Strategies for Improving
Concentration and Memory
• There are some specific skills that can be
learned to improve one’s success as a student.
• Once something is stored in our brain, we
never forget it. We may, however, have
difficulty recalling the information.
• Good concentration will enhance our memory.
Concentration Basics
Study Environment
– Distraction free – no matter if studying biology or playing pool, focus
on the task at hand and eliminate distraction.
• No friends
• No computer games or TV
• No phone calls
• If you like music in the background, okay, but don’t let it be a distraction.
Concentration Basics
Conditions
• Chair – Is it comfortable enough that you can sit for
45 to 50 minutes at a time?
• Desk – do you have adequate space to spread out?
• Lighting – should not cause eye strain.
• Temperature – should be comfortably cool.
Concentration Basics
• Improve your attitude – Some subjects may not be of high
interest to you. Some subjects may not seem relevant to your
field of study. You must maintain a positive attitude . To get
your degree, you must pass all these courses, not just the
ones you like.
• Attend to the task – Concentration is a must for successful
reading. Concentration is improved if you study when you are
the most alert, least tired and in good physical health.
Activity
Read the 12 words on this page.
Glass
Speaker
Fall
Ready
Basket
Frame
College
Shoes
Medium
Spoil
Hello
Final
Activity
(paper and pencil needed)
• On a piece of paper, write down as many of
the 12 words as you can recall.
• How did you do?
• Were you able to recall all 12 words?
Remembering
Information
Techniques for Remembering
Information
Techniques for Remembering
Information
Repetition
Mind Picture
Grouping
Rhyme
Acronym
Acronymic Sentence
Repetition
• Read the facts.
• Write the facts.
• Say the facts.
• Repeat the steps three or more times.
• Use repetition when you want to remember a few
facts, usually not more than 4 or 5 facts.
Repetition
• Using the repetition technique, try to remember the
following underline facts.
An explorer named Columbus is said to have
discovered America in the year 1492.
Repetition
Which words would you underline?
Marco Polo explored Asia and traveled to China in the late
1200s.
Ferdinand Magellan is famous for sailing around the world in
the early 1500s.
Repetition
• Fill in the blanks to show what to do when using the repetition
technique.
• First (1)___________ the facts.
• Second (2)__________the facts.
• Third (3)____________the facts.
• Finally (4)____________the steps.
Mind Picture
• Mental image or picture created in the mind, which
later can be used to recall information.
Say the facts.
Create one or more pictures in your mind.
Focus on the picture(s) and say the facts.
Recall the picture(s) when you need to remember
the facts.
Mind Picture
• Which ones would be easy for you to remember
using the mind picture technique?
•
•
•
•
•
•
The years 1914, 1940, 1953, 1986
Something you saw on TV
The most interesting thing you did yesterday
The names of the last 5 presidents of US
The events that took place in the last story you read
What you ate for your last meal
Mind Picture
• For foreign language vocabulary – select the foreign words
you need to remember, then identify an English word that
sounds like the foreign one. Now imagine an image that
involves the key word with the English meaning of the foreign
word.
• Example: In Spanish the word “cabina” means phone booth.
Invent an image of a cab trying to fit in a phone booth.
When you see the word “cabina” you should be able to recall
this image and retrieve the meaning.
Mind Picture
• Image-Name Technique: invent a relationship
between the name and the physical characteristics of
the person.
• Example: Shirley Temple – her curly (rhymes with
“Shirley”) hair around her temples.
Grouping
Technique for remembering facts that go together
in some way.
Look for ways that facts to be remembered can be
grouped together.
Write a name for each group.
Write the facts that go with each group.
Grouping
(paper and pencil needed)
• Group the following facts. Write a name for each
group. Then write the facts under the name of each
group.
pencil, paper, magazine, pen, book, chalk,
chalkboard, poem, cardboard, newspaper
Grouping
• Sorting large amounts of information into categories can help
you remember information more accurately and retrieve
information faster.
• By sorting terms into major categories, you will place a value
on the terms and give them meaning. Otherwise, these
concepts would be difficult to learn and remember if you
were merely trying to memorize the individual terms.
Grouping
• Suppose you had to learn the following
concepts for a business class:
tools, labor, trees, wildlife, human resources,
minerals, machinery, capital, resources,
factories, tractors, water, power plants,
manpower, natural resource, typewriters
Grouping
• Natural Resources
Capital Resources
Human Resources
•
•
•
•
tools
machinery
power plants
factories
tractors
typewriters
labor
manpower
Minerals
Water
Trees
Wildlife
Rhyme
Use of verse to remember information such as
the following:
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
Thirty days has September,
April, June, and November
Rhyme Technique
Write a line that ends with a word to be remembered.
Write a 2nd line that ends with a word that rhymes with the
word to be remembered.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for other words to be remembered.
Rhyme technique
Here is a rhyme to remember the names Harry
and Mary.
My friend’s name is Harry.
His sister’s name is Mary.
Rhyme Technique
Fill in the missing words to complete the
rhyme.
Christopher Columbus was not a tailor.
He was a good old______________.
He sailed across the ocean blue
And discovered American in the year _________.
Rhyme Technique
(pencil and paper needed)
Write a rhyme that will help you remember the
following facts.
William Shakespeare was a very bright English fellow
who wrote a play with the title King Lear. He also
wrote a play with the title Othello.
Acronyms
Acronyms are formed using the first letter of each
fact to be remembered. The letters are arranged to
form a pronounceable “word.”
The acronym may be either a real word or a
nonsense word.
Acronyms
• 1. Write the facts.
• 2. Underline the first letter of each fact.
• 3. Form an abbreviation using the
underlined letters.
Acronyms
CALF is an acronym that is a real word. It can be
used to remember the names of these states:
Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana.
LEAT is an acronym that is a nonsense word that can
be pronounced. It can be used to remember the
names of these US presidents:
Adams, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Truman.
Acronyms
HOMES is an acronym for remember the geographical location of
the Great Lakes.
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
ROY G. BIV helps science students remember the colors of the
visible spectrum
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
Can you think of an acronym that you have used?
Acronyms
(paper and pencil needed)
Form an acronym for each of the following
sets of facts:
Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada
Finch, owl, lark, wren
apple, tomato, lettuce, endive
Acronymic Sentence
• A technique for remembering facts by creating a
sentence from words whose first letters help you
remember the facts.
Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally.
Parentheses- E xponents- M ultiplication- D ivision- A ddition- S ubtraction.
Acronymic Sentence
The following acronymic sentence was created to
remember that Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio and Michigan all have a seaport on one
of the Great Lakes.
Indians were mining ore in May.
Illinois Wisconsin Michigan Ohio Indiana Minnesota
Acronymic Sentence
Create an acronymic sentence to remember
the following information:
Fruit and vegetable group: apple, pear,
orange, banana, carrot, bean, radish
Polar bears caught racing after big otters.
Remembering Information
We have looked at six techniques for remembering
information.
Repetition
Grouping
Acronyms
Mind Picture
Rhyme
Acronymic Sentence
• Let’s decide which technique to use with a given set of
facts.
For each of the following write the name of the remembering
technique that would be most appropriate to use to remember the
facts.
Facts easy to visualize
______________________
A short list of facts you can remember quickly and easily.
______________________
Facts with words that sound alike
______________________
For each of the following write the name of the remembering
technique that would be most appropriate to use to remember the
facts.
Facts whose first letters can be arranged to form a
pronounceable word
________________________
Facts that can be organized into categories
________________________
Facts that can be remembered by creating a sentence from words
whose first letters help you remember the facts
________________________
Remembering Information
Which technique was used?
Billy created lines of verse that ended with words that sounded alike.
____________________
Rosa organized a set of facts into categories.
____________________
Remembering Information
Susie created a sentence from the first letters of facts.
_____________________
Luis formed images in his mind.
_____________________
Elizabeth wrote and repeated facts several times.
_____________________