For some reason, I've never really enjoyed the word memorization, because it seems like I'm just memorizing so I can then forget. Although that was the case, instead of my tests, I don't really like to focus on that approach or on that perspective, I prefer the word learning because that's what I'm actually looking for. There are a lot of short texts to make the learning or the memorizing phase more effective, but I really want to focus on the most important ones that will give you a great advantage. But first, I want to deconstruct some misconceptions related with memorization, the best way to memorize anything is to actively engage with the material. And we've been doing that during all this study process by skimming, reading, actively taking notes and creating summaries. So at this time, there are a lot of information that you already have in your head, reading the material over and over and over again is not effective to memorize things because you are reading it as the passive activity.

And as we saw before learning and studying should be active. I see a lot of people who try to study by reading the lectures or the presentations, like three or four times. And yes, sometimes they do memorize the things. But that's not the most effective strategy. I know that reading might be easy to do, than taking the time to take notes and to actively pay attention to the information you are reading. But if it's not the most effective way to do it, then we should avoid it.

It takes far more time to read the same information dozens of times, then to go through a few of recalling sessions to make sure you remember the material and that it sticks within you for a long time. Also, when you use active learning to memorize information, your brain strengthens up the neural pathways that exist in your brain which will help you to memorize and retain Call things for a much longer period of time. So basically, our brains learn better when we actively use the information we are learning. And we can do it by recalling taking notes or trying to solve problems. As Ryan said, simply reading it over doesn't work. You have to make the extra effort to get it into your head.

One of the best ways to memorize and recall information is to use flashcards. You can buy some index cards, or some note cards, and you write the question in front of the card and on the back of it, you write the answer, it might take you a while to create the flashcards but I reassure you that's one of the best ways to recall and memorize new information. You can create a stack of cards for each topic or each subject, the questions you write in front of your card. You probably already created them because when we took notes and we created summaries, we thought Based on creating questions, so there's no extra work here. You can also break each question in more specific questions. If you feel like it's better for you on the other sides of the card, you should write the answer or like a short paragraph that explains the question.

Just make sure the answer covers the main idea. It doesn't have to be super specific because for that you have your summaries. After creating the flashcards you should test yourself on them. So read the question and state the answer out loud without reading it of course, and then in the end, make sure you check the answer to see if you got it correctly. The best thing is you can do this while you are in any place while exercising, walking, listening to music while waiting for the bus. Anything you should say the answer out loud but if you can't make sure you write it down.

In this process, you will see that you know the answer to some questions with no problem at all mark them up with Little checkmarks, so you know that those flashcards are already in your mind. And so you separate them from the other ones that are still causing you trouble. So have a break, do other things and then come back to your note cards and repeat the process. But at this time, you only are going to pick up the note cards that you have trouble recalling them. This process can go for one day or more days or even weeks, it totally depends on the amount of the things you have to remember, you should review all the cards now and then to see if they are still in your memory. But it's not necessary to repeat this process every day, especially if most of the cards are already in your memory.

This is called spaced repetition. It's one of the best methods to keep information in your long term memory because it can focus on studying more the things you don't know in studying less the things you already know. So you are focusing your attention and energy on the things that you You'll have to improve on instead of spending the same amount of time in in the things that are already familiar to you. When you separate the cards from the ones you already memorized and the ones you didn't. You are using Spaced Repetition because you are dedicating more time to the things that you have trouble with. By spacing out to the repetition through several days, you're basically gaining the ability to transfer the content that you are studying from your short to long term memory, and you will remember the information much more than if you just crammed everything in one day.

The process of creating flashcards is a little bit time consuming. There is a software that I do enjoy called Anki where you can create your own flashcards in your computer. And the best thing is that Anki as inside integrator does a Spaced Repetition method. So after creating your flashcards inside Anki you can test yourself on them. The ones you have trouble remembering will be the ones appear the most, and the ones who can perfectly recall only appear now and dead, so make sure you start creating your flashcards early on. So here's a summary of what you have to do to create your own flashcards.

So the first one is to actually create the flashcard by writing the question in the front end the answer on the back. The second step is to answer the question without looking at it. The third step is to separate the cards that you already know from the ones you don't. The fourth step is to review the ones that you didn't know, a few hours later or a day later and repeat the process until you know basically all the answers to your questions. If you're going to be tested on the material on the test. Make sure a day before the test you review all the cards again, and really enjoy having knowledge in your long term memory without those painful cramming sessions.