Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0296: Reprise: How can I remember key reading concepts for class discussion?

Episode Date: April 27, 2015

Today Timothy revisits the question on how to remember key reading concepts for class discussion, with some extra comments on how he would change his answer today. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Today we're doing a reprise episode of episode 16, which was about remembering key reading concepts for class discussion. Some things I like about this episode, and the reason I'm bringing it back, is it's a good description of the application of exclusivity and mnemonics for this particular topic. If you want to bring things up in class, you choose specifically what it is that you want to bring up, and you use mnemonics to help you remember those so that you can always think of them on the spot. The whole process I described is a good one where you're taking notes and you're putting them in separate places in a palace. Something I would add to on this, though, is I like the benefits of having a concept in each room in the memory palace, as I described in this episode, but then adding stuff around them in a non-linear way. So you could zoom in and look at different topics within that subject. So it's the concept of a non-linear palace,

which I hadn't really been making much use of as this episode was originally delivered. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Today's question is from Damien, who asked on Facebook about how to recall key concepts from readings for class discussion. Well, Damien, I really like this question, and I think that being able to contribute well to class discussion is just a really good thing to want to be able to do. There are so many benefits, like, you know, for one thing, you'll be looking smarter, which creates some authority among your peers and also gives you rapport with professors, which is a really good thing to have. It's just a great asset in your education. But also you'll be providing value to the discussion so that everyone ends up learning more, including you. By bringing good ideas to the discussion,

you are raising the quality of the conversation and you may end up learning more in the long term. So I really think it's good that you're wanting to pursue being able to recall things for classroom discussion. So what I'm going to talk about today actually has to do with how to choose how much or how little you memorize, rather than just talking about how to memorize large amounts of information, which is what I normally talk about on this podcast. Mere memorization isn't really the solution to everything, and knowing how to choose what to memorize or what not to memorize is an essential

skill. So I'm going to outline a method for approaching classroom discussion and how to prepare for classroom discussion. And this method takes a little effort, but any student can do this and it pays off many times better than simple passive reading, which is probably what most students do. So first of all, as you read the text that you're going to be discussing, always be looking for underlying concepts and the type of things that would be valuable for discussion. And what you're looking for are general ideas, not simple quotes here and there. And then what you want to do is you want to write out these concepts as you read using notes. And so

what you're doing is you're looking for concepts that particularly apply to you, concepts that really tie the whole thing together, things that you think would be valuable for discussion, particularly from your perspective. And so what you're doing with these notes is you're making those concepts clear to yourself. You're creating something visual for yourself to look at when you look at these concepts. And so you'll be using notes, maybe even making a mind map to tie these concepts together and then use the basic structure of the mind map, the basic structure of the core concepts to branch out into smaller ideas like individual quotes. I talk a little bit more about mind mapping back in episode 14, but if you have any other questions about that, you can just shoot me an email and I'll get right back to you and help

you out with that. But basically, again, you're coming up with key concepts and then you're making your notes based around those concepts. And then thirdly, what you want to do is you choose how much to memorize and how much you're simply going to reference. So of course, what you'll want to do is you choose how much to memorize and how much you're simply going to reference. So of course what you'll want to do once you've come up with these concepts is if they're concepts that you're going to be using over and over, you'll want to memorize these underlying concepts. And I recommend using a memory palace to memorize these basic concepts. And you can go back to episode one to hear about memory palaces. You could put one concept in each room and then you could put sub concepts if you want to memorize any of those

within those rooms. But I don't recommend trying to memorize all the details or even to memorize all the concepts if you're going to be using the concepts only for one discussion. Memorize what you're going to need for multiple discussions and all the basic concepts that you want to keep returning to, but I don't really see a need to memorize every little detail that you might want to bring up in the classroom. So again, this is about selecting what's most practical to memorize versus what you should just have in your notes. But the key concepts are valuable to have memorized because anytime the conversation turns a particular direction, you'll have it in your brain to be able to steer it

toward one of these concepts that you think would be valuable to talk about. So after memorizing the concepts, you'll use your notes for two purposes. First, you can, when one concept is being discussed, you can look down at your notes where you have your notes on that concept, and you can point people to the places in the text or any ideas that go along with those concepts and enrich the discussion with little details. You may even have page numbers or links to quotes, links, I mean references to quotes in the text that you can look back on to support your arguments. And the other way you can use your notes is if someone brings something up, like a quote from the text or any of these other little details, you can then steer it back to one of the concepts that you're talking about. Because, say for example, there's a quote in a Socrates dialogue and you've

written next to it that it relates to concept B so when people are discussing that quote you can look at your note in the margin and you can see that it connects to concept B and then you'll remember the things connected with concept B just automatically or if you have any of those memorized or you can look at your notes but once again the bottom line is always memorize basic concepts that you can use over and over again and that you can tie smaller details back to, but actually use notes, preferably organized in a creative and memorable way. And when you combine that with discussion, you'll actually learn this material better

than if you had just read and tried to memorize everything. People will be impressed with how well you're able to discuss the material, even though you didn't actually commit all that much to memory. All right, I hope you've enjoyed this reprise episode. For anyone who has any questions about learning or memorizing anything faster than ever, feel free still to leave a message at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll be able to respond quickly to your message from wherever I am. I just won't be able to record an episode on that topic until I'm back in the States in May. Meanwhile, if you want to support the show, please check out our Spanish course at masterofmemory.com slash Spanish. Or if

you want to follow my adventures in Argentina or wherever else I might happen to be, you can do that at timothymoser.com.