Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0325: Medical school memorization: How to start?

Episode Date: June 5, 2015

Michael asks about starting a memorization project (specifically for medical school) when short-term results are very important. I talk about the importance of getting “quick wins” through some memorization that will pay off immediately. Something that you should also be worrying about right now is personal finance, you should check out One Sure Insurance so […]

Master of Memory 325. 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. Michael submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Michael says, I'm a first-year medical student. After struggling through my first semester at school, Michael says, I've become acquainted with the ideas of memory palaces, mnemonics, etc. However, I'm unsure of how to begin or even how to apply these systems. I find that the place I have trouble with is the beginning, because I cover very dense and abstract material.

For instance, I'm currently in neuroanatomy, which as you can imagine is pretty difficult. Could you please help me get started with these techniques so that I'm able to do well in this class? It's a significant portion of my GPA and I would greatly appreciate the help. So Michael, I think that you're in a position that many listeners are in right now. It's great to talk about the theory of mnemonics and it's great to start big projects with ambitious memory palace organization and things like that. But if you're in a class where the short-term grades are really important for your long-term success, which isn't an ideal situation, obviously, but hey, you have to do what you have to do when you're being graded on a short-term basis. How can you make sure that you really get the results

that you need in the short term for your mnemonics and are doing it right for the long term as well. So what I would do first of all in your case is I would start with quick wins, meaning just go to masterofmemory.com slash vocabulary for an article on how to learn vocabulary and apply those techniques to some of the things that you're needing to learn. Just quickly learn all the terms that you need for maybe the hardest or the most important class that you're taking. That's a quick win. You'll be done with it very soon. And you'll see results very quickly. No memory palaces. Just quickly learn the vocabulary for these words.

And you'll get results very quickly. So you're using stressed syllables, you're using funny stories or mental images to tie each vocabulary term to what it means. Now the second thing that you're going to do after that quick win is start to take notes, but minimal notes on your textbooks, on your classes, or whatever. But the key word there is minimal because what you're doing is you're making as few notes as possible so that you can act on all of them. A very common and global mistake is to take tons of notes and then to drop them somewhere, maybe look over them once or twice,

but really in all practical applications, not doing anything with those notes. That's way too common. And what's the point of taking notes that you're really not going to do anything with those notes. That's way too common. And what's the point of taking notes that you're really not going to do anything with? So take minimal notes on just the essential things or anything that you think is truly important that you're actually going to act on and have a system whereby you go through those notes and process that stuff so you can organize it into something meaningful. So what I would do with that is turn those notes into frameworks, maybe organize them into mind maps. You can even model your mind map based on the textbook because there's, you know, the industry of textbooks,

there's money in the way that they organize those textbooks. So it's possible that it actually means something the way that the textbook is put together. Or maybe model it after your class syllabus or both. Because that way you'll be modeling the way that you organize your information in your mind after the way that you have to apply it in real life or in your class, which it's debatable whether a class is real life. But for you, I guess it is right now. And so what you're doing is you're getting a double win by having a way to organize the information so that you can learn it and also applying it to your class efficiently. But one way or another, find some way to create a framework from the information

and learn those frameworks really well before the information in those frameworks. Now, thanks to the freedom that you've been given by the first step, the fact that you've memorized that vocabulary and your class is now a lot easier. And it might not just be vocabulary. I say that when I mean terms or formulas or whatever it is that you're using to or whatever it is that's important to your class. The little building blocks, things that are akin to vocabulary in a language.

You've learned those, and so now you have a little more freedom, a little more breathing room, a little more time to put together these frameworks where you're wanting to put them into something that can be accessed long term. And so a way to do that is to create memory palaces based on those frameworks. So at this point, you're going to start applying more advanced mnemonic techniques, such as number mnemonics, and advanced referencing techniques, such as nonlinear memory palaces organized in accordance with those frameworks that you've drawn out. So that's what I would do. Again, those three steps again are first start with quick wins by applying vocabulary techniques

and such things to the vocabulary and terms and things like that in your classes so that you're never lost. You always understand at least what's being said or the building blocks of what's being said. Second, you'll start to take notes and turn them into frameworks. And third, you'll apply more advanced mnemonics to organize your information and learn more things based on those frameworks you've created. So I hope that helps you, Michael, and I would be happy to answer a question by email or dive into more details on this with you. Now, Michael, if you or if anybody listening has gotten any benefit from this show and hasn't given us anything back yet, here's a way that you can help us out immensely without paying any money and without taking any more of your time than it takes to type a couple of words in your phone and do a couple of clicks.

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