Memory Skills
A good memory is a very useful tool for exams. Whether you are sitting your first set of GCSEs or retaking AS or A2 modules memory will be an important element determining your performance. If you are retaking exams you might be aware that your memory let you down and you have to retake because of it.
If you feel that you have a poor memory, the good news is that there is something you can do about it. The not so good news is that it does take some time and effort.
Although being able to remember stuff for exams is very useful, it is also important to remember that it is only part of what you need to do well. Practice for subjects such as maths is vital, analysis and interpretation for some subjects is key, memory is just one of the skills you need to develop.
Some people’s memories are better than others. However, people who claim to have “talents” like a photographic memory are for part exaggerating their abilities, and those who can remember pi to over 42,000 places have very specific techniques and spend far too much of their lives perfecting these frankly pointless party tricks.
If you believe you have a photographic memory or know someone who claims to have one then you might want to have a look at the following section, otherwise click here to skip it.
Photographic memory anyone?
It is doubtful that truly photographic memory, (or eidetic memory - see wiki article) as we would like to think of it really exists. The popular idea of someone with a photographic memory is a person who just needs to see a page or painting or object for a few seconds and then they can remember every single detail. A few autistic people (usually with very low I.Q.s) display talents that come near to the pop psychology version of eidetic memory but this is very rare. A number of specialists in this area have cast doubt on the existence of truly photographic memory in people with normal abilities in all other areas.
This is not to say that some people don’t have naturally exceptional memories or that there are not techniques to allow people to remember huge amounts of information (more on that later).
If you think you have a photographic memory have a go at the following test. You will be shown a series of four images which you should look at for around 30 seconds. Depending on your screen size you may need to scroll down to see the whole image. After you have seen all four images, then you will be asked some questions. If you really want to test if you have a genuinely photographic memory then don’t use any method other than just looking at the images. For example if the image was of a building don’t count the windows, or make a mental note of the colour of the door. Just look at the image and take a mental “photograph” of it.
Click here to go to the photographic memory test.
If you feel you don't need to take the test then that is a good thing, because you have already admitted that memorising stuff requires more than just staring at it!
Click here to skip the test and visit the interesting stuff on improving your memory.
Image One
Test One
Image Two
Image Three
Image Four
What to do
If you know that you have no chance of answering any of the questions just click here to escape. Otherwise get a piece of paper and have a go at writing down some answers.
Question One
Name the missing stations.
Question Two
What is missing from the following?
Question Three
Draw the missing section - just a black and white sketch will do
Question Four
Draw the missing section.
Question 2:
Question 3:
Question 4:
If you got either all of this wrong or nearly all of it wrong then congratulations! You are normal – I have yet to find anyone who can actually get any of the answers right by memory only. Guess work or already knowing the answers is cheating.
If you feel you did well, then congratulations too, though I would suggest taking a slightly more serious test than this one, to see what abilities you actually have.
Either way please click here to go to the next section on memory.
The Basics of Memory Techniques
In my not-very-humble opinion a great deal of rubbish has been written about improving your memory.
Author's name removed, probably fake qualification remains...
Claims like “Developing Infinite Prosperity” are obviously nonsense, at best written by someone who doesn’t know what infinity means, or more likely someone who is full of bovine excrement. What I am trying to present here is a simple, short guide to memory without any of the
.
There is no magic, or brilliant short cut, or pill to take that makes memorising stuff really easy, it takes time and effort to learn things. However, there are methods available which can help. In short, all memory specialists that I have read about use essentially the same trick – linking and repetition.
The brain is essentially a massively linked collection of cells, and memory (very very roughly) is the reinforcement of these links (yes I know it’s nowhere near that simple – but I am just trying to get the gist of it across!). So given that your brain is a system that works on linking and repetition it shouldn’t be a big surprise that linking and repetition helps you to remember things.
Test Two
Next you will see a set of 10 pairs of words and I want you to try to remember them. However, do not use any “method” to memorise them and certainly do not write them down. You will have 30 seconds – enough time to read them slowly.
Now click here to go to experiment one.
Now write down the first vegetable that comes into your head, then click I’ve written it down…
Most of you will have written down Carrot
Or tomato – though tomato is a fruit…
Or if neither of the above you might have said a vegetable that is reddish/orange in colour.
So what was the point in that? Well, mostly to distract you, and in part to make you think about how easy it was to manipulate your mind (roughly 80% of people say carrot or tomato). Also to make you realise that being distracted doesn’t help concentration.
Now you need to complete test two:
Now I am going to give you one word and I want you to write down the word that was paired with it.
- Book
- Tube
- Bird
- Tape
- Tree
- Roof
- Ruler
- Simple
- Carpet
- Wheel
Click here to go to the answers to test two.
Answers to test two.
- Book – Spade
- Blade – Tube
- Bird – Wire
- Tape – Gravel
- Queen – Tree
- Roof – Box
- Bottle – Ruler
- Finger – Simple
- Carpet – Bishop
- Trumpet – Wheel
I suspect you did quite badly. Most people do. Quite a lot of people get zero, most people get one to four, a few get five to seven, and a small percentage get more than seven. Generally most people who get more than seven employ some kind of method, for example picturing someone using a spade to dig up books. However, within the rules of this test that is cheating!
Test Three
- Boot – Pig
- Flag – Dolphin
- Heels – Motorbike
- Needle – Dog
- Robot – Laser
- Skull – Smoke
- Spanner – Cake
- Tomato – Exhaust
- Water – Mushroom
- Jumper – Snowmobile
Rather than just reading these through we are going to use some linking pictures, spend some time doing it and repeat it. Ideally the images will be personal, extreme or weird, and engage other senses and emotions.
Click here to go to Image One
Boot – Pig
Now we need to do more than go “it’s a pig in boots”. If possible make the picture come to life and be personal, engage other senses if possible. For example, imagine this pig marching round your living room in smelly, muddy boots, all over the nice new cream coloured carpet, also imagine just how cross your mum (or whoever) will be with the pig in boots.
Click here for Image Two
Flag – Dolphin
Again try to bring it to life – the dolphin is evil and your mortal enemy and you have been battling for months and he has finally surrendered – this is the best day ever – you are euphoric.
Click here for Image Three
Heels – Motorbike
Perhaps this is your dream vehicle, image yourself turning up at college or school in your “cool” motorbike only to be laughed at by the entire school – the humiliation and shame are terrible.
Click here for Image Four
Needle – Dog
This is your beloved pooch and you have just caught her behind the sofa shooting up, you are disappointed and concerned. You are beginning to wonder if Amy Winehound was a bad name to give your dog.
Click here for Image Five
Robot – Laser
An image stolen from “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (the 1951 version - which is a great movie). Perhaps this robot is benign and is just doing a bit of welding or maybe he is slicing your cousin in half…
Click here for Image Six
Skull – Smoke
You go out with all your mates and as the night progresses your friends who smoke turn into skeletons. A horrible prophesy or have you just drunk too much?
Click here for Image Seven
Spanner – Cake
From now on you can do your own “stories” – but don’t cheat, do make up something to go with the images…
Click here for Image Eight
Tomato – Exhaust
Click here for Image Nine
Water - Mushroom
Click here for Image Ten
Jumper - Snowmobile
Play the movie!
Now click here and go through the stories and images again – again don’t cheat – make sure you do go through then and repeat the stories.
Now take the test, write down the words that were paired with the words below.
- Smoke
- Dolphin
- Boot
- Heels
- Cake
- Dog
- Snowmobile
- Laser
- Water
- Tomato
So how did you do this time?
Hopefully you did significantly better than this first time. Quite often people will go from one or two remembered pairs to eight or more.
OK. No one is going to examine you on random pairs of words. However, the point is that linking and repetition help enormously for most people. This can be applied to your academic work; you probably already do, or have done so in the past. All you need to do is to realise that this can be applied to lots of memory tasks.
I have (whilst researching for this) memorised kings and queens of England from Henry VIII th to our current queen and British Prime Minister from just before world war two. For both of these I used Mnemonics
Mnemonics
A mnemonic is essential any trick which is designed to help remember something. Example which you will probably know are: SOHCAHTOA for trigonometry or Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain for the colours of the rainbow.
However, we don’t need to rely on other people to make these up.
Suppose we need to learn the order of post-war British Prime Ministers:
- Chamblerlain
- Churchill
- Attlee
- Churchill
- Eden
- MacMillan
- Douglas-Home
- Wilson
- Heath
- Wilson
- Callaghan
- Thatcher
- Major
- Blair
- Brown
- Cameron
Hopefully you all know who the current PM is so that isn’t something we need to learn
Also I would assume you already know some of the other names, for example Chamberlain:
And Churchill:
And hopefully David Cameron:
For the sake of this exercise I am going to assume that you know enough of the names that learning the remaining names isn’t too much of a chore.
So let’s strip the names down to initials and remove the ones we know:
- Chamblerlain
- Churchill
- Attlee
- Churchill
- Eden
- MacMillan
- Douglas-Home
- Wilson
- Heath
- Wilson
- Callaghan
- Thatcher
- Major
- Blair
- Brown
- Cameron
So we have ACE Mm D W H W C T M B B, I have “cheated” a little by running the first three together to give ACE and have left MacMillan as Mm. Given a bit of time you can come up with a phrase or sentence using these letters; if you can make it ridiculous or a little naughty all the better. So here is mine:
ACE My mad Dog Will Hump Wild Cats, The Mad Bad Boy.
So we can now rebuild this to give us the PMs
ACE gives us Attlee, Churchill and Eden
- Attlee
- Churchill
- Eden
My Mad Dog
- MacMillan
- Douglas-Home
Will Hump Wild Cats
- Wilson
- Heath
- Wilson
- Callaghan
The Mad Bad Boy
- Thatcher
- Major
- Blair
- Brown
Now stick in the ones we know, Chamberlain, Churchill and Cameron:
- Chamblerlain
- Churchill
- Attlee
- Churchill
- Eden
- MacMillan
- Douglas-Home
- Wilson
- Heath
- Wilson
- Callaghan
- Thatcher
- Major
- Blair
- Brown
- Cameron
So there we have it.