I hope you’re all doing well. I’m a med student and I have been following this page for two years.
I always suffered when memorising things. What requires one hour, would take me 2 hours to memorise.
Memorisation is my arch-enemy—Well, that’s what I think.
I wanted to ask you what are the best practical methods for long term retention. I have worked with memory palace but it’s mentally taxing and I can’t come up with images of abstract concepts.
(Medicine is 70% verbatim memorisation)
I’m also reading books on memory. I’ve been following @metivier on Youtube. Recently I came across his video on Giordano Bruno. I was fascinated by it.
The concept of memory wheel clicks but I do not know how to form one.
In short, fellas please help me regarding best practical methods for verbatim memorisation of academic text?
Which methods would be suitable for a guy with hypoactive ADHD? (Procrastination lord)
I appreciate your help and guidance coming my way!
Also keep in mind that you rarely have to study ‘truly verbatim’, eg memorizing a given formulation of a sentence, which simplifies things. Memmorize Bullet points, not novels. Mind mapping helps a lot when it comes to that. As for mental taxation and abstract images: It all comes with practice. I’m currently memorizing Austrian Constitutional Law, both for abstract use and verbatim, for the latter of which I’ve created a small journal on this blog, so I’ve run into a lot of that stuff: Memorizing Austrian/EU constitutional law verbatim: A hubristic journaling project
Some basic strategies to try are:
If you can’t come up with something which ‘embodies’ the concept you’re trying to memorize (such as my image for ‘federal state’ being one of the national heroes of mine) try and see if you can’t come up with a word matching the first syllable. So for ‘Convention’ I have Aki from the anime ‘Chainsaw Man’, who has a signature move where he shouts ‘Kon!’, which of course matches up rather nicely with what we’re trying to remember.
If you’re for some reason going for true verbatim memorization, maybe establish a PAO for the most important vocab. So for ‘Convention’ the Person would be Aki, the action his signature move (summoning a giant demon fox to swallow a given object) and the object his Nail-Katana.
Try to simplify as much as you can. Group loci with similarities in the same space, like when extending a class in a programming language.
Flashcards, Feynman method and tons of training examples are your best friend.
Concerning Bruno: His wheels are, on the whole, too inefficient to memorize large chunks of text and not optimized for germanic(ish) languages such as english and german. That said, if you’re interested in his work I can recommend Scott Gosnell’s English translations, based off which I’m currently trying to decipher his ‘Thirty Seals’. There’s a lot to dive into there. Also seeing how this is a relatively common question on this forum, you might want to search for some very interesting posts farther back in time.
I have read your journal. So to summarise, what you do is break the sentence into single letters— example
Permanent change in DNA are called mutations.
To this:
P C I D A C M
Then you recall with these letters and without letters until somewhat comfy. Then you come with images for these letter using PAO/Peg.
After that, you may store them in your palace.
Right?
But one thing I wanna know is that do you come up with one major image or for each letter, like first you come up with P then C, I etc… then somehow link them or something else?
I wouldn’t really out the single letters in palace, but rather come up with an image for an entire word, so it’d be something like "A power ranger (change, as they are famous for their transformations) with a perm (the hairstyle, first syllable(s) of ‘permanent’) brandishing Ben 10s Omnitrix (which uses alien DNA) and pointing at Magneto from the X-Men (a Mutant).
The most efficient way to memorize vocabulary like this would be breaking it down though. So you’d be left with a formula or pseudocode like
Mutation = Permanent_Change(DNA)
To memorize this, I’d just picture Magneto activating the Omnitrix on his arm, then watch as his body undergoes the changes of transforming, growing fangs, wings or whatever.
Just one last question, do you recommend to store the encoded images in memory palace? Or just repeat it 2-3 times until it sticks in long term memory. E.g. would you store that magneto transformation in memory palace? Or just repeat it 2-3 times?
By the way, learned so much from you in short time.
I’ll be experimenting with the method you’re using and come up with a PAO system for images.
Let’s see where this goes!
Best of luck for your journey too!
Yes, encoding them in a memory palace is certainly the way to go. I sort them by fields and sub-fields of law, and they really work quite well for that purpose. I can actually memorize some of the lectures in real-time using these methods, which is handy.
In any case, good luck with your studies and don’t be afraid to experiment every once in a while to see what works best for you
When choosing a space for memory palace, how do you differentiate between walls and corners?
Aren’t they the same and get mixed up?
Do you specify objects in a space for loci or the walls and corners act as loci?
If you assign walls and corners— how do you differentiate between walls and corners?
How do they don’t get mixed up between other spaces?
You might find it worthwhile to explore these thoughts, perhaps under the guidance of a therapist if available (which I am not.)
From my perspective they appear to be both expressions of, and sources of pain but there is a shadow side: They show a desire to have a good relationship with memorization.
I’m not going to deny the truth in those thoughts, frankly I think that’s foolish. Instead I’m going to invite you to find other truths to choose to focus on, that help lead to the results you want.
“It takes me twice as long to memorize as everyone else.” “In the office no one will care how long it took me to learn this, only that I can apply it. This can suck in the moment, but does it matter over the next 40 years?”
Something like that.
Maybe get a mentor to help explore just why it’s taxing to you, and do an audit of your physical and mental state. Are you sleeping enough, or cutting down to 4 hours to try and cram out more study? Do you eat appropriately? Are you managing your stress? Are you working with the MP while your mind is fresh, or when it’s tattered at the end of the day?
You might be doing things that take a whole lot of mental effort which are unnecessary and add little value. For example, trying to fully embody walking around the memory palace, the sense of each limb, how your view bobs a little with each step… When you could just shift your focus from point to point instantly.
As for abstract concepts… Use culturally available iconography, little stories that represent the thing, or objects that have the quality you want to abstract from them. Handing someone roses is an easy image for love.
Give your sadistic friend a taser and written permission to use it if you procrastinate.
Matcha might help, and perhaps coconut oil with your coffee. I’ve had to deal with severe fatigue and brain fog in the past, discovered l-theanine and how helpful it could be.
These days it’s not nearly that bad, but I still have low cognitive energy. Those things help, and when cognitive energy is higher it’s easier to start something.
It may be true that “if a person can not teach something simply” to another person that can be learned in one rep “he doesn’t understand it himself” and can’t learn it in one rep?.
Credit to Feynman for the words in double quotes and myself for posting it in YouTube in the other channels.
