In the pursuit of knowledge and personal growth, individuals often devote a lot of their time and effort into their studies only to find themselves stumbling when confronted with a single, key question. This disheartening experience is a manifestation of what is commonly referred to as "superficial learning," a phenomenon that, strangely, involves no actual learning at all. Another situation is when you understand the concept but struggle to put it into words in a cohesive way. These scenarios tend to be traced back to poor memorization techniques. However, practical steps can be taken to address these challenges, significantly improving our learning outcomes. By incorporating these strategies into our daily lives, we can see major changes in how well we are able to absorb, retain, and effectively convey knowledge.
Learning is always effective when you have all of your senses engaged. Many people benefit from reading a book aloud, but this is actually a passive approach to learning. Instead, study a small part of the text and then try teaching it orally to a sibling, parent, pet, or even an invisible audience, which is my personal favorite. You’ll notice that during the process it highlights your strong and weak areas. Just work on those concepts that you are not able to teach well because that means you yourself had some information gap.
Certain studies state that scribbling on a sheet of paper when memorizing information helps you retain it for longer. Here’s a fun activity you can try with history or literature: if you are learning a character sketch of a character, film yourself as a journalist asking questions about the character and then answering them yourselves.
My question is about the “Merits of Equity Shares”. So now, I assign each of my major points to each of the girls in this picture. When I’m having trouble recalling my points, I just think about this image and consider which girl's points I might be missing. This technique has been proven to be effective, so I encourage you to give it a try.
BONUS: Certain foods have been linked to potential memory-enhancing abilities due to their nutritional components. During your study session, try eating little bites of nuts, seeds, berries, and chocolate.
There are numerous options available to us: creating structured study aids like mind maps, eating foods that may enhance our memory, and even using visual cues. Make the most of them! Happy learning!