About Me

Hi! I'm Emily. My blog is about everything - I think you'll get a little laugh here and there. I hope I entertain you in some way or another!

Thursday, February 21, 2013

How-To: Memorize A Lot Of Vocabulary!

Hey you guys!

I thought I would share some techniques I learned over the years from learning vocabulary for school and just to know the English language (which is my second language). Please keep in mind though, this might not work for you. But it works so, so well for me that I thought I should tell it to the rest of the world.

I am a visual person, and I learn really well through interactive techniques or being able to use my hands or body to learn. But writing down information and repetitively studying it works fantastically too.

You will need:
1: Flash cards! Or pieces of paper, but I think flash cards are the best because they aren't too large and you can take them anywhere. I usually use the 3x5 ones.
2: A pencil.
3: Your completely focused brain.

Write down the word on one side, and the translation or definition on the other. Do this for all of your words - I know it's ridiculously tedious, but science proves that writing down information helps you retain it three times better than just saying it out loud!

After writing down all the words, go through every single one and put the ones you know on one side and the ones you don't one the other. Now, don't try to tell yourself that you got that last one right, you just needed a quick hint from the card. NO! If you think that you got it the slightest bit wrong or needed help, put it in the "I don't know" pile! This will help you memorize them for the better. And if you don't know a word - please try to keep the definition or translation in your head. PLEASE!

Leave the cards that you know on the side and pick up the ones you don't know. Go through them again. Put the ones you know on the "I know" side and if you don't know it, put it in another pile. Trust me, the "I know" pile will continue to grow. Until you don't even have an "I don't know" pile, keep going, repeating this step.

Then once you don't have the "I don't know" pile, go through the "I know" pile three to five times, making no mistakes. This will help you remember the words after the period of time.

The reason I ask you to leave the "I know" pile alone is so you can be sure that you have retained the information after thinking of the words you don't know. You are able to pay more attention to the "I don't know" pile and learn and memorize more quickly. This is very effective.

On the day of the exam or quiz, just lightly go over the words, don't panick! You've worked really hard to study.. Enjoy it!

TIPS and TRICKS!!

Find relations to words that you already know to ones you don't. So an example would be: the Spanish word "contra" means against. How I would remember it is using the English word "contrast" - which sound alike and the meanings are similar. This will help you like it helped me - I promise! But don't over think it - use the ones that come to you naturally or with little effort. After time, making these relations will be so easy!

Don't think that once you go through everything and know it all, that it's over. Keep lightly going through the cards again, when you're avaliable.

Get a good night's sleep, and eat a light but filling breakfast on the day of the exam. It will help you concentrate and feel awake.

GOOD LUCK!!

Thank you so much for reading! I truly hope that this will help! :)))





No comments:

Post a Comment