How to Study

Remembering What You Read
In a world where the ability to master and remember a growing 
explosion of data is critical for individual success, too little attention
is paid to the dynamics of memory and systems for improving it.
Developing your memory is probably the most effective way to
increase your efficiency, in reading and virtually everything else.
There are some key factors that will help you remember more of what
you read:
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Understanding. You will remember only what you understand.
When you read something and grasp the message, you have
begun the process of retention. The way to test this is to
rephrase the message in your own words. Can you summarize
the main idea? Unless you understand what is being said, you
won’t be able to decide whether to remember or discard it. 
Chapter 3 
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How to Read and Remember
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Desire. You remember what you choose to remember. If you
do not want to retain some piece of information or don’t
believe you can, then you won’t! To remember the material,
you must want to remember it and be convinced that you 
will remember it.
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Overlearn. To ensure that you retain material, you need to 
go beyond simply doing the assignment. To really remember
what you learn, you should learn material thoroughly, or 
overlearn. This involves prereading the text, doing a critical
read, and having some definite means of review that reinforces
what you should have learned. 
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Systematize. It’s more difficult to remember random
thoughts or numbers than those organized in some pattern.
For example, which phone number is easier to remember:
538–6284 or 678–1234? Once you recognize the pattern in
the second number, it takes much less effort to remember
than the first. You should develop the ability to discern the
structure that exists and recall it when you try to remember.
Have a system to help you recall how information is organized
and connected. 
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