These are just some ideas I’ve compiled that have worked for me!
1. Quizlet games. I love using the matching game because not only does it force me to actively look for a term’s definition, but it also allows for backwards recall. So by seeing “has both magnitude and direction,” somewhere in your mind is a little voice going “vectors!” This is a good way to test how well you’re able to recall the material regardless of the format it’s given in.
2. Make up rhymes and mnemonics. Little rhymes like “I before E except after C” help with memorization, and “Charles watches TV” is a good mnemonic to use for remembering that Charles’s law has to do with t-t-t-temperature and v-v-v-volume.
3. Physically get up and act it out. This can work for history, literature, physics, biology, etc. For example, if you’re having trouble memorizing the process of exocytosis, pretend to be a particle leaving the cell and stop at different parts of the room so you can understand that stop 1 is the golgi apparatus and stop 2 is the cell membrane.
4. Teach. If you don’t have anyone to explain the material to, you can use stuffed animals or an invisible audience full of ten year-olds. Come up with questions that your “students” might ask and then answer them in a simplified way if possible. Try to think of the best way to explain the material in a clear way. That way, if, on an exam, you happen to get one of those questions you came up with, you’ll be able to explain it in a coherent fashion because you took the time to fully comprehend it.
5. Type up your notes as if you were a tutor making a study guide for your students. You can print these out and possibly bind them or just study from the computer.
6. Annotate PowerPoints if the professor has made them available. This will allow you to build on existing knowledge and to make your own connections.
7. Take old practice exams. This is really helpful for subjects that require calculations, like math or physics, but if your professor gives you old exams to practice with, use them, no matter the subject. They are good indicators of what might show up on your exam in terms of format or content.
8. Study sitting down, standing at a tall desk, in the library, in a park, etc. If it helps, change up your position and/or your location once in a while. It might give you a fresh perspective.
9. Summarize material on one sheet of paper. Just one. The size of the paper depends on how many topics you’re covering. There should be no detailed notes on this page. It should basically have those bolded subtitles you see in textbooks along with quick, supplementary notes on them.
10. Make lists. I find it easier to recall this:
Excitatory neurotransmitters:
(1) Acetylcholine
(2) Norepinephrine
Inhibitory neurotransmitters:
(1) Dopamine
(2) Serotonin
(3) GABA
rather than this:
“Acetylcholine and norepinephrine are excitatory neurotransmitters, and the inhibitory neurotransmitters are dopamine, serotonin, and GABA.”
The two methods might not sound very different because it is the same material after all, but personally, I would rather memorize these from an organized list rather than a sentence. My brain just processes this visually: there are 2 excitatory and 3 inhibitory. That way, if I’m stuck on a question during the exam, I’ll know if I’ve only got 2 out of the 3 inhibitors and that I’m missing one more.
11. Recall old teaching methods. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I still remember ___ because of the way my teacher taught it,” these might be the methods that work for you. It might have been a small, interesting fact in history that you remember, or a fun way to memorize the periodic table of elements. Either way, this information stuck with you for a reason. Use those methods to study new material.
