HOW TO REMEMBER WHAT YOU READ

Articles In This Section:

A young college student I know, facing an exam in physics, sat up cramming the whole night before the test. By dawn he had mastered one hundred and fifty definitions simply by repeating them over and over until he "had" them. When I met him on the street a week later, I asked him how he had made out. He laughed. "Oh, I passed with flying colors. But if you asked me for-one of those definitions now, I couldn't tell you, if my life depended on it!"

This is a common example of the misuse of the process of repetition in remembering. If this student had set himself the task of learning just five new definitions a day, and had repeated them once every day for a week, and then once each week for a month, he would have injected his hundred and fifty definitions into his brain gently, painlessly, and permanently. Every educator knows that cramming a head with knowledge is like loading a cannon. The powder is good for one blast, at examination, and then disappears into air.

The secret of learning by repetition is to repeat at intervals. That is why I have given you only five key words to remember so far. You might call this the first lesson. Tonight, before you go to sleep, review the five key images—alarm clock, trousers, chair, table, and newspaper—in your mind slowly, seeing them clearly. Then do the same with the list of the five largest cities.

In the morning, when you wake up and see the alarm clock, run through the lists again. You can do this while you are dressing. Notice, I do not ask you to take time away from your work to improve your memory. Any remnant of spare time will do—while you are shaving or having your shoes shined. If you are a housewife, you might try it while you are washing the dishes or making the beds.

In the beginning you can't go over these lists too frequently. Merely reading a memory system is not mastering it, for no power on earth can make you remember things that you have never learned. So take your time—as much time as you please. No one is going to try to outdistance you. If you go slowly, learning the key words thoroughly, I promise you this memory system will enable you to remember practically anything you want to remember.

One way to find out if you have mastered the material presented so far is to try your hand at a stiff speed drill. The following is a skip-about test, included for the practical purpose of giving you practice in pulling out of your lists the one answer you want.

It is doubtful that you will ever be called upon suddenly to name the five largest cities in the world or the five principal causes of death in the United States, any more than you are regularly called upon to recite the entire alphabet. But although you may never have to give a complete list, you may at some time want to know a single fact, such as what the second cause of death in the United States is or which is the fourth largest city in the world. This test will help you develop speed and ease in picking facts out of your mental file.

Place a clock where you can check the time easily, and keep a record of your speed. See if you can finish this drill in three minutes.