What is the best way to remember stuff?

[PopeAK49]

Right now I'm attending Avtec in Seward Alaska. I'm taking the IT course and it's quite awesome, but quite difficult. I have to remember a crap load of terms and other info in one night, because basically the next morning is a test on the chapter. Basically this course is 2 years of work compressed into 1 year to earn 7 certifications. Do any of you have a successful way of remembering stuff?

[Timo]

Sorry man, cramming only works if you already have a general idea on what you're trying to learn. You could try making out some flash cards for yourself I guess.

[Aerowyn]

Flash cards or a powerpoint presentation with the terms/answers would be best.

[STLRamsFan]

You gotta experiment with different things. Something that works for someone else may not work for you. Best thing that works for me studying ahead of time, reading the material and doing practice tests. Time consuming but hey isn't it time consuming anyway?

[Syuusuke]

It's dependent on you...how well do you deal with things auditory, visually, and literally (reading wise)? Whichever fields you work best with, you should study the terms with emphasis on those.

For me, I need things to be hands-on. I like being handsy =D

[Warsaw]

I've found that, for me anyways, the best way to remember something is to copy it down at least three times by hand.

[Heathen]

Don't smoke pot lol.

[staticchanger]

Play video games all night, then hope for the best. Works for me.

[Limited]

The key to remembering things, is to have associations. The crazier, the silly-er and the wilder, the better. It means you can have a picture of 'the scene' in your mind. The only problem is, trying to remember the crazy association.

For example, if the police ask you to remember what someone is wearing, if they were just wearing a white shirt and jeans. Thats pretty average, you wouldnt really notice it so it would be pretty hard to remember. If however they were wearing a banana fancy dress outfit whilst riding a unicycle, your more likely to notice it, and thus your brain should remember it better.

Say you need to learn the write speed of a SATA drive. For the sake of the argument, lets just say, its 258MB/s.

Heres how I might try and remember it, first remembering the figures, we can split 258 up, 200, 50, and 8.

Lets say, there is a tower, made out of 200 white eggs, on the top of that tower is 50 angry bulls (the animal), and they are each holding a total of 8 lit fireworks in their mouth.

So in my mind, I picture a grass hill, with a big tower of white eggs, with 50 bulls balancing on top wobbling all over the place trying to stay on. And they each have 8 lit fireworks in their mouths ready to take off. Thats a pretty vivid image, a wacky vision.

Next thing is to remember its the write speed of SATA, its good to use rhyme and word sounding, so I personally would use the word SATA, as in SAT-A, meaning SAT ON. So, I would been sat on a chair, writing speed/taking speed (the drug), looking at the tower.

So, when trying to recall that information, you need to picture the scene you have developed in your mind. You look at the question: "What is the speed of SATA?". You need to picture yourself, sat on a chair, doing speed, whilst looking at a tower of 200 eggs, with 50 bulls balancing on top, each holding 8 lit fireworks.

Thats just an example, its better for smaller amounts of hard to remember information, but yeah thats just my way.

[CrAsHOvErRide]

Imagine the word getting naked while jerking off.

[n00b1n8R]

I usually get the general feel of the subject throughout the course and cram for an hour or two in the days leading up to the exam. :downs:

[Syuusuke]

The key to remembering things, is to have associations. The crazier, the silly-er and the wilder, the better. It means you can have a picture of 'the scene' in your mind. The only problem is, trying to remember the crazy association.

For example, if the police ask you to remember what someone is wearing, if they were just wearing a white shirt and jeans. Thats pretty average, you wouldnt really notice it so it would be pretty hard to remember. If however they were wearing a banana fancy dress outfit whilst riding a unicycle, your more likely to notice it, and thus your brain should remember it better.

Say you need to learn the write speed of a SATA drive. For the sake of the argument, lets just say, its 258MB/s.

Heres how I might try and remember it, first remembering the figures, we can split 258 up, 200, 50, and 8.

Lets say, there is a tower, made out of 200 white eggs, on the top of that tower is 50 angry bulls (the animal), and they are each holding a total of 8 lit fireworks in their mouth.

So in my mind, I picture a grass hill, with a big tower of white eggs, with 50 bulls balancing on top wobbling all over the place trying to stay on. And they each have 8 lit fireworks in their mouths ready to take off. Thats a pretty vivid image, a wacky vision.

Next thing is to remember its the write speed of SATA, its good to use rhyme and word sounding, so I personally would use the word SATA, as in SAT-A, meaning SAT ON. So, I would been sat on a chair, writing speed/taking speed (the drug), looking at the tower.

So, when trying to recall that information, you need to picture the scene you have developed in your mind. You look at the question: "What is the speed of SATA?". You need to picture yourself, sat on a chair, doing speed, whilst looking at a tower of 200 eggs, with 50 bulls balancing on top, each holding 8 lit fireworks.

Thats just an example, its better for smaller amounts of hard to remember information, but yeah thats just my way.

lol, for me: since I know the number 256 is so often used...258 is just 256 with 2 fingers up its ass...so I just tell my self "oh yea the speed of SATA is 2 fingers up 256's ass...258

[iizahsum]

Re writting something while your reading it also helps for important information.
Acronyms help a lot to. Example
I am in AP european history and I have to take notes on the Social, Political, Economical, Religous, and Millitary happenings of the time. So on the top of all my notes I write S.P.E.R.M. This helps me get all the important information of the time but also organizes it in sections with one easy to remember word/acronym.

[Cagerrin]

Computers tend to be an admirable solution to memory problems. I like to type down bits of stuff that I find interesting into text files, and I almost always remember it. The trick is to type it in your own words, rather than copy-pasting. Similar to how it's easier to understand the physical shape of something from holding it than it is from pictures.

e: also, that's a mighty.. convenient acronym.