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Memory Strategies for learners to prepare for exams.

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Published by ben.coley, 2018-10-24 07:50:30

Memory Strategies

Memory Strategies for learners to prepare for exams.

MEMORY

Techniques
&

Strategies

Improving Memory

• Remembering
• We all remember things more easily if:
• They are important and relevant to us.
• They are practiced or used regularly
• They involve a practical application

Memory and Retrieval
of Information

• Have you ever spent hours studying only to have
difficulty remembering information during the
exam?

• This is a common occurrence among students, and it
is caused by study habits that fail to transfer
information into long-term memory.

• The Information Processing Model shows that
remembering is hard work, with work being the key
word.

Memory and Retrieval
of Information

• In order to be able to remember what you are
studying you must use strategies that help you:
organising, repeating information, and quizzing
yourself. This is the most efficient way to transfer
information into your long-term memory in an
organized way so that it can be retrieved during an
exam.

Ideas for Supporting
Memory in the Classroom

• Give instructions at a steady pace and make sure you have
undivided attention.

• Keep instruction to a minimum and check he/she has heard
them correctly. It helps to ask for the instruction to be
repeated (verbal rehearsal).

• Try to avoid giving important instruction if he/she is tired,
anxious or hurrying to finish something (homework).

• Teach the style of verbal rehearsal of information needed for a
short while such as, when taking a message.

• When asking questions, give thinking time for answers

Successful Classroom
Strategies

• Connect information to prior knowledge

• Reduce the working memory loads of tasks by:

• using long term memory to exploit existing knowledge
to supplement working memory demands

• chunking to decrease working memory load

• breaking tasks down into smaller steps

• repeating important information

• Multi-sensory activities – by increasing the number of
senses involved in an activity the learning is more likely
to become embedded in long term memory.

Memory Strategies

• Strategies

• Spaced recap
• Chunking down, breaking down tasks
• Overlearning
• Mnemonics – Acronyms, Association, Acrostics
• Rehearsal and Repetition
• Write it - Create crib sheets - get learners to create them.
• Encourage the Use of Memory Aids
• Memory mats - use various key aspects of the course and create a memory mat.
• Graphic organisers
• Visual stories - Method of Loci – location
• Accelerated learning - all the senses are used.

Spaced Practice

• Spaced practice is the opposite of cramming.
• It involves spacing your study time over a long

period of time. Instead of studying the night before
an exam for eight hours, study for two hours a day
beginning four days before the exam.
• This allows the information to consolidate in your
long term memory.
• Spaced practice also leads to the information being
better organized in your long-term memory.

Break Tasks Down

• Breaking tasks down complements Spaced Practice.
• Instead of cramming by studying all material during

one long study session, study only one or two
chapters during shorter, spaced study periods.
• This practice will help you stay focused because you
do not feel rushed to learn all of the material at one
time.

Overlearning

• Overlearning involves exactly what the name implies –
continuing to work on the material even after you have
learned it.

• This practice improves your memory of the information. As
you review the learned material in other ways, you form new
associations that can help you when recalling the
information.

• If you suffer from test anxiety, overlearning is something
that you should do for every test. Anxiety interferes with
your ability to recall information. However, overlearned
information is so firmly embedded in your long-term
memory that it not as susceptible to anxiety

Mnemonic Devices

• Acronyms
• NASA, FBI, and SAS are acronyms, or words that

are made up of the first letters of other words.
• Acronyms can help you recall lists of information.
• For example, the three branches of government

are Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. You might
want to arrange the words so that your acronym is
JEL (Judicial, Executive, Legislative). Thinking about
your acronym will help you to remember your list.

Mnemonic Devices

• Associations

• Sometimes closely related information (even if it is simple
information) can cause more confusion than you would expect.
Forming associations between this information and something that
is easy to remember can help trigger your memory during an exam.
Think about longitude and latitude, do you have trouble
distinguishing between these two concepts?

• An example association to help you remember might be to relate
the letter “n” in longitude to the word north. Thus, when you see
the “n” in longitude, you will associate it with north and remember
that longitude lines run north to south. Similarly, you

• might want to remember that “lat” from latitude rhymes with flat,
i.e. the lines appear flat or horizontal when viewed on a map.

Mnemonic Devices

• Acrostics

• Acrostics are also called catchphrases. A catchphrase is a
sentence made up of words beginning with the first letters of
other words.

• For example, instead of remembering the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration by the acronym NASA, one could
remember the catchphrase Astronaut Stays Around. On the
test, you can reference this catchphrase to help you remember
that N in “No” stands for National, A in “Astronaut” stands for
Aeronautic, S in “Stays” stands for Space, and A in “Around”
stands for Administration. Catchphrases are very useful
information that may not form an easily remembered acronym.
It is also useful for steps in a process, causes and effects, and
key points for essay questions.

Mnemonic Devices

• Use mnemonic devices correctly
• In order to successfully use a mnemonic device, you

must use high level rehearsal strategies to learn the
information corresponding to the mnemonic.
• The mnemonic is only used to retrieve the
information once you have learned it.

• For example, NASA does not have any meaning
unless you have used rehearsal strategies to learn
that it stands for National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.

Rehearsal Strategies

• Rehearsal means practicing the material until it is
learned. This is a very necessary component of
studying. If you do not repeatedly practice the
material, it is less likely to transfer into long term
memory, and you will have difficulty remembering it
during the exam.

Repetition

• When you learned how to ride a bike, or shoot a
basketball, or play a musical instrument, did you
master the skill after only one practice period? Your
answer most likely is no. In order to master
something you have to practice repeatedly. This is
the same for studying. If you want to master your
material, you must practice it.

• Remember this phrase:

• write, recite, and think.

• If you do those things you will find that more of that
information makes it into your long-term memory.

Encourage the Use of
Memory Aids

• Reinforcing learning with visual clues eg:
• Visual classroom displays, group the displays into topics or termly.
• Labeling classroom/workshop equipment, with pictures and

words.
• Diaries or Planners – by physically writing we are reinforcing

learning.
• Pen and pencil! (make a note of it) more likely to enter the long

term.
• A friend / study buddy - encourage students to discuss their

learning, this can help them to remember.
• Memory mats –After each topic or term, create a memory mat of

the information covered. An example can be found on the next
slide.

This is a double sided Memory Mat. Learners can have this on their desks, or in their work journals, as a learning aid
and to help jog their memory. Without these, learners often have a blank and just move on or give up, it also serves as

a first port of call if they need help.

Graphic organisers – These have a marked impact on achievement and success rates. They allow learners to
analyse and process information. This helps to embed new knowledge into their long term memory. Follow

the link for more detailed information:
http://geoffpetty.com/geoffs-books/evidence-based-teaching-ebt

The Method of Loci

The oldest known mnemonic strategy is called the method of loci ("loci" is the
plural of locus, which means location, or place). It's based on the assumption
that you can best remember places that you are familiar with, so if you can
link something you need to remember with a place that you know very well,
the location will serve as a clue that will help you to remember.

Devised during the days of the Roman Empire, the method of loci is really a
sort of linking method with a twist. According to Cicero, this method was
developed by the poet Simonides of Ceos, who was the only survivor of a
building collapse during a dinner he attended. Simonides was able to identify
the dead, who were crushed beyond recognition, by remembering where the
guests had been sitting. From this experience, he realized that it would be
possible to remember anything by associating it with a mental image of a
location. The loci system was used as a memory tool by both Greek and
Roman orators, who took advantage of the technique to give speeches
without the aid of notes. Dating back to about 500 b.c., it was the most
popular mnemonic system until about the mid-1600s, when the phonetic and
peg systems were introduced.

Accelerated learning can be
described as an accumulated
wisdom. Dozens of
universities, research
psychologists and
professional educators have
contributed to produce this
way of presenting new
information. People like Dr.
Georgi Lozanov, Roger Sperry
and Robert Ornstein have
been key contributors, but
also NLP researchers such as
James Grinder have had
their input.

Further training and
practical ideas

• If you would like to know more about these
strategies and see them in practice, book onto the
live training session. We will demonstrate various
strategies and discuss how you can synthesize them
for your own teaching. You will leave with practical
ideas, ready to apply and use in your lessons.

• Contact your head of school in order to arrange
some face to face training.


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