How do I understand (rather than memorize)

[Your Nightmare]

Hey all, I got a bit of a problem here and I was wondering if anyone could give me a few tips.

First of all, I'm a student in College, in my final year. My final exams are coming up, and I'm finding myself struggling to learn the content I need to learn. What I have done in the past (And has worked very well) is to read a page, write down that page, then try to rewrite that page to see if I memorized the content I had just wrote. This is the most painful process in the world, especially seeing how I need to do this for around 300 pages.

Anyway, after an exam, I seriously for 90% of everything I had just spent months trying to memorize.
A lot of the time I'm meant to be revising, I spend it researching ways of learning. It turns out that there is a difference between memorizing content and understanding it. I want to try and understand a subject so that the information is with me for a long time, rather than short term.

I could easily just carry on with my current method, but is there anyone out there who might be able to shed some light on the topic, and maybe a method of understanding the subject. The topic I'm learning is Psychology funnily enough.

So yeah, thanks (;

 

[Zantos]

There's no easy way to understand a topic, but here it goes.

The easiest way is to think about problems that you haven't covered. If you've studied something you run the risk of just doing it from memory, but if it's something which is related to what you've done but requires you to use the knowledge you have in a new way then it can help you break down what you know and look at each little mechanism.

Works a dream for mathematics, don't know how well it would work for psychology though.

 

[The SettingSun]

Sorry I can't answer your question but I have one for you Are you at college as in a sixth form college or university? I'm thinking of doing psychology at a-level and I've had mixed reports about it, some people are saying it's easy and some are saying it's hard, what's your experience been like with it?

 

[Your Nightmare]

Hmm, I see. So I should take what I know and try and apply it to outside scenarios and see how (for example) a theory would explain why such event occured?

Anyone got anything else?

 

[Terminal Blue]

The only way to really understand something of that level is to read around it and to talk about it with other people. Rather than memorizing every word, try and summarize the key ideas down into bullet points, then read something else which links in.

If you only read the bare minimum it can be quite hard to understand anything deep, especially with a subject like yours which is quite conceptually complex. On a first reading, don't worry about memorizing specific facts, do that in the immediate run up to the exam. Focus on picking out the key concepts. If you can compress a whole book down to a page of bullet points, chances are you understand it to a reasonable degree.

Also, if there's any specific concept or idea you need help with or feel you aren't getting, ask your lecturers, it's what they're there for. Even if they won't sit down and physically explain it to you, they can probably point you to further readings which might help you get a grasp on the topic.

Long term memory is established through repetition. Rather than just doing copying exercises before the exam, make a list of bullet points and test yourself on them regularly over a longer period of time. You need to be memorizing short concise bulletpoints for this to work, not reams of data.

Also, reread the original books, or at least skim through them. Look for things you missed, or things you didn't pick up on which you've since learned about elsewhere. Look at writers in comparison and try to pick out the key similarities and differences between their ideas, rather than just reading them on their own. Try and establish connections between ideas and authors. By associating ideas together rather than just learning them individually you give them more grounding and make them easier to recall.

Rote learning is still important in preparing for exams, but it's better to rote learn a wide range of ideas in compressed form than to simply try and memorize an entire book.

Think of it this way. A closed book exam will never ask you to provide detailed references. It's more important that you can summarize the meaning of a book quickly and concisely than being able to provide full quotations.

 

[Zantos]

Hmm, I see. So I should take what I know and try and apply it to outside scenarios and see how (for example) a theory would explain why such event occured?

That's exactly how I revise for everything. Can't guarantee it'll work, but it's usually fun.

 

[Hairetos]

I find the best way is to organize the major facts into a logical sequence without getting far into details. This gives you a conceptual understanding into which you can plug the details. With the understanding of the concept, the details should fit in logically and naturally.

EDIT: For example, instead of memorizing the structure and function of everything from the outer to inner ear, memorize how sound travels from outside to inside on a simple level. It flows from the outside to the ear drum, which vibrates the ear bones which amplify sound and send it to the cochlea via the scalas and into the organ of corti. This is much simpler than remembering what the aurical, pinna, auditory meatus, ear drum, malleus/incus/stapes, oval window, scala vestibuli/tympani, cochlear duct, organ of corti, etc all do separately.

But remember that, after you memorize the basic logical process, fill in all of the miscellaneous pieces that you didn't fit before.

 

[SilentCom]

It's almost the opposite for me. If I find a subject boring, I can't memorize it very well while I normally have no problem understanding concepts, even in topics I am interested in.

To better understand a topic, the best way is to ask "why", "what", and "how". Why is the topic important? Why is it relevant to the class subject? What are the affects or outcomes? How did the topic come into existence?

I hate memorizing but like to understand and find asking questions of myself is a good way to leading myself to the answers.

 

[Evidencebased]

I like to study with someone else (either someone in the class, preferably, or a very patient friend. ) Then we go over the material together, and practice explaining it to each other. For me the best way to understand and remember something is to draw it out with lots of colors and diagrams (I'm a very visual learner) and then go through it with a friend and explain how it all fits together to them.

It depends on what kind of material you're covering, too, and how the tests are designed. Are you being asked to remember a bunch of disorders or something? Then tell stories about them to your friend, or practice diagnosing each other with stuff, or make up dumb puns or jokes about them ("obsessive hand washing? Sure, once I roll off your mom." (I mean it; dumb jokes!)) Have to memorize parts of the brain? Draw it all out or make a puzzle and try putting it together. Or do you have to design or understand experiments? Put together an idea for an experiment with your study partner, and criticize it. Go through existing experiments and explain to each other why each step in it is necessary ("they had a group of people who didn't get slapped in the face with fish, but were instead slapped with hamsters, to control for possible fish-phobia in the test subjects.")

Basically just try to make it fun and social, as much as possible, and force yourself to put all the pieces together in a sensible order and verbalize them. Having another person to bounce explanations off of absolutely helps me out. Or even just someone to humor you as you explain something to them that they don't care about -- my long-suffering English major buddies were always kind enough to look at my careful drawings of the immune system as I babbled about "fucking T cells man, they will cut you and not even care."

 

[Aurgelmir]

Hey all, I got a bit of a problem here and I was wondering if anyone could give me a few tips.

First of all, I'm a student in College, in my final year. My final exams are coming up, and I'm finding myself struggling to learn the content I need to learn. What I have done in the past (And has worked very well) is to read a page, write down that page, then try to rewrite that page to see if I memorized the content I had just wrote. This is the most painful process in the world, especially seeing how I need to do this for around 300 pages.

Anyway, after an exam, I seriously for 90% of everything I had just spent months trying to memorize.
A lot of the time I'm meant to be revising, I spend it researching ways of learning. It turns out that there is a difference between memorizing content and understanding it. I want to try and understand a subject so that the information is with me for a long time, rather than short term.

I could easily just carry on with my current method, but is there anyone out there who might be able to shed some light on the topic, and maybe a method of understanding the subject. The topic I'm learning is Psychology funnily enough.

So yeah, thanks (;

Psychology is a topic that needs a certain amount of memorizing imo.
But I remember from some of my psy classes that me and a friend would sit down and explain certain topics to each other, trying to figure out how we understood it, and by explaining something you learn more.

My major was in engineering so I had a lot of math and science classes, where understanding is often the way to victory... although I suck at that sometimes
But I had a few instances where I instead of practicing solving tons of assigmnemts would instead sit down and memorize/understand the meaning of each part of a formula, which lead to a greater understanding on how to solve an assignment.
Sadly my second anecdote might not be as applicable to you.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Just try to make comparisons to things. I once tried to discredit the theory of evolution without intelligent design by comparing it to having legos in a box. It didn't go too well for me, but you get the point. Just try to fully understand things so you don't have to describe it just like it was told to you. If you can answer with your own words, then it'll be a lot easier to remember things.

 

[Your Nightmare]

The bigger picture : When does information become to a level where you are able to talk about by heart and how do you get information to this level. In short hand, Moving information from your short term memory to your long term memory.

I completely understand how to revise for college, and I understand that it's basically about memorizing facts. The purpose of this thread was for me to create a scenario for people to potentially answer this question that I have been looking into for a while now. Looking over what most of you have said, repetition is the most occurring theme, which is fine, as repetition is believed to be the most effective way of learning information, and when we learn it to a high standard, we understand it.

But what I have been wondering is that surely, it can't just be repetition alone.
Looking at another type of memory now, but answer me this. Think of any game or movie that you have recently played/viewed but only once (One play through that is) Now if I asked you to pick out certain themes from this game/movie, such as the opening scene, why are we able to recite it without little struggle? (Most of us anyway) Then I came to the conclusion that it must be because the information we are viewing is visual/audio based. Something which our brains can interact with, rather than just reading text.

So although I basically lied with the OP, some of the feedback delivered something more closer to what I was looking for. People who suggested stories, pictures, talking to friends, creating links ECT - good going

Anyway, moving back towards the topic of learning information for school, I have tried many ways of trying to present information. One method that I tried involved Little Big Planet 2.
I took the topic of Schizophrenia, and wrote out the key sections, as well as scenes in LBP2 to go with them. Basically, I believe this method works (As I can now picture these scenes in my head and then recall the information with them) but I was held back by my inexperience with LBP. If you're interested in trying what I made, or you are a creative, experienced player - send me a PM.

So yeah, I was hoping for some more creative suggestions (My fault, I should have explained it a lot better. I thought if I typed out what I have typed out now, it would put people off, who knows) So saying that, has anyone got any other ideas how I could represent information in ways which are more engaging for my brain? This LBP method works, but it also takes up a lot of time :l

Other things I have thought about are making flash videos, recording my own voice. Stuff like this, but I'm unable to think of any more. I was hoping by asking this sort of question, someone might have some crazy/interesting technique which is more than just re reading text.
I understand that repetition will always be a key factor. If I asked you to watch the intro to a film 100 times, you are going to be able to recall more information than just watching it once. The same applies for text, but I just think presenting text in more engaging ways will eventually lead to a better and quicker understanding that just writing it out one hundred times. Obviously you can't fault reading, as it proves to work over time. But if I now asked you to recite the first paragraph of this post and compare that to the intro of the last movie you watched, you are more likely to recall the film better.
Oh and I value everybody's comments, I was just looking for methods of learning.

Overall/TLR
What ways can I represent a wall of text into a more visual and engaging experience (more out of the ordinary methods)

 

[Evidencebased]

(snip)
So saying that, has anyone got any other ideas how I could represent information in ways which are more engaging for my brain?
(snip)

I have a totally unvalidated pet theory that putting information into a personal or social context helps humans understand and remember it. We have millions of years of evolution making us skilled person-to-person interacting machines, so we're (generally) really excellent at remembering stuff like gossip and stories about people and human motivations, etc.

When I anthropomorphize something like (in my previous example) the immune system, it helps me understand and remember how everything works together. There's also a better emotional connection, and it's just more attention-grabbing; compare "the T cell responds to chemotactic factors and releases perforin onto the target cell, avoiding neighboring cells" to "the T cell ninjas over to the target cell like a boss and stabs the crap out of it, guts spilling everywhere, while the innocent bystanders look on in horror!" The latter is a lot more dramatic, and it gives me the general picture of what's happening -- then I can go back and memorize specific terms like "perforin" to fill in the details. But ninjas and murders are damn memorable! (I also act all this out with my hands, and it can get pretty soap-operatic... I am a giant nerd. ;p) And then once I have this "personality" established for T cells, for example, I can apply it to other things they do -- I remember the type of "person" they are (killer ninjas) rather than memorizing boring stuff about their lymphocyte-subset-functions-in-the-immune-response blah blah.

TL;DR = making a human or personal/emotional connection to the material seems really effective. If I'm excited or upset or thrilled by something I retain it much better, especially if I can weave together a human-like narrative for it.

 

[Terminal Blue]

While I can definately see the point in what you're trying to do, I will say that reading is completely non-optional. Not sure exactly you mean by college, whether you mean A-level or university level, but certainly if it's the latter you won't be able to get past a certain point without reading, even more so if you want to go any further.

Do not completely throw everything into alternative learning methods, because there will come a point where you have to pull back and just learn to read for meaning.

That said, I often make spider diagrams to supplement my reading. It makes revision a lot easier and clearer.

 

[Your Nightmare]

While I can definately see the point in what you're trying to do, I will say that reading is completely non-optional. Not sure exactly you mean by college, whether you mean A-level or university level, but certainly if it's the latter you won't be able to get past a certain point without reading, even more so if you want to go any further.

Do not completely throw everything into alternative learning methods, because there will come a point where you have to pull back and just learn to read for meaning.

That said, I often make spider diagrams to supplement my reading. It makes revision a lot easier and clearer.

Uk college, sorry.
And I'm not trying to avoid reading, just find some alternative methods which are more engaging. I know sometimes reading is unavoidable, but like the post above yours, he suggested a way in which you can make reading more engaging rather than the same old "Keep reading until it sticks"

 

[Marowit]

That's a difficult question. I guess my best suggestion is to change the variables, but still allow for a similar outcome - if you can do that I'd say you understand it and haven't just memorized it.

for example:

1/3 + 2/3 = 3/3 = 1, yeah?

well 1 - 1/3 = ?

2/3 obviously

Well how about 5/5 - 1/3?

2/3

It's a very simple example, but you're changing around the variables demonstrating your understanding of the concept not just 1 - 1/3 = 2/3.

There are certain things you can't get around memorizing though, a la anatomy, chemistry, that kind of stuff.

 

[StBishop]

Hmm, I see. So I should take what I know and try and apply it to outside scenarios and see how (for example) a theory would explain why such event occured?

Anyone got anything else?

I find discussions with tutors/lecturers/peers/classmates/people who're unfamiliar with the topic, all help.

Different people allow you different kinds of discussions, I find classmates usually best, preferably someone who get's the same or slightly better marks than you.

Explaining a subject will help you think about it in a different way and give you pedagogical knowledge (teaching term, it boils down to; how to explain something in a new and different way and understand difficulties others may encounter in understanding the subject) like when teaching addition "imagine I have an apple and Tommy gives me 2 apples, how many apples do i have now?"

Or if using a gaming example, in D&D skills are like trained abilities like pickpocketing (real world example would be mixing a cocktail) (+10 modifier to slight of hand), while feats are like personal strengths that are intrinsicly learned not taught like being hardier than others(+5 hit points) (real world example, you feel warm while others reach for their coats).

This way you can think about your topic in new ways that may help you relate it to other parts of your life (sport, work, gaming, etc.)

Talking to lecturers offers the unique opportunity to ask "But what about...?" or "And what if...?" type questions of someone who can give a legitimate answer.

Talking to peers can give you both of these. You can verify things you don't understand and can speculate together on extensions of subjects. (You may also have to re-explain something from time to time too, which is great.)

A number of these activities can be done on your own but I'm a rather personable guy and like talking, the only one you can't do solo is ask your lecturer things, but there's always email.

 

[StBishop]

While I can definately see the point in what you're trying to do, I will say that reading is completely non-optional. Not sure exactly you mean by college, whether you mean A-level or university level, but certainly if it's the latter you won't be able to get past a certain point without reading, even more so if you want to go any further.

Do not completely throw everything into alternative learning methods, because there will come a point where you have to pull back and just learn to read for meaning.

That said, I often make spider diagrams to supplement my reading. It makes revision a lot easier and clearer.

Uk college, sorry.
And I'm not trying to avoid reading, just find some alternative methods which are more engaging. I know sometimes reading is unavoidable, but like the post above yours, he suggested a way in which you can make reading more engaging rather than the same old "Keep reading until it sticks"

Make jokes, especially bad ones.

My lecturer/tutor gave us a joke to remember the Lamboidal Suture in the skull. You see it's lamboidal because it's in the baaaaaaaaaaa-ck (sheep voice and all). (For anyone that doesn't get this, it's the suture between the occipital bone (the furthest back bone of your head) and your two parietal (parental, because they're above you) bones.)
I'm not kidding every single person got that question correct in the test.
She went through our tests to check just that, and all 500 and something students got it right.

I also managed to get like 98% on a test in high school when I was in year 11 and my mate got half a percent better than me because we had made jokes about the topic in class, we had carried them over into our social life and we remembered almost everything in that class with no study whatsoever.

 

[Evidencebased]

Make jokes, especially bad ones.

My lecturer/tutor gave us a joke to remember the Lamboidal Suture in the skull. You see it's lamboidal because it's in the baaaaaaaaaaa-ck (sheep voice and all). (For anyone that doesn't get this, it's the suture between the occipital bone (the furthest back bone of your head) and your two parietal (parental, because they're above you) bones.)
I'm not kidding every single person got that question correct in the test.
She went through our tests to check just that, and all 500 and something students got it right.

I also managed to get like 98% on a test in high school when I was in year 11 and my mate got half a percent better than me because we had made jokes about the topic in class, we had carried them over into our social life and we remembered almost everything in that class with no study whatsoever.

Yeeeessss bad jokes! Or perverted ones... I will never forget how to ask "how much does it cost?" in Japanese (although I've forgotten pretty much everything else) because my intro Japanese class was mostly women and we had a pretty cute male teacher, so we constantly asked each other "how much does he cost? " which is dumb as hell, but very memorable!

 

[Lagslayer]

Try to find out "why" it works instead of just "how". See how it fits in with the big picture to give some perspective.