Archive for the 'Memory Skills' Category

Does Cramming Work?

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on January 7, 2009
in Better Grades, Exams, Memory Skills and Study Less
. 0 Comments

Cramming - Don’t Do It!

Time can really get to you when you are trying to study. Many people wait until the last minute and they end up trying to cram all the information in within a few hours.

So, this brings up an important issue - DOES CRAMMING ACTUALLY WORK?

When people are preparing for a test or exam, often cramming will turn into a habit that is overused. Many students resort to cramming for a variety of reasons self-justifying our behaviour with the lie that we have busy schedule… Am I right?

In many cases, cramming can be RISKY, since it ends up CAUSING STRESS FOR NO GOOD REASON!

As such, you end up making your brain work even harder in a shorter period of time, than it would if you were doing routine study. If you cram on a frequent and regular basis, it can actually become a HEALTH RISK.

One of my engineering school classmates had to drop out because of study-related, stress-induced health problems thinking he could take some time off and come back - that didn’t happen. Once out of school, he ended up ‘taking it easy’ with a less ambitious crowd and well, the rest is history. Not only did he not get back to Engineering, he never stepped back into a university classroom.

When possible, you should definitely use other methods of studying - other than cramming.

Not sure where to find great ideas? Consider reading my revolutionary learning e-book “Get Better Grades with the Least Amount of Effort.” It offers a lot of helpful knowledge, proven study tips, techniques and strategies that can help you study more effectively and get better grades.

SO DOES CRAMMING EVER WORK?

When you are healthy, well rested and don’t have a lot of “other stresses” in your life, the brain may deal quite well with a bit of cramming that occurs in the last minutes or hours of study before an important exam or quiz.

However, in most cases, if it works at all, you usually only end up with GRADES THAT ARE AVERAGE, instead of the BEST GRADES you could achieve if you studied more effectively.

One of the main problems with cramming is that you never get a great grasp of all the information and the relationship groups of information may have with each other - those inter-relationships are usually what teachers put in the exam!

Cramming can also lead to CONFUSION. Sometimes it can make information you already know even more confusing. You’ll also find that it’s hard to put the facts in your long-term memory as you are probably dealing with FATIGUE and FRUSTRATION as well.

If you don’t want to put your mind through all this, then make sure you avoid cramming for your exams and is you DO cram, you use my strategies to make the best of it!

It doesn’t matter whether you are studying in high school, college or business. If you are looking for ways to study more effectively it’s well worth checking out my ebook “Get Better Grades with the Least Amount of Effort.”

Onward and upward!
Marc

P.S. If you have any personal experiences or feedback on cramming, post it here on the blog as a comment!

Study Tips Revealed

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on October 27, 2008
in Better Grades, Memory Skills, Speed Learning and Speed Reading
. 1 Comment

Today’s post is a series of questions from Virginia Buratto.

You say “use coloured pens” (by the way almost everyone knows this technique) but you don’t say if one should read a text first and then highlight it or if he should highlight straight away or if it is better to read the whole book a couple of time before dividing into sections and start studying.

First, just because ‘almost everyone knows this technique’ doesn’t mean I should ignore it. In fact quite a few students either don’t know it OR don’t do it. Just look around at your classmates’ note books and you’ll see most STILL DON’T DO what works.

The question on highlighting is a GREAT ONE. I suggest you SPEED READ your material FIRST. Then and ONLY then will you know, AFTER reading it what is important and what is NOT. Then you can go back and highlight accordingly. Ideally, you do this BEFORE your class as the SECOND pass.

Because I teach SPEED READING, I suggest you learn that skill. If you haven’t yet bought my video program, it’s only $47, buy it now. It’ll pay for itself with the first hour when you at least DOUBLE your current reading speed. If you don’t SPEED READ, that’s unfortunate because it’s an easy skill to develop so I don’t really have suggestions for non-speed readers. Sorry.

Moreover you never mention any memory techniques (and that surprised me a lot). Why? Do you think they are overrated? I truly expected the book to present a system that combined speed reading for comprehension and memory techniques for remembering was able to make the difference for every student.

When I wrote this book, I wanted to keep it SIMPLE and to the point. Otherwise it ends up being a big, thick, complicated book. The strategies I teach WORK for EVERY SINGLE PERSON who applies them. I have not found the need for memory ’systems’ and you are the first person to mention this. BUT I have to be honest - if you are NOT SPEED READING, comprehension and memory will be a problem. SPEED READING decreases the time it takes to read, but it also dramatically improves comprehension and memory WITHOUT having to learn any systems.

Before ending this letter I would like you to know that I didn’t mean to be rude or to offend you in any way. I truly admire you and look up to you for what you have been able to do in your life. I simply feel like that in this book “the meat ” isn’t there (let me point out that instead the speed reading course is very well done).

Virginia, I understand your perceptions and I know many people would like it to be ‘more complicated’, but it’s not. That is the POWER of the book’s message. Once you ‘own’ these strategies, your grades will improve and you’ll come to realise the GIFT I am giving you - Getting Better Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort is all about “The Least Amount Of Effort” bit.

This is lost on many people and I know you haven’t missed that message. You are not alone - people WANT it to be more complex and complicated, that way they won’t feel as bad about what they haven’t done all this time. Once they get over it, they realise the STRATEGIES are SIMPLE, EASY and STRAIGHT FORWARD. That is why they are so powerful and within EVERYONE’S REACH.

Complex memory techniques are not - they require training - training that can be avoided with what I teach.

In your book you say that we should model those who are better than us in a particular field by asking them questions. So if you don’t mind I would like to ask you some questions. When you where studying law what were you doing? Did you study in the morning or late night? How long was every study session? Did you find it hard to concentrate after a certain amount of time studying? Did you read the whole book a couple of times before highliting it or what? How did you remember things?

I always study at night. You need to determine what works best for you. I prefer to study for several hours at a time and get into the ‘groove’ of my thoughts. I will read whenever and wherever I have the opportunity. On a plane, waiting for a plane, for an appointment, etc. I carry my reading material with me EVERYWHERE I GO. That is the KEY to optimal time management. I only SPEED READ the material ONCE. I then highlight it AFTER I have read it. Memory is not a problem when you SPEED READ and use the strategies in my book. No one who has applied the strategies has ever asked for memory or comprehension ‘assistance’.

Thank you so much. English isn’t my first language that’s the reason why my English isn’t always correct and easy to understand.

Thanks again
Virginia Buratto

Virginia, thank you for taking the time to respond. I know you will be successful and please add comments to the blog at your leisure.

Onward and upward!

Dr Marc Dussault

Australia’s #1 Exponential Growth Strategist

P.S.

I will answer anyone’s question that posts it as a comment on the blog. As you can tell, speed reading is a must-learn skill for any serious student…

Buy my money-back guaranteed program and DOUBLE your reading speed within one hour.

How to Write Down and Remember Everything Your Teacher Says

Published
by
Dr Marc Dussault
on August 25, 2008
in General, Memory Skills and Note Taking
. 0 Comments

Are you tired of constantly taking notes and still not remembering everything your teacher says?

If so, you’ll be happy to know I’ve put together some informative techniques for you.  Once you start using these methods, remembering will become much easier for those difficult tests ahead.

Ready?

Successful Study Skill #1: Use Coloured Pens and Pencils

Take out some of your notes right now.  What is the same throughout all of them?

I bet it’s he pen or pencil colour.  When something is one dimensional like this on an entire page, it’s hard to remove segments from each page.  Instead, try using coloured pens and pencils to take your notes.

Remember, make this a routine and positive results will soon follow. How soon?

Within HOURS. You’ll start to KNOW and FEEL like you can remember more, but NOTHING happens unless you give it a go.

The more visual cues you can create, the easier it will be to recall information later.  The use of colours is the simplest way to improve memory recall.  As you begin experimenting with different colours, you may notice that some colours work better than others.  You may even prefer to use some colours for specific uses.

I like to write the body of my text in a colour other than blue, usually black, with non-black highlights.  I always correct it in red if necessary.  This is due to the extreme contrast that black and red represent to one another.  You’ll end up being able to find it much easier on your pages cluttered with notes.

Sometimes, when I am studying something I find boring, I will write the notes in purple or green so it stands out in my mind - when I am trying to recall THAT topic, I can think in purple or green instead of trying to ‘find it’ amongst the blue and black.

Successful Study Skill #2: Underline and Accentuate Important Items

This is very important when taking notes.  Be creative and explore different variations.  Multi-stroke, underlining, boxes, circles, and shadows are effective in drawing attention to increasingly important items or definitions.  Just be sure not to overdue it or this technique will become ineffective.

You’ll know when you get to the right proportion of highlighting.

You’ll also know if it’s better for you to capture the notes FIRST and then come back to HIGHLIGHT later. I find it helps to do it LATER if I have trouble remembering something. If I can easily remember, I won’t highlight it. This is especially the case the NIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM. That REALLY helps if the highlights weren’t there previously.

Successful Study Skill #3: Draw Figures, Charts, and Graphs

Sometimes things just can’t be communicated clearly only using words.  Relationships, timelines, causality and exchanges are difficult to explain in writing.  However, they are easy to illustrate even for the artistically challenged like me!

These diagrams should include colours and other graphical representations such as bullets, arrows, shading and text of different colours. Doodles work just as well - the KEY is to jog your MEMORY - not win a drawing contest.

Don’t forget that NO ONE ever sees your notes, only you do!

Successful Study Skill #4: Use Large Paper

I use large paper that is a little smaller than A3 or 11″x17″.  Ideally buy old-fashioned printer in continuous forms that are sold in boxes of 5,000 sheets that cost around $25-$30.  It’s a great investment considering it’ll last you several years!

I like the continuous nature of computer paper because I can “open it up” and get big diagrams on one sheet that can be easily folded and reviewed at the last minute, just before an exam.

There are one or two different things I do with these large sheets.  Either I get all the main points of a course on one sheet or I section each page into a subject, topic or idea.  It really just depends on the course that I am taking.

Regardless, they are both great ways to CAPTURE the proper information you need in a VISUAL FORMAT that is easier to REMEMBER.

For instance, I recently took a course where each lecture was reduced to one entire page.  It consolidated 17 textbook chapters and 30 academic articles.  The point is, it’s a lot easier to review 15 pages as opposed to over 500 in a textbook.  What would normally take several hours of searching is now formatted for easy access within minutes.

Seriously though, creating these pages is “fun” for me.  I know that when I am doing an exercise, it is all being stored in my memory banks.

When you try it you’ll feel your level of confidence build so that you’ll have a greater sense of control.  In the end it’s important to see the “big picture” as a visual cue.  In my book, “Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort“,I explain how you can make this process even more powerful using your auditory and kinesthetic senses for ABSOLUTE RECALL!

Onward and upward!
Dr Marc Dussault

P.S.

Please post a comment and I will respond to you to make sure you are developing study skills by revealing tips on how to study that will help you learn how to study for exams and tests so can possess better study skills and how to study smarter.

If you want the best study skills, you just need to post a comment and I will address YOUR particular issue to make sure You Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort!

Consider it a PERSONAL 1:1 CONSULTATION!

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