Read the article How to learn like a memory champion published at http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140307-how-to-learn-like-a-memory-champ
and comment on/discuss it. Also, present your methods of memorization/learning. Have apps enhanced learning?
Owls are nocturnal creatures. They’re wide awake at night and they sleep during the day. If this sounds like bliss to you, then, like about 20 percent of the population who find themselves most active at around 9 pm, you may fall into the same category as our feathered friend. Night owls often have difficulty waking up in the morning, and like to be up late at night. Studies of animal behaviour indicate that being a night owl may actually be built into some people’s genes. This would explain why those late-to-bed, late-to-rise people find it so difficult to change their behaviour. The trouble for night owls is that they just have to be at places such as work and school far too early. This is when the alarm clock becomes the night owl’s most important survival tool. Experts say that one way for a night owl to beat their dependence on their alarm clocks is to sleep with the curtains open. The Theory is that if they do so, the morning sunlight will awaken them gently and natura...
Comments
I'm a night owl. That means, that when I need to learn or memorize something I just start a learning session around midnight and study quickly to be able to finish at a reasonable time, so I have that time pressure, but at the same time my mind is the most capable at those hours. As a result, I basically remember everything I read/see/hear as long as it's necessary to be remembered next day.
In general, everything is based on the fact that as human being we tend to memorise easier anything connected with actions, images or sounds rather than plain words or dates.
For instance, it is easier for you to recall the date of some event in the past if you participated in it.
Sometimes I use these techniques myself. Mostly it is just making mind map or connecting words,dates or difficult names with events in my past or something I have already memorized.
However, most of the time I simply sit and have learning session before going to bed and then have quick revision in the morning.
One thing is to read about these people memorizing so many things, the other is to see them in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-xl7_hdWZo#t=104
There is a pretty interesting article about that here, if anyone is interested:
http://fortune.com/2014/06/04/future-of-the-image/
I've never used an application to learn but that seems like a really convenient idea and I think every tool to learn is great and that everybody should use a method that is most effective for them. I personally find myself remembering things best when I'm rewriting them.
Guess my keyboard has some 'r' problems lol.
As for the memory techniques, what works best for me is listening. A good class with strong examples is enough to grasp the topic if I'm attentive enough.
Oh, an my personal opinion on learning by heart - it trains the brain, true, but nowadays we have such an incredible technology allowing us to access immense amount of data in no time that the ability to find the important data is the real deal-breaker, compared to memorizing it all.
In technical field good memory will not help us as much without deep understanding of ongoing processes.
We usually naturally remember things that are important to us(for instance to solve a particular task) and struggle when we need to learn by heart useless information for the exam.
So, my method to pass the exam is constant repetition of what I read part by part. Afterwards I self-check my skills by writing down everything I've learnt.
I have never used Memrise, but after reading this article I will surely take a look at it.
In my opinion, learning by heart makes no sense when it comes to information that we can find in a second using internet or other means. Today it's more important to be able to use specific tools to get what we want than to spend our valuable time on learning it.
What about learning? As I already replied to Robert Kilar, for me learning is understanding, because I have to know and clearly understand how it works then I'll learn it.
For me the best time to learn is early in the morning.
As Robert mentioned learning and memorizing are definitely two different things.
I haven’t heard about Memrise before. I used Busuu to learn Italian. Busuu is the app and website to learn languages. Unfortunately I failed, because it was hard for me to motivate myself to learn or maybe I’m just too lazy to do it. The truth is apps like Memrise or Busuu are great and very well developed but you have to be systematic in learning, so it’s a good way to learn at school.
I don’t have any special method of memorizing / learning. I usually mark out my learning material with lots of colors and every color has different meaning. For example green means definitions, blue means dates etc.