Tips On Memorizing Material For That Midterm

By Francine Fluetsch on July 31, 2014

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In high school they always told you “cramming won’t get you anywhere.”

In college you realize that cramming last minute is definitely a bad idea, but studying something is better than nothing.

When it comes to studying, there are many different ways to approach it, especially if there is a lot of memorization involved. Midterms and finals are usually cumulative, so cramming for one and then forgetting everything is not the best approach to take.

So how should you go about studying and memorizing?

Flash cards:

Bringing it back to the old school style, flashcards are a great way for you to write down everything that’s important and then test your knowledge by having someone quiz you. Put the cards on a ring or in a Ziploc so you’ll always have access to them and won’t have to make new ones after you take the midterm and have to start worrying about the final.

Flashcards can be time consuming, but writing things down for the second time is already a small step in getting that information stuck in your brain. They are especially helpful for vocab words and definitions.

Make a song:

In 7th grade, my teacher would always have us sing about things so we would remember them better. I know it sounds silly, but it is actually really helpful (I can still recite all 50 African countries thanks to that class).

Think about it, when a song comes on the radio and you’ve heard it X number of times, you slowly begin to know all of the lyrics; the song is getting stuck in your head. While we sometimes find this annoying, why not use this song-in-our-head business and apply it to material that we need to learn?

How to do it:

1)   Pick a song that has an easy beat to create “lyrics” to.

2)   Start weaving in the material that you wish to memorize into the song.

3)   Just keep singing, just keep singing.

4)   Viola! You’ve got that memorized.

To show you just how awesome singing school stuff is, my sister and I have created a “demo” video for you to enjoy. Check it out.

If Hannah Montana can do it, so can you!

Make up little tricks:

Sometimes you can remember things better if there is something weird or interesting tied to it.

If, for example, you have two vocab words that look alike and you keep forgetting the difference, try and look for something, anything, that you can give a little note to remember it better.

Ex: Two German vocab words: springen (to jump) and sprechen (to speak)

You keep thinking, “man they both start with S, how will I remember?”

Springen has the word spring in it, and Tigger from Winnie the Pooh had a spring in his tail so he could bounce/jump. Therefore you can remember that springen is the S word that means jump.

(This is obviously a super simplistic example, but you get the point).

Take breaks:

When you are panicking about studying for your test, you always feel guilty leaving the books for a bit and taking a break. The thing is, even if you study all day, you will start to lose focus and won’t be able to retain it all anyway.

Go for about a solid hour and a half and then take a quick break. You could watch a short show, take a power nap, grab a snack, call a friend, just about anything that will get your mind off the books.

The key to this is to have the break be limited. If you set a time, you know exactly how long you have to relax, so you won’t feel guilty about taking too long, and won’t be able to take an hour-long nap and save the studying for later.

Make sure to eat a lot of fruits and veggies and drink lots of water, to keep yourself alert and focused.

Study with someone:

Thinking you know something from staring at your textbook is one thing, but having to try and explain it to someone is where you really see whether you actually know something or not. Take turns explaining concepts to a partner and see if your explanation matches up with what they thought and vice versa.

If you know something rather well and they don’t, it will help it stick in your brain if you teach it to them. They’ll have an easier time remembering it since you said it in your own words and not just with a textbook definition, and it will give you confidence on the test and will ensure that you know the material.

And who says you can only choose one method? If you start early enough, you can study a little each day, not feel overwhelmed, and try out all of these cool tricks.

Happy studying! And may the grade be ever in your favor.

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