Effective Study Techniques for Memorizing History Material

[NeoDevin]

Does anyone here have any suggestions on how to memorize things (Dates, names, places, etc) for a history exam? I'm taking a history of technology course, and the exam is next week. Hopefully someone has a good suggestion other than just reading over the material a hundred and fifty times, that just makes me sleepy.

 

[Andre]

Dunno, have no idea how memories work, but what I would do, is using imagination, literally. I would picture Lavoisier in an obscure little cellar carefully burning and weighting things, inventing oxygen. Those images would still live after several years helping to remember who refuted the flogiston theory.

 

[dst]

Dunno, have no idea how memories work, but what I would do, is using imagination, literally. I would picture Lavoisier in an obscure little cellar carefully burning and weighting things, inventing oxygen. Those images would still live after several years helping to remember who refuted the flogiston theory.

Thank God for Lavoisier!

Good luck buddy/mate/pal/etc. I heard brainstorming (mind-mapping) works well.

 

[NeoDevin]

I just found this site, kind of cool.

http://www.vendant.com/FlashCardManager/

I'm trying it out on the trial version, does anyone know anything like this which is freeware? I'm going to stick with this for now, so that I don't have to type all the info into flash cards again, but it would be cool if I had something else to use later on.

 

[Astronuc]

Does anyone here have any suggestions on how to memorize things (Dates, names, places, etc) for a history exam? I'm taking a history of technology course, and the exam is next week. Hopefully someone has a good suggestion other than just reading over the material a hundred and fifty times, that just makes me sleepy.

Make some cards of names, dates, places, and then have someone read them to you.

If I'm interested in a historical subject, I generally remember names and dates of key figures.

Also, post something about history of technology in our history & humanities forum.

 

[B. Elliott]

Make some cards of names, dates, places, and then have someone read them to you.

If I'm interested in a historical subject, I generally remember names and dates of key figures.

Also, post something about history of technology in our history & humanities forum.

Good suggestion. Just a few days ago a friend of mine was having trouble writing a report for his Comp2 class. I suggested nuclear energy as a topic, and since he was desperate (put it off to the last minute), he took it and ran with it. Before that paper he knew absolutely nothing about nuclear power. He was one of those people that thought a power plant could just blow up and nuke a city like an atom bomb with little to no cause. Actually, his first comment was something about the Chernobyl incident.

I told him to just "get into it" and have fun with it. As much as I hated telling him that he knows nothing about it, I reinforced the idea that this is his chance to really learn something, impress someone else with your learned knowledge, and to use it to get a good grade. I had him read a few articles about nuclear power, then turn around and reiterate large sections that he just read, using his own words. It worked VERY well... he got an A+. I can honestly say that he now knows more than I do on the topic!. Mission accomplished

 

[NeoDevin]

Aha! An open source based on similar principle (and it supports images too).

http://jmemorize.org/

 

[pace]

Or you can use a strategy that has been put forward in a book here recently in Norway. A guy who's world top at memorizing cards use two techniques: travelroute and images.
You use familiar places, like your home, and walk through each room. You'll recognize these rooms very well because it's your own home, so you don't have to invent anything.
Images: You put in often absurd or funny images(things in the room) that relate or look like in a way to the idea you're supposed to memorize, after a while many things in one room. You can use new travelroutes for each of these images also for memorizing deeper into each subjects. He supposedly learned this to some of his (normal) friends, and they made B's and C's grade in just a couple of hours or something like it.

 

[hotcommodity]

When I needed to study for my history exams, I used to take a detailed set of notes, look over them once or twice and go for a walk. Throughout my walk I'd lecture outloud through all of the material, and if I had trouble remembering a certain part, I'd pull my notes from my pocket and review for a minute or two and start again. Repetition is your best bet for memorizing all of the material, but taking the walk will keep you from falling asleep while doing it.