Boost Your Memory and Concentration:

Unforgettable Strategies

Academic Success Seminar/Workshop

College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Minnesota

Deb Wingert, Ph.D.

Director of Educational Development
Build Your Concentration:
 Preview content
 Set specific goals
 Study in a good area
 Vary your activity (read, take
notes, recite aloud, create
questions)
 Prevent daydreaming (review
what you’re studying,stand up
and walk for a minute)
 Connect what you are learning
to what you already know
 Set a time limit for studying
 Pace yourself (not too much in
one sitting)
 Organize assignments/study
time into specific tasks
(previewing helps!)
Utah State University, 2008
Barriers to Concentration:
 Hunger
 Fatigue
 Internal distractions
 External distractions

BUSTING BARRIERS:
 Hunger: _______________________________________
 Fatigue: Regular routine of ________________________
______________________________________
 Internal distractions: ______________________________
 External distractions (Away from noise and stimuli)

University of Waterloo, 2008

Concentration Tips:
 Ask yourself questions
 How does this relate to what I
know?
 What’s the evidence for this?
 What’s a good example of
this?
 Any unique points?
 Designate a study place.....for
studying only!
 Good lighting
 Ventilated
 Comfortable (not too
comfortable!)
 Divide study time into
goals/blocks (such as.....finish 3
chapters, 4 case studies)
University of Waterloo, 2008
Concentration Tips:

 To remember terms, __________________________

 The items you study first, you remember the longest.....start with
____________________________
 Overlearn
 ______________________________
 Make your own examples
 Create many associations with the content you need to
remember......the more associations leads to ________________
 Describe content to peer without using your notes

Virginia Tech, 2008

Habits of Good Listeners:
 Listen between the lines
(anticipate what’s next!) “There is no such thing as an
 Take good notes uninteresting subject; there are
only uninterested people.”
 Sees lecture like a G.K. Chesterton
chapter
 Avoid _______________
_______________
 Judge content,
not ____________
Kishwaukee College, 2008
Good Listeners Do NOT:
 Interrupt (with a question,
etc.) in the middle of an
explanation.
 Share worthless info
 Believe that _________
is more important than
_____________
 Avoid difficult
explanations
 Find fault with _______
___________________
 Dismiss content as not
interesting
 Show impatience
Utah State University, 2008
Listening skills:
 Screen out distractions
 Background noise
 Language mistakes/accents
 Speaker habits
 Irrelevant info
 Daydreaming
 Organize info into main ideas
and supporting details
 Avoid hasty judgments
 Remain neutral (not
emotional)
 Prune ___________________
_______________________
 Maintain alertness (eye contact
with speaker)
 Ask ‘what’s in it for me?’ (find
areas of interest)
 Listen for central ideas (not facts)
 Write only ______________
 Exercise mind with difficult
material
Utah State University, 2008
College of Saint Benedict, 2008
Listen Actively

The more you think about what you ______,

the more you will understand and
remember
Listen Actively (c’d):
 Summarize  Compare lecture to
 Analyze text
 Predict  Apply to your own
 Mentally review what experience
has been previously  Select most important
said
 Ignore
________________
Memory and Learning Styles:
How do you remember best?
 A few stats:
 We remember ____ of what we read

 We remember ____ of what we hear

 We remember _____ of what we see

Memory and Learning Styles:
How do you remember best?
 Visual learners make up about _____ of the
population

 Use notes, diagrams, color (!), printed

materials.....charts...study
guides/sheets.........images.......anything visual!

 Visualize these images

Memory and Learning Styles:
How do you remember best?
 Auditory learners make up about _____ of the
population
 Auditory learners remember best
 by listening and taking/using notes
 review notes by reading them out loud
 study partners.....teaching each other..
 consider taping class sessions
• When you teach someone else, you remember ___ of what
you ______
• When you teach someone else, you remember ___ of what
you ____________!
Memory and Learning Styles:
How do you remember best?
 Tactile/kinesthetic learners benefit by
___________!!!!
 Create the notes, charts, etc.
 _________________!
 Study partners
A Few ‘Unforgettable’ strategies
 Take notes in class
 Review (even rewrite/organize.....the
Cornell method is good here!)
The Cornell System:
 Step One: ______________
 Write notes during class in a record column
The Cornell System:
 Step Two: _________________
 After class, reduce ideas into a few words and place them in a recall column
The Cornell System:
 Step Three: _________________
 Review notes after lecture. Connect main concepts in left (recall) column with
details in the right (record) column.
The Cornell System:
 Step Four: _______________
 In the bottom summary section, jot a few sentences , summarizing all main
points and why this is important. Students are 31% more likely to remember
content by doing this step!
A Few ‘Unforgettable’ strategies :
 Choose techniques to help you
remember
 Associate.....with personal memories
or the meaning of the content
 Visualize...form mental images
 Apply
 Repeat
 Rhymes, abbreviations
 Acrostics/Acronyms.....words to
help you remember terms (such as:
very active cat to remember veins,
arteries and capillaries)
 Repetition...use the senses
 Read term out loud
 Read, `rite, recite
 Study right before sleeping...wake
_______ minutes early and
review material one more time.
 _______________________!
This simple memory strategy
helps you keep your cool and
prevents panic from taking over.
This also keeps your blood
pressure down, your system
oxygenated, and your mental
stress protectors from
overheating due to frustration.
Cuesta College, 2008
Softpedia.com, 2008
http://www.memory-improvement-
tipster.com/memory_strategies/
Another ‘Unforgettable’ strategy :
The LOVE Method
• Look: See the item, write the name in your palm;
• Overstate: Think something ________________;
• Visualize: ______________________________
___________________________ on the movie
screen right inside your forehead;
• Engrave: ____________________ ______________
________________ until it's firmly stored in your brain.

http://www.memory-improvement-tipster.com/memory_strategies/
A Few More ‘Unforgettable’
strategies :
 ______________ practice/review!
 Chunk your info......study in chunks
 Review notes _____________
 ___________ what you are
learning....mental pictures......_________
your notes
 Visualize the lectures
One final ‘Unforgettable’ strategy:
Link Technique - make a link or association between pairs of
words to be remembered by visualizing in one’s mind an
unusual or ridiculous association between the pair,
e.g., to remember the _______________ lamp, typewriter,
truck you need to form an unusual visual association between
lamp and typewriter,

e.g., picture a lamp with arms typing on a typewriter, then a

link between typewriter and truck,

e.g., picture a pickup truck hauling an enormous pile of

typewriters. In this way, when you lamp this will trigger the mental
image involving the typewriter which in turn will trigger the image of
a truck and so on.
 Questions?

Thank you!!

Deborah A. Wingert, Ph.D.

Director of Educational Development
College of Veterinary Medicine (108 Pomeroy)
Preparing Future Faculty Program Coordinator
Early Career Program Facilitator
Center for Teaching and Learning
University of Minnesota
315 Science Classroom Building
222 Pleasant St. S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612/626-2995 at Pomeroy) or (612/625-3405 at CTL)
Email: winge007@umn.edu