Student Tips: Sharpen your ability to recall information - A

Sharpen your ability to recall information – part A.

We have discussed tactics to improve your learning process. These have included organizing your study space and setting up a routine study time. We have also discussed the importance of taking a systematic approach to studying. All of these tactics will help improve your performance in school. Sharpening your recall skills is another practice that will add to your academic success.

You have heard of various tactics to improve your memory. Preparing your study material effectively is a helpful first step. The goal is to emphasize important points. You probably already try to do this in one way or another. Examples include identifying key points, underlining, highlighting, taking notes, outlining, and repeating key ideas to yourself. These actions help you prioritize ideas and narrow your review material. It also allows you to uniquely mark what specific information that you need to review, or any material about which you need to ask questions.

Use as many of your senses as possible when reviewing the material to be studied. Besides your vision (reading), add other senses. For example, when you read text or notes out loud, you listen to yourself, which engages your sense of hearing. When you take notes or do an outline, you are adding your fine motor skills by writing. When you use more of your senses for studying, you are likely to improve your recall of information.

Everyone has a unique way of learning and recalling information, and it’s important to discover your most effective method for recalling study material.  Some students understand and retain information by simply reading the material. Another person may retain information better by hearing the information repeated. Others may need to write down important ideas and concepts to learn them fully. Again, as you increase the number of senses you use, the better you’ll understand and retain information.

In the spirit of what we just discussed, here are a few similar tips about increasing the use of other sense besides your vision when studying.

• Repeating information out loud or talking over important points with others involves your sense of hearing and improves recall.
• You may enhance your learning by recording important points and replaying them later.
• Jotting down key points or making outlines involves the use of your visual and fine motor skills and can help improve recall.
• Typing out notes also uses your fine motor skills and is an effective way to make information clearer and better organized.
• Combining the above tools will help improve retention.

More memory tactics are to follow in coming blogs.

For further ideas, blogs, and tactics, check the information available at our website: hightouchlearning.com.