I have been inspired to start a blog after reading one Jeff Atwood’s blog post. I figured that the thing that most interests me – human mind – is probably pretty interesting to a lot of other people too. Worth giving it a shot anyway.
I’ll start off with a topic that’s on my mind right now. My exams are starting soon, so I’ll talk a bit about the way we remember stuff – and why most people go about it the wrong way.
It always amazes me how many people I see cramming as much information into their heads as possible just before an exam. I’ve almost never done that in my life. I’ve always learned throughout the course – and most things just float effortlessly to my mind when I need them. I don’t mean it to sound like bragging (although it is), that’s just my personal experience.
A few years ago(aka. eternity ago for us internet folks) I started looking into how we remember things.
It turns out it all boils down to this:
We remeber stuff by connecting it to other bits of knowledge. The quantity and quality of these connections determines how well we can recall information.
I’ll go into that in more detail in a future post, including a bunch of useful techniques for remembering stuff forever – while having fun.
The problem with most students’ cramming before an exam is that they don’t focus on building connections between pieces of information. It’s more like they’re throwing mud at the wall hoping some of it will stick.
And it will, for a short while. The trouble with this learning is that it uses mainly short-term memory. The mud will eventually dry and fall off, and then they’re screwed. If a piece of information remembered this way is gone, it’s gone. I’ve been there myself, and trusts me, it sucks. Especially in an exam.
With learning by connecting the bits of information, if one route to a particular memory becomes blocked for some reason, you can always take another one. But more on that in a future post.
It all comes down to creating strong memorable connections between facts. And that’s pretty easy using the right techniques. Keep yourself tuned for a future post detailing all the stuff you need to remember things easily.
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Yeah, i totally agree with you
it seams a quarter of my GCSE courses are revision, which is just not necerssary. I too learn in the course, probably not as an important course as theses are mearely GCSEs but then am bored for half a year when we are told things, and it is like ‘yes sir we did this last year why are we doing it again’ revolutionise schools, please. If students would pull their fingures out through the course, instead of chatting and messing about and playing up, we could learn so much more with no revision. and that learning would stay with us forever.
Hats off to you – Benja
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