Hello all,
I need to memorize a financial textbook (economics, bonds, derivatives etc) for an exam and I am curious to see if you can help me. I am certainly stuck and in need of advice.
The book has 580 pages.
The exam is not MCQ. Instead the exam format is ‘show what you know from this topic in the book’.
The exam has roughly 6 questions - all of them are’ show what you know’.
*4 of the questions are ‘show what you know’ on content that in the book could be one page or half a page.
*2 of the questions are ‘show what you know’ on content that in the book could be around 2-3 pages.
Questions can be asked on any topic, anywhere in the book.
The 580 pages book is not very efficiently written and I have managed to take it down to 230 pages of notes without discarding any important information.
But now I am stuck.
I need to learn and recall all of the points in my notes. I don’t have to learn sentences by heart : for each sentence i have to retain the main point and the details attached. Some sentences can have up to 2 or 3 points of details.
So I have my 230 pages summary in my hands and I have tried to memorize it all. I read the entire 230 pages and highlighted important ideas and keywords. Then i read the summary many times. I have now a good feel for the ideas in the book and I can describe most ideas with one or two sentences with a few more details.
However my exam is more thorough that that. Let’s assume I am taking a mock exam now :
*4 of the questions are ‘show what you know’ on content that in the original 580 pages book could be one page or half a page (would be a quarter to half page on my notes) . Each question has a ideal time allocation of 8 minutes to answer.
=> I can answer each question, I can write 2-3 sentences on what it is and maybe recall a point or two. But the answer really should be around 10 sentences with each one main idea and 2-3 points each.
Said differently I know about 20-30% of the content needed for the answer with the main definition and a few attached ideas - but I still miss 70% of the info and points.
2 of the questions are ‘show what you know’ on content that in the book could be around 2-3 pages. Each question has a ideal time allocation of 30 minutes to answer.
=> For each question, I can write 10 sentences on what it is and recall additional points. But the answer really should be around 50-70 sentences with each one main idea and 2-3 points each.
Here again I know about 20-30% of the content needed for the answer with some of the main points and some of the smaller ideas - but I still miss 70% of the info and lots of other points.
To conclude, in order to pass this exam my recall has to be around 70% efficient and I’m stuck somewhere between 25% and 30% currently.
Here is what I am trying to do: Keep reading my 230 pages summary 10 or 20 more times, some more ideas stick and my efficiency could increase to 35% recall but that’s all I think i’ll be able to achieve.
You could ask : Why are you stuck at 30% recall ? Well the 30% recall is comprehension. It’s what I can retain and understand from the book. But the other 70% is less about understanding - it’s more about just learning by heart the info because it’s attached to that point and you just got to know it.
If you have read me all the way here, congrats and thank you.
I hope I have been clear.
Please let me know your ideas.