Picture this: It’s 7 pm the night before your biggest chemistry test of the year, and you’re tumbling down a YouTube rabbit hole getting more and more panicked by the second… because you haven’t studied for even just one minute. (You’ve had a month to study, but it’s not your fault)! Or, envision this: You were supposed to learn 200 words for your French exam, and you’re on – hold on, let’s have a look – word number five. Or, of course, you just learnt that the dreaded maths final doesn’t *actually* include a formula sheet. Who could have known?!
These experiences aren’t unique at all – in fact, they’re pretty universal (so you shouldn’t feel bad if or when they happen to you). Everyone will feel dread, panic, and maybe even guilt at least once or twice – or a million times – in their life as a student when their studies just aren’t going their way. Unfortunately, these types of experiences tend to result in low scores and falling short of goals for the vast majority of students. However, it isn’t all doom, gloom, and F grades – there are heaps of methods that A+ students use to memorise content quickly and efficiently to maintain their top grades, even when everything has been left to the last minute.
Luckily, there are probably thousands of students in your exact shoes right now – and you’ve made it here! By the end of this blog, you should be able to memorise any content like a pro, and hit your grade goals with ease.
Secret One: Gathering Resources
You will need to arm yourself with tools and resources that are proven to work. Paying attention in class and taking notes before tests and exams are fantastic steps, but usually aren’t enough to push you over the edge into A-grade territory. For more info on what free resources are available to students, check out my blog post about the best online memorisation resources (for any subject). The top-performing students know how to utilise every tool available to them, including finding and using websites and apps to memorise.
If you prefer to make notes and study by hand, there are also heaps of things you can do to make your study sessions a lot more efficient. If you’re crunched for time, however, please don’t waste any more of it by making things like flashcards by hand – I’ve been there, and while they might look nice, it’s just not worth it.
If you do have the time, helpful stationery to have on hand include items such as:
- Pre-made index cards
- Hole punch
- Loose-leaf binding ring
- Coloured pens (marker style)
Secret Two: Teaching
A bit of recent history: In high school, I took a class about the Roman Empire – this particular topic basically covered Roman history from the death of Julius Caesar in 43 BCE to Augustus’ settlements in 27 BCE and 23 BCE. I had a friend who joined the class late, and long story short, I ended up teaching her the entire topic over a few weeks. Fast forward three years to my Roman Empire university course, where one of my exam questions was focused on – you guessed it – 43 BCE – 23 BCE. I did about an hour of passive reading as study for that course, and ended up with an A in the class – not because I’m naturally smart (I promise you, I’m not), but because I could remember almost every single date, quote, critic and event from years ago in high school after teaching it to a friend.
This is all to say, teaching is a well-established and effective method of memorisation – but I also have first-hand experience that it actually works! It’s also incredibly straightforward as far as revision methods go. Try these methods of teaching:
- Explain complicated concepts to a pet, stuffed toy, or willing family member
- Create a PowerPoint about your topic for a five-year-old
- Read out loud from your textbook, rewording concepts as you speak
- Pretend you’re a professor of [class], doing a guest lecture to a room full of students
- ACTUALLY teach – get a group of friends from the class together and pick a section of the topic each to present to each other the next day during lunch or after school.
Secret Three: Spaced Repetition
Spaced repetition is widely considered to be the most effective way to memorise content. Also called ‘distributed practice,’ spaced repetition is when you learn content over increasing intervals of time. In essence, the content you know well will be given to you less frequently and the content you don’t know will be given to you more frequently. However, you can also do this on your own – in fact, it was research into spaced repetition that popularised the use of flashcards as an effective memorisation technique.
If you can, it’s best to start using spaced repetition at the start of the year or semester. This way, when it comes time for exams and assessments, you won’t have to cram or stress at all about memorisation. If you add terms, definitions, quotes, and all other content to your list of flashcards at the end of every day or once per week (and go through them for 5-10 minutes per day), you won’t only remember them for your assessments, you’ll remember them for years to come.
However, if you’re reading this right now, it’s more than likely that you’ve left your memorisation to the last minute – or, at least, later than you should have (don’t worry – we’ve all been there, and you’ll get through it). Spaced repetition, while effective over long periods of time, is great for memorising in a pinch as well.
If you have physical flashcards, you can utilise spaced repetition by dividing them into smaller, more approachable, piles. Work on just 10-15 cards at a time, and as you go through them, split them into three categories – ‘always know,’ ‘sometimes know,’ and ‘don’t know.’ Don’t waste time going over cards in the ‘always know’ pile, and put the majority of your time into the ‘don’t know’ pile. Work for only 20 minutes or less at a time, and start each round by putting your ‘sometimes know’ and ‘don’t know’ cards together. After your ‘don’t know’ pile is empty, take a long break (no less than an hour) before starting again. If possible, split this process up over days or weeks – but if you can’t, do this just a few times the night before. You’ll be amazed at how much information can fit in your brain after just one day.
Websites and apps such as Quizlet or Anki will absolutely do the trick for digital memorisation, and are much more efficient than physical flashcards if you’re out of time and still have to actually make the flashcards. Basically, it’s up to you to weigh up whether coming out of a test with a stack of aesthetically pleasing notes is more important than bumping your grade up from a C+ to a B+.
Secret Four: Create a Schedule
High-achieving students know what they have to get done and know how to make sure it’s completed on time. In order to do this effectively, you will need a schedule. I’ve created some example 10-session flashcard schedules based on the amount of time you have left before your test or assessment, but feel free to alter them to your own needs or purchase my study schedule pack from my shop.
Whether it’s on paper or on your computer, making a quick schedule while keeping in mind your commitments and availability (to keep it realistic) is an essential step to any study process. To learn more about cultivating the perfect study process, check out my blog post about timetables and schedules.
If you have two weeks…
| Session 1 | Day 1 – Morning | Create flashcards | Either online or handwritten |
| Session 2 | Day 1 – Afternoon | Review all terms | Read or flip through the list |
| Session 3 | Day 1 – Night | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 2 |
| Session 4 | Day 2 – Morning | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 4 |
| Session 5 | Day 2 – Afternoon | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set aside learnt |
| Session 6 | Day 2 – Night | Use all flashcards | Set learnt flashcards aside |
| Session 7 | Day 4 – Afternoon | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 8 |
| Session 8 | Day 4 – Night | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 8 |
| Session 9 | Day 8 – Night | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 14 |
| Session 10 | Day 14 – Morning | Use all flashcards | Ace your test! |
If you have one week…
| Session 1 | Day 1 – Morning | Create flashcards | Either online or handwritten |
| Session 2 | Day 2 – Afternoon | Review all terms | Read or flip through the list |
| Session 3 | Day 3 – Night | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 2 |
| Session 4 | Day 2 – Morning | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 4 |
| Session 5 | Day 2 – Afternoon | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 4 |
| Session 6 | Day 2 – Night | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 4 |
| Session 7 | Day 4 – Afternoon | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside |
| Session 8 | Day 4 – Night | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside |
| Session 9 | Day 6 – Night | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside for good |
| Session 10 | Day 7 – Morning | Use unlearnt flashcards | Ace your test! |
If you have 3 days…
| Session 1 | Day 1 – Morning | Create flashcards | Either online or handwritten |
| Session 2 | Day 1 – Afternoon | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 2 |
| Session 3 | Day 1 – Night | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 2 |
| Session 4 | Day 1 – Night (2) | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 2 |
| Session 5 | Day 2 – Morning | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until night |
| Session 6 | Day 2 – Afternoon | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until night |
| Session 7 | Day 2 – Night | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside until night |
| Session 8 | Day 2 – Night (2) | Use unlearnt flashcards | Set learnt aside until Day 3 |
| Session 9 | Day 3 – Morning | Use all flashcards | Set learnt aside for good |
| Session 10 | Day 3 – Morning (2) | Use unlearnt flashcards | Ace your test! |
Secret 5: Memory Palace
This particular technique is sworn on by a lot of amazing thinkers – while it is more complicated than some of the other methods in this list, the memory palace device is effective and super cool once you get the hang of it. This is less of a last-minute fix and more of a technique to develop over time, but it’s totally worth it once you get the hang of it.
If you’re a visual learner, or you learn well through images, diagrams, pictures or videos, this is definitely a method you should try out.
This YouTube video explains it really well, but essentially there are four steps (give or take) to mastering the mind palace.
- Choose a location for your mind palace (somewhere relatively small that you know well works best)
- Plan and memorise the route you will take through your location (envision yourself walking through it multiple times)
- Assign your list of terms, vocab, words, or items to places in your location – make sure that they are large and noticable. For your first mind palace, images work better than words
- Practice walking through your mind palace and stopping at each location/item until everything is memorised.
Secret 6: Mnemonics
Have you ever bizarrely found yourself humming Offenbach’s Can Can, except using the words ‘there’s… hydrogen and helium and lithium beryllium, boron carbon everywhere…’? This mnemonic by asapSCIENCE was pretty much my entire academic life up until Year 10 (9th Grade).
‘A mnemonic device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval in the human memory for better understanding.’ Basically, any catchy acronym, song, rhyme, or even just a sentence that can link information to something memorable in your brain.
While this is a pretty well-known memorisation technique, this isn’t for just any reason – it’s a classic, and simple to use. For example, music students learn mnemonics such as ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit’ and ‘Father Charles Goes Down and Ends Battle’ from as early as the age of four or five years old.
If you ever need to remember the carpal bones, try this one:
- Some – Scaphoid.
- Lovers – Lunate.
- Try – Triquetrum.
- Positions – Pisiform.
- That – Trapezium.
- They – Trapezoid.
- Can’t – Capitate.
- Handle – Hamate.
Or if learning the cranial nerves is more your area, something like this might do:
- Oh, – olfactory nerve (CN I)
- Oh, – optic nerve (CN II)
- Oh, – oculomotor nerve (CN III)
- To – trochlear nerve (CN IV)
- Touch – trigeminal nerve(CN V)
- And – abducens nerve (CN VI)
- Feel – facial nerve (CN VII)
- Very – auditory (or vestibulocochlear) nerve (CN VIII)
- Good – glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX)
- Velvet, – vagus nerve (CN X)
- Such – spinal accessory nerve (CN XI)
- Heaven! – hypoglossal nerve (CN XII)
Obviously, some mnemonics catch on easier than others – but the main point here is that they can be used in heaps of different creative ways for many different types of material.
Last words
Using these six techniques will, at the very least, help you to memorise a whole lot of content in just a little time. Even using just one will elevate your study session, hopefully making it more varied and fun! While you shouldn’t make a habit of leaving memorising content to the last minute, using the steps I’ve set out in this blog will help you to bring your grade up and learn all the content you need.
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This is so helpful!!! Thank you!!!