !! Eg. 2 hours on Monday, 1 hour on Tuesday & Wednesday, 2 hours Thursday

4. Make it a daily priority to achieve what it is that you want...You actually have to do things to get to where you want to... make it a priority. Eg. Talk to Alex about... Complete task X before...

5. Use proven techniques – Mind Map, revision techniques, work smart etc...Make life easy for you - don’t make it too tough for yourself Eg. Mind map, speed read

6. Reward yourself...Give yourself a reward for small successes NOT just at the end... you’re human -you need to feel good about your progress... you’re not a machine !!! Eg. Chocolate bar or night out with friends

7. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes...This is how you learn... so be brave and stop playing it safe all the time.Eg. Try that thing... Talk to that person... Have a go!!

8. Get rid of your excuses!!There is no tickbox on the exam paper or in your ‘life’ for your EXCUSES !!Eg. ‘I forgot’... or ‘it’s not my fault’ won’t wash !!

9. Believe in yourself...You will be YOUR biggest fan in your life - so believe it !! This is the fuel you will need in your life to get you through... You’ll need positive ‘mind talk’ Eg. Get enthusiastic, be passionate about and say “Well done me !!”

10. Do it !!Doing nothing will achieve nothing !!