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Improve Your Memory
Learn the essential principles of memory to help you increase your ability to retain what you read, perform better on tests, or just remember where you last put your car keys. For high school students, college students, and anyone seeking to improve his or her memory power.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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About the author
Ron Fry
130 books45 followersRon Fry is a nationally known proponent for the improvement of public education and an advocate for parents and students, playing an active role in strengthening personal education programs. In addition to being the author of the best-selling How to Study series, which has sold more than 3,000,000 copies to date, Fry has written more than 30 other books in the areas of education and careers. He is the founder and president of Career Press, an internationally known independent publisher of trade nonfiction books.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 9, 2014
This was pretty informative and helpful when it came to STUDYING. However, this book didn't really teach me much or explain a lot about memorizing, which was what the title was led me to believe.
May 4, 2019
I got this in the Humble Max Your Mind Bundle, which I paid for.
So essentially this is a book that touts itself as a shortcut to keeping important things in your brain simply by giving you mnemonic devices to help you with your recall: turning a list you have to memorize into an acronymn, turning an awkward acronymn into a sentence so it flows better, making numbers into letters so you can just say a word and the whole string is right there.
Certain aspects of this book seem very useful! Associating bizarre images with things I must memorize has been helpful with remembering where certain things are. Others are the kind of stuff I do already: put your stuff in the same place every time so you don't lose it, when in doubt do some brute force memorization and note taking, etc.
One of my biggest problems with this book is a very small aside in one of the first chapters: what if you just have the rhyme or mnemonic and totally forget what it's attatched to? The response is "well, you just have to know your list" essentially, which seems like it's the book's entire point is it not? Of course a lot of the lists are things I could see myself using basically in a class unless I were to rather suddenly dedicate myself to a field. Kings of England in ancient times, dates and events over large swaths of history otherwise mostly unconnected, parts of the human anatomy.
That is my problem here: your memory does improve but over essentially information that is one and done laundry lists as an example, one that refers back to brute force, sitting down and memorizing it.
See, I actually have very few problems with my memory. I still remember things from when I was six, more or less, and I can easily recall stuff I learned in school. Why is that? Because I was interested in those subjects and how the world works as many fields currently understand it. Memorization wasn't tough because I was a fairly voracious reader and seeker of information, I still am. I was looking for something to make it sharper but honestly I do a lot of this just from making my way through school.
Would somebody have use for this? Yes, but honestly I feel like if you're not interested or excited by what you're learning as a book of study it's probably not going to help. It might be a shortcut for certain aspects of education but there isn't much to be done for someone who doesn't find it interesting. Cultivating an interest in a wide array of subjects seems like it would be a more valuable use of one's time and improve memory substantially.
So essentially this is a book that touts itself as a shortcut to keeping important things in your brain simply by giving you mnemonic devices to help you with your recall: turning a list you have to memorize into an acronymn, turning an awkward acronymn into a sentence so it flows better, making numbers into letters so you can just say a word and the whole string is right there.
Certain aspects of this book seem very useful! Associating bizarre images with things I must memorize has been helpful with remembering where certain things are. Others are the kind of stuff I do already: put your stuff in the same place every time so you don't lose it, when in doubt do some brute force memorization and note taking, etc.
One of my biggest problems with this book is a very small aside in one of the first chapters: what if you just have the rhyme or mnemonic and totally forget what it's attatched to? The response is "well, you just have to know your list" essentially, which seems like it's the book's entire point is it not? Of course a lot of the lists are things I could see myself using basically in a class unless I were to rather suddenly dedicate myself to a field. Kings of England in ancient times, dates and events over large swaths of history otherwise mostly unconnected, parts of the human anatomy.
That is my problem here: your memory does improve but over essentially information that is one and done laundry lists as an example, one that refers back to brute force, sitting down and memorizing it.
See, I actually have very few problems with my memory. I still remember things from when I was six, more or less, and I can easily recall stuff I learned in school. Why is that? Because I was interested in those subjects and how the world works as many fields currently understand it. Memorization wasn't tough because I was a fairly voracious reader and seeker of information, I still am. I was looking for something to make it sharper but honestly I do a lot of this just from making my way through school.
Would somebody have use for this? Yes, but honestly I feel like if you're not interested or excited by what you're learning as a book of study it's probably not going to help. It might be a shortcut for certain aspects of education but there isn't much to be done for someone who doesn't find it interesting. Cultivating an interest in a wide array of subjects seems like it would be a more valuable use of one's time and improve memory substantially.
January 14, 2016
Ron White explains how to remember names just as much as p 93 does.
p 53 Is there a way to estimate the answer, or at least, estimate the range
p 54 Play around. There are different paths to the same solution. When checking your calculations, try working backwards for arithmetic errors.
p 58 Draw vertical lines close to the text to assign a level of importance. One vertical line signifies that it should be reviewed. Two indicates greater importance. Asterisks or stars signify "learn or fail" material. Draw in question marks for what you want smarter friends, pal, or prof to explain further. Circles for stuff you'd expect on the next test. (The very act of assigning relative weights of importance can engage active reading.)
p 98 When preparing a speech, outline it, write it, reoutline it, and then use the outline as your key to remembering it.
p 106 Ritalin is only for ADD? Is it the 'catchall' diagnosis for lazy doctors?
Roots
http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/doc...
More roots
http://www.uhv.edu/StudentSuccessCent...
Too many roots
http://www.oakton.edu/user/3/gherrera...
p 53 Is there a way to estimate the answer, or at least, estimate the range
p 54 Play around. There are different paths to the same solution. When checking your calculations, try working backwards for arithmetic errors.
p 58 Draw vertical lines close to the text to assign a level of importance. One vertical line signifies that it should be reviewed. Two indicates greater importance. Asterisks or stars signify "learn or fail" material. Draw in question marks for what you want smarter friends, pal, or prof to explain further. Circles for stuff you'd expect on the next test. (The very act of assigning relative weights of importance can engage active reading.)
p 98 When preparing a speech, outline it, write it, reoutline it, and then use the outline as your key to remembering it.
p 106 Ritalin is only for ADD? Is it the 'catchall' diagnosis for lazy doctors?
Roots
http://notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/doc...
More roots
http://www.uhv.edu/StudentSuccessCent...
Too many roots
http://www.oakton.edu/user/3/gherrera...
November 20, 2009
The book is clearly designed to suit American students. Its main goal seems to be assessing students to remember better for their studies (obvious from the "How to study" logo on the cover.. which I didn't see :/). It also builds a lot of its "given" information on American related history, geography and so on.
I learned from it that when we attach the unfamiliar with the familiar, it gets easier to remember. I also learned that we have different kinds of memories: visual, verbal and kinesthetic. I though it was interesting to know because, as he gave for an example, we sometimes might remember how to dial a number, but not necessarily the number itself.
I only kept this quote: "What makes something memorable is its extraordinariness --how much it differs from our normal experiences." I thought it was very insightful.. if you think of it as a "universal" law that applies to everything.
I learned from it that when we attach the unfamiliar with the familiar, it gets easier to remember. I also learned that we have different kinds of memories: visual, verbal and kinesthetic. I though it was interesting to know because, as he gave for an example, we sometimes might remember how to dial a number, but not necessarily the number itself.
I only kept this quote: "What makes something memorable is its extraordinariness --how much it differs from our normal experiences." I thought it was very insightful.. if you think of it as a "universal" law that applies to everything.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews