Originally Posted by
Jake2008
I had a professor once, who explained how to train the brain, in order to better retain information. It worked for me, and I'll pass what she said, along to you. It may help.
If you are studying notes, lightly scan over the notes, and every so often, stop and read a few words of a paragraph, or a heading. Scan through the material.
Rest your brain. Go and get a healthy snack, maybe an apple, sit outside or somewhere peaceful and quiet, for about 20 minutes or so.
Go back to your notes, and this time, read, instead of scan. Lightly read the entire chunk of what you need to learn.
Next, if you're feeling at all tired, or stressed, or you've been interrupted, try another break, or make a cup of tea.
Then get a pad of paper and a pen. Read the material again, and pause when you are at a spot that has caused you confusion, or for something you know you will need to review in more detail. Write those areas down.
By this point, you have better allowed your brain to process the information at hand. (think of it as a muscle in training- don't force it because it will not respond with the results you want it to).
With the material thouroughly read, and your side notes done, take another break, maybe have dinner, for a good hour.
Then tackle the information again. Study first, the side notes, and look up any reference material you may need to clarify meaning.
For each paragraph, write out a few questions on another piece of paper. Continue to do so until you have a reasonable amount of questions for the material you are learning. Begin to test yourself, and if you find you really gapped on a certain question, go back and review that material only.
After this, when you are reasonably certain you can answer the questions without getting stressed out, but you are still lacking confidence in what you have learned, prepare new questions, after you have reviewed the entire subject material again. You may have missed something, or want to review something, even if you have answered and learned the material.
Most important is don't expect to be able to learn by forcing the issue. It is a waste of time, and effort, and the results will not be as good.
Remember the brain as a muscle, in training. Be patient, allow for breaks and processing of the information (particularly if it is new information), and allow a reasonable pace to achieve your goal.
Best of luck.
