Catalog Your Mind to Recall Information Easier

My goal while in dental school is to improve my study technique on a daily basis. I want to get to the point where I don’t even have to think about it, and I’m doing all the right things on auto-pilot. This will open up opportunities for me to put more effort into new activities, such as being involved in the school, starting a personal development club, and doing various fun things online.

First things first, I need to be an excellent student, so that is where I’m putting 100% of my focus. I’ve run around and asked some of the best students in the school about their time management, success philosophy, and study techniques. Then it came time to integrate everything I’ve learned from them, and from my previous education, into actionable steps.

Keep in mind that the information in this post is very experimental. It’s where I am at the date of this writing, and since I plan to work on these skills daily, I’ll likely be in a new place within a month. Another reason I wanted to write this article is so that I have a place to go back to. If for some reason I wake up tomorrow and forget what I’m doing that’s so effective, I’ll have this, and be able to build on it.

The technique I’m finding effective is what I call Cataloging Information in my mind. It might be a combination of several other techniques known to psychologists as chunking, visualization, simplification and repetition. I’m making up my own word.

I’ll use Biochemistry as an example. What I was previously doing to study for it was taking and looking over 20-30 pages of notes per lecture. My new technique is to write about 4-6 pages of notes, most of which are in the form of diagrams, lists, and keywords. I find this to allow for better repetition, because it’s much simpler to go through 4 pages than 20. I’ll have 5 times the exposure in the same amount of time of repetition.

Going through complex reaction cycles is now a proactive exercise, whereas before I would reread, stare a bit, reread again, and then move on, I am now challenging my memory. I do this by taking something like 3 items into my mind, turning away from the paper, and placing them into an imaginary reaction circle in my mind. Sometimes I even involve my hands as I move the words onto this circle.

I then come back to the paper, and I check out the next 1 or 2 items. I then turn around, back to my imaginary circle, and I start from the beginning, first my original 3 items, and then the next 2. I keep repeating this exercise, starting from the beginning and adding new items, and then repeating the whole thing start to finish a couple of times to make sure I have it down. Repeating it again in the near future to make sure it’s still in my head.

The chunking is relevant to the small size of my notes. I write related information closely together, and I can mentally remember the physical location of these items on the paper, the color of the different items (I use 18 different colored markers, go Sharpie!), and how these items relate to each other. Sometimes I relate them to each other by using a Mnemonic with the 1st letter of each word or something silly that will be memorable to me.

Once I go through all my notes for the lecture, and then all the lectures for the test, I go over them again. I try to recall as much about all the steps that are involved based on topic headings. So say there is a topic heading that says ‘Urea Cycle’, I will then turn away from my paper, and do the whole circle in my mind to know that I have truly grasped it. I’ll then repeat this consecutively, using only the topic headings as a trigger for my memory.

That’s all I have for now. If you’re a WIZ at studying, have a higher education degree that’s heavy on the sciences, or just want to share something specific that has worked for you, I would love to learn – comment below.

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Paul Scharf

Great system. Works very well preparing a speech so one does not have to read it.

Paul
bluedes

Works great! To supplement your 4-5 pages of notes, do the problems at the end of the chapter. You’d be surprised how much you’ll be missing in the notes because you didn’t emphasize them (as they are needed to solve the problems at the chapter end). This takes longer time though.. acing the exam is another strategy than just mere studying.. (getting hold of past exams from the same professor helps a lot).
http://www.yurisearch.com Yuri

Hi Alex,

Long time no talk!
I can attest that the technique you described here really does work. The retention improves dramatically when you visualize the terms and topics repeatedly in your mind.
I used a similar method of memorization when cramming English vocabulary. I would visualize a group of words and their definitions (or sometimes translations) in my mind. Then, I would recite them in order – I usually had a numbered list of words. After that, I would gradually add more words until I was able to learn and memorize 20 – 30 new words per day.

The trick is to keep doing the exercise day after day until the terms are ingrained in your long-term memory.

Good luck on your midterms! Looking forward to learning new techniques from you.

-Yuri Ears
Monique

I soooooo love your website. I am currently in medical school and studying for my USMLE STEP 1 exam and I can honestly say that my way of studying is very similar to the way that you have described.
I wish you all the best in dental school.
http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

@Paul @Yuri @Monique – It’s awesome to see that all three of you have used similar techniques, BUT for totally different things. Memorizing a speech, learning English, rocking Med school.

@Bluedes – I love practice problems, and old exams. Those are key! Helps alleviate some fear of the unexpected.
http://improveminduniversity.blogspot.com Positive Gangsta

Sweet advice, i plan on implementing it soon!
http://lifestyledesign4u.com Gordie Rogers

You whet my appetite. Would you be able to go into a bit more detail on this method in another post for the slower ones like me? Thanks.
http://www.caradvice.in/ fas

Keep reading and writing. Write short points which will help you recollect the complete sentence. Thats the way to go.
Annak

these are all great ideas… what worked for me most in biochemistry was writing out the cycles… basically I would first write out like glucose–>glyceraldyhyde 3phosphate (or whatever) and so on(all the major players in the reaction) and then write out the reaction again and include more enzymes that are part of it.. then do it again and throw in other less important stuff so everytime you write the cycle out you include more and more and by the time you written it out like 15times it is in your hands… when test day comes around you don’t even have to think twice, u just draw it on the paper…. also information is best attained at night… so after you’ve written the reaction out from memory multiple times go back the next day and see how much of it you can remember and do it at night just before you go to bed so it is the last thing on your mind.. the same goes for notes.. once you compress a lecture into a set of 3-4 notes make sure you come back and review them that week… ideally you want to review something day 1, then the next day… then in a couple of days…. 3X at least and preferable in the evening… before test day i even put info under my pillow and slept on it! haha
http://www.alexshalman.com Alex Shalman

@AnnaK – and I would add that an important point, which is obvious, but often overlooked, is that while you’re writing and adding, you should do it from memory, not from directly looking at it. Wouldn’t you agree?
student

I’m applying to dschool this year, and I’ve already began to interview successful students on strategies and overall lifestyle management. It’s great to see your results! Please continue posting what worked etc., All the best with dschool.

Also, no matter what subject i’m reading about, it seems recalling the information is to key to retention rather than passive reading.