10 Super Effective Memory Enhancing Techniques

The best way to store any kind of information is to link it to something similar or to group it in a category of other similar items. The same occurs with your memory. With memory though, you can be a little more abstract with your associations.

In fact, the more random and cooky your associations, the deeper impression they make on you and the easier it is for you to remember them. Also, making associations to things you think are funny, or things that get you laughing is another good way to make the task of memorising content easy.

An example of this in action:

When learning trigonometry in maths, you are likely to come across the acronym SOH CAH TOA to help you remember the ratios of sine (sin), cosine (cos) and tangent (tan). Remembering the acronym can be a challenge in itself for some students. Associating it with a funny phrase like “Some Old Hags Can’t Always Hide Their Old Age” will instantly help you to remember it, especially if you’re feeling stressed during an exam.

Funny associations cut through the stress barrier and make it easier for you to access the information you’ve stored in your long-term memory. The idea is to have a funny or cooky easy-to-remember trigger to help you remember the bland, boring bits of the stuff you need to know for your exams.

If you are a visual learner, this technique is a great way for you to group different types of information. By grouping information visually, according to colour, your mind will more easily be able to group those same blocks of information with the other things it knows. This is especially helpful when you are learning new information about a topic you already know something about.

To use this technique effectively you need to be able to organise information in a physical sense. Once you are able to do that, then it will be much easier for you to do the same mentally.

The best suggestion I have for you is to take a minimalist approach and to only take the essential information that you need. You do not need to memorise an entire textbook worth of content in order to pass your exams. Knowing less content of the highest quality will earn you better grades than trying to memorise more content of lower quality.

This principle applies when highlighting your notes, for instance. So many students tend to highlight way too much! So much that the unhighlighted bits are the ones that end up standing out on the page. Be a minimalist when highlighting information. Only focus on the highest quality information and make sure you learn that information really well. This makes you task of remembering this information so much easier.

For subjects that have lots of bite sized pieces of information, using flashcards is the best way to go about memorising those. The kind of information flashcards work well for can include formulas, definitions, keywords, words and phrases in another language, quotes or even key historical dates and names.

If you have big locks of information that you need to memorise, convert them into smaller, bite sized pieces of information. Then make flashcards to help you remember the smaller chunks. Also make flashcards to reinforce associations you have created. Associations are the pathways linking one piece of information to another in your memory. The more you go through these associations the stronger they will become.

Flashcards are also great to do in small chunks of time. For example, you can spend just a few minutes at a time learning a great deal of information. At first it will take you longer because you are stretching your brain to learn a large number of new things. It will not take you long to get better and better with these though!

If you are studying subjects like history or English, this technique may be especially useful for you. Stories happen sequentially, as do the events you are likely to study for subjects like these.

Memory stories build on from a number of smaller associations to create a chain of them. Start by using the association technique to help you remember key information. Then progress to using flashcards to make sure these associations are strengthened in your memory. Once you’re happy with your progress there, start to place these associations in sequential order. First this, then that and then the other.

Your task is to create a story that takes you from one association to the next. Remember, funny and cooky are the elements that will help trigger your memory even in a stressful situation so, use these in your memory stories as well!

Then, run through the story as though it is a video. Keep playing this video in your head over and over and you’ll remember the things that happened and in what order they happened in. This technique is used my masters of memory who can remember crazy amounts of things like the order of cards in a standard deck or hundreds of digits of pi.

They use it because it works. Our minds prefer to think in pictures and movies than they do in words.

Ok, I know this one sounds a little weird but bear with me for a few moments, especially if you’re an auditory learner. You will reap huge benefits with this technique. Here’s the best way I can describe how and why it works.

You know how sometimes there’s a really catchy tune stuck in your head? Or just a really crappy pop song that’s constantly on the radio? And you know how during these moments, you just cannot get that tune out of your head? Better yet (or perhaps worse), you know how the tune of these kinds of songs can just pop into your mind in less time than it takes to click your fingers?

Well, the principles behind that experience can apply to your memory as well. It is easier for us to remember a catchy tune than the words someone, like a teacher, has spoken to us. Especially if it is a classically catchy kind of tune. Using a tune that you can always bring to memory and changing the lyrics to be the content you want to remember is what this technique is all about.

Here’s a great example showing how you can use a song to remember many parts of the brain. This video was my only study material for the neuroscience component in a psychology course I studied. Needless to say, the only reason I incorporated the song technique in this list is because I went on to ace neuroscience. My results for the other 7 topics in the course did not compare even though I had studied  ‘properly’ (i.e. using the textbook and my notes).

To this day, I still remember the tune and can easily dig it up from the archives of my memory banks. Give this technique a shot. It’s surprisingly fun. Try out different styles of songs. Rap works especially well if you’re into that sort of thing. Otherwise, tunes that you can always bring to mind are another good choice. I’ve seen students have success using the tunes of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and other nursery rhymes, so keep these in mind too.

So we covered visual and auditory techniques for memorisation. Here’s one for kinaesthetic learners. With this technique, you can use physical movements to help you understand and memorise your content. Or you can simply take the content you are learning from the 2D world and apply it in 3D.

This scene from the movie ‘Like Mike” is a good example of how Lil Bow Wow’s character, who loves basketball, uses his knowledge of the game to understand geometry. His coach took the triangles outside of the textbook, overlaid them with some basketball knowledge and thus helped his student to understand geometry.

If, for a moment, we imagine being in Lil Bow Wow’s shoes, we can easily see how he is not likely to forget the different types of triangles anytime soon. He has associated them to particular game plays that he experiences on a daily basis while playing basketball. His thorough knowledge of basketball, is thus the trigger for remembering the differences between equilateral, isosceles and scalene triangles.

Another example of how you can go beyond 2D is to make video notes. You can either film yourself explaining your subject matter in a way that you understand, or you can get more creative than that. Make videos instead of just copying out notes into a notebook. The process of actually going beyond the notes books will create memory triggers for you. Give it a shot and see how you go!

The following three techniques will focus on more general practices you can incorporate to help you build a solid memory.

With regard to positive reinforcement, we’re looking at your self talk and using that to help you remember more things. Your brain listens to everything you say. Literally.

It doesn’t only listen, it takes these as instructions. So if you say anything along the lines of “I’ll probably forget this…” then you’ll find that you’ll forget it. Your brain will listen to that instruction. If that’s the instruction it is used to hearing, then you’ve got to train your brain to stop forgetting and start remembering!

That’s where positive reinforcement comes in. A habit I have developed is to stop using the verbs that I want to stop acting and replacing them with their positive counterparts. ‘Forget’ is one of these. So, I find ways to use the word ‘remember’ instead. As a practical example, instead of saying to myself “don’t forget this”, I say “I’ll make sure to remember this”.

The active verb of remembering is the one I want my brain to act out. Help out your brain by literally saying to it “Brain, please remember this piece of information for me and help me to access it when I am in my english exam next week”. Then follow with these steps:

• Spend a few moments taking in all the details of the information that you need to remember.
• After a few moments, test yourself (without cheating or peeking!)
• Keep your focus on remembering all the important details until you pass your self tests.
• Find place for this information to live in your mental sphere – associations to other pieces of information really help here.
• Then, visualise yourself in the exam situation, remembering the information you need (or whatever other situation you might need to recall the information)
• Finally, test yourself and practice bringing that information to the forefront of your mind

The last step just proposed is perhaps the most important one. Without using your memory, it will never get stronger. There’s a common adage that applies here: “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. So, make a point of using your memory, and using it often, if you want to make it work for you.

Something I have found that works for me is to constantly test my memory, especially if my brain hasn’t used a particular piece of information in a really long time. I will use the scenario of preparing for an end of year maths exam here to help show you how you can use this same technique.

If there was a formula or topic that you might have learned at the beginning of the year, test your memory to see how much of it you actually still remember. Write out everything that you can think of relating to the formula or topic before checking your notes.

Force yourself to remember as much as you possibly can. At first you might only get a really vague idea like “the formula I need to use here has a squared number in it”. On it’s own, that’s not useful. But it is a valuable piece of information that can help trigger your memory later on. The few things that you would be able to remember show you the associations your brain has already connected the formula to and you can easily build off these associations.

Once you cannot remember any more, then and ONLY then, check your notes. Aim to commit another small part of the formula to memory and then constantly test to see if you remember more than you did last time. Eventually, you’ll be able to remember all of it. In this way, you build your memory step by step, just like a body builder builds their strength.

This last tip is something that you can start doing from right now to help you enhance your memory in general. Memorising content for exams is totally different to having a good memory in your life outside of school. So in the moments when you are just living your life, make sure you keep working that memory muscle!

Here’s just one way you can do this that takes little effort. If you are like most people then you probably find yourself writing down daily to-do tasks and reminders in a list of some kind.

Stop doing that as much as you can.

Start off with committing just one or two of your daily tasks to memory and trusting your self to remember them. This is where positive reinforcement comes in really handy!

Bring these tasks to memory frequency throughout the day to make sure that you still remember them. Start with small tasks and then progress to bigger or more complicated ones. You can also test yourself by seeing if you remember the name of someone you recently met. Linking someone’s name, the image of their face and their interests is a great way to progress your memory skills if you want to take it up a notch.

So there you have it! 10 super effective memory enhancing techniques that you can apply to school and in your life generally.