ay back in grad school, I was often surprised to see my
fellow students complaining about how hard it was to retain all the
information they were taught. They’d be in the hallway on the day of
the test, still cramming. They’d give me the evil eye for telling
them they’re doing it wrong.
But it was true. The method I used was based on the science of how the brain works. I used it in neuroscience class when the prof gave us a final exam that said “Tell me everything you learned this semester.” I handed in 37 handwritten pages—the PC was still in its infancy—that had every detail and every equation 100 percent correct. I still have the carpal tunnel syndrome decades later.
Memory consists of two parts: acquisition and retrieval. They utilize different neuronal pathways and both steps need to be learned. Students typically focus only on acquisition. It doesn’t work: they are only using the first stage of their memory. It does no good to put the information into your brain if you can’t get it out. So learning must always reinforce both processes.
People sometimes think memorization is an inferior way of learning, but for medicine, biology, and chemistry there are literally thousands of names for species, body parts, diseases, symptoms, biomolecules, drugs, and chemical reactions. They are the basic vocabulary of the field and must be memorized. Of course the same is true for history and languages. Even in physics, you have to memorize the evidence that supports all the formulas.
Memorizing is different from the type of learning done by rats in a water maze. Their task is to learn the trick for getting out of the maze. This is straight acquisition.
Acquisition
The acquisition phase is easy: learn the concepts. The brain can’t remember things it doesn’t understand. Research shows that nonsense syllables are impossible to retain for long. For equations, make sure you understand what each term does and what all the variables mean. The same for pathway diagrams.
If you were a rat in a maze, for instance, your task would be to learn that there is a platform somewhere and if you stand on it, the experimenter will pick you up, dry you off, and put you somewhere safer.
Retrieval
Next, work on the retrieval phase. This is the most important step. It’s well established that memory decay follows an exponential curve as the information gets gradually encoded in your long-term memory. So in this stage, use the exponential decay of memory to reinforce your neuronal pathways.
Make point-by-point lists of each of the things you need to learn. The list should be as concise as possible. In some subjects, the list will be diagrams and equations. In others, it might be a list of historical facts or (in a science class) pieces of evidence.
Read over the list a few times, then practice writing it down on scrap paper. At first you’ll only remember the first few items. Continue until you can write the entire list without looking.
Practice writing the list (without cheating) at increasing intervals: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 minutes, up to a maximum of four hours. Then practice it at 1, 2, and 4 days. This is the critical step, and it uses up a lot of scrap paper. The purpose is to mimic the exponential decay of memory. Don’t type it unless you’re allowed to type during the exam; you’re also learning the ‘context,’ which is to say the fact that you're sitting in a chair and writing. You're also training your cerebellum to some extent. Training your cerebellum is, of course, even more important for a physical task like playing a musical instrument.
If you find that you have to cheat by looking at the original list, jump back to 1 minute and start again. Not cheating is tricky because you may have a hundred copies of it in front of you. It’s essential to cover them up.
Do not look at the material on the day of the test. This will cause your brain to start retrieving the memories, and it’s bad for two reasons: First, it is energy-intensive and wears down your neurons. Second, when you stop retrieving due to time constraints, your brain records that fact, making it harder to continue.
Of course, diet and general health are also important. The brain needs protein, energy, and cholesterol (along with other lipids and many trace nutrients). Eating cholesterol-rich food is largely ineffective because cholesterol doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier: the brain makes its own cholesterol. Cholesterol from the periphery must be converted into other molecules called oxysterols first, which is inefficient. Most people also know that having a sugar crash during a test would be a disaster, so you need to avoid simple sugars.
This technique works well for foreign languages as well. Once those neurons and the astrocytes that take care of them are strengthened, it will get easier. You can use the same technique to learn a hundred or so words and characters a day of a language. Each part of your brain serves a different function. In the case of languages, just retrieving the words isn’t enough; you also have to get your language center involved by using them in conversation.
nov 29 2025, 4:58 am
