Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0495: The best way to review things you’ve memorized

Episode Date: January 29, 2016

Jay asks about the best way to review information that you’ve already memorized. How do you make sure that you’re getting the most out of your review of memorized material, even if you’re already following a good review schedule to put the information into long-term memory? What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. […]

Master of Memory 495. 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. Jay submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Jay says, what's the best way to review? In more detail, you seem to describe at a high level a spaced repetition approach to reviewing memory palaces. What are you actually doing during the review?

Are you simply scanning each Loki to see if you remember what's there? Are you doing different things depending on what you're trying to review? Also, what do you think of supplementing this form of spaced repetition with flashcard-like approaches, either physical or software-based, as recommended by some authors. So Jay, it's a combination of all of those, and in short, your question, are you doing things different depending on what you're trying to review, is the short answer. So if I'm reviewing, for example, a language, my review process is actually pretty complicated. So let's take, you know, let's take, for example, I've learned a new idiom. An idiom is a construct of words that are put together in

a particular way that don't mean what the original words mean. Like in Spanish, the word for nor or neither is ni. And then the word for well is bien. But when you put those together, they mean something entirely different. Ni bien, which means as soon as. So for example, as soon as I do it, I'll tell you. Ni bien lo hago, te aviso. My normal way of reviewing something like that is just, you know, this is pretty abstract and not really having to do with memory palaces. We're not mixing that part of this whole thing into the mix. I just have a set of flashcards that I kind of carry around and review phrases that I've been reviewing.

And if I've reviewed them a few times over the last few weeks, I dispose of them because they're now internalized and maybe I've used them in a conversation. So if I'm in a conversation at some point where I say, as soon as he does it, I'll tell you, then I've effectively used the idiom and I think I've internalized it pretty well. And I can dispose of that flashcard. So it's less than systematic in that way. But I do have a systematic way of reviewing these things when I review them. And that is, you know, if I'm on a train or something like that, I pull out these flashcards. I look at each of these sentences. I look at the English version specifically, you know, as soon as I do it, I'll tell you. And I remember the Spanish. But then I also try to come up with some sort of variation on that.

That's actually a part of my review process. I think of some variation, some, and translating this to non-language learning projects, find some application or some connection between the thing that you're reviewing and something else that you're learning or something, some situation where you might apply it. So I might, you know, come up with some other variation on it, like, ni bien lo hacen te aviso. As soon as they do it, I'll tell you. Now, going into, you know, expanding this a little bit into other dimensions, if I'm using a space repetition, let's say it's a language, and I'm reviewing vocabulary. My method for reviewing the vocabulary is actually I do review the vocabulary using flashcards.

But the thing is, whenever I review those flashcards with those words, it's extremely important to remember where those words are in the memory palace. And then if what I'm reviewing are phrases, it's important to, let's say, to switch out one or two of those words with other words in equivalent places in their memory palaces. So even though I'm using flashcards, and even though I'm mixing up the individual words, so I'm not reviewing the palace as a palace, I am reviewing my memory palace in the way that I would be using it in a real conversation. In a real conversation, I'm not going to be walking around through the memory palace. I'm going to be thinking about individual phrases on a less than organized basis because it's a conversation,

but then I'll be switching out different words based on function, and that's why my memory palace for language is switched out or is organized by function. So I can switch out equivalent words. If a Spanish sentence that I'm reviewing has a le in it, I know that I can always switch that out with a nos, a te, a me, or anything else that's, you know, equivalent in the direct or in the dative object scene because le is a dative object. So, you know, that's how I review memory palaces while using cards. Now, there is a place, and there's definitely a place for reviewing memory palaces as well. And I don't generally necessarily apply spaced repetition to that as often, although I do recommend it if you can put a system in place to do that. My own projects are so,

well, you know, user driven because you guys are out there kind of giving me new things to work on all the time. So I don't do it extremely systematically, but you know, I, I just review the things that I think are valuable to review if I'm wanting to keep them reviewed. And with some things, you know, I, I've decided that they're not worth reviewing. And if I put them in a system, it would kind of wreck my system not to be reviewing them. So, well, not really wreck the system, but it's not always worth it to have a system. But if you do have a system for reviewing memory palaces,

or even if you don't, when you review memory palaces, I'll answer this question. I recommend going through the palace and trying again to apply the things that you're looking at in some way. So let's say it's a let's say you're and I spend a lot of time in languages. So let's say you're reviewing Spanish verb conjugations of ser. So you're going through the ser memory palace, and in the first scene, in the first

general location, you have a few conjugations. You have es, eres, soy, somos, and son. Now, I would recommend, and I do this with my students, and I try to encourage them to do this as much as possible, don't just review them as words, but review them in some applicable context. Choose a sentence and apply it to that. Maybe the sentence is, you know, something like, he is my brother. So it'd be, es mi hermano.

And then applying that to somos, that'd be, somos hermanos. And then applying that to eres, you might change it to a question. Eres mi hermano? Are you my brother? And so on, you know, and then you go to the past tense and you apply that same sentence to all of those words. So you're not just reviewing words, which are, you know, not the way that language works. You're reviewing them in contexts with phrases. So you're actually applying the things that you're learning as you're

reviewing them. And that's the bottom line that I would apply, Jay, is that when you're reviewing something, you just make sure that you're reviewing it in a way that strengthens the way that you're actually going to use things. Whether you're using physical cards, software, whether you're using an intense review schedule and spaced repetition, whatever you do, make sure that what you're doing emphasizes two things. First of all, you're using it the way that it's going to be used in real life. And second, you're strengthening the location of the things that you're reviewing in the memory palace that you've stored it in. Those are the two most important things to focus on besides, you know,

frequent reviews so that you don't forget things, when you're planning out how to do your review. Thanks for the question, Jay. And for everyone listening, if you want to know what memory palaces are and how they work, go to masterofmemory.com slash start for a complete starter guide on how to use mnemonics and memory palaces. Meanwhile, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon.