One useful technique for retaining information is intending to remember. When a student actively intends to recall something, he will set his mind in a state to remember. This technique allows students to easily retain and recall information from studying.
One effective method to remember information is to review it repeatedly. A useful form of reviewing is to repeat or recite the new ideas or facts directly after reading or hearing them.
While studying is useful, studying too much information for long lengths of time can cause a student to become exhausted and decrease the amount of information she retains. Students should create a study schedule and only study during scheduled times, to avoid burnout or exhaustion.
Most people remember information they are interested in. Pay close attention to what is taught, make a new idea or fact meaningful in some way or find a way to make the subject at hand interesting to learn.
Associating a new idea or thought with a previously learned fact is a useful memory technique. This method not only helps a student ground the new information but also strengthens and revives older information.
A student should experiment and find his own memorization style. Some memory techniques will be useful to students while others will not. A student should keep a mental note of which techniques work and which don't, to ensure successful memorization when studying.
A useful technique for remembering information is to spend time remembering only the necessary information. Find the key points and core concepts of a text, and study to retain that information rather than large passages of unnecessary information.
For some students, unused information may become difficult to recall. To avoid this problem, put the information to use shortly after learning something new. Find a way to apply the information to everyday activities. For instance, read and speak the information when possible.
Another useful memory technique is to create a visual aid showing the information. This may involve drawing pictures, charts or diagrams or creating cartoons. Most students will remember a new concept or idea quickly when the information is illustrated.
Some students achieve the best retention of new information by combining memory techniques. Experiment with combining two or more of these techniques for optimal results.