Reading is something most of us love to do on a daily basis, but remembering its content is another story altogether. Usually, we forget it after a few minutes, and we blame our poor memory for this. Instead, by following these few simple steps, you can remember and use what you read for as long as you want.
Steps
Method 1 of 2: Basic Technique
Step 1. Read carefully, paying attention to the footnotes, captions and graphics in the text
Patiently read the article or writing from start to finish.
Don't let anything distract you; ignore everything around you and focus as much as possible
Step 2. Scroll through the writing again
This time it highlights keywords, such as names of places and people, and anything worth mentioning, as well as any data and background information (technical developments, historical events and settings) that is provided.
Step 3. Write a meaningful key phrase of your conception
The writing itself will probably contain a key phrase: think of one yourself that you can easily remember and that refers both to the topic in question and to the writing, so that you can recognize it in the blink of an eye.
Step 4. Reread the keywords and key phrase only
After completing the previous steps, read the hard work you have done so far - the key phrase you wrote and the words you highlighted.
Step 5. Make your storage permanent
Two hours later, re-read the phrase and keywords. This operation is called "delayed repetition": it serves to reinforce the connections of the filing system that are present in your mind.
Step 6. Refresh your memory from time to time, especially before an exam or in preparation for homework or open-ended questions if it's a school job
In this way you will renew the connections and revive the order in which the fundamental elements involved are classified: even if you have already stored them permanently in the memory, to keep it alive you should reread, from time to time, the sentence and the keywords (or the scheme and the summary, in case, of course, in which you have made them).
Method 2 of 2: Advanced Techniques
Step 1. Consider writing all the highlighted keywords in the form of an outline
If the content of the writing is important enough, also write an accurate summary, in case you want to reduce it to its fundamental issues, to understand and digest it "your way"
Step 2. Discuss the topic with a friend or colleague who is interested
Try to use the content of what you have read in some conversation, as well as in your writings or diary, to make its substance echo and resonate in your being; be careful, though, not to make yourself unbearable and boring in the eyes of people who aren't interested or who seem too busy to listen to you right then
Step 3. Make new concepts understandable:
digest (disassemble and analyze) and put together fundamental ideas, definitions, corollaries, proofs and physical and mathematical formulas that are useful, so that you can remember everything in detail. This applies to biological, anatomical and physiological facts, as well as chemical and biochemical reactions, which you may need one day, even if, for the moment, you don't know exactly when or why.
Step 4. Synthesize (create), develop and test advanced theories, formulas and reactions
This requires that you understand and remember the lower-level structures that could be part of the education you are assumed to possess, for example while taking university courses with increasingly abstract, advanced and in-depth content.
Advice
- When following the first step, it's important that you read the text patiently - you don't have to just skim it.
- It is not easy to remember the entire content of a writing word for word; consequently, highlight the keywords to remember only the most important things, which may serve you for a fuller understanding and greater usefulness.
