– Remembering: This is the most important process and the one everybody is the most interested about. To remember what was memorized. To achieve this, the way it was retained (orderly, logically, using notes, underlining, charts) will be essential as well as the interest with which we did it. Sometimes we try to remember something that we clearly know we did study but because we did not do it the right way and using the necessary logic it becomes impossible to be remembered. Logic, order, intention. These are truly the key parts of memory.

Talking about memory, there is the short term memory and the long term memory (the latter is the one you should be more interested about). At the beginning, when we start studying, information goes to the short term memory but we should aim to “send it” to the long term memory, which is the one that persists and what we need during exams or tests.

In order for information to go to the long term memory repetition, concentration, order, logic and, above all, interest in what we want to memorize are necessary. It is clear that something that was previously written down (not completely) or previously classified is better remembered. That is why I insist so much in underlining, making summaries, charts and index cards. A 30 page long History subject can be summarized in a single index card highlighting the gist of the subject and later just by looking at that index card, if we have already studied it, our mind will bring back by itself all the contents in that subject. For this reason, if we get asked during an exam about the kingdom of Henry VIII we will be able to remember what we studied because that information is already processed and memorized in our mind and it only needs the title of that material in order to release all the information.

Mnemonic devices are a set of mostly linguistic tricks that make memorization easier. You have probably already heard about them. Their premise is that we better remember what is familiar to us or what we have created ourselves. This will be clearer using an example.