Memorizing??? Help Please!

[Eake4]

Help needed to learn how to memorize things quickly. I need to quickly memorize alot of theory work for my Piano Music exam coming up in 2 weeks time and im not at all prepared. Im very good at practical work so thats fine but i need to learn how to memorize things quickly. If anyone has any methods please tell me!!

[CodeZTM]

When it's a HUGE amount of material, I usually make flash cards with the word I'm trying to memorize on one side, and the definition of it on the other side.

If it's less than 15-20 things, I usually just type out a big list and memorize them by constantly reading the list over and over again until I can hand-write the entire list by memory alone.

I'm in a more math-oriented field though, so I'm not sure if this would translate effectively to other fields, but I would assume it would be the same.

[Jadecavy]

Just memorizing important information is a stupid way to do things, you'll forget it quickly after. Work with the stuff as much as you can in the next few weeks and actually learn it, it'll help you a lot more than just memorizing it in the future.

[Chained(E)Studio]

I like to write what I need to on note paper a few times. Sometimes I'll go through a couple note books of re-writing and then I'll read them over a few more times. Also highlighting key points you might have trouble with so that you can spend some extra time on them as compared to those you know may know more.

I would also take breaks in between study times. I've heard that its good to do 15 minutes on and 15 minutes off with studying. I guess it helps you remember a lot more as compared to just sitting there reading over things for a few hours.

[TritioAFB]

I had to study entire books just for a single exam.

So what I used to do, was that I just forget it was for an exam, I just thought it was going to be a simple read at all. Said that, the perception of stress vanished. Next what's to recognize the important info during the read. In case I need to remember it quickly, I just wrote notes about them. But after finishing the book, restudying was very easy.

And like Ashley said, breaks are necessary. I used to take them after 45 minutes of studying, because you know, in case you're reading and you feel like you don't pass over that segement, it's better to do something else, and after 15 minutes, return back to the material. It's worse to be studying and don't remember anything of the material, than relaxing and then remember a lot of it.

[Eake4]

Im thinking of using CodeZTM's theory but with home made Karuta cards. May be a fun and good process for learning

[DriftRoot]

When I had to memorize books in college to pass exams, I'd basically dissect the book and make a very thorough outline on paper of its content - then memorize it all in sequence. Unlike flashcards which tend to exist out of context of one another, I had complete books in my head and understood the relationships between the content. If I ever struggled with a particular item on the exam, I could always recall something related to it and get back on track or - if all else failed - b.s. my way through the question by referencing in great detail something that related to the right answer.

Flashcards in a specific ORDER would certainly achieve the same result, though it's harder to view large chunks of the information all at the same time and visually commit it to memory. I also used sheets of paper b/c of a lingering hatred of flashcards, which were once used excessively to try and help me learn math, but failed utterly.