Using Your Senses to Absorb and Retain

Information is best retained when you use two or more of your senses to absorb it. The next time you’re studying for a test, try using your ears or your hands in addition to your eyes. How?

Get an inexpensive digital recorder and read your notes into the microphone after school. Play the recording back to yourself before you go to sleep. You’ll be surprised how much stuff sinks in!

When trying to memorize a scientific process such as photosynthesis, read over the material in your book, look at the pictures provided, and sketch over the diagrams with your finger. Then shut your book and create your own diagram of the process on paper from memory. After doing this a few times you’ll have it down!

When attempting to remember a chain of events for a history exam, read the relevant section of your notes completely once. Next, go back to read one paragraph at a time. After you read each paragraph (or step in the process), write a key word or two in the margin that represents the whole topic, step, or concept covered. Once you have a list of words down the margin of your paper, go back and try to describe all the chain of events, using only the words in your margin as hints. Soon it will be easy!