How To Increase Your Capicity To Memorize Information And Overcome Test Anxiety
Can you remember where you put your keys or what your best friend's phone number is? Of course. But what about the Greek alphabet, or the definitions of all your vocabulary words from this week's reading? Odds are, if you have a test tomorrow, you're itching to forget such pointless things and go on a bender.
The problem is that many students are plagued with an ailment known as "test anxiety", which causes them to feel intense pressure about upcoming tests.
In fact, in a study done at the University of Florida, one out of every three high school seniors admitted to feeling so stressed about tests that they were unable to study for their next one.
If test anxiety is so prevalent among college students, why is it that some people can memorize random words after just a few minutes and yet never hear of them again? This has baffled scientists for years, as no concrete evidence has been produced to explain it.
One possible explanation is the theory that short-term memory capacity is limited. This notion is confirmed by the fact that if you see words or faces in quick succession, you will only be able to remember two of them at any given time.
But this theory doesn't explain why some people can memorize large amounts of information and others can't.
Theory #2: It's a matter of how well you organize your thoughts into bundles before going to sleep (or "sleep learning", if you like).
A large amount of information is stored in your brain, but it requires a great deal of time to make sense of it; hence the massive amount of time spent on studying and memorizing everything you need to know. In fact, you have to spend around 15 times longer "organizing" your thoughts than actually memorizing them. So if you actually want to memorize everything you need to know, you're going to have to take advantage of every second in which students can sleep.
By "sleep learning", you will be able to accumulate large amounts of information over a short period of time.
If you're planning on doing this, I recommend doing it during your study breaks (instead of sleeping during them), so that you can review the information right before the exam.
Theory #3: It all comes down to motivation.
The "sleep learning" technique can only be used effectively if you're extremely motivated to get the information down. If you don't feel like studying, there's a high probability that memorizing it will be more difficult than if you actually wanted to learn it. We always tend to learn more when we're motivated, and this is why motivation can make all the difference in how much information you remember.
A Word About "Memorizing"
Many people assume that to "memorize" something means they have to memorize it word-for-word. This is absolutely not the case; you can memorize anything all you want, even if you don't recognize it.
Memorizing something means making a representation of the information in your mind. You're actively trying to remember the information, and not just passively storing it as a file on your hard drive (akin to what happens when you read something). This is what allows you to recognize the information later.
In order to really memorize something, you must learn how to use mnemonic devices to help you make a "connection" with the information. By using these simple devices, which act as anchors between your memory and the information itself, you will be able to recall it regardless of how much time has passed.
Attaining a high level of memorization ability takes time and practice. However, once you master the techniques, you will be able to memorize any information in just a few minutes.
(Written by Maxine De Santis)
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Conclusion
In this article, we discussed 3 different theories that could explain why some people can memorize more information than others. We have covered both extreme cases and the middle ground theory, which states that everybody's limited memory capacity is met by different methods of memorizing.
The key to being able to remember all the information you learn is being motivated to learn it and using strategies like sleep learning. After that, it really comes down to whether you are a visual or a kinesthetic learner as in my case I am visual.