Here is this week’s question:
I’m a med student, and I use memory palace literally for everything because it gives me so much confidence for the exams!
I only have one problem: the first time I study and I create images it really takes me a lot of time and the second time I study the same subject I can’t remember the image that was in that place.
How and what can i do to A) improve the speed of creating new images and B) make them more remarkable?
Here’s are my answers in 2 parts:
A) How to improve speed
This comes from practice and trust.
But what you can do is try to use the first image or association that pops in your mind. Listen to your incoming thoughts instead of actively thinking “what image should I use?”
For example: If you hear the name George, what do you think of immediately?
Curious George, George Washington, Boy George, your neighbor George?
Use the first one you think of. There’s a reason your brain made that immediate association (it’s already connected in the web of your memory).
Also, the better you get, the less time you need to spend imagining each story in your memory palace. You will get faster at connecting images to locations in your memory palace.
B) How to remember the images
The problem why you can’t remember the images the second time you study is because you waited too long to do your first review. I used to do the same thing when I started with memory techniques.
Review just means to look again at the images you created in your memory palace. You should review frequently during/after a study session.
Let’s say you spend 30 minutes studying & creating images. I would review the images I created every 10 minutes.
So: Study 10 mins, Review quickly. Study 10 more mins, Review quickly…
The sooner you review, the less likely the images/information will fade away.
After that, it’s a good idea to quickly review after the first day, then 2 days later, then 4 days later, then 8 days later…(basically double the days). This is called “spaced repetition.”
This will help you dramatically 🙂
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